Grand Strategy Crusader Kings III

[Axioms]

Someone just metaphorically murdered the whole family of the lead designer of CK3. Holy shit. They said there were a bunch of things the CK3 devs could learn from fucking Star Dynasties lmao.

 

[Fedora Master]

They're barely able to learn from their own mistakes, why would they learn from other games?

 

[Axioms]

The new fluff dev diary is such a mess. Why make a dev diary about sprucing up a single art asset lmao? How is Paradox so bad at customer relations? CK3 players are shit eating bootlickers; it isn't that hard to toss them some pink slime, err red meat, and keep them happy. Somehow Paradox can't manage to please their own simps lmao.

 

[Axioms]

Holy cow the reviews on the CK3 DLC are so bad. Even if you look at all reviews instead of recents, which is like 20-30% positive, it doesn't help much. You'd think PDox could rustle up some positive reviews to balance it out but no. Also their community lead or w/e who responds to reviews is super snarky which makes them look so bad.

 

[Victor1234]

On the one hand, they're sufficiently established to absorb a lot of screwups and still keep selling. On the other, there can only be so many screw ups before it's too many. The 'working conditions so terrible that the employees unionized' probably wasn't a good look for a company that is proud of being progressive, either...

 

[Axioms]

Paradox and their fans really spend a lot of time straight lying about their stats on Vicky3. They are down 2000 peak and 1200 average over the last month. There was no meaningful 1.2 patch bump. They've lost 87.5% of their average player count since the peak following release. And their losses have been consistent over time. I'd expect them to lose another 400-700 people over the next month. So 10% of their remaining players.

CK3 is holding steady with fluctuations, although they aren't getting a big recovery or anything. We'll see how their numbers look after the big upcoming expansion. CK3 does recover 20% of their users at each expansion though they then lose them again. And none of the DLC have positive ratings.

 

[darkpatriot]

Alright, which meaningless and shallow flavor pack will the codex vote for for this year?

Snu Snu Stuff
Child Control
Bad Boy Blather

So far Child Control is winning the official poll on the Paradox forums.

Child control would get rid of one of the genuine challenging obstacles of the early to mid game, your lands getting split up due to inheritance. Unlesss I am misunderstanding what is meant by that.

If anything, they should make that harder to manage than it is currently rather than providing more options for mitigating or dealing with it.

 

[thesecret1]

Paradox and their fans really spend a lot of time straight lying about their stats on Vicky3. They are down 2000 peak and 1200 average over the last month. There was no meaningful 1.2 patch bump. They've lost 87.5% of their average player count since the peak following release. And their losses have been consistent over time. I'd expect them to lose another 400-700 people over the next month. So 10% of their remaining players.

Getting Imperator vibes from this one

 

[Axioms]

Paradox and their fans really spend a lot of time straight lying about their stats on Vicky3. They are down 2000 peak and 1200 average over the last month. There was no meaningful 1.2 patch bump. They've lost 87.5% of their average player count since the peak following release. And their losses have been consistent over time. I'd expect them to lose another 400-700 people over the next month. So 10% of their remaining players.

Getting Imperator vibes from this one

I think original Imperator was much more of a problem from the userbase, but ironically Imperator 2.0 is much better than Vicky3. Sadly crucial is that Imperator 2.0 is still a typical barebones Paradox release so it didn't get good enough to bring people back even if it would have kept users on launch.

Vicky3 will *probably* not crash and burn as hard as Imperator 1 did, assuming they can add something besides building queue gameplay within the next 400 days or so. Question is whether they are capable of that.

 

[Axioms]

Alright, which meaningless and shallow flavor pack will the codex vote for for this year?

Snu Snu Stuff
Child Control
Bad Boy Blather

So far Child Control is winning the official poll on the Paradox forums.

Child control would get rid of one of the genuine challenging obstacles of the early game, your lands getting split up due to inheritance. Unlesss I am misunderstanding what is meant by that.

If anything, they should make that harder to manage than it is currently rather than providing more options for mitigating or dealing with it.

CK3's sim isn't detailed enough to have really meaningful child gameplay sadly. Imagine a particular super successful ruler who is a bit sociopathic and so his kid really hates him. Not really possible to have neglect or misunderstanding based intergeneration conflict. Also most children exist merely as a canvas on which a very small number of mostly random events are painted. All the things that make kids fun are impossible in the Paradox engine, and they probably wouldn't be smart enough to make engaging child gameplay even if they could.

 

[Axioms]

So there are some really interesting posts in the PPlaza CK3 is slow at developing thread. Kinda feel bad for the devs because of the nonsense they are spewing.

 

[dsndo]

Adding gameplay for children is pointless if every single one of your rulers lives into his 60s or 70s like mine do. It's far too easy to live that long and by the time my ruler dies his grandchildren are in their 30s, let alone his heir. I can't remember the last time I actually played as a child.

 

[Axioms]

Man I wish I had Tiax's twitter handle. Dude is doing *work* roasting devs on the Paradox forums.

 

[None]

Man I wish I had Tiax's twitter handle. Dude is doing *work* roasting devs on the Paradox forums.

His patch review thread was gold, the guy knows how to write. Very cutting, but witty enough to get away with it where others wouldn't.

 

[LizardWizard]

Paradox and their fans really spend a lot of time straight lying about their stats on Vicky3. They are down 2000 peak and 1200 average over the last month. There was no meaningful 1.2 patch bump. They've lost 87.5% of their average player count since the peak following release. And their losses have been consistent over time. I'd expect them to lose another 400-700 people over the next month. So 10% of their remaining players.

Getting Imperator vibes from this one

The pre-lease marketing/hype managed to sell well enough to bait fans into thinking it was success. Even Johan is shilling (which is hilarious as were talking V2/CK2 Gamersgate nonSteam numbers in comparison) the initial sales number on the pdx forums.

Unfortunately the numbers aren't adding up considering V3 has it's own pds sub-studio currently that recently split off from CK3. Numbers aren't Imperator bad, but they're absolutely awful with no real change in sight. Doubtful support lasts that long and certainly there is zero evidence to suggest that you can expect any long term support comparable to Stellaris etc.

 

[Victor1234]

Paradox and their fans really spend a lot of time straight lying about their stats on Vicky3. They are down 2000 peak and 1200 average over the last month. There was no meaningful 1.2 patch bump. They've lost 87.5% of their average player count since the peak following release. And their losses have been consistent over time. I'd expect them to lose another 400-700 people over the next month. So 10% of their remaining players.

Getting Imperator vibes from this one

The pre-lease hype managed to sell well enough to bait fans into thinking it was success. Even Johan is shilling the intial sales number on the pdx forums.

Unfortunately the numbers aren't adding up considering V3 has it's own pds sub-studio currently that recently split off from CK3. Numbers aren't Imperator bad, but they're absolutely awful with no real change in sight. Doubtful support lasts that long and certainly there is zero evidence to suggest that you can expect any long term support comparable to Stellaris etc.

The Victoria 3 line ends on those Steam charts sometime in early Jan because that's when it permanently dropped below 10k users. Not looking good indeed, but as always with Pdox, the first few DLC sales will tell whether they keep investing in it or not. Imperator got 3 IIRC before they gave up.

 

[Victor1234]

Man I wish I had Tiax's twitter handle. Dude is doing *work* roasting devs on the Paradox forums.

His patch review thread was gold, the guy knows how to write. Very cutting, but witty enough to get away with it where others wouldn't.

It really is hit or miss. The user right below him, Rifal, permanently banned after over 10 years on the forums. His crime was heinous indeed. He didn't make his post into a joke.

As it currently stands, it seems to be a case of: Paradox are unable to fix the issue. They simply lack the know-how

 

[Average Manatee]

I forgot how funny that Patch 1.5 review thread was.

link?

 

[Axioms]

Man I wish I had Tiax's twitter handle. Dude is doing *work* roasting devs on the Paradox forums.

His patch review thread was gold, the guy knows how to write. Very cutting, but witty enough to get away with it where others wouldn't.

It really is hit or miss. The user right below him, Rifal, permanently banned after over 10 years on the forums. His crime was heinous indeed. He didn't make his post into a joke.

As it currently stands, it seems to be a case of: Paradox are unable to fix the issue. They simply lack the know-how

I'm banned from there but to be fair it is better for my happiness. I just can't brown nose hard enough to avoid bans if something really lets me down. I could go a few threads with jokes but I would lose the war eventually.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/my-patch-1-5-review.1509797/

Goes on for several pages. Good shit.

 

[Axioms]

Johan claims they were 3 years into CK3 when Holy Fury dropped for CK2. So mid 2015 and it released mid 2020. 5 years and this is all they came up with? Good god. Also wild since CK2 dropped only 3ish years before that.

 

[Hace El Oso]

They took longer than the US Moon landing program to get to this point.

 

[Delterius]

They took longer than the US Moon landing program to get to this point.

to be fair to the Moon Landing programme Paradox DLCs can raise more cash than the US Government

 

[fantadomat]

is tis ded ?

 

[Popiel]

Modders are keeping it alive to a degree even higher than in CK2's case, and admittedly I didn't think it possible. A couple of very big mods are close to release and it alone should keep CK3 afloat for a good while.

 

[Axioms]

Modders are keeping it alive to a degree even higher than in CK2's case, and admittedly I didn't think it possible. A couple of very big mods are close to release and it alone should keep CK3 afloat for a good while.

Mostly Mechanical Mods is putting out a ton of mods to fill mechanical holes in the game. Of course they don't have a ton of AI integration I don't think, but still. Better characters interactions, friendships, kid stuff, marriage stuff, etc. Luckily the CK3 audience is dumb and shallow as fuck and won't actually notice the AI not doing anything with this stuff.