PDX CON Grand Strategy Panel - Your chance to ask questions

[IkkeTM]

2 Questions actually, to be taken together:

1) Personally, what I dislike about paradox games is that their complexity derives from "broadness" rather than "depth". I.E. you have tons and tons of mechanics, but they're working mostly side-by-side but not so much in addition to one another. You have dozens if not hundreds different variables about the area you control and the entity you play with, but almost no interaction between them. Is this likely to ever change?

2) Will paradox ever make a grand strategy game based on some sort of deeper simulation? I.E. imagine an EU4 where Venice isn't Venice because it's Venice and Venice has such and such national ideas, but where Venice is Venice because it's an easily defended island that has easy access to salt to trade (salt also being a preservative), making a naval trade empire a logical path to pursue. (Such a simulation would obviously not work if the "broadness" approach is maintained in favor of depth)

 

[derelictdreamer]

Are you planning on trying to innovate even further on the 4x genre, and if so, how do you plan on delivering that?

 

[adam_grif]

When considering future sequels to games that have been receiving updates for 4-5 years at this point (CK2, EU4), how do you plan to deal with the huge expectations in systems complexity and breadth? For Hearts of Iron 4 there was a problem in that it was competing with the fully expanded HoI3, and some customers were unhappy with how many systems were not yet implemented in the 1.0 version. Do you fear similar issues with a hypothetical EU5 or CK3, whereby you could not possibly launch with most of the features that you have eventually added to EU4 and CK2?

 

[Sanny]

Has the success of Stellaris made you interested in doing more non-historical grand strategy games? Any ideas being kicked around?

Just want to add to this question. Has there been any discussion and plans going forward for moving into combining tactical gameplay with grand strategy? As it has worked quite well in theory for Stellaris.

Another question:
Will there be a future for the Clausewitz engine? Could a brand new engine supercede it in the near future? How will PDS deal with 32-bit games such as CK2 that is going to be unsupported on the latest versions of MacOS (post-High Sierra)? Is that problematic and a cause for concern at the studio or is it just an issue that the Mac owners will have to deal with?

 

[Archangel85]

Will you look into incorporating the changes brought with the Cornflakes patch into the earlier HoI4 DLCs? Those focus trees and events don't take advantage of any of the new mechanics. For example, maybe owners of both "Waking the Tiger" and "Death or Dishonor" could be allowed to start a border war with Slovakia when playing Hungary, as happened historically, after doing a certain focus. Or there could be infiltration or power struggle options in Yugoslavia, especially among puppeted Balkan states. Either way, I think Death or Dishonor in particular could use an update.

Focus trees from past DLCs are very unlikely to see a complete rework to take advantage of decisions/variables. We might tweak some here and there.

 

[26Jäger]

What are the challenges and benefits of working with the Clausewitz engine? Are plans for a new engine in the works? How long does a typical game engine last for before becoming outdated?


Any multi-core engines on the horizon? (Sorry I couldn’t resist)

 

[Sanny]

? How long does a typical game engine last for before becoming outdated?

The current Clausewitz engine has been used for 10 years by PDS. But been upgraded quite a few times, if you look at Sengoku compared to Stellaris, it's massively different. It's been a very good engine though, the older titles still hold up well. I think the challenges they are facing now is 64bit standard applications and evolving multicore hardware that the engine sometimes struggles to perform with.

 

[Adamgerd]

Are you planning to make a change to 64 bit applications from 32 bit applications since 32 bit apps will become unsupported on later versions of Mac OS? Or will Mac owners have to deal with it for now?

 

[blackninja9939]

Just want to add to this question. Has there been any discussion and plans going forward for moving into combining tactical gameplay with grand strategy? As it has worked quite well in theory for Stellaris.

Another question:
Will there be a future for the Clausewitz engine? Could a brand new engine supercede it in the near future? How will PDS deal with 32-bit games such as CK2 that is going to be unsupported on the latest versions of MacOS (post-High Sierra)? Is that problematic and a cause for concern at the studio or is it just an issue that the Mac owners will have to deal with?

What are the challenges and benefits of working with the Clausewitz engine? Are plans for a new engine in the works? How long does a typical game engine last for before becoming outdated?


Any multi-core engines on the horizon? (Sorry I couldn’t resist)

The Clausewitz engine is constantly updated, just because it doesn't get a new name or version number arbitrarily tacked on for different game releases or patches doesn't mean it is not being worked on.
Also it already is multi-core.

 

[Shadark]

- Any chances that we could get hot-join technology from EU4 in CK2? Or the engine is different enough so synchronization wouldn't work the same way?

- How much moddable could the engine be made? I tried to make a few mods for EU4 like custom modifiers with custom images but, for instance, I can't choose the modifier image because it's linked to the actual provided modifiers.

 

[Swuul]

What are the expected release-dates for Victoria 3 and EU:Rome2?

 

[Sanny]

Would PDS ever consider joining forces with another studio to produce a game large in scale, scope and depth?

 

[DominusNovus]

Assuming that you were to release Vicky3 and EU:Rome 2 in the near future, what do you think we'll all be clamoring for after we can't say "Vicky3/Eu:Rome 2 confirmed!"

 

[Andy_Dandy]

What would be the greatest game design challenges of making a Grand Strategy Fantasy game with the classical real time Paradox formula?

 

[RedRalphWiggum]

What makes a historical era suitable or unsuitable for a GSG?

 

[Kadanz]

Assuming that you were to release Vicky3 and EU:Rome 2 in the near future, what do you think we'll all be clamoring for after we can't say "Vicky3/Eu:Rome 2 confirmed!"

Vicky 4/Eu: rome 3 confirmed of course.

 

[spartansociety]

The Clausewitz engine is constantly updated, just because it doesn't get a new name or version number arbitrarily tacked on for different game releases or patches doesn't mean it is not being worked on.
Also it already is multi-core.

This one has been explained a bunch of times on the forums already. I predict we will see the same question in PDXCon 2019.

 

[IkkeTM]

So is there a video of this panel somewhere?

 

[gigau]

So is there a video of this panel somewhere?

Not yet, as far as i know. But they should be added on the PAradox youtube channel.