PDOX Games VIII: Communism Will Win

[Serrus]

Those are the psionic ones, right?

Yes.

I got those on a non-ironman run when I wanted to become the Psionic Ascended Man.

[Valrifell]

Poor guy

[Impaled Nazarene]

Poor guy

1 heavy cav couldn't at least get a kill? Pathetic.

[Bralia]

Okay, so I'd like to go into detail about the absurdity that this game has gone through.

You see that Belgium there? That's not the original Belgium. Belgium fucking died. They refused to parlay with the Dutch and British and got annihilated for it. Prussia forced them to spit out Luxembourg, I forced them to spit out Wallonia and the Dutch directly consumed Flanders. And because the AI is a screeching harpy about getting cores back, the Dutch declared on me twice, with the help of the British. In those two wars, I helped Wallonia recover former Belgian lands and the reformed the nation of Belgium. That Belgium is no longer ruling out of Brussels, but Namur.

And now the elephant in the room . . . Hungary. I have never, EVER seen Hungary survive. Austria fucking died. They were in a brutal and LONG war with Prussia when the revolution occurred. The Russians never stepped in, so the Hungarians were able to do enough to enforce a status quo. They then proceeded to consolidate themselves into a competent European force and straight-up usurped Austria's position on the Great Power board.

Much less interesting but still remarkable is the lack of Italy. Sardinia-Piedmont has everything they need to form Italy and they've had it for a while . . . except for the required technology. It's 1870 and they still don't have State and Government.

[Valrifell]

Poor guy

1 heavy cav couldn't at least get a kill? Pathetic.

Go easy, they shipped my mans from Greece and left him off the boats in the face of 12,000 vikings.

[The Huskar Social Union]

1 heavy cav couldn't at least get a kill? Pathetic.

Go easy, they shipped my mans from Greece and left him off the boats in the face of 12,000 vikings.

That lone solider seconds before death:

[Genivaria]

There, I fucking did it. I fixed China. Fuck off Japan, Fuck off Germany.

[Danubian Peoples]

There, I fucking did it. I fixed China. Fuck off Japan, Fuck off Germany.

Tibet tho, like, isn't that a key region for any would-be 'whole' China?

Anyway some pics of Agustin Otakeren, dude took several levels in awesome since last I shared pics of him.
His spymaster found for him the Seal of Solomon, became Magus of the Hermetic Society, built a(nother) handgun, (his mom built one before him), wrote a Magnum Opus on Planetary Astrology, won a crusade for Andalusia, thoroughly shattered the Swedish kingdom, and might be on track to sainthood. He also of course, declared a restored Rome, and is close to restoring the imperial borders. He only needs to mop up Morocco and Iberia, as well as evict the holy orders residing in his lands. It's fitting that this 'German barbarian' is himself named Augustin, I swear the game knows what I'm gonna do before I do it.

[Genivaria]

There, I fucking did it. I fixed China. Fuck off Japan, Fuck off Germany.

Tibet tho, like, isn't that a key region for any would-be China?

Anyway some pics of Agustin Otakeren, dude took several levels in awesome since last I shared pics of him.
His spymaster found for him the Seal of Solomon, became Magus of the Hermetic Society, built a(nother) handgun, (his mom built one before him), wrote a Magnum Opus on Planetary Astrology, won a crusade for Andalusia, thoroughly shattered the Swedish kingdom, and might be on track to sainthood. He also of course, declared a restored Rome, and is close to restoring the imperial borders. He only needs to mop up Morocco and Iberia, as well as evict the holy orders residing in his lands. It's fitting that this 'German barbarian' is himself named Augustin, I swear the game knows what I'm gonna do before I do it.

Tibet is my puppet, we good.

[Danubian Peoples]

Tibet tho, like, isn't that a key region for any would-be China?

Anyway some pics of Agustin Otakeren, dude took several levels in awesome since last I shared pics of him.
His spymaster found for him the Seal of Solomon, became Magus of the Hermetic Society, built a(nother) handgun, (his mom built one before him), wrote a Magnum Opus on Planetary Astrology, won a crusade for Andalusia, thoroughly shattered the Swedish kingdom, and might be on track to sainthood. He also of course, declared a restored Rome, and is close to restoring the imperial borders. He only needs to mop up Morocco and Iberia, as well as evict the holy orders residing in his lands. It's fitting that this 'German barbarian' is himself named Augustin, I swear the game knows what I'm gonna do before I do it.

Tibet is my puppet, we good.

Good for you I guess. Besides, I really enjoy the new shape this China is rocking. This does make me ask though, what does China look like in CK2 when the immortal god-emperor of the restored Roman Empire comes a-knocking to install his sister-wife on the throne? China is big after all, and the only requirement to be called 'a' China is generally 'own the general eastern region, from Guangxi to Shandong, and maybe one or two bits outside of that, and then you'll be China' as far as historical precedent goes at least. So when this new emperor comes in and becomes emperor, what exactly is the extent of this new China? The Western Protectorate now answers to them but borders don't have to be contigous so that doesn't mean the western regions of China proper are under their control. And what about when China goes through intense hardship, like those civil wars and Mongol/Jurchen invasions that always destroy the Silk Road's value. What does China look like then? is the emperor listed in the China screen even 'emperor' anymore? Or is he the puppet of some two-but warlord up north? How can we even talk to him if his realm has gone to absolute bordergore?

[Genivaria]

There, I fucking did it. I fixed China. Fuck off Japan, Fuck off Germany.

Tibet tho, like, isn't that a key region for any would-be China?

Anyway some pics of Agustin Otakeren, dude took several levels in awesome since last I shared pics of him.
His spymaster found for him the Seal of Solomon, became Magus of the Hermetic Society, built a(nother) handgun, (his mom built one before him), wrote a Magnum Opus on Planetary Astrology, won a crusade for Andalusia, thoroughly shattered the Swedish kingdom, and might be on track to sainthood. He also of course, declared a restored Rome, and is close to restoring the imperial borders. He only needs to mop up Morocco and Iberia, as well as evict the holy orders residing in his lands. It's fitting that this 'German barbarian' is himself named Augustin, I swear the game knows what I'm gonna do before I do it.

Tibet is my puppet, we good.

[Atheris]

why am i the only one who voted for la resistance hoi4's a good game dammit

[Jack Thomas Lang]

why am i the only one who voted for la resistance hoi4's a good game dammit

No.

[Purpelia]

I just hope they fix the soviets and China in the next patch. Right now both of those just fail every single time unless they get a lot of outside support. And in singleplayer that translates to me having to baby them.

[Bralia]

Fucking HATE this.

[Lunas Legion]

Fucking HATE this.

S

N

E

K

[Atheris]

why am i the only one who voted for la resistance hoi4's a good game dammit

No.

You have completely destroyed my opinion. CK2 is no longer hot fucking garbage and is the best fucking game in the world. Thank you for editing my opinion for me.

[Ithalian Empire]

No.

You have completely destroyed my opinion. CK2 is no longer hot fucking garbage and is the best fucking game in the world. Thank you for editing my opinion for me.

I am happy you have been brought to the light of the all welcoming Crusader Kings 2, the greatest of the Paradox grand strategy games.

[Purpelia]

CK2 is a mess, let's be real. There are just too many flaws in it to make it a good game. From unfinished mechanics to mechanics that have no use to stupid mana pool mechanics. It is however a very fun game. Like truly deviously fun.

HOI4 on the other hand is either very fun or very stupid depending on the ebb and flow of AI balance changes. And in this version it's just stupid as the Soviet AI is broken, the Chinese AI has a 50% chance of just dying or of conquering Japan and Germany is OP. So we'll see in the next version how they fix it.

[Cisairse]

CK2 is a mess, let's be real. There are just too many flaws in it to make it a good game. From unfinished mechanics to mechanics that have no use to stupid mana pool mechanics. It is however a very fun game. Like truly deviously fun.

Install HIP, disable defense pacts and CB restrictions in the settings and you have a good game.

[Impaled Nazarene]

CK2 is a mess, let's be real. There are just too many flaws in it to make it a good game. From unfinished mechanics to mechanics that have no use to stupid mana pool mechanics. It is however a very fun game. Like truly deviously fun.

Install HIP, disable defense pacts and CB restrictions in the settings and you have a good game.

Don't argue with purp, they'll pull the game dev card

[Renoa]

I forced my cousin to stop having intimate encounters with... his wife.

Hilarious. Hysterical. I'm thrilled.

[Impaled Nazarene]

I forced my cousin to stop having intimate encounters with... his wife.

Hilarious. Hysterical. I'm thrilled.

Wrong link

[Purpelia]

CK2 is a mess, let's be real. There are just too many flaws in it to make it a good game. From unfinished mechanics to mechanics that have no use to stupid mana pool mechanics. It is however a very fun game. Like truly deviously fun.

Install HIP, disable defense pacts and CB restrictions in the settings and you have a good game.

I have been playing with it for a while now. But the problem is that no mod can really address the problems with CK2. Problems which by the way are shared by most paradox games, but especially CK2 and HOI4. Which is why the announcement of a proper intelligence system for HOI4 was greeted so positively. To give two examples:

1. Mana pool mechanics.
CK2 escapes most of these (unlike say EU4) but the secret societies are still fundamentally just mana pools. And not terribly fun ones at that unless you deliberately chose not to game them. The reason being that, shockingly enough, they are very easy to game. If you set your mind to it and have enough gold you can easily go from a nobody to the head of a secret society in 30ish years. And have all the mana you need to run amock with it. And that is not just bad design but also a massively missed opportunity. Just imagine how much more fun it would have been if those had been designed so that climbing the ranks was a multi generation effort you had to invest a lot of your game time into.

2. Lack of information.
Paradox games in general tend not to give you all the information you need but CK2 and HOI4 are particularly bad about it. And that matters because among other things it cheapens a lot of the really good game mechanics out there. Take for example the division designer in HOI4. Why does everyone just run around with 7+2 divisions? Why don't they try and custom build divisions to outdesign each other in a newer ending game of cat and mouse? The system definitively provides for it. And the other mechanics like supply and training do as well. But the information, in this case enemy division composition, just isn't there.
Same thing is true for the CK2 combat system only worse. You have this well designed multi stage combat system with all the intricacies of the HOI4 model and yet you can't really do anything with it because not only do you not know your enemies army composition (making planing a counter impossible) but you don't even control your own troop composition. So that's a great system just wasted.
Another example would be the lack of a decent overview screen to show you all your holdings, what buildings are in them, tax data, construction progress etc. all in one big easy to read screen so that you don't have to manually click each one at a time and check.

That sort of thing is really what the game needs.

So tldr; paradox games are very fun and they certainly are not bad games. But they are good in the same way Bethesda games are good. Great fun, great idea, decent execution but lots of room for general polish. And as not just a game programmer but an engineer in general I can easily enough spot how things could be made just that much better if only they cared.

[Danubian Peoples]

Well shit
Esfahan run, blababah. This time I didn't get all ballsy and start a war over the duchy, and the Muhallabids have yet to blob like heck within the Abbasids. And guess what, now my only competent character has rabies, and his court physician terribly mistreated him. The heir is the only other male in the family, his brother with a whopping 3 martial. Now I feel like I really am garbage. I'm assuming you guys do sooo much better when trying out inane challenges like this one.