Ask Paradox (almost) Anything Thread (no support/tech or code questions)

[Castellon]

I have a question about using counters in Vic 2. I know they are not available at the moment (shame , however I was going to try make my own Mod for this.

I have looked in the victoria2/gfx/mapitems/counters (and mapcounters and small counters) directories and was very surprised to find the counter set for HOI3 !!!!!

Does this mean the only way to do this is to alter the animations to make a counter representation ?

Many thanks in anticipation

Game specific questions should be asked in the apropriate forum please.
In this case ask your question in the V2 modding forum. Thanks

 

[Shams]

Following on from the Steam/Warband serial key issue....:

I heard about Warband on Paradox. It was reading posts on Paradox that got me interested in buying the Warband game in the first place.

I'm only a Paradox gamer for a few months, so I'm not fully aware of what Paradox do. I assumed that all the games on the Paradox forums were actually created by Paradox. This it seems is not the case, as I learned today, when a post encouraged me to go to TaleWorlds to sort out a Warband serial key issue, on Paradox.

Question: Going forward, would it not be a good idea for Paradox to show in some simple way:

..... that a game is actually created by Paradox and their Full Support will apply, as the originator of the game.

.... or that Paradox is only the Publisher (or otherwise) and that their Full Support (and ability to solve issues) will be hindered by this fact.

Wouldn't this be better, and we gamers could then decide what path to take in purchasing our games.

Thanks to Paradox who I believe are trying to solve this issue currently.

I think it's fairly clear as Golwar states.

As for support. We always try to make sure your experience is as smooth as possible, we're selling you something after all. We handle a lot of the support ourselves, but for the harder cases we work closely with the devs and plan patches together.

So if you have a technical problem letting us/developer know is the best way to making sure it ends up our to-do list. It's a fairly long list however so sometimes you'll have to wait.

Just noticed that Hearts of Iron 3 Complete is up on Steam. Does this mean there will be no more future expansions/dlc for HOI3?

No, there will be many more.

/s

 

[Shams]

License belongs to PE.

But why would we want to make a computer game on a license that only has recognition in a tiny country like Sweden?

I'd love to do it, but there's no money to be made considering the fan base.

/s

 

[Captain Gars]

License belongs to PE.

But why would we want to make a computer game on a license that only has recognition in a tiny country like Sweden?

I'd love to do it, but there's no money to be made considering the fan base.

/s

How many copies do I have to buy for you to reconsider, Shams?

 

[Shams]

How many copies do I have to buy for you to reconsider, Shams?

Depends on the development cost. Let's say we're making a game equivalent to Baldurs Gate. But we're talking about at least 40-50k copies.

I'm thinking a €19.99 and a development team om roughly 6 people during 12 months. It's a pretty risky deal anyway. I'm assuming the dev cost will be fairly high since we need Swedish or at least western developers. Only they "get" Drakar and Demoner.

I'd prefer if someone just made the game on their own, then brings it to us and we can then show it to PE and ask nicely for the licence. That I can see, but we'd still call it something else.

/s

 

[Shams]

Of course you'd prefer that, that would simply transfer all risk to that certain 'someone'.

You should work in publishing.

/s

 

[Fredrik II]

Regarding the Drakar & Demoner (pen & paper RPG) brand it is owned by Riotminds. The rights to make computer games stays with Paradox Interactive (not PE) if I remember correctly. I need to look into this to be sure.

 

[Captain Gars]

If paradox was to receive a box of cookies (a pair of everyone on the staff's favorite) with a note saying: 'enjoy them, and keep on working on [upcoming game]!' would they test the cookies for poison or eat all of the cookies before anyone raised the question?

Unsolicited cookies would probably be look upon sceptically. Alcohol on the other hand...

 

[Captain Gars]

If I send some booze can I get a forum Icon? Maybe it could be the Vicky liquor bottle?

No. But it's worth a try...

 

[Captain Gars]

So he should keep sending until the icon appears?

Excellent suggestion. It hasn't worked for anyone yet as far as I know. But who knows, this might be the time...

 

[Shams]

Guys, keep on topic!

Start a new thread if you want to discuss a particular question/answer more in depth.

/s

 

[Captain Gars]

Why is there no Pdox game that would solely focus on WWI?
V2 is too much about economics and V1 is horrid when it comes to battles in the late game. Plus HoI mods are just mods.

There is a thread in this subforum on the topic.

 

[artfox]

Does all Hearts of Iron games work on Windows 7 ?

I am testing all paradox games on windows 7. I have still not had any OS based problems. (I have not tried to do proper testing on really old games though).

 

[Johan]

1) Who of the dev team actually works on patch 1.3 for Victoria 2?
And how intensively?

2) Does Paradox ask other studios to create sprite packs for their games, or do they ask Paradox?

No0dle

1) been anything from 2 to 6 people working on it in the last months. Currently its me, king & artfox working on it.

2) they ask us.

 

[Kallocain]

But back on topic:

Have you guys ever given thought to using the Installers as the first point of contact with the game.
Make the installer and the install process the first step in the Immersion process. Draw the user into the game before he's even installed it...

I mean, all PDox titles are about immersion, and the installer has such potential in that regard.
For the best example, install a copy of Red Alert 2. It throws you into experiencing the game atmosphere right from the start.
Do try it if you haven't. It's a work of art. And I'm talking about an installer here...
Here is a video of the install process & into to the game. Watch the top right & enjoy the sounds.

One thing at the time. We are currently working on improving the launcher, after that we might get to the installer. I do agree that it can do much to set the mood of the game though!

 

[Kallocain]

Curiously I didn't find them. Obviously I didn't search hard enough. I would have asked it anyway, not only as a joke question, but because I am sincerely interested in their stance.

Thing is, <curse words removed by Kallocain> too, but that might very well be due to non-representative evidence- is used relatively more often in Sweden, to a point where one could say that it is much less outright "vulgar" than simply an emotional expression -if even that-, but this again probably varies from person to person and locality to locality. Either way it's the impression I got from my contact with Swedish media and persons. One could therefore argue that it would be a fair question to state, as confusion is best avoided by confronting it.

I don't know what Swedes you have been around, but no one I know uses those words, ever. Please do not use them on the forum again. The next time you will get an infraction point.

 

[SolSara]

On that note:

Paradox team, how has Enewald gotten away with what he does for so long?

We just ignore him and hope he will go away

 

[Kallocain]

I'm curious to know what you Paradox team folks think about the fact that Civilization 5 and Fallout New Vegas are only available through Steam? Could you compare and contrast that with the fact that Warband (and it seems also Divine Wind) are/will be available both in a non-Steam and Steam version.

I MUCH prefer the option for either non-Steam or Steam versions, and I'm displeased with Bethesda and 2K about this.

Had a longer post in which I elaborate but the Papillon in my Lapillon bumped my keyboard and I lost all I had typed Will be happy to elaborate, but I fear you guys won't feel comfortable talking about this topic?

Oh, papillons are cute! Say hi from me?
About Steam, there are a lot of reason for why a game company would do that, and I suspect those reasons will be as many as the companies that does it. Piracy might be one. It is harder to pirate a game with Steam protection, and we all know how catastrophically hight the piracy ratings for PC games are.
A second thing might be that if you just have steam users, you know for sure that everyone always have the latest patch, which will remove a lot of support issues as well as frustrations.

For each game they will weight pros and cons and see if it comes out pro steam even though that means removing options from the gamers.

 

[Kallocain]

Kallocain is in NY currently with the rest of the team (at least I think I saw her on a group photo over there).

This is correct. I do actually sleep.

 

[Shams]

We always try to go for as many portals as possible.

More portals = more money.

That said Steam is a major priority since they are, by far, the most important digital portal. On rare occasions a game will be steam only (Lead and gold for instance) if there's no way for us to alter the game to run without steam. As you know steam has a LOT of additional tech that devs can use to improve their games.

As for late releases on steam/non-steam - shit happens, sometimes the portals mess up and sometimes we or the devs do.

/s