January 24th, 2016, 17:01
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After playing a bit of Brass, I am really aching to play some good, thinky and fun economic strategy on a computer. Perusing the Steam library left me apathetic -- there are mostly Elite-clones, Caesar-clones and Anno-clones. Caesar III was great and all, but I already have it (in the form of Zeus/Poseidon), and nothing seems to be a terrible improvement on it. Anno-likes and the economic side of Elite-likes are basically glorified tamagochi pasttimes, far too boring. There is the Offworld Trading Company, of course, which is great and tough, but it's also very much a realtime affair, not so much about being able to think well, as being able to act quickly on your thoughts.
Any ideas, fellow RBers? Am I alone in thinking that digital games seem to stick to very primitive game mechanisms when compared to modern board games? Seems like few people in the digital sphere spend as much time and effort actually, you know, game designing, when compared to cardboard.
January 24th, 2016, 17:32
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I spent a lot of time playing Railroad Tycoon, and learned most of what I know about balance sheets and cash flow from that game. Apparently Railroads! has multiplayer, but it sounds as though the economic game has been watered down somewhat, and being quicker with your mouse is an important skill.
January 24th, 2016, 17:43
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How angry would you get if I suggested Cookie Clicker?
January 24th, 2016, 18:32
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Yeah, Railroad Tycoon is cool, just depressing how old it is...
The Clicker games, I think, are perfect, because they pretty much sum up the mechanics of economics games these days, and revel in them, rather than trying to hide behind a skin-deep theme and kindergarten level story.
January 25th, 2016, 01:57
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There's an old game called Capitalism which is also moderately interesting.
I have to run.
January 25th, 2016, 22:20
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Have you considered Civilization IV? 
In all seriousness, the only other recommendation I have is to play those boardgames, e.g. www.boardgamearena.com
January 26th, 2016, 06:22
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It's sad. Sad!
After all computers let you do a whole bunch of things which are far too fiddly for the board, especially in the number and type of calculations you can run, and multiple dependencies. Oh well.
January 26th, 2016, 13:31
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(January 26th, 2016, 06:22)Bacchus Wrote: It's sad. Sad!
After all computers let you do a whole bunch of things which are far too fiddly for the board, especially in the number and type of calculations you can run, and multiple dependencies. Oh well. But a computer application requires more upfront investment beyond the game design, and thus needs to sell to more people (read: have a broader appeal) to be worth doing.
January 27th, 2016, 10:16
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If Transport Tycoon games are up your alley, there's always OpenTTD, open source project which develops and improves the old classic, Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Can't think of any recent ideas in this area though, ever since the developer of Caesar/Zeus/Pharaoh series went under
January 27th, 2016, 12:07
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Apparently Victoria/Victoria II is largely an economic strategy game, though I've never played it (I have played other games in the series, which are very good).
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