General shift towards shared game mechanics?

[InvisibleSandwi]

I don't know if this is actually, specifically the case, but when I read the latest CK2 dev diary about having EU4 styled coalitions, it got me to wondering if the PDS devs are making a greater effort to share gameplay mechanics between games when appropriate. There's obviously some antecedent for this - the example that comes to mind is the use of gradual slider changes to adjust country policy in Hearts of Iron II and Europa Universalis II/III. Unfortunately, I'm not experienced enough with Paradox's older games and engines to really say how much was shared in the past, but there are a few examples of what appear to be concepts being side-ported from one game to another:

• The naval combat rework in Victoria II: Heart of Darkness (making naval combat less like EU and more like HOI)
• Upcoming addition of shattered retreats and the aforementioned coalitions from EU4 -> CK2
• Possibly greater emphasis on goods and equipment from V2 -> HOI4

Anyways, I'd like to hear some perspective from the rest of you. Is Paradox Development Studio adding more overlap to their games' gameplay than they used to be, and is this a good idea or not? Personally, I think you can make a case for applying some lessons from otherwise unrelated gameplay mechanics to titles that are in development, but my ability to confirm this is a bit sketchy at the best of times.

 

[Fulmen]

The games have always had similarities. For example CK used to have realm stability like EU and both EU and HoI had sliders. And let's not forget EU's badboy which in HoI was called belligerence.

Vicky I think also had some similarities with EU and HoI.

 

[maledwarfwarior]

I only started playing paradox games sometime after eu4 released, but from what I know the dev teams have always borrowed code/mechanics from one another. I would say that they have been doing this for a long time, but have recently started citing their sources. Of course, I'm only a noob and I could be dead wrong.

 

[Johan]

I only started playing paradox games sometime after eu4 released, but from what I know the dev teams have always borrowed code/mechanics from one another. I would say that they have been doing this for a long time, but have recently started citing their sources. Of course, I'm only a noob and I could be dead wrong.

Until the start of eu4, we basically only had one devteam

 

[steveh11]

Until the start of eu4, we basically only had one devteam

Indeed, for a long time there was only one dev - Unless you count Johan AND Balor...

 

[heliostellar]

I'm not sure if other people noticed the addition of certain Victoria trade goods to EU4 with the AoW exp: Silk, Tropical Wood, etc. maybe it's just because of my Vicky obsession. I actually mostly like the cross pollination. There are a lot of small QoL improvements that seem to bubble up in one IP that gradually make it into the others as they show their strength (can we get that dice button in heir name into CK2 posthaste?). I actually love shattered retreat, especially after the whack-a-mole that is dealing with Victoria battles or immediate stack swipes in CK2.

The only crossover I'm decidedly NOT psyched about is AE in CK2... Ugh... So not relevant in this time period of men over laws.