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The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

leidenmedievalistsblog.nl

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Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#61

Post by dragontamer »

krab wrote: post #53
drewzero1 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you imagine a real mayor simulator, where you'd have to get elected and answer to the city council and constituents? I expect most would find that boring, but it might be a fun (or at least educational) experience for some.

Tropico has this component of elections.

Tropico has one of the funniest "speech generators" ever.

* Praise a faction (ex: Religious, Academic, Military)

* Chastise a faction

* Praise a superpower

* Acknowledge an issue.

* Make a promise

-------

For example:

* Praise the Military

* Blame the Religious

* Praise the USA

* Acknowledge housing is a problem.

* Promise better housing.

Then the voice actor comes out and says the lines associated with your selection. Paraphrasing:

My people of Tropico! I wish to congratulate the Military for their outstanding service. But the Religious among us are holding us back from progress. The USA has given us a great amount of aid and we thank them for it. Our growth has caused a lack of housing in some areas. If you elect me again, I promise to fix our housing problem.

---------

EDIT: The speech has a big effect on the election.

Every faction has a rival faction. Praising the Military pisses off the liberals. Blaming the Religious encourages the Academics. Praising the USA pisses off your communists, but pleases your capitalists.

Acknowledging a problem lowers a citizen's "needs penalty" in the election. (If everyone's housing score is low, then acknowledging the problem reduces their penalty with regards to the election/vote).

Promising to fix a problem is even stronger than acknowledging a problem, but has repercussions in the next election. You need to have had substantial progress in 10 years otherwise the people will remember.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#62

Post by mastax »

a4isms wrote: post #32
sprafa wrote: post #3

It’s interesting and most likely not applicable - for the very same reasons you cant get realistic sword fighting (or even street fighting) in most Hollywood movies: realistic fighting doesn’t look as exciting as the fake thing. Glad the author sees into that very clearly. * Could be an interesting art game tho as someone pointed out below

When creating an entertainment product, be it a movie or game, your user’s expectations are the canvas you paint on. In some places you deliberately violate them, in others you accommodate them at the expense of “realism.” An amusing example: In the Sly Stallone rock climbing action movie “Cliffhanger,” they shot a scene where he ice climbs without an axe. To get past a certain section, he dips his gloved hand in col…

This is very evident in historical media where medieval people are portrayed as wearing burlap sacks and misshapen clumps of fur inside plain brown plaster castles rather than wearing brocade, silks, or brightly died wool inside colorfully-painted palaces or churches. To some extent you have to meet the audience where they are.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#63

Post by smoldesu »

My favorite medieval city-builders aren't historically accurate at all: namely Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress keep me coming back for more. I've never been a huge fan of 4x titles or real-time strategy, but the gameplay loop of these titles feels the most "authentic" to me. I think most people will agree, too: confining a role-playing game to the accuracy of non-fiction isn't much of a roleplaying game at all.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#64

Post by DaedPsyker »

dragontamer wrote: post #46
drewzero1 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you imagine a real mayor simulator, where you'd have to get elected and answer to the city council and constituents? I expect most would find that boring, but it might be a fun (or at least educational) experience for some.

Hearts of Iron (3 in particular) One of the biggest problems with playing as the USA in Hearts of Iron is that you need to actually convince your Democracy / citizens that its worthwhile to go to war. And unless you click the "Crisis of Democracy" button (aka: turn yourself into a dictatorship), you don't actually have full control over the policies of your country. Which is why its more fun to play as Germany / Hitl…

I think HOI problem (more familiar with 4) is that it feels much more half baked. US Congress is mostly click a few event popups, click a few policy stuff in a menu and see the congress members just flip. It's more shoehorning it into the HOI system.

I think you could make the process fun, but in paradox style games where you need to generalise a system to fit everywhere in the world, it can fall flat.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#65

Post by unbalancedevh »

larsiusprime wrote: post #31

> And finally, something that would, in my opinion, really add to the realism and historical flavor of a medieval-themed city builder would be the introduction of mechanisms in which agricultural surpluses are skimmed by the church and the feudal lord. Tithes, taxes and rents! Instead of merely abstracting the taxes into an income modifier or letting the player be the extractor himself, we could be shown the tax coll…

> You could make an entire game about just that subject. Which is probably why it's abstracted away in most games. If I want to play a game of growth and conquest, I don't really want to have to micro-manage too many details of peasant life.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#66

Post by mastax »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #30

I just want Banished, but with better performance and with some basic AoE elements of an RTS. Fend off raiders, create military units, deal with pillaging. I remember the guy at CrystalRock talking about it saying the way the AI determines what to do is the primary reason it's a little slow as populations get larger since they dynamically change the items they get and where they go on the fly. Songs of Syx however se…

The Anno series is somewhat in this direction.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#67

Post by mastax »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #30

I just want Banished, but with better performance and with some basic AoE elements of an RTS. Fend off raiders, create military units, deal with pillaging. I remember the guy at CrystalRock talking about it saying the way the AI determines what to do is the primary reason it's a little slow as populations get larger since they dynamically change the items they get and where they go on the fly. Songs of Syx however se…

Rise to Ruins is also somewhat in that vein - more of a city-builder combined with a tower-defense game.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#69

Post by mcphage »

larsiusprime wrote: post #31

> And finally, something that would, in my opinion, really add to the realism and historical flavor of a medieval-themed city builder would be the introduction of mechanisms in which agricultural surpluses are skimmed by the church and the feudal lord. Tithes, taxes and rents! Instead of merely abstracting the taxes into an income modifier or letting the player be the extractor himself, we could be shown the tax coll…

> mechanisms in which agricultural surpluses are skimmed by the church and the feudal lord

In these games you play as the feudal lord: you control all of the money, and dictate what can be built, where. Units in the game have no agency outside what you tell them to do, and they have no resources outside what you give to them to build, and they give to you from production.

Re: The historical accuracy of medieval city-builder video games

#70

Post by max_alquzt »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #6

I would love a building game where you can't build roads. All of those building games so far allowed that, but I think it would be more fun to just allow for constructing building, and roads/pathway would form depending on their connectivity inside the production chain. I.e. you wouldn't connect your farm to a butcher, but pathways would form and eventually turn into street based on the amount people from dependent s…

Ostriv! It is developed by one guy and incredibly addictive. Set in the 18th century.
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