Paradox Studio Thread

[AcidityLiquidity]

TIL about Paradox actually having a subscription service for dlc. People still give them money?

We live in an age where Corporations are the new religions and have many loyal wallets following their One True Brand.

 

[Stoneheart]

It'll be like Stellaris where they throw a fuckton of classic science fiction (well, in this case fantasy) elements and tropes into what sounds like the coolest game ever, and then it comes out and it's an obvious beta and a few years, patches, and DLC later it's almost totally different.

Launch day Stellaris worked pretty well, the changes are mostly to make room for expansions with new systems. nice features like the old, fancy pop screen had to go for cool features that look meh.

I have always been happy with the game, in every state since i got my copy in the mail.

It was their best Launch by far.

 

[vulg]

with high infant survival rate and easy to gain skills, CK3 is already pretty fantastical.

yeah, I use mods that dramatically increases both the birthrate and mortality rate. Making the characters more fragile makes the dynamic a lot more interesting and historically accurate. I also use a mod which makes distance a variable in vassal happiness, the further away, the unhappier the vassal, and therefore more autonomous.

One of the most popular mods on the workshop is a mod that makes the game significantly easier, which is fucking crazy, because the game already comes with an easy mode built in and is, by default, a pretty easy game.

 

[HeyYou]

with high infant survival rate and easy to gain skills, CK3 is already pretty fantastical.

That's actually a good point, and why so many people are complaining about partition and not all their kids dying. I feel like your wife dying in childbirth should also be more common, a lot of kings who lived to an old age had 3-4 wives because of it.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

I'd say knowing the traits of every single character in the world adds to the fantasy. Imagine if all of those were hidden and could only be discovered through interaction.

 

[Stoneheart]

Now their retarded launcher stays blank... why cant they just delete that retarded piece of shit, it takes ages to load half the time and nothing in it wokers as intended or is designed in a good way...

 

[Figger Naggot]

Now their retarded launcher stays blank... why cant they just delete that retarded piece of shit, it takes ages to load half the time and nothing in it wokers as intended or is designed in a good way...

I tried pirating Stellaris today and can't figure out to make mods work anymore. The method I used for the old version doesn't work, and even though it uses the same sort of launcher, the method I use for HOI IV doesn't work either. That whole Paradox Launcher thing sucks. I guess, until I find a way around it, it's mildly effective anti-piracy, even though I see people that buy the games bitch about it all time. Really owned the pirates there, Paradox.

edit: Turns out I'm retarded and didn't path the .mod files correctly. The mods are working now. The weird launcher couldn't even stop me from doing that lol.

 

[vulg]

I tried pirating Stellaris today and can't figure out to make mods work anymore. The method I used for the old version doesn't work, and even though it uses the same sort of launcher, the method I use for HOI IV doesn't work either. That whole Paradox Launcher thing sucks. I guess, until I find a way around it, it's mildly effective anti-piracy, even though I see people that buy the games bitch about it all time. Really owned the pirates there, Paradox.

Paradox games have all the mods run through the launcher now, and Paradox's DRM is managed through the launcher. However you can enable the mods by editing the dlc_load.json file without launching the game through the launcher.

put the mod into the mod folder
open dlc_load.json through notepad
edit the enabled_mod: ["mod/(insert mod title).mod"]
then launch the game directly.

This kind of shit requires a lot of trial and error unfortunately, most of their anti-piracy just relies on mild annoyance and inconvenience.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

Eh, the base games always go on pretty steep discount. Now the DLC? Don't spend a cent.

 

[Figger Naggot]

Paradox games have all the mods run through the launcher now, and Paradox's DRM is managed through the launcher. However you can enable the mods by editing the dlc_load.json file without launching the game through the launcher.

put the mod into the mod folder
open dlc_load.json through notepad
edit the enabled_mod: ["mod/(insert mod title).mod"]
then launch the game directly.

This kind of shit requires a lot of trial and error unfortunately, most of their anti-piracy just relies on mild annoyance and inconvenience.

Yeah, I used to use that method with HOI IV when they first changed the launcher. Now I just enable them with the dowser.exe thing in the game folder, close it, and launch the game directly. Saves me a bit of trouble from having to manually edit the json file. It wasn't working because I didn't fix the "path" part in the .mod file correctly. Just make sure to block the dowser.exe with a firewall. Idk if it'll get all fucky if it makes an outbound connection.

 

[Radola Gajda]

I started using Irony mod manager for pdx games I dont own on Steam . (Eu4 stellaris) And So far it works well.

 

[HeyYou]

Literally just edit the launcher-settings.json file and set the distribution platform to be GOG instead of steam and you can sign in to your Paradox account from the launcher just fine. You can use a VPN if you're worried.

 

[Fuck Y'all]

Johan eternally BTFO (archive)

 

[HeyYou]

At least Johan admitted he fucked up and that this was the latest in a long string of failures, but I expected more than "we'll fix it bro, I promise". Either way, EU IV pretty desperately needs to be put out to pasture at this point, and I'm confused if that's what Johan is indicating will happen.

 

[vulg]

(archive)

I don’t know, I actually hope that Johan doesn’t get fired. He’s made so many mistakes that I hope he’s learned from them.

Not to mention that he was the one who personally oversaw Imperator’s overhaul from a mana to a pop game.

Hopefully he has the foresight to see that EUIV is a bloated corpse and dedicates more energy into a new project, and has learned that these aren’t mobile games.

 

[Marshal Mannerheim]

Here's a bunch of weird screenshots I thought I'd share:
This is from my Norse India game and... well, I'll let the title of my screenshots speak for themselves.

Spoiler: Slightly lost Zionists

Yeah, yeah, I know, steppe hordes invading Bulgaria or the Byzantines isn't that odd and them being (((steppe hordes))) doesn't make that any different. What's amazing is that he didn't get removed in favour of the many Orthodox claimants to Bulgaria, or that he actually managed to convert his vassals to Judaism, or that the Byzantines didn't holy war him.
Now some of you might be wondering what the grey blob in Epirus is.

Spoiler: Guiscard and Frankocratia

Here we have a Norse adventurer who was born into the ruling family of Åland and who decided to conquer Venice. This isn't too odd for an 867 start and I've definitely seen things like the Petty Kingdom of Benevento or whatever appear as the Karlings balkanise. What is odd is that he won an invasion of the Byzantine Empir- sorry, Miklágarð.

Of course, because Gorn's co-religionists were halfway across the world, the Crusaders won and told the Byzantines "lolno" when asked if they'd like to give Greece back.

Don't ask me why he became Greek - I've seen worse, including a Welsh King of Jerusalem deciding to start speaking Arabic and calling his country Filastin - but he seems desperate to form Jerusalem (sorry, Philisteia) a few hundred years early. I left those silly Latins to do whatever it is Franks larping as Greeks do and went on trying to bring Norse culture and Nestorianism to India. Until one day the Pope decided to call another Crusade. Expecting it to be for the Holy Land or for England which had just BTFO by a Norse prepared invasion, I was surprised to see a crusade for... Greece?

This, kids, is why if you happen to be in charge of a crusader kingdom and your nice Court Chaplain tells you all about what a good idea becoming a heretic is, you throw him in the dungeon.

Spoiler: What are you doing, Byzantium?

On the theme of Greek weirdness, the Byzantine Empress has managed to occupy the capital of her enemies which is, er... Constantinople!

I'm assuming that the Ecumenical Patriarch sided against her in a faction revolt, although that doesn't explain why she hasn't been excommunicated.
What I always find odd is how Byzantium manages to get destroyed by Muslims and revolts if the AI holds it but the second I take it over, it stays incredibly stable and all I have to do is park my spymaster in a province every now and again and, at worst, revoke a few vassal duchies.

Spoiler: asjdkfdfaxdsrg;rxj

Today we can learn that Indian aristocrats name their children in the same way I name random files on my computer:

It's right up there with what happens if the Welsh take over Scotland (from a different game of mine)

The Welsh seem insistent on naming their towns in the same way Virgin Media creates wifi passwords.

Spoiler: Och aye-llahu akbar

Don't even ask me what happened here.

The way he has a strong claim on Scotland plus the way he's in the title history of Scotland would suggest he held the Kingdom of Scotland, but he doesn't hold any strong claims on counties which usually happens when someone loses a title. He's also a Child of Destiny, which probably means he invaded Scotland, but he can't have had a host as he doesn't have any troops.

I also tried to do an achievement run by going for Defender of the Holy Sepulchre (hold the Kingdom of Jerusalem after a successful First Crusade starting as Eustache de Boulogne), Crusader King (hold the Kingdom of Jerusalem starting in 1066), Protector of the Holy Places (have Rome, Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem in your realm) and finish off with Deus Vult (form the Empire of the Outremer).
The game decided to change my plans by throwing all sorts of weird shit at me.

Spoiler: England

First off, as anyone who plays 1066 knows, what normally ends up happening is that William lands in London and BTFO's Godwinson while Hardrada just sieges down the North. William takes the crown and founds his bloodline, then because Hardrada controls a lot of the North loses one battle, surrenders, and Hardrada unites the English and Norwegian crowns before they split on his death. Whoever gets England traditionally gets chucked out by the English lords, and for some reason it's usually in favour of Edgar Atheling although I've seen the Knytlings or the Duke of Mercia get the throne. However, this time that didn't go to plan:

He still has his event troops, but lost his invasion. I'm guessing he was imprisoned while leading his troops? Either way, as you can see from the cultural names, England is still under Anglo-Saxon rule - and by a Godwinson, too:

Hardrada white peaced out, then died peacefully, and his son still has a claim on England, but has no intention of pressing it:

However, the French weren't going to be persuaded that easily to leave the idea of conquering England alone, and so this happened:

Now, how often do you see these two things?

Spoiler: Mideast weirdness

First off, the Fatimids.
Normally the Fatimids do badly (because they're a weak, decadent Shi'a dynasty surrounded by Sunnis) and fall to a decadence invasion which gets cleaned up by Bedouins, Copts and Crusaders. Not this time, however:

So, they actually held on to Egypt and Jerusalem (which is pretty impressive given Egypt is still Coptic and Jerusalem is Sunni) and so far they've managed to reclaim Tripolitania and Sicily and are just about to take Tunis, as well as bringing their decadence down to the point where they don't have to risk revolts. It'll be interesting to see how the First Crusade does against them or whether they manage to beat Genoa, which seems pretty determined to take North Africa for itself.

Oh, and the Doukas family didn't just stay on the Byzantine throne:

but managed to beat the Seljuks in the first war for Armenia, and is currently beating their attempt to invade Anatolia off:

Finally, have some funny things I saw:

Spoiler: A very ballsy Patrician

I have no idea why he, of all people, is invading the HRE, but if it stops them blobbing then I'm all for it.

Spoiler: Suomenusko weirdness

This is funnier if you know that "akka" means "old hag" or "bitch" in modern Finnish.

 

[Slap47]

TIL about Paradox actually having a subscription service for dlc. People still give them money?

I tried this service for ck2 and it was fine. You get all of the DLC through the library, and can even set up a bunch of campaigns before your subscription expires to play them later with the DLC still functioning. I don't know if you can get achievements with this but it's a silly little exploit. You can review the DLC but lose that ability when the subscription ends. Ignoring the DLC itself, it's an entirely fair system.

I can't imagine ever buying most of this stuff. Most of these DLCs were pretty lackluster or were just gimmicks that got boring pretty quickly. Some of them are necessary for the game to actually be good or added one good feature along with a bunch of garbage.

The China DLC was especially strange. China conquered the Abassids and then started spreading to West Africa and Western Europe in two different campaigns. Other than that, China just gives you a bunch of free stuff that makes the game 10x easier.

I think I'm done with modern paradox games or at least buying them. I don't have the time and these DLCs aren't really worth it if you don't have the time.

 

[SiccDicc]

I don’t know, I actually hope that Johan doesn’t get fired. He’s made so many mistakes that I hope he’s learned from them.

Hate to tell you this, but if he keeps making mistakes it means he's not learning.

 

[BootlegPopeye]

Plus Victoria 2 comes from a better era of Paradox anyway when they were at the sweet spot between "small company that doesn't have the resources to properly check for bugs" and "big company that doesn't care to check the game for bugs".

Victoria two was the last paradox game that I actually liked. And I agree with sort of a sweet spot because it had modern high resolutions instead of the lower ones that the earlier games had, and it was the last paradox game that they did not DLC whore.

I did play crusader Kings 2 for a bit, but the way in which they churned out endless DLCs was so obscene I just said enough. I remember at one point you would have had to spend over $200 for all the DLCs for crusader Kings 2. I don't even want to know what their newer games would cost if you bought every DLC they put out.

And over time, their forum which used to be full of smart and interesting posters had a culture flip and now they deliberately spurn the fan base of their older games.

 

[Marshal Mannerheim]

China conquered the Abassids and then started spreading to West Africa and Western Europe in two different campaigns

That's weird.

I've played a few games with Jade Dragon on and the worst that ever happens is China making Tibet and the steppes its bitch, so pretty much what happens nowadays anyway.

Did you have an expansionist, golden age China by any chance?