I have three main concerns from what I have heard about the economy, which for me, is the most interesting and game making element of Victoria games:
1) World markets seem to be gone, but the replacement seems to be country based markets, and without what seems like any sort of transportation cost element added in (For example, different types of transport being goods themselves, used up in moving goods unsold locally to further markets.) If markets are based solely around borders, like the entire US being a market, and even worse, goods do not flow on their own but only with individual trading done by the player, it seems to me like the markets have taken rather than a step forward, a major step backward. If it is the case that borders arbitrarily cutoff or create trade, I think this game will end up with the sort of lifeless tacked on trading you have in games like Civilization, rather than a flowing autonomous and integrated system like we've at least sort of got with Vicky II. If two cities border each other but are in different markets, will this system prevent them from trading without a player chosen trade deal?
2)It sounds like there will be transportation efficiency, but it doesn't sound like this will involve anything more than pops sinking money into upgrading infrastructure, without that infrastructure itself having supply and demand. In Victoria 2 the tendency with railroads was for them to be spammed to every corner of a country as soon as any pop had the money to do so, and without any ability for the pops to gauge their economic sense. Further, the pops that put in the money didn't get anything out of it, it was just a one and done thing. Is that going to be the same with the new game?
3) It seems to have been suggested that factories are themselves no longer to be autonomously constructed, this will also be taken on by the player, or at least this will depend ultimately on them. Rather than factories having ownership by particular companies or something, I am not sure this is a step forward either. I am worried that factories and buildings are also headed in a civilization type direction, where in order to limit micromanagement, they are limited in any given area artificially. Instead of having dense population centers that are the location of tons of different industry, growing or shrinking because of local supply and demand, is this system going to force a place like Chicago to become a place where canned goods and maybe two other goods are made and thats it?
Overall, I am just worried that the sacrifice to accessibility everyone has speculated about in the last couple years will come in the form of substituting an autonomous and vibrant economy for one which requires direct player control and consequently exists in a far more limited and abstract sense. I really have been anticipating this game for a decade but I am worried about these elements a lot.
1) World markets seem to be gone, but the replacement seems to be country based markets, and without what seems like any sort of transportation cost element added in (For example, different types of transport being goods themselves, used up in moving goods unsold locally to further markets.) If markets are based solely around borders, like the entire US being a market, and even worse, goods do not flow on their own but only with individual trading done by the player, it seems to me like the markets have taken rather than a step forward, a major step backward. If it is the case that borders arbitrarily cutoff or create trade, I think this game will end up with the sort of lifeless tacked on trading you have in games like Civilization, rather than a flowing autonomous and integrated system like we've at least sort of got with Vicky II. If two cities border each other but are in different markets, will this system prevent them from trading without a player chosen trade deal?
2)It sounds like there will be transportation efficiency, but it doesn't sound like this will involve anything more than pops sinking money into upgrading infrastructure, without that infrastructure itself having supply and demand. In Victoria 2 the tendency with railroads was for them to be spammed to every corner of a country as soon as any pop had the money to do so, and without any ability for the pops to gauge their economic sense. Further, the pops that put in the money didn't get anything out of it, it was just a one and done thing. Is that going to be the same with the new game?
3) It seems to have been suggested that factories are themselves no longer to be autonomously constructed, this will also be taken on by the player, or at least this will depend ultimately on them. Rather than factories having ownership by particular companies or something, I am not sure this is a step forward either. I am worried that factories and buildings are also headed in a civilization type direction, where in order to limit micromanagement, they are limited in any given area artificially. Instead of having dense population centers that are the location of tons of different industry, growing or shrinking because of local supply and demand, is this system going to force a place like Chicago to become a place where canned goods and maybe two other goods are made and thats it?
Overall, I am just worried that the sacrifice to accessibility everyone has speculated about in the last couple years will come in the form of substituting an autonomous and vibrant economy for one which requires direct player control and consequently exists in a far more limited and abstract sense. I really have been anticipating this game for a decade but I am worried about these elements a lot.
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