Complaints about advisors

[TexHorns]

I read daily with curiosity the opinions and ideas of fellow gamers playing COG. One topic that gets a lot of repeat business is the economics of the game and the advisors. Some say the advisors are terrible and prefer to micro-manage the economy.

In my opinion the fact that the advisors do not plan and act in the optimal manner is part of the realism of the simulation. Not every country had great governmental leaders. Some were good, some were average and some where bad. I for one don't want to micro-manage every detail. I want to plan the grand strategy and direct the battles. I leave the government (advisors) to provide me with divisions to fight with and food to feed the army. How realistic is it to have your country run at the optimal level at all times? I know some of you prefer that, and that is okay. But I submit it takes away some of the realism. Did the generals always know what units were coming as reinforcement or replacements? Did they always know that the optimal level of production was occuring every month? I doubt it.

One idea to address the advisor issue is to give the advisors ratings and allow for them to be replaced by other advisors that can be made available through the course of the game, similar to Hearts of Iron. I also woudn't mind a version where the ability to manage the economy and development outside of using advisors could be turned off.

I must admit that early on in playing the game I attempted to micro-manage the economy. I used the right click to lock my levels in place. But each turn the levels return to the default and I'd have to reset them. It takes too much time to reset every turn, so I just let the advisors handle it. I now have games that play quicker and I don't have to worry about whether I'm getting the optimal production of textiles.

Also, let me say that I really have enjoyed this game. The tactical battles are still fun and challenging. The diplomatic model is top notch and I'm still learning it's nuances.
I have only played as Russia while learning because I like having a secure strategic flank.

Once the 2.14 patch is released to everyone I would enjoy playing by e-mail.

[Windfire]

I must admit that early on in playing the game I attempted to micro-manage the economy. I used the right click to lock my levels in place. But each turn the levels return to the default and I'd have to reset them. It takes too much time to reset every turn, so I just let the advisors handle it. I now have games that play quicker and I don't have to worry about whether I'm getting the optimal production of textiles.

Once I set my levels they never change. I think you can avoid this by turning off the economic advisor.

[Grand_Armee]

Hah...first time I let an advisor do his thing, he built 3 fleets that I didn't need. After that, I do it myself. Set em up in the beginning and let em' ride. Same thing with new provinces.

[TexHorns]

As Russia my advisor has never built any fleets. But what I meant to say was in development the default settings always return even when I right click them to lock them. The actual economy settings stay where I out them. But after spending time stting production levels, right click each type, turn off advisor, next turn they return toi default.

My military advisor builds me lots of divisions, but when I go to war my treasury quickly depletes and many divisions disband because they cannot be supported.

[Mr. Z]

I must admit that early on in playing the game I attempted to micro-manage the economy. I used the right click to lock my levels in place. But each turn the levels return to the default and I'd have to reset them.

Did you really notice this? If so, it was a bug.

What version of the game was it? Also, did you have the Economic advisor turned on at the time?

Eric, do you know anything about this?

[Naomi]

A similar phenomenon I experienced much earlier, though it has not been recurring very often. It is my previous allocation of labour aimlessly changed but not necessarily a return to the default setting. It appeared most often after I clicked to open a list of units to build in a province but then either cancelled or chose the empty space.

[TexHorns]

You know after making my last post I tried again to set the development parameters and lock them. This time it worked. It must have been in an earlier build that I tried it. Don't think I tried in latest one. Also turned off both province advisor and military development one. I am glad this works now. Either way I don't want to have to deal with the micro-management every turn.

[Naomi]

For the time being, the board of advisors are there to call for simply when you haven't got enough of the difficulty of the game. [:o]

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: Mr. Z

I must admit that early on in playing the game I attempted to micro-manage the economy. I used the right click to lock my levels in place. But each turn the levels return to the default and I'd have to reset them.

Did you really notice this? If so, it was a bug.

What version of the game was it? Also, did you have the Economic advisor turned on at the time?

Eric, do you know anything about this?

Right clicking doesn't lock the levels from the Economic advisor; it locks them with respect to motion in the other slider bars.

[Mr. Z]

I did notice that in 1.2.14, at least, if you adjust the economic slider bars, the next turn the indicator is at the new level, but the green shading doesn't adjust.