Short version:
As someone who loves the trading sim genre, this game is pretty much THE spiritual successor to the classic Patrician series. It scratches a very unique itch: optimizing production and logistics in an economic sandbox driven by supply and demand.
If you're an excessive planner like me, half of the game is played in Google Sheets, while the game serve as a manifestation of your trade empire in graphical form. It's an utterly satisfying experience to see your grand designs play out exactly how you planned it.
The indie dev is also very responsive, actively engages with the player base in Discord. With continued development, I can definitely see the game fill a void in this genre.
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Long version
What I liked about the game:
1. Economic complexity - there are 21 goods in the game with almost half being processed goods, Each business cost different building materials, which would varies the amount of time it takes to break even. Combined all that with a RNG that assigns different pricing and maintenance values every game, players have plenty of factors to consider when deciding which industries to develop.
2. Tribute to the classics - besides the procedural generated maps, the dev specifically put in 3 custom maps: the Hansa, Caribbeans, and the Mediterranean. It allows players like me to recreate the nostalgia of playing Patricians, Port Royale, and Rise and Venice.
3. Progression done really well - similar to Patricians, you gain reputation by trading more with a city and can accelerate its gain by doing missions for the mayor. Each level gets requires progressively more points to level up, which encourages players to develop multiple cities after reaching a specific threshold, since reputation is tied to the # of businesses you can build in a city. Overall, pacing is a lot slower than Patricians, which rewards a more methodical approach to expansion.
Mechanics that need polish/rework:
1. Town management - while this is a matter of personal preference, I really don't like how I can't directly place dwellings or buyout AI industries. Since building space is limited, it always pisses me off when the mayor wastes a perfect 3 x 3 building slot by placing a 2 x 2 building on it. You also can't build housing for your population indefinitely, and can only influence the mayor to do it. Given how housing affects town satisfaction, it's punishing to not be able to control it in a more direct manner.
2. Population management - this is probably my biggest gripe with the game, in that population control is gradual and not instant. Players can control population by providing goods, housing and employment, which effects town satisfaction. Depending on the satisfaction level, the game uses a multiplier that increase/decrease the chance of population change. Satisfaction updates every month, so the change is gradual. Given the randomness of how population is calculated, you can never control how big a town grows. It also leads to cycles, which the town will grow up to the point which it becomes unsustainable causing goods shortages, then gradually decline back to a sustainable level. But if you've built industry in the city, it causes worker shortages. And since you can't move population around with ships like in Patricians, you just have to wait for an entire year in game sometimes for the population to stabilize. It also makes planning for consumption an impossible challenge, cause population swings wildly. I hope the dev gives us more tools to manage population, either let us move population around or cap the growth thru dwellings and/or employment. Another option is for the consumption to be tied to employed populations, as opposed to total population.
In short, give players more tools to alter the sandbox. Afterall, people that play this type of niche are all control freaks. I mean, what normal person plans the entire game out in excel before even starting the game? On a separate note, it does make my wife think I'm working though... while in fact, I'm planning my trade empire, muhahaha!
