As a game I'd give it a 7 out of 10. It is interesting and engaging but still has a few too many rough spots, crashes and poor documentation to rate higher....with support it may get even better.
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I voted for Excellent 
However, some things could be changed...
I'm mainly speaking of the unification events and the fact that Austria cripples Prussia in the Austrian-Prussian war...
However, some things could be changed...
I'm mainly speaking of the unification events and the fact that Austria cripples Prussia in the Austrian-Prussian war...
1. I've just seen France and Spain fight a mainland war...I pounced on France mid way through it
2. Normally I see them grab a little alongside South Africa.
3. I've seen x, y + z vs A + B wars over there a lot, but I don't really pay attention.
You know, having a border with a player might be a problem for smaller countries. The AI is set to counter buildups on its border and pay special attantion to the human player. If you are a mid-large country bordering a small country it may not have enough troops to feel safe with it's border with you AND fight against its neighbours. That could result in small countries on your border seeming frozen. My larger neighbours seem quite active at any rate, France fights with Austria and Spain and Russia and Austria have a scrap fairly often too.
Yeah, sometimes the computer goes awol on you.
China keeps kicking UKs butt though.
One of the most random wars I have seen so far is Netherlands and Brazil in a full war.
Little effort on both sides though.
China keeps kicking UKs butt though.
One of the most random wars I have seen so far is Netherlands and Brazil in a full war.
Little effort on both sides though.
Strangely addictive
I have to admit it, it got to me.
But the feeling of sheer lack of documentation prevented me from voting excellent.
The manual is good, but I would not have minded paying a few bucks more for something much more substantial. There was a lot of the 'geting an historical feeling' from the style of EU1 and 2 manual that I really appreciated that I feel was lost with this one.
Also I wish there could be much more numbers on gamemechanics published, either on the board or ingame if still possible.
Just two examples, some sort of ingame encyclopedia would have been appreciated. Right now in my first GC, it gets troubelsome to figure out how techs are related and which ones are needed for specific needs.
Revolt risk being my current game concern, I would have appreciated a bit more info on it. Maybe this was simply overlooked, but a rollover or something to at least give a hint as wether provincial numbers are rising or lowering.
But lose sight of the post's title guys
The revolts at least got me to get a very good impression on the military aspect you developped with province ownership and manpower. I think you nailed it for the time's type of warfare. I'm looking foward to playing with that.
PS: There's a French translator that needs a good kick in the arse for translating timber AND lumber to 'bois' (closer to wood actually)
I have to admit it, it got to me.
But the feeling of sheer lack of documentation prevented me from voting excellent.
The manual is good, but I would not have minded paying a few bucks more for something much more substantial. There was a lot of the 'geting an historical feeling' from the style of EU1 and 2 manual that I really appreciated that I feel was lost with this one.
Also I wish there could be much more numbers on gamemechanics published, either on the board or ingame if still possible.
Just two examples, some sort of ingame encyclopedia would have been appreciated. Right now in my first GC, it gets troubelsome to figure out how techs are related and which ones are needed for specific needs.
Revolt risk being my current game concern, I would have appreciated a bit more info on it. Maybe this was simply overlooked, but a rollover or something to at least give a hint as wether provincial numbers are rising or lowering.
But lose sight of the post's title guys
The revolts at least got me to get a very good impression on the military aspect you developped with province ownership and manpower. I think you nailed it for the time's type of warfare. I'm looking foward to playing with that.
PS: There's a French translator that needs a good kick in the arse for translating timber AND lumber to 'bois' (closer to wood actually)
Vicky
I've had Vicky on my HDD for 24 hours (almost to the minute).
I'm alternately baffled, bewitched and infuriated with game.
Baffled because half of the concepts (Plurality? plural what?) send me reaching for the dictionary. Bewitched because its a game of AMAZING scope, depth and breadth; and baffled because I cannot get my economies to do anything else than nose-dive.
The joy of Paradox games, and this is a tribute to Paradox themselves AND us as players, is that they are Intelligent with a capital 'I'. Can you imagine the x-box crowd getting excited about
Laissez-faire economics? This is a game which is also an educational tool by stealth: until yesterday lunchtime I didn't know the name of Belgiums King in 1837.
Playing this game makes you a better person
I've had Vicky on my HDD for 24 hours (almost to the minute).
I'm alternately baffled, bewitched and infuriated with game.
Baffled because half of the concepts (Plurality? plural what?) send me reaching for the dictionary. Bewitched because its a game of AMAZING scope, depth and breadth; and baffled because I cannot get my economies to do anything else than nose-dive.
The joy of Paradox games, and this is a tribute to Paradox themselves AND us as players, is that they are Intelligent with a capital 'I'. Can you imagine the x-box crowd getting excited about
Laissez-faire economics? This is a game which is also an educational tool by stealth: until yesterday lunchtime I didn't know the name of Belgiums King in 1837.
Playing this game makes you a better person
Has anyone just sat and watched the AI play out a game to see which region the game AI leans heavily towards?
Heh, I find this game has much more "oomph!" than HoI did
Then again, I prefer empire building to conquest. Tho the AI is much better at warfare than in the previous games.
I vote excellent. There are certain problems; but there always are with such a complicated game out for such a short time. Bravo Paradox!
I voted Excellent, but I voted that way with some reservations.
First off, I have to echo the groundswell of comments regarding the manual. It's a bit better than the EU2 and HoI manuals, but still falls short of providing a clear explanation of how to do things in game. Fortunately, I have some constructive suggestions for the next game:
When including screenies in a manual, it's usually a good idea to annotate them. The biggest obstacle I encountered in learning this game was the fact that I was indundated with numbers, icons, and buttons, some of which had no tooltip or an insufficient tooltip. Check out this thread, if you haven't already. It contains a set of annotated screenies, compiled by a forum member, that clearly explain the meaning of every number and icon and the function of every button. The presence of screenies like that would have made the Victoria manual far more useful.
Sometimes the manual goes right into the nitty-gritty of a game concept without explaining it in a broad sense. For example, the section on Politics explains each sub menu and the effect of each reform very well, but until I played a few games, I really had little understanding of just how the various Political options affected the game. A blanket statement of the fact that the Political options affect POP militancy and consciousness, min / max slider settings, etc. would have gone a long way to helping me (and, I suspect, many others) understand what the Political Information menu is used for.
My only other complaint would be the rather strange nature of the economy. As great as the economic engine is, it's a little weird to see every nation in the world running a trade surplus, and the worldwide export totals exceeding import totals. But there are several threads in which these issues are receiving a thourough airing, so I won't bother going into them in any greater detail.
Now, for the positives:
The ingame artwork is superb. I live in an area with a fair amount of surviving Victorian architecture, so I know the look and feel when I see it. And the Victoria artwork does a great job of capturing the panache of the period.
The musical selection is, as always, excellent. Lots of pieces I've played / conducted before, too.
The complexity of the diplomatic engine is awesome. Much like when I began playing EU2, I really feel like there are dozens of ways to win. Or lose.
The AI on Very Hard is pretty good! It's actually a challenge for me to get to the top of the VP listing - that was never the case with EU2.
Some of the leader traits are really hilarious. McClellan as an unmanly pawn and Bragg as a glory hound ... too funny, really. I was a bit surprised that Pemberton didn't make the cut for the CSA leader file, though.
All in all, this game really is fantastic, and knowing the way you guys operate, I'm sure it will only get better with time. Thanks so much for continuing to develop games like this for us folks who can't bear to sully their hard drives with games like Clone & Conquer and First-Person Shooter #28593.
Looking forward to CK,
-CK
First off, I have to echo the groundswell of comments regarding the manual. It's a bit better than the EU2 and HoI manuals, but still falls short of providing a clear explanation of how to do things in game. Fortunately, I have some constructive suggestions for the next game:
When including screenies in a manual, it's usually a good idea to annotate them. The biggest obstacle I encountered in learning this game was the fact that I was indundated with numbers, icons, and buttons, some of which had no tooltip or an insufficient tooltip. Check out this thread, if you haven't already. It contains a set of annotated screenies, compiled by a forum member, that clearly explain the meaning of every number and icon and the function of every button. The presence of screenies like that would have made the Victoria manual far more useful.
Sometimes the manual goes right into the nitty-gritty of a game concept without explaining it in a broad sense. For example, the section on Politics explains each sub menu and the effect of each reform very well, but until I played a few games, I really had little understanding of just how the various Political options affected the game. A blanket statement of the fact that the Political options affect POP militancy and consciousness, min / max slider settings, etc. would have gone a long way to helping me (and, I suspect, many others) understand what the Political Information menu is used for.
My only other complaint would be the rather strange nature of the economy. As great as the economic engine is, it's a little weird to see every nation in the world running a trade surplus, and the worldwide export totals exceeding import totals.
But there are several threads in which these issues are receiving a thourough airing, so I won't bother going into them in any greater detail. Now, for the positives:
The ingame artwork is superb. I live in an area with a fair amount of surviving Victorian architecture, so I know the look and feel when I see it. And the Victoria artwork does a great job of capturing the panache of the period.
The musical selection is, as always, excellent. Lots of pieces I've played / conducted before, too.
The complexity of the diplomatic engine is awesome. Much like when I began playing EU2, I really feel like there are dozens of ways to win. Or lose.
The AI on Very Hard is pretty good!
It's actually a challenge for me to get to the top of the VP listing - that was never the case with EU2. Some of the leader traits are really hilarious. McClellan as an unmanly pawn and Bragg as a glory hound ... too funny, really.
I was a bit surprised that Pemberton didn't make the cut for the CSA leader file, though.All in all, this game really is fantastic, and knowing the way you guys operate, I'm sure it will only get better with time. Thanks so much for continuing to develop games like this for us folks who can't bear to sully their hard drives with games like Clone & Conquer and First-Person Shooter #28593.
Looking forward to CK,
-CK
I really did not want to like this game. I didn't want it to surpass EUII in enjoyment - and particularly, I didn't want Vicky to be MORE engaging in the period "feel".
But it did...it's got me by the throat and won't let go (literally - I suck at it...which any of my honorable opponents in a few other companies' wargames will not find surprising).
But I've played it for 5 days now, and I rated it an 8. Serious flaw omitting the tutorial....especially since I think many non-EU players will be meeting the system for the first time. And I've got some nits which frankly, are many more "nice to haves" than the few "need to haves".
I think part of it is my gratitude that it wasn't another HOI. I'd never really looked forward to a game like I had that one, and still don't want to think about how I felt when I quickly realized how bad it was out of the box (and I never played it since....gave it away just to put it "out of sight"!).
But even without the massive points Paradox has scored on the Resurrection Scale, I'd say Vicky is flat out one of the top 5 pc games I've played....and I'm really a turn-based wargamer.
Back to creating the self-abusive "The Best Way to Learn is Get Mauled" Tutorial......
But it did...it's got me by the throat and won't let go (literally - I suck at it...which any of my honorable opponents in a few other companies' wargames will not find surprising).
But I've played it for 5 days now, and I rated it an 8. Serious flaw omitting the tutorial....especially since I think many non-EU players will be meeting the system for the first time. And I've got some nits which frankly, are many more "nice to haves" than the few "need to haves".
I think part of it is my gratitude that it wasn't another HOI. I'd never really looked forward to a game like I had that one, and still don't want to think about how I felt when I quickly realized how bad it was out of the box (and I never played it since....gave it away just to put it "out of sight"!).
But even without the massive points Paradox has scored on the Resurrection Scale, I'd say Vicky is flat out one of the top 5 pc games I've played....and I'm really a turn-based wargamer.
Back to creating the self-abusive "The Best Way to Learn is Get Mauled" Tutorial......
I voted excellent as well. So far I've only played for 4-5 hours or so and I have a lot to learn. It's what I hoped it would be plus the choice of music for Victoria is quite good too!
Now that I've played it some, I'd say excellent. Just complicated enough to be engaging. But not to hard. My only gripe is with the sliders. I know I'm disabled, but I'm still good with a mouse, but the sliders are near impossible. I'd kill for the clickers like HOI has. Just an opinion.
I went nuts trying to find HOI after it was relased and that game has changed the way I buy PC games from all companies going forward. Until at least the 1st patch is out and I have read multiple reviews, and perused forums such as this one I will not buy a game. The gamestop review does not look promising....
Here is another review: http://www.strategy-gaming.com/reviews/victoria/index.shtml
...and start reading from this post: http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=118331&postid=2311301#post2311301
I have not voted, as I just got the game; it wouldn't be fair. But my first impression is very good - and in addition I might add that Victoria has been received in this forum far better than HoI, and that must mean something...
Well old game"fps"spot is absolutley the best place to go for reviews of deep strategic games...
But if you have to go by reviews there are 6 or 7 reivews and aside from GS and that woman who has given every Paradox game a bad review it's got 80-100%
I'm still anxiously waiting on COMPUTER GAMES review, I've already formed my opinion, now I want to see if they agree with me, they have a more mature reviewing staff now and not your college grad right out of the gate reviewers.
I used to be a fan of PCGamer and Computer Gaming World, but, those reviewers and editors are so stuck on themselves in their mag they forget the reason they are there for. I don't want to read crap about how their 7 year old beat them at a game of brag! I also don't want to read snide remarks towards the subscriber base in the letters sections or pokes at canadians, I'm not a canadian, but, I just feel this is very unprofessional of a magazine. Though somehow I will sneak a way to read TROTTERS reviews from PCgamer, I don't know why he works for such a childishlike magizine.
I used to be a fan of PCGamer and Computer Gaming World, but, those reviewers and editors are so stuck on themselves in their mag they forget the reason they are there for. I don't want to read crap about how their 7 year old beat them at a game of brag! I also don't want to read snide remarks towards the subscriber base in the letters sections or pokes at canadians, I'm not a canadian, but, I just feel this is very unprofessional of a magazine. Though somehow I will sneak a way to read TROTTERS reviews from PCgamer, I don't know why he works for such a childishlike magizine.
I voted good, as I just got it and it seems to have the potential to be a great game, once I learn it.
Sadly for such a complex game, the manual is almost worthless. Even EU2's manual was better, and that game wasn't even that complex.
Also the lack of a tutorial is beyond my comprehenssion . This will leave some players feeling overwhelmed by the game and all the micro management. It might even scare some off, that might have enjoyed it.
I am still sure that when I learn the game, I will enjoy it alot, but Paradox have apparently decided that it should not be an easy start to the game.
Sadly for such a complex game, the manual is almost worthless. Even EU2's manual was better, and that game wasn't even that complex.
Also the lack of a tutorial is beyond my comprehenssion
. This will leave some players feeling overwhelmed by the game and all the micro management. It might even scare some off, that might have enjoyed it.I am still sure that when I learn the game, I will enjoy it alot, but Paradox have apparently decided that it should not be an easy start to the game.