Paradox adopts DLC subscription model

[thesecret1]

Oh, boy PDX forums are a ride but not in a good way.

It's because PDX forums are run like a gulag, and criticizing the game will usually get you banned for "toxicity". They cultivated their forum by banning anyone who isn't an asslicker or at the very least doesn't know better than to run his mouth.

 

[JarlFrank]

The slope is eternally slippery. Anyone paying for any of these retarded subscription needs to be put down. Game Pass and other garbage are not good deals for you. If they were, they wouldn't exist.

Exactly. I never paid for a subscription in my life and never will. If I pay for something, I want to own it forever. I don't pay for subscriptions. Never had a Netflix account, never will. Same with shit like DLC subscriptions.

 

[Ravielsk]

Oh, boy PDX forums are a ride but not in a good way.

It's because PDX forums are run like a gulag, and criticizing the game will usually get you banned for "toxicity". They cultivated their forum by banning anyone who isn't an asslicker or at the very least doesn't know better than to run his mouth.

Paradox and steam forums. In fact there is a number of users on steam forums that mysteriously show up in every thread that is even vaguely negative about the game(even the ones just asking question) and defend it so vigorously that they even resort to straight up lying about the games mechanics. At one point a guy noticed that his vastly more powerful fleet got entirely wiped by some corvets and questioned whether its a bug. He was told that: "No, those corvets were probably just designed to exploit your ships weakness." Which is mathematically impossible without mods that add several extra layers of tech(which the guy did not have) and still would not explain how all the ships were destroyed while inflicting 0 damage on the opponent. Turns out the game has a bug(so far not patched out) that causes a fleet to become completely unresponsive, making it possible to whittle it down without the fleet even having the option to retreat.
Another completely unrelated thread several weeks later complained about how war exhaustion makes no sense as the player there was persistently winning every battle with no or minimal losses but the war exhaustion meter was constantly showing him losing. Well, the same people showed up to tell him that: "Lol, nah bruh war exhaustion is not a winning meter its just like an approximation that just automatically makes you lose if it hits 100%." I wish I was making it up. Later the same geniuses even went so far as to admit that the exhaustion is not calculated based on the number of ships destroyed but based on the potential maximum number of ships one can have. So the game is not looking at how many ships you have but how many you could have, ergo losing all of your 20 ships counts for less exhaustion when you could have 150 (naval cap than) than when you lose 2 ships out of 20 with a cap of 50. Which was new info for everyone involved except for those few guys that also are not modders nor moderators nor PDX employes. They just accidentally show up in every thread criticizing the game to put down anyone involved, because they are just such fans of Stellaris.

At one point a guy literally refused to share how he manages to win games with his "100% pacifist trader empire, than never expanded beyond his home system" because I replied to him with tHaT CrInGe SpOnGeBoB MemE, almost as if he was just looking for a reason to not share it.

 

[Rahdulan]

Worst thing is this being a perfectly corporate answer to legit complaints about there being an abundance of DLC you have to buy to stay up to date, doubly so if you're late to the game and faced with a hefty pay wall. Of course, more sensible course of action would be to lower prices of said DLC so it's more affordable.

 

[RayF]

I don't know if a lot of people read the original Paradox post but this subscription model is coming for other Paradox games as well

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I don't know if a lot of people read the original Paradox post but this subscription model is coming for other Paradox games as well

Cuck tax.

 

[Serious_Business]

I suppose we shall indeed now have to consider Pdox fan as "special people". I have a friend (?) who has hours and hours of playtime on every of these map painting games ; he gobbles up everything from them. In a way they have a monopoly on grand strategy games. So yeah, their grip on this market of special individuals is definite. The solution is more free market, of course

If I pay for something, I want to own it forever.

You will never own anything forever, boyo. *smokes cigarette in your face in the dark corner of some Algerian brothel* The self is passing, and thus your ownership or the world wanes. However, I will own your heart forever, this is true. I will do nothing with it, except contemplate it as something sad and melancholic, something that is a tad disgusting ; in the end, I will have to toss it to the dogs, like it was some kind of morsel. This is how it has to go

 

[JarlFrank]

Oh, boy PDX forums are a ride but not in a good way.

It's because PDX forums are run like a gulag, and criticizing the game will usually get you banned for "toxicity". They cultivated their forum by banning anyone who isn't an asslicker or at the very least doesn't know better than to run his mouth.

Paradox and steam forums. In fact there is a number of users on steam forums that mysteriously show up in every thread that is even vaguely negative about the game(even the ones just asking question) and defend it so vigorously that they even resort to straight up lying about the games mechanics. At one point a guy noticed that his vastly more powerful fleet got entirely wiped by some corvets and questioned whether its a bug. He was told that: "No, those corvets were probably just designed to exploit your ships weakness." Which is mathematically impossible without mods that add several extra layers of tech(which the guy did not have) and still would not explain how all the ships were destroyed while inflicting 0 damage on the opponent. Turns out the game has a bug(so far not patched out) that causes a fleet to become completely unresponsive, making it possible to whittle it down without the fleet even having the option to retreat.
Another completely unrelated thread several weeks later complained about how war exhaustion makes no sense as the player there was persistently winning every battle with no or minimal losses but the war exhaustion meter was constantly showing him losing. Well, the same people showed up to tell him that: "Lol, nah bruh war exhaustion is not a winning meter its just like an approximation that just automatically makes you lose if it hits 100%." I wish I was making it up. Later the same geniuses even went so far as to admit that the exhaustion is not calculated based on the number of ships destroyed but based on the potential maximum number of ships one can have. So the game is not looking at how many ships you have but how many you could have, ergo losing all of your 20 ships counts for less exhaustion when you could have 150 (naval cap than) than when you lose 2 ships out of 20 with a cap of 50. Which was new info for everyone involved except for those few guys that also are not modders nor moderators nor PDX employes. They just accidentally show up in every thread criticizing the game to put down anyone involved, because they are just such fans of Stellaris.

At one point a guy literally refused to share how he manages to win games with his "100% pacifist trader empire, than never expanded beyond his home system" because I replied to him with tHaT CrInGe SpOnGeBoB MemE, almost as if he was just looking for a reason to not share it.

This really sounds like a classic case of Stockholm syndrome

 

[Ravielsk]

This really sounds like a classic case of Stockholm syndrome

At this point... it probably is. The community is seriously holding the game back. For example there is a ascention perk(Xeno compatibility) in the game that lets you pops to mingle and produce hybrid species. The problem is that there is no cap placed on it and it appears to exponentially spawn more and more sub-species. So what would often happen is that the AI would take the perk and within minutes its population would explode with hundreds of new hybrid pops(as every new hybrid is spawned as a new pop) and if this happened with two or more empires then it would cause thousands of new pops to spawn out of nowhere. It got so bad that in late game opening the species tab would either crash the game(since at the time it was 32-bit only and the species list could not fit into 4gb of RAM) or basically pause it for up to a minute before it loaded all the new species. It was both insane and broken.

To community literally was not sure if anything should be done about it because... and I shit you not it broke their furry larp sessions. They even went so far as to argue the scientific merits of sentient rock producing children with tomato plants. Its just pure insanity.

Which is why I 100% believe Paradox will have success with a subscription model and will subsequently add less content and less bug fixes to standing ovations from the community. Its just too far gone.

Spoiler

Honestly the only reason why I even care anymore is because of the porn mods.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I'm amused how many modern game companies are really blatant about thinking their fans are utter morons and are (anally) probing their limits out in the open like "I'm just strolling here not giving a fuck".

 

[DDZ]

They should just roll everything but the latest two dlc's into the main game and just don't drop the main game to a much lower price.

Every time I see shit like Stellaria on sale I am like HMMM maybe I should give this a try again, and then nope out seeing that you still need to pay 500 euros on top of the discounted game to get everything and just nope out of there.

 

[Fedora Master]

This really sounds like a classic case of Stockholm syndrome

At this point... it probably is. The community is seriously holding the game back. For example there is a ascention perk(Xeno compatibility) in the game that lets you pops to mingle and produce hybrid species. The problem is that there is no cap placed on it and it appears to exponentially spawn more and more sub-species. So what would often happen is that the AI would take the perk and within minutes its population would explode with hundreds of new hybrid pops(as every new hybrid is spawned as a new pop) and if this happened with two or more empires then it would cause thousands of new pops to spawn out of nowhere. It got so bad that in late game opening the species tab would either crash the game(since at the time it was 32-bit only and the species list could not fit into 4gb of RAM) or basically pause it for up to a minute before it loaded all the new species. It was both insane and broken.

To community literally was not sure if anything should be done about it because... and I shit you not it broke their furry larp sessions. They even went so far as to argue the scientific merits of sentient rock producing children with tomato plants. Its just pure insanity.

Which is why I 100% believe Paradox will have success with a subscription model and will subsequently add less content and less bug fixes to standing ovations from the community. Its just too far gone.

Spoiler

Honestly the only reason why I even care anymore is because of the porn mods.

Funny thing, too, is how they will always fall back on the "REALISM" argument when a mechanic is bad but at the same time argue "MECHANICS" when something isn't historically accurate.

 

[Xamenos]

I'm amused how many modern game companies are really blatant about thinking their fans are utter morons and are (anally) probing their limits out in the open like "I'm just strolling here not giving a fuck".

To be fair, their fans are utter morons begging to be exploited. They've repeatedly proven they'll gobble anything up and even defend it. Why would a company, any company, NOT exploit them to make more money?

 

[Ravielsk]

I'm amused how many modern game companies are really blatant about thinking their fans are utter morons and are (anally) probing their limits out in the open like "I'm just strolling here not giving a fuck".

They are not wrong thou. Recently youtube recommended me a video by some guy who made a lot of Cyberpunk 2077 content where he was apologizing to his viewers and friends for the negative coverage he has been giving CP2077. The guy literary described how when he posted some snarky stuff onto his twatter his friends immediately messaged him angry that he is trying to ruin the game for them. You know as if they were 12 years old his friends assumed that he is shitting on the game for the sole purpose of ruining it for them and no other reason apparently and the guy apologized to them for "discrediting" their viewpoint(a.k.a the opinion of people who have not yet played the game but saw the ads). Earlier last year the same happened with Tlou2 where every video on the subject started with some lengthy apology about how "this is not meant to downplay your BS something something... please its just my opinion". Same with Star Wars coverage or even Pokemon. The gaming community at large appears to have to have regressed to a level of a 12 year old kid with a learning disability.

Because this is exactly how little kids think. They assume that the only reason why anyone would talk poorly about things they like/are exited about is because they specifically want to hurt them, not because they know its bad or that it will leave them disappointed. No mommy wont buy me the expensive Disney chips cus she hates me and for no other reason. Is the mentality I keep seeing around anything even vaguely negative. The stuff I mentioned with Stellaris? In almost every thread there is always some clowns asking "why are trying to ruin the game for others" you know as if the only reason people would take issues with the game stuttering or being buggy is to specifically ruin it for others. As if there is no other motive for negativity besides wanting to be a dick.

 

[Xamenos]

The gaming community at large appears to have to have regressed to a level of a 12 year old kid with a learning disability.

I just need to correct you on this one bit. It's not just the gaming community. EVERYTHING has regressed to this level. The gaming community is only a symptom of the wider problem.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/236850/view/3035962360455688928

Europa Universalis IV Subscription Now Available on Steam and Microsoft Windows
We are now offering the requested Europa Universalis IV subscription service to all Steam users playing on Windows

Paradox’s flagship grand strategy game will soon be available in an entirely new way. Europa Universalis IV’s expansion and additional content is now available via subscription letting you enjoy all of the expansions and add-ons that have been developed over the last eight years.

All new subscribers will gain immediate access to all additional content ever created for Europa Universalis IV, with no additional upfront cost. If you already own the base game and some of the expansions or content packs, this subscription does not remove that ownership, but will open up all content that you have not purchased.

Subscribers must already own the Europa Universalis IV base game. Subscription is handled in-game and can be accessed once you start up Europa Universalis IV. This is only available to players on Steam using Microsoft Windows.

Sign up now to enjoy:

• All 14 major expansions, including the religious battles of Art of War and Chinese imperial drama of Mandate of Heaven.
  
• Access to the upcoming Leviathan expansion, and all future expansions and content developed for Europa Universalis IV.
  
• 3 immersion packs, adding new mechanics for Spain, Great Britain and Russian nations.
  
• 9 content packs, adding new unit designs, advisor portraits and music for dozens of different nations.
  
• and many more improvements to the core game experience.

This subscription will be available on 18 March 2021 for $4.99/£3.99/€4.99 per month. This subscription will automatically renew at the end of every month until it is cancelled.

This is an additional service on top of our existing model and we are not replacing anything - we're just adding another option!

 

[Theodora]

They can't go more expensive than Microsoft's Game Pass, right?

Maybe they should get bought by MS for the game pass.

(Though I'd rather not see MS concentrate even more studios for its inevitable EA days.)

Anyone paying for PDX games needs to be put down. Don't finance people who hate you.

In an economy that relies a lot on attention, you give Paradox a fuckton of it for someone that hates them.

 

[LESS T_T]

Sweeten the deal, you know? https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...iption-service-update-september-2021.1491129/

CKII Subscription Service Update - September 2021

Hi all!

We have a small update we’d like to share with you about the subscription service for Crusader Kings II.
There are many players out there who are only discovering CKII now, through our subscription service, and we wanted to give you something extra as a thank you. CKII subscribers can now unlock:

• A set of never before released key art and made these available as wallpapers. Available after having been subscribed 45 days. The link to these wallpapers can be shared with anyone.
• A customised Spotify list with tracks from the various Crusader Kings II soundtracks. Available after having been subscribed 75 days. The link to this playlist can be shared with anyone.
• A 24 % discount on Age of Wonders III, which can be used at any time while the subscription is active.

As you can see, these rewards do not affect gameplay in any way, and are a small token of gratitude to those who have been active subscribers for a period of time. Two out of three rewards are not exclusive to the subscription, and are meant to be shared with anyone including non-subscribers.

Additionally, we have added a pop up to highlight content of the various DLC packages included in the subscription, which provides a suggestion of an interesting ruler to consider trying out.

Regardless of whether you are a long time Crusader Kings fan or a recent subscriber, we are grateful for your continued support!

If you have an account on Steam, you can feel free to head over and check out the Subscription page HERE!

 

[Perkel]

good thing i bailed after having my share of ULM glory in EU3

 

[AdamReith]

Interesting development, it seems they may have dug themselves into a hole. I like Paradox style games but after trying to explore the innavigable pile of dlc for CK2 I'd never buy another one.

Some add really important core features, others unlock new government types, others are mostly flavour or even obsolete. Subscription model is the way they were operating already in everything but name.

Fingers crossed this will bomb hard and we will get back the one big release and one or two substantial expansion pack model: the only model that actually makes sense for these complex games.

 

[racofer]

Fingers crossed this will bomb hard

Yes

and we will get back the one big release and one or two substantial expansion pack model: the only model that actually makes sense for these complex games. Paradox gets fucked and dies.

Fixed.

 

[Serus]

I only learnt one new thing from this thread...

Paradox games have PORN mods? WTF!?

 

[Ravielsk]

I only learnt one new thing from this thread...

Paradox games have PORN mods? WTF!?

Yep, and they are rather intricate ones.

 

[LESS T_T]

EU4 subscription (previously only on Paradox thing) is now available on Steam.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

easy as your sister.