Ideas For New Paradox Games

[Seeker]

As I waste more and more time on Hearts of Iron IV, I thought of a few more directions that could use the Paradox Approach....

1. Financial Fraud Simulator: Disguise your fraud from the AI regulators or experience the thrill of HardCore forensic accounting. DLC for pre-computerization spreadsheet simulator.

2. Demographics the Game: Realistic simulation! Play as a demographic researcher! Meet the needs of government, business, and political clients. Create detailed models and GRAPH, GRAPH, GRAPH!!

3. Spreadsheet Modeller 2017: Collate all the exciting graphs and info pages you love from other Paradox games and organize them according to certain criteria! Endless amusement.

4. Chicagoland: Simulate streetgangs struggle for turf and drug sales with detailed zoomable maps and over 100 pages of detailed statistical and biographical informatioon from 1890-2016.

[Proteus_MST]

As I waste more and more time on Hearts of Iron IV...

So, how is the game, especially compared to HoI III (with all expansions)?

[Seeker]

No more 'headquarters' units. Less tech. Check out the Youtube review!

[kentonio]

No HQ's? Hmm, not sure if thats good or bad.

[Sir Og]

Stellaris is the only Paradox game that I have played(excluding one of the older EUs many years ago) and it seems lacking in spreadsheets and graphs.
I'd certainly like to see more. Maybe there are mods that add more.

[Bosh]

Seriously just want CK III with more focus on in-realm politics to make playing a vassal fun.

Would like a neolithic game with a vast vast map of tribes that you never get to interact with, like the first few dozen turns of Civ but with the crazy Paradox focus on detail recording the short lives of all my poor tribesmen as I try to figure out how to get infant mortality under 50%...

[BeBMan]

I'm disappointed that they do not give the classic stuff (ancient Rome etc.) more love. EU:Rome was not such a bad attempt, despite all its (many) shortcomings.

I totallly disliked the overblown/tedious character management in there tho (it has scared me away from getting CKII so far, which looks like a nice game aside from this pt.). IMO it goes rather against the idea of "grand strategy" (which otherwise their games usually are) when I have to nurse hordes of individual characters.

Dunno if they did it better in CKII, but in EU:Rome it was mostly like

- grant lotsa guys titles or face neg. consequences (clickclickclick)
- constantly cycle your best guys through certain positions to allow them to by cycled into other positions which will make them available at some pt. for the positions you want them to be in (clickclickclick)
- rinse and repeat with every new generation (clickclickclick)

There might be ppl who enjoy this, but for the rest some more options to automate this stuff would be a blessing. The *classic* EU series does not have this whole character part and was still great (played EU II-III myself)

[Proteus_MST]

...

Dunno if they did it better in CKII, but in EU:Rome it was mostly like

...

I like CK2 ... it provides for great storytelling.

In one of my games for example, I started with the small county of Kleve and, over 2 generations became bigger and had 2 or 3 duchys as my Demesne as well as 2 dukes as my vassals and finally, to my surprise, was elected as emperor of the sacra romanunm imperium.

At this time my current ruler had 3 sons ... the oldest got the best education in order to become my successor and had great traits.
The second son had no good traits and I was glad that I could marry him off to a talented wife (which had as trait something like cunning or ambitious.
Well, a short time after the marriage, my second son suddenly demanded that I give him his heritage. I first ignored it but, after he had asked several times, I gave him one of my counties as his own demesne, thinking that this would silence him.
Well, the contrary was the case ... suddenly strange things happened ... my first son (and heir) suddenly had a strange accident and died of it (making my second son my designated heir) ... and then, one night in my own castle, when I wasclimbing down the stairs, someone gave me a push and I fell down them. Fortunately I survived, but I couldn't find out who was behind this accident ... or the accident of my first son.

Then, some month (or even 1-2 years) later I was leading a large crusader army ... suddenly I fell from the horse because someone had cut the straps of the horse harness. I then was in a comatose state and my wife (also a gifted ruler) took over my state affairs ... at least for another 1-2 years till I finally died and my son took over the realm (meaning that I played as the son, from then on, of course)

I never found out whether my son really was behind the assassination attempts ... but I am almost 100% certain he was.

In CK2 the NPCs definitely have a "life of their own", their own motivations and agendas ... and they don't feel like game tokens that can be pushed around at the players wishes. It has a little bit of Game of Thrones

[Ben Kenobi]

I've been pretty much addicted to Paradox for a long time. My faves are Vicky 1 and CK: Deus Vult. I have dabbled a bit in EU but have not played HOI.

My favorite game of CKII was becoming a tyrant in Norway when trying to gain absolute control over the realm. England intervened, to depose my tyrant replacing him with... his son.

Best. Event. Ever. All the tyranny burned off AND I got to keep everything I took away.

[Dinner]

No HQ's? Hmm, not sure if thats good or bad.

People supposedly complained about how tedious it was setting up the orser of battle. So no more chains of command beyond one level.

[BeBMan]

In CK2 the NPCs definitely have a "life of their own", their own motivations and agendas ... and they don't feel like game tokens that can be pushed around at the players wishes. It has a little bit of Game of Thrones

I played CK I for a short time ages ago and kinda liked it until the Mogolsshowed up and roflstomped me

I wasn't excited there about the character part either, but IIRC it wasn't such a MM hell as I felt it was in EU:Rome. Is CK II comparable to CK I in that regard? I might give it a go at some pt. indeed. Well, if I get around to play much is another thing...

[Proteus_MST]

I played CK I for a short time ages ago and kinda liked it until the Mogolsshowed up and roflstomped me

I wasn't excited there about the character part either, but IIRC it wasn't such a MM hell as I felt it was in EU:Rome. Is CK II comparable to CK I in that regard? I might give it a go at some pt. indeed. Well, if I get around to play much is another thing...

Dunno, never played CK 1.

But considering the fact that your own Desmesne (i.e. the counties under your personal command) is/should be rather small (dependant on the talents of your ruler with regards to government/organization ... if you have more counties as your own Desmesne than your skill allows, your peasants get unhappy (this also means that you can get into problems if your heir has a worse skill level than yourself )).
Which, of course, also means that you have to have Vassals for all the other counties in your realms (Vassals which may belong to their opwn dynasties and in every case have their own ambitions/motivations, which may differ from yours).

So, hard to say if it is a MM hell. I would say it depends on your political situation ... how many vasdsals you have, how many children and so on (and how ambitious they are to take your place ).

[Ben Kenobi]

CK1's problem is the realm duress mechanic. I've done a WC as a 1 province count. The key I found was to continually consolidate your realm by destroying all the powerful vassals after you take Byzantium and become Byz emperor.

Irish count, don't DOW your independent Ducal liege. Keep ignoring his summons, until your loyalty drops. Pledge to Denmark. Send your 50 soldiers overseas to help the Danish pagan sieges. Take a county. From there, keep DOWing pagans and take as much land as you can. Marry your heir into Aquitaine.

Then, when your king dies, become duke of Aquitaine. Do the same trick with the King of France, pledge allegiance to Byzantium. Keep steamrollering Pagans in the North until you supercede his heir. Wait for the Emperor to die. Become Emperor of Byzantium.

Then, consolidate your realm in a massive civil war when you decide to change the realm law away from Feudal elective. You want to take down all the Duchies in Byzantium, even at the cost of severely weakening the Empire temporarily. You want to accumulate as many duchies as possible, because that will fuel prestige expansion into the Middle east. You keep handing duchies to your heir to burn off badboy.

The other key is to beat down those with direct claims to Byzantium and then to strip them of some titles, but not their claim to Byzantium. That will fuel a massive prestige increase which will allow you to beat CK on the hardest level.
Once you're consolidated, and your piety increases to the point where you become Papal controller, excommunicate weak rulers, and get claims to all the Christian kingdoms. Keep steamrollering all the Muslims until you get enough prestige to do direct claims of the Christian Kingdoms. Once you have the set, start DOWing Kingdoms and consolidating Europe.

Beat up all the duchies after you've taken the last king title, until you get all the ducal titles. Then try to conquer the world. You should be able to do it without your badboy breaking once you have all the ducal titles.

Takes about 150 years, but there you go.

Easiest way to beat Mongols is counterintuitive. Break their morale by spamming battles. Send in each army individually. They'll be slaughtered to a man, but once their morale dips they will be broken and then you've defeated them.

[Dinner]

In CK 1 as the Byzantines your biggest problem is all of your vassals keep rebeling so the easiest solution is to just keep all of your land for yourself and never have any vassals. Everytime someone rebels just kill or imprison them and keep their land for yourself. This means all your remaining vassals begin to dislike you because they think you are greedy but after the first 100 years they are all dead and you no longer have to deal with rebeling vassals.

[Ben Kenobi]

In CK 1 as the Byzantines your biggest problem is all of your vassals keep rebeling so the easiest solution is to just keep all of your land for yourself and never have any vassals. Everytime someone rebels just kill or imprison them and keep their land for yourself. This means all your remaining vassals begin to dislike you because they think you are greedy but after the first 100 years they are all dead and you no longer have to deal with rebeling vassals.

CK1 doesn't have prisons.