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

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Last Emperor: Oct 30, 2009

I've only had my recent Brandenburg > Prussia > Germany game go to the end-date.

Unlocked Client States which were cool but found out I couldn't create my great Berber Republic in North Africa due to the restrictions it has.

I felt I could have done so much more if I had pushed into Russia early on, it just became such a slog to fight them (historically accurate I suppose :v:

# ? Apr 15, 2015 19:48

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# ? May 31, 2024 11:08

Fintilgin: Sep 29, 2004; Fintilgin sweeps!

We're getting weekly dev diaries for an unannounced EUIV DLC, but CKII seems awfully quiet lately.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 20:08

Yaoi Gagarin: Feb 20, 2014

Fintilgin posted:

We're getting weekly dev diaries for an unannounced EUIV DLC, but CKII seems awfully quiet lately.

The developers have been retasked to top-secret preliminary work on Victoria 3. :tinfoil:

# ? Apr 15, 2015 20:40

PittTheElder: Feb 13, 2012; Yes, it's like a lava lamp.

RabidWeasel posted:

I've probably played something like 5000+ hours of EU and CK games combined and I have only ever had a few games go for over 200 years, all of which were EU3 Magna Mundi games - say what you like about that mod but it was really fun starting as some shithole tribal nomadic state with the aim of modernising and settling down and making a huge empire, having to fight against lovely events and AIs loving with you the whole time and getting screwed by the RNG, slowly removing all of the horrible 'your government sucks and your people are goat herders, gently caress you' modifiers in spite of all of the odds being stacked against you. Which kind of ties into what the previous post says, the game is more fun when you can see big obvious indicators of how you've changed the world - with meaningful gameplay impact - other than just having more provinces a particular colour.

True story. Part of me does miss MM.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 20:49

FeculentWizardTits: Aug 31, 2001

Fintilgin posted:

We're getting weekly dev diaries for an unannounced EUIV DLC, but CKII seems awfully quiet lately.

One of the devs who posts here, Groogy, mentioned that he's working on DLC for CKII. I'm hoping for playable theocracies.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 20:52

Riso: Oct 11, 2008; by merry exmarx

VostokProgram posted:

The developers have been retasked to top-secret preliminary work on ~~Victoria 3~~Rome II.

Fixed.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 21:24

Ofaloaf: Feb 15, 2013

I actually went to Stockholm last week and walked up to Paradox Tower. I can personally tell you Wiz is a cool dude and there are some very good beers available in S�dermalm.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 22:11

Mr.Morgenstern: Sep 14, 2012

Spakstik posted:

One of the devs who posts here, Groogy, mentioned that he's working on DLC for CKII. I'm hoping for playable theocracies.

As long as we can play as the Assassins, I'll be happy. Come to think of it, since CKII is all about playing a dynasty, do you think there will be an election mechanic for theocracies to make sure your dynasty stays in control?

# ? Apr 15, 2015 22:23

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Mr.Morgenstern posted:

As long as we can play as the Assassins, I'll be happy. Come to think of it, since CKII is all about playing a dynasty, do you think there will be an election mechanic for theocracies to make sure your dynasty stays in control?

Dynasties are based on a family bloodline....I thought most theocracies were lead by religious figures that were, for one reason or another, not leading a family ruling over a country but simply the designated or elected head of a church community?

# ? Apr 15, 2015 22:26

Mr.Morgenstern: Sep 14, 2012

Bort Bortles posted:

Dynasties are based on a family bloodline....I thought most theocracies were lead by religious figures that were, for one reason or another, not leading a family ruling over a country but simply the designated or elected head of a church community?

Exactly. If theocracies are going to be playable, then there needs to be some way for dynasties to become involved. Merchant Republics are playable because it's five dynasties competing for the top via election. Thus there needs to be something similar for theocracies in order to work with CKII's system.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 22:29

The Cheshire Cat: Jun 10, 2008; Fun Shoe

That's why I figured we probably WON'T get playable theocracies - the dynastic succession model is fundamental to the game, and it just wouldn't make sense to try to apply it to theocracies that didn't use it (the ones that do are already playable, i.e. the Caliphate). Playable mercenary companies might work, although I'm not sure how it would function exactly. I imagine it would be something like Merchant Republics where you've got some kind of dynastic base so even though you don't control any land you're never actually "unlanded" unless your entire company is disbanded somehow.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 22:40

Ofaloaf: Feb 15, 2013

Starting date moved back even further and hordes finally can be present on the map without actually holding any landed title at all, making proper migrations playable. :unsmigghh:

# ? Apr 15, 2015 22:44

vyelkin: Jan 2, 2011

Start date pushed back to 27 BC, Steppe Wolfe DLC confirmed.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 22:53

Alchenar: Apr 9, 2008

vyelkin posted:

Start date pushed back to 27 BC, Steppe Wolfe DLC confirmed.

Secret plan to make Rome 2 on the down low by using the ck2 dlc budget revealed

# ? Apr 15, 2015 23:04

GenderSelectScreen: Mar 7, 2010; I DON'T KNOW EITHER DON'T ASK ME; College Slice

You can already play as Mercenaries. When you die you become the new guy with no problem. He isn't event he same dynasty as you.

EDIT: Hell, I might do a quick LP of it just to show it off before it gets patched out.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 23:05

Mr.Morgenstern: Sep 14, 2012

Hitlers Gay Secret posted:

You can already play as Mercenaries. When you die you become the new guy with no problem. He isn't event he same dynasty as you.

EDIT: Hell, I might do a quick LP of it just to show it off before it gets patched out.

Really? I'll be damned.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 23:22

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Mr.Morgenstern posted:

Exactly. If theocracies are going to be playable, then there needs to be some way for dynasties to become involved. Merchant Republics are playable because it's five dynasties competing for the top via election. Thus there needs to be something similar for theocracies in order to work with CKII's system.

But for Merchant Republics that is what happened - influential families vied for power. Historical theocracies did not do that, I do not think. I am sure they are creative enough to come up with something though.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 23:23

Westminster System: Jul 4, 2009

I thought there were plenty of families that vied for control of the Papacy, having a member of their dynasty taking the Pope Hat in succession.

I mean that's why people know offhand about the Borgias right?

# ? Apr 15, 2015 23:31

Mr.Morgenstern: Sep 14, 2012

Bort Bortles posted:

But for Merchant Republics that is what happened - influential families vied for power. Historical theocracies did not do that, I do not think. I am sure they are creative enough to come up with something though.

I know. And I'm sure that Paradox will come up with something.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 00:30

Shimrra Jamaane: Aug 10, 2007; Obscure to all except those well-versed in Yuuzhan Vong lore.

Skylines has officially sold over 1 million copies. How many Paradox employees have now died due to alcohol poisoning?

# ? Apr 16, 2015 03:43

GaussianCopula: Jun 5, 2011; Jews fleeing the Holocaust are not in any way comparable to North Africans, who don't flee genocide but want to enjoy the social welfare systems of Northern Europe.

Westminster System posted:

I thought there were plenty of families that vied for control of the Papacy, having a member of their dynasty taking the Pope Hat in succession.

I mean that's why people know offhand about the Borgias right?

Historically there was never a family that really controlled the papacy enough to model it in the game and probably more importantly, the families that did have some control of the papacy did so because they had an established power base independent of it, e.g. the Medicis. It's also more of a Renaissance phenomenon, so outside of the CK2 timeline.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 06:48

Drone: Aug 22, 2003; Incredible machine

Fintilgin posted:

We're getting weekly dev diaries for an unannounced EUIV DLC, but CKII seems awfully quiet lately.

It'll be either playable theocracies, or China (my money's on China).

# ? Apr 16, 2015 07:30

Groogy: Jun 12, 2014; Tanks are kinda wasted on invading the USSR

Fintilgin posted:

We're getting weekly dev diaries for an unannounced EUIV DLC, but CKII seems awfully quiet lately.

Yeah we're finally doing Secret bears and I know how important this is to the community so we are holding off on the dev diaries until everything is truly ironed out.

Hitlers Gay Secret posted:

You can already play as Mercenaries. When you die you become the new guy with no problem. He isn't event he same dynasty as you.

EDIT: Hell, I might do a quick LP of it just to show it off before it gets patched out.

Link it to me, would love to read a Mercenary AAR.

Groogy fucked around with this message at 08:25 on Apr 16, 2015

# ? Apr 16, 2015 08:23

Wiz: May 16, 2004; Nap Ghost

Fintilgin posted:

We're getting weekly dev diaries for an unannounced EUIV DLC, but CKII seems awfully quiet lately.

They're not doing our 'dev diaries for unannounced projects' thing. That was entirely an initiative on mine and Johan's part.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 08:27

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Drone posted:

It'll be either playable theocracies, or China (my money's on China).

Pay up!

Johan posted:

Welcome back to our weekly series of development diaries about Europa Universalis. This time we�ll talk about two features that will be part of the next expansion.

Theocracies

This is based on something we read in the suggestions forum. Monarchies and Republics have had their Legitimacy and Republican Tradition, but Theocracies haven�t had a unique mechanic yet. The next expansion will add a concept we call Devotion. Devotion ranges for 0 to 100, and impacts several thing.

Devotion impacts your religious abilities, your prestige gain and your tax-income.

You primarily gain devotion from high religious unity and the devoutness idea. Low stability will decrease it, while being Defender of the Faith will increase it.

There are also a lot of events that impact your devotion.

Another unique mechanic for theocracies is the fact that they always have an heir, and they have somewhat of control of it.

If you do not have an heir, you get a chance to select one heir. Heirs are age 40+ with random stats. You can then pick one of the following.

A Local Noble � Loses 5 devotion, but gains +10 Prestige
A Foreign Noble - Gains +100 relation with a random nation.
A Merchant's Son - +25% yearly income, lost 10 devotion
A Papal Protege � Catholic only. Gains +10 Papal Influence
A Talented Theologian: +10 Devotion
A local preacher � +5 Devotion & -10 Prestige

Government Ranks

A new feature in the next expansion is the introduction of proper Government Ranks. In previous versions, most countries would either be simply a Kingdom or a Republic, with a few special cases like Byzantium's Imperial Government and vassalized Kings becoming Dukes. If you don't get the expansion, this changes little, but for those with it most government types will come in three ranks: Duchy, Kingdom and Empire. While these are the names of the ranks, it doesn't mean there aren't any ranks for Republics - Venice's Serene Republic is on the same level as a Kingdom, for example.

Countries will start with whatever is closest to the rank they had historically, so the King of Burgundy becomes the Duke of Burgundy, while Byzantium is very much an Empire despite no longer having a special government form. Vassals, Marches and non-Elector members of the HRE are always Duchy rank, and certain government types only come in a single rank (such as Ming's Celestial Empire, which is always an Empire). Countries that are not locked to a particular rank can raise their rank through the Government screen by fulfilling certain requirements such as a certain level of prestige and total development level of your nation.

So what benefit do you get from a higher government rank, besides a new title and fancier headgear? Well, for one, higher government ranks are able to change their National Focus more often, with the default 25 year cooldown being 20 years for Kingdoms, and a mere 15 years for Empires. The bonuses granted from each government are now also set per rank, with government types getting more autonomy reduction from the higher ranks, while others such as Steppe Hordes have their base government bonuses to force limits, manpower and looting speed increased by higher government ranks.

Finally, this system also comes with a complete and mod-friendly overhaul of how government names and titles are handled. Under the old system, if you wanted to for example call your Greek Emperor a Basileus, you would have to create a particular localisation string that might get overwritten by other localisation strings, and there was no ability to differentiate between the titles of say, a Greek Western Technology Group Emperor and a Greek Eastern Technology Group Emperor. Under the new system, you script specific government name/title entries that might look something like this:
code:
byzantine_monarchy = {
rank_1 = PRINCIPALITY
rank_2 = KINGDOM
rank_3 = EMPIRE


ruler_1 = AUTOKRATOR
ruler_1_female = AUTOKRATEIRA
ruler_2 = DESPOT
ruler_2_female = DESPOTISSA
ruler_3 = BASILEUS
ruler_3_female = BASILISSA

trigger = {
   government = monarchy
   tag = BYZ
}
}
The game goes through the government entries, picks the first one it finds where the trigger evaluates true, and applies those government titles to that nation. This means that if you so desire, you could create a complete unique set of government names for each and every country in the game!

# ? Apr 16, 2015 08:43

Allyn: Sep 4, 2007; I love Charlie from Busted!

He meant CK2. Theocracies were already playable in EU4, after all

# ? Apr 16, 2015 08:46

Orange Devil: Oct 1, 2010; Wullie's reign cannae smother the flames o' equality!

I'm not sure how I feel about higher government ranks being strictly superior rather than also having some downsides in some way.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 08:56

reignonyourparade: Nov 15, 2012

At the very least I would've done the opposite with national focus, It makes sense to me for a duchy to be able to turn on a dime where a kingdom or empire would have more inertia.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 10:00

Drone: Aug 22, 2003; Incredible machine

Allyn posted:

He meant CK2. Theocracies were already playable in EU4, after all

Yep, that's what I meant. Nice to see theocracies getting a bit of attention in EU4 though, since as it stands I see pretty much no reason to play them. No ability to Royal Marriage takes away a LOT.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 11:23

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Drone posted:

Yep, that's what I meant. Nice to see theocracies getting a bit of attention in EU4 though, since as it stands I see pretty much no reason to play them. No ability to Royal Marriage takes away a LOT.

And they had no Legitimacy/Repub Trad, which conveyed bonuses unless they got low.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 15:46

Kavak: Aug 23, 2009

And here I was hoping Devoutness was going to be a religious minority mechanic :sigh:

# ? Apr 16, 2015 15:52

Mans: Sep 14, 2011; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

reignonyourparade posted:

At the very least I would've done the opposite with national focus, It makes sense to me for a duchy to be able to turn on a dime where a kingdom or empire would have more inertia.

It would also help those small states better in the tall vs wide thing people keep talking about.

Not sure if there's any need to buff the major powers in EU4.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 16:03

Arrhythmia: Jul 22, 2011

V for Vegas posted:

Pay up!

If a local preacher gives you 5 devoutness and -10 prestige, but a talented theologian gives you 10 devoutness and no prestige hit, why would you ever take the preacher?

# ? Apr 16, 2015 17:49

Funky Valentine: Feb 26, 2014; Dojyaa~an

...This is going to make Tibet interesting and completely off the rails.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 17:54

GrossMurpel: Apr 8, 2011

Arrhythmia posted:

If a local preacher gives you 5 devoutness and -10 prestige, but a talented theologian gives you 10 devoutness and no prestige hit, why would you ever take the preacher?

Maybe you can see each dude's skills before you pick him?

# ? Apr 16, 2015 18:13

Enjoy: Apr 18, 2009

Maybe local preacher gives unrest reduction. Very meritocratic.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 18:33

John Charity Spring: Nov 4, 2009; SCREEEEE

There should be an option to choose your bastard son as successor to model the various secular prince-bishoprics in Europe that did this on the reg.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 18:51

Dibujante: Jul 27, 2004

John Charity Spring posted:

There should be an option to choose your bastard son as successor to model the various secular prince-bishoprics in Europe that did this on the reg.

Probably "bastard son" should have the best stats, but the worst devoutness. Borgia papacy anyone?

# ? Apr 16, 2015 19:00

Randarkman: Jul 18, 2011

So I would kind of like to try out normal OTL WWII in Darkest Hour, and I was wondering if the 1933 is any fleshed out or fun, or does it solely exist to be able to play as Communist Germany?

Also, is Arsenal of Democracy superior for just playing WWII? I kind of got Darkest Hour to play Kaiserreich and haven't really played vanilla.

e: gently caress it, I'll just play Kaiserreich, the prospect of HOI IV kind of ruins it for me.

Randarkman fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Apr 16, 2015

# ? Apr 16, 2015 20:34

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# ? May 31, 2024 11:08

Drone: Aug 22, 2003; Incredible machine

Randarkman posted:

So I would kind of like to try out normal OTL WWII in Darkest Hour, and I was wondering if the 1933 is any fleshed out or fun, or does it solely exist to be able to play as Communist Germany?

Also, is Arsenal of Democracy superior for just playing WWII? I kind of got Darkest Hour to play Kaiserreich and haven't really played vanilla.

Don't play 1933. It's apparently gotten slightly better but its still really unbalanced and the AI does even more dumb stuff with the three extra years of buildup.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 20:47

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