Paradox Studio Thread

[mindlessobserver]

I think the most frustrating thing about Paradox's AI is its inability to set proper priorities. This works in both directions. Its very easy to "Game" the AI, especially in crusader Kings 3. You might only have an army of 800 dudes against their combined alliance of 5,000. But you also know that once they start an 18 month siege of your capital you can swoop down with your 800 and start a 9 month siege of theirs. Now, you would think given the danger of this the first thing they will do is realize 9<18 and immediately pull off the siege of your capital and go after you. But no. They don't. So you siege down their capital, capture the leader, and boom, your 800 dudes just won a war against a massive coalition of great powers.

And in the opposite direction if you are trying an overly complicated start (like say Cornwall), you would think that after an 8 year long war with Wessex, with the war goal at 93% and all that is required is one last battle to 100% and take the entire petty Kingdom, your ally West Francia would prioritize that last decisive battle over an independence war just started by some minor noble in the south of France. But no. Immediately pulls off the war that is almost won and goes to fight some asshole with 350 troops an entire year away. Scuppering 8 years of work in a war that was all but over. (if that sounds oddly specific its why I am pounding my desk atm)

Its rather frustrating honestly. Paradox needs to hire a game theory mathematician to teach their AI how to prioritize importance on win conditions. It could be as simple as telling the damn thing to prioritize winning a war when its at 90%+ before haring off to deal with the one that just started.

 

[LovisXVI]

I like that no one has commented on the most recent CK3 diary. Bc its about India and SE Asia. And no one gives a fuck. Noohooo Stalker Child. I will NOT redeem. Enjoy prison.

It looks interesting, but I don't have faith in their dev team not to fuck it up and prevent performance from getting worse (it's already bad). I feel like this whole expansion would have been better off as a few years down the line after Europe and the middle east got some better regional flavor, and building off that.

 

[Eumeswil4427]

I like that no one has commented on the most recent CK3 diary. Bc its about India and SE Asia. And no one gives a fuck. Noohooo Stalker Child. I will NOT redeem. Enjoy prison.

I browsed it for a little bit up until I got to the picture of religious piety icons and I was reminded that they still haven't reworked the already-barebones religion system in the game and I lost all interest in the dev diary from that point on.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

New dev corner for HoI4. They're adding coal as a resource, and adding energy usage to factories

And for "new era", all we get is coal.

 

[WarrenZHarding]

I think the most frustrating thing about Paradox's AI is its inability to set proper priorities. This works in both directions. Its very easy to "Game" the AI, especially in crusader Kings 3. You might only have an army of 800 dudes against their combined alliance of 5,000. But you also know that once they start an 18 month siege of your capital you can swoop down with your 800 and start a 9 month siege of theirs. Now, you would think given the danger of this the first thing they will do is realize 9<18 and immediately pull off the siege of your capital and go after you. But no. They don't. So you siege down their capital, capture the leader, and boom, your 800 dudes just won a war against a massive coalition of great powers.

And in the opposite direction if you are trying an overly complicated start (like say Cornwall), you would think that after an 8 year long war with Wessex, with the war goal at 93% and all that is required is one last battle to 100% and take the entire petty Kingdom, your ally West Francia would prioritize that last decisive battle over an independence war just started by some minor noble in the south of France. But no. Immediately pulls off the war that is almost won and goes to fight some asshole with 350 troops an entire year away. Scuppering 8 years of work in a war that was all but over. (if that sounds oddly specific its why I am pounding my desk atm)

Its rather frustrating honestly. Paradox needs to hire a game theory mathematician to teach their AI how to prioritize importance on win conditions. It could be as simple as telling the damn thing to prioritize winning a war when its at 90%+ before haring off to deal with the one that just started.

Honestly, if they just added a button to let you attach ai armies to your own (WHICH WE HAVE IN CK2), Id almost be able to forgive this. Ive lost so many goddamn battles I should have won because an ally sat two provinces over and scratched his ass. Ive ragequit entire runs because of this.

 

[Slap47]

We Darkest Hour now. They will never admit the civilian factory economy was a retarded idea from the get go, will they?

Darkest hours economic system is really underrated.

The bonus you got from producing one thing uninterrupted for a long time was obscenely massive and switching to new equipment/vehicles was a crippling disruption to that.
Central Planning was great if you planned on producing alot of one thing, but production slowed to crawl when switching to new stuff. Pushing the slider all the way to free market capitalism let you almost immediately switch to the newest gadgets, but at the cost of losing access to alot of your economy.

It unironically accurately represented German war production. During the buildup to the war the economy went from one of the most privatized in Europe under Hjalmar Shacht to a centralized command economy dominated by big business elites. Germany got access to so much of its economy for military production from this, but during the war itself Germany struggled to switch to new equipment. If you play Darkest Hour with mods that make it harder (Edge of Darkness or TRP) you simply have to centralize your economy to have enough units just to invade France. Meanwhile as the US you can always have the best units. Not because of events or focus trees, but because of the industry and free market economy you inherited from your ancestors.

The research system was also good. This war only lasted from 1937-45. Countries like Japan and Bulgaria should not be able to catch up technologically to the west in such a short time and the research team system really did a good job at representing that. IG Farben and Ford Motor Company's genius were the product of centuries of culture and history and should give countries an edge.

 

[Enginig Gaming]

>CK3 has no attach army button,no playable teocracies,no republic,no nomads and not bringing all the old functional mechanics from CK2
>Game was launched 4 and a half years ago
>It will add Japan first and let modders fix the issue later
Bravo Johan

 

[Red Dragon]

The research system was also good. This war only lasted from 1937-45. Countries like Japan and Bulgaria should not be able to catch up technologically to the west in such a short time and the research team system really did a good job at representing that.

This is what infuriates me the most in HOI4: the completely uninspired and generic research. Any true specialization in equipment is made only through National Spirits, and not every nation gets it. The MIOs could have been a way to further specialize, but there's not many of them and they take a lot of time to level up. The special projects should just be part of your regular research, not another fucking building that you need to waste time and resources on.

I could go on, but we all know damn well how half-assed everything is on HOI4.

 

[LovisXVI]

>CK3 has no attach army button,no playable teocracies,no republic,no nomads and not bringing all the old functional mechanics from CK2
>Game was launched 4 and a half years ago
>It will add Japan first and let modders fix the issue later
Bravo Johan

Johan has had nothing to do with Stockholm's retardation for years. He's busy making an actually good game in sunny Barcelona.

 

[Computer God Autism]

Johan has had nothing to do with Stockholm's retardation for years. He's busy making an actually good game in sunny Barcelona.

To be fair that's only been the case post-Imperator. Johan is still responsible for pushing mana as a driving concept in Paradox games and for getting minmaxxing retards like DDRJake into positions of authority. EU5 is shaping up to be an amazing redemption arc though.

 

[LovisXVI]

To be fair that's only been the case post-Imperator. Johan is still responsible for pushing mana as a driving concept in Paradox games and for getting minmaxxing retards like DDRJake into positions of authority. EU5 is shaping up to be an amazing redemption arc though.

Learned an important lesson from Imperator, no mana, also include content when you release the game.

 

[Enginig Gaming]

Johan has had nothing to do with Stockholm's retardation for years. He's busy making an actually good game in sunny Barcelona.

I know,i was thinking between him or naming DDRJake.

 

[WarrenZHarding]

https://youtu.be/PD6KHNKp5B0?si=fVgl9DjmBndrDlao

Speaking of content for Imperator, the Invictus mod is about to get another huge update. Arguably the most essential mod in all pdx games.

 

[Slap47]

I could go on, but we all know damn well how half-assed everything is on HOI4.

Hoi4 is the embodiment of Paradox's problematic understanding of depth.

More depth? You just add more shit. A poorly made intelligence/spying system that you need to fumble with every so often? Game is more deep and 15 dollars more expensive.

Paradox is at its best when a literal child can pick up their game and play it, but the game still has alot of nuanced mechanics and meaningful longterm decisions. Darkest hour, EU3, CK2 were this.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

The irony of Imperator Rome being more about the Roman Republic.

 

[East_Clintwood]

Not quite Stellaris levels of bad but still, 5 hotfixes in 10 days ain't exactly great.

 

[Computer God Autism]

View attachment 7569702
Not quite Stellaris levels of bad but still, 5 hotfixes in 10 days ain't exactly great.

@Slap47 on suicide watch

 

[Slap47]

View attachment 7569702
Not quite Stellaris levels of bad but still, 5 hotfixes in 10 days ain't exactly great.

TREATY OF LONDON

Republic of Paraguay
- We will not colonize North Africa
- We will not colonize East Africa
- We will not export steel into the French Market
- We will be neutral in the Franco-Prussian War

2nd French Republic

- We will give Paraguay half of our tax revenue
- We will magically help Paraguay pass a law

 

[The Wise Shaman]

Good news, everyone! We might have a non-Paradox grand strategy game on the market!

Hooded Horse—the publisher behind games such as Manor Lords and 9 Kings—picked up a grand strategy title known as Gilded Destiny.

Gilded Destiny takes place during the industrial revolution with a start date of 1822. The game seems to do what Victoria 3 failed to deliver to Victoria II fans, which would make it a more faithful sequel than what Paradox managed to deliver. It also adds some pretty neat stuff like a globe map, a HOI4-inspired combat system, a leader system where you can appoint people to manage certain parts of your government (no ugly 3D models this time), and built-in modding tools!

I recommend checking this Dev Diary out:

They are also releasing an alpha version to their backers this summer. (I was enough to give them money despite how I pirated every Paradox game I "own".)

 

[LovisXVI]

Good news, everyone! We might have a non-Paradox grand strategy game on the market!

Hooded Horse—the publisher behind games such as Manor Lords and 9 Kings—picked up a grand strategy title known as Gilded Destiny.

Gilded Destiny takes place during the industrial revolution with a start date of 1822. The game seems to do what Victoria 3 failed to deliver to Victoria II fans, which would make it a more faithful sequel than what Paradox managed to deliver. It also adds some pretty neat stuff like a globe map, a HOI4-inspired combat system, a leader system where you can appoint people to manage certain parts of your government (no ugly 3D models this time), and built-in modding tools!

I recommend checking this Dev Diary out:

They are also releasing an alpha version to their backers this summer. (I was enough to give them money despite how I pirated every Paradox game I "own".)

As much as I'll rag on PDX, this is a totally unknown quantity from a new publisher. I'll wait until it's actually out to get any level of investment.