This is great news! Tyler pretty well spilled the beans on achieving at least a certain level of "success" in his AMA, but it's great to see it up in lights from official channels.
The plan looks great too. I can't wait for some of this stuff and have already started rooting around in the files for my own little Granular difficulty setting.
I for one am also glad that HBS is talking to Paradox on the roadmap. It has been a very common back and forth for someone to come along and say "LOLZ, Paradox DLC?!?" That person is then met with - to paraphrase - "Paradox has no input in the decision-making process" arguments. However, in my view, not getting input from a company that has an established track record of multi-year support and expansion on intricate strategy games would be a huge missed opportunity when trying to develop...a strategy game. Not only develop a strategy game, but also turn it into an ongoing franchise, if not an eternal franchise.
HBS has loads of talent and lots of experience with a great many things. That said, if they independently conceived of a content expansion plan that was 100% optimal to ensure maximum future success, it would probably be something that happened by accident.
I'd also much rather have all the expansions build on the existing framework with all content being compatible with one another as is the Paradox way (lore willing - obviously the timeline needs to be respected). For a game like this or strategy games in general, that just seems like a better idea than having standalone sequels come along and DLC 1-3 work only with Game 1 and then DLC 4 & 5 work only with Game 2 and so on.
The plan looks great too. I can't wait for some of this stuff and have already started rooting around in the files for my own little Granular difficulty setting.
I for one am also glad that HBS is talking to Paradox on the roadmap. It has been a very common back and forth for someone to come along and say "LOLZ, Paradox DLC?!?" That person is then met with - to paraphrase - "Paradox has no input in the decision-making process" arguments. However, in my view, not getting input from a company that has an established track record of multi-year support and expansion on intricate strategy games would be a huge missed opportunity when trying to develop...a strategy game. Not only develop a strategy game, but also turn it into an ongoing franchise, if not an eternal franchise.
HBS has loads of talent and lots of experience with a great many things. That said, if they independently conceived of a content expansion plan that was 100% optimal to ensure maximum future success, it would probably be something that happened by accident.
I'd also much rather have all the expansions build on the existing framework with all content being compatible with one another as is the Paradox way (lore willing - obviously the timeline needs to be respected). For a game like this or strategy games in general, that just seems like a better idea than having standalone sequels come along and DLC 1-3 work only with Game 1 and then DLC 4 & 5 work only with Game 2 and so on.