🚀 go-pugleaf

On 6/3/2017 6:37 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Jun 2017 08:11:47 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
> <dtr...@sonic.net> wrote:
> 
>>
>> The final game was one I found the CD for while I was going thru some
>> boxes.  Serf City: Life is Feudal!!!  :D  (AKA Settlers 1.)  A real
>> blast from the past.  I remember when I first got the game thinking this
>> explained why people are so fascinated with ant farms.  :)  So I spent a
>> weekend getting it to run under DosBox and then my free time for a week
>> or so watching my ant farm, ahem, serfs wandering around.  Still fun.
> 
> I remember being very impressed with what SerfCity was trying to do.
> In an era where most game abstracted its larger systems, SerfCity
> aimed to create a very detailed economic simulator. You essentially
> had to build your economy from the ground up, taking into
> consideration each of the many steps necessary to build a medieval
> economic base (lumberjacks cut logs, sawyers turn the logs into
> planks, carpenters turn planks into furniture, etc.). It was an
> exceptionally impressive effort, especially given the technological
> limitations of the time. I also loved how the peasants' foot-traffic
> created paths and roads just by their using the same route over and
> over again.
> 
> But damn, unless you had an intense and abiding interest in
> micromanging, the game just wasn't fun to play. The AI was brain dead
> and the systems contradictorily were both too detailed and not
> detailed enough to work. The former meant a huge workload for the
> player, whilst the latter denied the player access to necessary
> information and tools that might lessen that workload.
> 
> As you said, fun to watch but probably just getting it to run in
> DOSBox was a more entertaining challenge.
> 
Actually the player has to lay out the paths for the serfs.  Getting 
your road net right is the most difficult part of the game IMO.  (Much 
later in the series, Settlers 4 or 5 I think, they did away with the 
player laying out roads and went with that free-form movement you mention.)

I don't find the economy all that difficult or requiring much 
micro-management.  Just build the buildings in the right ratios and it 
runs itself.  The first game has all kinds of charts built into it for 
delving into how items were flowing from step to step.  Later games in 
the series may have removed some of those tools, I can't remember at the 
moment.

-- 
"That's my secret, Captain: I'm always angry."