Paradox Grand Strategy: From the Carnival of Lust to the Enlightened Times

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Nombres: Jul 16, 2009

So I just had a weird thing happen to me in Vicky 2.

I was in the middle of a Great War as the United States, with easily the highest military rating. It was me, Prussia, and Great Britain against France, Russia and Austria, plus everyone's minor buddies.

I'm forming up my doomstacks in the Balkans, where Bulgaria, Greece and Albania are in my sphere, and begin my offensive against southern Austria. I'm kicking righteous rear end, driving towards Vienna, crushing French and Russian armies along the way, when all of the sudden half my armies vanish. Not like, the Soldier POPs cause a few brigades to disband, but rather they just vanish off the field. At literally the same time, Russia peaces out of the war. It's like Great Britain made a deal with France to disband half my armies - more than half, since I go from ten stacks in Europe to three - in order to keep things fair.

What on earth happened? I didn't demobilize or anything, because my mobilization stacks are all still back in the US, loading up on the ships for the invasion of France, along with the rest of my regulars. There was no revolt that my stacks joined, and even if there was, only a few brigades had the marker on them - certainly not whole armies.

I didn't go bankrupt or anything - I'm running a pretty big deficit, but I have a huge warchest from peacetime, so I'm not anywhere near coming into the red. So if there's any auto-bankruptcy mechanic (I don't think there is), I haven't seen it.

As an aside, I decided to reload from the last autosave and try again - only to have Great Britain (the war leader) peace me out of the war, apparently unilaterally. Like I was just kicked out of the war. I get the Great War Reparations thing, which takes me from something like 1000 military score to zero in half a second. We weren't even losing the war, my side had 50% warscore before I got peaced out.

Is there some weird event that causes half your units to disappear, or forces you to auto-lose a war? In my Persia game, every Great War went off without a hitch.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 14:40

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# ? May 30, 2024 16:27

Space Pussy: Feb 19, 2011

Alchenar posted:

I'm pretty sure each Total War game is more successful than the next. They just know that their games are about blocks of men marching against each other and don't want to make a game that would be completely different.

Do we have any numbers on that? MTW2 seems like the most popular with how active the modding community still is. I imagine thousands bought the game just for the LOTR mod alone.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 14:42

John Charity Spring: Nov 4, 2009; SCREEEEE

Space Pussy posted:

Do we have any numbers on that? MTW2 seems like the most popular with how active the modding community still is. I imagine thousands bought the game just for the LOTR mod alone.

The modding community isn't a particularly good measure, since it's only ever been a very small proportion of players who bother to mod the games. I remember when Empire Total War was released it was certainly Creative Assembly's biggest-selling one to date, even topping all-formats sales charts in the UK (which no Total War game had ever managed previously, and few PC games manage it for that matter). I haven't seen figures on subsequent games but even with the negative reactions Empire got I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they've kept going from strength to strength.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 14:54

ExtraNoise: Apr 11, 2007

I tried out the Modern Age mod to see what it was like and had a lot of fun with it (despite its many Pop flaws). The one thing that was really bothering me though was that the interface and everything was all 19th century still.

So I took matters into my own hands and started re-working all the graphics. Learning about DDS files has been rage-inducing, but now I feel like I've got a good flow and things are starting to come together.

Here are some works in progress:

I created a new title screen:

The leader figureheads are now modern:

And the newspapers are now digital:

The mod still needs a lot of work, and the guy doing it is kind of flaky because whatever country he is in is having political turmoil at the moment. I think with some polish and fixing the Pops, it could be a really great mod.

At the very least, I'm having a lot of fun.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 17:58

csm141: Jul 19, 2010; i care, i'm listening, i can help you without giving any advice; Pillbug

Now I'm imagining opening up Slate and reading an article about the heroic deeds of South Sudanese civilization.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 18:37

Ms Adequate: Oct 30, 2011; Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling

Those are some cool graphics ExtraNoise, keep us up to date on that!

# ? Jul 12, 2013 19:46

Kavak: Aug 23, 2009

Yeah, it looks pretty good, especially the title screen! It suppose it'd be impossible to make custom models (I'd play with counters if they let me, blame Darkest Hour), but whoever is doing the tech should change the default soldier model to the latest game one possible so it looks more appropriate.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 19:59

Ofaloaf: Feb 15, 2013

A Buttery Pastry posted:

You're as prejudiced as the people on the official EU4 forum, who just can't see how right EU4 mechanics are for the 19th/early 20th century!

Talking to that guy is like talking to a brick wall. "If you haven't actually played the game, you can't claim to know anything about game mechanics" is a terrible argument to make.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 20:08

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Ofaloaf posted:

Talking to that guy is like talking to a brick wall. "If you haven't actually played the game, you can't claim to know anything about game mechanics" is a terrible argument to make.

Worst part is, he's just the tip of the iceberg, the forum is full of those people. Life must be one grand adventure for them, given their seeming inability to deduce anything.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 21:09

Westminster System: Jul 4, 2009

Oh hey Slitherine is making a remake of Buzz Aldrin's Space Manager or whatsits.

Why can't you do these kind of things, Paradox. You're breaking my heart.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 22:22

Kavak: Aug 23, 2009

There seems to be something seriously wrong with colonizing in New Nations Mod (And perhaps vanilla, too). I'm Germany, it's the early 1880's, and Britain, France, and Portugal are devouring everything down there. They have naval bases because they started the game with territory down there, so they get to send expeditions everywhere while I'm stuck with the few places the game handed to me from my sphere. I know its historically accurate to have the British and French control most of the continent, but if I had started colonizing when Germany did historically a few years down the line, there would be nothing left except maybe the Western Sahara, let alone the areas Germany historically colonized.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 22:34

Bishop Rodan: Dec 5, 2011; See you in the funny papers, liebchen!

Kavak posted:

There seems to be something seriously wrong with colonizing in New Nations Mod (And perhaps vanilla, too). I'm Germany, it's the early 1880's, and Britain, France, and Portugal are devouring everything down there. They have naval bases because they started the game with territory down there, so they get to send expeditions everywhere while I'm stuck with the few places the game handed to me from my sphere. I know its historically accurate to have the British and French control most of the continent, but if I had started colonizing when Germany did historically a few years down the line, there would be nothing left except maybe the Western Sahara, let alone the areas Germany historically colonized.

As Germany I was mainly able to colonise by starting with Indochina; I was able to get troops over there even without Suez being built due to being allied with Britain so I could stop at their ports on the way. From there I went for the rest of Indochina and I also got some concessions in China. Eventually there was the Madrid conference (or whatever it is in your game) that gives you a CB on most African countries, so I immediately used it on the east African countries in Somalia/Ethiopia/Kenya and worked from there.

Eventually, due to a combination of imperialist wars, me inheriting Egypt from my sphere (though after Suez was built by Britain) and later on bullying the Spanish, I now have the largest colonial empire in Africa, stretching from Egypt to Zimbabwe/Angola/Mozambique/etc. I got an event that let me trade Kenya to Britain for Helgoland, and amusingly the Hungarians were able to snag one province in Eritrea.

Kind of gamey, but it worked.

# ? Jul 12, 2013 22:46

Kavak: Aug 23, 2009

Bishop Rodan posted:

Kind of gamey, but it worked.

Yeah, I've decided to pulverize everything in East Africa and get to Tanzania and Kenya the old-fashioned way. I need that coffee, dammit!

# ? Jul 12, 2013 22:53

Magissima: Apr 15, 2013; I'd like to introduce you to some of the most special of our rocks and minerals.; Soiled Meat

Europa Universalis IV: Developer diary 39 - Divine Tactics

I really like the new Enforce Peace thing, but it seems like it might be a bit overpowered in the hands of a powerful player, letting them intervene in any war. We'll see.

And I definitely like the changes to missionaries. It makes a lot more logical sense than a random chance to convert the province every month, and it's more transparent.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 01:15

Vivian Darkbloom: Jul 14, 2004

I would really like to see some consideration given to minority religions in EU4. Maybe some regions could, by event, become resistant to conversion?

# ? Jul 13, 2013 01:35

Nckdictator: Sep 8, 2006; Just..someone

So, Supreme Ruler: Cold War is completely unplayable?

# ? Jul 13, 2013 04:46

Gorgo Primus: Mar 29, 2009; We shall forge the most progressive republic ever known to man!

Nckdictator posted:

So, Supreme Ruler: Cold War is completely unplayable?

Almost as unplayable as EvW is now.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 04:48

Vivian Darkbloom: Jul 14, 2004

Nckdictator posted:

So, Supreme Ruler: Cold War is completely unplayable?

It looks like they only made minor changes to the previous game (also not recommended!) so probably entirely unplayable! It might be enjoyable as kind of a wacky sandbox that instantly makes no sense.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 04:51

Baloogan: Dec 5, 2004; Fun Shoe

Yeah, I really liked SR2010. SR2020 was just not as good.

I was in the SR2010 beta and the most fun I ever had with the whole game series was relatively early in the beta period playing multiplayer with the devs every once in a while.

At the time I thought it had potential. I'll probably buy SR1939 just out of loyalty and curiosity.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 05:18

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Vivian Darkbloom posted:

I would really like to see some consideration given to minority religions in EU4. Maybe some regions could, by event, become resistant to conversion?

Sometimes I kinda wish there were "slots" for minority populations in each province, which would have both a culture and a religion. Maybe a 5%, 15% and 30% slot, with the remaining* of course being the province culture and religion that you see on the map.** The smaller the minority, the more resistant to conversion it would be, representing all the people who are hard to reach. (In a physical or philosophical sense.) Would add a bit of granularity to the internal going ons of your state, and could have an effect on foreign policy as well. Possible Casus Belli as long as the minority remains, or bad relations with a minority's co-religionists if you try to stamp them out, representing religious refugees. More so for heavily religious states/defenders of the faith, so Poland trying to stamp out an Orthodox minority might see the Russians come down on them hard. Not to mention it would be great for anyone who wanted to convert their save game to Vicky I.

*Which could be 100%, 95%, 85%, 80%, 70%, 65%, 55% or 50%, depending on the composition. Huh, that's actually quite a bit of detail with just those three slots.
**Hey, the religious map could even show them, if you select a state with the same state religion. Then every other religion could be greyed out, and the minorities represented with different levels of saturation. Same for culture really.

A Buttery Pastry fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Jul 13, 2013

# ? Jul 13, 2013 06:47

ExtraNoise: Apr 11, 2007

Tonight's Modern Age progress: Fonts! And maps! And and and...

I made the newspaper icon look like an Apple icon with a little notification bullet next to it. The fonts have (mostly) been changed to Helvetica, but they are way too big so I need to go back through and regenerate them using a slightly smaller variant. Either that or padding. I'm not sure exactly how it all works, but I will figure it out!

I'm pretty happy with the nation name font on the map. I think that turned out the best. Now I need to figure out how to manipulate the "coastline gradient" so it is a hard falloff instead of a soft one. That should make the map look much more modern.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 06:57

Kavak: Aug 23, 2009

ExtraNoise posted:

Helvetica looks drat good for a modern-day map.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 07:36

Zeron: Oct 23, 2010

Heck, I wouldn't mind that look for vanilla either.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 07:37

Mister Bates: Aug 4, 2010

Nckdictator posted:

So, Supreme Ruler: Cold War is completely unplayable?

The Supreme Ruler games combine all the insanity of Steppe Wolfe, all the balance of an extremely drunk man trying to walk a tightrope, and all the fun of watching paint dry. They're 'playable' in the sense that they're stable and won't crash, but are a mess of bad design. About the only redeeming qualities the series has are the ridiculous situations that always result (in SR2020, for example, Syria will have usually completely annihilated and annexed Israel within a year of game start, and South Korea usually decides to forcibly reunify the peninsula and invades the North), and a few cool starting scenarios like one where most of the world's major powers have completely collapsed and you can conquer the United States as Minnesota or whatever (that's also a scenario where Northern Ireland is an independent country separate from both the UK and the Republic of Ireland, for some reason).

e: I tried playing a grand campaign of the Shattered World scenario in SR2020 once just to see what happened, and picked a minor nowhere country no one would give a poo poo about so I could be all hands-off (specifically, Nunavut). Within five game years, the Czech Republic had turned into this ridiculous ugly snake stretching through Germany and France and ending in the Basque Country, South Korea had decided to form a Greater Korean Empire and annexed the North, much of Manchuria, and parts of Siberia, the former United States was a horrible anarchistic post-apocalyptic patchwork of constantly-shifting warring territories...it was ludicrous. I would almost be willing to play the game just for that, but unfortunately it's interminably slow, and actually playing it is an exercise in frustration, and most of the systems are either badly-implemented or just not implemented at all.

Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 08:18 on Jul 13, 2013

# ? Jul 13, 2013 08:13

Kersch: Aug 22, 2004; I like this internet

ExtraNoise posted:

Tonight's Modern Age progress: Fonts! And maps! And and and...

I made the newspaper icon look like an Apple icon with a little notification bullet next to it. The fonts have (mostly) been changed to Helvetica, but they are way too big so I need to go back through and regenerate them using a slightly smaller variant. Either that or padding. I'm not sure exactly how it all works, but I will figure it out!

I'm pretty happy with the nation name font on the map. I think that turned out the best. Now I need to figure out how to manipulate the "coastline gradient" so it is a hard falloff instead of a soft one. That should make the map look much more modern.

I'm really digging the font and map overlay.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 08:26

Class Warcraft: Apr 27, 2006

The South African events in Vicky 2 are so lazy. They don't even try and fit any of the local cultural conflicts within the game systems, events just fire and countries form because "History".

First Natal forms, like it or not, stealing 2/3rds of the Zulu's territory.

Then later Transvaal just appears out of thin air, replacing whoever happened to be in their spot at the moment.

You might as well just have the events say "BOERS" and then you click "Ok" to get screwed.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 08:33

NihilCredo: Jun 6, 2011; iram omni possibili modo preme:
plus una illa te diffamabit, quam multæ virtutes commendabunt

Puella Magissima posted:

Europa Universalis IV: Developer diary 39 - Divine Tactics

I really like the new Enforce Peace thing, but it seems like it might be a bit overpowered in the hands of a powerful player, letting them intervene in any war. We'll see.

Yeah, it sounds like you can basically prevent a competing blob from forming as soon as you're top dog. Imagine Austria or Bohemia hitting Brandenburg with Enforce Peace whenever they try to expand, no more Prussia. Hopefully they tested it properly and/or there are hidden drawbacks to using it often.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 09:51

Kersch: Aug 22, 2004; I like this internet

Flippycunt posted:

The South African events in Vicky 2 are so lazy. They don't even try and fit any of the local cultural conflicts within the game systems, events just fire and countries form because "History".

First Natal forms, like it or not, stealing 2/3rds of the Zulu's territory.

Then later Transvaal just appears out of thin air, replacing whoever happened to be in their spot at the moment.

You might as well just have the events say "BOERS" and then you click "Ok" to get screwed.

Is this in NNM or Vanilla?

# ? Jul 13, 2013 10:50

BBJoey: Oct 31, 2012

Kavak posted:

There seems to be something seriously wrong with colonizing in New Nations Mod (And perhaps vanilla, too). I'm Germany, it's the early 1880's, and Britain, France, and Portugal are devouring everything down there. They have naval bases because they started the game with territory down there, so they get to send expeditions everywhere while I'm stuck with the few places the game handed to me from my sphere. I know its historically accurate to have the British and French control most of the continent, but if I had started colonizing when Germany did historically a few years down the line, there would be nothing left except maybe the Western Sahara, let alone the areas Germany historically colonized.

This is a vanilla thing. It's somewhat alleviated by NNM - the addition of an extra technology (The Dark Continent, I think?) that restricts some areas of Africa (such as the interior and Namibia) until it's researched offers latecomers a fighting chance. Also, any uncivs in Africa which you've got in your sphere will eventually be annexed once the Berlin Conference fires, so if you want to make inroads into Africa getting some of the big uncivs into your sphere is a good idea.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 11:07

Chickpea Roar: Jan 11, 2006; Merdre!

Kersch posted:

Is this in NNM or Vanilla?

It's certainly not in vanilla.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 11:11

Ferrosol: Nov 8, 2010; Notorious J.A.M

Puella Magissima posted:

Europa Universalis IV: Developer diary 39 - Divine Tactics

I really like the new Enforce Peace thing, but it seems like it might be a bit overpowered in the hands of a powerful player, letting them intervene in any war. We'll see.

And I definitely like the changes to missionaries. It makes a lot more logical sense than a random chance to convert the province every month, and it's more transparent.

History sperg time, But I must object to Catholics being associated with witch burning. Witches were largely a protestant obsession. A better take on it would be to rename it something to do with the inquisition and rooting out "false" converts to Catholicism.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 11:25

RabidWeasel: Aug 4, 2007; Cultures thrive on their myths and legends...and snuggles!

NihilCredo posted:

Yeah, it sounds like you can basically prevent a competing blob from forming as soon as you're top dog. Imagine Austria or Bohemia hitting Brandenburg with Enforce Peace whenever they try to expand, no more Prussia. Hopefully they tested it properly and/or there are hidden drawbacks to using it often.

I'd be really surprised if it didn't cost dip points, it just seems like an obvious way to balance it.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 12:21

quadrophrenic: Feb 4, 2011; WIN MARNIE WIN

How does Natalia form in NNM, anyway? They seem like a really fun country to play, but I don't know how to do so other than tagswitching. There's no decision for Zulu.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 12:35

Darkrenown: Jul 18, 2012; please give me anything to talk about besides the fact that democrats are allowing millions of americans to be evicted from their homes

ExtraNoise posted:

Tonight's Modern Age progress: Fonts! And maps! And and and...

Nice map!

# ? Jul 13, 2013 12:39

Diqnol: May 10, 2010

ExtraNoise posted:

Tonight's Modern Age progress: Fonts! And maps! And and and...

I made the newspaper icon look like an Apple icon with a little notification bullet next to it. The fonts have (mostly) been changed to Helvetica, but they are way too big so I need to go back through and regenerate them using a slightly smaller variant. Either that or padding. I'm not sure exactly how it all works, but I will figure it out!

I'm pretty happy with the nation name font on the map. I think that turned out the best. Now I need to figure out how to manipulate the "coastline gradient" so it is a hard falloff instead of a soft one. That should make the map look much more modern.

I very much like the font, EN. I'd be happy if you left it just like that.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 13:45

Friend Commuter: Nov 3, 2009; SO CLEVER I WANT TO FUCK MY OWN BRAIN.; Smellrose

Diqnol posted:

I very much like the font, EN. I'd be happy if you left it just like that.

Do you mean on the map, or the HUD up top? Because that was where s/he said it came out too big, and I'm inclined to agree.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 14:21

Diqnol: May 10, 2010

Friend Commuter posted:

Do you mean on the map, or the HUD up top? Because that was where s/he said it came out too big, and I'm inclined to agree.

This is what I get for trying to read words early in the morning. Yeah, the HUD font size could probably go down a bit.

# ? Jul 13, 2013 14:27

Non Sequitur: Apr 22, 2007; A queasy undergraduate scratching his pimples

ExtraNoise posted:

Tonight's Modern Age progress: Fonts! And maps! And and and...

I made the newspaper icon look like an Apple icon with a little notification bullet next to it. The fonts have (mostly) been changed to Helvetica, but they are way too big so I need to go back through and regenerate them using a slightly smaller variant. Either that or padding. I'm not sure exactly how it all works, but I will figure it out!

I'm pretty happy with the nation name font on the map. I think that turned out the best. Now I need to figure out how to manipulate the "coastline gradient" so it is a hard falloff instead of a soft one. That should make the map look much more modern.

Why have the filthy Yugoslavs stolen part of ~~Great Old~~ Bulgaria?

# ? Jul 13, 2013 16:38