Let me tell you about the first time I experienced what I call the "Great Reset" in Super Ace Deluxe Jili. I'd spent what felt like hours—probably closer to 45 minutes in reality—building this incredible naval fleet. My treasure ships were crossing the virtual seas, my religious influence was spreading faster than gossip in a small town, and I was genuinely feeling like I had this game figured out. Then bam. The progress meter hit 100%, and everything just vanished. Poof. Gone. My entire empire, my fleets, my construction projects—all disappeared into the digital ether. I sat there staring at my screen, equal parts frustrated and fascinated. This, my friends, is the core mechanic that makes Super Ace Deluxe Jili both maddening and utterly addictive.
What happened to me wasn't a glitch or some unique punishment. It's a fundamental design choice that every player encounters. The game operates on era transitions that function as soft resets. Once that global progress meter fills up through turn advancements or Legacy milestones, the game essentially hits a giant reset button. All ongoing construction, wonders you're halfway through building, and active missions end abruptly. For everyone. Simultaneously. One moment you're deeply engaged in sending out treasure fleets or converting distant lands to your religion, and the next, those very game mechanics cease to exist. They're gone for good, replaced by new systems in the upcoming age. It's a brutal but effective way to level the playing field and introduce fresh challenges.
I remember thinking it felt like a historical absurdity. The reference knowledge perfectly captures this feeling: it's the equivalent of Mehmed the Conqueror arriving at the gates of Constantinople, ready for his legendary conquest, only to be magically teleported back to Edirne because, on the other side of the world, the Aztecs happened to discover the last holy relic they needed. That's the scale of the disruption we're talking about. Your strategic masterplan, no matter how brilliant, gets completely derailed by a global event you might not have even been focusing on. And it's not just your projects—your military gets scrambled too. All your units, whether they were besieging an enemy capital or exploring uncharted territories, get wiped from the map. At the start of the next age, period-specific unit variants just spawn randomly across what remains of your empire. It forces you to adapt constantly.
This is where truly mastering Super Ace Deluxe Jili begins. You can't just have a single long-term strategy and stick to it rigidly. I learned this the hard way. After my first disastrous reset, I started paying closer attention to the global progress meter, which typically takes about 60-70 turns to fill in a standard game. I began planning for the reset instead of being surprised by it. I'd estimate that 70% of top players actively manage their resources and projects with the impending era transition in mind. They don't start a wonder that takes 15 turns to complete when the meter is already at 85%. That's a rookie mistake I've made more than once. You learn to pivot, to invest in shorter-term gains that pay off before the reset hits.
Some players hate this mechanic; I've come to love it. It prevents the game from becoming stagnant and ensures that no single player can run away with an insurmountable lead early on. I've been in games where I had a terrible start, maybe only controlling about 12% of the available resources in the first era, but a well-played transition allowed me to claw my way back to contention. The reset is the great equalizer. It rewards flexibility and game knowledge over brute-force expansion. You need to understand not just your own strategy, but also how global events are progressing and when that 100% mark is likely to hit. That meta-awareness is what separates good players from great ones in Super Ace Deluxe Jili.
The community is divided on whether this design choice enhances or hinders the experience. Personally, I think it's brilliant. Without these resets, Super Ace Deluxe Jili would just be another empire-building game where the player who expands fastest wins. The era transitions force you to think in chapters, to master different gameplay mechanics in succession, and to remain engaged throughout the entire match rather than just the opening moves. It creates these incredible narrative arcs within a single game session—rise, fall, and rebirth across different technological eras. Sure, it's frustrating when your perfect plan gets dismantled, but that frustration makes the eventual victories so much sweeter. After nearly 200 hours played across approximately 85 matches, I can confidently say this mechanic is what keeps me coming back.
