Crusader Kings III

[Syt]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3486700/Crusader_Kings_III_Chapter_IV

[Neil]

I mean, Japan could work pretty well in a CK-style game.  I'm not sure that China would be as satisfying, but I suppose there's a lot of dumb money in China, if you can get them to pay for anything and if you get avoid getting the game banned for being counter-revolutionary.

[Syt]

Video overview:

[Syt]

Briefly played with the new patch yesterday. Nothing seemed inherently broken? Some of the new court position actions seem a bit OP? Like telling your Wetnurse to instill virtue in your offspring, giving them virtuous traits a bit too easily (and making my kids all chaste ), or your seneshal being able to buff the aptitude of other court positions by 7 points. Or your court tutor acting as de facto guardian for kids without one.

Started in 867, so no crusades. But saw a thread on reddit of a guy who had a crusade start, with the Crusaders gathering in Rome, then travelling to Antioch, and then invading en masse with 60k troops leading to a successful crusade.

I also noticed that playing without RICE or VIET (or More Interactive Vassals, or Love & Marriage) the game lacks flavor.

I'm kinda glad that they ripped off the band aid and will add the rest of Asia. Once they've done it (and balanced it .... ) they can only add more mechanics/flavor. Maybe do more with religion, or the HRE, or trade, .... 

[Tamas]

Briefly played with the new patch yesterday. Nothing seemed inherently broken? Some of the new court position actions seem a bit OP? Like telling your Wetnurse to instill virtue in your offspring, giving them virtuous traits a bit too easily (and making my kids all chaste ), or your seneshal being able to buff the aptitude of other court positions by 7 points. Or your court tutor acting as de facto guardian for kids without one.

Thanks for trying so I don't have to bother.

Also adding China and Japan etc when the rest of the game as it is seems like a terrible idea, but also seems to align with the "consequence-less sandbox" design they have been going with.

[Norgy]

Seems like a lack of flavour is becoming a trademark of Paradox.

Imperator: Rome is probably the best example. You can of course pay for flavour packs, like the recent HoI4 one.

I like CKIII, I do. It is a good game, in most ways, but it has a lack of, well, flavour. It is a Whopper! Cheese. One I might want jalapeños and chili sauce with.

[dist]

Same with Stellaris as well.

[Norgy]

Don't get me started.

[dist]

Please do 

Stellaris 1.0 had some really original mechanics, like the 3 different types of hyperspace travel, but they ended up making the game so bland that they totally ruined it for me.

[Syt]

4.0 should come next quarter or so?

[Norgy]

I've had more enjoyment out of P'dox games than Ubisoft's.

So I am not complaining. And it might be me having rose-tinted glasses on, but it seemed like Paradox, and Bethesda, gave more value for money and more flavour in their games a few decades ago.

I sort of both want and fear my disappointment with an EU5.

TES6 will happen when I am very, very dead.

[Syt]

I have 800 hours in CK3 and 1100 in Vic3. Stellaris is 400. So no complaints here. (And each of those is Way way more than EU4 ever will be for me. )

[Zanza]

I have the perception that Stellaris has much more flavour than CK3 or Vic3 and also got lots of added flavour since its original launch. 

[HVC]

This thread got me to play some CK3 again. It's been just over a year and the games changed quite a bit. Still fun.  That's one thing I dislike about paradox games, they change a lot on patches. It's hit or miss. Sometimes it makes the game less fun (for me) like stellaris.

[Neil]

The thing I dislike about Paradox games is that if I haven't played them in a year or two, there's $100+ worth of DLC that they've released during that period.  Even I look at that and boggle a bit.  And it's not like that's a big expenditure on a hobby, but it seems so out of order when full on AAA titles are less than that and many of the more entertaining games on Steam are significantly cheaper.  Maybe if I was always playing and staying current, it wouldn't be such sticker shock.