OT: My review of CAP2.

[MarkShot]

I previously mentioned that I was taking a break from CCAW and going to learn and check out Capitalism II. A business simulator developed by Trevor Chan and Enlight and published by Ubisoft around 2000. I picked this up, since I recently had begun to play some business oriented games such as: 1830, Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon Deluxe, and Railroad Tycoon 3. So, I thought I would give the acknowledged heavy duty business simulator a try (in fact, I think there aren't really any others).

A number of you also expressed interest in the game.

Here is my quick review of CAP2.

The game has a rich set of features. However, it is this rich set of features that it the downfall of the game in terms of game play and replay value.

In many ways the general pattern of gameplay is analogous to the feature rich games produces by Paradox Interactive. Meaning a mouth watering set of features available for the player to use and experience, but a set so broad and deep that it defies the programmer's ability to produce an AI which will play the game well; realistic immersion, challenging and balanced game play, lack of exploits, and games that remain exciting throughout the entire game.

(1) There are a number of strategies that a devastatingly effective against the AI opponents. These effectively undermine and particular scenario challenges that are put before the player. The impact is the same upon customized games assembled via the quick game generator.

(2) As with many economy oriented games that have positive feedback models, victory is critically dependent on crossing a key threshold point from which the player's situation only gets better and better. Thus, when this point is reach, losing the game is virtually impossible. As the player gets up to speed on the exploits/holes in the system, reaching this threshold becomes easier and easier.

(3) The actual scenario objectives laid out need not be of great concern to the player. The player only needs to focus on constructing his/her cash machine. Once that is done, any goal can be easily met. Suppose for example, a player is tasked to dominate the snack food sector within thirty years. This can easily be accomplished by researching new technologies such as: notebook computers, handheld devices, cell phones, etc... The margin on exclusive control such high tech devices is enourmous and leads to huge cash surpluses. With such cash surpluses the player can easily set snack food products well below cost which will quickly result in domination of the snack food sector and a victory in the scenario.

This is one of these games that can only be enjoyed over the long-term by developing a carefully architected set of house rules. Too bad. It's not for me.

[Banquet]

Hi Markshot,

I used to play CAP1 a lot and really enjoyed it. I didn't do the scenario's. I generally prefer to stick to the freeplay modes in games like these. I found the game very challenging. I don't have your ability to analyse the AI and come up with such a well structured plan though.

Certainly if you are making a fortune in one area it's easy to dominate another sector with underpriced goods. However, in the long term, I found changes of supply meant my once 'safe' sector could get in trouble. I.e, components relied on drying up. New components snatched up by competitors, etc. So, while possible to do very well for a time, retaining dominance over an extended time period was quite difficult. I also had fun creating my own scenario's in my head. I.e, 'I'm going to just sell wine' So I'd buy a vineyard and concentrate on developing the techs and staff training to make the finest wine known to mankind. Then open shops to sell it on. If the wine was really good competitors would sometimes buy it too. I wouldn't rely on making money via any other source and that kind of thing could certainly be a challenge.

Interesting to see your thoughts on the game. It's been a while since I playing it so I maybe looking back through rose coloured specs! Piqued my interest enough to download CAP2 from Gamersgate though. At 10 Euro's it's got to worth a punt [:)]

[MarkShot]

Banquet,

I would be interested to hear your impressions of CAP2.

I decided to pick up playing Tropico (v1.53 - mucho macho edition) again. Of course, Tropico 1 is not a serious business simulation, but it has all the game elements one finds in CAP2. However, I think it is a much better game when it comes to resource/economic models, and on top of that there is even a political system.

I am going to paste in below my take on convergent and divergent game systems for resource/economic models. I found CAP2 to be a highly divergent design and thus, what destroyed it as a game (not necessarily as business education tool).

1830 is a highly convergent design and one of the most well done strategy games I know of of.

Tropico 1 has both divergent and convergent elements. However, the convergent features tend to be more dominant such that in longer and harder scenarios, the game remains challenging through out.

What follows is from an email which I sent to a friend ...

I really believe it is very simple when taken from the top down to design a good strategy/economy game. I've tried to explain the key basis as sucintly as possible. Let me know if this makes sense to you.

Actually, I regard at highest level of gaming system design to be very simple. Here is the basic rule.

Any gaming system (especially one with an economy or resource model with extended play) must function as a convergent system. What do I mean:

Convergent system: The human manages to gain an advantage, then there will be inherent things rules/mechanics in the game system design that will cause the state of the human and AI players to converge. So, positive reinforcement, success breeds success, and snowball affects will be counteracted.

Divergent systems: Once the state of a human player moves away from the AI players, the distance in their situations of power or money will only continue to increase in exponential fashion as a function of time.

The games which make for the best strategy play all have rules which lead to convergent systems. The games that play poorly are all divergent.

Sometimes designers try to add convergent rules, but fail to make them work well or smoothly. The PD engine uses the "bad boy" concept to try to break divergent behavior, but it only partially works. Bad boy cause AI nations to gradually gang up on a rogue human run nation; an effort to address the most common issue of such games is that player inevitably attempt/succeed in achieving WC (world conquest) with a nation such as Haiti.

CAP2 is a highly divergent system. The only way a divergent system design is going make a great game is if the AI is a stellar implementation and thus, prevents the player from crossing the divergence threshold and running away with the game.

A game with convergent rules built directly into the game system makes sure that within the seeds of success are the seeds of failure. The player's own leaps forward can be the cause of his undoing. This happens directly via the rules themselves, then on top of that you just need to build an acceptable AI. This is what you see in 1830.

Some 1830 examples:

(1) Stocks offered at a low initial share price yield the best rate of return and capital growth in the early game. However, due to a share limit, the best stocks to hold at the end game are stocks with the highest share price. So, prosper early and you have a weak late game portfolio. However, invest in high price stocks from the start and your cash position growth may be too slow to win.

(2) You can sell off your competitor's shares to push down their share price and net worth. However, shares sold off, then end up paying dividends directly to corporations treasury. Thus, the corporation becomes richer (and it will need money to purchase things) without the president being forced not to pay dividends in order to grow the treasury. If the president fails to pay dividends, then he fails to put money in his pocket and he drives the share price down. Thus, you dump someone's stock to hurt their share price, but this helps their company to accumulate cash and saves them having to withold dividends (driving down the share price).

(3) You can accumulate shares of another player's company which are paying very good dividends and try to prosper. However, if you hold more than 10%, the company can be dumped on you. So, the current president can loot it and dump the worthless remains on you. However, you may not be able to get rid of the presidency. As president you may be forced to kick in your own cash to keep the company operating. So, you can be greedy and try to buy up shares with a good yield, but you can then become a sucker with a worthless looted company dumped on you.

(4) 1830 is full of such factors so that pushing the game in one direction causes it to push back at you the player in another direction. The essence then of good 1830 play is a complex balancing act to make subtle gains while trying to protect yourself from the natural push backs which will occur. Also, throughout the relative short game of an hour, the emphasis on what is important switches. It is important for you the player to know when to switch your focus. Additionally, the game has a pace. When the pace of the game is not in your favor (meaning your are not leading in wealth), then you want to force the game to accelerate due to your actions. When the pace of the game is in your favor (meaning your wealth is growing fastest), then you want to slow the pace/evolution of the game.

Truly, 1830 is one of the most elegant strategy games which I have ever seen. Literally, an entire course in game design can be built around it.

[MarkShot]

Here is some more material which I wrote the other night on Tropico 1 to a friend:

Here is a game with a complex economic model:

- Raw materials
- Manufacturing
- Infrastracture
- Queuing Simulation
- Pollution
- Worker skill
- Wages / regional wage pressure
- Educational requirements
- Job satisfaction
- Housing/rent
- Graft

On top of all this is built a political system:

- Political demographics
- Leadership
- Elections (democratic or rigged)
- Pork projects
- Repression/jails/exiles/assassination
- Superpower support or destabilization

So, besides having a very sophisticated game. You have very nicely done isometric graphics, wonderful soundtrack, amusing characterizations, lots flavor and flow, and lots of charts and numbers. Of course, none of this purports to be a real model economics or politics, but it is very engaging to play. Due to many complexities where the economy could crash as it becomes more complex and the ever increasing chance of political destabilization as the game evolves. You have a basically convergent system in what usually would be a divergent system like most of the Paradox games.

A wonderful game which keeps the player fully involved and is not piece of cake.

I have been getting back into it this evening. I think I will be picking it up again. It is very light and entertaining.

I think Tropico1 designed by Phil Steinmeyer shows true brilliance. I have Tropico 2, but have yet to really explore it.

[Banquet]

An interesting read This is what I mean by your ability to analyse a game!

Out of interest, have your tried Patrician III?

It's another game I used play a few years ago, and have returned to recently. I've been enjoying it a lot. I wouldn't classify the AI as anything remarkable, but the dynamic nature of the world ensures that a great money making plan can soon become very tenuous.

Ps, finally.. what's PD, and what's 1830? I keep thinking 1830, Railroads and Robber Baron.. is it that?

[Banquet]

Just seen your second post. I used to play Tropico a looooong time ago. To give you some idea of my shallowness at the time I stopped playing it because I didn't like that you couldn't rotate the buildings Hardly a game breaker, but it bothered me back then. Now you're getting me tempted to give it a try! I'll never be away from my PC at this rate! [:D]

[MarkShot]

1830 - that's the game. I often play, at least, a quick game each day under DOSBOX. Finally, playing at the hardest level and winning 50% of the time; standard options and with 3 AI players. However, there are a ton of game variants to try.

PD = Paradox ... they make big complex games with holes that you could drive trucks through. Despite things like "bad boy" values, their games are largely divergent and require lots of house rules to keep them capitivating throughout the protracted GCs.

I haven't tried Patrician III or heard of it until now.

---

Tropico 1 is full of negative feedback loops. So, as your economy evolves, it becomes more prone to disruption. Once distrupted, things just keep going in the wrong direction:

(1) Profits down. No way to pay for skilled workers.
(2) No skilled workers, then no electric power.
(3) No electric power, profits go down further.
(4) Profits go down, you cannot maintain services for health and education.
(5) Profits go down, workers cannot pay for housing.
(6) Workers cannot afford housing, then profits go down (as rents go down).
(7) No pay, no housing, no medical, no church, ... all leads to a very unhappy populace.
(8) An unhappy populace in a democracy votes, you, El Presidente out office - GAME OVER.
(9) An unhappy populace in a dictatorship become militant and taxes your police and military beyond the limit. They rise up (further halting production) and throw you out of office - GAME OVER.

In CAP2, there just seem numerous ways to secure huge money mills and protect them from any form of competition. Also, the stock market allows you to effectively undermine your competitors by buying them out.

One of the the unique things about Tropico's design are you not really competing against AI oponents. You compete against the system the pressures and dynamics which are inherent in it. A very interesting concept which works very nicely.

[Banquet]

Ah, Paradox. Very familiar with them. I have all their games. I rate them highly despite some infuriating aspects to them. I'd agree with you on the holes. I think the later additions to HoI have improved that somewhat but you do have to try and play relatively historically and not try anything too 'out there' or else the game can tend to come off the rails.

It still has problems that go right back to the first HoI release years ago. But what other game allows your to fight WWII across the entire globe, encompassing the years before and after WWII, fight as any nation, and include the flexibility to, say, order an airstrike on an enemy port at 6AM, followed by a carrier strike at 7AM and a joint amphibious and airborne assault at 8AM? Despite it's problems it does a lot right.

Hmm, just found my Tropico box..

[MarkShot]

Latest patch for Tropico 1 I think is 1.53.

I think there were like three variants of the Tropico 1: the original game, Paradise Island, and Mucho Macho Edition. And then there was possible a Tropico collection which include Tropico 2 (I think I picked that up separately).

[Banquet]

Thanks, I have the standard Tropico. I'll grab the patch too.

[MarkShot]

It has begun. Here it is the "convergent behavior" of negative feedback which will sink my Presidency of Tropico as I try to skim off 50M worth of revenue into my own private account by the end of 1979 through dipping into the public trough in the banking sector and bribes and kick backs in the construction sector.

[MarkShot]

Profits rapidly fall due to too many concurrent development projects while failing to address bottlenecks in the supply chain periods of rapid GDP growth.

[MarkShot]

Lack of a budget surplus hurts the most in the middle of a tough election with no way too throw money at the voters. Leaving me no other choice, but dirty tricks to pull out a victory.

[MarkShot]

Unlike Los Estados Unidos to the Norte, Tropico does not have the sophistication and economic/military leverage to run in deficit spending mode. The World Bank steps in. This is going to send ripples throughout the society as skilled laborers begin to depart Tropico. Tropico University, Tropico Power, and senior management positions in the coffee and fine jewelery business will be particularly hard hit. This promises only further actions by the World Bank and an even accelerated fall into economic chaos!

[MarkShot]

Isla de mis suenos! Ecanta Isla d'Oro porque no mas? Me duele mucho! El trabajo de mi vida fini muy rapido en la basura de la historia! Que tristes!

[MarkShot]

The only thing keeping me in power right now is the Palace Guard. Notice, this photo snapped showing one of my personal bankers (with a wad of cash in his hand) about to pay off Cesar Delgado, one of the Guard members. How to survive another ten years and discreetly siphon off another $30M?

[MarkShot]

And so this is how it works ...

[MarkShot]

Despite weathering the immediate financial crisis, El Presidente MarkShot is forced to leave Tropico in the dead of night in 1975 in disgrace!

[MarkShot]

Banquet,

So, are you up and running with Tropico?

One thing after switching to my new PC, I have to run Tropico 1 in SW video mode. The game just does not like HW video mode with 8800 GTX card. Tropico 2 has no problem with it.

Fortunately, my system has more than enough CPU (QX6700 OC'ed @3.2GHz) to render it in SW at 1600x1200. The game really looks great running native on my LCD. Other games like TC2M or SH3, I run at 1024x768. They look okay interpolated, but native is just beautiful when you have that option.

[Banquet]

Markshot,

Not run Tropico yet. I will soon though. After your description I'm looking forward to playing it again. The screenshots remind me how nice it looks.

I have to admit CAP2 is getting all my attention at the moment. Trying to make my own desktop computers. I've had some hairy moments setting up all the suppliers and trying to balance the books. Lately my R&D is paying off and I'm heading nicely into the black. Methinks I may now be entering the divergent aspect to the game you mentioned. We'll see

Why are you running SH3 + TCM2 at 1024? Your system is better than mine (C2D E6400, 2Gig RAM, 7900GS) but I can run both games at 1440*900 without any problems.