After reading the latest Stellaris dev diary, i decided i should make a post about this as it is clearly becoming an increasing issue in PDX games.
For a while now, there has been a large focus on restricting the capabilities of large "blobbing" countries, in order to make them beatable, and to reduce snowballing; this is definitely something that needs to be done, and i don't really think i need to explain why, as it probably has been countless times by now.
But the measures i have seen taken to do so recently have been more of an issue then the issue they seek to solve, for a few reasons. the current systems in place over most PDX games usually revolve around increased costs, aggressive expansion, and reduced stability/increased unrest. While i find aggressive expansion to be a decent and logical system, the other solutions are, honestly, really bad in most cases.
Something i feel is key to understand when looking at this is how/why PDX games are played; People love war, lots and lots of war, and for good reason. There are a few things to keep in mind about why this is, but the biggest one is fairly simple - we play these games for fun. war is innately fun for us players because it is easily the most interactive part of the game, you take direct, constant control of the movements of your military, and are actively engaged in doing so for the vast majority of the wars any player fights, its a system that requires constant thought and focus, and is entirely under player control, and thus is more entertaining. On the other hand, war is usually the best path to getting stronger, more resources, more military might, more land, more political relevance. and when you win a war, there is one thing you always take, Land.
This goes hand-in-hand with how diplomacy and internal management work to cause the "blobbing" issue. Both diplomacy and internal management both require waiting, lots and lots of waiting.
Whether its waiting for money, for buildings to build, for relations to improve, for population to grow, you spend a lot of time on the highest speed, just sitting and waiting, and in my case, doing something else in the backround. there really isn't a "fix" for this, short of a revolutionary system i could not even begin to fathom that would overhaul strategy games for well beyond the foreseeable future. even the most in depth, complicated system still results in waiting for fairly long periods of time, occasionally clicking a pop-up or two.
On the other hand, diplomacy, internal management, and even espionage when it exists in a decent capacity don't provide much benefit; you tend to not be able to "focus" on development in PDX games so any benefit comes slowly, regardless of size. Diplomacy is largely useful only for gaining allies for war, and what people seem to want as a "good" diplomacy system seems well beyond the capabilities of a video game, as it will never come close to doing so with another player. Espionage tends to be something rarely worth investing in, as the best you can do is generally cause some small rebellion, you cant attempt to overthrow a government, or influence another countries politics, or attempt to drive a wedge between otherwise inseparable allies, and even if you could, still more waiting.
So why do people blob? because it is simultaneously the most fun, the natural progression of the game, and largely the best option. the result is a snowball race, see who can get strongest the fastest, with larger, more powerful countries doing so faster.
So why the anti-blobbing mechanics? because the less powerful people/countries need a chance to topple those with more power, and take that power for themselves.
But the nature of these mechanics tend to feel horrible for those subjected to them, and largely for one reason, because for those who expand rapidly, the mechanics feel like a punishment for playing well, and because rapid expansion tends to be the most fun way to play, these mechanics become a slap in the face for many players.
Probably the biggest reason for this is implementation, Increased costs tend to be a modifier that goes up as you expand, with minimal ways to negate it, and looking at a tooltip to see what amounts to "100% cost increase - you played well" just feels horrible, and can rapidly result in getting sick of the game. Stability tends to be a similar issue, because stability tends to be a flat number with impacts all over the game, and still tends to be modified by a "you played well" negative modifier.
I have noticed two PDX games that seem to be exceptions to this problem, Hearts of Iron and Crusader Kings. HoI simply is such a different style of game it doesn't need the same restrictions, and CK tends to manage this issue well, and is able to so via the base concept and mechanics of the game, why? because in CK you have characters and factions, you have to manage vassals and families and schemes and all sorts of in-depth internal interactions with characters, and i think the solution to both blobbing and bad "anti-blobbing" might lie here.
By creating a well developed internal politics system, you can have factions and characters that can dynamically be created, gain power, lose power, or be reduced to irrelevance, as with before however, large countries shouldn't only be penalized from the system, rather, the increasing number and power of factions results in consistently harder to manage internal affairs, if managed well, this can actually be a large benefit as you gain the support of factions that might single-handedly match the strength of other countries, but if fail to manage to balance them on a knifes edge, or an event in-game throws your balance off, you end up with severe problems, maybe even a nasty, devastating civil war. when this happens, your empire is severely weakened, and smaller countries can use the opportunity to join in and seize some land and power from you.
These factions can be Corporations, Crime Syndicates, Noble Houses, Merchants, Pirates, Organized Religions, Military Branches, Militia, and similar that might not carry much weight in a weaker country, but can be a force to be reckoned with in a strong one.
Good Gog i didn't expect to type this much and am now tired, i think i might take a nap now
For a while now, there has been a large focus on restricting the capabilities of large "blobbing" countries, in order to make them beatable, and to reduce snowballing; this is definitely something that needs to be done, and i don't really think i need to explain why, as it probably has been countless times by now.
But the measures i have seen taken to do so recently have been more of an issue then the issue they seek to solve, for a few reasons. the current systems in place over most PDX games usually revolve around increased costs, aggressive expansion, and reduced stability/increased unrest. While i find aggressive expansion to be a decent and logical system, the other solutions are, honestly, really bad in most cases.
Something i feel is key to understand when looking at this is how/why PDX games are played; People love war, lots and lots of war, and for good reason. There are a few things to keep in mind about why this is, but the biggest one is fairly simple - we play these games for fun. war is innately fun for us players because it is easily the most interactive part of the game, you take direct, constant control of the movements of your military, and are actively engaged in doing so for the vast majority of the wars any player fights, its a system that requires constant thought and focus, and is entirely under player control, and thus is more entertaining. On the other hand, war is usually the best path to getting stronger, more resources, more military might, more land, more political relevance. and when you win a war, there is one thing you always take, Land.
This goes hand-in-hand with how diplomacy and internal management work to cause the "blobbing" issue. Both diplomacy and internal management both require waiting, lots and lots of waiting.
Whether its waiting for money, for buildings to build, for relations to improve, for population to grow, you spend a lot of time on the highest speed, just sitting and waiting, and in my case, doing something else in the backround. there really isn't a "fix" for this, short of a revolutionary system i could not even begin to fathom that would overhaul strategy games for well beyond the foreseeable future. even the most in depth, complicated system still results in waiting for fairly long periods of time, occasionally clicking a pop-up or two.
On the other hand, diplomacy, internal management, and even espionage when it exists in a decent capacity don't provide much benefit; you tend to not be able to "focus" on development in PDX games so any benefit comes slowly, regardless of size. Diplomacy is largely useful only for gaining allies for war, and what people seem to want as a "good" diplomacy system seems well beyond the capabilities of a video game, as it will never come close to doing so with another player. Espionage tends to be something rarely worth investing in, as the best you can do is generally cause some small rebellion, you cant attempt to overthrow a government, or influence another countries politics, or attempt to drive a wedge between otherwise inseparable allies, and even if you could, still more waiting.
So why do people blob? because it is simultaneously the most fun, the natural progression of the game, and largely the best option. the result is a snowball race, see who can get strongest the fastest, with larger, more powerful countries doing so faster.
So why the anti-blobbing mechanics? because the less powerful people/countries need a chance to topple those with more power, and take that power for themselves.
But the nature of these mechanics tend to feel horrible for those subjected to them, and largely for one reason, because for those who expand rapidly, the mechanics feel like a punishment for playing well, and because rapid expansion tends to be the most fun way to play, these mechanics become a slap in the face for many players.
Probably the biggest reason for this is implementation, Increased costs tend to be a modifier that goes up as you expand, with minimal ways to negate it, and looking at a tooltip to see what amounts to "100% cost increase - you played well" just feels horrible, and can rapidly result in getting sick of the game. Stability tends to be a similar issue, because stability tends to be a flat number with impacts all over the game, and still tends to be modified by a "you played well" negative modifier.
I have noticed two PDX games that seem to be exceptions to this problem, Hearts of Iron and Crusader Kings. HoI simply is such a different style of game it doesn't need the same restrictions, and CK tends to manage this issue well, and is able to so via the base concept and mechanics of the game, why? because in CK you have characters and factions, you have to manage vassals and families and schemes and all sorts of in-depth internal interactions with characters, and i think the solution to both blobbing and bad "anti-blobbing" might lie here.
By creating a well developed internal politics system, you can have factions and characters that can dynamically be created, gain power, lose power, or be reduced to irrelevance, as with before however, large countries shouldn't only be penalized from the system, rather, the increasing number and power of factions results in consistently harder to manage internal affairs, if managed well, this can actually be a large benefit as you gain the support of factions that might single-handedly match the strength of other countries, but if fail to manage to balance them on a knifes edge, or an event in-game throws your balance off, you end up with severe problems, maybe even a nasty, devastating civil war. when this happens, your empire is severely weakened, and smaller countries can use the opportunity to join in and seize some land and power from you.
These factions can be Corporations, Crime Syndicates, Noble Houses, Merchants, Pirates, Organized Religions, Military Branches, Militia, and similar that might not carry much weight in a weaker country, but can be a force to be reckoned with in a strong one.
Good Gog i didn't expect to type this much and am now tired, i think i might take a nap now
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