Any other aspies great at management games?

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I've found myself to get oddly good at management style games / politically themed ones, there aren't that many these days but some examples are 'Theme Hospital' 'Rollercoaster Tycoon' 'Dungeon Keeper' 'Democracy 3'.

Wondering if it's just me or if it's rather commonplace, the people in those games being a lot easier to understand although naturally not as complex as in the real world.

Hm, for me it depends on what you define as "management".

I play alot of strategy games, usually of the ultra-complicated sort (look up a game called AI War for an example) and I do tend to be good at them, as I tend to never miss a detail or opportunity, despite my impatience. The sorts of strategy games where there's loads of stats and such that constantly need managing, not the Starcraft sort. Or something like Dwarf Fortress is possibly an even better example, since the idea of managing a horde of unruly dwarves, along with every aspect of their chaotic fortress, is the whole concept (and the game is stupidly complicated). Some roguelikes do this sort of thing too.

Of course.... then there's the other side of things. Give me something like an FPS and the most I'll do is somehow manage to blow myself off a cliff. There's a couple of action genres I'm really good at, namely shmups and fighting games, but beyond that, well.... all I've got going for me is fast mental processing, and other than that, I *will* screw everything up. I'm not someone you want on a team in a multiplayer game, I can say that much.

So there's that odd contrast: Good at hyper-complicated things, but often bloody horrible at simple ones, with exceptions of exactly two types.

I have to wonder if THAT sort of thing is common, too. The whole "really good at something that most people arent, really bad at something that most people are" bit. I spot what seems to be that in conversations on this forum often, but is that really the case?


Some interesting questions here.


On a side note, Dungeon Keeper was amazing. I loved that one, way back when. There are actually quite alot of management games out there these days, you just have to know where to look. It's actually a pretty popular genre, in part due to games like those old ones that everyone remembers.

Man I have played AI war, never won it yet, sunk around 100 hours or so in but just end up on the wrong side of things in a bad spot, I also backed the AI war 2 on kickstarter which is looking to go well. If you want insanely complex (if you haven't played it already) Distant Worlds Universe is an interesting beast, I can't get through a lot of the info on it but it does let you automate a lot of things I also keep trying to get into Dwarf Fortress but the visuals just don't seem to tick with me, which is ashame because I hear those awesome stories from people.

On the FPS/Action side I used to play them a lot when I was younger but I feel I'm getting a lot slower now, I prefer much better paced games lately, I don't mind sitting in an RTS match that lasts for an hour or so (Or more) although I rarely fight other humans on them.

And a response to the question, it may be more... a simply human trait I guess, some people are just better at some things than others and the others are then better at other things.

I'd be up for any suggestions of games you think would suit me, I may of already played them but a good list is always welcome.

Ah yeah, AI War is like that. It's certainly not meant to be friendly towards the player, that's for sure. Though, that's pretty much the norm for Arcen's games (the developer). Their other games can get pretty darned mean as well, some of which may or may not be my fault (I work with them on some things, particularly Starward Rogue, which is pretty constant, and I usually tend to increase the difficulty of whatever I'm helping with).

The AI War 2 kickstarter went well enough, yeah. Well, sort of. The one that went well was the second kickstarter for the game. The first one had a much bigger scope, but didnt go well... as we've all learned at this point, it's bloody difficult to draw attention to individual games right now. They're also having money troubles (and have been since around January of last year) so that interferes a bit with the process. But development is going nicely, in it's usual quirky way. The actual alpha testing started recently.





DF is sooooooooooo worth it if you just push past it's visual and interface issues. The reason why it looks the way it does is because it allows the game to display a really absurd amount of information on the screen at once; go too graphical with a game like that, and you dramatically reduce the amount that the player can see at any one time (AI War, to a degree, follows this rule as well, when zoomed out). The initial learning of the game is a horrid thing, but yeah, very worth it. I remember one incident where this... thing... showed up, some horrid monstrosity of the "giant spider with teeth" sort, so I sent out a group to go take it down. It kills one of the dwarves quickly, and the squad leader promptly goes berserk, launches forward, grabs onto it's face, and starts STABBING IT'S TEETH OUT one by one. After some more general lunacy it was finally brought down. In a pile of it's own teeth. You really just dont get that kind of thing happening in any other game, no. Not unless someone scripted it out. Though the best example is Boatmurdered: if you've never read through that, I definitely recommend it. Nothing else like a fortress having it's entire defensive setup crack because a butterfly got jammed in a door hinge. Which of course was the least ridiculous thing in that particular story/playthrough.



Yeah, same here. I like strategy games alot, and I'm absolutely fine with them being long, but I generally dont care about facing actual players. Moreso though, I dont want to face an AI that tries to pretend to be human... so many developers try that (skirmish modes VS AI in games like Starcraft) and it never, EVER goes well. AI technology just isnt good enough. Which is why something like AI War exists: The AI in that game doesnt pretend to be anything other than what it is, and it doesnt play by the same rules that you do. The fact that it has it's own unique ruleset that it must follow is what makes the game work. Whenever a developer tries to stuff an AI into the shoes of a player, only stupidity results. Which is part of why I tend to avoid games like Civ and whatnot... they end up being WAY too easy (and thus boring) because the AI is so freaking dumb. Which is too bad, I always think they look like fun but the braindead nature of the opponents just kills it.



The best one I can think of right away is Anno 2070, definitely. That game is bloody amazing. It has both citybuilder and RTS elements at once, and involves quite alot of management of production lines (all of which are complicated) while a bazillion other things happen. The RTS element isnt like a Starcraft thing or anything... at most, you'll have like 5-10 units at once, some of which may be cargo ships that work on courses you set for them... but the way it's implemented adds sooooooo much to the game. Also like AI War, your opponents follow their own rules. What's interesting is that each individual AI player has a totally different ruleset, so they each seem extremely different, yet not in a way that's too much to deal with. There's way too much good stuff in the game to even talk about. It has a campaign mode, but the real meat of the game is the "continuous" mode played with the AI. There is a sequel, Anno 2200 or so (forget that exact number), but... dont touch that. It's awful. They did the typical "dumb it down" thing with that one, and... well, I'll put it this way, as far as most of the fanbase goes, the series is now completely dead, with 2070 being the last of them. I was so disappointed with that.

Infested Planet is another good one. Squad-based, in real time, but it's the sort where you can pause and give orders, so there's no having to click super fast on anything in this. You have a squad of 5-10 soldiers/whatever to manage, and on any given map, your goal is typically to destroy the Hives, which spawn bugs and things constantly. There's LOTS of tactical options available, but of course the more you do, the more you have to pay attention to and consider. As you destroy hives you gain more BP (which stands for... I dont know), and you can spend that on all sorts of things, like class changes for your guys, or structures that do stuff, or towers (there's a bit of a TD element to the game, but it's more dynamic than how TD is usually done, and the enemy has their own towers that get nasty fast). But you can undo anything at any time and get the exact amount of BP back, which the game is designed around... so you can switch tactics up at any time, and you pretty much have to. Also, the way the enemy works is unique, in that each time you destroy a hive, the enemy will gain a global upgrade of some sort, all of which are interesting, and it tries to choose them to counter your strategies. Really, it's absolutely fantastic. If you try that out though, I always say that the DLC is mandatory with that one: it just adds so much to it, and the procedural campaign is the best (and most strategic) part of the game. The normal campaign isnt nearly as good (or as replayable).

Creeper World 3: It's a tower defense game that doesnt follow any of the rules of the genre, because screw it. For example you can place towers/whatever anywhere you want, not just in super specific spots, the enemy is not restricted to lanes (because it's a sort of evil, flowing goo that gets EVERYWHERE), and you have to actually go on the offensive, as each map is not complete until the goo source things are destroyed; so the fact that your towers can move around is important. It's got a huge management aspect in the fact that you've got this "network" that powers all of your stuff, and the network is comprised of it's own type of structures... but setting this up efficiently while still managing all the actual towers (and other things, it's not just towers in this one) and stuff going on gets very complicated. The thing I like about this game is that unlike other TD games, and some strategy games, there are no boring moments here. There's ALWAYS something to do, and if you find yourself waiting for something to happen, it probably means you're A: missing something, or B: in the process of screwing up. Also, VERY high replayability due to the excellent map generator, and workshop support. I could rant on and on about this game, as far as I"m concerned it's right up there with AI War in the "best strategy games I've ever seen" category. Unlike AI War though (with it's bloody awful tutorial), you dont need to have a freaking college degree just to learn it: The main campaign does a REALLY good job of showing you how everything works, which is good, because the game as a whole is very complicated. Like everything else here, you can pause and give orders. Which is good, because the game would be stupidly frantic otherwise.

Last Federation: Hmm... being that this one is from Arcen, I'm not going to ramble too much about it, as I'm definitely biased on that front (particularly since I helped work on the expansion and rebalanced half of the combat stuff). It's hard to explain in any case, as there really isnt anything else like it. This game was very well received, but it's not for everyone. Very unique and very deep though. With one heck of a funky combat system.

Offworld Trading Company: This is an RTS without the RTS part. Which makes no sense, but it does it anyway. Instead of being about war, it's about corporate competition, with each company trying to take control of valuable land and resources on Mars. But, again, no war, you cant destroy your enemy here, so you have to use other means that are more "business" like. AKA, corporate backstabbing. You'll still have all these structures to set up, there's ships that'll fly around and do things, and of course like the title suggests there's trading and such to do... a very, very different type of game, really. It's not for everyone, but I do think it's worth a look. The store page explains it better than I ever could.


I could keep going, but that's enough rambling from me. Plus, it's hard to recommend too many as I cant really be sure of what kinds of games you like.

I can say though that if you like management/strategy, you might like some of the roguelike genre too, which for me tends to scratch the same itch in alot of ways. I dont mean things like Nethack, which I frankly cant stand, but... other, more interesting (and more balanced) things. I could probably list piles of those, yep.

Good grief that was long. Started typing, didnt pay attention to how much I was writing out... ugh. Maybe a bit too much to read, sorry.

Haha no worries, I read it all it's fine! I just don't think I can reply to it all, it's all very good though I'll try and respond to the recommendations as best I can.

Anno 2070 I flat out loved it, I remember specifically that the game kept bugging me to stop playing it saying that I needed to get some rest or take a break, I went into some of the earlier installments and quite enjoyed them but not nearly as much and yeah Anno 2205 was insanely disappointing I don't know what they were thinking.

I think I moused over infested planet a few times on Steam it looks interesting I'll put it on the wishlist from your recommendation I can get a bit confused with so many things going on at once though but if I sink my teeth in I should be able to manage it, it seems very reminiscent of AI war how you describe it I'll hopefully grab it on the next sale.

I remember looking at Creeper world 3 but not really understanding what it was, I feel you've described it better than the store page in this regard, I do like games that get sort of 'no rest for the wicked' and keeps you on your toes, the Ultimate General Gettysburg did a interesting job of that giving you the whole front to work with (Another game I've been meaning to sink my teeth into as it was made by a guy who modded Total War and whose mods I always subbed too)

Last federation again I have got and also loved it, all the flying around between planets and the very imaginative races and the interactions with their governments was simply sublime, I did suck at the combat though ended up most of the time getting badly damaged and retreating because I focused too much on helping the races out in the general war to upgrade my ship too much. I tried doing the expansions (I think it came in that) mode where you try and tough it out on your own with a fleet of AI drones but, well I got greedy and paid the ultimate price for it.

Offworld Trading Company, again have got and been meaning to play a bit more of, finished the tutorials last week or so, it was quite refreshing to not really have to be warring and destroy my enemy with the sheer power of buy/sell mentality, I feel I need to do some more of the challenges before I go into an open skirmish game (Which I did and quickly got overwhelmed by the AI's superior knowledge of the game) all in all a great list!

I do enjoy the occasional roguelike FTL was a brilliant little game although I'm not too shy to admit it took me about 100 hours of game time to beat the final boss, all the different scenarios I loved but that boss I could never get a handle on it.

I feel like I should suggest some games I quite like too since you've been so generous (Feel free to tell me if you don't like them or the idea of them)

RimWorld is a fantastic little game I find and it keeps on improving over it's development, again it's a game I backed on KickStarter like AI war 2 you start off on a alien planet with few supplies and few people from then on you need to build a home (Or start work on building a ship to get back to space) and quickly learn things on the surface aren't all that friendly, you can be attacked by bandits, wild animals or even the remnants of some sentient AI from ages past. You can also make peace with neighbouring tribes and settlements whilst trading with them (Before it was quite static you had to wait for them but now you can go around the world map and visit them yourself with supplies) it has quite an in-depth character interaction and health system which intrigues me, the pawns all have their own Perks and Quirks sort of thing and it can make for some rough situations. I don't think I explained very well how great it is but if you see it on sale I'd say grab it!

Similar in visual design but not at all in game-play is the fantastic Prison Architect, which is for the most part what it says on the tin you build a prison but it doesn't really end there you go on to manage the prisoners schedule for food/exercise/work and actively work on reforming your prisoners whilst also making sure to keep regular patrols and searches to make sure no massive escapes happen, sometimes I feel it's not as deep as I'd like but I end up having a good time.

Halcyon 6 Starbase commander is also a nifty little indie game, I think it was released late last year but I'd had it lurking in my library for awhile, it gets quite easy or quite RNG dependant (Not sure which at the end of the day) but it's a nice experience with the sort of pixel art style that rings true to some older games, you basically are put in a scenario where the entire federation has died out apart from you and your team who were holed up in an ancient starbase, the aliens that decimated you are still at large and attacking surviving colonies in your territory, you use this stations advanced systems to build up a new fleet and new federation, using the colonies for much needed supplies whilst progressing a story of aggression against the aliens and trying to keep friendly with the neighbouring aliens who sometimes act like they have your best interest at heart or try and attack you when you are down. I think the story stays the same throughout so it's replayability is not the best but the devs are still pushing out free updates and are pretty nice.

I feel I've probably rambled on too much myself now! Especially this early in the morning. Thankyou for all the great suggestions and I'll be sure to keep a look out for those games!

Some responses:

Anno 2205: Yeah, disappointing as heck. I can tell you what they were thinking... they were thinking the same thing that alot of AAA devs do these days: Dumb it down for the masses. I dunno about everyone else, but I'm SO tired of that trend. It was infuriating to see it then destroy that series in particular, which had always been known for it's amazing depth.

Infested Planet: In some ways it is a bit like AI War, specifically that it's NOT a competitive type game: The AI isnt even remotely like a "player", and has it's own rules, units, and abilities. It's usually your squad, VS the hives, 10 squillion bugs, and assorted loopy things. The game can get complicated, but the good thing is that the individual enemy units are extremely simple in how each behaves. Bugs arent exactly known for their intelligence, after all: they come at you in the thousands (because of course they do, that's what bugs are for, according to games) but they go in very straight lines (which is why tower-like structures work, when you want to use those) and even a single Marine can hold off tons of them by himself. It's when those units and loopy things combine that the game gets tough. When you beat a nasty situation though, it's sooooo satisfying, particularly on harder difficulties.

Creeper World: Yeah, the store page doesnt really explain it very well at all! Which is very odd as the game itself explains itself VERY well; there's no "I dont understand what this thing here does" moments in it. The one problem that the game has... and basically EVERY fan agrees on this... is a map in the campaign named Farbor. I wont spoil what that problem is... you'll know it the moment the map begins. But yeah, I cant recommend this game enough. I think I did a full review of it on Steam, even.

Last Federation: Yeah, the combat difficulty... haha... you can blame me for alot of that, actually. For whatever reason, the devs saw fit to allow me to handle some of the rebalancing of the various ships and overall difficulty when the expansion hit (and the rebalancing part isnt exclusive to the expansion). And then in the expansion itself, I made all of the new ships, and they're all cruelty incarnate (the funny part is, I was specifically told to make them that way). And there's a reason why the highest combat difficulty is named "Misery", hah. Same with Bionic Dues, if you've ever played that game from them (which is another one I recommend, though it's more of a turn-based roguelike but very tactical). Starward Rogue, their most recent game (bullet-hell roguelike) is the one I've worked on the most though. Was given alot of authority with that one for reasons I"ve never quite understood. Which means it's hard as nails. Good game for anyone that likes things along the lines of Binding of Isaac. Except with more dying. Work continues on it, because we can. But I'll stop rambling about that.

FTL: Ugh. You know, I really liked that game.... until I met the final boss. Since I play so many roguelikes and such, I'm used to games of extreme difficulty, but that boss was difficult in all the wrong ways. You either have a certain type of setup when you reach it, or you *will* lose, simple as that. It's very... broken. Which is really unfortunate. It's not exactly the most balanced game out there.

Rimworld: You know, I keep considering this one, but... when I think about it, my usual response to the idea is "But I could just be playing Dwarf Fortress instead", since Rimworld is the same type of game (just dramatically less complicated). Somewhat the same with Prison Architect (I do have that one though). They are good games though, yeah. If you want to see another similar one, check out Oxygen Not Included. That one is very unique and has a TON of potential, and is made by the guys that did Dont Starve. The store page for it will say it's not available, but it actually is. It's in early access, and the proper store page for it is a huge pain to get to, but it's worth it for anyone that likes games like Rimworld. I'm really interested to see how it evolves as development continues. This is a developer that's shown that they REALLY know what they're doing.

Halcyon 6 is one that's on my wishlist. It looks really interesting and unique. Technically I could buy it at anytime, but things end up on my wishlist when my backlog is too inflated. Right now I'm playing Unexplored, Dungeon of the Endless, and Streets of Rogue a ton, so everything else has taken back seat for awhile, those three games are just too freaking good.

Gonna try and avoid writing another big wall of text here! Still going to respond to most of it though, it's great to meet someone with similar if not almost exactly the same tastes.

With RimWorld I do see your point with DF it'd probably seem a step down but Prison Architect although visually similair to RimWorld is closer related to Anno really, all about the management of supply chains (a la prisoners / food etc) but it is quite a time sink. I am keeping a close eye on Oxygen not included aswell, I really did enjoy don't starve although I still never got really far in it.

Shout out to dungeon of the endless, beautiful game I played that a lot awhile back even a bit with some friends trying to make our way through, I have actually made it to the end of that one... Once I'd recommend almost any game made by those devs, the endless series is quite beautifully crafted and well designed (Although I wasn't too fond of endless space 1, 2 I bought in early access and is going great).

Ooh I can play that Streets of rogue for free for 3 hours... well I know where my next three hours are going! Once again thankyou for all the recommendations they are all now on my wishlist.