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Beamed posted:Why are there multiple start dates in virtually every Paradox game if no one plays them? You guys collect those stats now, you gotta give us the deets I think they only really decided they don't need them at all around EU4 expansions. CK2 got couple of expanded start dates and as I understand it's less work as much of the game is randomized anyway. I think the date only has a political map, some predefined characters (and most of them get random attributes and traits) and technology/buildings calculated depending a region. In EU4 there are much more mechanics requiring updating timeline, like Native American special ideas, Nahuatl reforms, trade companies, estate lands, parliament seats, development, patriarch authority, buildings really having impact and allowing province specialization etc. Also don't know how institutions are handled. But basically starting on later dates makes game look wrong. IIRC Art of War expansion had updated 30 years war date but probably nobody cared so devs stopped caring too.
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Jan 4, 2017 11:57
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Groogy posted:I respectfully disagree. I am hard pressed to find what is fun with assigning out the estates, especially now when I have both systems available to me and I groan every time I interact with the old estates system. I can understand the loss of "tangible presence" which does hold an emotional value to the player, but I don't think compromising here to get "both" would result in better gameplay. What is it they say, compromise means just neither are happy? Even if it wasn't fun it was one of the rare systems that interacted with the geography. Most of the government interactions feel like they exist in a parallel universe not really caring about what kind of country they rule. You have things like Iberian Orders or Consecrate Metropoly but those things are fire and forget, they're more like an additional building. Giving out provinces to estates might not have been great or impactful, but this is one of a few decisions that interact with a lot of systems (you care about estate influence, loyalty, province autonomy, unrest and specific stats depending on the estate) and are sort of dynamic, as in the most cases it would often make sense to call of estate later. But I understand that this approach might be out of place in EU4, which is sorta about adding a lot of plates to spin, not making any specific plate more important.
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Sep 6, 2019 08:20
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Jazerus posted:state edict cooldowns force a commitment so that the player doesn't even try to min-max running this edict one month, then another the next month, etc. and the AI doesn't either It also forces you to forget that your institution spread/development/missionary edict wasn't doing anything except costing you money for the last 10 years. I don't see why there isn't an option to turn off edict with the game saying "You know it'll only actually turn off 11 months later, but don't worry it will stop draining your treasury after that".
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Sep 6, 2019 08:24
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Eimi posted:Yeah basically a CK3 that tries to be bare bones just won't work today when you have CK2. Counterpoint: they may learn from how Firaxis switched from beloved Civ4 to Civ5 and completely overhaul gameplay. Like you can only play as Christians but now you can be any landless courtier. And all the characters are properly generated in full 3d including bodies so that event pictures are dioramas instead. And the map scale is unprecedented so that you can zoom into individual villages in Ireland. And you don't directly control any army apart from the one your own character leads, and you have physically to be in a place you want to affect. I still don't think they announce CK3 5 months after a very big free update for CK2. But they might do something like that - a completely different game that doesn't directly compete with CK2.
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Oct 1, 2019 09:42
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Wait, I get it. They've licensed Game of Thrones grand strategy game. Remember this tweet.
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Oct 1, 2019 09:46
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I did not but now I do. On a more serious note many CK2 features really beg for ability to play unlanded or even not a noble. Half of the societies make little sense for a ruler character, and a lot of mechanics are about you looking at some minor character having fun being an adventurer, joining Varangian guard, crusading, scheming in foreign courts, educating wards, assembling mercenary companies or being a Pope.
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Oct 1, 2019 14:03
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Stairmaster posted:also gently caress you whoever though the jump from civ 4 to 5 was good Glad to see others eloquently answering that with eloquent explanations with what I was talking about. As for Alpha Centauri - yeah, this is a game you remember with fondness, not the one you replay over and over again. Beyond Earth might have lacked soul but I bet it's better as a game with all its balance and stuff. It can probably be replayed much more than AC till you exhaust it - only AC gives you reason to come back to its subpar mechanics and BE exists as a poor cousin of the main series but with sci-fi memes. Also yes, the beauty of many AC quotes is that they tell us about the characters. And some of them, like Morgan, are full of it. Meanwhile Civ6 approach with "DAE thinks this good thing is bad? Lol so edgy" quotes stand there as authorial intent of some sorts and they don't work at all.
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Oct 2, 2019 10:11
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Mister Olympus posted:this is some pretty intense grog and while 5 did have a lot of problems that fundamentally came from 1UPT, all the other problems this person either incorrectly diagnoses, misses at all, or were addressed in later versions of the game. Maybe you'll like this guy analysis more https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonshafer/jon-shafers-at-the-gates/posts/404789
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Oct 2, 2019 10:14
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Gantolandon posted:What? No, it really isn't. It's not the lack of flavor that made me completely ditch this game, but its subpar mechanics. The AI, even on higher difficulty levels, was so passive through the entire game that you could pretty much ignore it and just spam trade agreements. The first time I played the game, I won – one of the enemies timidly tried to stop me, but was so far behind that it was like fighting a toddler. Ah. Well I didn't play it that much (but I've played AC) and expected it to be fine gameplay-wise, coming in between Civ5 final expansion and Civ6. Now I know.
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Oct 2, 2019 11:56
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I think you've chosen a relatively good one. It's dumb but there's something in it at least. Kozlov seems to have at least some character from what I saw. He's a military man in charge of non-military stuff. It's not Hamlet but he's much better than others. I've looked into other leaders and the only memorable one is a Ferengi Australian guy who is comically greedy. Other quotes are... Patent your discoveries. Each new species represents an opportunity for uncontestable ownership of that lifeform. — Suzanne Marjorie Fielding, "Transplanetary Management, Methods, and Resources" (accompanies "Alien Biology" tech) Oppression, chaos, and death may come from the barrel of a gun... but so, occasionally, does victory. — Rejinaldo Leonardo Pedro Bolivar de Alencar-Araripe, "Principles of Modern War" (accompanies "Ballistics" tech) We have discovered alien life on our new world. Unsurprisingly, it grows, reproduces, dies, and cannot understand French. — Élodie, "Remarques" (accompanies "Alien Lifeforms" tech) Natural selection is an effective process for organic optimization, but is too slow to be truly useful. — Daoming Sochua, "Scientific Morality Vol. III" (accompanies "Tissue Engineering" tech) I just took some random ones. Now that I've read them it feels like they were written by the same person who had chosen tech quotes for Civ6. They are not memorable at all and are just... witticisms. They're pristine and none-offending, you can't agree or disagree with them, there's nothing to discuss like with that Lal internet quote.
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Oct 2, 2019 12:17
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They *all* sound very self-aware. Maybe that's a problem - today the most popular entertainment is about supermens in funny costumes joking about how funny their costumes are. Maybe today it's hard to write a character who honestly believes that human suffering is the same as computer program throwing an exception so you shouldn't really care about it, today your evil dictator should make jokes about how all this dictatorship business is dumb.
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Oct 2, 2019 12:43
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Eimi posted:It's better writing than any 4x game after it. It might have a good writing but even if the writing is done by Shakespear reborn it's not enough to make it a good game. Just like every new game from Rockstar or Bethesda is a technical marvel and features great voice acting talents yet you probably don't consider them masterpieces. And yes, balance in 4X game (just like in most other singleplayer games) means that you don't discover a single best reliable way to win a game and actually have some choices. Most seemingly imbalanced games like Heroes III compensate it by making the best choices not reliably available or requiring a longer and thus more dangerous plan. Or in case of Europa Universalis and other Paradox games where sides are imbalanced by design, it means that various approaches to problems are more or less balanced and are all useable often enough. Except for Naval idea group, of course.
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Oct 2, 2019 20:27
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Giggle Goose posted:Yeah I can see how that can be appealing. Me though, as much as I played IV, I pretty much only play the different Paradox grand strategy games anymore when I feel the need to scratch that itch. That's a very good point. Civ4 had more mechanics "under the hood" and random events. Civ5/6 had dropped most of it, now the only thing that is not directly controlled by the player is probably religion spread (and it's still not that complicated), world congress votes and disasters, and you have ways to mitigate disasters. Civ4 had invisible culture wars, complex espionage, random events and even quests - but it could never go full Europa Universalis so those who wanted a more simulationist approach went to play Paradox games, Civ5-6 has the right idea to be a more mechanics-driven competitive game. I too like doomstacks. It's about balance of player attention. War is important part of civilization, but not important enough for me to manage a carpet of doom, give out individual orders to a dozen units, tell them to plunder or defend or levelup or upgrade. A hundred clicks for army maneuvers would end up less important than a couple of clicks choosing a next wonder or technology that would completely change the whole eceonomy. Civ4 already had a rather complex warfare: you could counter enemy stack by bringing more rocks when you knew he focuses on scissors, you could just wreck his economy by plundering without actually fighting, you had to commit to a siege making your position vulnerable, you had elite units that you don't want to lose. You had a lot of interesting decisions and AI could get bonuses to emulate a competent opponent. Civ6 military AI isn't that bad, I think, but it still has to devolve to "my swordsman beats exactly the same swordsman of yours" bonuses. And yes, in many cases Civ5-6 model has the advantage of being much more obvious why you win or lose. Civ4 model requires a lot of practics for you to learn the difference between bad decision and unlucky dice roll.
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Oct 3, 2019 10:02
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Yeah, your archers tak hundreds of years to walk to a nearby city, same time is needed to build a monument or a market. Stacks are not nearly as absurd as direct tactical command over wars that span millennia.
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Oct 4, 2019 14:29
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1UPT makes you care too much about your units and so you care about them too much - towns may feel almost interchangeable but some leveled up guy may get a special name and perks making him feel important to you. And in reality some forgettable town is much more important for your game. That's one of the problems with the war in Civ. If anything, Civ4 was already overcomplicated in that regard giving perks to the troops.
ilitarist fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Oct 4, 2019 |
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Oct 4, 2019 14:36
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catlord posted:I thought that was one of the Elemental games? Didn't one of them actually hire the Fall From Heaven guy? Yes, he worked on Fallen Enchantress and its expansion Legendary Heroes. Lead designer, no less. He also worked on Sorcerer King games. Strange how crude and cringey mod (you can hire Guybrush Treepwood and he can sing for you) is more beloved than the same guy doing a full-blown game.
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Oct 5, 2019 10:41
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Yeah, probably. I don't like FE cause it's like moving numbers around and differently colored people pretend they're different. (Maybe it's a social commentary hiding as straightforward boring design?) I can't stomach FFH2 for liberal use of art I've seen elsewhere and dumb amateur stuff like Guybrush I've mentioned, Inquisition being literally from Monthy Python and so on and so on. But I can see that there's a lot of great to it. It resembles Total War Warhammer in many ways with its several apocalypse things happening in the background - heaven/hell war, religious tech able to summon demon and angel factions, powerful beings coming into the world. Come to think of it, Stellaris also is similar to that but it goes out of its way to make empire management more boring than bank accountant's daily job.
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Oct 5, 2019 12:04
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They try to be fun, didn't you like Kilimanjaro "no wi-fi" quote?
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Oct 5, 2019 17:37
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StarMinstrel posted:My favorite thing about Vicky is how you can play tall and become number one. You mean AI is so impotent it lets you get away with anything.
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Oct 6, 2019 08:39
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I don't think people here don't want you to like Vic2, the problem comes when ignoring the flaws is combined with romantic/reactionary lust for a past that didn't really exist. That video is an example of it.
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Oct 6, 2019 18:18
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Vichan posted:Victoria 2 especially would've ended up way better under Paradox's new post-launch support. Pretty sure it would. But I'm not sure modern Paradox would ever put arcane systems like POP promotions or world market in a game today. Or systems that beg for Excel UI like country influence. And I don't think Victoria 2 would have a cult following with systems that are made in a way you can't tell wether they work or not.
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Oct 6, 2019 19:30
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I'd bet like Imperator Rome, but louder.
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Oct 6, 2019 19:47
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They've already added HoI-style battleplans in Victoria 2 in an expansion. It was weird.
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Oct 6, 2019 21:30
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Yeah, that's part of why it was weird. Also it had fronts for some reason.
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Oct 6, 2019 22:29
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:I would prefer getting rid of culture in favor of language, and making it matter a lot more. There are all kinds of dubious cultural assignments. Or maybe they should drop culture as a term. I mean I know Long 19th Century was the time of nationalism but by that time nationalism constructed nations, not the other way around. All those Bretons and Acquitans or whatever of France were French from the point of view of French nationalism. In general, this culture system doesn't have much sense in any period, I feel. You can talk about something like Loyalty which never changes for any province/POP, so that Basques or Angolans always dream about their own country (maybe nationalism itself only kicks in when the province becomes more developed or POPs are conscious/educated enough). And you have tolerated loyalty, or allegiance or something - so that those Basques or Angolans become content with French rule with the menace of nationalism never going away, just sleeping and waiting till those lands become prosperous/conscious/educated enough. I mean back at EU4 times there were very few times when culture specifically was a problem for conquest. And in Vic2 times there was a lot of paranoia about national minorities betraying their masters but it mostly happened during wars, e.g. Slavic troops of Austria-Hungary surrendering to Russians during WW1. Not sure it's big enough deal to require modeling that whole culture system.
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Oct 7, 2019 09:29
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And Surviving Mars will be free to get in a couple of days on Epic Game Store.
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Oct 7, 2019 15:05
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lkbynv8Abg
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Oct 15, 2019 18:15
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So that video ad couldn't find a better idea than "now you can play a game ON YOUR PHONE in SUBWAY".
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Oct 15, 2019 18:22
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 People on reddit already noticed that there are messages that call this game Nova Empire. Hmmm. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gamebeartech.nova&hl=en Hmmm.
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Oct 15, 2019 18:27
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At least they had sense to not make it a grand reveal on PDXCON. They've learned something from Blizzard.
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Oct 15, 2019 18:43
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Chomp8645 posted:You make a good argument that food- based slurs are common enough to be tame. If it makes you feel better Russians have a nice slur for Italians. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA catlord posted:If you accidentally say something offensive, the proper response is "oh, I had no idea, I'm so sorry" and not "well I didn't know, so gently caress you, I'm going home" and bitching about how it's not fair to get called out for saying something offensive. The guy you were defending is a dick, sorry to say. I'm sure he was informed that he said something offensive instead of being called a literal Nazi who's only goal in life is to spread right-wing propaganda on video game forums.
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Oct 15, 2019 21:35
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Poil posted:Isn't the point of subways to be in tunnels? Mountanous crowded countries like Switzerland or Japan have subways that go well below and well above the ground. In my relatively poor Eastern Europe capital we got internet and GSM in underground subway last year
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Oct 15, 2019 21:41
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ItohRespectArmy posted:Hopefully paradox never makes a mobile game again. Funny you should say that because they've released this game 3 years ago. It was called Crusader Kings Chronicles But then GDPR came and they didn't care enough to update the game for it and it was taken down.
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Oct 16, 2019 00:53
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Serious note: Soviet gaming existed. By that time Soviets decided to stop making their own PCs and just copied IBM. Same happened with videogames. Like the most popular handheld game was a copy of this thing: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/62/45/36/624536f08e2f7e909fcd672ced7bbedb.jpg with a wolf from a Soviet cartoon but even the egg theme was still there. PC game copies were more like localized pirated games made by an enthusiast. So I'd say communist videogame market wouldn't look that different from modern mobile games made by all those cheap development companies.
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Oct 17, 2019 09:46
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Well yeah, there's also Samizdat.
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Oct 17, 2019 10:36
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I know about USSR hardware cause I was taught by a guy who developed it and I did some lab work with it. This video is about East Germany and be mindful about it being the most progressive country in the Soviet Block. It depends with luxury in a command economy. When USSR wanted to compete with the West they spared no resources on movies, sport, circus, and ballet. I imagine that if they decided that video games are serious business they'd do some big budget production; but it might be as likely they'd consider it kids stuff.
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Oct 17, 2019 16:30
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We're going weird places with this thread but the problem with distribution in Soviet union was never computational, it was ideological. My favorite trivia is that some of the train routes were called "sausage trains". People from small towns and villages got onto it in special times to get to capitals or big cities. They knew that at the end of fiscal month shops will drop on the counter sausages they wanted to sell under the counter but couldn't find a buyer. It was a mass movement, something everyone knew about. Imagine that, the system moved better goods into cities to make it look more prosperous. It had to be sold for the state sanctioned low price and so shop owners didn't want to sell it at all. And the vast resources were spent on allowing people visit cities to buy stuff. No CPU can do anything with a system like that.
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Oct 17, 2019 18:13
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Anyway, topical news! Paradox Sale has reached Steam and Crusader Kings 2 is now free. But it doesn't say "free till Monday" or anything, just free. Do you think it's forever f2p? Edit: yes, it's free forever. ilitarist fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Oct 17, 2019 |
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Oct 17, 2019 18:30
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It also significantly lowers the chance of them rolling old essential expansions into the base game, like Legacy of Rome for retunies. Still it's good and somewhat more honest. I think the famous paywall of DLC that new player sees is much more approachable once you play the base game a little.
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Oct 17, 2019 18:38
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GrossMurpel posted:What is that wolf called? Getting some mad vague nostalgia for the cartoon here. He's... Wolf. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well,_Just_You_Wait! It's like Soviet Tom & Jerry, kinda.
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Oct 18, 2019 21:40
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