Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-104.200.138.164-20200518064152/@comment-36874080-20200522092043

82.234.101.145 wrote:

I disagree, it is very much playable, it's optimizing that is the "problem".

I had to rely extensively on the walkthrough because the game simply didn't tell me where to go, and interacting with every single thing in the area again and again until something happens simply isn't fun gameplay. It's not true for every section of the game, but it's true often enough.

But even outside of that, optimization is very much needed, especially since bad results do snowball, meaning you end up in a world of hurt... It's something I warn people about: don't play the game if you're not okay with minmaxing and metagaming.

99.255.12.71 wrote:

It's like my grandma always used to say, "you can't simulate a society and it's rich social, political and economic landscape without making broad statements about what kind of societies do and do not "work", alienating a few people when those statements break their immersion and contradict their own views!" She had a lot of long sayings, she did.

Well, actually, yes you can. Present them as tradeoffs and their representative as real human beings instead of paper-thin caricatures. It doesn't need to appear one-sided. I don't enjoy preachiness no matter if it contradicts my own views or if it's in accordance with them, tbh. I want shades of grey and narrative complexity, damnit. Especially in a game with good writing such as this one.

Also, the economics are clearly a gameplay element, or a dynamic way to tell the story, rather than trying to emulate realistic economics. You'll notice how it's always handwaved as 'merchant stuff' and the conversations about it aren't seen. It's a nice way for players to choose which stuff to prioritize, but don't expect any actual economics to underlie it. (That's the key it you want to write Megail-oriented stuff, btw.)

Thankfully we don't have to deal with stuff like 'people who approve / disapprove of separating commercial and investment banking are only motivated by their sheer stupidity and don't realize how this will wreck the economy'. :p