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

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Whorelord: May 1, 2013; Jump into the well...

GrossMurpel posted:

I don't think just another Europa Universalis but it's set in 300 BC would have different gameplay mechanics, your guys would just be called unga bunga rock bonk instead of chevauch� or pikeman
So yeah I'm interested to see what they will change here

quite a lot of pikemen around in 300bce

# ? Sep 17, 2023 19:20

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# ? May 23, 2024 18:38

OddObserver: Apr 3, 2009

That doesn't sound like the sort of terminology Rome, Carthage or the Diadochi would be using...

# ? Sep 17, 2023 19:28

Anno: May 10, 2017; I'm going to drown! For no reason at all!

https://twitter.com/ageofwonders4/status/1703423570217701668?s=46&t=IW0MSOWK0Lh4VsB3wVLoOA

# ? Sep 17, 2023 19:28

Torrannor: Apr 27, 2013; ---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

So it's a new IP. A "new age of heroes"? That sounds vaguely WC3 or AoW-like. And wouldn't necessarily fit with other Paradox games, except Crusader Kings. I'm still very intrigued.

# ? Sep 17, 2023 19:37

Yuran M. Bazil: Jun 20, 2008

feels like they're having another go at what they were trying to do with Runemaster before it got cancelled tbh

# ? Sep 17, 2023 20:00

Edgar Allen Ho: Apr 3, 2017; by sebmojo

OddObserver posted:

That doesn't sound like the sort of terminology Rome, Carthage or the Diadochi would be using...

Pretty sure the king of France never called his soldiers Latin Medieval Infantry and yet

# ? Sep 17, 2023 20:22

Anno: May 10, 2017; I'm going to drown! For no reason at all!

Someone one r/paradoxplaza internet detective'd their way to this Twitter account using the same artwork as the announcement, who ties back to C Prompt Games, who appear to be an independent studio of people who made "games like System Shock and Age of Empires" and are "...creating an epic new strategy franchise!".

According to their website they were founded by Robert Fermier and Ian M. Fischer, the first of which worked at Looking Glass and left to help found Irrational with Ken Levine and the latter of which was a lead designer on AoE2 and AoM. Their art director worked at Blizzard for ~20 years on Starcraft and Warcraft.

Some other images from their website in the same style as what we have:

Title of the game is possible Millenia, thought the Twitter account now either doesn't exist or is hidden:

Anno fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Sep 17, 2023

# ? Sep 17, 2023 21:26

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Here's a business idea for Paradox they can have for free. Make EU5.

# ? Sep 17, 2023 21:39

Anno: May 10, 2017; I'm going to drown! For no reason at all!

Millennia is apparently also the title of a board game going up on Kickstarter next week where you �Develop your civilization through thousands of years of change��. I�d lean towards this being a wild coincidence but who knows.

# ? Sep 17, 2023 22:13

KOGAHAZAN!!: Apr 29, 2013; a miserable failure as a person

an incredible success as a magical murder spider

Anno posted:

According to their website they were founded by Robert Fermier and Ian M. Fischer, the first of which worked at Looking Glass and left to help found Irrational with Ken Levine and the latter of which was a lead designer on AoE2 and AoM. Their art director worked at Blizzard for ~20 years on Starcraft and Warcraft.

Now those are some loving credentials

# ? Sep 17, 2023 22:13

Gaius Marius: Oct 9, 2012

Art director working for Blizzard for two decades is one of the most despair inducing statements that it is possible to make regarding game development. No other single company has ever had such a uniquely godawful aesthetic in all of human history.

# ? Sep 17, 2023 22:20

KOGAHAZAN!!: Apr 29, 2013; a miserable failure as a person

an incredible success as a magical murder spider

Warcraft has always been too cartoony for my taste but SC1 looks great imo.

Someone needs to figure out how to translate that filthy, murky aesthetic that it and Tib Sun had to 3D.

# ? Sep 17, 2023 22:31

Eiba: Jul 26, 2007

Koramei posted:

Empires don�t fall in civ; I�d love it if they do incorporate that but it�s hardly a hard requirement.

Definitely think it�d need to be a different take on the paradox formula a la stellaris than just a normal province based map game though.

E: honestly I wonder if an *extremely* enterprising modded couldn�t turn stellaris into a civ-like flow of history game

If it's about all of human history, and empires don't fall, then it's given up the simulationist values I appreciate Paradox games for. A civ-like can be a fun game, but it's a really poor role playing experience. There's no way you can come up with a historical narrative that makes any sense of the gameplay whatsoever.

Contrast that with, for instance, Stellaris, where you've got all the same mechanics as a civ game basically, but the future setting means you can pretend there's some plausible narrative driving the gameplay. (Assuming you find a way to handwave away the fact that a dozen worlds discovered FTL on the same day for some reason.)

# ? Sep 17, 2023 22:32

Popoto: Oct 21, 2012; miaow

Koramei posted:

Empires don�t fall in civ; I�d love it if they do incorporate that but it�s hardly a hard requirement.

Definitely think it�d need to be a different take on the paradox formula a la stellaris than just a normal province based map game though.

E: honestly I wonder if an *extremely* enterprising modded couldn�t turn stellaris into a civ-like flow of history game

Rhye would like a word with you :colbert:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhye%27s_and_Fall_of_Civilization

quote:

Rhye's and Fall of Civilization is set on Earth and is designed to mirror a historical Earth as closely as possible. To this end, most civilizations have historically accurate starting locations and times, instead of random starting locations all at 4,000 BC as in a typical game. When a new civilization appears, any foreign cities in its core territory will "flip" to the new civ; this can have the effect of simulating such historical events as the breakup of the Roman Empire and the American Revolution. Each civilization also gets a passive power based on its history. For example, Russia has a power, called "General Winter", that makes enemy units inside its borders take a small amount of damage, while England has a power that gives its naval units two extra first strike chances called "The Power of the Royal Navy".

One of the main features of Rhye's and Fall of Civilization is the game's ability to monitor the stability of national governments, taking into account war, disease, corruption, invasion, and other factors which might influence the fall of a nation. If a "major power" controlled by the AI in the game becomes extremely unstable, it will cease to exist and its former territory will be split up into several independent nations. These smaller countries are not barbarian-controlled, and do not normally attack major nations unless attacked first. When a human player collapses, only about half of their cities become independent; the other half remain loyal. After one civilization has discovered nationalism, ancient or collapsed civilizations may respawn, either in independent lands or in lands belonging to relatively unstable civilizations. For example, in the nineteenth century the Greek civilization may declare its independence from an occupying power, which is usually the Ottoman Empire.

The game spawns plagues randomly through the world around certain dates; for example, a plague will generally begin in the 14th�15th century to simulate the Black Death. Plague spreads from country to country, entering cities. A city afflicted with plague will lose one population point per turn, as well as a hefty unhealthiness penalty. Units garrisoned in or close to plague-affected cities will take damage until they die or the plague ends. The more health bonuses that a civilization has, the faster the plague ends. Plagues can be permanently avoided by a nation once the technology "Medicine" is researched.

Rhye's and Fall of Civilization is also designed to simulate the drastic impact that the arrival of Europeans had in the New World. Upon sailing any unit from Europe to the Americas, the player is instantly granted several military units to simulate the exploits of the Spanish conquistadors. This also spawns a plague exclusively amongst the Amerindian civilizations to simulate smallpox. Unless they are destroyed by the conquistadors, Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Aztecs and the Mayans typically become vassals to colonial powers, including Spain, France, England, and Portugal. English expansion in North America usually comes to an end when the territory changes to that of America in 1776 AD although it is possible to maintain a presence in Canada.

Besides the typical victory conditions in the game, every civilization has another victory option � Unique Historical Victories. These usually include three historical achievements that the nation managed or attempted. For example, Rome's Unique Historical Victory is to have a barracks, amphitheatre and aqueduct in 5 cities by 200 AD, emulate (at least) the reaches of the Western Roman Empire by 450 AD, and never lose any city to barbarians by 1000 AD. Upon completing two Unique Historical Victories, a Triumphal Arch is built in the capital which increases military unit production, and a new golden age starts.

Once three civilizations discover the "Nationalism" technology, World Congresses will occur once every 25 turns. Major nations are invited to participate. Each civilization has the opportunity to choose from a list of cities which they would like to occupy; the others then vote yes, no or abstain. For the city to change control, there must simply be more "yes" than "no" votes, and the change takes place instantaneously. If a city controlled by a human is voted to be handed over, the player can either comply or refuse the decision; refusing may mean war with nations who voted "yes." World Congresses end once the United Nations has been built.

In Rhye's and Fall of Civilization, not every civilization starts at the same time. In the 3000 BC starting scenario, only Egypt, Babylon, China, and India are initially present; in the 600 AD start, only China, Japan, the Vikings, and Arabia (along with the unplayable Byzantine Empire) are initially present. Other nations such as Spain and Turkey appear later in the game (at 720 AD and 1280 AD respectively). If a player chooses to be one of the civilizations that are not in the game at the start, then the game will play the initial nations automatically until the player's chosen nation would appear.

Until the research of Nationalism, civilizations are able to hire mercenary units, and also lend out their own units. In order to hire a mercenary unit, a lump sum of gold is required to be paid, and you must also pay a maintenance cost for the unit, as for other military units. Typically, the more experienced a unit is, the more gold it costs to hire, and hiring out a more experienced unit also increases gold received. Mercenary units have a civilization's name (or a barbarian city's name) attached as a prefix e.g. Thracian Crossbowman or Egyptian Swordsman. A unit being hired out can be recalled at any time, arriving in the civilization's capital three turns after it is recalled.

Two large and many small changes were made to the technology tree. The relationships between Civil Service, Constitution, Military Tradition, and Nationalism were completely rearranged so that Music and Military Tradition were no longer "dead end" technologies and Civil Service was now an optional prerequisite, rather than an absolute one, for many later-era technologies. The relationships between Gunpowder, Chemistry, and Military Science were also rearranged so that Military Science was no longer a "dead-end" technology. Numerous buildings, units, civics, religions, etc. had their prerequisites altered, and some became obsolete with different technologies as well; Monuments, for example, became obsolete with Calendar instead of Astronomy.

# ? Sep 17, 2023 23:36

Mandoric: Mar 15, 2003

I think you could go interesting places with forced disasters/CK partition around "era changes": reservations around tech trees aside, something like pottery+writing = settled, ironworking+horseback riding = classical, construction+migration? foreign trade? = migration, banking+divine right = renaissance, corporation+replaceable parts = early modern, industrialism+sociology = industrial, global logistics+(if we find out before the game releases the game probably won't release) = ~future~. Make them survivable to a degree that you'd expect a few AIs to pull through with heavy scars, and roll greats/majors over as formables.

# ? Sep 18, 2023 01:12

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

Wasn't there an EU3 mod that began in pre-CK times and ended with Obama? I'm sure it'll be fine.

# ? Sep 18, 2023 01:17

Farecoal: Oct 15, 2011; There he go

gradenko_2000 posted:

Wasn't there an EU3 mod that began in pre-CK times and ended with Obama? I'm sure it'll be fine.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/steppe-wolf-the-coin-the-sabre-and-the-pigeon

# ? Sep 18, 2023 01:22

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

Commercial Steepe Wolfe, I see zero issues

# ? Sep 18, 2023 01:35

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

the world yearns for a modern Great Old Bulgaria simulator

# ? Sep 18, 2023 01:38

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

Gaius Marius posted:

Art director working for Blizzard for two decades is one of the most despair inducing statements that it is possible to make regarding game development. No other single company has ever had such a uniquely godawful aesthetic in all of human history.

Seriously. What's worst of all is that WC1, WC2 and SC1 have relatively decent art direction (though WC2 certainly suffers from the Pauldron Problem), then it unbelievably gets worse and worse with every release after that.

# ? Sep 18, 2023 03:58

Torrannor: Apr 27, 2013; ---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Depends on what exactly the art director did at Blizzard. I honestly think their cinematics are some of the best work in the whole industry. Certain in-game visuals are pretty terrible though.

# ? Sep 18, 2023 04:20

Hryme: Nov 4, 2009

The art of World of Warcraft was light years ahead of the competition at the time. Everquest (and Everquest 2) looked like rear end while Wow had style. Screenshots doesn't do it justice as it was the excellent animation that made it stand out.

Hryme fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Sep 18, 2023

# ? Sep 18, 2023 04:55

ilitarist: Apr 26, 2016; illiterate and militarist

It'd be a huge let down if it's a third party studio with the advertisement relying on core PDX development games. Won't be a grand strategy probably. We'll see what they announce but I hope it's not something boring. Last time when Paradox gathered such big names they gave us Empire of Sin, which wasn't good but also wasn't what you'd expect from such names.

# ? Sep 18, 2023 08:51

Qtotonibudinibudet: Nov 7, 2011; Omich poluyobok, skazhi ty narkoman? ya prosto tozhe gde to tam zhivu, mogli by vmeste uyobyvat' narkotiki

Mandoric posted:

I think you could go interesting places with forced disasters/CK partition around "era changes"

Rhyes and Fall was some good poo poo

# ? Sep 18, 2023 08:54

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

Qtotonibudinibudet posted:

Rhyes and Fall was some good poo poo

Yeah, had some fun with that.

# ? Sep 18, 2023 09:11

Drone: Aug 22, 2003; Incredible machine

Speaking of Paradox announcements that were big and then somehow vanished: how's that Sims competitor they announced been coming along? iirc wasn't it supposed to release into EA this year still?

Edit: oh, delayed until March apparently. Still weird not to have heard anything since announcement.

# ? Sep 18, 2023 09:24

ilitarist: Apr 26, 2016; illiterate and militarist

They've released some videos about it. I watched one and I support their decision to not make a big fuss about it.

# ? Sep 18, 2023 09:29

Torrannor: Apr 27, 2013; ---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Drone posted:

Speaking of Paradox announcements that were big and then somehow vanished: how's that Sims competitor they announced been coming along? iirc wasn't it supposed to release into EA this year still?

Edit: oh, delayed until March apparently. Still weird not to have heard anything since announcement.

The Sims community that I still follow is pretty excited about it.

# ? Sep 18, 2023 17:44

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

ThatBasqueGuy posted:

Commercial Steepe Wolfe, I see zero issues

That's the one! Stadtholder Obama!

# ? Sep 18, 2023 17:47

NoNotTheMindProbe: Aug 9, 2010; pony porn was here

The new game reveal is dropping in 3 hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPy5nn7I8IA

# ? Sep 21, 2023 12:11

ilitarist: Apr 26, 2016; illiterate and militarist

I doubt PDX Development game would be revealed in such a way. It's strange they've used all the internally produced GSGs for promotion but they shoehorned Age of Wonders 4 there (a more traditional high fantasy turn-based empire building game focused on tactical combat) to not make you vastly disappointed when it turns out to be across the Anno 0-2200 or Rise of Nations clone by a new studio.

# ? Sep 21, 2023 12:20

NoNotTheMindProbe: Aug 9, 2010; pony porn was here

I want the Rise of Nations clone though

# ? Sep 21, 2023 12:23

OddObserver: Apr 3, 2009

ilitarist posted:

I doubt PDX Development game would be revealed in such a way. It's strange they've used all the internally produced GSGs for promotion but they shoehorned Age of Wonders 4 there (a more traditional high fantasy turn-based empire building game focused on tactical combat) to not make you vastly disappointed when it turns out to be across the Anno 0-2200 or Rise of Nations clone by a new studio.

The Vicky 3 teaser strongly suggested it may have some fantasy aspects as well.

# ? Sep 21, 2023 12:41

ilitarist: Apr 26, 2016; illiterate and militarist

This was damage control for the expected community response to the way the American Civil War worked.

# ? Sep 21, 2023 12:53

Anno: May 10, 2017; I'm going to drown! For no reason at all!

Yeah if this is a Paradox published Rise of Nations/Empire Earth type game then that�s something to celebrate. Even if it�s a Civ-like I�ll probably be excited - not like we get a ton of those and I�m hoping one eventually breaks through that isn�t just Civ again.

I guess this kinda confirms the name. Also more far-future art than I expected.

https://twitter.com/stellarisgame/status/1704767418210693143?s=46&t=IW0MSOWK0Lh4VsB3wVLoOA

Anno fucked around with this message at 13:25 on Sep 21, 2023

# ? Sep 21, 2023 13:00