Paradox Studio Thread

[Affluent Reptilian]

You might want to try out Total War. The grand strategy side isn't that in-depth (or tedious, if you look at it that way) but has real time battles instead of you just smashing your army with the enemy's. The series has had a rough history, though. The last entry that was universally liked was Shogun 2.

There are people who dislike Total War Warhammer?

 

[HumanHive]

There are people who dislike Total War Warhammer?

Seething hisfags mostly.
I personally like history AND Warhammer, but even so you really can’t have the demigod hero general system in a straight historical game; and since Rome 2 CA has been increasingly moving in that direction so now people blame TWW for “ruining” the mechanics.
But Rome 2 is the real start of the rot.

 

[Extremist Frank]

I don't mind the style of the map so much as hating when it flips automatically to direct vassal view or whatever map mode it thinks I want.

This is completely infuriating. I did forgot to mention the second upside to CK3, which is that cadet branches can now be established for dynasties. The downsides are every retard I give a piece of land to makes his own cadet branch and cadet branches are partially broken for bastards (if x has a bastard and then creates a cadet branch before legitimizing the bastard, x can't legitimize the bastard because the bastard doesn't belong to the cadet branch + the head of the dynasty can't legitimize him, so the bastard is stuck a bastard).

 

[Agarathium1066]

Seething hisfags mostly.
I personally like history AND Warhammer, but even so you really can’t have the demigod hero general system in a straight historical game; and since Rome 2 CA has been increasingly moving in that direction so now people blame TWW for “ruining” the mechanics.
But Rome 2 is the real start of the rot.

I'd argue Shogun 2 was the real start of their ideas pushing towards more active ability use in combat. Your generals and some more elite units had short term timing buffs, <weapon> heroes and their retinues were there, and the RPG styled tech trees were rolled out. Mind you, Shogun 2 was still fantastic but I think that's where the seed was planted.

I too enjoy both historical and the fantasy stuff. I'd rather they do what they did with 3K and have a hard toggle for how you want things done. Want some big name hero soloing multiple units then put it on fantastical but its funny that only some heroes or lords in Warhammer can match the big names in 3K or Troy despite being truly fantasy.

 

[Jimjamflimflam]

and asexual.

What in the goddamn fuck is this bullshit

 

[wopirish]

What in the goddamn fuck is this bullshit

Progressivism, once you stop you are a conservative.

 

[Marshal Mannerheim]

I'm guessing this is the thread for talking about CK2?

If it is, let me just share my playthrough.

Spoiler: the fuck happened here

This is Viking Russia Garðariki. I started doing a Holmgardr to Imperial Russia game and about fifteen minutes in just started going ”the fuck” at all the odd stuff there was. This includes:

A Serbian duchess taking ”remove kebab” a bit too literally

Italy and the Balkans well... balkanising
(yes, that's a massive Amalfi, yes, that's Lotharingia in Apulia and yes, that's Croatia trying to piss off Slobodan Milosevic)

Tengri Bulgaria with about 5 different Orthodox claimants to the throne

This mess. Oh, and Halfdan Hvitserk's descendents became Catholic:

Let me just remind you that the year is 880:

In conclusion,

 

[Marshal Mannerheim]

Spoiler: More CK2 weirdness

I put my son on the throne of Viking Sweden SviÞjod with a well-placed assassination because you never know when you'll need an ally. He turned around and did this:

The Tsardom of Russia might end up being a bit bigger than I planned. On the other hand, Orthodox Sweden is worth it for the meme value alone.
Oh, and I swear to God Odin that I had nothing to do with this, but a Viking adventurer has taken over Northern Italy and is preparing to invade Byzantium:

His dad is the chief of Åland, so I have no idea why he decided to conquer an Italian duchy for shits and giggles.

The year is currently 884 and I'm wondering what I did to deserve this.

 

[Snekposter]

The year is currently 884 and I'm wondering what I did to deserve this.

You started playing a Paradox game, that's what.

 

[Slap47]

There are people who dislike Total War Warhammer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QveMUso670s

Valound has a series on it.

 

[Marshal Mannerheim]

Spoiler: A very informatively named Byzantine Emperor

This is Basileus Basileios. Greek-speaking Kiwis might note that his name literally means ”King King”. Basileus Basileios is also an optimist.

Note that despite me occupying the contested territory for 3 years on end and defeating his armies in battle due to his commanders being massive retards and attacking with a numerically inferior army across a major river, he still says that the war's indecisive. But wait! I've got 100% warscore now, surely he'll acknowledge that I've won...

At least he acknowledges he's lost.

(For those of you wondering about the Viking invasion of Thrace, the Vikings nearly won and then their leader died in battle after a duel with a Georgian commander, taking their event troops with him. The Byzantine emperor is now BTFOing the Vikings, and so Orthodoxy was saved by a Georgian count's sword.)

 

[Marshal Mannerheim]

I decided that balancing Russian and Slavic tribesmen constantly wasn't for me and started another campaign as Alfonso Jimena, trying to do the Reconquista.

Then I looked over at Scandinavia and saw this:

Spoiler: What the fuck

The HRE decided to make an antipope and then the first crusade failed because the Catholic forces were blessed with a leadership made of absolute retards, so Catholicism's moral authority tanked. This led to this heretical fun.

From left to right, you have:
Norway (they lost their war with England, which is under the Norman yoke. The Ynglings then got kicked off the throne and Norway fell into a state of civil war. I later discovered that one of my vassals had the same culture and religion as me after forming Hispania and also had a weak claim, so of course I decided to invade freedomise it)
The County of Gudbrandsdalen (peasant uprising)
The High Chiefdom of Jamtland (Germanic revolt, which also controlled the duchy of Nordland as well. They got kicked out of Nordland by a Catholic revolt after I took this picture)
The Duchy of Ostrogothia (Cathar revolt)
The Chiefdom of Närke (Germanic revolt, no idea why the peasant leader didn't get a duchy)
The Swedish Revolt (Germanic, trying to put one of Erik the Heathen's daughters on the throne)
Sweden (barely surviving)

Then, the past decided to predict the future:

Odin God Allah only knows what happened here.

 

[Emperor Julian]

any norway campaign were you're not playing norse pagan is one were you're doing it wrong.

 

[No. 7 cat]

There are people who dislike Total War Warhammer?

Rome 2 started out as a crash every ten minute horror to becoming something that was well worth playing. The obvious question was whether the play testers were high or, fuck it if I know. The developers made a great play of engaging fans, some self important modder who made this deathly slow moving mod, I think. Fans, particularly those who live on game forums, sometimes have to be ignored. The recent games are just really mixed.

 

[Splendid]

Don't bother trying to balance CK, it's not that kind of game.

 

[AmpleApricots]

Stellaris biggest problem is that it's basically the game of timers. Even the resources are just timers. (There is no real economy) I mean, you could say that about any game like this and would be somewhat right but Stellaris doesn't even try to hide it with distractions. It'd even be forgivable if it wasn't so boring. I was thinking a year or so ago that empires should spawn smaller empires as that is probably an organic way for colonizing endless space; weirdos and the powerful setting out with specific ideas in mind. Somebody did the mod finally apparently and I have to try that out. Problem with mods sadly is they basically always fall short.

It's a sad thing because even Victoria way back in the day felt more alive. You actually had the feeling you had a population that does it's thing and not just numbers. Stellaris isn't shackled by a never-changing historical world map or the need to adhere to certain historical events and you should see a lot more dynamic stuff happening, from private corporations, to settlers to politics and what-have-you. Even with only your race in the universe it theoretically should never get boring. Yet all is static except the numbers that always go up. All leads to the same playstyles. You have vastly different government types in the game and in the end, the only difference is some flavor text and slightly different mechanics that lead to the same outcomes anyways. The game is a shameful , graphically nicely polished cash-grab with no soul, just like CK3. I don't think paradox will ever produce anything else again.

 

[vulg]

Bought Imperator while on sale to play the new Marius 2.0 update, only $9 at the time and I still feel ripped off. What a fucking mess of a game, any Youtuber or """"influencer""""" claiming that Paradox """"fixed"""" Imperator in 2.0 are shills and complete husks of """"men.""""

The game is essentially a speak-and-spell of switching one tag out for another, there's probably more strategy to be found in agar.io.

Spoiler: modern prdx enjoyer

 

[Intelligent Calcium]

Stellaris biggest problem is that it's basically the game of timers. Even the resources are just timers. (There is no real economy) I mean, you could say that about any game like this and would be somewhat right but Stellaris doesn't even try to hide it with distractions. It'd even be forgivable if it wasn't so boring. I was thinking a year or so ago that empires should spawn smaller empires as that is probably an organic way for colonizing endless space; weirdos and the powerful setting out with specific ideas in mind. Somebody did the mod finally apparently and I have to try that out. Problem with mods sadly is they basically always fall short.

It's a sad thing because even Victoria way back in the day felt more alive. You actually had the feeling you had a population that does it's thing and not just numbers. Stellaris isn't shackled by a never-changing historical world map or the need to adhere to certain historical events and you should see a lot more dynamic stuff happening, from private corporations, to settlers to politics and what-have-you. Even with only your race in the universe it theoretically should never get boring. Yet all is static except the numbers that always go up. All leads to the same playstyles. You have vastly different government types in the game and in the end, the only difference is some flavor text and slightly different mechanics that lead to the same outcomes anyways. The game is a shameful , graphically nicely polished cash-grab with no soul, just like CK3. I don't think paradox will ever produce anything else again.

Stellaris is basically just the most advanced form of cookie clicker. It tricks you into being engaged but it's extremely shallow. When the monotony of waiting out timers gets broken up by a war, it gets even worse because it's just a matter of catching them out with your doomstack or scaring them off with inflated starbase powerlevels. I gave up on it when Federations hit so I don't know what state it's in right now, but back then they couldn't even get the most basic elements of the game to work properly, yet most people didn't realize it because the game is so shallow that they can't tell the difference between an AI that's still working and one that stopped working halfway through their campaign and is just sitting there, while the players look at their timers and think they're playing a video game.

 

[Kane Lives]

Stellaris is basically just the most advanced form of cookie clicker. It tricks you into being engaged but it's extremely shallow. When the monotony of waiting out timers gets broken up by a war, it gets even worse because it's just a matter of catching them out with your doomstack or scaring them off with inflated starbase powerlevels. I gave up on it when Federations hit so I don't know what state it's in right now, but back then they couldn't even get the most basic elements of the game to work properly, yet most people didn't realize it because the game is so shallow that they can't tell the difference between an AI that's still working and one that stopped working halfway through their campaign and is just sitting there, while the players look at their timers and think they're playing a video game.

In the race to """balance""" Stellaris, they forgot one important ingredient: you need a game to balance first.

As it is, Stellaris is inching back towards being a game, one overpriced DLC at a time, but the pace has been abysmal, and their approach is very reminiscent of EU4: just bolt on more systems brah and hope nobody notices. At least in Stellaris it kinda works because there really isn't a game there, and they NEED those additional systems to provide some depth.

 

[Marshal Mannerheim]

any norway campaign were you're not playing norse pagan is one were you're doing it wrong.

Indeed.

The problem with paganism is it gets very easy to blob. I was once fucking around in Russia and managed to take over all of de jure Sweden by inheritance, and that's before we talk about how county conquests can mean you end up owning half of Ireland.