Imperialism II Demo - First Impressions

[St Leo]

Okay, I've finally finished downloading the thing.

Demo Cons:
-only a tutorial was included

Demo Pros:
-the tutorial generates a new map every time


Imperialism has been greatly streamlined and cosmetically boosted. There are fewer civilian workers and there are no more depots. Computer can control production, transport, and control now, making the game less involved. The world is now divided into the Old and New Worlds, both of which are vital in a way. You need the New World for resources and the Old World for provincial victory points.

To be continued...

[Colonâ„¢]

How do you mean "Computer can control production, transport, and control now" ?
That's horrible ! I mean, the greatest part of the game was it's advanced economic engine, why the hell would I let that been taken over by the AI ?! How can you setup a strategy to build your economy if you use that ?!

St leo, are there changes in the statistics ? (are there more ?)

[Colonâ„¢]

St Leo, are you playing the demo so much that you don't care about giving any info anymore ?

Come on !

[Chuckles]

So I downloaded the demo and played it a couple of times. It seems pretty good but I am wondering - is that it? Won't every game be pretty much the same? Build up your resources at home, start getting resources from new world, build up fleet for more trading, take some provinces and win? I never played the first one so I don't know. I tried playing the demo of the first one but couldn't figure enough stuff out before having to delete it.

[JohnB]

Imperiallism?

[Colonâ„¢]

Look at [htp]www.imperialismii.com[/htp]

Chuckles, you could say thesame about civ2, build some cities, build some units and take the cities of others and that's it ?

But I agree that there's a bit few variation sometimes, but the interesting thing is, unlike in most other "empire" games that building up an economy isn't so easy anymore.

Atleast that's how Imperialism 1 was, I'm afraid that in Imperialism 2, they've tweakened the economy part. (idiot IMO)

The economy was the greatest part of the game, that's what made it interesting, the economic battles and not only the military ones.

[Colonâ„¢]

www.imperialismii.com

[St Leo]

You can have the computer manage certain aspects. I let it do Transport(which is over seas only now), Trade(which allows you to make decisions as well), and the main Industry(you can also make changes without turning the manager off). The game also allows managers for Diplomacy and Techs, but I like micromanaging those. They are purely optional and can be turned off at any moment, but I find them useful when starting out.

Here's an excerpt from an interview I conducted with the lead designer for my upcoming site:

>>Can you give us a list of the resources >>used in the sequel?

Sure.
Grain, Livestock, Fish, Wool, Cotton, Timber, Iron Ore, Copper, Tin, Coal, Sugar Cane, Tobacco, Furs, Spices, Silver, Gold, Gems, Diamonds.

Some of these can of course be processed. The second and top level of the economy includes:

Fabric, lumber, cast iron, bronze, steel, refined sugar, cigars, fur hats, paper.

[Chuckles]

But what I'm wondering is how different would each game be from the next? Maybe I'd need to play it more to tell, but the demo is a little simplistic after a few times.