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Spaceman98

Corporal
Dec 26, 2024
27
22
Hello,

I found this interview: https://www.dbltap.com/features/par...ts-into-new-games-after-life-by-you-interview

They say this about Millennia: Lilja names Millennia as an example for such an experiment that may not have paid off, but wasn’t a massive loss either. “It’s a nice little game,” he says. “It didn’t really take off, but it didn't cost us the bank. We can try and fail and be fine. We like the team who did it, it’s a nice game, not commercially viable – but that’s the gaming industry. If it had been much bigger and more expensive, it would not be something we’d be interested in doing again. Finding the size of the investment and the risk we take is the trick.”

I guess that is evidence we won't see new updates for the game. Its a shame, because I've really enjoyed it so far. I think revolutions mechanics, the different ages and alternative histories, and the game's diplomacy system all have a lot to offer.

My main complaint about the game right now is the military AI. I've fought multiple wars where the AI coordinates its units very poorly, letting me defeat much larger, more technologically advanced armies easily.

Hopefully there will be mods that improve this and other aspects of the game. My favorite game is Civ 4, which has been improved through modding far beyond the developers vision.
 
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Very interesting! Unfortunately, Lilja didn't talk about what they think the reasons are for Millennia not being a success (apart from generally stating that the market for turn-based strategy may be saturated). I don't think that this saturation argument is valid. Many like Millennia since it offers a quite different approach.

For example, I think that a map editor and an earth map with TSL (though I don't need it and an earth map with TSL may not exactly be in the spirit of the game) would have added a larger player group to buy this game (I think the player bubble who insist on this isn't small) without needing much extra investment. This could've been the difference between "wasn't a big loss" and "was at least a small financial success".

At least Paradox doesn't exclude the possibility that they're trying again to get a foot into the door of civ-like turn-based strategy. According to the interview they just don't want to start with huge investments.
 
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It's interesting to think about what was actually the biggest factor in the reception it got. It's true that many things were a bit janky and felt underdeveloped on release. But when you followed the general discourse online on whether people planned to try it out, graphics almost seemed like a bigger factor.

Spaceman98 said:
Hopefully there will be mods that improve this and other aspects of the game. My favorite game is Civ 4, which has been improved through modding far beyond the developers vision.
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My biggest regret: No support for mods in multiplayer. Otherwise, I think almost very problem the game has could be fixed in mods.
 
Paradox or the Dev's should really just come out and say the game is EOL, its sad how people sometimes still make bug reports here while that seems to be wasted effort.

Red Death said:
My biggest regret: No support for mods in multiplayer. Otherwise, I think almost very problem the game has could be fixed in mods.
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No (realistically useable) MP at launch probably also didn't help its popularity, I imagine many people get introduced to these kind of games by being asked to play MP with a friend, and that was not really an option at launch. Also for people that mostly play SP I imagine MP is probably still a value add, so when choosing between buying Millennia or Old World for example Old World having MP could make that one come out ahead for a lot of people.
Red Death said:
It's interesting to think about what was actually the biggest factor in the reception it got. It's true that many things were a bit janky and felt underdeveloped on release. But when you followed the general discourse online on whether people planned to try it out, graphics almost seemed like a bigger factor.
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Graphics might not be super important, but especially for a strategy game the audio visual presentation is like 90% of your first impressions on a store page, if someone sees the videos/images at the top of the steam page and goes "That looks very bland/outdated" they are likely just going to move on without looking into the gameplay details more.
I also feel like it does matter a bit when you've started playing, I feel like Civ V looks slightly better than Millennia, but I can't really explain why, It might be civ V being a bit more abstract in its looks and therefore not really suffering from age? And obviously civ V has animated and voiced leaders, and the really good VO of the narrator.
Humankind is just really bright colourful and a beautiful game to look at, obviously that doesn't compensate for a game having bad gameplay, but a pretty one will be elevated over a bland one if everything else is the same.
 
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Regarding graphics, the lack of zoom has often been a source of frustration for me. I play on a small laptop and with civ 4 or humankind, I find the interface icons large enough to easily interpret. With millennia, sometimes I find myself squinting at worker numbers or combat data. Maybe there's a setting I can change that will make the text bigger.

Personally, I don't think the game needs to have Blue Marble quality graphics. Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress are well loved despite their rudimentary graphics. However, graphics do need to be easy to interpret
 
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Spaceman98 said:
Personally, I don't think the game needs to have Blue Marble quality graphics. Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress are well loved despite their rudimentary graphics. However, graphics do need to be easy to interpret
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Rimworld might not have "realistic" graphics, but it does have a distinct art style, and its graphics are clear, sharp and high quality.
A big problem for games that are trying to go for a more "realistic" look is that they usually age terrible, and if you don't manage to pull it off it looks way worse than something stylized.
 
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I wanted to love this game but the very poor graphics, almost mobile game like, really turned me off.
 
SAS said:
I wanted to love this game but the very poor graphics, almost mobile game like, really turned me off.
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I have difficulties in understanding graphics playing such a decisive role in a genre that feasts on strategy and tactics. After some time, the quality of graphics doesn't matter at all (apart from a clear, distinct, well-organized UI - ok, in this respect, Millennia needs still some improvement as well, though I have seen worse UI) since the long-term fun comes from other qualities of the game. But ok, other people have different priorities.

Edit: I didn't buy Civ 7 so far because of its far too nice and detailed graphics since I don't wan't to pay for this. I'm waiting until Civ 7 has all DLCs and I can buy it really cheap. I expect to enjoy Civ 7, but not because of its graphics.
 
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Dissenswurst said:
I have difficulties in understanding graphics playing such a decisive role in a genre that feasts on strategy and tactics. After some time, the quality of graphics doesn't matter at all (apart from a clear, distinct, well-organized UI - ok, in this respect, Millennia needs still some improvement as well, though I have seen worse UI) since the long-term fun comes from other qualities of the game. But ok, other people have different priorities.

Edit: I didn't buy Civ 7 so far because of its far too nice and detailed graphics since I don't wan't to pay for this. I'm waiting until Civ 7 has all DLCs and I can buy it really cheap. I expect to enjoy Civ 7, but not because of its graphics.
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I disagree. To me it mattered, a lot.
 
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