Page 1 of 1 [ 9 posts ] 


How many of you have Played (and Enjoyed) Paradox Interactive titles?
Poll ended at 20 Dec 2014, 10:18 am
Yes 100%  100%  [ 3 ]
No 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Total votes : 3

Mo918
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

User avatar

Joined: 15 Dec 2014
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Posts: 2
Location: Chicago, IL

15 Dec 2014, 10:18 am

This is somewhat a mix of a poll because of my personal interest if this is in fact a common interest among individuals with Asperger's, and a discussion about the topic if anyone here has.

So, has anyone here played Paradox Interactive Titles, in specific, their Grand Strategy Genre; Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron, etc.

I ask this partially because I'm an Aspie myself, and have a weird fondness for their Grand Strategy Titles because of their relations with History, countries, and flags, three things I have quite the fondness for, so if you also have this kind of enjoyment for these subjects, feel free to comment regarding your opinion.


_________________
I'll probably take things literally

(I'malsonewheretakemercypls)


Misery
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Aug 2011
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,163

15 Dec 2014, 10:49 am

I own a couple of them, but I havent really dove into them yet for one simple reason: The lack of anything resembling a decent tutorial. They technically HAVE tutorials, but they're.... bad. They really DONT give enough info to get started on them.

It reminds me of learning Dwarf Fortress, which is another hyper-complicated game, except THAT one is way more confusing to learn. I watched a video tutorial series on Youtube (which is like 50 videos long, at 30 minutes each...) to learn that game. It'd be nice to have something similar for their grand strategy games, as usually going into them it's like, okay, so in this screen I've got all of these options... but I have no idea what their real effects are or what strategic use they have or much of anything, really...

If I could find decent tutorials though, they are something I'd easily get into.



Mo918
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

User avatar

Joined: 15 Dec 2014
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Posts: 2
Location: Chicago, IL

15 Dec 2014, 1:00 pm

Misery wrote:
I own a couple of them, but I havent really dove into them yet for one simple reason: The lack of anything resembling a decent tutorial. They technically HAVE tutorials, but they're.... bad. They really DONT give enough info to get started on them.

It reminds me of learning Dwarf Fortress, which is another hyper-complicated game, except THAT one is way more confusing to learn. I watched a video tutorial series on Youtube (which is like 50 videos long, at 30 minutes each...) to learn that game. It'd be nice to have something similar for their grand strategy games, as usually going into them it's like, okay, so in this screen I've got all of these options... but I have no idea what their real effects are or what strategic use they have or much of anything, really...

If I could find decent tutorials though, they are something I'd easily get into.


The tutorials dive into too complex things when only the basics should be taught, and all assume that someone has played a Paradox Interactive title before, so doesn't explain combat or unit movement to them very well. (I had to Google how to move Units when I started HOI3) and they're too long in most cases for a person to keep their attention occupied properly, and even for how deep the Tutorials go, I still don't understand 50% of the concepts in HOI3 yet and I've played it for over 6 months now, even after reading through the guide so many times.


_________________
I'll probably take things literally

(I'malsonewheretakemercypls)


drh1138
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 2 Dec 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 498

15 Dec 2014, 1:31 pm

I have a few of them, Victoria II, Hearts of Iron III, and I played quite a bit of the HoI II variants Darkest Hour and Arsenal of Democracy. If money permitted, I'd also have the latest Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings II.

Vicky II I mostly play Sweden and play to form Scandanavia, or Equestria via the My Little Pony mod, with Maneifest Destiny (conquering the USA) a goal. I'm not particularly good at Vicky II in the warfare department, however; I usually have problems maintaining sufficiently large soldier pops even with mobilizing the poor to war.

The main thing that HoI III irks me on is the army command system; though there is a third-party tool that works with a game save to help manage it. Trying to reorganize the chain of command for a major like Germany or the USSR is a near-insurmountable exercize in complexity management without some kind of external aid.

Incidentally, I also went to the trouble to learn Dwarf Fortress (Toady's finally getting around to fixing some old bugs), and it's not dissimilar: third party tools (at least Dwarf Therapist, and dfhack) are a functional necessity due to the poor UI. A graphics pack is also good, though I prefer to play with ASCII and don't even see the code anymore, just blonde, brunette, redhead.



Feyokien
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Dec 2014
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,303
Location: The Northern Waste

16 Dec 2014, 6:01 pm

I've played a few of their games, Crusader Kings 2 and Mount and Blade Warband. Steam says I've only played CKII for 57hours, so not quite extensive, but I've acquired a very good grasp of the games mechanics. I really enjoyed the Old Gods expansion for it. The latter on the other hand, Warband, I've put 400+ into somehow. Warband is super addictive. Its a really good mix of strategy and actual in game combat. The Floris mod and Game of Thrones mod for it are really challenging. They also just released a Viking Conquest official DLC for it this is painfully difficult. I look forward to dropping another 400 hours on conquering it.



as1337
Hummingbird
Hummingbird

User avatar

Joined: 24 Jan 2015
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 24
Location: Beyond the Infinite

24 Jan 2015, 8:49 pm

I have played most of their grand strategy titles. I find hearts of iron 3 a bit to slow. I mostly play crusader kings 2 because of the setting, but i cant keep up with all the dlc. If you want to learn to play these games i found watching Lets plays the best method.


_________________
''Why does the sun come up? Or are the stars pin holes in the curtain of night, who knows? What I know is that because you were born different, men will fear you and try to drive you away.'' -Ramirez


brett0007
Hummingbird
Hummingbird

User avatar

Joined: 31 Jan 2015
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Posts: 23
Location: somewhere

31 Jan 2015, 9:40 am

I happen to be a prolific player of Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4, overall I prefer CK2's more personal approach to governing but I find its other aspects far to gamey(its far to easy to inherit entire empires) none of my vassals(new or old) batted an eyelash when i inherited the Carolingian empire as Byzantium... a As for EU4 the time frame is not of much interest but it is fun.



Borntman
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 24 Mar 2014
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 15

07 Mar 2015, 7:41 pm

I play HoI 3 and was involved in the RPM Mod. I find the complexity to be the best part and love the army oob system and the mod I use expands it to the air and naval oob as well.



TheBraveSirRobin
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 14 Mar 2013
Gender: Male
Posts: 238
Location: Northwest WA

08 Mar 2015, 1:44 am

I haven't really played any Paradox Interactive games besides Magicka but I want to pick up Cities: Skylines when it releases (I played SimCity 4 a while ago and got bored as hell, but after playing Banished I realized I could find city building to be fun if playing the game is more challenging and involved). I play some strategy games but I'm really not into the genre, so, really, Paradox's catalog is not my cup of tea.


_________________
Nosce te ipsum - Know thyself