Imagine you're a UFC fighter. You've trained for months, pushing yourself, studying every move, honing every skill. Today’s the big day. It’s the DLC release. You’re pumped, ready to step into the ring... and then they send in a two-year-old to "fight" you.
Sure, you can pull your punches, roll around, fake a knockout, and pretend it’s all in good fun. But deep down, you know it’s not a real fight. You’re not using anything you trained for. None of your techniques matter. It’s just a performance, an empty, frustrating waste of time.
Fights, games, sports, it’s all the same. You invest time, effort, thought. You learn the mechanics, you test ideas, you engage with the community, refine your strategies, and when you're finally ready to put it all into action... it feels like you're sparring with your toddler cousin.
It’s not about min-maxing or tryharding. No one’s optimizing every move just to win. But you can’t unlearn what you know. You can’t pretend to be bad just to give the AI a chance. Playing a game where you have to deliberately handicap yourself just to make it feel like a challenge? That’s not fun. That’s not engaging. Even when you play clean, no exploits, no cheese, the result’s the same: either you steamroll the AI and feel nothing, or you play along, pretending it’s beating you, and that’s just as dull.
I know Paradox has said they’re (finally) working on it, and I appreciate that. But I just wanted to post this, we haven't been complaining for "no reason", we're in this frustrating situation where we want to have fun with a game designed to be fun, and it's not possible.
Sure, you can pull your punches, roll around, fake a knockout, and pretend it’s all in good fun. But deep down, you know it’s not a real fight. You’re not using anything you trained for. None of your techniques matter. It’s just a performance, an empty, frustrating waste of time.
Fights, games, sports, it’s all the same. You invest time, effort, thought. You learn the mechanics, you test ideas, you engage with the community, refine your strategies, and when you're finally ready to put it all into action... it feels like you're sparring with your toddler cousin.
It’s not about min-maxing or tryharding. No one’s optimizing every move just to win. But you can’t unlearn what you know. You can’t pretend to be bad just to give the AI a chance. Playing a game where you have to deliberately handicap yourself just to make it feel like a challenge? That’s not fun. That’s not engaging. Even when you play clean, no exploits, no cheese, the result’s the same: either you steamroll the AI and feel nothing, or you play along, pretending it’s beating you, and that’s just as dull.
I know Paradox has said they’re (finally) working on it, and I appreciate that. But I just wanted to post this, we haven't been complaining for "no reason", we're in this frustrating situation where we want to have fun with a game designed to be fun, and it's not possible.
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