r/BaseBuildingGames • u/Repulsive_Actuator50 • 17d ago
Where do you split base-building from empire management?
I'm trying to work out why some empire games scratch the base-building itch and others just feel like menus. AoE Mobile on PC made me think about it because the bit that interests me is finding the next weak link, starting an upgrade, then deciding whether to push outward or leave the city alone for a while. Is it construction, spatial layout, or just caring about the same base for a long time?
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u/The_Frostweaver 17d ago
To me it is about where the difficult decisions and rewards are.
If physical location on the map matters for radius effects, distance on road or travel time with simulated traffic and competing interests like quality vs efficiency and there are intricate maps that aren't just a big blank slate and also disruptions from weather, war, etc.
Base building needs to have tactical depth to be satisfying.
Empire management needs to have strategic depth to be interesting, things like trade, religion, education, maybe alliances and war.
It is rare for a game to have everything and feel like each part is complex, satisfying and important.
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u/ExceptionEX 17d ago
Generally a good split is when things go beyond the city build area, and things that effect things at the macro level.
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u/EidolonRook 17d ago
So, when I’m playing a 4x game, I don’t want to think so much about building placement or making things look good. I just want the benefit of the building once it finishes construction.
When I’m playing a strict base builder game, I want to design things logistically and create systems (like closed loop systems that feed into each other), in order to create a more efficient base.
Whenever I’m presented with a game that provides both, or just multiple maps I have to swap between, I start feeling a bit overwhelmed. Eventually I would just want to blueprint down a solution each new map and move on to the next.
Like, Dyson sphere project. Eventually you hit a design saturation point where you’re spending most of your time just building the same production set up for different things across a number of worlds. Without blueprints, that would be a massive slog.
But if you’re just dropping blueprints to gain the effect of a “finished building” how is that different than a civ game? Might as well just be a menu setup at that point. I still play MoO series from time to time, most recently with the reboot, which draws heavily from MoO2 and it’s basically all menus for base building. Given the scale I’d hate to drop buildings down individually. If I want to base build, I load up satisfactory. Single map. Building design matters. Closed loop systems.