Why isn't this game more popular?

[Dale]

Also to note, if you play with character turned off, you get no events at all outside of war/peace declarations. But, you won't have characters, families, or any of the other dynastic fun.

 

[keldath]

Hi folks,

Yes i recall the minimal events option, thanks Dale.

Isnt setting it to minimum kinda tune down the game?
I thought the main feature of OW are the events no?

Shirotora Kenshin,
Well, thanks,
If you had tye same impression as i had and now you enjoy it, maybe i will too.
Perhaps ill give it another try.

Modding wise,
I wonder , maybe i can play around with it also...

--
Edit
No characters, oh my thats like killing the game bare boned maybe ill try with min events, then try the no character.
Thanks Dale

 

[Dale]

Yeah just play around with the options in Advanced Setup. You should be able to tune it to your liking.

 

[Verrucosus]

Playing a few games without characters really helped me to get into the game, just because it allows you to see how the economy and military works without all the character modifiers on top. Old World is often described as a mix between Civilization and Crusader Kings. That's not wrong, but the setup options allow you to decide the exact mix, ie how much - if any - Crusader Kings you want to have with your Civilization. And with the Barbarian Horde scenario, you can turn the game into Colonization! I'm tempted to say "Old World, at least three games for the price of one", but that would miss the point that all these game modes still feel like variations of the same game. The core mechanics as well as the presentation (mainly the map itself, but also aspects like event artwork and music) create a coherent atmosphere that feels special and pleasant.

 

[Azurewrath]

Old World is often described as a mix between Civilization and Crusader Kings.

IMO, this always misleads ppl. OW has only a little role playing element.
The benefits/abilities from archetype and traits of your leader are UAs of your nation. OW actually is a pure 4X game, I will answer it has nothing to do with CK to ppl who asks me about the game. Many ppl dive into the game for role playing fun, end up with disappointment due to they picked the wrong game.
------------

What harms a game is not lack of players but misunderstanding, then these ppl who has a wrong impression will mislead passerby directly or by osmosis.
The advertising could be more precise. Do we have a trait included in thoughtful? LOL

OK, back to the topic. Sometimes just cuz ppl don't have much more energy to dive deeply into another game. For instance, it's obvious that I like D2 but it's hard for me to dive into another D-like game. I even made some preparation for PoE, Titan Quest, but nope, I dont want to do it all over again. Let alone 4X takes a lot of time too.

Cheers

 

[protocol7]

I was a bit doubtful at first because I thought I’d miss the other eras, but so far it’s been great. I wonder if other people think the same thing. I do feel like I get too many popups, so I’ll try to tune that down - nice recommendation.

I also feel like this engine would be absolutely incredible with a fantasy theme - its own version of Fall from Heaven. I think a focus like that would also help differentiate it a bit, and help people who were worried about other eras being missing feel more confident in the buy. I wish I was more of an artist to take something like that on, but I’m no Kael. Maybe that could be a nice OW 1.5.

Customise a civ could be fun as well, for those who are interested in other ancient civs.

All that said I’m super happy to have found a new amazing 4x and think the team has done an amazing job. I’m going to go add a stellar review now so others can hopefully discover and support this great game, which was obviously built with love.

 

[PiR]

this great game, which was obviously built with love

It definitely is. I started to write a review in Oct. 21, almost 3 years ago, and as I changed job, got kids, and stopped playing, I never published it.

For a new game there are some incredible details that I wouldn't expect because they don't often exist in AAA games:

• Options audio disable tracks you don't like
• Options: Azerty keyboard WOW
• As most games, during loading, the tips can move on to the next tip too fast or too slow
• I love the "Resume" button when you launch the game
• event system impressive thought this was marketing from the trailer but no
• report a bug within the game, how awesome this is, they really care about fixing the game!
• you can rewind the turn! no need to save and load if you are frustrated and want to go back
  buuuut this can be such a huge temptation to retry your turn another way that you may end up spending hours on it

Tthe game is complex and yet simple to play; very addictive, one more turn, I need to see this through!!!

scouts need to go back to empire to heal, that's a constraint, but I get it

Old World is much much more immersive to me than any Vanilla Civ, because the game helps you to make a storytelling.

Well I'll need to play again before I publish the review anywhere, to make sure what I say reflects the current status of the game.

To anyone hesitating, go for it!!!

 

[Solver]

Congratulations on the kids, I promise Old World only becomes cooler when you're a parent, so looking forward to the completed review

 

[Stringer1313]

I agree OW is more like Civilization with a dash of Crusader Kings. I really really really want to like CK but.... my old brain just cannot handle that much detail.

 

[Killer Rabbit]

Just want to chime in here and say how great I think this game is. So much depth, so much love put into it, and the expansions have been great. I love the events, the attention to detail, and the victory conditions/late game are also fantastic.

I also wanted to say how much I love the multiplayer support in the game. I've been playing asynchronous games with friends for a few years now and we never have any trouble. Civ 6 games would inevitably get bugged or fall apart somehow, but Old World is always reliable. And the games themselves are super thrilling given how challenging the AI can be. Just a blast all around.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Core Imposter]

Sorry for not having read a lot of the stuff, does Old World have big scale? Similar to Civ IV huge maps, marathon games, 18 civs?

 

[Solver]

Sorry for not having read a lot of the stuff, does Old World have big scale? Similar to Civ IV huge maps, marathon games, 18 civs?

It's a shorter game. Maps are pretty big, I think similar to Civ4, but you can't pack them with 18 civs and OW doesn't have anything like Marathon. The game is much shorter in terms of turn, normally games last less than 150 turns. But it isn't shorter than Civ4 in terms of hours, 150 turns of OW can easily take as much time, if not more, than 500 turns of Civ4 because OW has many important decisions every turn and it just plays differently.

Civ4 fans tend to like OW, but it's very different still.

 

[Core Imposter]

It's a shorter game. Maps are pretty big, I think similar to Civ4, but you can't pack them with 18 civs and OW doesn't have anything like Marathon. The game is much shorter in terms of turn, normally games last less than 150 turns. But it isn't shorter than Civ4 in terms of hours, 150 turns of OW can easily take as much time, if not more, than 500 turns of Civ4 because OW has many important decisions every turn and it just plays differently.

Civ4 fans tend to like OW, but it's very different still.

Thank you for the information.

 

[darksaurian]

Chiming in to say I love this game. I was wondering if I was the only one on the planet who played it. I had been watching a lot of history with cy and I had recently read josephus and an archeology book on the levant. I never heard of naboth's vineyard but happened to come across it in Josephus and the game around the same time it was kind of neat. The game has a weird learning curve I can't imagine it ever being popular. Even I went for months without playing it before getting into it again. At first the popups are neat and it's fun to read and immerse yourself. Then they get tiring. Eventually you realize all that matters is the stat adjustment to the character and you can breeze through the ones you've read already. It's not obvious whether to bother founding or spreading a religion. I had too many rebels before I realized I needed to keep all religions happy unless it was one I was sure nobody would convert to. Then the city specialization took a while to figure out. Maybe it's a city where I'll want to crank out civics or shields but hamlets are the first technology I get. I still need to use hamlets or whatever I have available to expand my territory. Eventually I ended up with a "specialize later" philosophy and most cities have buildings that go to waste. I had to let go of reserving ALL lush tiles for farms and build mines on flat ground sometimes because that's just the cards I got dealt. It took a lot of Saturdays to learn how to stop shooting myself in the foot. And then finally figuring out which specialists do the bonus through citizens or culture. If you have a ton of pastures and farmers and and elder poet then you get more civics from a citizen than a scribe. I think it's a game for people who won't get into EU4 but they don't play fortnite. I imagine it's a small audience.

 

[Burbank]

I installed the game recently to see what had changed in the last year. I still feel it's a great game. The mid/lategame is a lot to handle and the game overall is a bigger learning experience than say Civ games. It is very fun as I start to learn it though.

I like the idea of giving up control of the empire to AI, and I feel it would fit Old World's character system. I am in mid-game now on my current save and am going to try the city automation.
It would be fun if the personalities of the e.g. governors of automated cities influenced the decisions they made.
I would love to be able to give a small army to a general and some simple objective (harass, defend, attack this city). It would make the game feel more like I was leading a people and not just a system of modifiers. I really enjoy the AI general mod in Total Warhammer 2 where you can give control of some units to the AI.

 

[BackseatTyrant]

I think the geographical & historical scope of the game's setting being quite limited, may probably be the most crucial factor in terms of failing to reach out to new audiences; the absence of anything resembling modern nation-states means most of the otherwise potential players, no longer have anything to emotionally attach to. Also, this game is IIRC designed mainly with former civ fans who think the game series has gone in the wrong direction after civ 4 in mind; that's a fairly small niche, if that's the case

 

[Dale]

Also, this game is IIRC designed mainly with former civ fans who think the game series has gone in the wrong direction after civ 4 in mind; that's a fairly small niche, if that's the case

Just to note, this statement isn't true. Most of us still play Civ5/6. Old World is not some form of "Civ as it should be". Old World is a turn-based 4x game, with ideas we've wanted to bring to the genre.

 

[Verrucosus]

I suppose that Civilization's all-of-history setting simply casts a wider net for potential players than any game focused on a specific age ever can. Once you pick an age, classical antiquity might be as popular among players as the post-1800 era of modern nation states. Do people really pick a game because they can play a modern nation they care about? Ancient civilizations may have a different kind of appeal, but they still fascinate us. Besides, I rarely have trouble getting emotionally attached to whatever Babylon grows into after 50 or 60 turns. Not because it's Babylon, but because I helped to build it and watched it grow. Old World's setting also offers opportunities. For example, the character & event system would make no sense at all in a 6.000-year-timeline. In Old World, it sort of works. I suspect that detailed war game mechanics like promotions and unit-per-tile-restrictions also benefit from the narrower scope.

At any rate, the list of expansions and the really, really long list of updates seem to show that Old World is popular enough to be commercially viable. That's very good, because I am really glad that this game was made.

PS: The most Civ4-like-thing about Old World is that you need to research Drama to unlock the soundtrack!

 

[Solver]

Some people definitely play Civ because they like the idea of playing as a particular modern-day nation (or leader), but Civ's greatest thematic advantage is that it spans thousands of years of history. That really captivates the imagination. This whole thing where you play for however many hours, going from a society that's building its first permanent settlements to a global power that has aircraft carriers and a space program, that's amazing. It blew my mind when I started with Civ1, and it's still compelling enough to have me interested in Civ7.

But yes, Old World is doing well commercially. We're able to continue working on more updates and content for the game, which feels very good.

 

[PiR]

Not that always matter in business, but well deserved.