The is there going to be a dev diary senate session

[Akbar The Great]

I think that we are seeing is the plugging off of life support for I:R. A publisher will never announce with fanfare: "Great news, we stop supporting / developing this game!". They just stop allocating time and resources to it and that's it. It is exactly what we are witnessing when we see it being absent from marketing materials.

You're gonna be hella-popular.

 

[Daft]

I think they are just relaxing. Swimming in pools of Dev milk, zipping Piña Coladas, recharging their udders, getting ready to shower us in that sweet, sweet dairy when they're ready.

Jesus, that was graphic...

 

[IsaacCAT]

I think that we are seeing is the plugging off of life support for I:R. A publisher will never announce with fanfare: "Great news, we stop supporting / developing this game!". They just stop allocating time and resources to it and that's it. It is exactly what we are witnessing when we see it being absent from marketing materials. It seems to me that I:R, having failed to attract enough of a bankable basis, has simply been assessed to be irrelevant to the overall business model of Paradox.

I hope to be proven wrong as it is my personal favorite...

I do agree with your logic but I do not like it. I cannot do much, as @Snow Crystal put it, things are what they are.

I will keep playing the game until I find something better to play. I hope they use what I like best from I:R in their next iterations. The spirit of I:R will always be present in the future generations of games. Not only in Paradox, but in the whole game scene (or so I hope).

 

[Akbar The Great]

As I have said before if they end development it at least allows the mod scene to take over on entirely, on a finished product. I don't think it's ending just yet, but do I see another 8 years of DLC like CKII and EUIV? - nope.

 

[LiberiusX]

Cotton is already in, just simplified as cloth. Wait for the "Ancient Industrialisation" DLC and maybe we get full production chains including raw materials. I already plan to make my tin monopoly. I will call it "Tin pot Emporium".

Don’t you mean Tin Pot Emporion?

 

[Numahr]

POV: you are Paradox CEO. I:R has taught you that the impact of a botched release on business-essential user base cannot be mitigated, even with regular quality updates coming later to address your customers' concerns.

Now you have to choose between allocating spare internal development resources between:
1. improving the hopeful future hit of tomorrow (whether new title or DLC for a product with large customer base), to produce a fantastic release earlier, with more content and/or better quality!; or
2. developing new content for a product that fails at reaching the corporate standards of what a good customer base is, in spite of your best efforts during the last months, in the hope that it eventually takes off against all odds.

Do you choose 1 or 2?

We can recognize that they genuinely tried 2 for quite some time, at least.

 

[Akbar The Great]

The optics have not been good since the launch of 2.0, there's no way to spin that it has either. Nothing at PDX.CON, missing from promotional material - now nothing on DD front for weeks to come, despite overwhelmingly positive feedback, I might add...

It might mean nothing, but there's no way it can be spun as positive. It looks to me as if they're assessing the impact of 2.0 and will decide what to do from there.

 

[h3lp3r]

I understand if PDX don't want to announce giving up on a project, but come on, at least give us something to indicate if there will be further work done or not.

 

[IsaacCAT]

POV: you are Paradox CEO. I:R has taught you that the impact of a botched release on business-essential user base cannot be mitigated, even with regular quality updates coming later to address your customers' concerns.

Now you have to choose between allocating spare internal development resources between:
1. improving the hopeful future hit of tomorrow (whether new title or DLC for a product with large customer base), to produce a fantastic release earlier, with more content and/or better quality!; or
2. developing new content for a product that fails at reaching the corporate standards of what a good customer base is, in spite of your best efforts during the last months, in the hope that it eventually takes off against all odds.

Do you choose 1 or 2?

We can recognize that they genuinely tried 2 for quite some time, at least.

IMHO this is more complicated than that.

The fact is that always there will be projects that are not a commercial success. No matter how many time or resources you invest. There are many other factors, internal and external that may be outside the power of a software company to overcome. I do not think that I:R is a failure, on the contrary, I think it is a great case study and a great game (with much room for improvement).

What I do not like is that without commercial success we loose development of GSG in this period. Some compromise should be achieved to keep them investing in this time frame.

For the record, I like very much GSG for the following reason:

grand strategy games go beyond simple warfare to deal with economics, geography, history, and politics, they are especially useful in education and studies of international affairs.[4]

 

[Iosue Yu]

So, fellow Plebes,

Is this what we are coming to? That 2.0 served as a somewhat ultimatum between continuing and killing the project?

It's a fun ride seeing Imperator being put in a prominent position just a few months ago, but now just has disappeared.

 

[Todie]

I think that we are seeing is the plugging off of life support for I:R. A publisher will never announce with fanfare: "Great news, we stop supporting / developing this game!". They just stop allocating time and resources to it and that's it. It is exactly what we are witnessing when we see it being absent from marketing materials. It seems to me that I:R, having failed to attract enough of a bankable customer basis, has simply been assessed to be irrelevant to the overall business model of Paradox.

I hope to be proven wrong as it is my personal favorite...

You’re not wrong - it's possible, but we don't know... but judging by how patient publisher-side PDX is with some of their games with lower numbers of players, why cut the cord of a game from their own studio, using their own engine that shares many things on the back end with their other GSG’s.

In my view, it's more likely a tempo-switch akin to those we see with the HoI4 team.

There are a few things to keep in mind:

This is an era of remote work. A dev team that has pushed for a deadline like the release of 2.0 Marius / HoA while working from home may not have the same cohesiveness and shared vision as one that works together in an office environment.

There are new editions/extensions to the IR team - the folks at Thalassic Malmö. How does the coordination with them turn out after a release like this?

Things behind the scenes at PDS: announcements have been announced. New GSG in the works. Positions are open. Certainly, quite some of the IR staff will apply for some of these jobs within the Studio - regardless of IR, much like Trin Tangula and Snow Crystal applied for jobs with CK3 a while ago - Trin Tangula getting it. (Joachim shared this on stream a few weeks back)

... Then, new creative direction for IR will be decided and potentially some people be moved around, maybe new ones hired?

I think, as long as there are people who want to improve and expand the game - and that know how to - it will be supported. In the long term, I think that pool of people includes the community.

 

[cristofolmc]

I wouldnt be surprised at all if IR was making enough money to sustain itself after 2.0 with such a good reception for 2.0. The devs seemed very happy with the reception and all that. So I dont see a reason why a break means they've pulled the plug. Its been all this negativity IR dead since 1.1 and the game keeps getting bigger and better.

So yeah, I think its just a HoI4 kind of break. Small team, and they have to redesign systems from the ground 0 and havent started yet, so unlike before when they knew before hand what they were doing and could show us within a couple weeks, now they literally have nothing to show as they are still on the ideas and designing process, hence the massive break.

The interviews post 2.0 with Arheo didnt hint at all to a stop in development. Quite the contrary. He was talking about the things he didnt like, things he wanted to change in the future etc.

But as long as the numbers keep growing and if the sells go well (which we dont know), they will continusly support the game even if it doesnt create a profit for the company in the short run and makes enough to sustain itself without causing the company having to allocate big resources from other projects.

 

[Todie]

The interviews post 2.0 with Arheo didnt hint at all to a stop in development. Quite the contrary. He was talking about the things he didnt like, things he wanted to change in the future etc.

for reference:

 

[Akbar The Great]

Of course Arheo doesn't want development to stop, is that decision in his hands though?

 

[Iosue Yu]

Of course Arheo doesn't want development to stop, is that decision in his hands though?

In a company, I think decisions are shared unless it's a big pinch, or in desperation. I think if it can endure 2020, 2021 won't be too bad financially.

 

[MohawkWolfo98]

As I have said before if they end development it at least allows the mod scene to take over on entirely, on a finished product. I don't think it's ending just yet, but do I see another 8 years of DLC like CKII and EUIV? - nope.

Which may or may not be a bad thing. I think we can all agree that PDX is essentially just selling DLC for the sake of it in EU4. No new in depth mechanics, just pointless systems which increases the complexity of the game but not depth. It also frankly imo doesn’t seem very fun to play with. Whereas CK2’s final hurrah was Holy Fury, which arguably was one of the best Updates to a Paradox game.

Imo, I agree with u, the lack of news is rather worrying. Not even a small roadmap for when to expect new Diaries etc. Fundamentally we just have to see.

 

[IsaacCAT]

Of course Arheo doesn't want development to stop, is that decision in his hands though?

In a company, I think decisions are shared unless it's a big pinch, or in desperation. I think if it can endure 2020, 2021 won't be too bad financially.

Motivation is king. Not always finance is the only constrain. You need the expertise and motivated people to undertake the job.

How many games were abandoned because there was no qualified manpower?

The community is very motivated, but we do not have to stare the same computer code of the last three years and have to code new lines, that is another completely separate thing.

 

[Akbar The Great]

In a company, I think decisions are shared unless it's a big pinch, or in desperation. I think if it can endure 2020, 2021 won't be too bad financially.

Sure there's consultation etc, will he have the final say?

He won't, that's all i'm saying, but that is the reality.

 

[Akbar The Great]

Which may or may not be a bad thing. I think we can all agree that PDX is essentially just selling DLC for the sake of it in EU4. No new in depth mechanics, just pointless systems which increases the complexity of the game but not depth. It also frankly imo doesn’t seem very fun to play with. Whereas CK2’s final hurrah was Holy Fury, which arguably was one of the best Updates to a Paradox game.

Imo, I agree with u, the lack of news is rather worrying. Not even a small roadmap for when to expect new Diaries etc. Fundamentally we just have to see.

Oh definitely EUIV needs to stop. Time for a new game, they should have killed it off after Emporer, whcih was by all acounts a disaster. I've had 3,000 hours in the game, but I'm totally done now.

It's just poor optics it might mean nothing, they may well be consulting as to where to go with it next? rather than whether to continue, we just don't know.

 

[LiberiusX]

Order! I say Order in the Senate! Friends, Is this what we senators been reduced to? Quibbling about “could have beens”and “could bes” in far off Skandza? We have more pressing matters to discuss!

Motion to move topics to what we are going to get @Snow Crystal for a Veneralia present.