最后说一些个人感受，虽然RE2如此优秀，但我不得不承认相较于开放世界或车枪球，她并不适合所有玩家，有些人会觉得这是世界上目前最好的游戏，但我不会这么觉得，就我个人而言场景过于阴暗了，玩起来有点累，有很多人觉得恰到好处，但我觉得有点影响我的体验。对于我而言Dead Space 2/3和Bioshock差不多是我能接受阴暗极限，生4有点不够阴暗，但RE2又有点过头了，最近看到RE7和RE: Village这些新作都是这个风格，我其实有些担心这会不会是一种矫枉过正。当然还有一种可能，如果RE2没有这么阴暗，可能也不会给我这么强烈的代入感了。
This is one of those books I couldn’t put down. It is additive partly because of the business gossip stories everybody enjoys, partly because (it confirms my hypothesis) there are indeed lots of simliarity in the challenges people face at work, regardless of the level, place and time.
I am surprised to find that me, being a small tech lead on the other side of the planet in the late 2010s, could share many similar experience and thinking as the CEO of a major media company in the world, who rised decades before I was born. I am sure anyone climbing the coporate ladder who reads the book would feel the same. How Iger handled all those challenges is a gem for us all. Reading this book, we can confirm what strategy could work, and get some advice when we are in doubt.
Here are just a few lessons I learned or confirmed from Iger’s story:
1. Priority
In my eagerness to demonstrate that I had a strategy for solving all of Disney’s problems and addressing all of the issues we were confronting, I hadn’t prioritized any of them.
You have to convey your priorities clearly and repeatedly. In my experience, it’s what separates great managers from the rest. … Inefficiency sets in, frustration builds up, morale sinks.
You can do a lot for the morale of the people around you (and therefore the people around them) just by taking the guesswork out of their day-to-day life.
Priority is often underrated because it is already in the good employee 101 book. When Iger writes about it while he is late in his career running for CEO, I can assure you it is not a new concept to him at that time. But people just took it granted.
It took 5 minutes in my career to learn priority is important. Maybe 5 days to learn some ways to prioritize things at work. But it took 5 years to realize what priority is about and the cost of it. It is not just about being smart or focused in allocating resource. It is about boldness and decisiveness. It is a bet that costs your ego and everybody’s money.
When you are busy enough, it is natural to fall into the trap of satisfying everyone, especially when you can still push for it. But making everyone happy only brings in a false sense of achievement. It does not bring good end result. It takes courage and confidence to say no to people or to yourself. You need to really give up something in exchange of a future you bet on. Being productive but greedy is often being mediocre.
2. Management
I have heard a lot of management methodologies in my career, many of which are contradicting each other. Now I am starting to believe that there is no such thing as management methodology. Management is the art of balance. The content is often changing and sometimes going in totally different directions under different scenarios.
Here is an excerpt of Iger on pressure management:
There’s no rule book for how to manage this kind of challenge, but in general, you have to try to recognize that when the stakes of a project are very high, there’s not much to be gained from putting additional pressure on the people working on it.
Projecting your anxiety onto your team is counterproductive.
It’s subtle, but there’s a difference between communicating that you share their stress—that you’re in it with them—and communicating that you need them to deliver in order to alleviate your stress.
It makes a lot sense, though I have also seen some managers doing the opposite and get things done.
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good.
Historically it has sometimes been synonymous with “republic”.
The noun “commonwealth”, meaning “public welfare general good or advantage”, dates from the 15th century.
Modern usage:
A title. It “does not describe or provide for any specific political status or relationship” in US.
3 countries: Australia, Bahamas, Dominica
4 US states: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia
2 unincoporated insular territories of US: Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico.
A few international bodies: e.g. Commonwealth of Nations, an organization primarily of former territories of the British Empire, which is often referred to as simply “the Commonwealth”.
Hoplites (early Roman republic, 578 BC - c. 315 BC)
Hoplite
Infantry with spears and shields. Often fight in phalanx formation. Originated from Ancient Greek city-states.
Equites
Almost the highest rank in the property-based classes of Rome, just below the senatorial class. They served as cavalry.
Manipular legion (mid Roman republic, 315-107 BC)
3 core heavy infantry types
Hastati
First line. Poor or young men who could only afford modest armor. Originally wielding a hasta (spear). Later supplied with a gladius (short stabbing sword), a scutum (squared wooden shield), and one or two pila (throwing spear).
Principes
Second line. Wealthy men with decent armor. Same weapon as the hastati.
Triarii
Third line. Old and wealthy men with high quality armor. Equipped with spears.
res ad triairos venit
In most battles triarii were not used because the lighter troops usually defeated the enemy before the triarii were committed to the battle. They were meant to be used as a decisive force in the battle, thus prompting the old Roman saying, ‘it comes down to the triarii’, which meant carrying on to the bitter end.
Support types
Velites
Front line light infantry and skirmisher. Youngest and poorest with no armor. Equipped with darts (javelin), a gladius and a parma (small wooden shield). Descended from earlier class of Leves.
Equites
Rorarii
Final line reserve infantry. Usually the poorest with no much fighting capabilities.
Socii and Latini
Troop from allied states in Italy.
Manipular legion
A legion consisted of 10 maniples of 120 hastati, 10 maniples of 120 principes and 10 half strength maniples of triarii containing 60 men each. With 1,200 velites and 300 cavalrymen a legion numbered 4,500 men. However, in times of great need the number might be reinforced up to 5,000.
Marian legion (late Roman republic, 107-27 BC)
Roman consul Gaius Marius carried out a programme of reform known as Marian reforms. From seasoned conscripts to voluntary or professional army. All citizens were eligible into the legion now regardless of wealth or social class.
Legionary
All classes of heavy infantry are formed into one homogeneous type.
Evocatus
Soldiers who had served out their time and obtained honorable discharges (honesta missio) but had voluntarily enlisted again at the invitation of the consul or other commander.
Auxilia: The roles of missile and cavalry support are fullfiled by non-citizen auxiliaries.
Marian legion
A legion consisted of 10 cohorts. A cohort composed of 480 soldiers. A cohort consisted of 6 centuriae each commanded by a centurion.
Each legion was partnered with an approximately equal number of auxiliae troops.
Imperial legions (Imperial Roman, 27 BC - 117 AD)
The structure remains the same. But more non-roman enter the legion and more professional armies.
Praetorian Guard
A new type dedicated to the protection of the Emperor.
Though it’s unlikely that I will play through the whole campaign again, I still want to write down these tips that I wish I knew earlier. Some of these are based on playing Rome in the Grand Campaign but the philosophy of playing any faction should be similar.
Provincial Management
The way I played provincial management is the same as how I played Shogun 2. That is to maximize commerce while keeping the public order and food supply afloat. I don’t think slaves, industry, culture and even technology are that useful in this game.
You can build duplicate buildings in the same province but not in the same region.
For provinces with at least three ports or three regions, especially those with Wine resource, I built as many Market Colonias, Trading Ports and Shops as possible.
Because the food supply applies at the factional level, so I dedicated provinces with only one port or only two regions to food supply. Build Forum Piscarium (Fishing Port) and Latifundiums (Farms) as many as possible.
When playing Rome, I usually pick a few provinces with good local auxillary units to put all my military buildings. Build as many Basilica of Mars as possible. Also build corresponding Practice Fileds even though I don’t think it’s that useful.
If you are playing Rome, pick provinces with good auxiliary units for military buildings, like Hellas with Cretan archers, Aquitania and Celtica with Noble Horse, Phazania with African Elephants (African forest elephant, smallest of the three elephant species on the planet.) and Numidian Cavalry (ranged Cav). Check out the auxiliary map.
Forums can only be built in the provincial capital region and they are more powerful than other buildings, I always try to build them as many as possible. Circus is a must because it brings most public order and allows me to maximize tax rate.
Besides Circus, Delicatessen/Taberna/Forum Cuppedinis is a top prioity to keep food abundant. Additional Latifundiums (Farms) in minor settlements are also needed. Exempt tax for high negative food supply province when your faction is low on food.
Cattle Trader/Slaughterhouse/Forum Boarium provides a good commerce output and Library/Archives/Scriptorium helps with technology development. The rest Forums are really not that useful in my way of play.
Basilica of Jupiter have all good buffs. It increases wealth from all sources, helps with public order, and boosts Tax Harvesting Edict. Build one or two in minor settlements. I decide not to build any other type of Basilica because it hurts my brain to do all the calculation and I don’t see anything amazing happens. I am happy with the Jupiter.
Sanitation buildings are really not that useful to me. It brings little benefit.
Politics and Houses
Use the generals from other houses to increase their loyalties. Personally I think avoiding civil war is much more important than those buffs from influence. But it really depends on your play style, if you like beating the hell out of other houses, only use your own generals.
One way to manage loyalty is to engineer some deaths for those with bad traits and are becoming house leaders. Charge them alone to the enemy.
Don’t hire idle politician for other houses. It increases their influence. Just make them generals or admirals and let them do transport or patrol work.
Hire candidates from your house and arrange marriage for them as soon as possible.
Household are not that important. Except for those with global benefits, I didn’t even bother to put them on.
Agents
Dignitaries decrease army upkeep or increase provincial tax rate. In the late game I use them only for increasing loyalty from generals.
Champions train your army or increase provincial public order. They also increase provincial loyalty when they have a certain high-rank skill. I usually put them in provinces controlled by other houses after they rank up just for the loyalty.
I never choose skills upgrades other than those related to the usage above.
Spies have many useful skills but I mostly use them for scouting.
I seldom use agents to counter other agents or use skills on other factions, because it is often more trouble than joy to me.
Army and Fleet
Faction income determines your armies and fleets size. Always keep an eye out on the income balance. I once recruited multiple full-sized armies and marched out, only to be sneaked attacked in the back at Rome and lose half of my income. I had to go through disarmament and cut down half of my military and fight back.
House of Conelia has half auxiliary upkeep so it is very powerful especially in the early game when you are short on coins. The rest factions and houses are really not that different. At least not as different as the Civlization series.
Units from your faction are cheap to keep while the mercenary is cheap to hire but has high upkeep. You can hire and fire them fast.
In the late game when your army is far from home, mercenary is a must.
Army and fleet traditions are really not that important. I usually go with the ones that bring immediate benefits like increase campaign movement range and plus public order, which may be considered useless to some people.
Shockingly I beat the game without using any of the fancy siege units or engines except basic ladder, ram and tower.
The general skills are a little bit complicated and didn’t really bring much benefits. You can actually pick whatever you want. Second wind and group inspire can be useful combat skills. Plus ranks for new recruits can also be useful. You can disband the general and raise the army again at the military provinces.
Combat Tactics
Spear man has high defense and sword man has high attack. They are the core of the army. Think of them as walls. Always try to flank the others to keep the effective contact size as much as possible.
Circle your archers and shoot your enemies in the back is very effective and causes less friendly fire, but is very dangerous to your archers. That’s why mounted missile units are handy.
Sneak around and charge your cavalry to enemies missile units, or to flank melee units in the back.
Generals can die very fast.
Ships are very dumb when they are squeezed together. So keep some space.
Melee ships are much more effective than missile and artillery ships to me.
Final Words
The order of technology really does not matter that much. It all depends on your play style.
Choosing skills for army/fleet/agents/generals can be very tiring and brings little benefits. So I only choose those related to my play style and ignore others.
Dipomacy is quite easy. Get trade agreements as more as you can. Use non-aggression pact to protect your rear. Military alliances and client states also count toward victory condition so use that.
Noob Coding
Noob Reading
(生2的Ada比生4/6里的有趣多了)
