Mostly negative Steam reviews - does Paradox care?

[podcat]

Of course we care, but there isnt much you can really do about reviews than what we already are: Keep improving the game.

I'll probably end up talking about it a little at some point, but at least I feel we should have been a lot clearer on what was included for one and promoted all the content equally as I felt a lot of people missed the cosmetic stuff. Comparing prices with what cosmetic/music etc DLC for EU4 usually sell for there would have been something like 7-8€. We probably also should have been clearer about the size as well although we did say it was going to be a smaller expansion rather than a large one, but a lot of people who bought HOI4 are used to the old HOI3 expansion model where we would release stuff in a very different way.

When it comes to evaluation we look at a lot of stuff. Steam reviews is one, but of course you need some filtering to interpret the data. My most important point of data is how many players play every day and every month. Its the kind of data thats easy to interpret. More players = good. Stuff like metacritic, reviews and forums are important to understand "why" and what to focus on. I see a lot more people playing after they buy the expansion which to me says a lot more than steam review %:ages.

although I am still never going to understand people with 1000+ hours giving a negative review. Luckily my brain translates them to positive reviews when I read them because I refuse to believe someone would spend so much time on something they don't like

 

[Archangel85]

That's kind of what I'm getting at though - to do (not just plan) a focus tree in an hour, to a level of quality, requires a little sitting down and thinking (at least to do well ). To get something more than just 'off the top of the head' (particularly if the dev in question isn't, say, an expert on New Zealand's history in WW2, which would be a bit much to ask of your average European game dev) takes time if you want good results. Anyways, I think we've probably taken this as far as it's useful for either of us - we clearly hold different positions on how long it takes to do a decent job of a focus tree. I do hope something like your resistance/supply suggestions make it into the game at some stage .

Perhaps this is as good a spot to explain our process as any.

What @Black_Shade did was what we call the initial pitch. Its a very short document of a handful of bullet points, to see if it is even feasible to make an interesting focus tree, and if so, what the core events and narrative chains should be (a narrative chain is something like the German coup chain for South Africa, or each of the "warplan" lines for the USA). Obviously, historical events are center stage here, but we also like to include some interesting ahistorical alternatives (for China, approaching different countries for support against Japan is an obvious one, but perhaps the Nationalist Chinese would be willing to trade territory for Japanese help against the warlords?). This usually takes us about half an hour on wikipedia. This is just the first step, though.

After we have made an initial pitch (and @podcat thinks its cool enough to warrant further work - we have had countries fail this stage), we start the in-depth research. There we focus, obviously, on what happened historically and see if we can find any other hooks for ahistorical storylines (treaties proposed but not signed, politicians sidelined by internal struggles, tanks designed but not built). We also look at economic development, both to give some flavor to the industry branch and to add some new design companies (because usually, we don't just make a focus tree, we rework and flesh out the entire country). This takes about a week.

After we are done with that, we start drafting the tree. That means we try and look at how we are going to turn our storyline ideas into focus tree branches. Balance is an issue, of course, but also stuff like the historical timing - Germany should be in a position where they are about to declare war on Poland (that is, finishing the "Danzig or War" focus) in late summer 1939. This requires a lot of boring detail work - in what states are we going to put new industry? What technologies do we give research bonuses for and when? What new features are we going to add in the expansion, and how are we going to integrate them into the focus tree? Which wargoals does the focus give? Does this focus fire an event for another country or give you the reward directly? Is the reward interesting enough to make you want to pick the focus (we have not always succeeded here - Women in Aviation, I'm looking at you)? What focuses should be mutually exclusive to others? Under what conditions can the focus be picked? Can the player actually achieve these conditions before the focus becomes irrelevant due to events in other parts of the world (imagine if China approached France for help against Japan, but could only pick that focus by late 1940 - not much good it does then)? Does going down this focus chain lock you out of important stuff? We schedule about 2-3 work days for this.

Once we have a tree draft (and, once again, podcat has signed off on it), we start implementing. How long this takes obviously depends on how big the tree is, but these days we usually aim for 70 focuses (plus or minus 20). Scripting the basic layout of the tree (focus A leads to focus B and is mutually exclusive with focus C) usually takes about a day including localisation. After that, we start adding the effects, which usually takes about another day or two, not including event chains. These usually take another 2-3 days to script and write the text for.

After that, we are almost done! We just need to add icons (2-3 hours), write the descriptions (2-3 hours), script the AI weights (2 hours for basic, a day for advanced stuff where the AI considers the state of the world), do the historical AI focus list and set up the focus tree for the 39 start (1 hour).

All together, this process takes about two and a half weeks. Then we hand it to QA, who usually find about 20 previously unknown cases where the tree breaks completely (Should China be able to get Burma road supplies if India is not allied to Britain? Should China be allowed to ask for support against a democratic Japan from a democratic US? Should they be allowed to ask for support from a fascist US against a fascist Japan? Should they be allowed if both are fascist, but the US is not in a faction with Japan?) and usually also have opinions about balance and gameplay. Once these cases are accounted for, the tree is done (until it is released, and players find all the edge cases the QA didn't find). So, all in all, I would say about 3 weeks for a focus tree (estimates are, as usual, estimates and stuff happens).

So in short: Yes, we could design a focus tree in half an hour and implement it in an afternoon. We try not to.