Want to get into the Paradox games

[CaptainHaplo]

If your into the Fantasy TBS type games - Warlock is a good one.

[Safe-Keeper]

Okay, I am officially in love with Hearts of Iron 3!
Thought I'd just give it another shot, and spent hours organizing British fleets, science projects, diplomacy (trying to sway the Nordic countries and Ireland to join the war on the allied side, for instance), trade routes, DD and airplane patrols for subs in the convoy approaches off the English Channel, and my first mechanized infantry and armour brigade going into Europe to fight on the western front.

The thing is, I thought I would never get into all the detailed micromanaging of troops, but I've found that it's so much fun (although the UI could've been better in some respects) and truth be told, I need training in committing to large-scale projects like this one. So not only am I having fun, I'm building character at the same time .

Can't wait until I've bought the full version, expansion pack and all, and can boot up a 1940 start as the Norwegians!

btw, Safe-Keeper, as it's not covered in the tutorial nor guides: if you want to play as Norway in Vic 2, you have to start as Sweden then release it in the decisions tab in politics and klick on "play as..." - it works this way for any releasable country.

Yeah, I figured this out, think I googled "V2 play as Norway" or something. Had a minor heart attack when I saw Norway wasn't in the map and just had to know if it was out of the game altogether :P

One (edit: several) questions, though:
When I build units in HOI3, I have the option to increase "serial" and "paralell". What does this mean? Is it number of units in each build and how many builds, respectively? As in, "serial 3 paralell 4" means "build 12 fighters in batches of 3"?

And is there a way to decrease countries' neutrality? Influence Nation doesn't seem to do so, it just makes them drift faster towards your faction.

Oh, and is there a way to zoom that bottom-right map? When I'm focusing on for example Europe it'd be nice if I could just zoom the map to show Europe only, instead of having to try to position that tiny rectangle just right in the tiny, tiny landmasses with the world map zoomed all the way out :P .

If your into the Fantasy TBS type games - Warlock is a good one.

I've got Dominions 3 and it fills all my needs, but thank you for the suggestion !

[CaptainHaplo]

Can't answer your HoI questions.

I have Dominion 3 and have played it once or twice - but never really got into it. I may have to give it another go sometime.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Safe-Keeper

When I build units in HOI3, I have the option to increase "serial" and "paralell". What does this mean? Is it number of units in each build and how many builds, respectively? As in, "serial 3 paralell 4" means "build 12 fighters in batches of 3"?

Parallel = Units are being all built at the same time
Serial = Units are being built one at a time

No idea if you can mix the two like you mentioned, never tested it.
But it would make sense.

[Kremmen]

iirc serials increase your practicals which in turn makes subsequent builds of that unit type faster.
as Dowley states parallels pump them out at the same time but you need the serial runs to keep your practicals up.
i'm just going from memory here so if i'm wrong please correct me (i'm at that age )
more info here : http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Main_Page

oh and yeah you can mix them.

[Safe-Keeper]

Thank you, found this:

Production

There are several things to keep in mind when building things:

• Practical knowledge: For every unit you produce, you will gain a particular kind of practical knowledge. That practical knowledge will, in turn, make the next unit of that type that you build cheaper in terms of IC days.
• IC days: The best way to understand the actual cost of a particular item is to determine the cost in IC days. This is simply the IC cost multiplied by the number of days it takes to build the unit.
• Serial & Parallel construction:Serial production is the ideal method for creating units: units are produced one at a time, which means the next in the series benefits from practical knowledge increases. Parallel construction is used to meet immediate needs: when you need a bunch of a certain unit type at once. As a result, parallel construction is much less efficient than serial builds.

Which did a wonderful job at clearing things up! Thanks a lot!


Oh, and how do I turn a reserve unit into a fully mobilized unit?


Edit: damned Germans are breaking through the Maginot Line. Damned Norwegian peacenicks are refusing to grant our glorious British armies transit rights through their country.

[Kloef]

Paradox games are like raw diamonds, with several cut ones in the series. There are good titles as someone suggested EU3 is a pretty decend game.

I've tried Hearts of Iron 2 and 3, Victoria, King Arthur Fallen Champions, Commander:Conquest of the Americas, Achtung Pantzer Charkov 1943, East India Company and several other ones over a 2 year period and i kinda stuck with EU3 since its an awesome game, but the others...Pirates of the Black Cove made me uninstall all the others..

The problem is that they contantly use the same game enigines and their games are so buggy it makes it all frustrating. Combined with ancient graphics it just isn't a finished quality product.

but if you want a dedicated forum and moderators that belong to the development team and so on then Paradox might be your thing.

[Drewcifer]

Originally Posted by Kloef

The problem is that they contantly use the same game enigines and their games are so buggy it makes it all frustrating. Combined with ancient graphics it just isn't a finished quality product.

Crusader Kings 2. Best Paradox Game ever, for what it is the graphics are very nice. Honestly it was pretty much bug free I mean the thing runs smooth and there is very few bumps.. there are some don't get me wrong like threatening to throw yourself in the dungeon because you looked at your wife during a feast. haha. But that stuff is RARE.

[Safe-Keeper]

Have decided to order HOI3 now. There goes all my spare time.
Furthermore, I want to get into Let's Play-ing, so expect -- maybe -- a "Let's Learn HOI3 as the Norwegians" in the near or far future.

[Raptor1]

Make sure you get both expansions as well, they improve the game by quite a bit.

[Safe-Keeper]

Ya, I'll order HOI3 collection from Amazon, I think. It has both x-packs and some sprite upgrades and whatnot. Will be awesome!

Originally Posted by Kloef

Paradox games are like raw diamonds, with several cut ones in the series. There are good titles as someone suggested EU3 is a pretty decend game.

I've tried Hearts of Iron 2 and 3, Victoria, King Arthur Fallen Champions, Commander:Conquest of the Americas, Achtung Pantzer Charkov 1943, East India Company and several other ones over a 2 year period and i kinda stuck with EU3 since its an awesome game, but the others...Pirates of the Black Cove made me uninstall all the others..

Note: There is a difference between Paradox Published games and Paradox Games, Paradox games are the in-studio ones, aka CK, EU, Vicky, HOI and the like.

Games like King Arthur, Commander conquest of the Americas, Achtung Panzer, East India company and various others are Paradox Published, they aren't really the topic of this thread.

The problem is that they contantly use the same game enigines and their games are so buggy it makes it all frustrating. Combined with ancient graphics it just isn't a finished quality product.

Paradox has only had bug issues on release, and its something they've become very much better at. (In spite of the Steam Version of CK2 having DLC issues) Even in games that do have a lot of bugs Paradox does go out of their way to try to fix them and tend to keep fixing them for absolutely ages, hell they are still working on patches for EU3.

Graphics, Seriously? You bought up graphics? What? I mean C'mon? The graphics are fine, and actually quite beautiful considering your literally just staring at a map the entire time. Paradox games are about GAMEPLAY.

And the engine? Well Clauswitz seems to work! Its mod-friendly and seems adaptable to what Paradox wants, so why spend months making a new one when they can do what they want with this one? Would you rather they pull a total war and replace the engine with a cruddy unmoddable pos?

Originally Posted by Drewcifer

Crusader Kings 2. Best Paradox Game ever.

Best for you, you mean.

Like I said earlier, Everyone has their preferred Paradox game.

I'll admit that right now CK2 is my preferred Paradox game simply because I love the character development and being capable of starting from nothing but each one of the games has their merits. I wish HOI3 was more my type actually because I always love the alternate history scenarios that pop up, like Germany and America duking it out over India.

[Safe-Keeper]

So I started a practice run as the Norwegians in September 1st, 1939. I now realize why there are no Let's Plays -- not much at all happens . I still want to do an LP, though, but trust me, I'll make it fun to watch!

I'll admit that right now CK2 is my preferred Paradox game simply because I love the character development and being capable of starting from nothing but each one of the games has their merits. I wish HOI3 was more my type actually because I always love the alternate history scenarios that pop up, like Germany and America duking it out over India.

Ya, I started in Sept 39, as I said, and thought I had until April 1940 or so before the Nazis would invade Scandinavia. Just about ****ed myself when they all of a sudden hit Denmark. I was sure they would go for us, too, but I suppose they didn't dare go up against our half a dozen infantry brigades.

I had to laugh when I saw that I had to research a "basic aircraft machine gun" in order for my fighter squadron to even fire back at enemies, though (even though it seems the fighters already have an attack value, so I suppose maybe they can fight back either way?).

Question again: is there no way to trade heavy water for money, or do you just give it away for free? I don't like those arrogant Englishmen just taking my "nuclear water" and not giving me anything in return.

"Bucketloads of heavy water? I would absolutely love that! Transit rights?! Go **** yourself".

[Dowly]

Looking forward to it!

[Safe-Keeper]

I hope it gets anywhere and that it works out fine. I've never done an LP before (except from filming myself doing a single mission in Ground Control and then adding simple narrative subtitles), so talking into a mic will be... interesting. Don't slay me if it sounds like crap in the beginning, I'll do my best.

I aspire to , but I realize this is going to be a lot of work, so... to be honest, I can't promise anything, although it'd be really, really cool if something came of it. Maybe it'll just be subtitles and no spoken words at all. We'll see .

Oh, and it'll be in Norwegian, with subtitles. That's what I feel the most comfortable doing, it'll fit the Norwegian faction better, and my accent can be a bit tricky to understand anyhow.