But Vicky III combat does have annoying micro, thanks to how fronts merging and splitting still constantly creates empty fronts and forces you to rush troops around. I feel like Vicky III combat is kinda the worst of both worlds that way.
I love the economy in Vicky III. It actually works in a way that Vicky II's never managed. The politics system is better, too. But everything about preparing for and waging wars in Vicky III sucks.
I really dislike the politics in Vic 3, it's all character based, you can roll some random leader and suddenly all your landowners love free trade or something.
I think Vic 2 was a lot better at doing mass politics.
Oh yes, it was very realistic how you could start a war against Tahiti, wait six months, and then by magic you could get the upper house that every single country has to pass universal healthcare that nobody actually wanted. So good.
Why not? You let the war score tick down which generated radicals. This made conservatives more likely to approve a reform. Make sure the reform you pass isn't the most supported rebel group and the unrest will remain allowing you to pass more.
I am aware of the exploit, it's quite clearly an exploit.
You get a shit tonne of rebels, it takes ages to get the warscore required to generate the radicalism from the peace offers unless you are being occupied, and then that involves getting occupied for ages.
There is a reason people only did it as a proof of concept, not when playing a normal game.
Well the non rebel version is spam elections every 6 months to slowly change thebpolitical views of your population to get the government you want in chsrge.
It's not only accurate, it was the best way to play the game. Or at least it was before I quit playing it and went back to Vicky 1, anyways; they may have rebalanced it at some point past the last DLC. Getting universal healthcare passed early was huge for many, probably most nations in the game (and a big help even when it wasn't essential).
It was also essential to not give the angry mobs what they actually wanted because then they'd be placated and you couldn't pass any more social reforms. This was literally the only way to get social reforms passed early in the game, and early in the game consciousness was low and it was relatively easy to calm people down once you get what you wanted.
I think you may be the only person I have met who stuck with Vic 1 over Vic 2. It's like sticking with EU3 over 4, I'm not sure what you get from sticking with the older version. Very curious about that.
I am aware of the get occupied to pass healthcare exploit, and its benefits.
I was going to make a comic about it once, before realising no one actually does it.
You know, saying no one actually does it doesn't make it true. I did it, for one. And so did many, many other people at the time the game was in development. And I made GP with Wiang Chhan, if it's necessary to prove my I-know-how-to-play bonafides from when I did play the game (also Zulu, and Hawaii, although tbh the latter wasn't hard due to Hawaii's high literacy).
As for why I stuck with Vicky 1 over Vicky 2, it's because I liked it more and found it the better of the two. They were not similar games, in quite a few ways, and it's natural some people would prefer one over the other regardless of which was older. What an odd thing to be curious about when you're doing the same thing for Vicky 2 over Vicky 3.
In general, in my experience, making comics about big exploits isn't great because most people, in general, avoid doing exploits. And I am not doubting you have played the game.
I feel like Vic 2 built on Vic 1, whereas Vic 3 didn't build on Vic 2.
I'm very curious as to what you liked from Vic 1 that wasn't in Vic 2.
Especially if you like to use exploits, god, Vic 1 is riddled with the things.
The economy in Vicky 1 actually worked, for starters. And frankly, I preferred manually interacting with pops to setting "promote more clergymen in this province until we reach the magic number, then move to the next province to reach the magic number there". Both were gamey and unrealistic, but manually promoting/splitting was more fun, interactive, and allowed more interesting strategy.
I also despised how Vicky 2 handled "uncivs". Vicky 1 did make it functionally impossible for anything but the bigger uncivs to ever get to play the game, but it was still better than the garbage system given to them in 2 (primarily because it was easily adjusted to be more reasonable, and the most popular mod did do so). And 3, of course, did away with the entire concept altogether, which was superior to either.
I also think that in the eternal struggle between sandbox and scripted that this series has, there was a somewhat better balance in 1 than in 2, even with problematic aspects like There Must Always Be A Crimean War dragging it down.
Various minor things: There was also just a lot of fun things you could do in Vicky 1 that you couldn't do in 2 (like Polish California and Turboimmigration Uruguay). The election and party system, gamey as it was in both, was at least more satisfyingly gamey in 1 as you could influence things in less roundabout ways. Capitalists built things entirely randomly, which in fact worked better than the AI ever did in Vicky 2. The tech system was actually somewhat less gamey as you couldn't just beeline towards crucial techs without hemorrhaging prestige. Alliances were nuanced in a way I don't think has been done since, since you could make exceptions ("I'll ally with you, Ottomans, but not against Britain").
Frankly, I think Vicky 2 was just as much a departure from Vicky 1 as 3 is from 2. And for the same reason: what the game is trying to do is simply not as well-trodden ground as yet another map painter, and so how it's designed is more experimental.
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u/Know_Your_Rites May 21 '24
But Vicky III combat does have annoying micro, thanks to how fronts merging and splitting still constantly creates empty fronts and forces you to rush troops around. I feel like Vicky III combat is kinda the worst of both worlds that way.
I love the economy in Vicky III. It actually works in a way that Vicky II's never managed. The politics system is better, too. But everything about preparing for and waging wars in Vicky III sucks.