I preordered Mare Nostrum, did you ?

[sesn]

Uh, that became a longer post than I expected.

Renting out armies was something I was waiting for, for that feature alone I would happily pay 15 euro's. Shame we can't rent out fleets.

Well, we're just of different opinions here, since this is one of the features that I don't care about at all. I honestly think that it will only lead to grieve and exploits in MP as well as SP, given that they could not even get loans to work.

Attention kind of has like to be all over the place, since the playerbase has all kind of interests, you can never please them all, but if you please only a few, then only a few will buy the DLC.

If you want to cobble an expansion together, true, you have to be all over the place, but with an actual goal and concept, you can easily focus on one thing. They could make a big expansion that actually focuses on trade and navies for example, with a total, somewhat dynamic trade network, a fix to transports and transport capacity, raiding on open sea etc.

Also I never heard anyone say that they actually like the trade system. Don't get me wrong, trade is one of the most fun things in this game, but it is, like many mechanics not inherently bad, but not really good either if you think about it.

All I see is a company not abandoning a game after first release and actually trying to improve it, even if they have to change key aspects of the game. That and the change to espionage is what does it for me. The rest I don't care about that much.

I never said that I don't want Pdx support their game, I just want them to do it in a more organized and customer friendly way.

This isn't a communist state, prices aren't decided by the state. They decide themselves. What they decided, I approve. And as long as they do I happily buy their products.

Exactly, this is not a communist state but a capitalist one. But in a capitalist state, the consumer always has to pay attention to what he is actually buying and exert pressure if his interests a endangered. That is it what we are doing. We are saying: "Paradox, if you continue with you trend of mediocre but expensive DLCs, a chunk of your customers might refrain from buying them in the future."

Your idea of 3 big expansions is for them a much greater risk, means they hardly get any income in between, gives them little time to see the effect of their changes, etc.

I agree with you its a greater risk. But that's how expansions used to be done and obviously it worked, too.

Plus, if you can hardly spare 15 euro's, you are less likely to be able to spare 25. And atleast with expansions of 15, you can pick the one you like the most and buy that one.

I can spare 40 euros on both Stellaris and HOI4. With Mare Nostrum, It's not that I can't spare it, but that It's not worth it for me. I want them to update their games and I want to buy their DLCs as I did with all the previous ones, but personally I just do not get enough value for the money.

At last, please understand that we do not want to offend neither you nor Paradox. We are rather concerned with the path our favorite game developer is taking.
Just look at CK2 - The Conclave.

 

[Teed]

It seems a bit overpriced as the Cossack dlc, but I made alot of money through trading so I will buy it as I done with all of the other dlc from the game.

 

[Korashy]

They are micro managey and I hate that. I don't only hate things that are detrimental, but cumbersome is something I try to avoid.

I don't find them particularly micromanagey, but I tend to be fairly expansionist (and expansionism makes your estates happy-but-weak because it means you keep feeding them land to keep them just above their minimum territory threshold).

Every other war spend 1 minute to hand out 1-2 of the lowest development freely conquered provinces for massive buffs? Yes please.

 

[Suzaku]

After common sense, and Cossacks I no longer see the point of buying DLC on day one let alone preorder.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

No.

 

[ssb]

I am burned out on EU4. I will wait a bit until my thirst for conquering comes back.

I've done that before with Paradox games. But then I get so parched!

 

[Beagá]

Nope. Played some good 800 hous of it, and will only do it again once the game is as finished as EU3 is now. It´s not because the game is bad, it´s just that it became repetitive.

Also, the game saw more than its shares of day 0 hotfixes for DLCs.

 

[Hikuran]

Too bad I have to wait 3 weeks for my new credit card...
Meanwhile I have to make due with Steam wallet credit

 

[Earmuffs]

I never preorder anything. The only thing I would consider preordering would be some big collectors edition for some game but even than I'd rather just buy the standard game and save my money.
Regarding EU4, I'm gonna be busy as hell playing Dark Souls 3 once that comes out next week and than Stellaris next month and than, the game I've been waiting for and want the most, HoI4 the month after. EU4 is one of my most played and loved games, but I think it's gonna be shelved for a little while. So no, I probably wont be getting the DLC for once.

 

[Niptium]

I'm eager to download the DLC I preordered tomorrow.

 

[HenkieDePost]

Nah. I have bought literally every single DLC (including spritepacks and musicpacks) until The Cossacks but I won't buy this one anytime soon either. There are multiple issues with the state of affairs in EU IV which contribute to that. First of all, I just don't like the proposed features very much. In Cossacks it was the estate system which I absolutely despised (thank god it wasn't a free update) and now it's the lack of anything noteworthy that's killing Mare Nostrum for me. There are barely features present in this DLC on which I say 'wow this is something I MUST have', whilst there are multiple features like the condoterri system on which I have serious doubts. How is this going to work properly in the game without ruining balance? I also wholehartedly support that thread from past weeks about having a DLC pause. Let the dev's figure out how to improve current mechanics first. The estate system (I have played it on a friends account) could get an overhaul and so can the development system. Both are currently suffering from being a clickfest and the latter practically doesn't get used by me because I'm always short on monarch point's. The AI on the other hand, especially the OPM's in Germany, multiply development like rabbits. This brings me to my next issue with the game: AI doesn't have proper coding to actually use in-game mechanics correctly. There is a whole range of diplomatic options which the AI just never uses as an example and the AI get's multiple bonusses because it can't handle mechanics which were in from day 1 like naval attrition. Other things should also get balanced first like the warning system, which just gets spammed by the AI and sucks the fun right out of your campaign. I understand that the dev's also need the money to keep supporting the game but I am getting the feeling that EU IV is deteriorating lately instead of improving and that is something I would like to see changed before it's too late.

 

[ringhloth]

No. Pre-ordering is a cancer on society, and anyone who does it is feeding into that cancer.

Imagine: Someone comes up to you and informs you that in two months, they will sell you a REALLY GOOD apple cake. You can pay now or in two months, it's all the same to them.

Man A decides to pay right now for the REALLY GOOD apple cake.

Man B decides not to.

In two months, Man A and Man B both realise that the promised REALLY GOOD apple cake is, in fact, only completely normal apple cake. It's still pretty decent! But it's not amazing. Man B decides to spend his money on another apple cake that smells and looks better but costs the same. Man A is left with ashes and disappointment.

Eh. I mean, I'm not preordering, because I know I won't be playing EU4 for a while, but on the other hand, I'll almost certainly be preordering Stella or HoI4 because I know I'll be playing both for at least 10-50 hours, no matter how good they are. Why wait for reviews I don't care about?

 

[Clownie]

Eh. I mean, I'm not preordering, because I know I won't be playing EU4 for a while, but on the other hand, I'll almost certainly be preordering Stella or HoI4 because I know I'll be playing both for at least 10-50 hours, no matter how good they are. Why wait for reviews I don't care about?

How do you know? I had faith in Starcraft 2, as well - it still turned out to be horse doo. Not to mention that complete certainty is a physical impossibility.

Thing is, pre ordering confers literally no benefit to you OR Paradox, assuming it's a quality product. Paradox gets the same money, you get the same product. All is well. Know who does benefit from pre ordering being considered normal and/or acceptable? The trash games that rely on media embargoes and pre orders to shovel out as much trash as possible to the general public before people catch on that, wait, it's actually trash.

It's not that pre orders are necessarily bad in all cases. It's that it's never GOOD, and the practice is inherently anti-consumer for reasons outlined above.

 

[Ninaran]

Preordering digital goods is weird, since there's no looming danger of physical copies running out and having to wait until the shelves restock.
And since Paradox is nice enough to not hide extra content behind the preorder wall (I hate developers who try to gaud people into preordering by giving out exclusive preorder content).

 

[gamedude]

Renting out armies was something I was waiting for, for that feature alone I would happily pay 15 euro's. Shame we can't rent out fleets.

I would believe that you would pay $50 just to watch (exclusive) paint dry as well.

 

[Nassau]

I would believe that you would pay $50 just to watch (exclusive) paint dry as well.

Nice to take things to a personal level. To reply, no I wouldn't. Unless of course the fumes would have a hallucinate effect and not be unhealthy. But even then 50 dollars sounds I bit expensive.

 

[OldmansHQ]

Nope. I'm passing on this DLC entirely as it looks like it adds nearly nothing to the game, let alone worth that price tag.

I pre-ordered it, because I know that I would buy it soon as it came out anyway. It's pretty much the only game I play these days (meaning the last two years). Unfortunately, that's how I feel about Mare Nostrum. With any other DLC I never felt that price was the issue, except maybe partially Cossacks, because I was completely not interested in Nation Creator, and it seemed to be the biggest, most costly feature of the DLC. For me it's a lot of money but not a fortune, and for how much time and enjoyment I had with this game, a DLC every four months it's fine, it keeps the game fresh.

Price aside, I read though all the patch notes, and no matter how I look at it, cheap or expensive, the DLC just doesn't add much. I feel like naval combat is not very different than previously, and Corruption is only a base for mechanics that may or may not be implemented in the future. However, what pisses me off more than any one aspect of the situation is the whole forts shebang. Oh wait! Unconditional Surrender takes the biscuit. It's a feature... that's not an actual feature. An illusion, a placeholder.

Condottieri is the only feature I deem interesting, and even that is implemented poorly. There should be a list of countries who want to hire Condottieri. States and Territories is the only interesting change (not even an addition). That makes entire two features.

 

[Nazarow]

I'm quite pleased at the thought of a DLC that overhauls the naval aspect of the game.

I'm sure I will buy the expansion (at some point), I always do because I love this game. But no pre-order for me, particularly because it doesn't seem to be a "naval overhaul" at all. The fact that they sell it as one worries me, as that probably means that they have no plans to revisit naval mechanics any further in future DLCs.

 

[MaXimillion]

I'll get it today from GMG for -20%. No sense paying the full price when you don't have to.

 

[gamedude]

Nice to take things to a personal level. To reply, no I wouldn't. Unless of course the fumes would have a hallucinate effect and not be unhealthy. But even then 50 dollars sounds I bit expensive.

Heh. It was basically mocking that people would buy into hype. But still, nobody should pay for some simple code that is overpriced.