Paradox Studio Thread

What are your expectations for the EU5 release?


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Consider someone who has never played a Paradox game before and you have to sell them on either playing CK2 or CK3, I want to know the pros and cons of each and why you would play CK2 over CK3 or vice versa. I want as many details as possible, since if I get involved with either I just know it's going to be dozens of hours spend playing, not counting the time it's going to take to acclimate to either game.
Oh, and another thing, which one is more complete/fun without any DLC? I know CK3 was pretty barebones at launch and CK2 is free right now, so I am guessing the latter wins.
Gonna post this here. I don't play Paradox titles, but I am interested in Crusader Kings. The community for both 2 and 3 seems to be pretty dedicated and I can't get a straight answer as to which one is better since the details people mention tend to go over my head without having played a Paradox game before properly. That's why I am gonna ask for a short overview of both games and which one is better(in their opinion), meant for someone who is clueless on the matter.
 
Gonna post this here. I don't play Paradox titles, but I am interested in Crusader Kings. The community for both 2 and 3 seems to be pretty dedicated and I can't get a straight answer as to which one is better since the details people mention tend to go over my head without having played a Paradox game before properly. That's why I am gonna ask for a short overview of both games and which one is better(in their opinion), meant for someone who is clueless on the matter.
CK2 is better than 3 by far. The game is far more coherent, has far more curated content, you can get it for free and if you play with anyone who has the dlc you can play with all the dlc.

CK3 tries to have more depth than 2 but fails on account of trying to make every aspect of the game (religion, culture, etc.) mechanically fungible, which just results in everything feeling shallow and interchangeable. You can get an amazing one or two playthroughs out of it but it's value drops off significantly after that.
 
CK3 tries to have more depth than 2 but fails on account of trying to make every aspect of the game (religion, culture, etc.) mechanically fungible, which just results in everything feeling shallow and interchangeable. You can get an amazing one or two playthroughs out of it but it's value drops off significantly after that.
I've heard that CK3 is more accessible, and so more popular among casual gamers. This means that for an outsider, CK3 would be a better choice while more veteran RTS players will prefer CK2, correct?
 
EU IV Merc Companies are cool but they killed the possibility of hiring just a few mercs to boost your regular army which was a common thing in the game (and which I particularly liked). plus with the Army Professionalism system it made it really counterproductive to keep hiring merc companies once you got past 1550 or so as you would lose your professonalism really fast which kinda kills the rhythm since IRL they were using merc companies way into the 1780s.

If I had to speculate I would say they wanted to bring back late game mercs and that merc/regulars interaction and fucked up.
Another problem with Mercs in EU4 is that most companies have no or very few artillery regiments in them and it does not change with mil tech so longer games go on less dmg mercs do compared to regular army.
CK3 lost a cool achievement opportunity called "Tocharian Revenge" where the Tocharian conquer and genocide all the Han
You know what I know what I am going to do in my next Ante Bellum campaign. I have not played eu4 in some time.
 
I've heard that CK3 is more accessible, and so more popular among casual gamers. This means that for an outsider, CK3 would be a better choice while more veteran RTS players will prefer CK2, correct?
No, CK2 is very accessible, very forgiving and has a better UI than CK3. CK3 is just the newer game with the ostensibly nicer graphics and more marketing so it's more appealing to outsiders.

I don't know if by RTS you mean it's genre or just how it handles time, but both CKs are pausable grand strategy-rpg hybrids.
 
Gonna post this here. I don't play Paradox titles, but I am interested in Crusader Kings. The community for both 2 and 3 seems to be pretty dedicated and I can't get a straight answer as to which one is better since the details people mention tend to go over my head without having played a Paradox game before properly. That's why I am gonna ask for a short overview of both games and which one is better(in their opinion), meant for someone who is clueless on the matter.

CK2 is more of a strategy and vassal management game, CK3 has much more emphasis on the roleplaying aspects and more game-y systems.
 
EU IV Merc Companies are cool but they killed the possibility of hiring just a few mercs to boost your regular army which was a common thing in the game (and which I particularly liked). plus with the Army Professionalism system it made it really counterproductive to keep hiring merc companies once you got past 1550 or so as you would lose your professonalism really fast which kinda kills the rhythm since IRL they were using merc companies way into the 1780s.

If I had to speculate I would say they wanted to bring back late game mercs and that merc/regulars interaction and fucked up.
The merc-army professionalism interaction was always shit but they gradually reformed it with missions/events that gave you merc companies that didn't cost AP to hire. Otherwise, you'd have to waste an idea slot for merc ideas (bad) or lose AP every time you hire mercs (worse). Which just meant you don't use mercs (outside of very specific circumstances).

They kind of tried to balance the merc spam from beta but it's still a big issue.
To be fair, it is a really hard issue to balance without introducing more mechanics (like army professionalism) since everyone has a different amount of mercs they're comfortable with. Especially since mercs are tied to economy, which they're also still figuring out.

EU4 Anbennar updated their magic system recently and has a basic pop framework. Not comparable to EU5 but at least EU4 is stable.

You're paying the "art" premium on these maps but he's got an older version of the 1444 map on his Etsy that is basically printed at cost.
 
EU4 Anbennar updated their magic system recently and has a basic pop framework. Not comparable to EU5 but at least EU4 is stable.

I'm reminded that the earlier builds of MEIOU and Taxes simply replaced the development system with pops and had actual mechanics in to model growth/decline, prior to turning their mod into an unplayable mess (I haven't bothered to see if it's actually decent again or not). Though it clearly taxed the game engine and made it rather slow.
 
EU IV Merc Companies are cool but they killed the possibility of hiring just a few mercs to boost your regular army which was a common thing in the game (and which I particularly liked). plus with the Army Professionalism system it made it really counterproductive to keep hiring merc companies once you got past 1550 or so as you would lose your professonalism really fast which kinda kills the rhythm since IRL they were using merc companies way into the 1780s.

If I had to speculate I would say they wanted to bring back late game mercs and that merc/regulars interaction and fucked up.
The Swiss were still hiring themselves out as mercs up until the 1860's. Francis II of the Two Sicilies lost some of his best troops when the Swiss finally made that sort of thing illegal.
 
Since I can't edit, some of my ideas for mercs and how they relate to professionalism.

First, all merc companies have their own AP stat that is based on the region they're from. Regions with a low AP among the nations there have low AP mercs, regions that have undergone professionalization have more professionalized mercs on account of them hiring veterans and the like. And so naturally, the professionalization of mercs will generally rise over time, especially in places like Europe that need standing armies due to all the conflicts. A lower AP than yours hits yours on a scaling level, a low-professionalism force recruiting basically an armed mob is affected less than a modernized army hiring the same, and a modern army hiring some elite mercs should be hardly affected at all. A merc group that has a higher AP value than your army wouldn't negatively affect yours in the slightest, which leads me into part 2...

You should be able to hire mercs who have a higher professionalism stat than your army to train it, slowly contributing to a rise in professionalism as they pass on everything they know about how to organize and run a full-time standing force. One of the first standing, professional armies in Europe was the all-mercenary Black Army of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. The other contemporary professional force in Europe was that of Louis XI of France, who to the surprise of nobody here employed large amounts of Swiss mercenaries as part of it.
 
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