Stellaris: Apocalypse [Steam] is set to be a pretty big expansion, with lots of goodies to come for Stellaris fans. It's releasing soon, so Paradox has an overview video up.
As a reminder, it will release on February 22nd. As usual for Paradox games, it will also see a big patch release full of fixes and new features free for existing owners.
Without further ramblings, here's their new overview video:
Direct Link
I honestly can't wait to start blowing up planets, time for my Empire to rule the stars. I've thought for too long the combat in Stellaris was quite lacking, so it's pleasing to see it become the focus for this expansion.
Also, while we're on the subject of Paradox, it seems one person at Paradox Interactive (the publisher, not to be confused with the actual developer, Paradox Development Studio) noticed a decline in Linux sales. Would be a good time to show them it's worth continuing to support us. Here's what they said on Twitter:
[…] Sadly Linux is less than a percent of the sales and keeps dwindling. SteamOS didn't turn out to be what we all hoped. The Linux community needs to grow or spend more to stay viable.
It's a little disconcerting to read, but hopefully they will continue to support Linux gaming for some time. Paradox Interactive do publish a bunch of games that don't support Linux, but perhaps if they see an improvement in future more of their published games (in addition to games directly from Paradox Development Studio, like Stellaris) may see Linux support. A number of their games do cater to a niche, so perhaps their games just aren't as popular as I thought they would be with Linux gamers. I've asked if they can share any specific data about it, so hopefully we can talk about that more in future.
Ps. I realise it can be confusing with the publisher and developer both starting with "Paradox", but they are different. The article text was adjusted after publishing to make it much clearer.
Quoting: Alm888Quoting: etonbearsThis is, I suppose, why SteamOS seems to have failed. There was never really enough of a coherent plan to get people buying anything that came with Linux by default.
And at least part of the reason why: Valve did not promote Linux, it promoted "SteamOS" (or tried to do so) while forcefully removing the word "Linux" and even Tux icon from it. I bet half of the general audience hadn't got a clue about what OS it was.
That's rather the point I am trying to make. "Linux" or "GNU/Linux" is not a brand, and not a product; it is more of an architecture label. Brands/products are the named distributions of that architecture, such as Ubuntu, Arch, Red Hat etc, and, of course SteamOS.
Most distributions do append "Linux" or "GNU/Linux" to their formal name, but the "brand" is usually just the one or two word distribution name.
SteamOS does not bother adding Linux to the name for a number of reasons. Firstly, they were designing a distribution whose primary purpose is to play Steam games from an OS designed to replicate a console experience. Secondly, they really were not focussed on the general ( non-game ) part of the distribution at all, so using "Linux" would be a bit misleading. And finally, their "brand" is "Steam", and it is actually MUCH stronger as a brand than Linux. If "Linux" as a brand was ever going to draw people away from othe PC operating systems in the consumer space, it would long since have done so.
If a SteamOS console had ( or will ) ever been successful, Linux users ( i.e. other distributions ) would benefit tangentially. I can honestly only ever see PC users moving to Linux in significant numbers if market actors like Microsoft make the existing status quo unacceptable.
Quoting: SharkMachineHere's the problem though: The normal price for complete Europa Universalis IV pack is nearly 300€. For this reason alone, I've been holding off buying the game. I think the maximum should be around 100€ to get the game and existing DLCs.Well, you're in luck at the moment, there's a 50–75%-off sale right now on absolutely everything EU IV related (as far as I can tell). :) Should be able to get the base game and all gameplay DLCs for <100€ I'd imagine.
You can also feel free to skip some of the DLCs if they don't improve a region you plan to be playing in, as EU IV ones are sometimes more focused on regions than universal like Stellaris ones are. Conquest of Paradise, for instance, focuses mainly on North and South American natives (but not Mesoamerica or the Incas, that's El Dorado), and could probably be safely skipped unless you want to try playing as one. (Or are like me, and just need the satisfaction of knowing that the simulation everywhere in the world is the best it can possibly be, even if I'm playing in India and will never get to the New World. :D )
EDIT: If anyone else is jumping on the pre-order, I apparently get something out of it in-game if you use this link https://www.survivingmars.com/invites/jo4DjM ;)
Last edited by Cybolic on 19 February 2018 at 9:36 pm UTC
Quoting: SuperTuxQuoting: OckertWhat they don't see is when a Linux user such as myself picks up their game and then gets all his windows buddies to pick it up as well. I mean I got 7 other people to purchase it. Come on
Why not reply to him via the linked Twitter message? :).
I don't have Twitter.
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