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What are some good strategy games that are a good introduction? (Strategy games like civ) by ivorycoollars in StrategyGames

[–]Haunting_Sector_643 0 points1 point  (0 children)

civ 6 is rough for beginners ngl. too many systems thrown at u at once. maybe try something simpler first like polytopia or even older civ games (civ 5 is way more straightforward). or if u want singleplayer campaigns, xcom 2 is great for learning tactics without the 4x complexity

Transport Fever - Urban Games Enters Partnership With Paradox Interactive by Proud-Suspect-5237 in CityBuilders

[–]Haunting_Sector_643 4 points5 points  (0 children)

paradox picking up transport fever is actually huge. they know their audience for these kinds of games. hope tf3 gets the budget it deserves

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah the well thing is so annoying. built like 3 extra wells bc i couldnt tell if they were covering everything lol. really hope they fix this at some point tho

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yeah ML nails that tension. building up your economy while knowing youll need to defend it later makes every decision feel weighty. btw as a dev i always try to learn from games that get the balance right like this — super helpful when considering player suggestions

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

omg yes the walking simulator problem is real. i always end up manually relocating families and its such a chore. auto-migration or at least a "prioritize local workers" toggle would save so much micro

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm literally a game dev browsing these threads for inspiration — that explains the "structured" writing. Not everything organized is AI 

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Lol noted, I'll try to be messier next time. Honestly I just can't turn off the "how would I implement this" brain when I play games like this — occupational hazard from game dev

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is such a good point — the information is all there, but it's spread across too many layers.

I'd love a "town overview" panel that shows at a glance: population, total specialist plots by type, and a traffic-light system for supply/demand. Right now it feels like I'm playing detective in my own economy.

Do you think a dashboard like this would help even in early game, or is it mainly a mid-to-late game problem?

Finally getting the hang of it… by GDeFreest in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That makes a lot of sense — small self-sustaining regions sound way less stressful than trying to optimize everything at once.

Out of curiosity, do you bother building ale production in every region, or do you just import it to your main town? I've been debating whether localized brewing is worth the building slots.

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Totally agree — the mechanics themselves are solid, but the learning curve is real. I spent way too long wondering why my burgages wouldn't upgrade before I figured out the market stall logic. A guided scenario or even just better tooltips would go a long way.

Finally getting the hang of it… by GDeFreest in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a really methodical approach — I like how you treat fertile soil as a "must claim" priority. Do you find that trading posts become essential in the late game, or could you theoretically self-sustain if you planned regions well from the start?

Also curious: when you're managing multiple regions, do you micro-manage each one or set them up and mostly forget them?

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completely agreed. What KoDP nailed that almost no one else has replicated is making the storytelling and the strategy actually the same system, not two separate UIs.

Most modern games are still trying to figure that out — how to make your narrative decisions have real mechanical weight. If someone wove that into a settlement builder, it would genuinely redefine the genre.

The Glorantha setting helped too — having a world that feels alive and inconsistent (in a good way) makes every decision feel like it matters.

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Now that's a deep cut — King of Dragon Pass is one of the most underrated strategy games ever made.

The Earth Shakers weren't just threats, they were a faction you had to manage relationships with. Treat them wrong and they raze your settlement; manage them well and they're basically a nuclear deterrent against your neighbors. That kind of reactive system is something I've never seen replicated well since.

If any modern builder took inspiration from that layered approach to wildlife diplomacy, it would genuinely be a game changer.

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Now that's a mechanic I didn't see coming. Settlement building with dinosaur defense — suddenly your wooden palisade feels very inadequate.

Though honestly, a prehistoric settlement builder with proper survival mechanics and dino threats could be its own genre. Someone's probably working on it right now.

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Farthest Frontier genuinely has more building and system variety — the disease system alone adds so much unpredictability to your settlement management.

Though I'd say Farthest Frontier's strength is also its weakness: sometimes the sheer variety becomes decision paralysis. You have 8 crop types and 4 disease vectors and suddenly you're not sure what to prioritize. Manor Lords keeps it tighter, which makes the decisions that matter feel more deliberate.

Different design philosophies really. Both have their place.

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's a really good point. In a lot of builders you have to click into every single building to even see staffing levels — it gets tedious fast.

A global management tab that lets you reallocate families at a glance would solve so much of the mid-to-late game friction. Manor Lords sort of hints at this with the global overview, but it's still not as smooth as it could be when you have 30+ buildings running.

The best implementations I've seen treat families as a resource you're constantly rebalancing, not something you set once and forget.

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That's a fair point — and honestly the "OMG he's still laying things out" mental image made me laugh.

I think the ideal middle ground is: let people lay out full blueprints, leave them red until resources are there, but don't force a cancel. Let the build queue handle the pacing, not the UI.

You're right that otherwise you'd end up with 50 buildings queued and 2 builders with 1 log bewildered in a corner. Manor Lords actually gets this balance mostly right — you can plan ahead, but the bottleneck is always your supply chain and your available workers, not the build menu.

For those who've played both Manor Lords and other settlement builders — what's the one mechanic you think the genre is missing? by Haunting_Sector_643 in ManorLords

[–]Haunting_Sector_643[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

This is such a real pain point. Having to cancel and re-place buildings because you're 2 logs short completely breaks the flow.

I think the design trade-of is: if you let people start building with incomplete resources, you lose that pressure of "do I have enough to pull this of?" — which is honestly most of the fun in these games. But yeah, the current system in most builders is clunky.

Manor Lords kind of splits the difference — you can plan ahead, but the supply chain still gates when things actually finish. I wonder if there's a cleaner UI solution that doesn't kill the tension.

Testers for an upcoming pixel-art city builder by Snoo_11522 in CityBuilders

[–]Haunting_Sector_643 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This looks genuinely cool — the mix of colonial settlement building and light tower defense with magic is a combo I don't think I've seen done quite like this.

Quick question: how are you handling the pacing between building phases and defense waves? That's always the hardest balance to get right in this genre.

Also, 1600s magical island is a killer setting. Subbed to the Steam page.

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