- Joined
- Apr 12, 2022
Gameplay First, with actual design ideas instead of just stupid shit thrown in a pot that doesn't really cohere into anything. Take inspiration from vanilla, have early conflicts be opportunities for the wider powers to acquire allies/army and air experience. Have a clear central conflict that is going to play out, or multiple central conflicts per region.
EaW does this especially well, with everything on Griffonia revolving around preparing for, building up for, or actively resisting the resurgent Griffonian empire, while Zebrica seems to have a few different conflicts going on in the Zebrican Great lakes, the north around Colthage, and the east in the former colonies. Vanilla is focused around figuring out what side to take in ww2, how to contribute, and how to stack the cards so you come out the best. OWB also does this very well, with most of the west revolving around defending yourself from minor threats, aligning yourself with either the legion or the NCR, and waiting for the big one to kick off. Mexico preparing for a potential two front war should the legion win, combined with a more than likely aggressive power out of the south once the crazy cultists get done with the Flower Wars.
TNO could have had a clear central conflict, and probably did at some point in development, but in effect does not. The idea of a cold war between a vengeful USA and an increasingly desperate Reich played out over the most explosive and interesting decade in the cold war could have been great, but instead it's just a dumbass wankfest made by people who don't actually want to make a video game.
If you're going to rework the tech tree, do it right and so that it adds to gameplay. To use the navy as an example, You could have a cool dichotomy going on where America invests into a more or less OTL carrier/medium ship fleet that is more balanced, while Germany takes lessons from it's wartime experiences and heavily invests in extremely long range missile submarines combined with a small but capable light carrier fleet. Is it realistic, fuck no, but it's fun, and adds to gameplay, and illustrates the inherent differences between our world and one where the nazis won, and you don't even have to write some autistic blurb about it in some dumb event, it's all done without words!
