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Two of Paradox Development Studios’ grand strategy titles will be getting more content come November 16. Jade Dragon and Cradle of Civilization promise to change up important regions of each title.

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As you can see in the above video, Europa Universalis IV: Cradle of Civilizaiton, will be bringing many changes to the Islamic nations of the time period as well as the Middle East in general. It’s one of the larger pieces of DLC that PDS have put out for EU4 in a while and it’ll also be coming with a rather sizable patch and features that will be available to all players of the game. You can see a more complete overview of all of that here.

Crusader Kings II’s expansion, on the other hand, will be centered more around China and its important influence on trade and the stability of the Central Asian region. While China won’t be added on-map (much to the delight and disappointment to equal parts of the fanbase), players will be able to curry favor and seek influence in the Chinese court. Occasional instability in China or a strong expansionist mood can make lives miserable for players as deposed warlords or expeditions sent by the emperor can upend the political situation dramatically.

Below are some of Jade Dragon’s features:

  • The Further East: A new “China Screen” lays out the status and desires of the Emperor of China, letting you keep tabs on what he wants and how to earn his grace
  • An Eventful History: Random events tip you off to major happenings in distant Cathay, letting you know when the Middle Kingdom might be shifting its center of gravity
  • Taoism: A Chinese religion that gives bonuses to stewardship, but spreads very slowly.
  • New Asian Tributary System: Submit to the Empire as a tributary, always keeping an eye on the waning power of the Emperor, so you can time your escape to freedom
  • Ambitious Adventurers: Disgruntled princes or curious adventurers may leave China to seek their own fortune to the west.
  • Amazing Riches: Collect wondrous new Chinese artifacts for your characters, and a new Silk Road system that adjusts returns based on China’s stability.
  • Chinese Characters: New Chinese and Tibetan portraits and Chinese units bring the empire to life
  • Eight New Casus Bellis: Fight!

You can also see the free changes in the accompanying patch through the development diaries.

Both Cradle of Civilization and Jade Dragon will be releasing November 16th, so it’ll be a busy day for grand strategy fans.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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36 comments
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Brisse Oct 25, 2017
As much as I love these games, I despise Paradox for their DLC strategy, which is designed to milk every last penny out of us. The base game currently costs 39.99€ on Steam, but that is just a shell of what the game should be. To get the full experience you have to throw another whopping 279.74€ on DLC. It's the same disgusting thing EA did with The Sims.

Edit: They don't even have the decency to sell a complete expansion. Instead they split every expansion up in two pieces, one with gameplay mechanics, and another with art assets. How disgusting is that!?


Last edited by Brisse on 25 October 2017 at 1:16 pm UTC
razing32 Oct 25, 2017
Hmm , I never thought about it like that.
But maybe because I don't see Paradox as a major publisher.
Sure their expansions are iffy but I usually buy them only when heavily discounted 75% up.
I think the DLC is there to keep the game alive after so many years , but then again a lot of people complained bug fixes are only in the DLC/expansion and not in the base game.

Guess what I'm saying is that I am on the fence on this one.
khalismur Oct 25, 2017
Yes, I'd love to start playing both games. Many times was I very close to clicking the purchase button. However, the sheer amount of DLC make the base games feel incomplete. If one would add all DLCs, the prices becomes ridiculous and thus I never did get them.

A pitty, they both seem to be awesome, but I will not spend €200+ on a single game. They should just pack all past DLCs and sell it as a bundle for something reasonable. €40 or so would be the max I'd give for them.
Lakorta Oct 25, 2017
Would be nice if they could fix crossplatform multiplayer which is broken since over 3 years but still advertised on the store page -.-
razing32 Oct 25, 2017
Quoting: khalismurYes, I'd love to start playing both games. Many times was I very close to clicking the purchase button. However, the sheer amount of DLC make the base games feel incomplete. If one would add all DLCs, the prices becomes ridiculous and thus I never did get them.

A pitty, they both seem to be awesome, but I will not spend €200+ on a single game. They should just pack all past DLCs and sell it as a bundle for something reasonable. €40 or so would be the max I'd give for them.

Wait for a sale or Humble Bundle
They show up quite often.
holzi Oct 25, 2017
Quoting: LakortaWould be nice if they could fix crossplatform multiplayer which is broken since over 3 years but still advertised on the store page -.-

yeah thats so bad. With every major patch my friends and I play at least one multiplayer game and everytime I try the native linux client. But nope the game always desyncs after a few minutes/seconds. Switching to wine works, but it is sad to see that bug for such a long time.
Teodosio Oct 25, 2017
Guys I may be the cheapest guy around but I own almost all content DLCs for both CK2 and EU4 (not the skin packs tough). How did I do that without spending hundreds? I waited for 75% discounts, bundles etc. I spent hundreds of hours on Paradox games and they were definitely worth more than I paid.
Purple Library Guy Oct 25, 2017
It is a problem, but on the other hand it certainly seems to be true that while with many games, people buy it when it's new, play it for 15-20 hours or something, and then done . . . with Paradox games people tend to buy the base game, play it for 30-40 hours, buy a DLC, play for another 12-15, buy another DLC, rinse and repeat, with a few extra stints of just going back to it and losing a weekend without having bought anything new, adding up very often to hundreds of hours. So if you talk $$$/hour of entertainment, Paradox tends to actually stack up fine against most of the competition near as I can figure.
And it would be frankly financially impossible to just put out a game with the depth and complexity of something like CK II with a dozen DLCs already rolled in at launch. They'd have to ask for megabucks for the game (and so it wouldn't sell), except they'd probably fold before release just developing the damn thing for as long as it would take. So while the situation isn't perfect, I'm not sure what I'd advocate as a solution.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 25 October 2017 at 5:02 pm UTC
Rutine Oct 25, 2017
Quoting: BrisseAs much as I love these games, I despise Paradox for their DLC strategy, which is designed to milk every last penny out of us. The base game currently costs 39.99€ on Steam, but that is just a shell of what the game should be. To get the full experience you have to throw another whopping 279.74€ on DLC. It's the same disgusting thing EA did with The Sims.

Edit: They don't even have the decency to sell a complete expansion. Instead they split every expansion up in two pieces, one with gameplay mechanics, and another with art assets. How disgusting is that!?

Well, disgusting and despising seems like a bit too much in my opinion. I can understand that you disagree with their DLC policy but :

1 -When I bought EU4, around v1.5, I bought it "naked" without any DLC's, just to see if it was worth it. And for me it was very much worth it at the time. Even then, it was so much better than EU3 for me. So that's to say that yes, the base game can probably feel incomplete right now, when you have played or heard about all the DLC's but even the base game has been very much improved, so I don't think it's a shell of what it should be.
2 - Concerning the splitting of expansions.. would you prefer that they force you to buy the arts along with game content ? I personally buy the DLC's at 33-75% discount, depending on how interesting they sound but art content I buy it a 75%. So I am very happy with the fact that they sell them separately. Plus, you can buy them bundled if you want, every time (for example http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/1557/Europa_Universalis_IV_Rights_of_Man_Collection/)
3 - Concerning the price too.. well, ok, it's impressive let's say around 300€ to have everything at full price. Probably too much. But very often you can find the game at the base game at -75% (10 €) and if you like the base game you can then buy the DLC's also discount, for 4 or 5 € each.

This is not so much for the author of the comment I am quoting that is of course very much entitled to his or her opinion, but for other people that do not know EU4 yet.

And sorry for saying almost the same thing than Teodosio and Purple Library Guy, but I think this game is awesome and I too have played it for countless hours (544 now). And it's not only the number of hours, but the feeling when you are playing. The feeling to be playing the best strategy title, light years ahead of any of the civilization games for example.
Mountain Man Oct 25, 2017
Quoting: BrisseAs much as I love these games, I despise Paradox for their DLC strategy, which is designed to milk every last penny out of us. The base game currently costs 39.99€ on Steam, but that is just a shell of what the game should be. To get the full experience you have to throw another whopping 279.74€ on DLC. It's the same disgusting thing EA did with The Sims.

Edit: They don't even have the decency to sell a complete expansion. Instead they split every expansion up in two pieces, one with gameplay mechanics, and another with art assets. How disgusting is that!?
I disagree. I think Paradox is one of the few publishers/developers to do DLC the right way.

Here's the thing: First of all, if you bought the vanilla version of, say, Crusader Kings 2, or Europa Universalis IV at launch and never bought a single piece of DLC, the game in and of itself remains a complete experience that you can easily sink dozens and hundreds of hours into. You're not missing essential or necessary content by not having the DLC.

And secondly, with every major expansion, Paradox traditionally releases a substantial patch that expands the game and adds new content for free (in some cases, they give away so much for free that the expansions themselves are almost not worth buying!), so the vanilla game you can buy today is a much larger, fuller experience than the vanilla game that was released on Day 1 -- and you don't have to pay anything extra to get it. In fact, my recommendation to new Paradox gamers is to play the vanilla game first, and once you've gotten a feel for it, only then should you look at the DLC and see which of it appeals to you, because not all of it will, and none of it is essential.

To put it another way, either Paradox charges a reasonable fee for the continued development of their games over a period of years, or they release a couple of patches, maybe an expansion, and then move on to their next project. I don't know about you, but I prefer the former. Not to mention the fact that it is in no way reasonable to expect that Paradox would release years worth of work without charging for it.

As far as splitting the art content from the gameplay features, I don't understand why this upsets people. Sure, Paradox could include everything in one package, but then they would simply charge a higher price for it, or they can split it up and charge a little less for each piece, and in the end, it works out exactly the same. Basically, if you want more then you pay more. I don't see how that's "disgusting".


Last edited by Mountain Man on 25 October 2017 at 6:47 pm UTC
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