I came here because I read a book that said it was inspired by Clockwork Empires. I loove steampunk and have several costumes. I am wondering how hard is this game before I buy it? I looked at videos and threads and it seems to be difficult but is that the point?
It's sort of hard to convey how difficult this sort of game is, because it's a simulation. There's no losing condition , such as exists in other types of game (say, falling into a pit, or losing all your health or whatnot), but you're constantly making decisions, good and bad, and then you have to live with them. If your colony slowly crumbles because you forgot to build a Kitchen, or beetles ate your crops, or Bandits killed everyone, it's reasonable to expect you'll start a new colony, and learn from your experiences. Similar to other simulation-type games (e.g. Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld, Sim City, Banished) you'll be managing the Big Picture - or maybe the Medium Picture, since you can also check in on individual colonists. The ease with which you'll become familiar with the many systems depends on you affinity for simulation-type games. You'll need to learn about supply chains, resource management, managing a crisis, as well as directing colony policy and organizing production. A lot of those are essentially trial and error, but I think the hallmark of a good game of this type is the ability to make that learning enjoyable, and to keep you coming back to do better next time.
Also: if you want to read a serialized account of the Community Colony, the forum folks have been taking turns at running one, and then reporting on colony progress, in this succession game thread. *edit* Is the book you read The Deeping Call by Dyego Alehandro?
Difficulty varies to quite some degree as a lot of the influence factors that can introduce risk are driven by random events. In one game you may have a large bandit group arrive in your area during your first week and then some days later raid your colony at the same time a hostile nations military unit are stomping into your colony. In another game might not really see any bandits or hostile troops that entire time and when you finally do see some threat the game just spawns a single bandit group consisting of 2 or 3 members that serve as no risk. In terms the static aspect difficulty, I would say it's more a initial learning curve. Once you know how to approach something or do a quick search to find someone else's "How to survive A-B-C procedure to colony building", then the actual difficulty in that area is almost non-existent (for now). But the game can and will most certainly throw random events at you at one point or another that you really have no real way of dealing with in your current situation, but that's part of the concept of 'fun'... losing is meant to be fun in itself. Where coming up with your own or just using someone else's set procedure approach comes in, is to get you ready for the more probable early random events that would otherwise serve as pitfalls.
It's hard to say. This type of genre is very non-goal oriented unless you make your own goals for the most part. With that piece of information in mind, you have to also understand that the random nature of the game means at times the difficulty can vary on a fairly wide range given random events. Look at some more of the threads, and also click on the links to youtube videos to see it in action.
Just buy it, I've been gaming for 31 years now and never have I enjoyed the development of a game like I am with Clockwork Empires, the devs are very active, we are seeing results with every build, it almost feels like I am in the studio seeing this program transform into a game, That experience alone is worth the money.
I would add that the difficulty level is not yet really fixed - it tends to spike and trough as new developments affect how hard/easy the game currently is. And the game is still fairly unfinished, so sometimes you get unintended forms of difficulty like a colonist getting stuck doing the same thing over and over. But by the same token the game is continually improving and providing new interesting situations as it goes, which makes it one of the funniest games I played in 4 years. Nearly every update throws up new situations that mean finding a new approach.
I think most on this board will give the game a massive thumbs up. I Too have been playing games a long time (Kaboom! on the VCS was the first I got addicted to) and every few years a game really gets to you. This is the only game I have been playing recently that I keep wanting to load up. It is Early Access and only buy if you understand all that means and that you like playing games that are works in progress.
As in life, difficulty can be increased at any time by ceasing alcohol consumption and making coconut curry the sole food source.
