Why this random guy didn't buy the game.

[IVM.Firefly]

Disclaimer: I am not saying the existing player base should not like the game or that anyone who reads this must care what I think. I merely feel the need to put my finger on what made me not pull out my wallet for this game.

There were the days when I was extremely hyped about this game. Alas, after I gad a chance to try it out, I suddenly ended up with a sense of not wanting to actually play it. The reasons being:

1. The provinces are virtually absent from the game. This may be unimportant to some, but I was greatly looking forward to modding the map, adding more detail and, yes, fixing what Paradox did wrong from historical perspective. Even the pops, the supposed core of this game, are no longer bound to the provinces, unlike in Vickie 2. Provinces, not states, are the long-standing heart of Paradox grand strategy games.
2. I am surprised I may be a minority on this issue, but the map just looks plain ugly to me. In a sentence, I could describe it as a cloud-filled garbage dump. Ok, those might be a little too strong words, but I find CK3, Imperator or even EU4 better than this. Mods may solve this, but they shouldn't have to.
3. Achievements hunting is a joke now. My primary reason to actually play the game on singleplayer for a reasonable amount of time has gone up in flames when Paradox announced that achievements can be earned without effort. Prospect of me earning them while actually trying to play fair now feels like a giant waste of time and effort.
4. While I remain split on the issue of how the war system should exactly work, taking away so much player agency from warfare is a bit of a bummer, especially since in practice, the time otherwise spent microing ends up going to managing one's production methods and trading, something which is arguably nowhere as engaging in a long run.
5. Autonomous construction being an optional afterthought. A bold choice to give the player almost complete agency in terms of national buildup, but hardly a one which fans of the previous game imagined. The way things stand now is a hell of a way to split the community.

And that's about it. I am sorry to admit some of these choices are already set in stone and thus this post may prove to have little practical value, but I wanted to explain my tiny contribution to this game potentially proving to be a financial failure. Have a nice day

 

[Jimboy93]

I respect your opinion. Too bad you didn't like it

 

[Ciccillo Rre]

Disclaimer: I am not saying the existing player base should not like the game or that anyone who reads this must care what I think. I merely feel the need to put my finger on what made me not pull out my wallet for this game.

There were the days when I was extremely hyped about this game. Alas, after I gad a chance to try it out, I suddenly ended up with a sense of not wanting to actually play it. The reasons being:

1. The provinces are virtually absent from the game. This may be unimportant to some, but I was greatly looking forward to modding the map, adding more detail and, yes, fixing what Paradox did wrong from historical perspective. Even the pops, the supposed core of this game, are no longer bound to the provinces, unlike in Vickie 2. Provinces, not states, are the long-standing heart of Paradox grand strategy games.
2. I am surprised I may be a minority on this issue, but the map just looks plain ugly to me. In a sentence, I could describe it as a cloud-filled garbage dump. Ok, those might be a little too strong words, but I find CK3, Imperator or even EU4 better than this. Mods may solve this, but they shouldn't have to.
3. Achievements hunting is a joke now. My primary reason to actually play the game on singleplayer for a reasonable amount of time has gone up in flames when Paradox announced that achievements can be earned without effort. Prospect of me earning them while actually trying to play fair now feels like a giant waste of time and effort.
4. While I remain split on the issue of how the war system should exactly work, taking away so much player agency from warfare is a bit of a bummer, especially since in practice, the time otherwise spent microing ends up going to managing one's production methods and trading, something which is arguably nowhere as engaging in a long run.
5. Autonomous construction being an optional afterthought. A bold choice to give the player almost complete agency in terms of national buildup, but hardly a one which fans of the previous game imagined. The way things stand now is a hell of a way to split the community.

And that's about it. I am sorry to admit some of these choices are already set in stone and thus this post may prove to have little practical value, but I wanted to explain my tiny contribution to this game potentially proving to be a financial failure. Have a nice day

I agree with you on all these issues, but I bought the game (deluxe edition) and I enjoy it greatly! Production methods and the economy system are a vast improvement over Vicky 2. I am looking forward to future improvements and updates. I get my achievements in Ironman, what matters for me is that I stood the challenge.

Too bad about the provinces, that is the number 1 feature I miss from Victoria, but given the toll the game takes from GPU/CPU, I'd rather have a game without provinces than a slower game. One can only guess how POPs choosing between provinces (e.g. for migration) is more of a computational burden than choosing between states. As I deal with similar computational issues for my own work, I can only imagine...

 

[Eruth]

3. Achievements hunting is a joke now. My primary reason to actually play the game on singleplayer for a reasonable amount of time has gone up in flames when Paradox announced that achievements can be earned without effort. Prospect of me earning them while actually trying to play fair now feels like a giant waste of time and effort.

I'm always baffled by this argument. Does anyone else actually care which achievements you have? They're just a fun little pop up to give you a dopamine burst for completing an objective. If people want to 'cheat' to get them, I can't say that affects my enjoyment of getting the achievement myself. Even if you do care about other folk's stats, most achievements still have low completion rates; only 10 out of 45 have above 15% completion. Obviously, this is a higher rate of completion than in other PDX games, but how many of those folks do you think actually used mods that made the achievements significantly easier, and how many of those used those mods INTENTIONALLY to get the achievement?

 

[Ciccillo Rre]

I'm always baffled by this argument. Does anyone else actually care which achievements you have? They're just a fun little pop up to give you a dopamine burst for completing an objective. If people want to 'cheat' to get them, I can't say that affects my enjoyment of getting the achievement myself. Even if you do care about other folk's stats, most achievements still have low completion rates; only 10 out of 45 have above 15% completion. Obviously, this is a higher rate of completion than in other PDX games, but how many of those folks do you think actually used mods that made the achievements significantly easier, and how many of those used those mods INTENTIONALLY to get the achievement?

Some people like me love to collect them. They give a sense of purpose. But I don't care about what the others do.

 

[Surge72]

1. The provinces are virtually absent from the game. This may be unimportant to some, but I was greatly looking forward to modding the map, adding more detail and, yes, fixing what Paradox did wrong from historical perspective. Even the pops, the supposed core of this game, are no longer bound to the provinces, unlike in Vickie 2. Provinces, not states, are the long-standing heart of Paradox grand strategy games.

4. While I remain split on the issue of how the war system should exactly work, taking away so much player agency from warfare is a bit of a bummer, especially since in practice, the time otherwise spent microing ends up going to managing one's production methods and trading, something which is arguably nowhere as engaging in a long run.

These two are by FAR my biggest issue with the game. Provinces are completely irrelevant (as is the whole map to be honest, including the different states - it is irrelevant where you build anything), and no where near enough agency in warfare.

Some pretty glaringly poor design decisions in my opinion.

 

[Eruth]

Some people like me love to collect them. They give a sense of purpose. But I don't care about what the others do.

Same— collecting achievements gives me a goal in a campaign and dopamine when I achieve it, but PDX games are chronically more fun with mods.I don’t think we should be forced to choose between achievements and mods.

 

[Splorghley]

Psst. I got a secret for you.

It's amazing what you can do with two minutes and a memory inspector these days!

 

[Zarlagash]

It's amazing what you can do with two minutes and a memory inspector these days!

I mean, if you needed external tools to alter the game then the ironman did do something. It was possible to run a program to un-ironman a save in the past too, maybe even do what you have done now. In addition if you wanted to pretend you got the things there are apparently ways of just telling steam you earned them. ez pz, no problem at all. but why go through all that? and why make it easier for people to cheat? I will never know