Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic - planned economy city builder

[vonAchdorf]

https://www.sovietrepublic.net




https://af.gog.com/game/workers_resources_soviet_republic?as=1649904300

Spoiler

A city builder, which departs from the American suburban utopia to the bleak concrete of Eastern European prefabs.

Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is the ultimate real-time soviet-themed city builder tycoon game. Construct your own republic and transform a poor country into a rich industrial superpower! In a soviet republic with planned economy, everything is controlled by the government. Are you up to the task?

FEATURES

• Manage all aspects of your own republic with planned economy, including mining resources, manufacturing goods, construction, investments, and citizens too.
• Create your own industrial complexes with loading and unloading stations, storage, warehouses, and factories.
• Build the infrastructure and manage its traffic, including roads, railways, sidewalks, conveyors, wiring, and pipelines. Wisely place and connect factories, houses and warehouses, and make the most efficient connections.
• Plan and build the living areas with everything your citizens may need to live their happy life, such as playgrounds, cinemas, taverns, and shops.
• Send your citizens to the mine to get coal, iron and other natural resources; or send them to the fields to pick up the crops; or take them to factories to produce manufactured goods.
• Sell and purchase resources and goods from western countries or other soviet countries to get dollars or rubles and buy the products or resources you need ... or invest in new infrastructure or buildings.
• Enjoy authentic soviet buildings and vehicles, as well as realistic landscapes of the 60's to the 90's.
• Play the way you want! You can focus on getting natural resources or products and trade them for money; or you can build a self-sufficient republic; or you can just use the easy sandbox mode with unlimited money/resources and just enjoy building something live.
• Economic simulation. Prices of resources on the global market are changing over time as you play –one day you can sell or purchase steel for a $100 per ton, but in a few months the cost can rise to $200 or decrease to $50. The price of everything is connected to the cost of work and resources.
• Increasing difficulty. As prices change, the demands of the citizens also change, and you will need more resources to keep them happy and force them to work.

Why a socialism/soviet/planned economy theme?

Because it's a kind of dictatorship in the modern age, allowing use of similar mechanics as in games based on medieval ages and it allows players to control everything – a full economic simulator but in a modern age.

ECONOMY SIMULATION > > >
The game simulates the economy system. There are no fixed prices! Costs of everything are defined by the economic situation. For example, the cost of steel is calculated from the price of iron, coal and work, and also partially from the cost of steel mill construction.

You purchase or sell commodities for money (dollars or rubles). But be careful, as it is possible that if you buy or sell for high values you will affect the price of the commodity on the market. You may be able to purchase for a higher price or sell it cheaper.

As time increases, so does complexity. Some resources or products may become more expensive or cheaper (as, for example, less human work is needed with advanced technologies), so later with more complexity, it may be necessary to be as self-sufficient as possible.

https://www.sovietrepublic.net

Planned economy, but no fixed prices - I smell capitalist subversion.

I hope the socialism aspect isn't restricted to just soviet style models. The trailer certainly looks more like a conventional city builder with some soviet window dressing and not like a real planned economy / socialist system.

At least they seem to simulate queuing in front of stores:

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea it's kinda hard to see "planned economy" as being something unique because it's pretty much the default for builders because it's what gameplay and player agency demand.


Also, I'm sort of disappointed this game isn't called "Slavico".

 

[Space Satan]

Looks like a Tropico without cartoonish graphics. I've yet to see a good management and build strategy. Too many disappointments and half-assed cashgrabs lately

 

[thesheeep]

Yea it's kinda hard to see "planned economy" as being something unique because it's pretty much the default for builders because it's what gameplay and player agency demand.

I was also a bit surprised.
"Planned economy..." So Tropico, then?
But without the humor?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea it's kinda hard to see "planned economy" as being something unique because it's pretty much the default for builders because it's what gameplay and player agency demand.

I was also a bit surprised.
"Planned economy..." So Tropico, then?
But without the humor?

Honestly I can't really think of a game where things aren't skewed more on the planned economy side, simply because it's a consequence of having good player agency.

Like even outside of builders when you have games like Victoria, overall it's overwhelmingly planned economy. Victoria 2 is kind of a good demonstration since the primary purpose of the "free market" of the game is to automatically expand your factories thus saving you from an enormous, ever-expanding pain-in-the-ass chore, but overall the economic both direct and indirect are dominated by player actions (and the player's ability to conquer more coal, timber, and iron RGOs).

 

[laclongquan]

Fucking Finally! I've waited years for this

 

[laclongquan]

IF they set an option to build it on America with a caption "In this game you can turn your USA into USSA" then it would have trolled so many...

Then again, the shit storm would not be light, either.

 

[vonAchdorf]

They didn't mention any political simulation yet, so it's not really like Tropico. Currently they don't really drive home their differentiating factors, production and keeping the citizens happy (with cinemas and bars!) doesn't seem really different from other games. I hope that's bad marketing, not bad design.

 

[Space Satan]

Graphic is abysmal, it is beyond even Tropico 3 levels.

 

[Storyfag]

I wonder if the broken English is done on purpose

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

ҐЊԐҰ SӉФЏLD ЊДVЭ ЦSЄD ФИЄ ФҒ ҬЊФSЄ PSԐЏDФ-ҪҰЯЇLLЇҪ ҒФИГS ҬҢДҬ ДЯԐ ДҪҐЏДLLҰ LДГЇЍ ҪҢДЯДҪҐЭЯS ЪЏГ ҬҤДҬ ДPPЭДЯ ҬФ ЬԐ ҪЧЯЇLLЇҪ ДҐ ӺЇЯSҬ GLДЍҪЭ.

Spoiler

"They should have used one of those pseudo-Cyrillic fonts that are actually Latin characters but that appear to be Cyrillic at first glance."
http://jkirchartz.com/demos/fake_russian_generator.html
but I've seen better than this.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

if is no work camps, is no communist utopia simulator, komrade

 

[razvedchiki]

время для некоторых глубоких операций товарищей!

 

[Citizen]

Buildings look authentic, but the landscape in general is not depressing enough. I've never seen such a clear road marking in my life. Or those sidewalks between houses.

Also lol @ zhopolatsk

 

[razvedchiki]

glorious soviet architecture was not depressing,but how could you know that spawn of capitalism.

 

[Citizen]

glorious soviet architecture was not depressing,but how could you know that spawn of capitalism.

Looking out of my window? Ah, the beauty of old, greasy, dirty-grey panel 9-storey buildings. Also I'm talking about the roads/sidewalks/lawns, buildings are well done.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

glorious soviet architecture was not depressing,but how could you know that spawn of capitalism.

Realtalk tho, it is more than kind of a gloomy and barren in towns that were built just to permanently house a workforce and their families for whatever in the middle of nowhere where it can be just something like a random smattering of gray apartment complexes on a flat grass plain.

A more depressing thing really was the places left in total disrepair, like Viipuri or the old town of Tallinn.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Shit looks like Tropico without the humor.

A real simulation of socialist life would be interesting though. For example people had to wait 15 years for a new car, or queued before shops the night before which would make traffic interesting and kind of unpredictable. Do you put a few cars or meat into the shops?

The game fails on many levels though for example the cities were already there, and the real task was just keeping everything from disintegrating without maintenance.

This is just another shovelware title for millenials.

 

[Space Satan]

Almost every economic\management strategy so far failed in economic and management. Tropico suffers from railroad decisions, where you get oil baron and infinite money from oil. Or other build orders that you will never ever deviate from, others had same problems. Most try to compensate it with some original concept but economy and management parts becoming lost on the way.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I remember Offworld Trading Company trying to focus on the economical aspects, but I never played it, so I don't know how successful it was in this.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I remember Offworld Trading Company trying to focus on the economical aspects, but I never played it, so I don't know how successful it was in this.

Offworld trading is a snack that you could eat in the morning, and already look for another game in the afternoon.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Almost every economic\management strategy so far failed in economic and management. Tropico suffers from railroad decisions, where you get oil baron and infinite money from oil. Or other build orders that you will never ever deviate from, others had same problems. Most try to compensate it with some original concept but economy and management parts becoming lost on the way.

Agreed. The problem is really just that because necessary and honestly inevitable predictability you either have a situation where there are so many strategies of equal value that the economic/management aspect is irrelevant, or you have it lock into the patterns that were intentionally or unintentionally just plain better than everything else.

It kinda really shows too, managing the cashflow is not what one plays Tropico for, the most fun strategic aspect is really just combining succesful economic pattern (which you don't really even think about since it's a means to an end) with a pleasing or unusual aesthetic to urban planning and road network, which is then elevated by the humor of the game.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I play Tropico to shoot commies / capitalists.

 

[Citizen]

I play Tropico to shoot commies / capitalists.

If it's a historically accurate representation, you should be able to shoot commies here, too.

 

[lophiaspis]

Wasted opportunity. This could have been interesting if you were literally a planner for Dear Comrade Stalin and had to deal with the... interesting problems of such a situation. How to avoid the bullet? But it seems like a mediocre reskin of other games, eh, pass.