Paradox Studio Thread

[Notgoodwithusernames]

rps had to append a clarification onto that
View attachment 977890
this is what the article's author looks like btw:
View attachment 977892
you're a pretty shit journalist if the devs have to call your editor to throw water on an inflammatory statement in what's supposed to be a promo piece. if I had to guess he bluntly asked about 8chan memes, the pr person fumbled an answer, and he made a bullet point out of that. either way it's safe to assume nobody at pdx is going to act like Daniel Vavra in face of this kind of criticism, which is a shame because that's what ck3 needs.

Games Journalism is the best reason to revive the teutonic knights

 

[Imperialist #348]

i guess the swede part of paradox had to come out completely at some point.

Games Journalism is the best reason to revive the teutonic knights

sign me up.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I'm not excited at all.

CK3 is just going to be CK2 with half the content. I'm pretty sure they've already said they're not doing multiple starts anymore (I play 769, 867, and 1066 in equal measure), and you won't get republics and nomads. Don't know how they're going to whore DLC and let you play as any religion, unless they just reset it to the start. And, given how CK2 went, I expect it to be way more role-playing, lolsorandom shit than historical ruler simulating.

This also proves they're never going to make Victoria III, though at that point, it may be a relief.

The one upside is that they may put their DLC on sale.

 

[Zaryiu]

I'm still amazed people buy DLC for paradox games. Like, why? Just CreamAPI it and never pay $20 for extra spreadsheet material and some 3d models.

Where can I get CreamAPI and how does it work? Sorry if that is a dumb question but I'm bat at computer stuff pbeyond the basics

 

[AmpleApricots]

Where can I get CreamAPI and how does it work? Sorry if that is a dumb question but I'm bat at computer stuff pbeyond the basics

Just pirate the whole damn game complete with DLC. Releases are aplenty everywhere and everything is set up correctly. If you're going to "steal" the DLC, might as well do it that way. Also has the advantage that you don't have the steam spyware always running in the background. Otherwise there are forums that talk about this steam underground stuff. Steam underground forums, if you will. Check your search engine.

Anyone heard about the new Stellaris pack with the mineral eating race trait? Reddits' Stellaris sub is deep-throating paradox hardcore over that one as usual, even though it's incredibly lazy and also broken in quite a few places. I've seen modders putting out more extensive work that's less broken and I could bet I've seen this very trait already in some mod. It just screams lazy. All the DLC is designed to look good at first glance, that's all that is to it. They don't care how it interacts with earlier DLCs or about the AI or anything else. Same thing with CK2. Gotta sell that DLC. Impulse buys and people saying "ehh, it's not that much money and the screenshots look nice" - That's their entire business model at this point. Every new game they're going to make will be designed to be a vessel you can write DLC for easily. It's basically candy crush level exploitation.

 

[Intelligent Calcium]

Anyone heard about the new Stellaris pack with the mineral eating race trait? Reddits' Stellaris sub is deep-throating paradox hardcore over that one as usual, even though it's incredibly lazy and also broken in quite a few places. I've seen modders putting out more extensive work that's less broken and I could bet I've seen this very trait already in some mod. It just screams lazy. All the DLC is designed to look good at first glance, that's all that is to it. They don't care how it interacts with earlier DLCs or about the AI or anything else. Same thing with CK2. Gotta sell that DLC. Impulse buys and people saying "ehh, it's not that much money and the screenshots look nice" - That's their entire business model at this point. Every new game they're going to make will be designed to be a vessel you can write DLC for easily. It's basically candy crush level exploitation.

The sad thing is that as far as species packs go, that one actually has pretty good value compared to say the Plantoid pack which is purely cosmetic but equally priced. Not saying this is reasonable value, just that Paradox has set the bar really low with their macro transactions.

 

[Jarolleon]

Famine is a part of the game, thats indias main problem.
The whole honor the confederacy is BS. the Non aligned path should be republican and the fascist path should be democrat.

It's a missed opportunity too. A fascist takeover of the US would destabilize things enough to encourage the South to rebel again, so it would make sense for the regime to throw a bone to the Southerners for political expediency. So you could have chosen between that big-tent approach and staying a true-blue Yankee empire. But instead it was "HURR DURR racist rednecks are just like Nazis amirite?", wasn't it?

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

It's a missed opportunity too. A fascist takeover of the US would destabilize things enough to encourage the South to rebel again, so it would make sense for the regime to throw a bone to the Southerners for political expediency. So you could have chosen between that big-tent approach and staying a true-blue Yankee empire. But instead it was "HURR DURR racist rednecks are just like Nazis amirite?", wasn't it?

Yeah, it's pretty stupid. Seems Paradox has lost any semblance of nuance and just wants to ram everything into as few labels as possible. I'm sure the next CK game is gonna be great, lol.

*edit* Just looking at comments on reddit. So many along the lines of "Oh, but both governments enslaved ethnic minorities" because that's apparently all it takes to be Fascist. Completely dismissing all the difference in style of government.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

The sad thing is that as far as species packs go, that one actually has pretty good value compared to say the Plantoid pack which is purely cosmetic but equally priced. Not saying this is reasonable value, just that Paradox has set the bar really low with their macro transactions.

I disagree. Purely cosmetic should be the norm for DLC. Core features should be in from a release, and added features should be bundled together in well thought out expansion packs. If you just want to give your dudes new hats then I'm fine with that costing five bucks and funding the other stuff.

Problem is Paradox doesn't really do the other stuff that way.

 

[Jarolleon]

Yeah, it's pretty stupid. Seems Paradox has lost any semblance of nuance and just wants to ram everything into as few labels as possible. I'm sure the next CK game is gonna be great, lol.

*edit* Just looking at comments on reddit. So many along the lines of "Oh, but both governments enslaved ethnic minorities" because that's apparently all it takes to be Fascist. Completely dismissing all the difference in style of government.

Vicki II had a somewhat better system, every party would have an ideology but also a platform and the platform would depend on the country as well as the ideology. Because US & German reactionaries would want different things by the 1880s or so. Fascism and communism were only exceptions, allegedly because these ones spread later from single origin points.

I haven't played HOI4, but looking at the tree I can interpret it as your regime scooping up various reactionary and fascist groups to form a power base because the decision above it is "Ally with the Silver Shirts". A bit like Hitler's motley coalition before taking power except done after the fact for some reason. Some redditor has a slightly more nuanced take of "Fascists steal old iconography and distort it for their own purposes" , and since the KKK were strong supporters of prohibition (a hideous example of federal overreach if there ever was one) they could have gotten a few historical illiterates to wave the Rebel Flag for a tyrant and not see the irony.

Also it sounds like the alignment system is doomed to pigeon-hole countries in nonsensical ways.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

Vicki II had a somewhat better system, every party would have an ideology but also a platform and the platform would depend on the country as well as the ideology. Because US & German reactionaries would want different things by the 1880s or so. Fascism and communism were only exceptions, allegedly because these ones spread later from single origin points.

I haven't played HOI4, but looking at the tree I can interpret it as your regime scooping up various reactionary and fascist groups to form a power base because the decision above it is "Ally with the Silver Shirts". A bit like Hitler's motley coalition before taking power except done after the fact for some reason. Some redditor has a slightly more nuanced take of "Fascists steal old iconography and distort it for their own purposes" , and since the KKK were strong supporters of prohibition (a hideous example of federal overreach if there ever was one) they could have gotten a few historical illiterates to wave the Rebel Flag for a tyrant and not see the irony.

Also it sounds like the alignment system is doomed to pigeon-hole countries in nonsensical ways.

I can see that, and I think that was the official reasoning from Paradox. But as much as I'd like to give Paradox the benefit of the doubt, I can't help but notice the direction in which they're taking newer games.

 

[Intelligent Calcium]

I disagree. Purely cosmetic should be the norm for DLC. Core features should be in from a release, and added features should be bundled together in well thought out expansion packs. If you just want to give your dudes new hats then I'm fine with that costing five bucks and funding the other stuff.

Problem is Paradox doesn't really do the other stuff that way.

In that case it's just mechanics that directly tie into the cosmetics, like a species trait for the lithoids which would be useless otherwise and is not even close to a core feature, but in general I agree.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

In that case it's just mechanics that directly tie into the cosmetics, like a species trait for the lithoids which would be useless otherwise and is not even close to a core feature, but in general I agree.

The "eats minerals" thing really should just be in a free patch. I guess the Terravore mechanics are somewhat more complex?

 

[Intelligent Calcium]

The "eats minerals" thing really should just be in a free patch. I guess the Terravore mechanics are somewhat more complex?

It's just a renamed version of another trait, the most notable thing about it is that when it came out it broke the game by making it impossible to research more than 4 technologies. which indicates zero testing.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

It's just a renamed version of another trait, the most notable thing about it is that when it came out it broke the game by making it impossible to research more than 4 technologies. which indicates zero testing.

Jesus. Every time I think maybe they're starting to get better...

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Vicki II had a somewhat better system, every party would have an ideology but also a platform and the platform would depend on the country as well as the ideology. Because US & German reactionaries would want different things by the 1880s or so. Fascism and communism were only exceptions, allegedly because these ones spread later from single origin points.

I haven't played HOI4, but looking at the tree I can interpret it as your regime scooping up various reactionary and fascist groups to form a power base because the decision above it is "Ally with the Silver Shirts". A bit like Hitler's motley coalition before taking power except done after the fact for some reason. Some redditor has a slightly more nuanced take of "Fascists steal old iconography and distort it for their own purposes" , and since the KKK were strong supporters of prohibition (a hideous example of federal overreach if there ever was one) they could have gotten a few historical illiterates to wave the Rebel Flag for a tyrant and not see the irony.

Also it sounds like the alignment system is doomed to pigeon-hole countries in nonsensical ways.

They fucked up, though, and made the US party policies the exact opposite of what they should have been.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

They fucked up, though, and made the US party policies the exact opposite of what they should have been.

Are you talking about Vic 2 or HOI 4? It's hard to lump the entire Republican or Democratic Party of the 19th/early 20th century into those narrow categories since there were prominent factions of each which were almost completely the opposite (like all the Progressives).

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Are you talking about Vic 2 or HOI 4? It's hard to lump the entire Republican or Democratic Party of the 19th/early 20th century into those narrow categories since there were prominent factions of each which were almost completely the opposite (like all the Progressives).

Vic 2. As I recall, it goes:
Southern Democrats - State Capitalist
Democrats - Interventionist
Republicans/Whigs - Laissez-Faire

This is completely ass-backwards and is just because they designed the parties with an assumption that Conservative = More control and Liberal = less control.

That dynamic may be true in Europe, but it's not in the Antebellum United States. The conservative party, the Democrats, were laissez-faire (very little intervention) and the Whigs/Republicans, the liberal party, were very pro-intervention. Very lazy, shows a minimum of research on the part of the developers.

 

[Emperor Julian]

Found a sneaky little piece of vandalism on a Sons of Abraham wikipedia page which made me chuckle. Looks like it's been there for quite a while.

Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

turns out plunkett hates jewish people.

 

[Splendid]

Vic 2. As I recall, it goes:
Southern Democrats - State Capitalist
Democrats - Interventionist
Republicans/Whigs - Laissez-Faire

This is completely ass-backwards and is just because they designed the parties with an assumption that Conservative = More control and Liberal = less control.

That dynamic may be true in Europe, but it's not in the Antebellum United States. The conservative party, the Democrats, were laissez-faire (very little intervention) and the Whigs/Republicans, the liberal party, were very pro-intervention. Very lazy, shows a minimum of research on the part of the developers.

This was also true in Hoi 3. Republicans were social conservatives and democrats were social liberals IIRC, but that political realignment didn't happen until the 60s.
They seem to have gotten better at it though.