Ask Paradox Development Studio anything!

[Nikolai]

If your life depended on it, who in the studio would you trust?

[King]

What is you're most favorite time period?

I don't have one, it depends what mood I am in. I am on holiday at the moment and my airplane reading is this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Empires-Barb...0384758&sr=1-1

Doesn't say anything at all about future game plans for PDS, just wide spread of history I pay money to read.

[James The 1st]

Which game would guys personally prefer to do? Rome II or EU4?
This has nothing to do with it actually being made or not....

[Davisx3m]

Would it be wasteful of me to make this into a question so that I subscribes to this thread, instead of pushing the right buttons to actually subscribe to it?

[PdoxNewbie]

Is it possible to make one of your games like Vicky II or HOI compatible with a time slider? If you could do that, modders would be able to add in different scenarios into the time slider.
How do you research all of the history to apply it to stuff like the state of sliders and borders in every day in a 400 year span?

[Annibal]

Do you believe you're good at history?

[burny26]

Could you guys use a modeller?

[nightraid3r]

How often does user feedback and forum posts/rants affect your game development decisions as far as the changes we see in patches and expansions go? I ask because I rarely see a Paradox Dev team member saying "Oh great idea, that is definitely going to be implemented in the next patch", and I more often see "that is not feasible or possible with the current game environment" or something similar.

[justin6477]

How often does user feedback and forum posts/rants affect your game development decisions as far as the changes we see in patches and expansions go? I ask because I rarely see a Paradox Dev team member saying "Oh great idea, that is definitely going to be implemented in the next patch", and I more often see "that is not feasible or possible with the current game environment" or something similar.

Something tells me that's to keep the element of surprise. It'd be no fun if they came in and said "ok, this, this and this. All approved, you'll see it in two to three months... and anyone care to submit a name?"

I'll followup with a similar question, how often do you guys play with mods for your games? I know that the latest Elder Scrolls title was influenced by player mods (namely ones that re-balanced the use of Bows and Arrows), has this ever been the case with Paradox titles? Excluding MM of course which has become a Paradox title.

[kemerover]

Do you plan to make complex diplomacy like it's done in Civilization series? I mean, will we be able to offer wife and some money for duchy in CK IV or some technology for a number of troops in EU V?

[Meanmanturbo]

Do you plan to make complex diplomacy like it's done in Civilization series? I mean, will we be able to offer wife and some money for duchy in CK IV or some technology for a number of troops in EU V?

Reminds me of Victoria 1. You could trade provinces, tech and money. The reason they removed it was that the ai was unable to handle it and the player could exploit the hell out of it. I'm guessing out of all the thing PDS want to improve the ai in doing, this is pretty low on the list of priorities compared to handling war and long term threats.

[lordreaven448]

Would you guys ever consider making a turn based strategy game? Or even better, a turn based grand strategy game?

Please say yes....I beg you. I love TBS games.

[siis]

Would you guys ever consider making a turn based strategy game? Or even better, a turn based grand strategy game?

Please say yes....I beg you. I love TBS games.

To me the current pds games feel a little bit like turn based. I mean, you have many options for auto-pausing the game when something happens.

[Jos de trol]

what's the worst, most vitriolic statement you ever heard of an angry customer?

[Johan]

If your life depended on it, who in the studio would you trust?

in which situation?

[Johan]

what's the worst, most vitriolic statement you ever heard of an angry customer?

I will kill you, and I know you live at XXXX.

[PdoxNewbie]

I will kill you, and I know you live at XXXX.

Did they actually get it right?

[Kallocain]

After a game (more exactly a RC) pass your own QA, has it to pass a Paradox Interactive QA too? Or, since you are one company, are working together when testing release candidates?

We actually have three levels of QA.

1. Internal QA, that tests our stuff all the time
2. An external QA Studio that tests our stuff during specific points of the development
3. PI's QA. This is a rather new subset, they mostly used an external studio before. I'm not really sure how that dynamic will work yet.

How often does user feedback and forum posts/rants affect your game development decisions as far as the changes we see in patches and expansions go? I ask because I rarely see a Paradox Dev team member saying "Oh great idea, that is definitely going to be implemented in the next patch", and I more often see "that is not feasible or possible with the current game environment" or something similar.

Most of the times, that is because the ideas are not feasible. If they are though, we can't just say "oh, great idea, I'll get to it!". There is a whole decision making process before we can decide to implement a feature. We have to be careful so it does not push the schedule, perhaps remove something else instead. And IF someone on the dev team says something is a great idea, that has often been interpreted as a promise to include it, which can create disappointment later on when it is not... We simply have to be very careful with what we say.

[Johan]

Did they actually get it right?

yep.. was not fun.

[Creelers]

Have you ever thought about integrating real time strategy with grand strategy?