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Missions

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 11:32 am
by powloon1
Do missions only occur over the first decade of the game? In my SP game which has reached late 1861 I failed the first 2 missions (Largest Army :w00t: and Most Luxuries and Wine) but they have not been replaced with another set. The manual didn't seem to provide any illumination on the matter one way or the other.

I was also wondering (rather randomnly) if there is a reason that PON does not have it's own AAR section on this forum?

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 12:20 pm
by Jim-NC
Yes, the missions are only for the first 10 years of the game.

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 1:02 pm
by powloon1
Jim-NC wrote:Yes, the missions are only for the first 10 years of the game.


Thanks Jim. I think I'm a little disapointed with that. I made a maximum effort for the luxuries and wine mission building out all the luxury factories in the pool and building vineyards on all the available fruit resources. Admittedly most of that building was during the second 5 years of the decade so I guess there was no chance I was going to achieve it but thought I would have a good chance in the 1860's. Sigh back to the drawing board :(

I'm guessing the purpose of including missions in the first place was to help guide new players with a shorter term goal. Is there any chance in the future of modfying these missions to be at least achievable or at least extending beyond the first decade? For SP the largest army mission is plainly a none starter and the luxuries one I would put in the category difficult to impossible (would be interested to see if anyone playing SP has ever achieved it)

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 2:40 pm
by Kensai
Of course. You can play with the template events yourself, if you wish. It's not that hard. The idea of the missions is to get a player started into building some of the historical "strengths" of each nation. By the 60s, some 240 turns after, you should be enough experienced to plan your own future in the alternate reality that unfolds. :)

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:37 pm
by powloon1
Kensai wrote:Of course. You can play with the template events yourself, if you wish. It's not that hard. The idea of the missions is to get a player started into building some of the historical "strengths" of each nation. By the 60s, some 240 turns after, you should be enough experienced to plan your own future in the alternate reality that unfolds. :)


I'm not sure Sardinia-Piedmonts historical "strength" was its huge army but I take your point :)

As the missions are an aid for new players I think it kind of makes sense that they are actually achievable. Probably by the time you are ready to mod the game yourself as you say you should be experienced enough not to need them which seems a bit of a catch22 situation

Obviously not a major issue I'm guessing that the developers have other priorities to concentrate on rather than balancing out this under utilised functionality.

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 4:07 pm
by Kensai
Well, they are approximations. Sardinia-Piedmont needs to build on a strong European (I think is the mission) army to go against Austria in an attempt to unify Italy. 240 turns are more than enough to learn all aspects of the game I think. The game after v1.02 (let alone later versions) is completely playable and most aspects fixed. Do not worry, you're gonna have fun. My personal opinion is that the max fun is when you try to "relive" the real history of that nation, making only small deviations from the standard history. Since most events have few elaborate conditions, you will also have less bizarre situations that do not make sense. But generally, I think all goes well especially if you try to play with "personal handicaps" without abusing the (unavoidable) limits of the AI.

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:46 pm
by sagji
Kensai wrote:Of course. You can play with the template events yourself, if you wish. It's not that hard. The idea of the missions is to get a player started into building some of the historical "strengths" of each nation. By the 60s, some 240 turns after, you should be enough experienced to plan your own future in the alternate reality that unfolds. :)


Piedmont didn't expand its army between the start of the game and the start of the war with Austria so having a mission to do so is wrong. Especially as the mission is to have the largest army in Europe and Piedmont can't possibly succeed unless the big 5 European powers all loose their army.

The other mission is worse as it is equally impossible to get, but not obvious that you can't win. Plus it encourages you to build vineyards which will kill your economy by making a loss and consuming precious manufactured goods.