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Thanks to Gorgo Primus for the original thread, which I stole roughly 84% of IRC Channel: irc.synirc.net #paradox Steam Group: Comet Sighted What is Paradox? Paradox Development Studio and its parent company Paradox Interactive are a Swedish video game developer and publisher respectively that are best known for their real-time grand strategy/world simulation games that take place in nearly every point in civilized history, and playable as nearly every single country. Paradox games used to be well known for being buggy and unfinished at release, but starting with Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4, those dark days are long since behind us and recent releases have been criticized less for being unplayable and buggy and more for design decisions you personally disagree with, always the mark of a mature game developer. Many Paradox developers post in this thread, and we do our best to not drive them away with our spergy complaints more than once a week or so. Paradox puts great emphasis on multiplayer and with the current generation of releases, Steam is a perfectly cromulent way to paint the map of the world your color while negotiating pretty borders with many of your closest acquaintances. It's worth noting that for pre-CK2 games Paradox has a fairly poor track record when it comes to multiplayer support, and many of their titles can't be played multiplayer on Steam unless you are playing with other Steam users. However if you are playing one of these older games, you probably know what you are doing at this point and already have quite a high tolerance for pain. If you are new to Paradox games, it is strongly recommended that you visit the wikis of the games you are interested in. These are semi-official in that they are hosted by Paradox but the content is written by obsessive-compulsive players who really, really want to conquer the world as Ryukyu and turn the Ottoman Empire into an Orthodox Christian European power (both of these are common Europa Universalis IV obsessions). Because Paradox games are extremely complex and frequently lack decent tutorials, these wikis are full of helpful tips and information you might otherwise overlook. Paradox also publishes a number of titles developed by other studios that fall beyond the scope of this thread. This thread is for discussing games developed by Paradox (or as a part of their now-cancelled engine licensing program), which boils down to the following titles: Not Yet Released Hearts of Iron 4 (pics coming soon) Hearts of Iron 4 is Paradox's update of its top-selling World War 2-era sandbox. The development team has promised that they've learned the lessons of Hearts of Iron 3's problematic release, and swear that NATO counters will be available as cosmetic DLC. Scheduled for release in early 2016. Links Buy at Official Forum Dev Diary Archive Wiki Stellaris (pics coming soon) Also scheduled for release in early 2016, Stellaris is Paradox's entry into the "please, all Gods in heaven, make a real successor to Master of Orion" 4x space game sweepstakes. So far what little has been released about the game has been incredibly promising and hopefully the inevitable crash into reality and despair isn't terminally brutal. Still,  Links Buy at Steam soon! Official Forum Dev Diary Archive Wiki Current Generation Games Clausewitz 2.0 is Paradox's current 3D engine. Its first glorified tech demo was Sengoku and its first real game was Crusader King 2, and it has been improved on for each game since - to the point where it is a fairly solid engine capable of producing if not stunning, then at least graphically pleasing games. Europa Universalis 4     EU4 is Paradox's flagship game/virtual world/pretty border simulator and allows you to do pretty much anything you want, as long as it occurs within the years 1444 and 1815. It features full fledged trade routes that can actually be developed and maintained, visible on-map weather systems, historical events, decisions and disasters that dynamically adapt to the state of your nation, unique national ideas for almost every possible nation from Ajuuraan to Zaporozhie, and many other game systems that will effectively consume your entire life. Plenty of goons just like you have had their lives consumed and you can join them in the dedicated EU4 thread. Suggested Countries For New Players (in rough order of difficulty): Ottomans, Portugal, Spain, England, France. What DLC should I buy for the "Complete" EU4 experience? short answer: All of them. They usually go on sale when a new one comes out. Note that each DLC comes with a free patch with many of the features, so if you haven't played EU4 in a year it's a far different game even if you haven't bought any DLC at all. long answer:
Everything else is cosmetic dlc such as songs, family crests and face packs. Get them if you like, but they do not impact gameplay. Links Buy at Steam SA Thread Official Forum Wiki Popular Mods (these can all be found on Steam) Europa Gooniversalis: popular Goon-authored multiplayer-focused mod (not yet updated for current patch) Occultus Mundorum: Adds fantasy nations such as Atlantis, Mu, and R'lyeh (not yet updated for current patch) Extended Timeline: Steppe Wolf for EU4 (sadly, without Bulgarian Bonuses). Play EU4 in 60 AD as the Roman Empire, or in 2015 AD as the Russian Federation, and yet still forge claims on your neighbors. Graphical Map Improvements: make your map pretty (there are many such as these, this is just the one I like) Crusader Kings 2     Paradox's breakthrough attempt at becoming a serious development studio as opposed to "lol you bought HOI3 when it launched", Crusader Kings 2 was released on February 14th 2012 to the general acclaim of Paradox fans. CK2 covers the years 1066-1453, and differs from other Paradox games in that instead of playing a nation, you play as a dynasty, picking one of the many Kings, Dukes or Counts of Medieval Europe to play as. In addition the game has DLC either released or in the works allowing you to play as Muslim powers such as the Caliphates and Electoral Merchant Republics. Gameplay for everyone but the Republics consists of guiding your dynasty through the medieval ages, gaining titles and growing your power through war, marriage and intrigue; for Republics your focus is more on gaining popularity back home, building and maintaining trade posts, and getting stinking rich! Featuring such novelties as QA testing, a useful tutorial and DLC, CK2 is the first of Paradox's current generation of "releases that weren't awful" for which we are all grateful. Suggested Countries For New Players: Ireland is usually considered "tutorial island". What DLC should I buy for the "Complete" CK2 experience? There's quite a lot! And only a little is forgettable (Sunset Invasion is silly but fun, Charlemagne and Rajas of India are pretty easy to skip)
Everything else is cosmetic dlc such as songs, family crests and face packs. Get them if you like, but they do not impact gameplay. Links Buy at Steam SA Thread Official Forum Wiki Older Games Clausewitz 1.0 was Paradox's first 3D engine. Its first title was Europa Universalis 3, and was improved on each game until it reached such heights as to necessitate its elevation to 2.0. Europa Universalis 3 is generally regarded to be the best Clausewitz 1.0 game, with Victoria 2 being a mix of good and bad, Hearts of Iron 3 being lambasted as either the worst 1.0 game or just a misunderstood flaws masterpiece, and Rome being popularly declared the weakest of the bunch. Popular Mods CK2Plus: Balance, tweak and content mod Game of Thrones: Total conversion mod based on the A Song of Fire and Ice fantasy series March of the Eagles     Originally slated to be developed for Paradox by AGEOD, this Napoleonic War game covers the years 1805 – 1820 and seems to be Paradox's attempt to bridge the gap between the EU and HOI2 games. It was widely viewed as "Paradox's beta test of EU4" and didn't see much interest due to being effectively made obsolete by the far better EU4 shortly thereafter. Links Buy at GamersGate or Steam Official Forum Dev Dairy Archive Sengoku     Sengoku is focused entirely on Sengoku-era Japan and covers the years 1467-1620, although it utterly ignores most of the historical events that made the Sengoku-era interesting, nor does it bother to deal with Japan's roles in China or Corea (culminating in the Imjin War). It claims to be a character-driven game developed alongside Crusader Kings 2, using an earlier version of the same engine, but is barebones and feels very much like a beta test/cash-in. The game is largely devoid of features, events, support, or fans, and there is very little to do except wage war on your neighbors - which you will auto-annex the moment your troops touch their soil. The general consensus is to give it a pass and go play CK2 instead. Suggested Countries For New Players: Brittany, Poland, Normandy, France, or Somewhere in Spain... in CK2. Links Buy at Steam Official Forum Popular Mods The Sengoku mod... in CK2. Europa Universalis 3     Paradox's old flagship title, EU3 lets you play as any nation in the world between 1399 and 1820. Gameplay is focused around diplomacy, warfare and colonization and covers such events as the Renaissance, the Reformation and the discovery of the New World. The expansions update the graphics and add massive amounts of polish and content onto what was already a solid game. The consensus on EU3 is that it is Paradox's most stable and polished 1.0 title, though currently Europa Universalis 4 completely made it obsolete for new players. Suggested Countries For New Players: France, Castile, or England (if you give up all holdings in France as soon as possible). Links Buy at Steam Official Forum Wiki Popular Mods EU3Plus/AzeriMod: Popular balance and tweak mod with new alt-history scenario based on Wiz's AARward Winning Azerbaijan LP MiscMods: Another popular balance and tweak mod with new alt-history scenarios MEIOU: Balance, tweak and content mod Death&Taxes: Balance, tweak and content mod Europa Universalis: Rome    As the name suggests, Rome is focused around antiquity and covers the years 474-730 AVC (280-24BC). The game is a blend of EU3's nation-based and Crusader Kings' character-based gameplay, but unfortunately falls rather short of both the other titles. The black sheep of the Clausewitz era, Rome is repetitive, buggy and unpolished, and hasn't received a major update in years. The Vae Victis expansion did some to alleviate its problems, and it can be playable and even fun with mods (mainly Wiz's), but nonetheless it remains a bargain bin game. In addition, as of this writing the game has been made so unstable by the latest patches that it is not playable. Suggested Countries For New Players: Rome or Macedonia. Links Buy at Steam Official Forum Wiki Popular Mods Reign of the Ancients: Balance and tweak mod, adds playable countries in 'empty' areas Epigoni: Balance and tweak mod Magna Terra: Adds the entire world as a playable area Hearts of Iron 3     Arguably one of Paradox's most ambitious undertaking to date, HOI3 is a World War 2 game featuring an enormous map with 10,000 provinces, realistic weather and supply systems, warfare theatre management and optional AI control of your armies and production. Unfortunately it lacked a development cycle to match its ambitions, and was virtually unplayable on release. Expansions and patches have greatly improved on the game, but it remains a controversial title and many people still feel that HOI3 is too rigid and unwieldy, with a static political system, overcomplicated warfare system that forces the player to rely on the AI to play the game for them, and generally too ahistorical. Suggested Countries For New Players: Nazi Germany, Italy, or USA. Links Buy at Steam Official Forum Wiki Popular Mods (add some here!) Victoria 2     Named for the Victorian age (1836-1936) that it covers, Victoria 2 is a game about industrialization, colonialism, nationalism and imperialism. It was a major step up graphically from previous 1.0 titles, and has a complex in-game economy that has only become more so with the recent release of the A House Divided expansion. While full of innovative ideas and concepts, Victoria 2 has proved to be fairly controversial with some fans as to how well it holds up compared to Victoria 1 and the other Clausewitz games in general. Most can at least agree that it falls short on execution with its byzantine game mechanics that are difficult to balance, its fondness for running itself without any player input needed, and a scary lack of profitable industrialization. The expansion improved on most problems Victoria 2 had with the cost of creating some new ones (making 'Uncivilized' countries essentially unplayable being but one), and the game sadly still suffers from the overcomplexity of its own gameplay systems. The recent Heart of Darkness expansion promises to fix colonialism, make navies interesting and fun, and add a neat crisis system for sensible wars. Suggested Countries For New Players: Brazil, Belgium, Prussia, or Spain. Links Buy at Steam (yes, the collection with all the DLC is cheaper than buying just the base game and 2 expansions individually) Official Forum Wiki Popular Mods POP Demand Mod: Balance, tweak, and economy fixing mod New Nations Mod: POP Demand Mod without the extra junk The Imperialist Adventures of Srbja and Friends!: A mod based on the Serbian Succession Mega-LP that lasted from CK1 until the end of EU3 with the Kingdom of Serbia, and eventually Serbia-Byzantium, being passed around by increasingly insane goons who constantly sabotaged their predecessors efforts. Europa Engine Games The Europa Engine was the original 2D engine developed by Paradox for Europa Universalis I. Although Paradox no longer develop any games with this engine, their (discontinued) licensing of it to the modding community resulted in a number of great EU engine games and one really really terrible one. Arsenal of Democracy and Darkest Hour are the strongest of the Europa Engine titles, with For the Glory, Crusader Kings and Victoria being solid but rather dated titles. Crusader Kings    The predecessor of Crusader Kings 2, CK1 is very similar in gameplay but largely falls short of its successor. Even with the Deus Vult expansion, it can be quite buggy and crash-ridden (especially in multiplayer), and has been stuck in beta-patch mode for years. Unless you're very short on cash, there's little to recommend it over CK2. Likewise, if you own CK2, it is doubtful you're ever going to find yourself wanting to load it up and take a trip down memory lane to the glory days of crashtastic simplicity. Suggested Countries For New Players: Poland, France, or England. Links Buy at Steam Official Forum Popular Mods Deus Vult Improvement Project: Balance and tweak mod Victoria    Like its successor, Victoria is about the victorian age and the industrial revolution. Possibly even more complex than Victoria 2, Victoria 1 is notorious for having an atrocious UI and a learning curve that is less of a curve and more of a wall. Nonetheless, if you can get past the graphics, the UI and the bugs, Victoria still outshines its successor in many ways, particularly when it comes to the unprecedented level of control it offers over your country and its population - though at the cost of a very micro-heavy game. For those who swear that V2 was a terrible disappointment that ruined their lives, Ricky shines on the living embodiment of what a good Paradox game can have to offer. Suggested Countries For New Players: Belgium, Brazil, Prussia, USA, or Sardinia-Piedmont. Links Buy at Steam Official Forum Paradoxian Wiki (no longer able to be updated, you'll still need it) Popular Mods Victoria Improvement Project: A somewhat controversial balance and content mod, which adds an enormous (many say too enormous) amount of events that the engine can only barely handle For the Glory     The first product of Paradox's licensing of the Europa engine to its fans, For the Glory is a standalone fan expansion of Europa Universalis II. Covering the years 1419-1820, it is superficially similar to Europa Universalis 3 but where EU3 is sandbox, FtG is far more event-driven; how rigid these events can be is largely up to you with option settings on how historical you want things to be, historical event choices only, standard percent chances, or always ahistorical (for example Austria inheriting Hungary and Bohemia in every game, most games, or only if they manage to take them piece by piece like they would any other state). Despite some neat ideas such as increased modifiability, the ability for in game mod switching, and the retention of the more multiplayer friendly and event light vanilla game scenario, FtG sold much poorer than was expected by PI. As a result of this it ceased to be supported officially for a few years, until in 2013 it was very silently announced that a new patch was being worked on that fixes some of its outstanding issues and adds a ton of new mapmodes and UI improvements - and a beta patch can be downloaded from the tech support forum at this very moment. Yep, this game is remarkably still getting support! Suggested Countries For New Players: England, Castile, Bohemia, Austria, or France. Links Buy at Steam Official Forum Popular Mods AGCEEP: Content and tweak mod Music Mod: Self explainatory, delete vanilla (really EU3) music before installing for the return of Falala and other classic tunes from EU2 Arsenal of Democracy     Another product of Paradox's licensing of the Europa Engine, Arsenal of Democracy is a standalone fan expansion of the immensely popular World War 2 game Hearts of Iron 2. It adds several new scenarios (of which the Cold War 'Battle Scenarios' are notoriously poo poo) and a number of neat gameplay features such as national ideas, improvements to the economy and production, the best economic slider system a HOI2 game has ever seen before or since, an improved intelligence system, and major balancing changes to the game's combat model to allow the AI to actually do well for a change. Of the two HOI2 fan projects, AoD more sharply diverts from 'vanilla' HOI2 with its changes to combat and production. Unfortunately many of AoD's changes to production, infrastructure, and 'research team' mechanics have come with the terrible side effect of making Minor Countries perpetually outclassed and terribly unfun. As a result of these flaws, its comparatively scarce level of support, and the lack of the Kaiserreich mod, at the time of this writing it is generally seen as worse than Darkest Hour and it is suggested that new players get that instead. Suggested Countries For New Players: Nazi Germany or Republican Spain. Links Buy at Steam Official Forum Outdated Paradoxian Wiki Popular Mods SMEP: Content and event mod Darkest Hour    The other worthwhile HOI2 fan project, Darkest Hour sticks closer to its roots, foregoing AoD's major gameplay revamps and focusing instead on streamlining HOI2 while adding new scenarios and gameplay additions. Featuring new scenarios for every year of the war, a beautiful new map, and many minor tweaks and additions such as better AI and Decisions [in addition to the normal events], DH is the ultimate incarnation of vanilla HOI2. To make things even better DH allows you to play without any of its new features (or map) if you so choose, allowing you to run all your favorite old HOI2 mods and scenarios. When all this is combined with the regular updates and patches DH receives, and the exclusive ability to run the Kaiserreich mod, Darkest Hour is clearly a far better HOI2 choice than AoD in the minds of most fans. Suggested Countries For New Players: Nazi Germany or Republican Spain in WW2, and Imperial Germany or France in WW1. Links Buy at Steam Official Forum Popular Mods Kaiserreich: Alt-history mod where Germany won WW1 Hegemonia: Alt-history mod based on the Hohenzollern LP Iron Cross       As evidenced by the thumbnails above, you should not buy Iron Cross; because, yes, those are actual screenshots from the game. While it claims to be the ultimate HOI2 expansion able to expand on any of the HOI2 games up for offer, this is the only expansion I've ever played that made every thing thing about the original game worse. It features babblefish technology, a tech system that will force you to invent some real life technology to decipher it, crashing galore, thousands upon thousands of new provinces (all empty) in such important battlegrounds as the Americas and central Africa (with few if any added in places that actually saw combat like China and Spain), micro provinces that can barely be clicked so as to allow you to play one of the billions of new and all important states such as San Marino, a 'playable' League of Nations with no IC or events (with more than one choice that is), and the horrifying ability to ruin copies of HOI2, AoD, and DH on command. Suggested Countries For New Players: If you hate yourself enough to run this program, you can always try San Marino or Andorra. Really Really Old Games Before the Paradox we all knew and love there was Paradox Entertainment which put out really simple and cheap 2D games that you can get for cheap as free with BlueCoins on Gamers Gate. Europa Universalis: Crown of the North and Two Thrones    Both are together because Two Thrones seems to have had so much of its code copied from Crown of the North that the victory screen for both is the exact same - congratulating you on unifying Scandinavia (even if you are England and Scandinavia isn't even on the game map). Featuring a faction system whereby different social grouping in your Kingdom can be anywhere from loyal to you and impressed (+3) to pissed and rebellious (-3), instant build armies, and lots of clicking, these mini games surely used to bring smiles to the faces of many in the long long ago that was... 2004?! One of these came out the same year CK1 did? Holy poo poo! Anyways, playing these it's clear that they had a decent influence on several little mechanics of CK1 such as stability and lots of different troops types based on your country's class makeup. Suggested Countries For New Players: Pick someone who isn't surrounded by other countries. Links Buy Europa Universalis: Crown of the North and/or Two Thrones at GamersGate Canceled Clausewitz Engine 2.0 'Games' Magna Mundi: The Game       So much worse than Iron Cross that it was actually canceled and its Dev run out of town. Featuring intriguing and revolutionary ideas such as that colour theory is worthless, that art and UI design are so easy that anyone could do it, and that the less your players know about and understand what they are doing the better your game is, Manga Mundi: The Game was truly ahead of its time. Luckily, if you aren't too AFRAID of Developer Ubik's glory and brilliance, I think the invitation to fly to his house in Portugal and play a fabled copy of this 'game' in his basement (or as he likes to call it, his 'Carnival of Lust') is still open. For many months this 'game' and the drama that came out of it was the gift that kept on giving, and we look back fondly on the days when Ubik would threaten to sue Paradox and claim that he was secretly given ownership of the Clausewitz Engine 2.0 in the contract he signed to produce it for them. Suggested Countries For New Players: No one has ever gotten a copy of this fabled 'game' to play, so let's say... Bhutan. Scrap Book of Fond Memories http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/content.php?518-Magna-Mundi-Developer-s-Diary-14-The-Carnival https://web.archive.org/web/20120409055109/http://www.magnamundi.com/media/meetthedevteam/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_quF_ZdWdM http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?614933-Magna-Mundi-cancelled http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?616220-A-joint-statement-concerning-Magna-Mundi   East vs. West     From the makers of AoD and their terrible Cold War scenarios was to come a full fledged terrible game about the Cold War; but sadly after being pushed back several years and then offered up as a possible free open beta, it was not to be. Promising to feature complex modeling of every last missile on carriers while turning the space race into a tab on the tech tree, intricate modeling of populations by age while reducing culture to a handful of vague groups, extensive research into which forum members want to show up as Mary Sue leaders of improbable countries in the game while putting little effort into finding out who was next in line to be the leader of the communist party of the DDR in 1964, no historical generals or admirals because "many of them are still alive as might see their portrayal in the game as against their right to privacy", an entire dev diary on how important the dozens of straits added to the game were, and a pledge that the game "isn't really prepared to deal with the ultra complex world of democratic revolutions, religion and guerrilla terrorism"... this game was always destined to become May the We Are The World contest winning Another Scrap Book of Fond Memories Website Official Forum Dev Dairy Archive We Are The World Contest Thread Padre Groggo's Winning Entry Padre Groggo's Final Event Text Attempted Lowtax Submission http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?760477-A-joint-statement-from-BL-Logic-and-Paradox-Interactive! Lum_ fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Sep 28, 2015 |
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