All,
First off, let me say that, from the demo, this is easily the best game Paradox has released since Hearts of Iron II. Perhaps I'll feel differently after a week or two with it (I certainly did after a day or two with Rome), but they seem to have struck that delicate, and heretofore impossible, balance between complexity and broad appeal. Apart from that, what I can say with absolute certainty is that the GUI blows away all that's come before it. It's more powerful and yet more intuitive, and reminds me of my MacBook Pro or iPad-I look for something and find it in exactly the place I expect it to be.
Secondly, that said, so far the game does seem a bit easy. I imagine it will be more challenging in multiplayer, but even then, the two major problems-too easy to wage wars, too easy to build up infrastructure-remain. I'll reserve judgment for release, and perhaps every important variable is easily moddable. I'd just like to be faced with hard choices (you can expand your castle defenses or wage war or arrange a fitting marriage for the Princess, which really ought to be a matter of money as well as prestige). This is the thing CK I got mostly right, at least early on as a count or poor duke (although eventually there was way too much money due to the ease and power of improvements) because
Thirdly, levies are too cheap to maintain. So far, I've had no problem raising them and keeping them in the field indefinitely, often while making money. And this is within twenty years of game start. Not only is this ahistorical-waging war was so cripplingly expensive in decentralized Europe that even by the 17th century campaigns often ended because unpaid troops simply went home-it's a significant step backward from CK I, which, apart from modded Hearts of Iron II, had been the only Paradox game to approach a realistic portrayal of the cost of warfare. I think levies also replenish much too quickly, but I'll have to play a bit more widely to say for sure.
First off, let me say that, from the demo, this is easily the best game Paradox has released since Hearts of Iron II. Perhaps I'll feel differently after a week or two with it (I certainly did after a day or two with Rome), but they seem to have struck that delicate, and heretofore impossible, balance between complexity and broad appeal. Apart from that, what I can say with absolute certainty is that the GUI blows away all that's come before it. It's more powerful and yet more intuitive, and reminds me of my MacBook Pro or iPad-I look for something and find it in exactly the place I expect it to be.
Secondly, that said, so far the game does seem a bit easy. I imagine it will be more challenging in multiplayer, but even then, the two major problems-too easy to wage wars, too easy to build up infrastructure-remain. I'll reserve judgment for release, and perhaps every important variable is easily moddable. I'd just like to be faced with hard choices (you can expand your castle defenses or wage war or arrange a fitting marriage for the Princess, which really ought to be a matter of money as well as prestige). This is the thing CK I got mostly right, at least early on as a count or poor duke (although eventually there was way too much money due to the ease and power of improvements) because
Thirdly, levies are too cheap to maintain. So far, I've had no problem raising them and keeping them in the field indefinitely, often while making money. And this is within twenty years of game start. Not only is this ahistorical-waging war was so cripplingly expensive in decentralized Europe that even by the 17th century campaigns often ended because unpaid troops simply went home-it's a significant step backward from CK I, which, apart from modded Hearts of Iron II, had been the only Paradox game to approach a realistic portrayal of the cost of warfare. I think levies also replenish much too quickly, but I'll have to play a bit more widely to say for sure.
