Posted December 16, 2019 by Northronics
Rival Powers: Cold War is a grand strategy game set in the Cold War era. This post will give you some insight into the design of the game now and in the future.
This is an early access game and the game is playable but very barebones. If you want to contribute to the development of the game, or you want to buy it at a discounted price, buy it now. If you want the best possible Cold War experience, buy it later. There are issues with the map, such as inaccuracies and missing values, and most countries have very little flavor. Long story short, there is a lot to be done before the game is ready for 1.0.
I recommend using the Itch.io client to manage your installation, so you don't have to download the entire game again every time it is updated. Expect frequent updates. There should be no crashes, hangs or UI errors, but if you see any please make a thread in the discussion board so I can fix them.
Here are some of the key concepts that you need to know when playing the game. All of these are subject to change as I add more and more features to the game.
All countries have political policies that determine the workings of the country, how leaders are selected, how much is spent on the military, and what kind of economic system is favored. You may not always see all the potential policies in a policy category, if you do not fulfill the requirements to adopt that policy.
National focuses are selected by clicking the second row of the header bar and choosing a focus. Think of them as the Focus Trees in Hearts of Iron 4. National Focuses take time to process and give modifiers while they are being "focused on". When they are done, they may also have a number of effects on the world.
These values can be found by selecting a country and reading the labels, or hovering over the information labels.
Most of the game content is in the form of the scenario in the assets folder. There you can inspect and edit national focuses, events, etc. or create your own. Check out the existing events, national focuses and diplomatic/covert actions to get a sense of what is possible. If you have modded Paradox games the scripting language should make sense.
If you spot an inaccuracy in the game world, please create a thread in the discussion board here on Itch, and I will try to fix it before the next update. I fix inaccuracies as I come across them but the world is large.
Ideas for national focuses, both for history as it happened and interesting alternate history are very welcome, as are ideas for new policies.