Paradox Grand Strategy: Tim Cook? How many divisions has he got?

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HerpicleOmnicron5: May 31, 2013; How did this smug dummkopf ever make general?

I�m thinking something wilder, something daft like a Pokemon Grand Strategy

# ? Mar 14, 2021 19:50

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# ? May 31, 2024 00:50

Yaoi Gagarin: Feb 20, 2014

HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:

I’m thinking something wilder, something daft like a Pokemon Grand Strategy

Fire Emblem

# ? Mar 14, 2021 19:56

Enjoy: Apr 18, 2009

Vaccinatus Universalis. Take control of a growing pharmaceutical empire. Develop vaccines for existing illnesses, and "accidentally" release new strains you can sell people the cure to. Sell HIV-infected blood to haemophiliacs.

# ? Mar 14, 2021 19:56

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

They still haven't done anything with the Prison Architect stuff right? A bigger city or space station/ship builder along those lines could be fun.

# ? Mar 14, 2021 20:04

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Gaius Marius posted:

I never played 2 but the way people post about 2 scares the she poo poo outta me, what did they do?

Just a perfect storm of potentially cool but poorly thought out mechanics, horrible technical issues, and a very publicly visible lead who was so egotistical and thin skinned that even the slightest criticism sent him spiraling into murderfuckyou mode. Any one or even two of these could have been fine (see the no man's sky renaissance for an example of A and B without C) but all three, oof.

The OP of this thread does a decent summary of the degree of technical issues:
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3521006

As an example of a potentially cool but poorly thought out mechanic: They replaced the previous, pretty straightforward fleet movement system with one where deploying fleets to do anything other than defend or relocate between reserve fleets required admirals (a limited resource) to be attached to the fleet to allow you to send it on a Mission. Which could have worked fine; a weird choice for the sequel to a game described by Mecron as "a wargame scenario generator disguised as a 4x" but still a potentially workable. But every time you deployed a fleet on a mission, when it finished the mission, it returned home. Survey a system and want to go look at another one? Tough, regardless of their supply situation they were trucking all the way home. Got some ships patrolling an area and want to redirect them to defend somewhere you know is going to be under attack? Nope. The ability to redirect ships wouldn't be added to the game for nearly two years. Which sounds pretty nitpicky, but load a bunch of things like that up with "Also that's as far as I got before the came crashed to desktop multiple times and I stopped trying" for a couple of months and you're going to lose a lot of goodwill from your fanbase.

I booted up SotS2 just now to fact check a few things and honestly if it had been released as it is now it would have been a good starting point. e: lol I'm on turn 11 and my game keeps freezing every time I hit end turn and the one fight I got into the sound cut out three times gently caress this game

# ? Mar 14, 2021 20:13

Rynoto: Apr 27, 2009; It doesn't help that I'm fat as fuck, so my face shouldn't be shown off in the first place.

PDox never responded to my refund request for SotS2 and it still annoys me a bit

Last game I ever preordered that had their name attached (yes they were just the publisher, I know)

# ? Mar 14, 2021 22:00

Cease to Hope: Dec 12, 2011

Pryor on Fire posted:

They still haven't done anything with the Prison Architect stuff right? A bigger city or space station/ship builder along those lines could be fun.

PA is still getting support fwiw, it has a new DLC either just out or coming up

# ? Mar 14, 2021 22:37

Lawman 0: Aug 17, 2010

Dramicus posted:

It's going to be Battletech + Ck3.

That would be amazing.

# ? Mar 14, 2021 22:59

Major Isoor: Mar 23, 2011

Hey, just have a quick question or two regarding HoI4. So, I'm playing as Socialist Mexico and my aim so far has been to gobble up all the small central American nations, so that we're all under my banner. Then, I plan on attacking the USA (+seizing the Panama canal) to hopefully take the southern half of the country - possibly also puppet the US, too. (Then hopefully take Belize off fascist UK)

However, what's the best way to create as much turmoil in the US as possible? I'm not at home right now so I can't confirm, but there's a diplomatic option to exert political pressure on them and create a pro-communist movement in the country, right? So if I do that, will that potentially start a civil war, which I can then use to make a DoW to claim a slice of their country? (NOTE: I recall that there's a coup option, but I'd rather not do that as a friend and I were burnt by that in our MP game - since all territories went to the revolutionaries, without letting us take our cut)

Also, how would I go about taking Belize? Since I imagine if I declare war on the UK I'll have to somehow get troops over to Europe.

One last quick question, actually: Should I be using armoured cars? Since in my armoured divisions I tend to use a bunch of light tanks, a couple of light SPGs, plus a few motorized/mechanized divisions for support. (resulting in 20 width) But would it be a good idea to switch some of those to armoured cars? Or perhaps bring a support battalion of armoured cars? (Since I assume I can use some for recon, or what have you) And if so, what about my main infantry divisions? (7/2 inf/arty)

EDIT: Oh also, what happens if I use my president as a field marshal? Since he has that option available. Will that put someone else in charge of the country, or is he OK with leading the country while fighting a war in the field?

Major Isoor fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Mar 15, 2021

# ? Mar 14, 2021 23:16

Stairmaster: Jun 8, 2012

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

There aren't any good cold war games from like the past two decades have there?

I mean twillight struggles design assumptions are deliberately ahistorical but the pc port is very good.

# ? Mar 14, 2021 23:28

HerpicleOmnicron5: May 31, 2013; How did this smug dummkopf ever make general?

VostokProgram posted:

Fire Emblem

No they did a Pokemon Fire Emblem, it�s called Pokemon Conquest, featuring Oda Nobunaga

# ? Mar 15, 2021 00:18

Edgar Allen Ho: Apr 3, 2017; by sebmojo

Trying (newly... good?) Rome and drat, I forgot how intimidating starting a pdx game from scratch actually is. I've got a leg up but it's just menus upon menus and where the hell is Archaekyomyopaeia or wherever, whereas I've been playing EU/CK/HOI on and off for like 15 years at this point and can just draw 15th century Europe blindfolded from memory.

# ? Mar 15, 2021 04:36

Sheep: Jul 24, 2003

Rynoto posted:

PDox never responded to my refund request for SotS2 and it still annoys me a bit Last game I ever preordered that had their name attached (yes they were just the publisher, I know)

I refunded my day one purchase of it last year. They were extremely cool about it.

# ? Mar 15, 2021 13:21

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Major Isoor posted:

Hey, just have a quick question or two regarding HoI4. So, I'm playing as Socialist Mexico and my aim so far has been to gobble up all the small central American nations, so that we're all under my banner. Then, I plan on attacking the USA (+seizing the Panama canal) to hopefully take the southern half of the country - possibly also puppet the US, too. (Then hopefully take Belize off fascist UK)

However, what's the best way to create as much turmoil in the US as possible? I'm not at home right now so I can't confirm, but there's a diplomatic option to exert political pressure on them and create a pro-communist movement in the country, right? So if I do that, will that potentially start a civil war, which I can then use to make a DoW to claim a slice of their country? (NOTE: I recall that there's a coup option, but I'd rather not do that as a friend and I were burnt by that in our MP game - since all territories went to the revolutionaries, without letting us take our cut)

Also, how would I go about taking Belize? Since I imagine if I declare war on the UK I'll have to somehow get troops over to Europe.

One last quick question, actually: Should I be using armoured cars? Since in my armoured divisions I tend to use a bunch of light tanks, a couple of light SPGs, plus a few motorized/mechanized divisions for support. (resulting in 20 width) But would it be a good idea to switch some of those to armoured cars? Or perhaps bring a support battalion of armoured cars? (Since I assume I can use some for recon, or what have you) And if so, what about my main infantry divisions? (7/2 inf/arty)

EDIT: Oh also, what happens if I use my president as a field marshal? Since he has that option available. Will that put someone else in charge of the country, or is he OK with leading the country while fighting a war in the field?

Mexico has focus tree options for being able to declare war on pretty much all of latin america, you can use your pres as a general it's fine in fact it's pretty cool

Armored cars and light tanks work great as recon battallions, but you really want enough gear to put together 20 width infantry divisions that don't take much supply and can march through the jungle. I think Mexico has some buffs to marines too so you can specialize in that maybe.

*edit apparently most of the mexico content is in the man the guns dlc, which you may or may not have

Pryor on Fire fucked around with this message at 13:57 on Mar 15, 2021

# ? Mar 15, 2021 13:53

Randallteal: May 7, 2006; The tears of time

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

Trying (newly... good?) Rome and drat, I forgot how intimidating starting a pdx game from scratch actually is. I've got a leg up but it's just menus upon menus and where the hell is Archaekyomyopaeia or wherever, whereas I've been playing EU/CK/HOI on and off for like 15 years at this point and can just draw 15th century Europe blindfolded from memory.

I went through this with Stellaris last spring. Youtube's made learning new games easier than it used to be (flashback to me trying to follow along with after action reports on the Pdox forums in 2006 to figure out how the economy in Vicky: R works, scrutinizing jpgs to understand why my economy was so much worse than the examples), but it still takes me a good 10 hours of play + research before I feel like I'm actually playing the game and not missing / not understanding big parts of it.

# ? Mar 15, 2021 22:48

Demiurge4: Aug 10, 2011

Rynoto posted:

PDox never responded to my refund request for SotS2 and it still annoys me a bit Last game I ever preordered that had their name attached (yes they were just the publisher, I know)

I remember getting refunded but it was never taken off my steam list.

# ? Mar 16, 2021 03:21

Don Gato: Apr 28, 2013; Actually a bipedal cat.; Grimey Drawer

When I tried SotS 2, I remember I had an admiral surrender his fleet to an unmanned and unarmed asteroid.

# ? Mar 16, 2021 05:02

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

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

Trying (newly... good?) Rome and drat, I forgot how intimidating starting a pdx game from scratch actually is. I've got a leg up but it's just menus upon menus and where the hell is Archaekyomyopaeia or wherever, whereas I've been playing EU/CK/HOI on and off for like 15 years at this point and can just draw 15th century Europe blindfolded from memory.

It's really nice that they've used period and region appropriate nomenclature for a lot of things but it's awkward when you get an event about your Azbad-e-Aspwaragn and you're thinking who the gently caress is that guy

# ? Mar 16, 2021 09:44

Edgar Allen Ho: Apr 3, 2017; by sebmojo

On today's episode of What the Paradox Forums Are Discussing Today

quote:

I do apologize If I'm breaking any rules, I don't expect to visit this forum again. Here goes:

Pretty much from once the war began in 1939, President Roosevelt refused to take Communism as a serious threat, inside the US or beyond. On a very personal level, he hated the Nazis and considered them to be by far the greatest foreign threat to the US. From the war's beginning to Pearl Harbor, he did everything he could as perhaps the US's most powerful president ever to oppose Germany, and to a lesser extent, Japan. While I agree with him in thinking that Japan was out of control and Pearl Harbor was unforgivable and demanded immediate action, there was, and still is little reason to believe an Axis victory in the East would have been any worse for the US than the way things actually turned out.

It is true, of course, the Germany declared war on the US after Pearl Harbor, not the other way around, but this is in response to direct and sustained US support to Germany's enemies, and the fact that it was inevitable Roosevelt would drag the US into the war in Europe eventually. War was declared so German submarines could sink US convoys to Britain and hopefully take pressure off of the non-eastern fronts. Germany also signed the Triparite Pact with Japan, essentially a an alliance between the two powers. Once again, this was mainly in response the Roosevelt's decision to support Germany's foes, and commitment to joining the war eventually. If Roosevelt had sworn neutrality, then the Triparate Pact would never been signed as a way for Germany and Japan to keep the US out of the war as long as possible. While the "Greater German Reich's" long-term goals are harder to articulate, especially after Hitler would eventually die, Germany posed no more threat to the US than the Soviet Union did in the short term.

There is no reason to believe Germany was gunning for "world domination" in the 1930s and 1940s. Had the US decided to stay neutral, Britain either stayed neutral or signed a white peace in summer 1940, and Operation Barbarossa had succeeded, then Germany would be tied up for decades with Generalplan Ost. They would not be capable of a war with the US until this process was finished, and whenever that was (1980? 1990? 2000?), there would still be little reason for the Nazis to be hostile to the US. The two countries would hardly be friendly, and I admit that from a US point of view Communism and Nazism are equally un-American and evil, but many Americans have German ancestry, and many more have Germanic ancestry. The US is a bastion of democracy, and Germany was extremely un-democratic, but Hitler had shown a surprising willingness to cooperate with democracies in the past (pre-war negotiations with Britain, Finland on the Eastern front), and he was never a crusader against democracy beyond Germany. A continental axis victory by 2000 would result in two superpowers, Germany and the US, and they would be on better terms than the US and the Soviet Union were during the Cold War.

The Soviet Union, both before 1945 and after 1945, was not so much a country as it was the headquarters of the global communist revolution. Communism had been around for about a century, had a presence in every industrialized country, and was, no doubt, interested in world revolution. This is an important difference between Nazism and Communism. Communists see every single non-communist society on earth as inherently unjust and irredeemable. More than that, they feel a duty to "liberate" the workers there. Nazis, on the other hand, have no issue with foreign injustice unless it threatens them - a lot like the US, really. There would be no Cold War, no Hot War, no proxy wars, no Korea, no Vietnam, the two superpowers would tolerate each other, by and large. With the rise of the Nazis, there was an opportunity for the West to crush the revolution absolutely and totally in the most brutal manner imaginable, and they wouldn't even have to get their hands dirty. All they had to do was allow Germany to fulfill its goals in the East, and Communism would suffer a setback from which it might never recover.

An Axis victory would have been better for the US than the outcome we got. I do not believe in the apocalypse or superweapons, and I insist that all-out nuclear war leading to the end of the world is a myth and always will be, but if the Cuban Missile Crisis did go south, it would because of President Roosevelt's inability to see communism for the threat it was.

# ? Mar 17, 2021 19:11

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

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

On today's episode of What the Paradox Forums Are Discussing Today

The great question of the Paradox forums: Is the US being pro(to)-fascist a good or bad thing?

# ? Mar 17, 2021 19:25

ThatBasqueGuy: Feb 14, 2013; someone introduce jojo to lazyb

really makes u think (about drinking a liter of vodka)

# ? Mar 17, 2021 20:29

idhrendur: Aug 20, 2016

There's over six million things wrong with that perspective, no doubt intentionally ignored.

# ? Mar 17, 2021 20:40

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

idhrendur posted:

There's over six million things wrong with that perspective, no doubt intentionally ignored.

In this scenario, the civilian non-Jewish victims would not only outnumber the Jewish victims like they did historically, they'd turn them into a footnote.

# ? Mar 17, 2021 21:24

SlothfulCobra: Mar 27, 2011

Some internet jerk is absolutely wrong about everything, news at 11.

It takes a lot of brain-bending to say that the US had no right or reason to weigh in on all of its allies being attacked, but also the US should've ignored all political relations and attacked the Soviet Union instead out of sheer ideological terror of the specter of communism, but I guess that's the kind of neonazi that Republicans and conservatives have studiously bred.

# ? Mar 17, 2021 21:59

Red Bones: Aug 9, 2012; "I think he's a bad enough person to stay ghost through his sheer love of child-killing."

Sometimes its very hard to tell on the internet whether the person is terrified of Communism because they're a pasty white american child who has been radicalised by Ben Shapiro videos, or if it's a person who grew up in an Eastern Bloc country and had family members who were murdered by the secret police. I think in this instance it's a pasty white american though, only they would be so charitable toward the Nazis.

# ? Mar 17, 2021 22:07

Groke: Jul 27, 2007; New Adventures In Mom Strength

No lack of actual Nazis in former East Bloc countries, though.

# ? Mar 17, 2021 22:09

Mantis42: Jul 26, 2010

Agreed, the US should not have intervened in Europe.

That way the Red Army could have driven all the way to Lisbon. :getin:

# ? Mar 17, 2021 22:09

Canasta_Nasty: Aug 23, 2005

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

On today's episode of What the Paradox Forums Are Discussing Today

He's accurately presenting why so many British and American politicians like Churchill cheered Hitler on as long as it was just violent anti-Semitism and anti-communism. It was unconscionable then and now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6lIDk3uYCI

Succession had a great bit on this with a nazi news anchor. I wish I could find the clip of that scene.

# ? Mar 17, 2021 22:10

Demiurge4: Aug 10, 2011

Considering that CK3 has the whole religious tenets thing that lets you make gay relationships completely kosher, I feel like it�s a weird thing for them to be still hard coding same sex marriages as a no-no and I think it�s time that PDX relaxes that. I want my duke to marry his gay lover and whatever I guess his brother can inherit down the line.

# ? Mar 18, 2021 11:08

ilitarist: Apr 26, 2016; illiterate and militarist

You might have little interest in Stellaris. I know I do. But the next update is important enough devs decided to call it 3.0 and give it a code name "Dick". They've prepared for it for years.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/stellaris-dev-diary-205-announcing-the-3-0-dick-update.1462688/

# ? Mar 18, 2021 13:02

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

ilitarist posted:

You might have little interest in Stellaris. I know I do. But the next update is important enough devs decided to call it 3.0 and give it a code name "Dick". They've prepared for it for years.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/stellaris-dev-diary-205-announcing-the-3-0-dick-update.1462688/

lmao they added Espionage. Deleting the game from Steam because I'm never touching it again if they just had to add that to make it even more fiddly. gently caress Stellaris.

# ? Mar 18, 2021 13:16

ilitarist: Apr 26, 2016; illiterate and militarist

They've also made it so that you spend some time learning about empires you meet. First you only know those dudes behave just like everyone else you ever met in that game, but later you get to learn they are xenophile militarist spiritual oligarchy who behave just like everyone else you ever met in that game.

# ? Mar 18, 2021 13:22

Popoto: Oct 21, 2012; miaow

cant wait for when, in an interminable race for "significant, game changing patches" pushed by marketing, we just end up with the version of game numbers just being 1.0->2.0->3.0->etc instead of 1.50095 and/or stupid names everyone forget after a minute. proper clarity finally

# ? Mar 18, 2021 13:29

fuf: Sep 12, 2004; haha

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

lmao they added Espionage.

there comes a time in the life cycle of every strategy game when they have to add an espionage system that no one cares about

# ? Mar 18, 2021 13:51

YF-23: Feb 17, 2011; My god, it's full of cat!

The espionage system in HoI4 is nice. I don't care too much for some of its aspects (like operations) but the general gist of building a spy network that lets you have accurate intel on enemy logistics, unit composition and so on is solid.

# ? Mar 18, 2021 13:58

LordMune: Nov 21, 2006; Helim needed to be invisible.

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

gently caress Stellaris.

no... no!!

# ? Mar 18, 2021 14:03

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

YF-23 posted:

The espionage system in HoI4 is nice. I don't care too much for some of its aspects (like operations) but the general gist of building a spy network that lets you have accurate intel on enemy logistics, unit composition and so on is solid.

The system in HoI4 is not nice. Its 100% RNG dependent tedious busywork for small yet useful bonuses that you need if you want to play optimally or win in a tough situation. Its overly complicated, expensive, and yet can net you *nothing* because the AI has perfect micro and RNG can easily gently caress you. It killed HoI4 for me and is another nail in the coffin of Stellaris.

Coincidentally in EU4 the most annoying things the AI can do to you with Diplomacy is all "espionage" style stuff like "Slander Merchants" (lose income), something to incite unrest (+2 unrest), and some other bullcrap they they do without fail on cooldown once the interactions are unlocked and you as the player have ZERO recourse (counter-espionage oddly never, ever stops a rival from being able to trigger all three of those things on cooldown). Strangely enough I never find a good reason to continue a campaign after those kinds of things get unlocked unless I'm trying to get an achievement.

Espionage in strategy games is bad.

LordMune posted:

no... no!!

lmao, I'm sorry. I want to like the game so bad but there are so many bad design decisions! I tried making a mod for it. I tried other peoples' mods. The game has so much potential but I just keep getting frustrated with a number of poorly thought out or implemented systems. I know you guys arent doing any of these things maliciously or on purpose but so many things have been left behind by the dev lead on Stellaris changing 3 times and the endless need for flashy new DLC rather than fixing things that have been a problem since launch.
edit: it looks like 3.0 fixes a bunch of them but Espionage just absolutely kills my willingness to give the game another try. Also the pirate system is so absurd I will never not bitch about it.

edit2: I realize I'm pretty much just bitching and most people dont share my bad opinions on PDX games so I'll shut up about it

AAAAA! Real Muenster fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Mar 18, 2021

# ? Mar 18, 2021 14:06

Zeron: Oct 23, 2010

I can agree that I don't think I've ever seen an espionage system in a strategy game that I liked.

# ? Mar 18, 2021 14:19

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

lmao, I'm sorry. I want to like the game so bad but there are so many bad design decisions! I tried making a mod for it. I tried other peoples' mods. The game has so much potential but I just keep getting frustrated with a number of poorly thought out or implemented systems. I know you guys arent doing any of these things maliciously or on purpose but so many things have been left behind by the dev lead on Stellaris changing 3 times and the endless need for flashy new DLC rather than fixing things that have been a problem since launch.
edit: it looks like 3.0 fixes a bunch of them but Espionage just absolutely kills my willingness to give the game another try. Also the pirate system is so absurd I will never not bitch about it.

edit2: I realize I'm pretty much just bitching and most people dont share my bad opinions on PDX games so I'll shut up about it

I absolutely feel you on the technical debt which is why last week's diary made my quite hopeful:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/stellaris-dev-diary-204-scripting-language-and-moddability-improvements.1461327/

# ? Mar 18, 2021 14:31

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# ? May 31, 2024 00:50

Bold Robot: Jan 6, 2009; Be brave.

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

lmao they added Espionage.

Stellaris is badly in need of a sequel IMO. I want it to be good and have given it so many chances but 5 years on, it ain't gonna happen.

Like, did they ever manage to make sector AI (or the AI in general) not braindead?

# ? Mar 18, 2021 14:41

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Paradox Grand Strategy: Tim Cook? How many divisions has he got?

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