It also shows how poorly EU handles colonization and wealth generated by it.
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Paradox Grand Strategy |OT| Conquering the World one DLC at a time
- Thread starter Uzzy
- Start date
The Stellaris living soundtrack thing continues to be the best game OST/best value in DLC. The new tracks are ace.
I would say the story packs are not really needed. They are nice additions that add more events and life to the galaxy but do not add new systems:
- Leviathans: adds new monster bosses around the galaxy as well as enclaves (small 1 station "factions" that can give you bonuses). It adds war in heavens which is a war between 2 fallen empires when they woke up.
- Synthetic Dawn: allows you to play as a robot from the beginning (you can turn into a robot through "ascencion perks" in the base game), another way of android rebellion.
- Distant Stars: a ton of new anomalies and events as well as the addition of a new area called L-cluster which is more of an "endgame" situation, similar to discovering the predecessor home planet.
- Relics: adds a ton of relics, events, creates a new archeology system for some anomalies, and adds 2 new predecessors.
Story packs are kind of mini-expansions, not as much content as the main packs but they're cheaper. Leviathans and Distant Stars adds content for all empires, Synthetic Dawn is focused around robotic empires, so if you're not interested in playing as/interacting with robots (from the start with unique civics anyway) then there's not a lot besides that. There's also Ancient Relics but that's just been released and isn't on sale.
Here are the wiki descriptions for each of the story packs:
Leviathans
Synthetic Dawn
Distant Stars
Ancient Relics
All in all, if you just want more content overall they're worth it.
I would recommend Leviathans. The Leviathans themselves add a nice level of midgame threat and the enclaves add a very cool level of strategy in how you build your empire and choose to exploit them. War in Heaven is solid but the other two factors are the main treat of the dlc. Synthetic Dawn is great but almost purely designed about robot nations, if that appeals it is worth getting and if not then not. Distant Stars adds a whole lot more anomalies and makes exploring a lot fresher but if you are new with the game then you might not need it yet, their are certainly a fair bit in the base game.
Overall none of them are vital, but if you have a few pounds to burn then I would certainly say Leviathans is worth checking out and then perhaps look into getting SDawn and DStars down the line if you find yourself really getting into Stellaris and want a more complex universe. Can't comment on Relic yet sadly, haven't got round to installing it yet.
Price aside I generally would recommend the Story Packs (aside from SD if you don't like robots) over any main expansion except maybe Utopia. All the added events and flavor are the best part of the game, IMO.
So I have a week off from work coming up and I have decided to finally give a real try to learn how to play EU4...
Speaking of which.... Right now the only addons I have are the following:
-Common Sense (expansion and content pack)
-Art of War (expansion only)
-Conquest of Paradise (expansion only)
Anything else I should be looking for?
I also need to find a good updated tutorial... I remember watching the Quill18 Castille tutorial on YT a while ago but it's over 3 years old now. I'm sure the majority of the basic stuff is still valid but it would be nice to find a good updated one anyway.
Speaking of which.... Right now the only addons I have are the following:
-Common Sense (expansion and content pack)
-Art of War (expansion only)
-Conquest of Paradise (expansion only)
Anything else I should be looking for?
I also need to find a good updated tutorial... I remember watching the Quill18 Castille tutorial on YT a while ago but it's over 3 years old now. I'm sure the majority of the basic stuff is still valid but it would be nice to find a good updated one anyway.
Personally I'd play tutorial land (Portugal) before getting more expansions, in case you bounce off it etc.
Then, once you do your first Portugal game and realise the game is the best thing ever (says I) then hop on some more expansions. Not at my PC atm to remind myself which are worth it and which aren't though...
You only really need the expansion, the other stuff is just cosmetic BS. About the best way to learn how to play the game, take Castile. It is quite protected and it has nice areas of growth and discovery.
Otherwise you can go Ottomans to learn more of the high level play as your starting situation is quite OP.
A nice guide for the DLC (there is also for CK2 in that website):
ESSENTIAL:
- Art of War
- Common Sense
- Rights of Man
- The Cossacks
- Mandate of Heaven
- Cradle of Civilization
- Dharma
- El Dorado
- Rule Britannia
- Wealth of Nations
- Third Rome
Well uh... This is certainly an interesting place to find Glitterhoof.
That Armor is spot on!
Thanks guys!
Now reading this thread I just remembered Stellaris... Fuck... Which one do I go back too hahaha... Stellaris is the only Paradox strategy game I was every able to really get into.
I need to figure out how the new planet system works tho, haven't played since they updated it.
Any personal takes of Ancient Relics yet? and the new update Wolfe? I'm hearing it has really helped lag/performance.
Honestly, while not required, if you can get them on Sale, I would. They all add 'flavor' to the games. Honestly the only thing I would skip are the portrait packs. I'd only get those if you really just want more portraits and want another way to support the developers.
Cool so far, though at least one of the archaeology sites gives you a
>6k Titan
which is hilariously OP if you get it early on. Not so hilarious if your neighbour gets it.
Personally I think you should try the game before buying more content. If you like it the imo all story packs are worth getting. The cool part of the story packs is that they focus on flavor instead of complex mechanics. This means they highly improve replayability because it makes each campaign much more unique.
Leviathan adds mini bosses which serve not only as a mid game challenge but a race to be the first to defeat them to get their powerful bonuses.
Synthetic dawn adds AI races and a new fallen empire. Personally I really like the idea that a society has evolved so much that their robots effectively manage everything so that they can pamper their organic creators.
Distant stars essentially adds hundreds of early game events. This dlc really shines in multiplayer since you can tell the stories of your events to your friend because it becomes unlikely for 2 players to experience similar events.
I haven't tried relics yet.
I also want to mention the plantoid skin pack. This pack while only cosmetic is a lot of fun. There is something mesmerising in having a tree become a major space faring empire. Seeing their ships with leafs is really cool, in a very star trek kinda of way. It also really add diversity tot he galaxy
The humanoids pack is the only DLC where i'm lukewarm. The designs are very generic, for me the only great thing about that DLC is the advisor voices.
Play the base game. IF you like it then buy the DLC. you should know that each DLC adds layers unto the base game. It is a lot harder to learn EU IV with DLC then without them.
I played a couple of games without DLC (i'd recomend castile then england) to learn it.
I disagree with mandate of heaven and cossacks as essential, for me those are situational. IMO mare nostrum should be in situational. Third rome would be off the list. I'd be really inclined to make cradle of civilization essential since it is a lot of fun to play in that area.
It really depends on how one plays the game.
karnage10 I would say mandate of heaven is essential due to how the age dynamic and the great power stuff works. Cossacks became less of a necessity once the states became part of the base game, but the Trust system changes diplo a lot (but yeah, otherwise not really essential).
I was just posting that review because it is quite good on explaining what each expansion does.
In other news:
Victoria 3 confirmed
Edit: As some people dont seem to get it. Martin is Wiz, who is in charge of (probably) the next GS game that will be announced this PDXcon (a GS game being announced this PDXCon is confirmed and he is the only one of the team leaders who doesnt have an ongoing "life project").
He just restarted his fun (done in the sparetime) project called "Victorian Secrets" as well as being quite a fan of Victoria2 (he helped in developing the latest expansion of it, and pushed for pops in Stellaris).
I was just posting that review because it is quite good on explaining what each expansion does.
In other news:
Victoria 3 confirmed
Edit: As some people dont seem to get it. Martin is Wiz, who is in charge of (probably) the next GS game that will be announced this PDXcon (a GS game being announced this PDXCon is confirmed and he is the only one of the team leaders who doesnt have an ongoing "life project").
He just restarted his fun (done in the sparetime) project called "Victorian Secrets" as well as being quite a fan of Victoria2 (he helped in developing the latest expansion of it, and pushed for pops in Stellaris).
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The whole "treasure fleet" mechanic is pretty shallow since your own CNs will pirate it all away from you...
Imperator just made me want to play Vicky 2. I finally managed to form India from Panjab.
Thicc India
The British were kind enough to suicide most of their troops into Russia by plodding through Persia in the first great war. Then I declared on them and smashed the remnants of their army and also the Indian satellites.
Thicc India
The British were kind enough to suicide most of their troops into Russia by plodding through Persia in the first great war. Then I declared on them and smashed the remnants of their army and also the Indian satellites.
Booted up CK2 with the new DLC, gonna turn Ireland into a merchant republic. I really like this new "sway" feature.
Victoria 2 barely got made to begin with. Paradox doesn't think a third one will sell.
So they made a bad Rome sequel that no one is playing.
Speaking of, seems like Johan was hurt by the reaction to the game: https://www.pcgamer.com/how-paradox-is-rebuilding-imperator-rome/
That is sad to read. I don't think PDS should see Imperator rome as a failure. It is a good game.
If someone from era meets johan in the paradox con, i'd appreaciate if you tell me there is at least 1 guy in a forum that is liking the game. I already have 16 hours or so in the game.
I'm looking forward to the DLC, specially immersion/culture packs
I empathize with Johan but he sold an Imperial Rome GS that doesn't let you actually play Imperial Rome. I don't know what he expected to happen.
Eh, they didn't really. At least it explicitly. It was going to end with the death of the Republic from the start.
That's one thing I do agree with Johan about here. A lot of people looked at a game that was very openly developed and bought it despite being able to know they wouldn't like it. That part has always kind of confused me. Good to see they're committed to turning it around though.
That's one thing I do agree with Johan about here. A lot of people looked at a game that was very openly developed and bought it despite being able to know they wouldn't like it. That part has always kind of confused me. Good to see they're committed to turning it around though.
People bought the game because they wanted a grand strategy game in that time period. "But it was all in our developer diaries!" is not really a good response to people not liking certain mechanics.
I mean, Johan was quite honest with the mechanics and the ideas behind the game. Heck, the whole mana being the core of the game was said in one of the first dev diaries and expanded through them, as well as they expanded on it quite heavily. Similarly, some of the other complains (such as little differences between starting countries and religions) was explained.
So yeah, people reading stuff differently than the dev diaries is / was a big problem. That is not to say that the game has some issues (and that they only compare base games for the updates is gonna be an issue in the future!) and that they should have rethought some mechanics better (such as tribals) to add more difference between different areas.
But hey, Pompey beta is quite nice and seems to be a good starting position to fix some of those issues.
So yeah, people reading stuff differently than the dev diaries is / was a big problem. That is not to say that the game has some issues (and that they only compare base games for the updates is gonna be an issue in the future!) and that they should have rethought some mechanics better (such as tribals) to add more difference between different areas.
But hey, Pompey beta is quite nice and seems to be a good starting position to fix some of those issues.
Most people didn't read them and you need to actually play the game to judge the mechanics. The developer diaries are not really relevant to the criticisms.
Imperator isn't very good even just comparing base games either, Johan is off the mark with his EU4 comparison. EU4 was vastly superior at launch. EU4 launched strong and then Paradox botched it with a year of bad patches.
Those dev diaries had the most dislikes I've ever seen on Paradox forums (or at least draw with EU4's Golden Century lol), the forum users made their opinion clear on Imperator's direction early on at least.
I listened to a podcast interview with Johan recently, and I got a real sense of his philosophy when it comes to business, DLC and game design. "QoL and important features should not be free". It gives new context to Imperator. Interview starts around 13 mins in, DLC discussion around 17 mins in.
Will there be anything left of 1.0 by next year?!
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...4-development-diary-2nd-of-july-2019.1196578/
Interesting changes to Mercenaries, seemingly taking a lesson from CK2 and Imperator.
But:
2020 delay...
Still, European Update looks great, #IberiaDiedForEurope
Interesting changes to Mercenaries, seemingly taking a lesson from CK2 and Imperator.
But:
2020 delay...
Still, European Update looks great, #IberiaDiedForEurope
Yeah, small patch to make it x64 after the holidays but otherwise no content.
i guess i'll be buying dharma and iberia DLC this year due to lack of content...
Couple more mini-diaries for Imperator today:
Tomorrow apparently we'll be getting some information about the MP removal.
Tomorrow apparently we'll be getting some information about the MP removal.
FINALLY, I did it. So many attempts. Took ages, but I wanted to be careful.
Prester John
A Blessed Nation
Didn't end up with a mega powerful state, but riding the coattails of Commonwealth and Russia I took Anatolia, Armenia, Egypt, the Levant and a bit more. I think if the game had gone on longer I'd have run into an unholy Portugal-Spain-France machine, but Russia loved me, so probably would have been OK. Phew!
Didn't end up with a mega powerful state, but riding the coattails of Commonwealth and Russia I took Anatolia, Armenia, Egypt, the Levant and a bit more. I think if the game had gone on longer I'd have run into an unholy Portugal-Spain-France machine, but Russia loved me, so probably would have been OK. Phew!
Thats a fast and long beta. I guess they really want to get the player feedback asap and have a nice launch in September.
Forgot to take screenshots, but it was a pretty neat challenge, so I figured I might report back here in case anyone is also interested in playing the achievements of EU4. The main challenge was to balance the income with the requirement to invest enough by 1500, which usually required saving as much money as possible in between war efforts. There were some guides out there, but they didnt really work for the current version of the game.
Disciples of Enlightenment - Convert 10 other nations to the mahayana faith
Miniguide:
Disciples of Enlightenment - Convert 10 other nations to the mahayana faith
Miniguide:
1. Clean up your country: remove the southern fort, but KEEP the northern fort, send your merchant to the Ming tradenode, turn down the maintenance for armies and mothball your fleets, get the additional admin points from an estate, use the admin points to increase stability by one, take both available missions (requires the increased stability), Put Champa as rival
2. Start befriending Brunei (get them allied as soon as possible)
3. Start war efforts vs Champa, vassalize them in the peace deal. Keep them as vassal until 1500 and force religion on them at the end. (Dont do it before, rebels will force it back)
4. Check out the island nations to the (south) east, and pick a country that only has a single ally, save up enough money, station your troops next to that country and take the stability hit for an attack. Start annexing all the countries over there with claims. As soon as you annex a country, start coring and then converting the religion in the main cities (So for Tondo, you only need to convert Tondo, not the other 2 provinces). Once you converted Madyas, feel free to make a vassal out of them (it helps as its a nation less that you will need to keep under control with its rebels). Just do normal war efforts until like 1492, then take a million loans and just flood the remaining wars with a million troops/ships (Recommended to have 4 large ships and 10-12 transport ships)
5. Pick the exploration ideas in the meantime, colonize the area next to Ryukyu to get a claim on them and annex them. If you have some issues winning wars vs the island nations, look further south for isolated countries you can annex.
6. Getting closer to 1500, always check your current number of creatable states, remember that your own does NOT count. If Champa/Madyas become disloyal, make them marches, which increases loyalty.
7. Should be: 2 starting nations you can create, 7-8 nations in the eastern islands, 1 Ryukyu, + additional southern countries.
Bonus: I almost fucked up the run because I was missing a country. I released a nonconverted vassal with "Play as vassal", so that there existed 10 other countries for the achievement (Dai Viet as my main country now counted because it wasnt my country anymore)
2. Start befriending Brunei (get them allied as soon as possible)
3. Start war efforts vs Champa, vassalize them in the peace deal. Keep them as vassal until 1500 and force religion on them at the end. (Dont do it before, rebels will force it back)
4. Check out the island nations to the (south) east, and pick a country that only has a single ally, save up enough money, station your troops next to that country and take the stability hit for an attack. Start annexing all the countries over there with claims. As soon as you annex a country, start coring and then converting the religion in the main cities (So for Tondo, you only need to convert Tondo, not the other 2 provinces). Once you converted Madyas, feel free to make a vassal out of them (it helps as its a nation less that you will need to keep under control with its rebels). Just do normal war efforts until like 1492, then take a million loans and just flood the remaining wars with a million troops/ships (Recommended to have 4 large ships and 10-12 transport ships)
5. Pick the exploration ideas in the meantime, colonize the area next to Ryukyu to get a claim on them and annex them. If you have some issues winning wars vs the island nations, look further south for isolated countries you can annex.
6. Getting closer to 1500, always check your current number of creatable states, remember that your own does NOT count. If Champa/Madyas become disloyal, make them marches, which increases loyalty.
7. Should be: 2 starting nations you can create, 7-8 nations in the eastern islands, 1 Ryukyu, + additional southern countries.
Bonus: I almost fucked up the run because I was missing a country. I released a nonconverted vassal with "Play as vassal", so that there existed 10 other countries for the achievement (Dai Viet as my main country now counted because it wasnt my country anymore)
All CK2 expansions for 15$ in HB:
I repeat, ALL CK2 EXPANSIONS FOR 15$ IN HB!!!!
I repeat, ALL CK2 EXPANSIONS FOR 15$ IN HB!!!!
Oh my, is now the time to get into CK2? It just might be!
Got this achieve (and a few others, including the 500 Heavy Ship one):
Yarr Harr a Pirate's Life For Me - Choose to play as New Providence and conquer all of Caribbeans.
Not the hardest thing by any means, but a really nice bit of flavour, different government mechanics, and I felt really proud of my plucky band o'pirates rising up to become the world's 4th Great Power. I was earning insane amounts from trade (I was a trading republic in all but name/limited numbers of provinces). It helped Aragon crushed Castille and dominated Portugal, meaning colonialism took about 50 years longer than it usually does to really spike, meaning I had space and time to handle Portugese attempts to reclaim control. Then the Pirate perk of being able to attack colonial nations without the parent nation being involved meant boom, I could expand. Had to lose lands at times to set up for a bigger prize, but ended up worth it. I could probably have conquered the entire NA and SA continents with ease (by the end I was earning 480 a month profit, had nearly 300,000 troops, had almost 1000 ships, 100% professionalism, vassals, marches, complete dominance of trade in the Western Hemisphere [and I took a sizable chunk of Eastern Trade coming west at the Gold Coast - at least 50% of Britain's world trade ended up in my pocket]) but as ever, I get to a point where there are too many armies to control, too many provinces to capture, that I decided to limit my empire: it reached from Connecticut to Mexico to Colombia. 50% of the eastern US, the entire Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and northern SA were mine. It was really fun, and I enjoyed RPing a benevolent pirate lord improving the lives of free men and women under my rule (I built everything).
(It was the best thing in the Golden Century DLC... also think Dharma makes it a lot easier)
Got this achieve (and a few others, including the 500 Heavy Ship one):
Not the hardest thing by any means, but a really nice bit of flavour, different government mechanics, and I felt really proud of my plucky band o'pirates rising up to become the world's 4th Great Power. I was earning insane amounts from trade (I was a trading republic in all but name/limited numbers of provinces). It helped Aragon crushed Castille and dominated Portugal, meaning colonialism took about 50 years longer than it usually does to really spike, meaning I had space and time to handle Portugese attempts to reclaim control. Then the Pirate perk of being able to attack colonial nations without the parent nation being involved meant boom, I could expand. Had to lose lands at times to set up for a bigger prize, but ended up worth it. I could probably have conquered the entire NA and SA continents with ease (by the end I was earning 480 a month profit, had nearly 300,000 troops, had almost 1000 ships, 100% professionalism, vassals, marches, complete dominance of trade in the Western Hemisphere [and I took a sizable chunk of Eastern Trade coming west at the Gold Coast - at least 50% of Britain's world trade ended up in my pocket]) but as ever, I get to a point where there are too many armies to control, too many provinces to capture, that I decided to limit my empire: it reached from Connecticut to Mexico to Colombia. 50% of the eastern US, the entire Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and northern SA were mine. It was really fun, and I enjoyed RPing a benevolent pirate lord improving the lives of free men and women under my rule (I built everything).
(It was the best thing in the Golden Century DLC... also think Dharma makes it a lot easier)
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