Megacampaign Dream Team (Imperator->CK2->EU4->Vic3->HoI4)

[Radu]

Though a long shot, the Megacampaign Import Chain described in the title would be a dream come true for me. This especially since, although unpopular, Paradox seems to see the merit in representing resistance to occupation/administrative consequences of territorial overreach. Meaning that the design teams' philosophy is unlikely to result in "nothing left to conquer" situation at a given point in the import chain.

To take a small tribe in Imperator and nurture it to being a power through the centuries... I would very much be willing to put my money where my daydreaming is.

 

[CaesarVincens]

Though it will be unofficial, I would expect the converter team (of EU>VIC and VIC>HOI converters) to create an IR>CK converter at some point.

 

[theStormWeaver]

There's centuries of time between the IR end-date and the earliest CK start date though.
Unless they tried to incorporate some of WtWSMS...

 

[WJLIII3]

The primary difficulty with the converters is they require a great deal of development hours for very little return. Every adjustment, every new tag or religion in CK2 requires them to go back and update the converter which will never sell another unit.

 

[Furleppe]

Imperator -> CK2 doesn't really make sense with many centuries in between. We need a Dark Ages game!

 

[Zephyrum]

Isn't Imperator using a new engine instead of Clausewitz? I don't think it'd be possible in that case

 

[kviiri]

Hearts of Iron IV is so heavily designed with scripted, not emergent content, that I wouldn't even wish for a converter from anything before it to it. The game runs so heavily on events and NF trees that you can't just plug in new countries and expect it to work sanely.

 

[theStormWeaver]

Isn't Imperator using a new engine instead of Clausewitz? I don't think it'd be possible in that case

No, Imperator is just using the latest version of Clausewitz with significant upgrades.

 

[dragoon9105]

Dont forget stellaris

 

[WJLIII3]

Dont forget stellaris

Yeah but Stellaris IS the converter. Just name your empire whatever country you were playing, assign them Sol, and you're done.

 

[OurLordMonty]

Imperator -> CK2 doesn't really make sense with many centuries in between. We need a Dark Ages game!

There is a pretty old game called Great Invasions that was made AGEOD a while back, but I don't know of any that Paradox has made. Making a converter is beyond my technical skill, but looking at the structure of the game files it does look doable.

 

[kentsfield]

I've done a CK2->EU4->Vic2->HoI4 campaign and it was pretty entertaining. By the time of HoI 4, the final showdown was a colossal communist Byzantine Empire allied with an enlarged socialist France against the US and a reduced UK.

Hearts of Iron IV is so heavily designed with scripted, not emergent content, that I wouldn't even wish for a converter from anything before it to it. The game runs so heavily on events and NF trees that you can't just plug in new countries and expect it to work sanely.

The HoI IV converter generates focus trees for individual countries.

 

[kviiri]

The HoI IV converter generates focus trees for individual countries.

That's actually kinda interesting, because I think the NF trees (especially as a means of expanding the game) are a very bad engineering decision that forces Pdox to devote lots of resources into static content scripting just to keep the mess playable. And it hasn't really worked this far (every DLC introduces new wonky NF interactions when the focuses of two countries clash).

Automating the process would probably allow for removing many of those clashes by enforcing some set of constraints that must be valid for every combination of NFs picked. It probably wouldn't be as narratively interesting as a human-made tree, but I could see a reasonably performant program doing the validity checks (for the number of trees HoI 4 requires) in a matter of minutes at most.

 

[Tavior]

I believe that sadly there is a huge time gap between imperator and CK 2 by maybe 500 years?

Anyway I am still somewhat interested in a mega-campaign someday myself.

 

[Radu]

I believe that sadly there is a huge time gap between imperator and CK 2 by maybe 500 years?

Anyway I am still somewhat interested in a mega-campaign someday myself.

Yeah, quite a few centuries. Covering many tribal migrations, collapse of the Roman Empire and rise of Christianity and Islam. Pretending that "nothing of note happened" in that gap is not ideal but one would not have much to work with anyway.

It's actually why I'm holding off on purchasing Imperator. Simply growing a faction, any faction, in that game only to leave them behind when the continuation of the story is right there waving from across a few centuries just takes the fun out of it. I feel like I'm not "finishing" the game if I can't import the save into CK2.

 

[TinWiz]

Although it seems like a trivial reason not to purchase a game that could be a lot of fun, the time distance from CK2 and the inability to "continue" — which has become my favourite part of finishing a campaign — means I won't be playing Imperator any time soon. I still have too much fun playing CK2>EU4 and I'm hopeful Vic3 will be announced.

I haven't been able to use the Vic2 converter mod, as the version of EU4 I finished did not align with the release version for the mod. It's fantastic that there are players with the talent and dedication to volunteer for such a project, but it's really something that should be included in development.

A Dark Ages game to bridge the gap would be awesome. One problem is the difficulty of portraying historical figures during that era: the uncertainty of historical data, and sensitivity around depictions of Muhammad for example (I guess they could shroud him in mysterious silhouettes).

Converters should be integrated into the games and not additional DLC; they can be part of patches so customers aren't indirectly punished for purchasing an add-on with a one-time fee that PDS constantly has to justify sinking resources into updating.

tl;dr Paradox has gold to mine with mega-campaign conversions to link all their games, if they would commit to it.

 

[Badesumofu]

Converters should be integrated into the games and not additional DLC; they can be part of patches so customers aren't indirectly punished for purchasing an add-on with a one-time fee that PDS constantly has to justify sinking resources into updating.

While I think mega-campaigns are really cool and the modders who do the converters are fantastic - I prefer that PDS don't make them any more. From what they've said about the CK2 > EU4 converter, it's a huge amount of work to keep it functional. And whether it's a DLC or part of the base game, at the end of the day that is work that is not being done on something else. I simply don't think that they are the best value in terms of how much work they are for how many people use and enjoy them. Especially given that modders seem willing to step into the breach for the enthusiasts that enjoy mega-campaigns.

 

[IamOzymandias]

There needs to be a Vic3 before we can have a Vic3 converter

 

[TinWiz]

means I won't be playing Imperator any time soon

This turned out to be a lie. I bought I:R today and played the tutorial. It's fun. I'm curious if they'll expand the timeline into the Roman Empire years.

 

[Dmitrius]

Imperator -> CK2 doesn't really make sense with many centuries in between. We need a Dark Ages game!

If think imperator should be expanded through empire and into the dark ages as it has/can have the mechanics required to abstract tribal hordes and population displacement.

No need for a separate game?