Steam Paradox Weekend Sale

[Nefaro]

Anyone recommend Victoria II?

I just can't recommend it, even though I keep trying to get into it. 

The hands-off gameplay is a real snoozer.  The economy side of things is mostly automated and all you'll do is push a few gov't spending sliders upwards until max'd out in a varied but short time after game start, because the economy is so broken that money will flow like water after everything levels off.  What you actively do a lot, however, is play whack-a-mole with your Influence settings on minor states (if you're one of the 8 great powers).  This wouldn't be so bad if it were adjusted once a month, or even a year, but you'll have to constantly jack with it when various AI countries keep allotting influence pts in places you're doing so, and then moving them back to a different one when you match them, causing a point chase of sorts.  The bastids will pop them in & out all the time so I'm always doing the same to keep them from hitting the next "level" or eliminating my built up points there.  Back & forth & round & round.  >:(  Real annoying. 

The warfare part is pretty much the same as most of the other Clausewitz engine games, although one good point is the very limited war goals which restricts the outcomes of any war to some predefined goals considering your situation.  So that helps keep the runaway conquering blobs to somewhat slower, more reasonable, limits ideally.  May not always keep the blobs at bay, but better than other games.

While the social aspects are modelled, and most Vic2 players enjoy manipulating such things, I've not really had much notice of them other than a few pop-up events that you must decide between a couple small social modifiers to a specific province.  These events fire often and you'll see the same few over & over.  I can see the draw of manipulating all the POPs' sentiments so you trigger various revolutions and drastic gov't changes, but some of these extremely repetitive events that can potentially help your machinations just haven't given me a fun enough time to continue such a journey. 

From what I've gathered, later in a campaign the game starts to increasingly lag out (runaway memory leaks or save data junkpiling??) and even the smaller AI nations build massive dreadnought fleets because those give Prestige bonuses and can possibly push them up into Great Power status.  This dreadnought-out-the-rear issue was supposed to be fixed in the expansion (also currently on sale - probably still more than it's worth) but I've not bothered to see how well it was, or whether that fix broke other things as so often happens.

So I've failed to "get into" Victoria 2.. approximately six times now.   :-[  It makes me look forward to PON's bugs getting fixed up because I'd have more fun playing a smooth version of that, and it's 3 minute turn processing times, than doing so little in Vic2 (ZzzZ) & becoming frustrated with it's gameplay/lack of.

[Gusington]

^Damn that stinks. And was what I was afraid of hearing. I love the era so much...but there is precious little in quality gaming in it. Or is there? I feel a new thread coming on.

[son_of_montfort]

I actually very much liked Vicky 2, so I'll disagree with Nefario here.

For $10, you can't goo too wrong.

[Gusington]

Torn...Crusader Kings II looks like the better purchase even though I won't play it right away.

[CptHowdy]

just remember that everything is 50% and it might go to 75% so i would wait til last day to purchase something. might save ya an extra 25%!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Victorian Englerlund is pretty much my favourite era but there just isn't a whole lot out there.

You could give Pride of Nations another crack.

If you want something a little more personal, I recommend Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper.   Very well researched and they present a very interesting yet plausible theory on the ripper murders.

[Nefaro]

Torn...Crusader Kings II looks like the better purchase even though I won't play it right away.

Much much more engaging IMO.  I can heartily support a purchase of Crusader Kings 2 over Victoria 2 any day.  ;)

[Nefaro]

You could give Pride of Nations another crack.

Since the Phils have started working on updates for PON, I'd suggest waiting until those are done.   Although they will likely be save game compatible, you could run into a runaway issue (population happiness & loyalty sounds like it can be a problem atm) and still have that present after an update.

I know that the guys running the massive multiplayer game of PON have had to manually fix a few things in their game over the long period of time they've played it.

[Gusington]

Thanks guys...going with CKII appears to be the way to go. SDR who created the Sherlock Holmes game you mentioned?

The shortage of Victorian British Empire games is pushing me more towards steampunk and thus the upcoming scenario for Civ V...and ETW and NTW mods.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Gus, Sherlock vs the Ripper was made by Frogware.  It's their fifth Sherlock Holmes title.  Here's the Gamersgate link although I recommend getting it from Steam so as to avoid the evil Tages DRM scheme.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-SH5/sherlock-holmes-vs-jack-the-ripper

[Gusington]

^Thanks SDR.

[W8taminute]

Was perusing the sale just now and noticed that Rise of Prussia and Vainglory of Nations (PRoN) are on sale. 

I'm thinking however of picking up Vainglory for MAC.  Does anyone here have the MAC version and if so how does it perform?  Any lag or sluggishness issues that are on the Windows version?

[Bison]

I'd be leary of a Mac version for the simple fact that Ageod does not support Mac versions.  The updating of the Mac version is controlled by the company who ported the game to iOS, so you are not likely to get good or timely support if any when Ageod patches the PC version.

[Nefaro]

GG also has Mount & Blade Napoleonic Wars on sale for $5  (not in Steam sale it seems) in case someone wants a multiplayer musket & bayoneting to the face.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-MBWNW/mount-and-blade-warband-napoleonic-wars


..and Montjoie! is on sale for a light tabletop strategy port ($10), which happens rarely.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-MONTJOIE/montjoie

[Bison]

GG also has Mount & Blade Napoleonic Wars on sale for $5  (not in Steam sale it seems) in case someone wants a multiplayer musket & bayoneting to the face.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-MBWNW/mount-and-blade-warband-napoleonic-wars

Its on sale at Steam too. I think the GG and Steam sale pretty much match so its a pick your dd of choice weekend.