An open letter to Paradox

[unmerged(10224)]

that is true, but even starting a new game can be hard. Every time I start a new game as a country I've not played before I'm unfortunatley greeted by the problem of not having any idea what to do with said country. For instance every time I try a game as Spain I have no idea what to do with it. I make so little money and the population is to small for me to do much. It sucks in a nutshell

Yeah, that's stopped me from starting up a new game (to test out my new events). It's just too damn difficult and irritating to set up the WM, tax and factories when you take over a new nation...

So... I have a deficit of -0.2 sulphur. Should I close down the ammo factory or import etc? What should I build instead of an ammo factory?

< descends into grumbling >

All the stuff on DR's list really does need fixing though. Except the Manpower exploit of course

 

[Johnny Canuck]

8. CA are so much better than BBs there's no point making BBs. Either call CAs BCs and have them appear later, or lower them to BB's tech level.

What I would really like would be to "export" a naval unit's level to each respective unit file (i.e. adding a line like "level = 4"), so that the CA issue can be adjusted (as I agree it needs to be changed) & it gives modders one more thing to play with.

 

[jpd]

4. In MP, you get a CTD if you annex a country with allies.

No idea how to fix these, execept for 8 which I mentioned, it's all hardcoded stuff. I remember 4 was a problem in HoI too, so maybe the same fix can be applied.

In HoI, it was caused by maintaining war scores for participating nations in an alliance, and not removing the entry for the annexed nation. That would cause a problem when the clock rolled through midnight, and the war score was recalculated.

The problem could be circumvented by pausing, doing the annex, saving the game, exiting the MP game, using wordpad to manually get rid of the annexed TAG entries in the save, and restarting with the thus edited save game.

I know, because I found the problem and filed a bug report for it.

I haven't played MP Vicky yet, so I can't tell if it's the same problem. I guess MP'ing Vicky players could check a save game, made immediately after an annex.

Jan Peter

 

[november]

Some signs are troubling. It worries me that Paradox may join the game company mainstream. You know the routine: publish as many games as possible followed by poor support then more and more games and worse and worse support.

I’m a fan of Paradox because of their marvelous support. It’s the support that makes the bugs and problems acceptable. I find a lot of Paradox bashing on other forums unfair, predicated as it usually is on comparisons to other non-supporting companies. And it’s true, if Paradox support fell to the level of, say, Atari, then the bugs found in their games would be unacceptable.

Seems that Paradox is at a crossroads. They wouldn’t be the first company done in by success.

 

[Lotus Lo]

all i have to add to this thread is that i really enjoy this game... So far, best EU series game... so complex, yet some things a little simplified, but hey, you can't have it all... I also really do feel confident that the Masters That Be will get around to patching this game still more... now that MP seems to have started up an actuall community, maybe Johan will come along and rage on some Vicky MP and get a little extra incentive

 

[Darkrenown]

What I would really like would be to "export" a naval unit's level to each respective unit file (i.e. adding a line like "level = 4"), so that the CA issue can be adjusted (as I agree it needs to be changed) & it gives modders one more thing to play with.

Well I did say the more stuff in text files the better

 

[Memnon]

now that MP seems to have started up an actuall community, maybe Johan will come along and rage on some Vicky MP and get a little extra incentive

Oh man, that would be totally sweet! Play against Johan himself! Wow. I can only imagine.

 

[Lotus Lo]

Oh man, that would be totally sweet! Play against Johan himself! Wow. I can only imagine.

yeah... would sure be interesting he does play eu2 MP, so why not vicky?

 

[Darkrenown]

Oh man, that would be totally sweet! Play against Johan himself! Wow. I can only imagine.

If you backstab him and make him quit and stop supporting Vic, I'll kill you. Keep that in mind.

 

[unmerged(27373)]

all i have to add to this thread is that i really enjoy this game... So far, best EU series game... so complex, yet some things a little simplified, but hey, you can't have it all... I also really do feel confident that the Masters That Be will get around to patching this game still more... now that MP seems to have started up an actuall community, maybe Johan will come along and rage on some Vicky MP and get a little extra incentive

Ah, to play against the developer!

In tribes, it was great when the developers formed their own tribe. They were some of our targets. It is ironic that after they lost their #1 position on the ladder to us players, they kinda..folded and restarted later

But for a while, they brought awe to us and we tried to copy and eventually surpassed them

// starts to drill his soldiers and send his generals to military school if Johann ever shows up in MP

P.S. Johann, wanna ally if you play MP? I hope I am a comptent player and both of our nations can benefit as allies

 

[unmerged(27373)]

If you backstab him and make him quit and stop supporting Vic, I'll kill you. Keep that in mind.

 

[Rey]

The black shadow of death is coming.....

 

[Specterx]

Just to point out that Victoria is not devoid of gamebreakers, MP games crash 100% of the time when you annex an AI nation in an alliance.

 

[Memnon]

Just to clarify (in case any devs get on the case), that's civilized countries in an alliance.

 

[Grosshaus]

In no real order:

1. Ships are still taking up manpower even though they shouldn't.
2. Tariffs are free money.
3. AI mismanages its country. 100% poor taxes and strips its valuable RGOs of pops.
4. In MP, you get a CTD if you annex a country with allies.
5. Expeditionary forces use up your manpower and it is not restored when you return them.
5 (So I have 2 5s, what of it? ). Colonial manpower can be used to make state culture divisions. Worse, the AI isn’t limited by the culture of it's soldier pops, so you see the UK with 200/10 British divisions in the manpower tool tip etc.
6. Units special abilities aren't used properly. CA/DN cannot bombard, tanks/storm troopers anti-entrenchment bonuses don't work. Gas attack/defence does nothing.
7. Forced disarmament does nothing.
8. CA are so much better than BBs there's no point making BBs. Either call CAs BCs and have them appear later, or lower them to BB's tech level.
9. Revolt risk when unifying GER/ITA etc. is silly, there should be a way to avoid RR in certain events.
10. Colonial pops can vote without full citizenship parties in power and your export income is shared equally between your state culture pops and colonial subjects.

Good list, just what I was looking for. 5a has an additional issue, if a nation gives you exp divisions they are counted in your MP pool not his. This means you can outsource MP to your allies at peace, handy but wrong.

No idea how to fix these, execept for 8 which I mentioned, it's all hardcoded stuff. I remember 4 was a problem in HoI too, so maybe the same fix can be applied.

An idea should be gotten. Why not start a thread with each of these to focus discussions on?

I know you said no new features, but I really think a better way to deploy reserves is needed. Let us select a groups of divisions by dragging a box and/or shift + clicking on them and then deploying our selected units to a province in one go.

This doesn't sound unreasonable, although perhaps bit unlikely

Also, put more stuff in text files if possible. If it's hardcoded only Johan can fix it, if it's in a text file there's a host of people like me who'll work unpaid for hours to improve the game for others.

True, but they do need to keep most of the code for themselves to secure IPR, remember that they use the same engine in further games as well. But as some has been given already, it's not impossible.

Paradox probably has a clause in the forum rules or the Vic EULA saying anything we make for Vic or post on this forum is property of Paradox, but I'd like to say I'm happy for them to use any of the fixes I've already made for text file stuff. IMO Johan shouldn't waste his time with non-hardcoded stuff, if a modder hasn't already fixed a softcoded bug just make a note of it and mention it on the forum.

Somebody has to gather all the fixes to a patch and make sure they don't break other game features. Of course it's better for people to send ready fixes, but as a bad fix breaks more than it fixes. Somebody with experience must contribute some time no matter what.

Edit: Damn, bug 11. Great wars are infectious and make all other connected wars be listed as a great war. That one bugs the hell out of me.

Oh, hadn't noticed this one.

 

[unmerged(10945)]

While we are talking about ship-related hardcoded bugs, currently only BB's can do shore bombardments even though CA's and DN's have values for it as well.

 

[Darkrenown]

An idea should be gotten. Why not start a thread with each of these to focus discussions on?

Oh you meant "How should these features work" rather than "tell Johan how to fix the code", that makes a LOT more sense I think most of them just need to be made to work as designed so I don't really see what needs to be discussed, but some are a bit ambiguous so I'll look at the bug list and think about how they should work.

Somebody has to gather all the fixes to a patch and make sure they don't break other game features. Of course it's better for people to send ready fixes, but as a bad fix breaks more than it fixes. Somebody with experience must contribute some time no matter what.

True, but hopefully less time than Johan doing it all himself. And a beta can probably test the fixes rather than him. Heck, send them to me to test if you want.

 

[Darkrenown]

1. Ships are still taking up manpower even though they shouldn't.

One of the clear fixes, just don't let the manpower code see ships.

2. Tariffs are free money.

Another CF, make them work as designed. I guess a multiplier could be applied to the price your pops pay for WM goods depending on where the slider is.

3. AI mismanages its country. 100% poor taxes and strips its valuable RGOs of pops.

Might be hard to fix. I don't know how the AI decides tax levels or pop promotion, but it should be strongly discouraged from taxing at 100% or striping Iron, coal, timber, dye, sulphur and tropical wood RGOs.

4. In MP, you get a CTD if you annex a country with allies.

What jpd said

5. Expeditionary forces use up your manpower and it is not restored when you return them.

Not exactly sure if the code to transfer manpower ownership needs to be removed, or if extra code needs to be added so it isn't, but expeditionary forces' MP has to stay with whoever build them.

5b (So I have 2 5s, what of it? ). Colonial manpower can be used to make state culture divisions. Worse, the AI isn’t limited by the culture of it's soldier pops, so you see the UK with 200/10 British divisions in the manpower tool tip etc.

I think MP needs to be seperated into a state culture/regular pool and a non state culture/colonial pool. Obviously regulars can only be build with manpower from the first pool and colonial/native from the 2nd. Also stop the ai's culture limit cheat. Unciv nations will need a special clause to put their state culture MP into the colonial pool.

6. Units special abilities aren't used properly. CA/DN cannot bombard, tanks/storm troopers anti-entrenchment bonuses don't work. Gas attack/defence does nothing.

From what I've seen the combat engine doesn't ask units what modifiers they have, it expects each unit to have certain modifiers and it asks what their value is. So I guess the combat engine isn't looking for DN's bombard rating or tanks anti-entrenchment bonus etc.

7. Forced disarmament does nothing.

I'm not sure what this was designed to do, but I think this should do something along the lines of cut the standing army and reserve pool in half and perhaps force the nation not to build troops or increase the pool for a year. Perhaps also increase the cost to 75% WS.

8. CA are so much better than BBs there's no point making BBs. Either call CAs BCs and have them appear later, or lower them to BB's tech level.

Either solution works for me. Making them BCs would probably be more work, but lowering them to level 4 makes CLs even more useless.

9. Revolt risk when unifying GER/ITA etc. is silly, there should be a way to avoid RR in certain events.

Make a nations core provines not have nationalism?

10. Colonial pops can vote without full citizenship parties in power and your export income is shared equally between your state culture pops and colonial subjects.

For the voting, make it work as designed: Colonial pops and minoritys cannot vote unless the party in power has full citizenship. Minoritys in states can vote if the ruling party has limited citizenship. Cashwise I guess non state pops in colonies should get 1/4 the cash state culture pops get while minoritys in states should get 1/2.

11. Great wars are infectious and make all other connected wars be listed as a great war. That one bugs the hell out of me.

This might be related to the old merging wars bugs or perhaps it's a not quite WAD feature intending to make all wars more serious when a country is in a great war. Or maybe it's just a display bug. Whatever it is, only the war which is actually a great war should be displayed as such.

 

[Grosshaus]

Should being able to vote be dependant on the ruling party policies or something else instead? Even a full citizenship party couldn't have overnight turned the constitution of a nation to allow emancipation of colonials for the next election, just like a limited citizenship party couldn't have withdrawn the right if once granted.

 

[Darkrenown]

Should being able to vote be dependant on the ruling party policies or something else instead? Even a full citizenship party couldn't have overnight turned the constitution of a nation to allow emancipation of colonials for the next election, just like a limited citizenship party couldn't have withdrawn the right if once granted.

True. If the the voting rights of colonials and minorities could be changed by an event command I'd make chain relating to that starting when a limited or full citizenship party came into power (perhaps only after a certain date though). Either that or a new set of reforms could be added for this.