What's your micromanagement tolerance level?

[Shoujo]

I've owned SEIV for a while, and I've rarely felt like there was a whole lot of micromanaging involved. The two situations where I've been overwhelmed were when I was just trying to learn the game, and whenever I take over for a player on PBW who happens to have a fair sized empire.

Recently SEIV seems to be getting quite a bit of attention, and I've heard people repeatedly make the claim that SEIV is micromanagement hell. Yet my experience seems to be rather different, so I decided I should start this poll to figure out where I stand.

Additional questions listed below.
1) Does SEIV involve a lot of micromanaging?
2) Does SEIV feel like there's a lot of micromanaging involved?
3) Does anybody happen to know of a computer game that involves more micromanaging than SEIV?

[Atrocities]

Additional questions listed below.
1) Does SEIV involve a lot of micromanaging?
2) Does SEIV feel like there's a lot of micromanaging involved?
3) Does anybody happen to know of a computer game that involves more micromanaging than SEIV?

1. Yes to some degree, but it is well balanced.
2. Depends upon the player. I do not believe so.
3. BOTF - Rebellion - Stars

I think the people who never really played the game are simply repeating reviews they have read whereas the reviewer only played the demo for an hour or so and had stated that it was a "spread sheet" micro-managment game from hell. The real game reviewers, the people who know and play 4 X games, rated SEIV very highly and consider the micromanagment level of the game to be well balanced. I agree.

What I have discovered is that people who started playing Moo, then Moo2 and the Civ games have a certain expectation of "Automated Managment" and are fearful of having to think about doing things. One person posted at the Moo3 forum that the game was so full of micromanagment that the carries did not "automatically" replenish there fighters after combat. Nor did the game automatically build fighters to fill the carriers. The fact that he had to do this automatically seemed like micromanagment from hell to him. I find this level of player involvement draws the player into the game, and gives the game a more real feel. I like the idea that I need to think about such things as ensuring that my carriers and ships are stocked and in good operation. Then again, I can easily assign a Minister to do that for me if I did not want to worry about it, but what fun would that be?

In an earily game, you want to have control, it is why you play these types of games.

I have played a micromanagment game from hell and it was named Birth Of The Federation. I have played the latest game, Masters Of Orion III, which is on the other end of the spectrum.

In all I have played just about all of the 4x games out with the noteable exception of SE III, and in all of those games, I found SEIV to be the most balanced when it came to Micromanagment.

I do not agree that the game is bogged down by micromanagment, and would argue that fact to any one who believes so.

[ March 07, 2003, 11:17: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

[Ruatha]

It can in the beginning seem like alot of micromanagement if you have a lot of planets and build facilities one at a time and then decides on what to build next(!)
What people tend to forget is that when the planets has built their facilities the micromanagement is mostly done there.
True, when new tech becomes availible you might need to scrap a few facilities and add new to the que, but these occasions are rare in the course of a long game.

[oleg]

I find SEIV to have less micromanagement than my previous favorite: Moo2. I still shudder when I remember how boring it was to move newly born farmers to scientist or builders. Every turn dozens of planet screens pop-up telling about finished construction, etc.

[JLS]

In all I have played just about all of the 4x games out with the noteable exception of SE III, and in all of those games, I found SEIV to be the most balanced when it came to Micromanagment.

I do not agree that the game is bogged down by micromanagment, and would argue that fact to any one who believes so.

This QUOTE sums up my view, as well....

I believe SMAC to be a Very popular game, certainly one of my Favorites and that had a lot of Micromanagement; possibly even much more at times.

[ March 07, 2003, 12:54: Message edited by: JLS ]

[raynor]

I am a big fan of the Civilization series of games. (I will include Alpha Centauri) in that mix. In the original Civ played under DOS, I don't remember there being any sort of queue. Please correct me if I'm wrong. In that game, you could eventually end up with dozens and dozens of cities, and you would have to tell them what to buld each and every time they finished building something. To me, that is micromanagement hell. Don't get me wrong. I loved that game. But it *was* quite tedious after a while.

Was it Civ II that first introduced build queues? I think build queues are awesome. Now, you can plan out the next 'x' number of things you are going to build. This way, you still have all the control you desire but don't have to, in my mind, micro manage the "heck" out of the game.

Wasn't it Civ II that also introduced the ability to set your city on different tracks? That also was a neat feature. I must admit that I never used it because I preferred to specify what each city was building. Now, if I could have had the ability to specify what buildings in what order were build by each "minister", I would have loved that. Well... they added that in a later patch. You could edit a text file and determine what to build and when. I never used that but I applaud them for adding in.

Now, let's fast forward to MOO3. There are MANY, MANY buildings that you absolutely cannot build yourself. Speaking in SEIV terminology, each planet has a specific number of facility slots. In MOO3, there are a number of facility-enhancing buildings that can be stacked on top of those facility slots. In MOO3, you have no control over when and how those are built--even through the use of the empire-wide, macro-management development plans. To me, this is WAY too little control.

Through the use of Development plans implemented at the empire level, you *can* specify what "facilities" to build on a planet. That is a neat sort of feature that *might* be nice for a game such as SEV.

Another example of over "macro"-izing the game is how it allocates resources to new planets. In SEIV, when you start a new planet, population doesn't affect the initial production rate like it always has in the Master of Orion series of games. In MOO1 and MOO2, you could move population from your "average" worlds to your best, high mineral production worlds. But in MOO3, there just doesn't seem to be any way to do that.

Because MOO3 requires "money" to build anything, a new colony cannot do any building without a substantial amount