Hi, everybody,
I am now 20 hours into my 3rd Venetian game, having spent the first 2 getting a handle on this beast of a game. Although things are going great and I feel I got the hang of the interface, I still feel like I'm too often digging to get information here and there, and I thought I would voice some constructive criticism. I am still a beginner, so please don't burn me at the stake if some of my comments are not accurate, I’ll edit if needed. Because I’ve only played Venice, some of the things here are Europe/catholic centric, so if anyone wants to add something for American/African/Middle-Eastern/Oriental nations, the thread is there for that.
BEFORE WAR:
On the screen where you can send a diplomat to declare war, you can check if your allies are willing to join or not (call willing allies), but you get no information as to why (war exhaustion, good relationship with your target, etc…). This information however is fully available once you declare war and call your allies then. It would be great if it was available before you actually declared war as well.
DURING WAR:
When checking a nation’s diplomacy info screen, you can see if it is at war and who the main foe is, but no details on the sides’ alliances. I know I can find that in the ledger, but I’d really like to be able to find that on the nation info screen, as I spend a lot of time looking at these. Also, the current setup is a bit weird, as the fastest way to know the composition of one side is to get the info from a country that’s fighting them.
When the battlefield is large, especially when you have faraway possessions, it quickly becomes tiresome to zoom in and out every so often just to check if enemy troops are approaching. Sometimes, when the action becomes intense in one part of the map, I only realise one of my cities was under siege at the «*siege over, you lost*» popup. A system of icons pointing enemy troops at the side of the screen (à la Civ) would help, especially if they are made right-clickable to disable. At the least, there should be a warning when enemy crosses one of your borders the first time, once for each new border crossed, and when one of your cities comes under siege.
THE PAPACY:
As far as I can tell, the Holy See screen does not tell you what bonuses you get from controlling a cardinal. It should really be available there. Also, you get no information of what bonuses you would get should one of your cardinals in-waiting gets appointed: it makes it tricky to make sound decisions, and I haven’t found the information in the manual either (and yes, I know there’s a wiki, but still, it'd be better on the Holy See screen).
This is not only 100% a interface issue. In my game, I conquered Roma, and the Papal State is now forced to move between a couple of northern HRE States. 2 issues here: 1/ I am not told when the Papal State is removed and created elsewhere, even after selecting the Papal State in the countries I want to get news from. I think this should come up for Catholic nations. 2/ If I assign a diplomat to improve relations with the Papal State, it does not move if a state gets its territory back. My diplomat continues happily improving relations with that state instead. However happy I am to be at 100% relation with Utrecht, I’d really rather the diplomat followed the Papal State when it gets created elsewhere, or at worst, returned home.
When protestantism and the reform come along, I get a lot of popups from states telling me about their difficult choices, such as whether they decided to burn heretics or keep them at room temperature. It would be great if the actual religion of their state (catholic, protestant or reformed) also appeared there, especially on the «*upheavals are over*» popups: I’d love to know who came on top without going to their diplo screen.
GENERAL:
Concerning the changes in influence and relationships: the actual bonuses/maluses of your actions are never indicated. I don’t mind some of the information being hidden and playing the game in a more roleplaying mode, but most of these modifiers are standard (i.e: -100 for dishonouring an alliance, -25 for a blockade), and you get all the details in the nation info screen anyway, albeit after the fact only. It would be a lot better if the details were available directly in whatever screen you make the decision in, at least for those decisions that affect only 1 country (nothing I can think of would work for aggressive expansion modifiers, for example).
When constructing buildings, I would love to be able to see the actual impact the construction will have. By this, I mean not just getting the increased trade or reinforcement percentage in a province, but also the actual impact on, respectively, my income and the number of troops I get each month. I understand the information might be different once the building gets done a year or two later, but it would make it much more practical to evaluate different options without taking out my scientific calculator.
There, I know it’s already a lot. Because of the topic, I realise my post might come as strongly negative to some, so let me state it again: I love this game, I just want to see it get even better!
Alfy.
Edited.
I am now 20 hours into my 3rd Venetian game, having spent the first 2 getting a handle on this beast of a game. Although things are going great and I feel I got the hang of the interface, I still feel like I'm too often digging to get information here and there, and I thought I would voice some constructive criticism. I am still a beginner, so please don't burn me at the stake if some of my comments are not accurate, I’ll edit if needed. Because I’ve only played Venice, some of the things here are Europe/catholic centric, so if anyone wants to add something for American/African/Middle-Eastern/Oriental nations, the thread is there for that.
BEFORE WAR:
On the screen where you can send a diplomat to declare war, you can check if your allies are willing to join or not (call willing allies), but you get no information as to why (war exhaustion, good relationship with your target, etc…). This information however is fully available once you declare war and call your allies then. It would be great if it was available before you actually declared war as well.
DURING WAR:
When checking a nation’s diplomacy info screen, you can see if it is at war and who the main foe is, but no details on the sides’ alliances. I know I can find that in the ledger, but I’d really like to be able to find that on the nation info screen, as I spend a lot of time looking at these. Also, the current setup is a bit weird, as the fastest way to know the composition of one side is to get the info from a country that’s fighting them.
When the battlefield is large, especially when you have faraway possessions, it quickly becomes tiresome to zoom in and out every so often just to check if enemy troops are approaching. Sometimes, when the action becomes intense in one part of the map, I only realise one of my cities was under siege at the «*siege over, you lost*» popup. A system of icons pointing enemy troops at the side of the screen (à la Civ) would help, especially if they are made right-clickable to disable. At the least, there should be a warning when enemy crosses one of your borders the first time, once for each new border crossed, and when one of your cities comes under siege.
THE PAPACY:
As far as I can tell, the Holy See screen does not tell you what bonuses you get from controlling a cardinal. It should really be available there. Also, you get no information of what bonuses you would get should one of your cardinals in-waiting gets appointed: it makes it tricky to make sound decisions, and I haven’t found the information in the manual either (and yes, I know there’s a wiki, but still, it'd be better on the Holy See screen).
This is not only 100% a interface issue. In my game, I conquered Roma, and the Papal State is now forced to move between a couple of northern HRE States. 2 issues here: 1/ I am not told when the Papal State is removed and created elsewhere, even after selecting the Papal State in the countries I want to get news from. I think this should come up for Catholic nations. 2/ If I assign a diplomat to improve relations with the Papal State, it does not move if a state gets its territory back. My diplomat continues happily improving relations with that state instead. However happy I am to be at 100% relation with Utrecht, I’d really rather the diplomat followed the Papal State when it gets created elsewhere, or at worst, returned home.
When protestantism and the reform come along, I get a lot of popups from states telling me about their difficult choices, such as whether they decided to burn heretics or keep them at room temperature. It would be great if the actual religion of their state (catholic, protestant or reformed) also appeared there, especially on the «*upheavals are over*» popups: I’d love to know who came on top without going to their diplo screen.
GENERAL:
Concerning the changes in influence and relationships: the actual bonuses/maluses of your actions are never indicated. I don’t mind some of the information being hidden and playing the game in a more roleplaying mode, but most of these modifiers are standard (i.e: -100 for dishonouring an alliance, -25 for a blockade), and you get all the details in the nation info screen anyway, albeit after the fact only. It would be a lot better if the details were available directly in whatever screen you make the decision in, at least for those decisions that affect only 1 country (nothing I can think of would work for aggressive expansion modifiers, for example).
When constructing buildings, I would love to be able to see the actual impact the construction will have. By this, I mean not just getting the increased trade or reinforcement percentage in a province, but also the actual impact on, respectively, my income and the number of troops I get each month. I understand the information might be different once the building gets done a year or two later, but it would make it much more practical to evaluate different options without taking out my scientific calculator.
There, I know it’s already a lot. Because of the topic, I realise my post might come as strongly negative to some, so let me state it again: I love this game, I just want to see it get even better!
Alfy.
Edited.
Last edited:
