A while ago, I talked with a friend who had a very interesting idea for EUIV (and potentially other PDX games). As he is not to my knowledge a frequent forum user, I feel like he won't mind if I try to expose his idea here.
For long time players, PDX games sometimes end up feeling simple. We pick up habits, we know how to use optimally (for our strategy at least) the mechanics, we always want more things to be added for the sake of realism/complexity/fun.
On the other hand, for a new player, the games feel daunting, complicated messes with poor UI and an impossible learning curve. The absence of tutorials and the fact that game mechanics are often obscured behind layers of menus and sometimes not even explained certainly doesn't help.
There is also the fact that some players long for geo-strategic war simulation with loads of complexity and realism while some others are quite content with a wargame in which they want to paint the world their favourite color.
The idea I came accross is that instead of plunging new players into the intricacy of the full game at the start, a tutorial / game mode could be designed in which the player would unlock new mechanics when he feels the time is right. It would be possible to play a whole game (probably without achievements, sadly for that player) while this game mode would be on.
After having first loaded the game, the new player would have the option to play the full game or to play this "tutorial". When clicking on the latter button, he would have to choose is country, as is normally the case, but many mechanics would be obscured. This could be done simply by changing the UI so that things like stability, legitimacy, estates, even monarch points would be stylistically hided. Those values would still exist under the hood, but would be neutralised for example by placing prestige permanently at 0 or manpower always full.
So at the start, the only things available would be a basic map, money, troops and the most basic diplomatic feature : war and peace. A quick overview of those features could be explained in plain texts, but those informative bubbles should be kept to the minimum to avoid the player feeling overwhelmed. The map should be simplified to show only two countries and give only one playable option to the player.
The player would then have simple tasks to do, like building troops, declaring war, defending against an attack, and create buildings. Once a first fictionnal scanarios would have run its course, the player could then be introduced to more and more mechanics, eventually reaching a stage where the world map would be available and he could choose a country while keeping the obfuscated UI.
A proposal of order for the mechanics to be added could be as follow. Some of those steps could be merged or separated. And in no way would those be supposed to produce a "balanced" gameplay in any way. Note that every of those mechanics could unlock the associated events.
Also, at some point, one could start a normal game of EUIV with only a few of those mechanics, quite like in CK2 you have the rules settings someone could choose to disable completely mechanics. This would however be an advanced feature and wouldn't be readily shown from the tutorial, which would aim to show the whole game gradually.
1. Money (tax), troops and basic diplomacy
2. Manpower and the associated buildings, force limit
3. Alliances, improve relations, insults, military access
4. Monarchs and heirs (without power points or traits)
5. Morale and discipline
6. Production income and the associated buildings
-- from this point onward, a "normal" EUIV game could be played --
7. Stability, legitimacy, war exhaustion, war taxes, monarch points
8. Technology
9. Councillors
10. Ideas
11. Leader pips
12. Institutions
13. Army tradition, professionalism, combat ability
14. Trade and the associated buildings
15. Government reforms, estates, parliements and unique mechanism
I might have forgotten some things. As I said above, this isn't meant to be a final draft, just an idea of how it could work. I quite like this idea since it would allow players to gradually understand the mechanics. Reman's made a video about the military where he showed the benefit of such a method. I also played a mobile game called Antiyoy, a while ago, which had this type of tutorial in which mechanics were progressively added to make the game bearable.
I'm also lead to think this reflects in some way how I myself, as an old time player, learned the game. EUI was far less complex in terms of added mechanics than EUIV. It was basically about manpower and money. Players who had EUIV at release also had a far less complicated game. The idea is then to reproduce this simplicity while encouraging the player to (hopefully) play the full game.
Do you think this would be doable and beneficial for the game and its power base? I certainly do.
For long time players, PDX games sometimes end up feeling simple. We pick up habits, we know how to use optimally (for our strategy at least) the mechanics, we always want more things to be added for the sake of realism/complexity/fun.
On the other hand, for a new player, the games feel daunting, complicated messes with poor UI and an impossible learning curve. The absence of tutorials and the fact that game mechanics are often obscured behind layers of menus and sometimes not even explained certainly doesn't help.
There is also the fact that some players long for geo-strategic war simulation with loads of complexity and realism while some others are quite content with a wargame in which they want to paint the world their favourite color.
The idea I came accross is that instead of plunging new players into the intricacy of the full game at the start, a tutorial / game mode could be designed in which the player would unlock new mechanics when he feels the time is right. It would be possible to play a whole game (probably without achievements, sadly for that player) while this game mode would be on.
After having first loaded the game, the new player would have the option to play the full game or to play this "tutorial". When clicking on the latter button, he would have to choose is country, as is normally the case, but many mechanics would be obscured. This could be done simply by changing the UI so that things like stability, legitimacy, estates, even monarch points would be stylistically hided. Those values would still exist under the hood, but would be neutralised for example by placing prestige permanently at 0 or manpower always full.
So at the start, the only things available would be a basic map, money, troops and the most basic diplomatic feature : war and peace. A quick overview of those features could be explained in plain texts, but those informative bubbles should be kept to the minimum to avoid the player feeling overwhelmed. The map should be simplified to show only two countries and give only one playable option to the player.
The player would then have simple tasks to do, like building troops, declaring war, defending against an attack, and create buildings. Once a first fictionnal scanarios would have run its course, the player could then be introduced to more and more mechanics, eventually reaching a stage where the world map would be available and he could choose a country while keeping the obfuscated UI.
A proposal of order for the mechanics to be added could be as follow. Some of those steps could be merged or separated. And in no way would those be supposed to produce a "balanced" gameplay in any way. Note that every of those mechanics could unlock the associated events.
Also, at some point, one could start a normal game of EUIV with only a few of those mechanics, quite like in CK2 you have the rules settings someone could choose to disable completely mechanics. This would however be an advanced feature and wouldn't be readily shown from the tutorial, which would aim to show the whole game gradually.
1. Money (tax), troops and basic diplomacy
2. Manpower and the associated buildings, force limit
3. Alliances, improve relations, insults, military access
4. Monarchs and heirs (without power points or traits)
5. Morale and discipline
6. Production income and the associated buildings
-- from this point onward, a "normal" EUIV game could be played --
7. Stability, legitimacy, war exhaustion, war taxes, monarch points
8. Technology
9. Councillors
10. Ideas
11. Leader pips
12. Institutions
13. Army tradition, professionalism, combat ability
14. Trade and the associated buildings
15. Government reforms, estates, parliements and unique mechanism
I might have forgotten some things. As I said above, this isn't meant to be a final draft, just an idea of how it could work. I quite like this idea since it would allow players to gradually understand the mechanics. Reman's made a video about the military where he showed the benefit of such a method. I also played a mobile game called Antiyoy, a while ago, which had this type of tutorial in which mechanics were progressively added to make the game bearable.
I'm also lead to think this reflects in some way how I myself, as an old time player, learned the game. EUI was far less complex in terms of added mechanics than EUIV. It was basically about manpower and money. Players who had EUIV at release also had a far less complicated game. The idea is then to reproduce this simplicity while encouraging the player to (hopefully) play the full game.
Do you think this would be doable and beneficial for the game and its power base? I certainly do.
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