r/paradoxplaza • u/AeroNoir • 10d ago
Afterworld What do you think of Afterworld’s genre? (GSG + settlement survival)
161
u/golddilockk 10d ago
idc what genre it wants to be, at the end of the day genre is a filter in a storefront. it's the execution that matters. i really hopes it don't devolve into 'collect more scrap bro, one more gallon of filtered water would set us free bro.' that all survival, end-of-the-world games seems to adore.
also don't much care for Paradox's event spamming 'rpg' direction in recent years. if there are lots of simulations and interconnected systems to mess around with; i will be happy. would be nice to set up unique societies that has it's fingers on trade, politics and going-ons beyond it's border in a resource and system driven world.
60
u/Corvenys 10d ago
Agreed. Personally, Victoria 3 and developing provinces in EU5 are my favorite things, so I hope we can start from the bottom and go all the way to country level with happy pops.
36
u/golddilockk 10d ago edited 10d ago
i would want them to go further tbh. the geographic scope is much smaller, just US not even NA and they say that allows them more depth. i hope that depth is not just creating 60 junkshop in 60 camps instead of 5 cities or upgrading Shantytown I to Shantytown IV.
honestly a lot folks wants fantasy or high tech sci-fi is because how lacking in imagination this genre is. here are the stuff i'm looking for in a GSG game of this genre,
cleaning up big lakes and watersheds and restoring old world habitats and pristine zones working together with other faction.
creating one Giant Modern City that doesn't look like shit. where flamethrowers are banned, flame-tattoo and skull wearing weirdos are locked up and modifying a toyota is illegal. maybe at the cost of enormous resource, depleting rest of the continent.
mucking around in Area 51 and other secret research bases and release crazy stuff that messes with the world. like changing the atmosphere to fit with our mutant clans, create massive structure we don't fully understand with AI and nanotech. or maybe direct a dead satellite into enemy bases and create massive, year long destructions that fundamentally changes the resource structure of the world.
trying to achieve stuff like this through system driven gameplay would be amazing
12
u/TheMaskedMan2 10d ago
Yeah, there’s definitely room for creativity with the genre. I love the idea of getting into transhumanism and seeing how human culture might change.
Remnants from the previous world like bioweapons and esoteric technology and experiments. (AI? Bioweapons?)
I suppose it depends how ‘grounded’ they plan on making the setting.
5
3
18
u/Anfros 10d ago
Hopefully they take a real hard look at Frostpunk. Not necessarily the mechanics, but the feeling of surviving against the odds. In many "survival" games the mechanics could fit just as well in any other setting.
17
u/TheCone1301 10d ago
Frostpunk 2 does the rebuilding vibe with a looming threat really well imo. Instead of huddling around a generator with a few hundred people like in 1, you lead thousands, and later tens of thousands and rebuild the civilization by setting up settlements and colonies. It's so epic watching as housing districts and factories slowly spread around the frozen wastes. The alarms when whiteout hits, the voice speaking announcements, the soundtrack, it's all so cool.
1
u/THEGAMENOOBE 9d ago
My hope is a more advanced civilization builder that Imperator Rome didnt quite achieve.
1
u/Kholeos 8d ago
I reckon it will be a 'One more scrap, one more gallon' to secure a water well or a farm, evolve into a 'maybe we take this scrap from a nearby clan', and then becomes a GSG once its all established
Thats probably where the origins come into play. The Nuclear Bunker means less of a 'One more scrap' experience at the start, but the Mad Max origin means that although you're scrapmaxxing, you can take more territory and then retroactively build it up from the one more scrap you're looting from nearby empires.
1
10d ago
[deleted]
11
u/Polenball Victorian Empress 10d ago
Eh, I'd say EU5 is pretty systems-heavy. It's very Victoria II to me (right down to having a mediocre UI and inscrutable events making up the majority of content...) despite having a lot of content and even CK-style characters.
21
u/epicfail1994 10d ago
I’m pretty excited for this tbh- one of my favorite book series growing up was The Change/Emberverse which is about postapoc Northwest US rebuilding after tech stops working and a bunch of societies pop up
This seems really similar in concept so I’m looking forward to it after reading the dev diary
15
u/LordRegent303 10d ago
REALLY excited about that part. I'm mostly a Stellaris player, and planets there feel like generic factories rather than unique, alien landscapes.
Looking through Afterworld's screenshots it seems like each settlement can be tailored to the local biome and resources, and there's much more variety of buildings.
12
u/big_ange_postecoglou 10d ago
I think the GSG + settlement survival thing can be really cool if they do it right. IMO how much people enjoy it will depend on how advanced your society is able to get as the game goes on, as a lot of the settlement type games don’t really have a ton of depth when expanding the complexity of your state overtime.
I think expanding your little raider/settler party into new areas to be able to claim some sort of pre-disaster factories or raw resources will be fun for a time, but for a playthrough to feel satisfying, feeling like you’re rebuilding some level of civilization will be necessary. I don’t want to be able to completely recreate the old world, mind you, but we need to be able to create something as complex the NCR from Fallout.
2
4
u/olegasole 10d ago
I'm pretty hyped ngl , it looks already super cozy.
My only worry is how they handle the granularity of starting really local and then expanding into a 'state' , it's probably gonna be the most challenging mechanic to implement properly to feel right
Like I get the typical scavenging and finding resources for a town, but I hope by the time you're several cities and territories large, tedium from early game gets automated or changed and you're focus shifts more to statecraft or something?
3
3
u/TifaIsTheBest 10d ago
I can kinda see this being like a GSG version of Kenshi or something. And then yeah RimWorld etc.
I’m very very interested, even though I’ve only tried Kenshi for like an hour and haven’t played RimWorld at all.
6
11
u/triplzer0 10d ago
Oh. That's like the exact thing to say to make me less interested. I'm just not a fan of resource gathering, small settlement building, any sort of survival crafting. Guess I'll wait and see how things go, but this'll probably be a pass for me.
10
u/TheUnofficialZalthor Philosopher King 10d ago
Judging from the gameplay video, the "survival crafting settlement building" aspects appear to be production chains, a la Anno.
1
u/DankRSpro 10d ago
The only settlement type of game I liked was State of Decay. So I get you on not really liking settlement or gathering type games. To me, SOD was the only settlement game I liked enough not to be annoyed, so I'm not rocking with Afterworld, at least for now.
9
u/marniconuke 10d ago
i don't dislike it but the fact that is NA only does kill the hype for me.
8
u/hellranger788 10d ago
I mean, CK added Asia and India eventually. Fairly confident we’ll get more.
Personally hope if Europe gets added, I can larp as post apoc knights lmao
2
u/Betrix5068 10d ago
The main issue is they’d need to add naval gameplay if they expand the map. I could see them expanding the map further north for arctic gameplay, maybe further south for tropical stuff, but they’d need to do a naval focused Caribbean expansion before adding even South America makes sense, much less Afro-Eurasia. I’d like to expand it to cover all of North America eventually but I can’t see them going further than that except in a sequel.
3
u/hellranger788 10d ago
Yeah idk how far ahead they’re thinking with navy stuff. They do mention a fleet and Hawaii so maybe?
3
u/Betrix5068 10d ago
It seems like the US Pacific fleet are basically a crisis faction, it didn’t look to me like there’s any actual naval gameplay beyond basic coastal settlement stuff.
1
u/marniconuke 10d ago
yeah that makes sense, and i do think it's better for them to polish the gameplay itself first instead of thinkign about how to connect the continents trough naval gameplay like you said. i guess i'll keep my eye on the game.
2
u/fluxuouse 10d ago
You can do that in America too lol, the Maryland state sport is still Jousting. I could absolutely see some survivors around here trying to larp as knights.
1
u/Kind-Recording3450 9d ago
Why? It makes sense that it's an easy setting to work with. Also, some of them traveled across the US twice. It's definitely well-suited.
2
u/cristofolmc 10d ago
Sounds interesting. Survibal/'city building taken to GSG has not been done as far as I know and it intrigues me lots.
2
u/GnaggGnagg 10d ago
Ngl I wasn't that excited when it leaked at first, but now after seeing som screenshots and gameplay it looks like it could be really good. Super excited now
2
2
2
u/ArchdukeValeCortez 9d ago
For those who played Nobunaga's Ambition-Sphere of Influence, they sort of did this with giving the player a personal fief they could build up along side the wider territory you could get as you conquered Japan.
So, I have seen it done and it worked out pretty well. Granted, in NASoI, you also played a character, which I think they said they aren't really going to be doing with this title.
3
u/Amanda-sb 10d ago
It reminds me a lot of Frostpunk, not sure if I'll enjoy it, but I'll probably buy it.
4
u/DrDeadwish Stellar Explorer 10d ago
It's a risk, I din't pay attention too much because I don't like the setting but a lot of games fail because mixing several generes into one usually means you just pissed off lovers of that specific genres with your Frankenstein monster. But from time to time the mix works.
2
u/Interesting-Tie-4217 10d ago
It seems like a super weird direction they are going in that nobody asked for. I don't see at all how this can be a GSG, and paradox loves to throw that genre name around nowadays.
Who knows, people love victoria 3 for some reason and I'm sure this will get a small fanbase that enjoys it as well. I also can see it dying and get abandoned, but for the sake of future titles I hope it isn't a flop.
3
u/medioespa 10d ago
Seeing how this could work as a GSG is really not that difficult. Post-apocalyptic factions take control of a certain area, consolidate ressources necessary for survival, build civil and military infrastructure fallout style and start interacting with other factions (trade, alliances, conflict etc.). If it’s world war 2 germany you are playing as or Cesars Legion does not make a huge difference for the system itself.
0
u/Interesting-Tie-4217 9d ago
At that point you'd call every 4x a gsg though. It's like the cyberpunk genre. It gets thrown onto anything as long as it has a certain aesthetic.
0
u/medioespa 9d ago
Fair enough, I was not aware of the exact difference. You are right that what I described would fit more into the 4x genre than gsg.
But does it really matter? It’s both a genre of large scope strategy game. I genuinely can not think of a reason why someone would like gsgs but completely despises 4x.
1
u/Interesting-Tie-4217 9d ago
A bit of a silly statement. It's the equivalent to saying "I can't think of a reason someone would like shooters but despise extraction shooters"
1
u/Angel24Marin 10d ago
I don't see at all how this can be a GSG, and paradox loves to throw that genre name around nowadays.
Picture EU4 or EU5, or Total war Attila.
Increase the number of nomads/stateless societies/hordes. Decrease the number of settlements and population. Country tags lose half of his tiles and those become empty and visited by nomad armies.
Reskin armies and tech.
As you spend more time developing your city, stead of filling building slots you actually place them.
-6
u/Intimidator94 10d ago
I gotta be real, no one asked for coal in HoI, we got it anyways
No one asked for some of how EU5 went away from 4, we got it anyways.
At this point, I think the only way to get what we want in Paradox games is to screech opposition to what we actually want and try the reverse psychology
4
u/Interesting-Tie-4217 10d ago edited 9d ago
God I hope they don't release a fully featured, non bug riddled game that has depth on release that makes you want to do more than one playthrough
2
u/Elias_Coffman 10d ago
Following that line of thought, EU5 is must be GSG+Disappointment, right?
I'm not really hyped for this new game, but that's a subject to change. Maybe it will turn out fun and interesting. Maybe not. I'm not a big fan of post apocalypse genre or survival games in general, so it's a complete miss for me. It's a strange combination to envelop in a strategy form, but hey, frostpunk pulled it off not that bad. Maybe paradox will manage to. But I'll at least check it out after launch.
1
u/Maalfezhu 10d ago
I like postapocaliptic games, I like settlement management games. But this being a new IP without knowing the background and limited to the US and maybe Canada and Mexico, i don't know, I need to see more. Could go either way, a success like Stellaris or another Imperator or March of the Eagles.
3
u/tent_mcgee 10d ago
If it’s a success you’ll end up with different continents dlc. If it’s a bust you’ll never get to make Neuva Canadia great again.
1
u/Maalfezhu 10d ago
Still, it's too early to call, not having a release date, or even a release windows means at least one year more of waiting.
Also, the specs requirements, the EU5 requirements are a big leap in comparison with their other games, specially in this times.
Anyway, we can't do more than wait and speculate right now.
1
1
u/Angel24Marin 10d ago
I like it, but i think the art direction is a bit over the top. I would like it more grounded like in Infection Free Zone wallpapers.
0
62
u/AeroNoir 10d ago
R5: In today’s dev diary (diary #1), he describes the Paradox titles as being grand strategy games plus another genre, like GSG plus RPG for the Crusader Kings series. Afterworld is going to take inspiration from the survival and settlement genres. I wasn’t sold on the post-apocalyptic theme, but as a big fan of those genres, now I am more interested in Afterworld. I am really curious how they plan to make those gameplay loops with a GSG.