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

[Meneth]

Hmm, I guess I can answer non-business questions like this now.

So what table top games do the fine folks at Paradox play?

I was recently introduced to Munchkins. Lots of fun.
I'm also rather partial to Citadels. Highly recommended.

(Both of those are technically card games, but close enough)

 

[Aerie]

If you were to try to get a job as an environment artist, what would you like to see in your portfolio?

For paradox in general it is very good to have multiple talents, being able to make both characters and environments is almost required.

What PDS does is sort of special with our map games. Everything in PDS games are very small.
So if you want to trailer a work sample for us. Doing miniature cities, castle. Anti aircraft guns, harbor, radar stations etc.
Environment texture with breakdowns. Of diffuse, normals and specular textures. Specifically texture that would be suitable for a world map.

But we want artist that are inventive and can adapt. Most new artist at paradox learn a lot the first year and do thing they have not really done before, or in a way they have not done it before.

 

[Meneth]

How many Munchkin games (and expansions) was involved? I think I have 10.

Munchkin Apocalypse.
I won, so that was neat.

 

[Castellon]

Does Johan dress as Santa Claus during Christmas at Paradox?

No, He takes that day off, he dresses as Santa the other 364 days.

 

[Castellon]

He works 364 days a year? I think I better call the Swedish authorities.

More of a lifestyle than a profession

 

[Shams]

Do currently developped PI games have UI which is usable at 4K resolution?

I ask because I already use 32" 4K IPS monitor. Also, considering that 28" 4K monitors can already be bought for €400, IMO games really need to work well with them, becase 4K is likely to become standart in next few years - just like FHD (1080P) monitors are now.

thanks

I can safely say - without even checking the steam hardware report - that less than 0.1% of our userbase uses that high resolutions. As with all other fringe hardware specifications - it's hard for us to create specific support - although we'd love to if we had the resources. We will when 4k adoption is more widespread.

There's also a huge difference between what's "standard" and what people use. It took forever for 1920x1080 to become the most common resolution after the introduction of the 1080p standard.

/shams

 

[Shams]

Thanks for the reply, but that sounds just like "HoI3 doesnt need multicore support and not enough people have such CPUs anyway" (and I remember such posts from PI employees from before HoI3 was released) - when multicore support had be be added in one of expansions.

IMO, it would make much more sense if you can just made UI scalable with resolution - because sooner or later it will be needed anyway.

4K displays have small marketshare, but that doesnt mean that nobody has them - in our MP group of 10 regular players (currently playing mostly non-PI games for several reasons) we have 3 member (myself included) with 4K monitors.

btw: this is picture from my brother when he was playing HoI3 at 4K - not only is every text very small, most space is also totally empty....

Of course decision how to make the games is up to PI, but as paying customer, I simply wont pay full price for a game, that force me to downgrade settings, because devs couldnt be bothered to create scalable UI.

I can't attest to what comments were made in the past or HOI3 specifically. But regardless of what it is - we've got limited resources right? - we have to follow the old Vulcan proverb - "The need of the many outweigh the need of the few, or the one".

You're completely right that we should try to improve the experience with alternate resolutions and generally speaking the UI in the grand strategy games is a huge issue. They're not great if you play at any other resolution than the native one. As your screenshot shows - the game is almost unplayable at that resolution. What would you do in our shoes - you've got limited resources - would you divert them from something that would benefit 99.98% (just checked the stats) of the player base - for instance game content, fixes, expansions etc in order to improve the experience for 0.02% of the player base?

Would you then want to explain to those 99.98% why they're NOT getting any improvements but are getting 4k support?

As always - vote with your wallet - my protip would be to play the game at a lower resolution - it's still very much playable.

When you're an early adopter (I am one myself) this is the type of challenges that goes with the territory.

/shams

 

[Shams]

Thanks for the reply.

Wouldnt implementing scalable UI save you the work in the longer term?

Yes - absolutely but that's a huge undertaking. One worth taking - but we've got several huge undertakings in the works

/shams

 

[Groogy]

Hi! Just came across this thread.

If you were stuck with a person in an island who is not familiar with your games, which PI game would you recommend to play and how would introduce the game to the person (and convince the person to play the game)?

Whatever game that sucks his attention the most so I can eat his legs without him noticing.
I mean we are on a deserted island aren't we? Survival first.

 

[Meneth]

Games that support alt-tabbing

Paradox games do support alt-tabbing last I checked.

 

[Groogy]

All the later games support it (CK2 and EU4) properly if you switch to borderless window mode, then it won't even have that lag that you were so used to in the 90's.

 

[Groogy]

That is not true for the Linux version of CKII and EUIV; it crashes when you try to tab back in again and has done so for a very long time.

Then you are using Fullscreen, not borderless window mode. And I aren't aware that it crashes in fullscreen, just that the OS changes the native resolution when you tab out. Which distro are you on and what DE are you using?
Edit: Also this is supposed to go to the technical support or bug forum of the game, AFAIK I haven't seen a report on it so feel free to open one.

 

[Castellon]

Gentleman this is NOT a tech support or bug reporting thread, both those topics have dedicated sub-forums for each game.

 

[Susana]

At Paradox we develop the kind of games we like to play ourselves and there is also a high level of interest and involvement across studios/departments. Playing our games is encouraged just like we encourage everyone at the company to engage with our community on the forum. Don't think asking employees to pay for the icons has ever crossed anyone's minds

Kind regards
Susana

Do you guys get icons for free, especially the non-game icons like the paradoxian order; or do you guys need to buy them like us?

 

[Castellon]

Do you guys get icons for free, especially the non-game icons like the paradoxian order; or do you guys need to buy them like us?

... Don't think asking employees to pay for the icons has ever crossed anyone's minds ...

Bad Nickjbor, Bad, Stop putting ideas in management's head.

 

[Meneth]

Bad Nickjbor, Bad, Stop putting ideas in management's head.

What's that Paradoxian Order 2015 icon anyway, and where can I get one?

 

[Castellon]

are you guys really not gonna at least answer my earlier post

Well technically this is the ask Paradox anything, not the Paradox will answer Anything thread.

However I will give it a ago.

The Answer is unfortunately No.

If you want a more elaborative answer here is your unofficial one:

Although we love modders and have a fond spot for Indie Devs, it is simply not possible or responcible to give away to you all the information we have compiled in the last 13 or more years. Even if we had great desire to do so it is not in a format that would make such dissemination feasible.

 

[Castellon]

What's that Paradoxian Order 2015 icon anyway, and where can I get one?

See sticky thread in this sub-forum.

 

[Meneth]

See sticky thread in this sub-forum.

That's not a sticky
(This thread for anyone else that's curious)

 

[Groogy]

I'd like to ask something that mingled with my mind ever since I bought my first copy of EUIII: If you switch the start dates, day-by-day, you can see changing borders, rulers passing, and revolutions happening; and everything served precisely to the one day boundary: how do you guys do it, when there's no such information about it discovered in history (eg. medieval rulers, borders of illiterate countries-speculated on untrustworthy propaganda chronicles)? Do you simply average the possibilities, randomize, imagine "how could it be" or are they picked because of some ideas like "match every day patrons to make the first letters of their names say "PARADOX"?

Well some of the stuff is "educated guesses", most of our history is assumptions based on cross-referencing sources and what not the clever historians do today. Our games can't depict history to the exact last detail because we simply don't know but we try to make it as plausible and accurate as possible without ruining anything, and sometimes we'll have to make our own version to puzzle the pieces together.

For instance if you take the Old Gods Expansion to consideration, the characters who represents the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok are disputed as to whether they actually were his sons or if they just claimed it? Or if Ragnar even existed at all.

Or do you die a little bit inside when they'd rather play CoD?

When I get a child, I'll name him/her after some great leader and prepare them for world domination using our games. I won't let them play anything silly like CoD when they are destined to rule over mankind!
Napoleon Hansson shall rule Earth and lead it to a new golden age!