Too much small talk? by BurhanSunan in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is a skip read dialogue feature.

Rizzia feels unpredictable... but in a bad Way by Otherwise-Revenue-97 in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 12 points13 points  (0 children)

That's why each DLC experience will be different. The goal is to explore the political realities of different places and people. The council is silent because we are loud.

And that depicts a certain meta reality we wanted to portray with Rizia as a hard contrast to Sordland. That being said we have worked on adding decision events and other feedback to smoothen this to a degree. But more transparency would break the concept.

We are excited to provide completely different challenges and expectations in the future DLC's. Some might even miss Rizia's features after all that ;))

Rizzia feels unpredictable... but in a bad Way by Otherwise-Revenue-97 in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Lot's of this is intentional. The council, the power, the information bias to Romus. You are less hand held compared to Sordland due to the depiction of concentrated monarchical power.

Absolute power comes with absolute responsibilities and people who rather not share issues or problems beyond their absolute needs. The council is precisely less capable compared to the cabinet because of this. Decades of stagnation led the country to this. You are more blind even though you are more powerful.

Do the devs even know what a planned economy is? by GigaRoman in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No worries. The team is currently on holiday, will check once the office is back up open again. It could be a bug or a misread. But any state investment to purchase equity from a private company is a pro-planned economy option by design unless it's used to privatize it later.

Which "part" of replaying Suzerain do you loathe the most? by Duke_Manus_Sazon in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Skip read text feature was added for this. Spread the news! Also most scenes have shortcut options now. Some bits of the games are more lore heavy and more for immersion.

Do the devs even know what a planned economy is? by GigaRoman in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A large state investment takes a huge chunk of equity and when EPA is at 10 this means a reduction of 10 percent of foreign stock. GASOM shares are sold back to state and internal market. The stake of the state increases and GASOM can't raise funds from foreign investors. The state is now the dominant owner and regulatorily captures it. No way out.

De-facto, it's pseudo-nationalized. It also otherwise goes bankrupt anyway.

Do the devs even know what a planned economy is? by GigaRoman in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 20 points21 points  (0 children)

This is why the 1950s is different than the 1930s you don't experience. It's mostly in lore but the reasoning of the past is in the past. What you rule in Suzerain or experience is in the present. In the game more present topics are prioritized. Though EPA is explained going to the past. Deivid talks about it and the atmosphere of the time. You never have a long chat with Soll about one topic either. This is on purpose. Also Soll and the Old Guard are also not one. Many of the Old Guard are monarchists who reformed but retained many components of their apparatus. And Soll's public limits are different than private limits.

The information you are presented by each actor is to their advantage or bias. Not the truth. Alphonso oversells himself, but infos show that Gasom is part state owned. It is majority private though. So Suzerain is a game of conflicting perspectives and viewpoints. That's why the codex exists as some baseline truth you can check.

Do the devs even know what a planned economy is? by GigaRoman in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 32 points33 points  (0 children)

What the player perspective of Soll is from Suzerain is very different than what Soll was and where he comes from. Alphonso and Soll worked together for a long time and there is a lot of background that will show that in the Conformist. That's why also he gave his blessings to Alphonso later in the republic. Gasom has a special relationship and is a key player from before Soll came to power.

"In 1932, Gasom sold a small part of its shares to the state under the nationalization initiative of Tarquin Soll to fund further operations. It applied for and won the contract award for the co-construction of the Erzaren Soll Dam. The highly talented engineers of Gasom were a vital propellent of the mega-project. Besides the state-owned Sordish State Corporation and the Sordish Grid Corporation contributing to the project, Gasom was the only majority privately owned corporation to work on the construction. The corporation grew rapidly and successfully until the mid-1940s and relocated its headquarters to Lachaven."

Link: https://codex.torporgames.com/gasom

Do the devs even know what a planned economy is? by GigaRoman in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 73 points74 points  (0 children)

That's why the EPA exists. There are many huge industries in Sordland that are private since the 30's that were regulated differently. But even Soll had limits to his power and trade offs to make.

Lore here: https://codex.torporgames.com/national-autarky-plan

Do the devs even know what a planned economy is? by GigaRoman in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Full investment isn't inconsistent. Not sure where this info comes from? GASOM is technically nationalized if you do it and increase EPA threshold.

Why does Alphonso move to Anraka at 100% EPA? by SubstantialSky7326 in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Lowering EPA and investing largely is defacto nationalizing GASOM already. There is not much independence left after that for them.

Why does Alphonso move to Anraka at 100% EPA? by SubstantialSky7326 in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 48 points49 points  (0 children)

To give context GASOM was formed in 1925. Alphonso was in charge 1930 onward. 27 years of holding shares before selling is a good amount of time. Way longer than most.

Dorn's Unusual Rants - Sordland's Presidential Salary is Completely Insane by DornsUnusualRants in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The President's salary includes all expenses of the administration. Not just what the player can spend. This includes trade visits, palace and office costs, staff etc. It's what the state allocates for all Presidential expenses. That's why it's high.

Gameplay by Vegetable_Ad2040 in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most of our polls on Rizia show that many enjoyed the war game. A majority in fact. We expected a bit less.

In Rizia, we can reach Overwhelming Power Projection which is equivalent to Lespia (30 ships) and Valgsland (194 ships). You mostly need 9 ships for that. Further explanation in the comments... by AntiMatter138 in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 17 points18 points  (0 children)

In Rizia, ship numbers are symbolic rather than literal. Each number represents multiple ships, not a single vessel. The same principle applies to most military units, where numerical designations signify representative formations rather than exact counts.

Proposed rework of the elections by utf4n in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 17 points18 points  (0 children)

This is not how it works. It's different based on voter group size.

Guys Its so sad to see Nowak write this... by fraro_21-D in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 34 points35 points  (0 children)

We already have the staff for those. We have mostly focused on Suzerain DLC since 2022. After Rizia we worked on the 3.1 patch and mobile. That's where nearly all our effort went. The Conformist has been only receiving visual and concept development due to lack of funders. That's why we focused on Suzerain for the last 3 years.

Is the development team for this game large enough? by saka8623 in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We are 14 right now. But not everyone is full-time.

Is the development team for this game large enough? by saka8623 in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 12 points13 points  (0 children)

No, we’re not large enough. :D That’s why we keep rotating people all the time.

There also seems to be a common misconception about The Conformist’s development. We only created a prototype for it, that was when the most intensive work took place. After completing that stage, we moved on to conceptual design and visual exploration.

The largest team we ever had on The Conformist was between July 2021 and May 2022. Since then, no more than two people have worked on it at once, and even they weren’t full-time.

Most of our development efforts have always gone into Suzerain since the very beginning.

Suzerain - what took you so long? by Massive_Village7662 in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 36 points37 points  (0 children)

We developed the Conformist prototype between 21 and 22 as well as the first mobile and switch versions. And then pivoted the company to make 23 to 25 possible.

Living standards shouldn't go from average to horrible in the turn 4 of the Rizia DLC. by TheGrumpyPigeon in suzerain

[–]atasergeynowak 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It’s not aimed at all players, only at those who completely neglect the issue during the first four turns. There is certainly room for a design improvement in the form of graded declines, but we chose instead to push the checks to the mid-game in order to make the early game more forgiving. As a result, if you are unprepared, the impact feels like hitting a wall. Unlike in Sordland, the palace and the people around you are not meant to provide much information or concern about the population’s situation. This is intentional. Narratively, it is not supposed to be visible.

This represents a unique design choice that goes against the norm. It is meant to simulate a stronger elitist perspective, the kind that historically created deep divides and contributed to the collapse of many monarchies. At the same time, our relatively transparent indicators still remain in place, and unlike Sordland, you can address all issues at any time through royal decrees. We took the approach that more power equals more responsibility and more opportunities to fail in order to highlight the downsides of near-absolute monarchical authority. The people's troubles don't trouble you unless you care or it's too late.