Shadow Empire

[solops]

Solops, you can do something very similar (or identical) with traffic signs, but I think the functionality for that is rooted 2 or 3 sub-menus down.  I do enjoy the challenge of designing a system where my subordinates have to take care of things themselves (the "God games" were great back in the day but I've found that the min/maxing paradigm has gotten pretty stale for me) is really rewarding.

The other piece I've struggled with the most is the characters system.  I LOVE the design principles, but I think Vic just took it one layer too far down the rabbit hole for my tastes. 

I also think the downward spiral from having unhappy leaders needs to be nerfed.  Those 3-choice decisions invariably set me back 10-20 turns, to the point where you can't EVER afford to have unhappy subordinates.  That is about the only aspect of the game that shatters immersion for me.  Mostly it just results in save-spamming so that I have to go back 5 turns before that leader was really unhappy to figure out what went wrong and how to get him happy.

It is a wonderful game.  Those two complaints are just the only two scratches on a game that is otherwise a perfect 4x symphony for me.

You could always email Vic on the downsides. He is always interested in feedback, and I know from my interview with him that he is still doing work on the game when he gets time.

Did that many updates ago. There is some discussion in an old thread, and he made a minor change since then that still falls short of what is needed and, I think, makes sense.

[bobarossa]

Fired it back up and remembered what drove me crazy.  Starting a game and finding that my initial choices for political setup didn't match with my starting factions most of the time.  Instant dislike with almost nothing I could do to remedy it.  As a side peeve, getting requests for improving some political stat with no way to accomplish it also a problem.  I had hoped the ability to create new strategy cards (by turning in old ones) would help but they are random and rarely useful.

[Sparhawk]

Word score is important because it affects relations and modifiers, but no matter how carefully you try it will rise and fall with events. For the most part you can tailor the majority of circumstances in your favor which is important because it falls twice as far for a negative outcome as it rises for a positive one. This leads to my point that sometimes we can be faced with a request that the best choice would be to take a faction hit and just turn down because we know that we won't be able to satisfy the request and will be penalized with a 20% drop in our word score. Remember to allocate enough bureaucratic points to your interior council and supreme command council to increase the cards that give you plenty of opportunities to "hire, please, or fire" your leaders. Doing so will give you plenty of options to hire leaders that align with you, keep relations up, and fire the ones that are a problem. This strategy works best with my alignments of "mind, enforcement, and democracy". I keep government and meritocracy high as well to allow the bonuses from switching out to them when it fits. Though I've found that in late game "enforcement" and "democracy" are easiest to maintain. I realize that these game mechanics just aren't up some people's alley and you don't get enjoyment from them. That's ok. I believe they are incredibly balanced and the ammount of hours I have put in informs me that this will be my most played game over time. I am still excited to play, so much so that I'll finish my current campaign before I dive into DW2.

[spelk]

Come across this Combat basic training guide:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2777549218

[W8taminute]

^Very cool guide.

[spelk]

Interview with Vic on Shadow Empire
https://www.matchstickeyes.com/2022/04/03/shadow-empire-interview-with-victor-reijkersz/

[solops]

Huge news for SE fans! A new beta is out and it made what promises to be a significant change in the regular to hi-speed rail transition!!!

[bobarossa]

I rarely get far enough for high speed rail.  I usually rage quit after repeated demands from factions that I have no method of meeting (increase some profile).  I rarely get any opportunity to affect said profile and when I fail that faction just keeps demanding more crap I can't do (increasing victory points by ~50% is flat out impossible in 12 years).  I love the basic game play but dealing factions is like having someone repeatedly stab me with a knife.  I don't remember having this much difficulty the first year it came out. 

edit: Don't know how I missed Sparhawk's response in March.  I don't think I have ever had an interior council.  Always do Economic, military, model then air.  Really can drop the air since AI doesn't use it.  Not sure doing interior instead is early enough to head off the drop in word and relationship scores. 

[undercovergeek]

I have an interior council and no it doesn't help

My word score is 11, my next mission is increase relationship with a major faction, there's 1 and it's at 100, the one after that is increase commerce with absolutely no opportunity to - I'm sure after that word score drops to 0 but I don't know what happens

[solops]

Having a foreign office with adequate funding usually gives me all the responses I need. If someone is close by that is really a potential problem I bribe them until I am ready for war. I ignore a lot of people. If someone becomes a pest, spy on them and see if they have wars going on elsewhere. If they do, they may just be blustering toward you and can be ignored. But, the militaristic types and the theologicals can sometimes do suicidal things. Bribery almost always works to pacify them as long as the relationship level stays above 10. I never get too twisted about meeting anyone's demands or  requests except my own. Tanks are always a good reply to obstreperous neighbors.

[undercovergeek]

So how do you complete the raise commerce by 10 points mission when the ai presents you with no choices that would adjust the level?

[Sparhawk]

Sometimes when I know that I won't be able to meet the conditions of the request in the time allotted I'll take the faction hit and turn it down. Keeping your word score up is incredibly important. Faction rating is important but you can afford to let it bounce around a bit.
Interior council is my very first council I set up and I continue to fund it highly because the stratagem cards they give are so important. It's always a compromise on which council to have next and whether you can afford another one right now or not. The Supreme Command Council is the only one you start with and you should fund them reasonably high to begin with as well because they'll randomly give you stratagem cards from councils you don't have yet. Once you set up a full cabinet you can start reducing the Supreme Command funding. If you aren't getting the cards you need from the Interior council then up the level of funding. Remember it's through them that you get the cards to hire people, train them, make them happy, or fire them. Keeping your people happy or getting rid of them is the best way to avoid negative events that will lower your word score.

[bobarossa]

How do you know whether you will get an opportunity to raise a profile or not?  The events are pretty random.  I tried scrapping strategy cards and hoping for the newly created card to help but it rarely does.  I wish Vic would give us some control over the new card.  I like being able to make tradeoffs but the game doesn't even give me the option sometimes.

[solops]

 Y'all take the missions too seriously. I pretty much ignore them. If I make it, great. If I don't, eff em. If I have no intention of making one, I decline and take the hit, and bribe any of my guys (that I like) that whine too much. I totally do not worry about maximizing my governing attributes. I play using the Soprano-Stalin method.

[al_infierno]

Joney Stalprano?

Woke up this morning, got yourself some borscht