Sadly, after years of flirting with it, Paradox seems to have finally decided that all of those people who enjoy playing their games utilizing the good old pause button in conjunction with messages that make sure you don't miss something going on in the world are doing it wrong.
Apparently the game is intended to be paused every few minutes so you can scan the world and make sure you aren't missing something.
It does appear that EUIV may be the high water mark for UI flexibility in a Paradox game. Note that by flexibility I mean having the UI do what YOU want it to do, not what the game designer has decided in advance is the best way to play.
Still no word of course if liking to click on a mini map instead of scrolling around and liking to have all of the game's information in a nice tidy ledger are also bad ways to play Paradox games.
I'm the last person around here to accuse the company of dumbing down game elements in order to appeal to mass audiences. I think each version of Paradox games has been more complicated, not less, than the previous and this includes HOI IV. But the only reasonable explanation that I can come up with for not just making the information and pause playstyle an option is that it's too scary for newbies to Paradox games: the mountain of potential messages and settings. It can't be that difficult to program. It already existed in previous games on this engine. It isn't some advanced feature you're worried the AI won't be able to handle or will clog the game processor. In many ways what the team is apparently going to do is actually harder, they are going to try to replace the information you get from the popups with some other way of doing it without actually having a message that pops on your screen. Seems impossible to me for dealing with all of the units and all of the battles (just imagine the "enemy fleet detected" or something similar message from Stellaris times hundreds).
To which I would say, just make the default what it is now: the game tells you nothing about where your troops are and what they are doing, nothing about gains or setbacks you are experiencing, and nothing about what is going in on other nations around the world. The player is required to know all of this by frantically scanning the map at all times, or basically just trust the battle planner to do everything for them. Those who like the game this way can keep playing this way. But for those who prefer to be told that they've lost a province half way around the world from where they are currently focusing (and by told, I mean TOLD, not just an alert icon that immediately ceases being useful once more than one occasion of the alert is happening at once), for those that prefer to be told that a unit is sitting around doing nothing, and for those who prefer to know that a country has changed ideologies, there would be an OPTION for them to do it their way, even if someone had to mod it in to make it happen.
I've been playing Paradox games since 2000. This is easily the most disappointed I've been in the company since then. And yes, I played HOI III at the start. Because I know that the issues that exist in their games are getting worked and will, for the most part get fixed. In a few months the AI in HOI IV is going to be very capable.
But a real-time game with a pause button and literally hundreds of units all moving around the world, winning and losing battles, as well as scores of countries with their own policies and situations changing, that PURPOSELY hides this information from the player?
The strange thing is the weird silence from Paradox people about message settings, here and in the Stellaris forums. Usually they just come right out and say "no" about things and then people start to bicker. I guess they think it's such a minor issue that it wasn't even worth the time to respond.
Apparently the game is intended to be paused every few minutes so you can scan the world and make sure you aren't missing something.
It does appear that EUIV may be the high water mark for UI flexibility in a Paradox game. Note that by flexibility I mean having the UI do what YOU want it to do, not what the game designer has decided in advance is the best way to play.
Still no word of course if liking to click on a mini map instead of scrolling around and liking to have all of the game's information in a nice tidy ledger are also bad ways to play Paradox games.
I'm the last person around here to accuse the company of dumbing down game elements in order to appeal to mass audiences. I think each version of Paradox games has been more complicated, not less, than the previous and this includes HOI IV. But the only reasonable explanation that I can come up with for not just making the information and pause playstyle an option is that it's too scary for newbies to Paradox games: the mountain of potential messages and settings. It can't be that difficult to program. It already existed in previous games on this engine. It isn't some advanced feature you're worried the AI won't be able to handle or will clog the game processor. In many ways what the team is apparently going to do is actually harder, they are going to try to replace the information you get from the popups with some other way of doing it without actually having a message that pops on your screen. Seems impossible to me for dealing with all of the units and all of the battles (just imagine the "enemy fleet detected" or something similar message from Stellaris times hundreds).
To which I would say, just make the default what it is now: the game tells you nothing about where your troops are and what they are doing, nothing about gains or setbacks you are experiencing, and nothing about what is going in on other nations around the world. The player is required to know all of this by frantically scanning the map at all times, or basically just trust the battle planner to do everything for them. Those who like the game this way can keep playing this way. But for those who prefer to be told that they've lost a province half way around the world from where they are currently focusing (and by told, I mean TOLD, not just an alert icon that immediately ceases being useful once more than one occasion of the alert is happening at once), for those that prefer to be told that a unit is sitting around doing nothing, and for those who prefer to know that a country has changed ideologies, there would be an OPTION for them to do it their way, even if someone had to mod it in to make it happen.
I've been playing Paradox games since 2000. This is easily the most disappointed I've been in the company since then. And yes, I played HOI III at the start. Because I know that the issues that exist in their games are getting worked and will, for the most part get fixed. In a few months the AI in HOI IV is going to be very capable.
But a real-time game with a pause button and literally hundreds of units all moving around the world, winning and losing battles, as well as scores of countries with their own policies and situations changing, that PURPOSELY hides this information from the player?
The strange thing is the weird silence from Paradox people about message settings, here and in the Stellaris forums. Usually they just come right out and say "no" about things and then people start to bicker. I guess they think it's such a minor issue that it wasn't even worth the time to respond.
- 108
- 12
