Paradox Studio Thread

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Favorite Paradox Game?

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Slap47 said:
Eu4 was good on release and subsequent DLC has made it worse.
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I think it was fine until Dharma (and even then some were bitching), meanwhile Emperor and everything after absolutely confirmed that nobody even playtests the damn thing.
Slap47 said:
CK2 was also better before later DLC added retainers completely undermining the feudalism mechanics
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You mean retinues? They are expansive as hell to maintain and very slow to reinforce so I never use them, you're better off spending that money on upgrading your castles.
On the other hand, the one feature that definitively wrecked the game was the new crusade system which made catholics stupidly broken and completely trivialized the economy, luckily reverting it to the old one is a matter of changing a single line of code.
 
Not shown: Vicky 2 cause the steam thing doesn't compute well. I should play Stelaris again some time. Screenshot_20250510_124243.webp

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Is it me or are the streamers are just steamrolling the AI in EU5? Take some levy modifiers and they can't compete.
 
General Emílio Médici said:
I should play Stelaris again some time.
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Stellaris autist here, don't bother right now. They just did the biggest overhaul since the Le Guin patch, which was basically a total rework of the game. It changed most/all of the fundamental economic systems, and it completely ruined the game IMO. Even if the patch would appeal to you, though, you'll want to give it a few months. It is unbelievably buggy atm, far more than usual.
 
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hawkisnight said:
Is it me or are the streamers are just steamrolling the AI in EU5? Take some levy modifiers and they can't compete.
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People form 10-100 play these games so balancing is always going to be hard. I'm going to write it off as most of these people just being good at map games.
 
The Secret Sauce said:
Stellaris autist here, don't bother right now. They just did the biggest overhaul since the Le Guin patch, which was basically a total rework of the game. It changed most/all of the fundamental economic systems, and it completely ruined the game IMO. Even if the patch would appeal to you, though, you'll want to give it a few months. It is unbelievably buggy atm, far more than usual.
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The latest fix seems to have somewhat improved performance.

I dont know how any of this new shit works though.
 
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You know, I'm inspired to stop being a douche and ramble about Victoria II constantly and instead actually play it. I think I was kind of waiting for some perfect sequel that would make the diplomacy not want to scratch my eyes out, but that isn't happening now.

I do think EU5 sounds like it will be a better foundation for a Victoria mod than Victoria II can ever be.
 
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Ughubughughughughughghlug said:
You know, I'm inspired to stop being a douche and ramble about Victoria II constantly and instead actually play it. I think I was kind of waiting for some perfect sequel that would make the diplomacy not want to scratch my eyes out, but that isn't happening now.

I do think EU5 sounds like it will be a better foundation for a Victoria mod than Victoria II can ever be.
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I said it before but EU5 will be a better sequel to Victoria than Vic 3 was, it'll be way more in line with Vic 2 and people have already discussed doing a Viccy mod for it. Aside from that the only way to play a more modern version of Vic 2 will be OpenVic and that's not releasing until next year at minimum.
 
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Blackstar said:
I said it before but EU5 will be a better sequel to Victoria than Vic 3 was, it'll be way more in line with Vic 2 and people have already discussed doing a Viccy mod for it. Aside from that the only way to play a more modern version of Vic 2 will be OpenVic and that's not releasing until next year at minimum.
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I seem to recall the two biggest problems I had with V2, once newer games came out, being that the diplomatic model just felt like such thin gruel compared to EU4, no trade model at all (not even a simple one), and while the attempt to build an entire economic model off of microeconomic foundations was laudable - was the whole thing that made it so fascinating - it had so many flaws, some of them stupid, stupid mistakes that an economics consultant could have easily fixed, that then caused it to break down in late game in spectacular and idiotic and ahistorical ways. Some of these were just really amateurish. An economist would never start with having lexicographic preferences (I only want to fill these needs, and only up to a limit, before I start on these other needs), for example, and that genuinely matters because it leads to ridiculous crises of overproduction in the late game. Which fit Paradox's needs fine, it fit their Marxist view of history, but that's not how the real world works.

But it will never be fixed. Ever. I think there's still something to trying to make a Vicky-like (Grand Destiny is the new imitator, but I'm pessimistic about imitators ever coming out; see Grey Eminence), but it's better to have a more abstract model that you can actually play. And MEIOU and Taxes had a beautifully elegant and yet still realistic, thoughtful model of political economy. I really like the way it depicted development: the population first supports itself, up to a Malthusian limit. Then its excess labor (for how productive it is) produces wealth. There are no real goods markets, we're not trying anything that crazy (until, of course, they did, they couldn't help but try to reinvent the wheel no matter how impenetrable it made the game). Then urban gravity (existing development of the city) attracts people to the much more productive cities. Estate privileges cause an equilibrium level of corruption, estates are the primary developers of territory (and up to a point, the primary military power), estates have an equilibrium level of privileges they expect to receive, focus of game is the:
1) Intensification of agriculture
2) Urbanization (collectively, a Commercial Revolution)
3) Breaking of the nobility, which is facilitated by urbanization
4) Expansion of state power

I'd play it a bit. Thing was that, they did lean towards simulation in balancing over gameplay, and some fucking unavoidable Windows-style update from Paradox would always fuck it up. My longest MEIOU game was an Ottomans campaign.
 
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Well, Concert of Europe seems to be broken.
It is so sad to see these games just slowly peter out until they die.
Have to try PDM. I prefer it because I'm familiar with it. It also had Great Wars that were very thoughtfully done, lots of event framing to get you an alternate version of the WW1 that's still generic (events to trigger cascading alliances, revolutionary collapse if overrun badly like Russia OTL, neutral powers being drawn in like America OTL). My memorable Great War was Scandinavia (Swedish unification) as a Central Power bogging down in trench warfare after invading Scotland and subjecting it to a full blockade, which since the AI is retarded it kept trying to break with literally hundreds of men-of-war (against dreadnoughts) brought in from overseas. I went on to cycle (out of boredom) between Bourgeoisie and Fascist Dictatorship and created a Fascist Intermarium across Eastern Europe (Russia having disintegrated by event).

Concert of Europe was just nice in that it allowed for way more dynamism in Latin America. If going to play Latin America, why not play it out from the wars of independence? Or play Spain and try to win them, or play through Greece and Egypt's wars against the Ottomans.

Edit: Boot POD up
Click Texas
Click Decisions
Crash

Boot POD up
Click Texas
Click Decisions
Crash

BEAUTIFUL
 
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Ughubughughughughughghlug said:
Well, Concert of Europe seems to be broken.
It is so sad to see these games just slowly peter out until they die.
Have to try PDM. I prefer it because I'm familiar with it. It also had Great Wars that were very thoughtfully done, lots of event framing to get you an alternate version of the WW1 that's still generic (events to trigger cascading alliances, revolutionary collapse if overrun badly like Russia OTL, neutral powers being drawn in like America OTL). My memorable Great War was Scandinavia (Swedish unification) as a Central Power bogging down in trench warfare after invading Scotland and subjecting it to a full blockade, which since the AI is retarded it kept trying to break with literally hundreds of men-of-war (against dreadnoughts) brought in from overseas. I went on to cycle (out of boredom) between Bourgeoisie and Fascist Dictatorship and created a Fascist Intermarium across Eastern Europe (Russia having disintegrated by event).

Concert of Europe was just nice in that it allowed for way more dynamism in Latin America. If going to play Latin America, why not play it out from the wars of independence? Or play Spain and try to win them, or play through Greece and Egypt's wars against the Ottomans.

Edit: Boot POD up
Click Texas
Click Decisions
Crash

Boot POD up
Click Texas
Click Decisions
Crash

BEAUTIFUL
Click to expand...
You should play HPM.
 
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