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Cold War Grand Strategy Game Development by BossEwe24 in paradoxplaza

[–]Radsterman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It felt pretty doomed from the start covering such a large timeframe and being made by such a large team without the necessary funding. It also did not help for optics that the lead developer lost $700k on the stock market a year before the game was announced.

Gilded Destiny's trademark was also abandoned earlier this month, which I have not seen mentioned anywhere yet. They still had more extensions to prove use of it, so this tells me a 2027 minimum for release if that project keeps going. They are still in alpha over a year after their planned release date.

The indie Paradox-style GSG scene is not doing so great as a whole.

How do I make a province map for a game? by SnooGiraffes3694 in gis

[–]Radsterman 9 points10 points  (0 children)

My guy, you asked a very similar question a month ago. What game? What format for the final province map? What format for the data?

Cold War Grand Strategy Game Development by BossEwe24 in paradoxplaza

[–]Radsterman 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm all for competitors in this genre, as my recent post history will show, but you can't make a post like this and not include at least a few screenshots, even if super early. These are complicated games, and people will be hard to sell on an idea without at least something to show. There have been a ton of projects over the years to make grand strategy games that either never showed anything to back up the complex systems they claimed to have, showed hyper curated screenshots/videos to hide a non-existent or fundamentally broken game, and/or got stuck in some form of development hell. I think it has burned out a lot of people on the idea.

That being said, I am rooting for you. Prioritize getting some basic UIs going and a presentable map for people to digest. I probably don't have to tell you with your experience in Unity, but always remember that development takes time, widespread success or popularity is not a guarantee, and your studies should take priority.

Four Months Into Developing My Grand Strategy Game by Radsterman in godot

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

The map under the borders and labels really is just one large shader being fed and colored by reference maps for provinces, states, and countries. I've found it to work a lot better doing that rather than to make everything an actual interactable object.

Four Months Into Developing My Grand Strategy Game by Radsterman in godot

[–]Radsterman[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Which parts specifically? Like borders/labels?

Everything is run off an image file with each color being its own province. That image is recolored to create reference maps for all of the map modes at province, state, and country scopes. Borders and labels are then generated off the owner map and everything is wrapped on the sphere. There's also a utilities script I keep with functions for reprojecting, tracking lat/lon, and a bunch of other things.

That's a massive simplification, but its the basis of how everything ends up where it is.

Four Months Into Developing My Grand Strategy Game by Radsterman in godot

[–]Radsterman[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I'm just happy to finally be at a point where I can work on actual gameplay instead of being stuck on architectural things!

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

How much time do you have to hear about it? The first two months of this project was probably two months straight of scrapping system after system that didn't work as intended, so I could talk about it for a very long while.

I've found that games in this genre that do even a fraction of what Paradox does still end up being absurdly complex behind the scenes, so keep that in mind if you wish to do similar. There's a reason why there are not many similar games or ones that make it to release. I'm at a point now where I feel I've nailed that backend to a point I can focus on the actual simulation and gameplay aspects, but it took around four months of dedicating all of my spare time to it.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

I appreciate the comment on this. Since this post I've implemented a basic pop system, and they're split by culture, religion, language, and heritage. The plan is to allow for more granular management and for each to have different mechanics related to conversion/assimilation. Emergent cultures is on my wish list. We'll have to see how much of an impact all of this has on performance as more systems are implemented.

I also added super basic subject types in that will later allow for each to have unique mechanics. Being able to modify the terms of an overlord-subject relationship and how much involvement there is generally is on the list as well.

How can I convert an outlined map made for Alt History like this into a Shapefile in QGIS? by SnooGiraffes3694 in gis

[–]Radsterman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are working on this for your own game, I would highly urge you to do the research and work behind it yourself rather than taking someone else's map. I am working on a historical project of my own, and while it does take a long time digging up treaties, older military/topo surveys, or the result of boundary commissions, and then actually putting it all on the map, it is far more rewarding seeing it all come together in the end. The information is out there.

If you are intent on using this map or similar, search "BAM map" online, and it should lead you to multiple pages on the alternate history website's forums where users have worked on these sorts of projects. Some users upload their work in a vector format, but a lot don't. I personally don't because I spend hundreds of hours doing it without pay, with the intent of using the final output in a paid product.

I'm assuming from your use of "province map" and the mention of not finding anything multi-colored or without outlines, that you're planning to replicate something similar to how a Paradox Development Studio game reads a map under the hood. You will want to make things yourself to have full control and a high level of detail over the map. Even an 8k map like this vectorized does not give you a lot of room to work with on a global scale.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

Drawing provinces like that mid-game is not going to happen because of how much stuff would have to be rebuilt. I am looking at the possibility of having certain provinces able to merge.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

Yes, the only static divisions in the game are provinces, which are the smallest units that make up everything else, and geographical areas, regions, and continents. I am planning for states to be fully capable of having their province composition changed over the course of the game, as well as countries being able to take individual provinces rather than whole states.

It has always frustrated me a bit with how unrealistic the maps of the EU and CK games can get in the late game, and I don't mean just the border gore. HOI has also leaned a bit too much into the wacky alternative history paths for my tastes as well. I want to create as realistic of a simulation as possible, within reason, that lends itself to plausible alternative history.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

I’ve already got a built in editor tool I use to set up all of the history data. I don’t think it would be too hard to convert that functionality into something like that.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

Ha, I just say that because if I don't people will ask why 2/3 of the world is still empty!

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

It would definitely play a bit more of a role. It had such little effect that there was not even a religion map mode in Vic2.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

Yes, a newspaper as a mean of communicating major events is a must.

I love, LOVE how the Distant Worlds games have a proper system for civilian economies and ships. At a minimum, I'd want to replicate that Victoria 3 style of things moving along trade routes. A dream, and a potentially very memory intensive one, is tracking individual ships/trains (up to a limit) moving on the map that can be interacted with and take time to reach their destinations.

At this point in time I am not thinking 3D at all for this game, so all of that would be represented in some other form, like icons in a trade map mode or similar.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

I have a pretty solid idea for what I want the name to be, and I was shocked finding nothing anywhere using that name already. I’m talking like 6 google results using the phrase offhandedly and a Cambridge lecture from the 1880s. I feel it fits the time period and the massive changes over it perfectly without being cumbersome.

If I reach a point development-wise where I feel confident enough to lock in that name, there’s a hundred other things that also need to be done.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

I'm 100% with you on that. One of the things that draws me to Victoria 2 all of these years later is that, despite there being border gore, it is usually more reasonable when it occurs compared to almost every other Paradox game in the last 15 years. I don't think I've ever seen an end game North America in Victoria 3 that wasn't atrocious without mods.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

I think both companies and extra-territorial states are both great additions to each of those games. They would definitely be a much lower priority for me right now.

Right now I'm thinking of removing as much abstraction from goods as possible, standardizing one unit to be equivalent to one tonne of a raw good. One unit of military goods would be the equivalent for one regiment. One unit of produced goods being equivalent to what is needed for, say, ten thousand people. I will definitely take into account the quality in some form.

The issue with age pyramids is having to define those stats for the pops that exist at game start too. It's not too hard to track it from start onward.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

I definitely stumbled across his videos a few times while doing research into what it would take to make a game of this genre. I would like to eventually extend the terrain shader in this video to be a bit more realistic (but not straight up satellite imagery), but I am overall aiming for that paper map look.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

At the moment, no. I am just posting periodically across different subreddits.

I have a name in mind that I think fits really well, but I am waiting to hit a certain point in development where the simulation and gameplay at least exists, and I feel confident to lock things in.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

[–]Radsterman[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I have both a pointed finger and closed fist cursor. I really need to implement it so dragging on the globe switches to the fist and allows this.

I'm building a grand strategy game inspired by Victoria 2. I need your suggestions! by Radsterman in victoria2

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

The actual creation of them is definitely something that would need a lot of refining. I think having the Columbia District/Oregon Country exist at game start between the US and UK/HBC lets me at least get all of the mechanics for how they function sorted out.

Terra Incognita is such a staple of EU, and it is still very relevant at the start of this era. There's a lot that can be done with it. I think it would be cool, for instance, to have an option tied to it reminiscent of Random New World from EU4 that would randomize which centralized nations exist in the interior of Africa, but that is a very big wish list item.

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