hoi4, paradox games, sexy beasts, no?

[somnitek]

Hi folks,

I wanted to be sure this first made an impression. I hope I've succeeded.

I thought I'd use this to pay respects to this game here on the official forum, and also (perhaps more importantly yet) share some suggestions for future expansions. Hopefully they are not actually read and acted on because otherwise my compulsory need to play HOI4, hell also HOI3, DH, EU4, Stellaris, lesser degree Vic2, various other Paradox games, will be as all consuming as I fear they could be. I think probably if the devs really took these suggestions to heart, we could compare dopamine receptor binding affinity of HOI4 to roughly that of fentanyl or possibly ultra-potent synthetic stimulants with an abuse potential that thankfully can't be further blown up by melting down Paradox software in a spoon and pulling it back up into a syringe (or not yet anyway... fear the invention of the wetware virtual injection utensils oh dear). Nonetheless, I will share.

So... Thanks for the helping hand blowing my unemployment check money, Paradox. Please never change / leave me. Your games have caused almost all other strategy games in my Steam library to suffer (they're simply worthless to me now / effectively ruined ...meh, that said however, it's no biggie though actually. Thank you for ruining them so) in a manner equally metaphorically valid to aforementioned ultra-potent drugs of abuse blowing up ones opioid tolerance, coincidentally(???). They just don't usually cut it anymore. I've uninstalled them, sometimes just to make more room for mods. It's sick, frankly. I love your games. Now that I've made that perfectly clear, I do have very sincere offerings in the way of increasing their potency improving them ever further, particularly in the way of HOI4. It is surely the one I'd like to see these improvements implmented most for. EU4 probably comes closest with the Nation Designer to having a fraction of what I'd like to see added but vanilla timeframe doesn't really entice me anywhere near as much. If you want clarification, on anything, further details, or just generally/questionably relevant further thought in stupendously obnoxious loads of verbosity and text... just say so, or say anything really. I got you.

Here's the meat shanks of it (these were actually replies on some YT videos originally... then I recalled I already had this account for the forum hehe)....

( This was in reply to a video announcing future Stellaris expansions involving an espionage system. Yes I wrote all this and made this post in the same night. I told you, it's sick, I'm sick, guys. And worst of all I love it. )

I hope this is coming out soon but with it they should consider two other big things.

One, for the love of gameplay, build out the political system within your civilization. The political / societal nature, i.e. "the way things are / get done" should have more unique impact according to what exactly you've selected. You should have more options which conform to your civilizations ethical predisposition as well. It just needs way more love from the devs but this isn't just true of Stellaris. I'll add my other thoughts kinda relating to this in other Paradox games at the end (I'm just hoping some dev of theirs reads one of these posts of mine and an correlated developer epiphany for new additional content/expanded features is born... long shot, of course, but ...meh. Worth trying).

Two, as another video Aspec made covers: Land war / battles system needs more love by the loveboat ship load cuz it's bare bones and kinda irrelevant as fuuuuuck right now. It should be a whole strategy game unto itself like other parts of the game. That's true of espionage too. If all they are is a way to buff/change modifiers that already existing, go ahead and check the "Extremely boring /questionable relevance to game big picture / lazily implemented feature" because that's the reality. These things should have gamified elements unto themselves. The player should be able to also define the civilization / nation he's playing THROUGH these things and what he chooses. The more you can allow the player to define the minutiae, but also make it COUNT for something, the more it is going to e something that feels uniquely the creation of the individual player, and the more they're going to enjoy the experience. Damn, I should have put that exact stuff in under what I wrote about the political mechanics above in Num. 1 as well.

Here, this I wrote elsewhere in regards to Paradox games. There is wisdom within, read only if you desire your players to offer you the **highest** of high praises...

What made me stick around when it comes to learning Paradox games like HOI4, EU4, Victoria 2, Stellaris, etc. was also something else they do that I noticed AI Wars kinda doesn't. The very process of playing the game allows you to develop your nation and such in your own preferred way. If they expanded on this so you could do more than just "pick" the political leanings of your nation, instead opting for something more detail focus like a tagging system for governmental and political features, systems, and other details, then took those tags and used them to assemble a political, cultural, economic, etc. models that the player had to also manage... well oh shit, I'd do horrible horrible things, pay ridiculous amounts of money for, and otherwise pursue the ownership of such a game with untold aggressive interest.... but alas.... SOMEONE FROM PARADOX READ THIS PLEASE AAARRRRRGGGHHHH..... I suppose Stellaris and EU4 come closest, followed by HOI4. Stellaris DOES use something sorta similar to what I'm describing but I don't think they've fleshed it out to the degree they could have, but close enough to deserve a lot of love from this guy, nonetheless... I WANT MOOOOORE!!!! **que song : tonedef - glutton now**

(also...)

Someone breed HOI4 and EU4 together so they produce a love child set from the end of WW2 to semi-near future. Feel free to steal ideas from Stellaris as well, take to heart what I wrote above this reply initially. YOU WILL BE MUCH HELLA VENERATED PARADOX DEVS! MAKE IT SO! lul but really

(also...)

Also, HOi4 alt history nations need some asset love. Unit pack for USA/CSA-C/CSA-F please? Decisions? Techs? An entire national focus tree instead of a piddly portion of one (no offense, but pleeeeease). This sorta thing. Not another nation pack / historical blah blah. Alt-history is your to freely develop, guys. Real world history is already decided.

Great stuff, devs. Everybody else, yes my gushing is over and yes I know it was excessive. Such was the rather naked intent, I think it's safe to say. Please be sure to compare it to something submissive and or lewd in order to illustrate your contempt for such forum behavior and in kind I promise I will pretend to actually be hurt (on the inside) by any such replies. My lived experience suggests an outcome of some such sort. I'm gonna be very pointlessly concerned over lots and lots of absolutely nothing if things happen otherwise, to be sure.


THAT, is all. Uhm... Paradox Akbar.

Much gratis, annnd....

I'm out.

( Edit: post MUST. BE. PERFECT. formatting hiccup got blammed. no really for real, done. )