An object lesson for old SR players

[mfisher12]

I've played all of the Supreme Ruler games to date, from almost the beginning of the first game. I thought I knew how the games worked, and whatever minor tweaks BG installed I could figure out over time.

SR36 is my first beta stab, though. I've started and abandoned at least 5 tries at games, deleting them when updates to rules made my ongoing game useless. Those five starts involved quite a bit of time, even going as far as 1945 on one of them (which is many hours of play from 1936). I accepted this as part of the cost of playing a game in beta. My solution after another update interrupted my gaming fun was to just stop for a while and let things settle.

This past week, after a short hiatus to allow more updates to filter down, I started up again, this time as Germany. My goal was, of course, to build the most technologically advanced militarist state on the continent, to take France, England, the Balkans, and to lay Russia low if I could. I spent 3 years of game time carefully balancing my economy (importing oil and rubber seems to be Germany's biggest weakness, as most of you are aware) and churning out the best units I could.

Then the day of reckoning came. Sept 1, 1939: it was time to unleash the Wehrmacht, sieze Warsaw and trigger a wider war with France and England. That's when my plans went kaput.

My casus belli with Poland isn't close to being enough to light up the "Declare War" button. I was stunned that, as the aggressive fascist state hell bent on world domination, I couldn't just pick a fight whenever I chose! I read through the latest iteration of the game manual but could find nothing offhand that should have warned me of this change in the way Supreme Ruler has always worked. I was dumbfounded.

=====
Berlin, 1939:

The Fuhrer sat down at his large, dark oaken desk. His advisors surround him, Göring standing at one elbow and Himmler at the other. With a dark look on his face, perceiving this moment of destiny, he slid back the wooden roll-top panel to reveal the "Declare War" button.

But there was a gasp through the small group of leaders around him. The Fuhrer's face darkened into a frown - usually the warning of an approaching explosion of anger.

"Was ist das?!" his voice was low and menacing, spittle forming at the corner of his mustached mouth. Before him, the "Declare War" button sat under a thick glass panel, untouchable to his fingers.

"Mein Fuhrer", Himmel spoke, the only one present who dared to do so, "Battlegoat has changed the rules again. We must work to make the Poles angry before we can attack!"

The Great Leader slammed his fists into the table, causing the generals to step back in anticipation of the rant about to happen. "WHY DOESN'T ANYONE TELL ME THESE THINGS!?" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

======

While the normal rules of civilization ought to apply to most nations, I wish there was a special exception for murderous, insane militarists like this. I've run my game all the way out to Sept. 1, 1939 (Edit: Sept 8 ), and now I'm faced with severing relations, sending spies, funding opposition, and whatever else I can manage to do to anger the Poles so much that a war can happen. I'm using "Medium" volatility, which may have been one mistake, but after being fed breadcrumbs through the years prior to '39, I guess I had expected the real-world events of September 1939 to not require special effort on my part.

I'm der Fuhrer. What use do I have of casus belli when my over-arching goal is to conquer all of Europe and rule with an iron fist?

[Kristijonas]

Lol, classic Battlegoat.
Are you sure declaring war button is not available because of low casus belli though? I never heard of such silly artificial boundaries in SR series and there was no notice on this change?

[mfisher12]

Lol, classic Battlegoat.
Are you sure declaring war button is not available because of low casus belli though? I never heard of such silly artificial boundaries in SR series and there was no notice on this change?

That was my thought. But the button is greyed and not available after Sept 1, 1939.

I'm a warlike nation. We don't need no steenkin' Casus Belli

[GreenGoblin]

Trying clicking it to break the glass, then press the button.

[mfisher12]

Trying clicking it to break the glass, then press the button.

That worked, thanks. Which begs the question, "Why do I have to break glass?", which also begs the further question, "Why didn't I think to try breaking the glass?"

[GreenGoblin]

Der Fuhrer is too important to damage his knuckles breaking glass...

[mfisher12]

Der Fuhrer is too important to damage his knuckles breaking glass...

Great point. Let Himmler do it!

[Chesehead]

Trying clicking it to break the glass, then press the button.

That worked, thanks. Which begs the question, "Why do I have to break glass?", which also begs the further question, "Why didn't I think to try breaking the glass?"

It was implemented early on as a "are you really sure you want to do this" type thing for players and I believe it was a left over from launching nukes in SR:CW.

[Balthagor]

The graphic has changed but that's been the same bit of code since SR2020

[mfisher12]

The graphic has changed but that's been the same bit of code since SR2020

I get that, now.

Graphics, though, are the visual cues players rely upon after they think (emphasis: "think", as in me) they understand how the game works.

In older versions of SR, the graphic was a small panel or door you opened that clearly said "Declare War on". The new graphic corresponds too closely to common Windows usage of greyed-out icons being unusable, and the "Declare War on" prompt is moved away from the panel and button. In my experience with Windows programming, this is a minor violation of standardization. Not insurmountable and certainly not game-breaking, but nonetheless an undocumented design change.

Here are the SR Cold War graphics:



Compared to the new SR36 image:



It's a trap!

[stevehoos]

The Der Fuhrer did not like the flag you were using, he suggests a mod.

[Ruges]

No popup or warning to break glass incase of emergency?

[bvb]

Just be glad they didn't make you turn two keys in unison.

[Balthagor]