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It is a cool feature I guess, but far from "unprecedented" to be completely honest.

Underwhelming.
Paradox have never had a system which lets you design your own map models. I think that this is a system with fairly niche appeal but it's definitely quite unique in that regard and never before seen in a Paradox GSG.
 
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I can't say that the DLC content is much of a surprise and could work well depending on the details, but I'll admit I was hoping for some improvements to cities and buildings to come along in the free patch.
 
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It is nice that wonders get a bigger role now.
But having a 3D designer makes only sense if it really has an influence on the game. That means: The design itself must have an influence not the fact that I build and maintain a wonder.

For example it could make a difference what materials are used, how big the wonder is, where exactly it is placed (in the desert, city, ...), if it has religious ornaments or whatever...

I am not sure if
"The construction and life cycle of your Great Wonders are far from purely ornamental, they will have powerful, customizable effects on your nation."
is meant in that direction.
 
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Having considered a bit more...my thoughts from last week are unchanged:
I'm sceptical of why so much time would be spent on something like that but I'll await details.
If this is what I fear, an extra tool that doesn't influence the game beyond some national modifiers, I'm going to be really disappointed. It feels like it was made for people crying out for flavour, but would miss the mark for them too by the nature of it being customisable. If wonders somehow become an integral part of the game (even without custom builds) in a way I just can't see yet, I'll eat my words, but otherwise I really have to question the priorities here.
 
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I guess this is cool as well, I was hoping for more of a gameplay overhaul than just additional cool feature.
Sadly this isn't my thing at all.
I was hoping for some improvements to the (base) game mechanics, which are needed badly!
This patch/dlc is like painting a car, whose engine is broken.

going by what we've been told about Thalassic there was not really room for inferring any kind of overhaul would have ben entrusted to them as their first independent work for Imperator. quite the opposite.

from last week:
It had to be something that could be worked on in parallel with what the team in Stockholm would be working on, without having us interfering too much with each other's areas.


... With this said, it has not been made clear what the Stockholm IR team have been doing since finishing 1.5(.3). It's possible that some have eyes set on features for 1.7 already, but I think it's more likely they're working on integrating and tweaking the stuff for Vitruvius that Thalassic has produced with the latest version of IR -- and maybe also squeezing in additional reworks.

... It'd be nice to have a clarification from @Arheo or @Jamor on this, but I'm honestly not expecting much of that right now - maybe in a few weeks if we're lucky - only when they have a more clear idea of what they'll want to put in 1.6 and what they will leave out until later. (the vassal reworked left out of 1.5 comes to mind)


----

back to the DD and Vitruvius, the big questionmarks for me that I hope to get answered in the weeks ahead are:


With Vitruvius we’re adding new powers to each of these ancient monuments, turning them into important assets to keep and protect within your nation, or to conquer, claim or destroy for your adversaries.
What kind of effects/modifiers will these wonders provide? global? regional? culture-wide?

The Vitruvius update comes with 8 new events together with 5 new event images, related to the ancient monuments, which makes the lifespan of your constructions an integrated part of your nation's story and history. The new events will make it necessary for you to manage everything from maintenance of aging buildings, to celebrations or tourists flocking to your nation.

What kinds of inputs and outcomes can we expect to see from these events? will you include considerations like ...
  • great families and their prestiege? regarding things like the honor of..
    • initiating / finishing construction
    • renovating
    • claiming
    • managing
  • ...and dishonour of leting them fall into the hands of foreigners or into disrepair ?
  • Consideration for particular characters, unique character traits?
  • integration with dietie and culture mechanics or vice-versa? (i expect not - but it would be a pity)
  • considerations of powerbase akin to the holdings mechanic?
On top of this, you’ll be able to assign one of nine materials to each of the pieces, further increasing how you can customize the look of your construction. The materials are tied to the trading system, adding a logistical element to the construction of a Great Wonder.
This logistical element only carries any meaning if there are gameplay implications of the chosen materials. Your description doesnt tell us of any such gameplay implication. Be careful here. if you dont say anything, players will expect a tight meaningful gameplay design. (to be frank, players will probably expect this even if you outright tell them there isnt one!)

examples of gameplay implications i would expect:
  • The materials chosen have a direct impact on the events available for the wonder / monument, for example, consturctions using wood can burn, marble is more expensive and prestigous than stone.
  • the quantity of local or imported resources influence the time and cost required to build, restore or maintain the monuments.

Edit: I think Thalassic are on their own with this patch, so not expecting much in the way of integration with features in recent patches. Still eager to see details though.

Second edit: there is no 1.6. its all rolled into 2.0 ....
 
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going by what we've been told about Thalassic there was not really room for inferring any kind of overhaul would have ben entrusted to them as their first independent work for Imperator. quite the opposite.

from last week:



... With this said, it has not been made clear what the Stockholm IR team have been doing since finishing 1.5(.3). It's possible that some have eyes set on features for 1.7 already, but I think it's more likely they're working on integrating and tweaking the stuff for Vitruvius that Thalassic has produced with the latest version of IR -- and maybe also squeezing in additional reworks.

... It'd be nice to have a clarification from @Arheo or @Jamor on this, but I'm honestly not expecting much of that right now - maybe in a few weeks if we're lucky - only when they have a more clear idea of what they'll want to put in 1.6 and what they will leave out until later. (the vassal reworked left out of 1.5 comes to mind)


----

back to the DD and Vitruvius, the big questionmarks for me that I hope to get answered in the weeks ahead are:



What kind of effects/modifiers will these wonders provide? global? regional? culture-wide?



What kinds of inputs and outcomes can we expect to see from these events? will you include considerations like ...
  • great families and their prestiege? regarding things like the honor of..
    • initiating / finishing construction
    • renovating
    • claiming
    • managing
  • ...and dishonour of leting them fall into the hands of foreigners or into disrepair ?
  • Consideration for particular characters, unique character traits?
  • integration with dietie and culture mechanics or vice-versa? (i expect not - but it would be a pity)
  • considerations of powerbase akin to the holdings mechanic?

This logistical element only carries any meaning if there are gameplay implications of the chosen materials. Your description doesnt tell us of any such gameplay implication. Be careful here. if you dont say anything, players will expect a tight meaningful gameplay design. (to be frank, players will probably expect this even if you outright tell them there isnt one!)

examples of gameplay implications i would expect:
  • The materials chosen have a direct impact on the events available for the wonder / monument, for example, consturctions using wood can burn, marble is more expensive and prestigous than stone.
  • the quantity of local or imported resources influence the time and cost required to build, restore or maintain the monuments.
Yup! Thalassic's error here is not explain the mechanic change coming with the update/DLC, thus making people think "that's only flavour"
 
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I do think that focusing on city buildings and monuments is a good idea and an excellent way to make the game stand out from other Paradox titles, but this, by itself doesn't quite seem like enough TBH. A full throated city builder/customizer woild be better. At the very least revamping building slots to make it more like Stellaris ship designs rather than just spam clicking buildings.

Like- imagine thst each city has a gui with a set number of tiles, modified by pops, terrain, technology/civilization etc And then you can build stuff at certain areas of the city, loke say a senate chamber or a new temple to one of the pantheon God, each providing different bonuses. And having an empty slot coild reduce overcrowding, which forces you to expand the city beyond its current limits (province upgrades) or risk disease.
 
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Kind of cool. Not really something I strongly care about. But if it keeps the mechanical overhauls free then why not.

One thing I am missing though and I was kind of hoping for is an intermediate tier of building between the current basic city amenities and these world wonders. Buildings in the same category as the Pantheon or the Colosseum or the Temple Complex at Luxor. At least in my mind, a world wonder should by definition be something a player constructs maybe only once in a campaign and with significant prior preparation. This leaves room for what we could call regional or national wonders which a player could muster the resources to construct more frequently (maybe every 50-100 years or whatever).

The other real gap I see here is that most world wonders were actually long term projects that were expanded and enlarged over many generations. They started relatively small and each successive ruler added their additional contribution. The Pyramids are the obvious example but archeology has shown that even smaller projects like Stonehenge were built up and improved over many centuries, often from far more humble beginnings.
 
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I don't understand what people were expecting from a secondary team. Yes, the game needs wide ranging overhauls in some of its systems (trade, politics, warfare, etc), but that is something a new team in another city couldn't and shouldn't work on. It's fitting that they're delivering a relatively peripheral system. Yeah, this isn't what the game needs right now, but we'll see systemic overhauls from the primary team and I'm sure they'll share more once that time comes.
 
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Content:

- free part, Ok, I'll take it
- charged part, no thanks
 
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