Nation-building Potential

[u/Leadpumper]

Ah, man, I’m so excited! I’ve always craved more in-depth nation-building and roleplaying in a GSG-4x style of game, many have attempted it with varying intent and quality of execution but the dev diaries and preview footage have me very optimistic for Afterworld. As it’s been percolating since 2012ish, there’s a lot of genre entries (for 4x games and post-apocalypse settings more broadly) with high and low points to cherry-pick and learn from. I hope we get a diary that goes over some of the mechanical inspirations the devs have had, there are a few highlights from the gameplay preview that strongly reminded me of other games:

• I enjoyed the city development and noble & population management of Old World, not unlike what we saw in the short city interface segments, but was a little disappointed by Old World’s limited scope.

• Ara had interesting early ages, transitioning from nomadic tribes to classical-medieval production chains as you built up provinces, but it became quite tedious (and ran like shit at the time) before just turning into an alternate Civ game.

• ZEPHON and Civ Beyond Earth also stood out in my mind for the options they gave players on evolving their nation over the course of a game- I generally like both of these, especially for the exploration and story you get in a playthrough, but the civ tile combat (and DLC unit prevalence) is a slog.

• The PDX catalogue is all over the place of course, each game series is focused on different aspects of being a GSG. I really enjoyed the first diary’s comparisons to Stellaris’ setting accessibility, though more anchored to a specific vision for Afterworld. Especially with the work of the Custodian team (and modders!), Stellaris has been in a great spot for a while. We’ll have Vicky-esque laws, potentially government mechanics, and more recently I’ve also been engrossed in EU5’s pop & economic simulation, really hoping we see some similar system interactions here.

Overall it seems like Afterworld will be a melting pot of 4x ideas with a lot of options for roleplaying and more dynamic management than a ‘traditional’ civ-like, built on Stellaris’ foundation, and especially after today’s dev diary I’m really optimistic for how it’s going to turn out.

Guess the most pressing question I have now while we wait is: with the emphasis on the American frontier, and confirmed Railway Subunion, will trains be visible on the map like Vicky?

[u/mayhemski123]

I've seen a lot as well and heard some of the feedback from players.  Like you I am curious what exactly they've cooked up a PDX.

The big impression I get though is this is a ln evolution of the post apocalyptic city builder.  Mad Max Manor Lords rather than a true GSG.  Which isn't a bad thing, I just hope the game can deliver a coherent vision and doesn't try go in a thousand different directions.

[u/Leadpumper → u/mayhemski123]

I just watched OPB's (p)review of the Afterworld Alpha, which I thought was an informative first-hand account. Very unique combination of 4x mechanics so far, definitely far from finished, but it seems like they have a firm base and a tight focus on the experience they want to deliver in an expected 20ish hour playthrough. Remarkably short for a PDX game, but the intent is that that runtime packs in all of the highs of a 4x campaign without dragging on.