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

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

All I want from HoI4 is the ability to build the Normandy Defense Museum, using captured Allied soliders, to celebrate the brave German boys who gave their lives defending the Reich and the deaths of the villainous multitudes which beset her.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2015 22:24

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 09:32

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

Pharnakes posted:

Well if it never happened it's not really fair to blame anyone for it is it? More allied smear propaganda.

And besides, the Holocaust was just the natural result of continued Jewish aggression against the peaceful German people. Mess with the eagle and you get the talons.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 05:58

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

Slime Bro Helpdesk posted:

While it is easy to pick on PDX forums at times, I do want to say some people are able to have fun on them

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/america-should-have-the-most-handsome-soldiers.884572/#post-20024871

Hopefully Paradox takes note of the real life size differences between the warring nations, and reflect it in the army men who stomp around and do push-ups on the map. This will be even more useful if anyone makes a WW1 mod, since at that time Americans and Brits were way taller and bigger than continental Europeans.

zedprime posted:

I expect the bigger problem is finding some sort of expansion niche since Sunset Invasion is cool but sort of a slapdash idea/implementation. But making an expansion something like Kaiserreich is a fairly large undertaking even in the recent scheme of expansions basically being new games.

Though the new system which I can't remember the name of which allows for various paths to take for your nation does open up the possibility for more easily producing scenarios, by giving any scenario a clear structure which to build it around. It might not be as in-depth, but it'd still be a significant step up from just drawing new borders and poo poo.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 17:49

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

Autonomous Monster posted:

I don't think Paradox have ever done an open beta?

I'm going to grab the low hanging fruit: All Paradox games before CK2 were released as open betas.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 19:06

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

Autonomous Monster posted:

Though the most interesting thing about this picture is

The Australia/Austria confusion is going to cause a third world war in this world.

A Buttery Pastry fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Oct 15, 2015

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 10:51

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

podcat posted:

New HOI diary: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hearts-of-iron-iv-29th-development-diary-16th-of-october-2015.887017/

People are really mad about the whole democracies can't declare war on democracies thing.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 16:07

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

Ofaloaf posted:

If there ever was a WWI thing added on to HOI4, be it as a mod or as DLC in the far distant future, would Imperial Germany count as a democracy or autocracy? Now I'm just wondering how far back you'd have to move the start date to get to a democracy-on-democracy war and am failing miserably at recalling history.

DrSunshine posted:

Well we could always look at the List of Wars Between Democracies to see. They're rare and not huge conflicts, but they do occur.

It's not even a case of democracy-on-democracy wars, it's specifically democracy-on-democracy war declarations.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 17:07

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

Dibujante posted:

The Mexican-American war was a big deal. Maybe you're thinking specifically of European democracies not declaring war on European democracies but that's probably due to the historical scarcity of European democracy

The US was not a democracy at the time.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 18:06

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

Slime Bro Helpdesk posted:

But also from a historical perspective, I don't think there are really all that many examples of fascist dictatorships declaring war on each other, or communist states doing it, within the game period?

It's not like fascists dictatorships have had much of a chance to, though as far as I know, Mussolini definitely considered aligning against Hitler early on, which could have seen him militarily opposing the Anschluss. Anyway, I don't think it's solely a question of historical precedence, it's also a matter of the nature of democratic states vs. authoritarian states, and ideology. A fascist state is basically defined by the idea of a strong leader, a veneration of violence and aggression, and a desire to act out against "the other". It makes perfect sense then to give fascists the ability to just declare war willy nilly, even against other fascists, because both the war itself and the aftermath align perfectly well with the ideology of the state.

That's not really the case for a democracy trying to attack another democracy. Like, what would the government tell its populace it was fighting for? The Brits and the French had a hard enough time getting peopled jazzed up about fighting the Nazis, imagine trying to convince the populace to fight another country which isn't being aggressive at all. At least the communists have the pretext of liberating the peoples they subjugate, either from fascists/capitalists, or from the bourgeois scum who have corrupted the revolution in whatever communist country they're invading. Plus you know, not having to listen to their populations either.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 20:30

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

PleasingFungus posted:

the defining features of victoria, to me, are (1) the sense of rapid progress (technological, military & cultural), and (2) the tight timeframe that limits what you can practically accomplish (which makes nations feel more distinct) and makes finishing games actually common.

pops and a realistic economy aren't necessary at all to either of those, so I could give or take them.

I'd add socio-political progress, which pops definitely help sell. That said, I'm sure some degree of simplification wouldn't hurt. I mean, where categories have very limited gameplay effect you might as well discard them and consolidate a bunch of pops, like religion. An improved assimilation system which allows quick-ish assimilation into the local core cultures would also reduce the upkeep of pops too. Plus a reduced number of pop categories might make it easier to communicate the stuff which actually matters in the game.

Another Person posted:

"What on earth do all these different tech modifiers actually do? Is 0.2% pop growth huge, or tiny? How about 5% factory throughput? 1% tax efficiency? Where are these modifiers being applied? Are they additive or multiplicative?"

That's really a more general thing for Paradox games, even if it's more pronounced in Victoria due to the sheer amount of numbers. Would be nice though if all their games clearly distinguished between additive and multiplicative modifiers. (And allowed both to be applied for any value, instead of being limited to one or the other.)

# ¿ Oct 23, 2015 13:34

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

Fintilgin posted:

Oooh... I hope there's a 'Government Reform' path for the USA where you or the AI can go Red or Business Plot or whatever, and really gently caress things ups.

The US should get a choice of how many "independent nations" it tells Hitler not to invade. The more countries on the list, the stronger and more aggressive Germany becomes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjD9v9H2UrU

# ¿ Oct 23, 2015 19:59

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

Darkrenown posted:

Yes.

Please do not use the fasces for countries which don't even pretend to have anything to do with Rome. Furthermore, if you do use the fasces, please do not put it on a elliptical field like you did for some flags in V2, it looks awful. The whole selling point of Fascism is stylish designs after all.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2015 15:16

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

Hitlers Gay Secret posted:

Yeah, steal some other Indian symbols instead.

The swastika is no more Indian than it is European.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2015 16:24

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

BillBear posted:

My empire is dead, I can't afford anything and rebels keep deciding to take turns loving me up the rear end. Never again will I mock Paradox's AI. Never. Again.

Mess with John Bull, you get the horns.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2015 17:49

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

TheMcD posted:

Ask Paradox. They were the ones that put those stupid names in to begin with - they came from the HoD dynamic dominion system. When that converter found a nation it could not transfer a Vicky 2 tag over to, it would take one of the dynamic dominion tags, which are as follows:

It's based on the Secret Kingdom of (Upper) Mustang in Nepal.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2015 23:09

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

Empress Theonora posted:

Have we seen what the generic HoI IV portraits look like yet? It's crazy impressive how many actual painted ones we've seen, even for edge cases like generals for smallish countries or a leader for alternate communist Norway.

Priority list:

1. Great powers during WW2
2. Sweden
3. Byzantium
4. Sweden's neighbors
5. Everyone else.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 16:22

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

I assume the inclusion of 24 year old admirals means there's Anime-inspired technologies/ideologies too??

Slime Bro Helpdesk posted:

I'm glad to see Earth's in the game. But will they get Serbia right this time???

The guy with a Serbian/Slavic name is the most skilled, so there is a chance.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 19:22

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

Tomn posted:

Back when Total War: Rome 2 was in the works, I remember there was one guy who complained endlessly than the Romans in the previews were insufficiently white and that it was racist (against Italians) to depict them with a tan.

Which is pretty funny, since the only reason there are white Italians today is because of the Germanic invasions that ended the Roman Empire.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 20:30

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

Kulkasha posted:

You forget Cisalpine Gaul, now known as Northern Italy, which had that name for a reason. It's more likely that Rome was much more ethnically diverse than we mentally picture it.

That is way too serious a reply to my post. :v:

Randarkman posted:

Not that wrong necessarily. Population experts estimate that Africa will almost rival Asia in population by the 22nd or 23rd century I think. Though there should be more Asians, especially vague ones.

Well, that still assumes equal representation in the colonization project for everyone on Earth. Like, if the world isn't officially united, just dominated by a single super power, then it might skew massively toward the majority ethnicity of that state, with everyone else just being left behind. In conclusion, the more democratic your empire is, the more closely it should match predictions in terms of "racial" makeup, representing the single super power having evolved into a truly representative world government by the time you start reaching for the stars. At the beginning of the game you would of course be able to choose your dominant ethnicity, so as to be able to create a truly Serbian Empire.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 21:28

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

Darkrenown posted:

There's like 6 difference human cultures you can choose from or randomly meet. Maybe the Asians rule space, maybe you run into space-USSR, who knows?

That's Asian and Russian confirmed as human cultures. I assume the rest are American, Swedish, African, and I guess Greco-Roman?

The Sharmat posted:

I can't tell if this is being ironic or not.

I am deadly serious.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 21:52

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

AdjectiveNoun posted:

You're a little wrong; white people have been in Italy since before the Roman Empire began, and Romanized Germanics were common in Rome since like 250 AD, since they were considered more trustworthy soldiers/generals than Italians or Illyrians - less likely to just take a legion and try to start a coup.

I was not deadly serious.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 23:21

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

Slime Bro Helpdesk posted:

I was tempted to link another "Germany was not the aggressor in WW2" thread from HoI-4, but drat that's weak poo poo compared to the Stellaris stuff.

That's because the Nazis already lost WW2, while we can still dream of them returning and conquering Earth in the future!

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 00:10

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

The Sharmat posted:

Noted arch-villain empire builder 20th century Poland

I like too the idea that the Netherlands and Denmark declared war on Germany. Yes, Denmark, a tiny flat country right next door to Germany, with an obsolete military which could probably be conquered by the German police forces, decided that declaring war on Germany was a good idea. Not sure of the state of the Dutch military, but the rest still holds for them too. At least Poland was actually a somewhat aggressive/imperialist country at the time, even if perhaps not unusually so. (Especially compared to its two larger neighbors.)

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 06:33

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

Agean90 posted:

what, no majestic hitler portrait on the back wall?

Pharnakes posted:

Why do you have a chain link fence in your office?

It's the concentration camp part of their WW2 themed wing.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 19:32

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

Groogy posted:

We only have winners in our office

Yeah, a portrait of Hitler would really send the wrong message in that regard.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 20:04

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

Oberleutnant posted:

CK2 in modern citites with vampires is extremely my poo poo.

This is why East vs. West was cancelled.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2015 15:05

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

Randarkman posted:

HoI4's world tension mechanic, peace conferences and factions would fit a cold war game pretty well actually. Though it should be utilized differently and you should have some sort of combination of HoD's crisis system and the world tension dynamic in order to do diplomacy through the UN and stuff.

HoI seems pretty focused on a singular climax though, with the game being built upon escalating tensions and war, with a mad dash to the finish to end it in the way most favorable to your side, followed by a peace conference to wind things back down again. That's basically a standard three act structure, and adding a bunch of Cold War at the end seems to me like I would just drag the game out without anything to really compare to the excitement of the war itself. If you wanted to expand on that it would be some Operation Unthinkable thing, which would work within the existing structure, rather than be some weird extra thing at the end. That seems like it's already there actually, going by the last few words in the DD, but it could probably be expanded upon.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2015 19:10

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

Agean90 posted:

Put it in a patch that allows for soviet super science, British werewolf commandos, and the US to field Literal Navajo windtalkers, whos ancient rituals ward off the Japanese oni-focused offensive.

Why British werewolves, when the Nazis were the ones who developed them historically?

# ¿ Oct 31, 2015 08:49

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ImpulseDrive posted:

I think a Gear Krieg update to the game would be pretty interesting to see the effect the various super science weapons would have on the course of the war. Been wanting to see something like that since the first game in the series, but like you the question of how it would fit comes in. From a strategic perspective, what role would the Walkers perform that the Tanks in the game don't already do? I could see Rocket soldiers adding combat bonuses vs. terrain effects.

It will be the missing link between infantry and artillery.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2015 08:41

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

Perhaps having different types of anomalies would make sense? Like, you could have ones which are unstable/unpredictable, where you'd generally have to just use your closest science ship to explore it because waiting for a more qualified scientist could run the risk of the anomaly just disappearing or exploding, even without interference. Basically weird natural phenomena or ghost ships and poo poo, where you might not have that great a chance of actually discovering something major (though it'd still be possible), but your scientist would at least have an excellent chance of learning something from the experience which could make them more successful in the future. (Or could unlock the ability to recognize other anomalies, allowing for more poo poo to explore.)

At the other end you could have ancient ruins, which would basically only stop being available for exploration if you decided on a really aggressive approach to exploring them, or possible if an enemy bombarded them. Having ephemeral anomalies which gets the player used to the idea of failure always being an option, and the perfect setup a luxury you often can't afford, might make them less irritated with the failure of other research projects too, on top of adding variety.

Kavak posted:

Fish it out before he flushes it, we can probably still use it!

So, the Federation's special ability will be that all vessels count as science ships. Kirk doesn't seem like a Scientist captain, but as long as Archaeology counts we can fit Picard in just fine...

Kirk is clearly a sexologist.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2015 00:47

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Kulkasha posted:

It'd require either a tile-based system of which provinces are made or god forbid some sort of vector system. Both of which are well outside of the abilities of clauswitz, I assume, which means Victoria 4 or later.

Creating your own states could work, though I'm not sure about the gameplay effects.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2015 09:02

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

Vivian Darkbloom posted:

4X boardgames are a bad idea. You can have like 2 X's before the game gets too goddamn complicated for a tabletop.

Battleship is the best 2X game.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 15:51

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

Will Italian units require extra supply, to simulate their love of pasta and the strain that puts on supply lines?

# ¿ Nov 13, 2015 20:11

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

Bort Bortles posted:

Well, their trains do run on time...

That's a myth. Italian trains have never run on time. Pasta-induced supply troubles is not though.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2015 20:26

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

Kavak posted:

I don't think there're resources that feed into consumer goods any more (Correct me if I'm wrong), which is the best way to simulate starving out a country. It was technically possible to do with Japan in DH, but with stockpiles it was incredibly difficult. Isn't portraying this still illegal in Germany, though?

Just make the German flavor text say something about the enemy being deprived of good beer, causing them to lose the will to fight.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2015 23:53

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

GrossMurpel posted:

But it's easy to do it. An average adult man needs like 2400 kcal a day, right? That's only what, 400 grams of chocolate? I can easily manage to eat that.
Now they just need to somehow enrich chocolate with enough micronutrients so I wouldn't die.

I think the average adult man produces roughly a pound of chocolate a day, so it really is just about the micronutrients.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2015 20:42

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

I was not chosen to participate in a Paradox beta, despite previous beta experience. I must conclude now, knowing more about Paradox, that I was rejected for being Danish, and thus there is no reason for me to sign up in the future.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 16:28

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

Drone posted:

And now the username/post combo makes sense

Hitlers Gay Secret posted:

I guess putting "I'm Hitlers Gay Secret" in my application didn't help my chances.

The secret code word is "The Wehrmacht did nothing wrong".

# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 17:37

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

Wiz posted:

Look one post above the one you just quoted.

Pretty dishonest to just zero in on one (clearly exaggerated) post, and pretend like it's representative, in an effort to ignore legitimate criticism. I realize it's not *your* game, but it still comes across as needlessly defensive.

Also, the people who aren't a fan of the tile grid might not be the same as the ones rubbing themselves raw in anticipation. Like, the tile grid system was like one of the first things people questioned when the game was revealed, alongside ship customization. Seems perfectly normal to me that people talk positively about the things they think sound great, and then go negative when a feature sounds tedious.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2015 16:12

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 09:32

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

Hitlers Gay Secret posted:

The autism is strong in this thread.

What does autism mean to you? I mean, not wanting to bother with nitty-gritty details sounds like the opposite of autism to me.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2015 16:34

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