Looking good but...........

[India 51A]

Hi all, I came across this game from another site, and after reading the stories of your Sunday night games, and reading the forums etc. I have to admit I'm really hooked, however, and this is the reason for the Title of my post, I thought the same when I looked at Hearts of Iron, so I bought it and to be perfectly honest, it is too hard for me to play and get any satisfaction from it. So my question is, will this game be harder to play than Hearts of Iron? I certainly hope not, as what I've seen so far has got me putting my pennies away ready to buy it when it goes gold!

[Juergen]

Hmmm....maybe it would help if you explained what exactly was the problem with Hearts of Iron.

I have played Hearts of Iron myself and as far as I can tell at least the actual execution of orders (unit movements,industrial upgrades...) was very simple.

The documentation as well as the in-game help however is quite a disaster with HOI,more of that would helped a lot to understand why things happend in HOI.

Supreme Ruler 2010 wont have this problem.
The manual will be good,along with in-game help and the UI will be arranged in a far more logical and usefull manner.

Supreme Ruler 2010 however will be a far more detailed game than HOI.
It will track and let you play with a lot more variables than HOI.
For example:
While HOI has just one "Industrial capacity" per region SR 2010 will let you build and manage different "factories" for Consumer Goods,Military and Industrial Goods.
And to that you also have resources like Uranium,coal,water,oil,metal ore and timber.

But SR 2010 will also feature competent AI ministers to help you manage your region.
They will mostly do a lot finetunig like setting taxes,selling/buying goods and I you like produce the right units for your region.
Unlike other games the AI can also help you to manage your units during battle...it can put them into the right place in the right order and even let them do counterattacks.
With more abilities certainly underway!

[India 51A]

The execution of orders wasn't the problem with HOI, that indeed is quite simple. What I found hard was the application of diplomacy and also the large scale of the game, i.e. the whole world to keep an eye on all the time without a great deal of help in passing on tasks to the AI.

Certain other aspects of the game were hard to grasp too, convoys and naval warfare for example.

What I'm really saying is that for a 'wargame' the learning curve of HOI is way to steep and as you implied, not enough help from the manual or ingame.

I think you may have answered my question and on further reading of this forum since I posted it, it appears that the learning curve in this game will not be quite so steep.

I guess the aim of most games should be that they are easy to play, but hard to master, and hopefully this game is exactly that. Thanks for your prompt response.

[BattleGoat]

easy to play, but hard to master

That's actually one of the Marketing Lines we use!

[India 51A]

It's the 'hard to master' bit that, IMO gives a game it's longevity and playability, the one thing that most gamers look for in a game

[Legend]

I have been play-testing SR2010 over the last year with BattleGoat Studios. What has kept me interested, besides visiting weekly with the design staff, is the complexity of the game. This complexity is balanced with the assistance of cabinet ministers. As you play you can choose to take over a section of your government and master one section at a time all while your ministers continue to manage things that aren't part of your attention. You can also move between sections or take full control. As time continues you can manage multiple areas of your government's activities and at the same time choose cabinet minister priorities. To loosely quote Balthagor the person who masters SR2010 will be the person who knows when to get involved and when to let your cabinet ministers handle your governments affairs.

[przy]

I loved HOI and still do. Am very looking forward to this game as well as the new HOI 2.