Ask Paradox (almost) Anything Thread (no support/tech or code questions)

[lordreaven448]

To be honest, I'd like to see what Paradox could do with Civilization anyway. It couldn't be worse than Civ 5 Maybe if we can convince them to buy the IP rights to Call to Power...

I don't know, I can't go back to Civ 4 after Civ 5. Even then Civ 3 was my favourite, and I can't go back to that. And the new expansion is rather good.....actually, not rather, VERY good.

 

[Svip]

I don't know, I can't go back to Civ 4 after Civ 5. Even then Civ 3 was my favourite, and I can't go back to that. And the new expansion is rather good.....actually, not rather, VERY good.

Wait, what? Civ3... good? Civ3 was perhaps a step backwards from Civ2, and I never liked Civ2 much to begin with. Civ4 with its two expansions was the culmination of Civ. It electrified the concept to a whole new level. My only problem? Its religion and espionage mechanisms. Both were terrible. And they could quite literally ruin the game. Fortunately, there were was to reduce their effects on the game.

So when Civ5 was announced without these two concepts, I was only mildly pleased. I was pleased because at least we would do without these ridiculous concepts, but dissatisfied because the idea of these concepts are not bad, they just need to work a lot better. And I firmly believe that the basic fundamentals for the new incarnations of these concepts lay the groundwork for some decent gameplay elements. They are not perfect yet, their interfaces are - at best - a confusing one.

 

[lordreaven448]

Wait, what? Civ3... good? Civ3 was perhaps a step backwards from Civ2, and I never liked Civ2 much to begin with. Civ4 with its two expansions was the culmination of Civ. It electrified the concept to a whole new level. My only problem? Its religion and espionage mechanisms. Both were terrible. And they could quite literally ruin the game. Fortunately, there were was to reduce their effects on the game.

Civ 3 was my first Civ game so I'ma little biased towards it. I found the maps it generated were absolutely fantastic (minus the one time I started on an Island with nothing but Tundra). Civ IV felt...odd. I don't know what it is, but Civ IV just didn't do it for me. Civ Rev was actually pretty damn good (the economic victory was awesome, why is it not in Civ V?) and I like their solution to the stack of doom with Armies.

Civ V: G&K is absolutely fantastic. I like the new combat system (feels lot more like Warlock: Master of the Arcane, which I find funny as I found Warlocks combat 100x better than Vanhilla Civ V) and the religion mechanic is rather good. Haven't tried espionage yet.

 

[Svip]

Civ 3 was my first Civ game so I'ma little biased towards it. I found the maps it generated were absolutely fantastic (minus the one time I started on an Island with nothing but Tundra). Civ IV felt...odd. I don't know what it is, but Civ IV just didn't do it for me. Civ Rev was actually pretty damn good (the economic victory was awesome, why is it not in Civ V?) and I like their solution to the stack of doom with Armies.

Civ V: G&K is absolutely fantastic. I like the new combat system (feels lot more like Warlock: Master of the Arcane, which I find funny as I found Warlocks combat 100x better than Vanhilla Civ V) and the religion mechanic is rather good. Haven't tried espionage yet.

Well, Civ5's combat system seems more to be tactical than strategy. And that - as you might imagine - annoys a lot of people. But Civ5 isn't really grand strategy, it's somewhere between regular strategy and grand strategy.

I agree with you on Armies in Civ:Rev, but Rev was largely an extremely simplified version of Civ4. So while it had good ideas, its lack of... stuff, made me go back to Civ4.

Espionage no longer require you to build spies and move them around, which was rather ridiculous. So that, at least, does not make it piss you off. I admit, you cannot be absolutely sure when you design a completely new game mechanic whether it will work. And I am not talking about fixing it with balancing, but that its basic concept will work.

But it is always important to learn from others, and what they have tried. And Espionage was not a new concept to Civ4, yet they decided to do it like way that had failed for so long. Civ does not require everything to be a unit, it's not UNIX, ffs. (bonus points to who gets that reference)

 

[siis]

Well, Civ5's combat system seems more to be tactical than strategy. And that - as you might imagine - annoys a lot of people.

There are many people who prefer the civ5 one unit per tile than the civ4 stack of dooms. But it looks like it's hard to teach the ai some good tactical manouvers.

 

[Svip]

There are many people who prefer the civ5 one unit per tile than the civ4 stack of dooms. But it looks like it's hard to teach the ai some good tactical manouvers.

I don't mind it. But one could argue that you could create 'stack limits' (many board games have that). As a compromise.

 

[Castellon]

Back on topic guys this is not the CIV discussion thread, there is one in the OT forum if you are interested in continuing the conversation there.

 

[nimrod123]

no doubt this has been asked, but i haven't seen it recently

what the hard ware in the computers you use? is each workstation diffrent or are they all built to one spec

 

[lordreaven448]

Back on topic guys this is not the CIV discussion thread, there is one in the OT forum if you are interested in continuing the conversation there.

Sorry, that was my fault for taking us off topic.:sad:

 

[artfox]

no doubt this has been asked, but i haven't seen it recently

what the hard ware in the computers you use? is each workstation diffrent or are they all built to one spec

It really depends what you are asking: Most of the Dev team has similar computer hardware.

QA tries to cover as many different hardware configurations as possible.

 

[James Beil]

Apart from Paradox Interactive games, which are obviously the best works of art ever produced by anyone ever in the whole of everything, what do the Dev team like to play in their spare time?

Do you guys play your own games very often?

 

[Kallocain]

no doubt this has been asked, but i haven't seen it recently

what the hard ware in the computers you use? is each workstation diffrent or are they all built to one spec

In the dev studio we all have fast computers (or are in line for a new one), but I do try to make sure we are not all the same brand of CPU and GPU.

Apart from Paradox Interactive games, which are obviously the best works of art ever produced by anyone ever in the whole of everything, what do the Dev team like to play in their spare time?

Do you guys play your own games very often?

I play a lot of games. Recently I've been lazy, sitting in the couch with my iPad though, so it's been more of that type of game. PC is the best platform though. Both big games like Skyrim and Civ5 (the expansion, yay!) and smaller stuff like the zombie flash game Rebuild and Pandemic, where you are a virus/bacteria/parasite trying to kill all humans.

 

[podcat]

Apart from Paradox Interactive games, which are obviously the best works of art ever produced by anyone ever in the whole of everything, what do the Dev team like to play in their spare time?

Do you guys play your own games very often?

Used to play a lot of eve online. These days: World of Tanks, DayZ mod for arma 2 and currently learning Sins of a Solar empire (somehow I never got around to it before). But summer makes the game playing urge much lower.

The upcoming games I'm most looking forward to atm are: Assassins Creed 3 (really love ubisofts alternate history takes and attention to detail), Firaxis X-COM reboot (finally) and Planetside 2

 

[Teurlinx]

Ah, there is someone else sharing my crave for Planetside 2. Any luck getting in the beta?

 

[nimrod123]

Ah, there is someone else sharing my crave for Planetside 2. Any luck getting in the beta?

haha, i subbed to PCgamer UK and they gave out a code with ever magizine last month, Totalbiscut covered it @ E3, and the community manger was saying the beta is going to be piss easy to get into as they need to stress test the servers and get a general feel for balance at expected launch player count (e.g. 1000's constantly)

 

[Emala]

Yes, some people are poor

Dear Paradox, are you aware that some of us are too poor to afford an internet connection and that by requiring Steam for most of your current and all of your future games you have stopped us from being able to
play them? To those of you who say 'oh everybody can afford an internet connection' I reply that you are lucky to have been well off all your life; you have no idea.

 

[s1234567890m]

Dear Paradox, are you aware that some of us are too poor to afford an internet connection and that by requiring Steam for most of your current and all of your future games you have stopped us from being able to
play them? To those of you who say 'oh everybody can afford an internet connection' I reply that you are lucky to have been well off all your life; you have no idea.

retail is the minority of there sales, IIRC the ceo said 'box' sales are bonus (>80% of sales are from steam alone)
Out of curiosity how do you patch your games or buy expansions?

 

[James The 1st]

Dear Paradox, are you aware that some of us are too poor to afford an internet connection and that by requiring Steam for most of your current and all of your future games you have stopped us from being able to
play them? To those of you who say 'oh everybody can afford an internet connection' I reply that you are lucky to have been well off all your life; you have no idea.

I'm surprised you can even afford to buy games if you can't afford an internet connection.

 

[eleinvisible]

Dear Paradox, are you aware that some of us are too poor to afford an internet connection and that by requiring Steam for most of your current and all of your future games you have stopped us from being able to
play them? To those of you who say 'oh everybody can afford an internet connection' I reply that you are lucky to have been well off all your life; you have no idea.

Buy it on Gamersgate when you do have an internet connection, then don't worry about the "always online" requirement afterward.

 

[Greybriar]

I'm surprised you can even afford to buy games if you can't afford an internet connection.

It costs me over $50 a month for my internet connection (>$600 a year). That would buy a lot of games.