Studio GOLD Update - 2025 #3

[BaronQuackers]

Dear Fans,

Today’s patch (Operation KNEE) marks the second release in a series of updates that we are doing to improve the game. Next week we aim to release the War Effort patch, which as @Arheo said previously will be more substantial than usual.

I also want to take this opportunity to circle back to a few topics that Arheo brought up last week, as well as start providing a few glimpses into the short- and long-term future.

Conclusion of the Expansion Pass
Next up in this pass is the Prototype Vehicles Unit Pack which adds vehicles that are more experimental in nature. Some will be available right away while others you will need to unlock through special projects. The unit pack continues to expand on the cool, detailed art we have in the game already, however it will not feature new in-game functionality.

Dev Corners Return
One important take-away from the development of all the content in this Expansion Pass is the need to better and earlier involve you, our community. Our Dev Diaries have regrettably been getting published closer and closer to our release date which makes it challenging to act on your feedback. To rectify that and better involve you in our plans at an earlier stage, moving forward we’ll bring back Dev Corners. For those of you who are new to the concept, Dev Corners is a space where we discuss our ongoing development, and highlight upcoming features and balance, to ensure early community feedback and discussions.

June is our target month to start the Dev Corners. That is still a few months away, so in the meantime we’ll provide insight into the internal workings of PDS Gold, which I’ve understood is of interest. Are there any areas you are interested in learning more about? Let us know and we’ll try our best to take them on. For example: How does a DLC get designed? How does the team decide what to work on? What kind of tools do our programmers use? What's the process of creating icons? Etc.. Let us know!

Our recent updates

• March 6 - Graveyard of Empires Follow up
• March 10 - Update from the Developers
• March 12 - Patch Notes | Operation HEAD (1.16.1)
• March 20 - Patch Notes | Operation KNEE (1.16.2)

Click here for the Patch notes
View attachment 1268564

How are the non-country leader characters (generals and advisors) for countries chosen? As great as Gotterdammerung was, there are some who wanted more generals to be added to Germany. While Germany did get new generals, there were several historically prominent ones that were not added. Several prominent German generals (ex. field marshals von Reichenau and Busch) are not represented in any way. Is there any chance that at least some of the ones missing could be added? Also, how come some characters are both available for High Command and as generals, but others aren't (ex. Ferdinand Schorner who is available as an Infantry Expert, but not available as a general)?

 

[MrMcQue]

How are the non-country leader characters (generals and advisors) for countries chosen? As great as Gotterdammerung was, there are some who wanted more generals to be added to Germany. While Germany did get new generals, there were several historically prominent ones that were not added. Several prominent German generals (ex. field marshals von Reichenau and Busch) are not represented in any way. Is there any chance that at least some of the ones missing could be added? Also, how come some characters are both available for High Command and as generals, but others aren't (ex. Ferdinand Schorner who is available as an Infantry Expert, but not available as a general)?

It's also very lacking for Poland. You can't even replicate the historical September 1st 1939 OOB of the Polish Army when World War II broke out.

 

[Duke_Dave]

Bringing back earlier and better communication is good, but it should also happen for the big GoE patch in April. If new ministers or generals are added, the community could help check whether ideology, traits and photos make sense.

If there are additions to the focus tree the community again could help. Iraq got steel focus trees that have no basis in real or alt-history the way they were designed. Iran meanwhile lacks any focus for a steel plant that was planned with German help. Iraq has a camelry focus even though only the Iraqi police used camels. Etc. etc.

 

[Selenter]

I think it's wrong that you make focuses and decisions for specific countries instead of making unique mechanics available to all countries in a game about WWII. For example, I would like to support your company and buy the DLC, but I'm not interested in the Middle East countries. What should I do then? If the DLC added a unique mechanic that I could use, for example, for Germany - I would gladly buy the DLC

 

[Selenter]

please fix

[1.16.2] In Germany, decisions to call up the SS no longer anger any faction

Summary [1.16.2] In Germany, decisions to call up the SS no longer anger any faction Platform Steam Operating System Windows 10 Game Version 1.16.2 Enabled DLC All of the above Do you have mods enabled? No Description In Germany, decisions...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

[RUS Locs][1.16.2] Russian localization errors in Italian cities

Summary [1.16.2] Russian localization errors in Italian cities Platform Steam Operating System Windows 10 Game Version 1.16.2 Enabled DLC All of the above Do you have mods enabled? No Description Names of Italian cities in Russian are...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

 

[ZeDoctor1918]

We have analyzed what went wrong with GoE internally and both Arheo and myself now have shared some parts of it (The go / no go meeting, as well as dev diaries being very late)

If these were the only 2 things that went wrong that are worth sharing then it is safe to say I won't be buying any other dlcs for this game.

 

[BaronQuackers]

It's also very lacking for Poland. You can't even replicate the historical September 1st 1939 OOB of the Polish Army when World War II broke out.

You also can't replicate the historical German OOB for the invasion of Poland. They should probably go over and add generals for most of the countries that currently have content.

 

[Eruth]

If these were the only 2 things that went wrong that are worth sharing then it is safe to say I won't be buying any other dlcs for this game.

There's probably a lot of things that are too small/too specific to be worth sharing to anyone without the full context. Having worked on some game teams myself, I've defiantly been involved in mistakes that I couldn't explain in any way that would make sense/be specific enough to actually tell you anything without also giving about 5 pages of backstory first-- and I imagine a larger team like PDX would require even more backstory.

 

[ZeDoctor1918]

There's probably a lot of things that are too small/too specific to be worth sharing to anyone without the full context. Having worked on some game teams myself, I've defiantly been involved in mistakes that I couldn't explain in any way that would make sense/be specific enough to actually tell you anything without also giving about 5 pages of backstory first-- and I imagine a larger team like PDX would require even more backstory.

Thats fine, PDX doesn't owe me/the community whatever their internal review found, just as I don't owe PDX any more of my money. If your dlc launch is bad enough to the point of issuing an apology for it, and short term roadmap to try and rectify it, then at least for my own consumer confidence, I need a much more in depth post-mortem and game plan to rebuild that confidence.

 

[LastButterfly]

There's probably a lot of things that are too small/too specific to be worth sharing to anyone without the full context. Having worked on some game teams myself, I've defiantly been involved in mistakes that I couldn't explain in any way that would make sense/be specific enough to actually tell you anything without also giving about 5 pages of backstory first-- and I imagine a larger team like PDX would require even more backstory.

Yeah no. The "we know what went wrong, but we can't tell you because it's too complex, but don't worry we'll fix it" card only works once, and from a trustworthy person. As far as I'm concerned, they're not trustworthy, they've lost that a quite a while ago and nothing in their actions so far has managed to rebuild trust for the long term. Until further notice I'll expect the patches to die down pretty quickly after the "chonky" one, numerous bugs to be left to rot in the database(tm) for ages as per usual, then a big period of complete radio silence, and then the next DLC which will cause a situation again.

 

[Eruth]

Yeah no. The "we know what went wrong, but we can't tell you because it's too complex, but don't worry we'll fix it" card only works once, and from a trustworthy person. As far as I'm concerned, they're not trustworthy, they've lost that a quite a while ago and nothing in their actions so far has managed to rebuild trust for the long term. Until further notice I'll expect the patches to die down pretty quickly after the "chonky" one, numerous bugs to be left to rot in the database(tm) for ages as per usual, then a big period of complete radio silence, and then the next DLC which will cause a situation again.

I'm not asking you to blindly trust them. I'm just saying that, from my experience, they probably know a lot of things that went wrong but can't share them in a constructive way.

 

[LastButterfly]

I'm not asking you to blindly trust them. I'm just saying that, from my experience, they probably know a lot of things that went wrong but can't share them in a constructive way.

I for one would welcome the 5 pages of backstory, for however complex they may be, they might potentially show the kind of self-reflection they're doing, if any. You see, my issue is with your "probably". That's what I don't trust : I don't believe they really know what went wrong - or at least, what should be corrected. And this "oh yes yes we know what went wrong, we just can't say in a constructive way but yes, we know" has run its course.

Unless you have inside sources, you have no more basis than me to determine what it is they know or not. It's just that the precedents are not helping in making me see your words as much more than delusional hopes. I've said elsewhere, whatever problems this team has are more deeply rooted and ancient than just this DLC's making. You say they can't explain what's wrong ? Maybe. Possibly they also can't fix what's wrong, and the lack of explanations makes me really question whether it's because they don't know how, or because they don't want to.

 

[ZeDoctor1918]

I'm not asking you to blindly trust them. I'm just saying that, from my experience, they probably know a lot of things that went wrong but can't share them in a constructive way.

From the "Update from the Developers" 'Collectively, and personally, we were quite clearly wrong. As an organization we were unaware of the issues present in this release, and this represents a serious need for some inward thinking on how we arrived at this decision, and how we reorganize ourselves to prevent it occurring again. I have few answers for you right now as we’re focusing on the short-term goals for putting Graveyard of Empires right, but we have no intention of sweeping this under the rug.'

If they indeed did a do an introspection and managed to identify the underlying issues, then I think any explanation is constructive given they apparently went from absolutely zero knowledge of how bad it was to clarity on what to do in the future. I think most people would agree that sounds suspicious at best. The conclusions they offered to share, earlier dev diaries and go/no go meetings (which if the game director doesn't see the issues and doesn't veto the release then those meetings seem entirely pointless but I digress), are so low of hanging fruit that they are rotting on the ground. As @LastButterfly said, I believe they do hope after the next patch they can quietly move along to the next dlc.

 

[Farquarsen]

Technical Debt and Marketeers are the Bain of my existence. Allow the developers to fix their technical debt and do not market any more DLCs until they have.

 

[Herennius]

(...) Until further notice I'll expect the patches to die down pretty quickly after the "chonky" one, numerous bugs to be left to rot in the database(tm) for ages as per usual (...)

I expect some more war efforts patches after the "chonky one", though of course the question is how many will come and how "sizey" they are. I concede though that even in the best possible case to be realisticly expected the database will still contain numerous unsolved bugs (plus ones waiting still for confirmation and to be entried in the database) afterwards, as you wrote.

 

[Silens]

I know it's not exactly and specifically concerning studio gold, but just these days I built me some nice modern carriers and battleships. I was honestly surprised, negatively so, to get this; again I might add:

Guys, I know corporate dev teams aren't the fastest, and there are internal processes to be followed and all that. But come on, how hard is it to fix missing icons? How is it that such a trivial thing still isn't addressed to this day?

 

[Dimmie_Dumm]

Guys, I know corporate dev teams aren't the fastest, and there are internal processes to be followed and all that. But come on, how hard is it to fix missing icons? How is it that such a trivial thing still isn't addressed to this day?

Aside from just the icons which as irritating as it may seem are just visuals, there are at least two more bugs suggesting these modern ships were not playtested much, if at all:

Reloading causes Special Project ships to lose bonus HP

Summary Reloading causes Special Project ships to lose bonus HP Platform Steam Operating System Windows 7 Game Version 1.15.3 Enabled DLC Man the GunsLa RésistanceNo Step BackBy Blood Alone Do you have mods enabled? No Description The...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

Modern Battleship Project spawns useless Armor Innovations

Summary Modern Battleship Project spawns useless Armor Innovations Platform Steam Operating System Windows 7 Game Version 1.15.3 Enabled DLC Man the GunsLa RésistanceNo Step BackBy Blood Alone Do you have mods enabled? No Description While...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

 

[Umbosch]

there are at least two more bugs suggesting these modern ships were not playtested much, if at all:

Always these reloading bugs. At least in my current games, Hungary doesn't seem to join the Axis in 1938 because of something like that. As Arheo so beautifully put it, there are people here who play Hoi IV. Maybe. The question is, which country and until what year? Maybe Switzerland, Ir- or Iceland? In any case, spies never use them.

PS: In my actually game i must learn 2% stability + 10% from focus = 9%. Why does this remind me so much of the 3,4 airtransporter for spymission.

 

[Bigvanvader]

I think it's wrong that you make focuses and decisions for specific countries instead of making unique mechanics available to all countries in a game about WWII. For example, I would like to support your company and buy the DLC, but I'm not interested in the Middle East countries. What should I do then? If the DLC added a unique mechanic that I could use, for example, for Germany - I would gladly buy the DLC

> For example, I would like to support your company and buy the DLC, but I'm not interested in the Middle East countries

Buy the DLCs you are interested in and if you are happy with them then review them, don't buy what you are not interested in, you don't have to get every one, you're still supporting the game by buying it initially, playing it, buying whatever DLCs you have and talking about it online, its enough

 

[Varvs]

Does anyone still expect a war-effort patch this year?