Paradox Studio Thread

[General Emílio Médici]

I am torn between amusement at the sheer insanity of the idea and amazement at the gall of Paradox.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Where the Medieval Kingdoms/CK2 converted would actually be useful is a CK2 Sengoku mod/Shogun 2 converter.

 

[Figger Naggot]

No one probably cares, but they put out gameplay footage for that new Star Trek game they're making. As expected, it's a Stellaris spinoff with focus trees. They didn't even bother making the UI look different. I guess they're going to be following the Creative Assembly model of reskinning the same game over and over again.

Shameless.

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

No one probably cares, but they put out gameplay footage for that new Star Trek game they're making. As expected, it's a Stellaris spinoff with focus trees. They didn't even bother making the UI look different. I guess they're going to be following the Creative Assembly model of reskinning the same game over and over again.

Shameless.

Wow. It's 1:1 on everything. Gonna be a full price(?) Stellaris mod, which already has a big Star Trek total conversion mod anyway. Wonder if the next Stellaris DLC will "coincidentally" have a bunch of focus tree junk, too. Who's even the audience for this?

 

[Snekposter]

Wow. It's 1:1 on everything. Gonna be a full price(?) Stellaris mod, which already has a big Star Trek total conversion mod anyway. Wonder if the next Stellaris DLC will "coincidentally" have a bunch of focus tree junk, too. Who's even the audience for this?

What really sucks is they ass-fucked that mod in their FTL rework they did ages ago where they didn't just force everyone onto the hyperlanes but also removed every single bit of engine coding relating to the other FTL types so modders couldn't add them back in.

 

[ATandTism]

Completely blanked that out somehow. I agree as a non-trekkie it could be a cool concept, however the fact that the one frame of that video that appeared to show the game basically looked like a modded Stellaris tickled me.

You can bet your ass that is exactly what it is, and they'll charge you $60 for it and $20 per DLC.

Edit: I just saw the 'gameplay' reveal and they aren't even trying to hide how it is just a reskin; amazing. Paradrones will eat this shit up.
Also since when were the Cardassians a major power? They were getting hand-held by the Dominion and would be a secondary power at best.

 

[Snekposter]

You can bet your ass that is exactly what it is, and they'll charge you $60 for it and $20 per DLC.

Edit: I just saw the 'gameplay' reveal and they aren't even trying to hide how it is just a reskin; amazing. Paradrones will eat this shit up.
Also since when were the Cardassians a major power? They were getting hand-held by the Dominion and would be a secondary power at best.

Prior to that they had A. forced the Federation to some unfavorable treaty terms by grinding them down in a war of attrition and B. had the civilian government of the Detapa Council launch a coup against the military government that had taken power ages ago which was interrupted by the Klingons ass-fucking both sides and forcing brutal treaty terms on them... which Gul Dukat then exploited by promising the Cardassian people Dominion membership would restore their lost glory, and all they needed to do was put him in charge.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I've bitched about this before, but Stellaris needs a feature to generate in galaxies that have asymmetrical empires with preexisting diplomatic relations, armies, internal politics, etc. The 4X symmetrical start shite is too boring to put up with playing and doesn't make sense in-setting.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

It's kind of retarded how EU4 does privateers as being navy ships (literally not private) engaged in commerce raiding.

A privateer is basically a mixture of PMC (naval mercenaries) and militia (in the sense that privateers tended to be drawn from the vast merchant fleets nations had, that would be cheaper to turn into commerce raiding warships than purpose-build and pay them.

Mechanically it makes more sense if there's something like a privateer pool based on your shipping buildings, maybe you issue letters of marque at the expense of losing your own commerce it could have conducted, and if you foot part of the bill (like governments often did) then you increase the pool of willing applicants. And the privateers ought to be directed against enemies, unless a nation has a tradition or something (representing nations like England that would raid anyone). Privateers don’t participate in offensive fleet actions (just raiding and self-defense).

Privateering should be a tool by which a nation with a massive seafaring infrastructure can still be damaging even if its fleet is sunk. The United States proved that pretty well in the Revolution, when it had a tiny navy but a massive privateering fleet on account of New England's vast shipbuilding industry.

Piracy in EU4 is gay anyways. No naval battles with pirates.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

By the way, Paradox has been sucking that Turkish cock even harder making the Ottomans the new symbol for their game on Steam (instead of the sexy musketeer it used to be).

 

[Blackstar]

By the way, Paradox has been sucking that Turkish cock even harder making the Ottomans the new symbol for their game on Steam (instead of the sexy musketeer it used to be).

Makes sense, they're Swedish lmao

 

[Midwit]

forced the Federation to some unfavorable treaty terms by grinding them down in a war of attrition

It was more that the Federation wasn't willing to commit to a full war when the Cardassians were, as far as the Federation was concerned it was a border conflict over a bunch of random colonies whereas for the Cardassians it was probably the greatest military achievement in their history. The fact that it ended in a compromise instead of a clear Federation victory emboldened the Cardies and they got a massive ego over it, and as they get more developed the more you realise that Maxwell did nothing wrong. Total Spoonhead death etc.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I wish Paradox would one day make horse nomads/Indians that work like Attila Total War, is an army with buildings attached to it.

Attila is basically the core experience I get from CK2 Horse Lords but better.

 

[Rendang]

I wish Paradox would one day make horse nomads/Indians that work like Attila Total War, is an army with buildings attached to it.

Attila is basically the core experience I get from CK2 Horse Lords but better.

They initially tried that concept with the Nomad origin for a DLC in Stellaris (Federations?), but scrapped it, because it required new AI behavior and tech for a single origin. Right now, there is a mod that adds the origin called Darkspace, but there probably isn't one in EU4.

(Paradox would've made it into a new DLC, anyway...)

 

[Sister Miriam Godwinson]

They initially tried that concept with the Nomad origin for a DLC in Stellaris (Federations?), but scrapped it, because it required new AI behavior and tech for a single origin. Right now, there is a mod that adds the origin called Darkspace, but there probably isn't one in EU4.

(Paradox would've made it into a new DLC, anyway...)

Frankly, this is what DLC should be. Additions that completely change the bsdic gameplay in interesting ways, not 2 new civics, 3 portraits and 1 storyline 5 events long for 15 bucks.

All they have to do is replace void dweller stations with "nomad fleets" that slowly crawl through systems gathering resources as they go and maybe can ignore closed borders at the risk of provoking attack if they do. Add several flavors - merchants, recugees, Shroud pilgrims, thieving space gypsies, Tyranid swarms, Mongol slave-taking hordes - and that is something people would throw money at.

 

[crowabunga]

Frankly, this is what DLC should be. Additions that completely change the bsdic gameplay in interesting ways, not 2 new civics, 3 portraits and 1 storyline 5 events long for 15 bucks.

All they have to do is replace void dweller stations with "nomad fleets" that slowly crawl through systems gathering resources as they go and maybe can ignore closed borders at the risk of provoking attack if they do. Add several flavors - merchants, recugees, Shroud pilgrims, thieving space gypsies, Tyranid swarms, Mongol slave-taking hordes - and that is something people would throw money at.

But making mobile habitables would require work

The most insulting part of Stellaris DLC is that Paradox then hardcodes a bunch of lackluster stuff like the Nemesis "Become the Crisis" system such that no modder is able or willing to touch it (e.g. imagine if modders had enough control that you could get different crisis paths wrapped up in the same UI but with some swap-ins like how some of the Traditions already have, or even a full-on replacement for pacifists/egalitarians/xenophiles that gave you a helpful anti-Crisis path), so a lot of their DLCs that could at least have value as a launching point for modders don't even get that minimum of desirability. Their last DLC absolutely worth the full price was Utopia, and that was years ago.

Don't even get me started on updates removing different FTL methods and multi-empire systems; because removing flavorful complexity is so fun, nothing feels better than losing inhabited planets to Primitives getting FTL in a system you've already colonized, or getting a shitton of badly-managed planets with 20 unique (sub)species each dumped into your borders by an ally invading enemy worlds in a system that you control the starbase of!

Edit: Scratch what I said earlier, I just realized Necroids was the last DLC absolutely worth the price, because it's the only way to handle (sub)species sprawl without genocide or Synthetic suicide (Spiritualists are right).

 

[Sister Miriam Godwinson]

Nah, subspecies sprawl can be easily fixed with homogenous genemodding and a liberal dose of brainwashing. Or a dose of liberal brainwashing, because best society is egalitarian where all factions are banned except the government-approved ones. Oh the irony.

 

[God of Nothing]

Finally played a merchant republic in CK2 and discovered how fucking broken they are. Also, boring. My fault for choosing Lithuania of all places and taking advantage of the uber defensive Romuva faith. There is no other real way to play it though, unlike CK3. Unfortunately, that means playing CK3, which is still missing more than half the features of CK2. What I'd give to have its contract system in 2 and nothing else.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

CK2 merchant republics are shitty, which is a shame as republican city-states are one of the more interesting features of that era (though they really came in near the end, admittedly). I have a ramblepost buried way back about them, but in summary:
1) There's no naval warfare even though there are practical ways to implement it and it's crucial to republics. (In fact, I mentioned Attila a while ago; it turns out it handles naval a lot like how I would have implemented it in CK)
2) There's no real trade system. You can build up networks of posts but there's no actual importing and exporting of strategic goods, you just build where number goes highest
3) Republican families fall behind easily and then cease to matter entirely, you are basically all on your own the whole time
4) Deterministic elections mean you'll never lose an election you contest, and retard AI means you never ever want to let yourself lose

An actual trading system is a really tough nut to crack, maybe Imperator would be a place to look (since it had trade while also having a more abstract demographic/economic model), but the political and military issues could 100% be fixed.

Hordes are kind of piss, too, but at least mindless razing helps make them better.