Wow

[jstu9]

I dl'd the demo, played around with it a bit and have read through the forums here and at Paradox. And I'm considering if I want to get this or not.

The big thing holding me back is the time element.

70 years, 24 turns per year... 1680 turns in the game.

Just to process a turn, it seems to take about 3 mins on average. That alone adds up to about 80-90 hours, so basically 3 to 4 *days*.

Now to make the moves every turn. How long? I only have one Ageod title (AACW) and it can take me minutes to a half hour (or probably sometimes more) to complete one turn. Let's say PON is quicker and I can make a full turn (incl processing) in 10 mins on average. Thats 250-300 hours. If I play 4 hours a day, it will take 2 to 3 months.

Holy hell. I am at first amazed and in awe. That is fricking awesome.

But holy hell, playing one complete campaign will take months, maybe even years. One.

Is it worth it?

Second, there is discussion about patches. Now, if I understand correctly, you pretty much have to start a new game every time there is a new patch. I can just imagine playing for months, going through half the game, and then a new patch comes out...... and I have to restart a new game if I want to use that patch? Ouch. I might just wait a few months or a year until some issues that are bound to come up are resolved.

(** As an aside, I'm sure there will be shorter campaigns. But if I buy a game, I want to play the full game. I've never played a shorter campaign of AACW and probably never will. I want to fight the Civil War, not half of it.)

[von Sachsen]

Of course you don't have to play all the way to the end, and iirc there is an option to bring the game to an early close via a Great War, in which you gamble enough prestige to get to the top if you win.

[Spharv2]

Second, there is discussion about patches. Now, if I understand correctly, you pretty much have to start a new game every time there is a new patch. I can just imagine playing for months, going through half the game, and then a new patch comes out...... and I have to restart a new game if I want to use that patch? Ouch. I might just wait a few months or a year until some issues that are bound to come up are resolved.

You misunderstood. What they said was that they'll do everything in their power to keep compatibility between patches, but some fixes and additions may require database changes that render it incompatible with saved games. Then you have to choose whether to patch or not. In AACW, I would guess that only 10% of the patches were incompatible with saves, plus a few more that were "iffy". I know I stayed on certain versions for a while to finish games when a big patch came out. But in general, they will do everything they can to keep everything hunky dory...they just can't promise it for sure as they don't currently know what will need to be fixed/adjusted.