Quoting: Mountain Man

Quoting: FredOIt's worth noting that your old save games will not be compatible with this new version 2. There's plenty of warnings about it when you start the game after updating. My save from 1.9 still loads, but with some strange statuses due to layout changes.

That's typical for Paradox. Save games are very rarely compatible between major updates, and they always recommend you start a new game.

Hmmm . . . maybe I'll play offline until I'm finished my current playthrough. No update problems if it can't update.

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I've always found the whole idea of the "internal", "wuwei", defensive martial arts, using the opponent's strength against them with chi and taoism etc fascinating (not that I think they particularly work in real life, any more than massive flying kicks do--they're just a cool concept). As a tabletop gamer I've noticed it can be very hard to represent well in a game. Both in tabletop and computer gaming your basic punch-harder, kick-higher, chi-as-lightning-bolt approach is much more common. So it's nice to see someone try to do a game that does the defensive style.

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Quoting: fractal

Quoting: KeyrockI'll take a wait and see approach on this one, given that Games Workshop is willing to license their IPs out to literally anyone, which has lead to a veritable deluge of Warhammer and 40K games over the last several years, 90% of which have been garbage. Hopefully this one falls into the 10%.

I'd argue that it's a sea of mediocrity rather than garbage, few games are actually bad, then again few are also actually good and yes, it's a result of GW handing their license over to anyone willing. Now this relatively recent policy (they used to sue anyone for the pettiest things) stems from GW shooting themselves in the foot with various financial decisions, namely insane pricing (55 pounds for a plastic tank c'mon GW) while shrinking their retail distribution and I'm fairly sure licensing is the only thing that kept them afloat.

A friend of mine used to be a big Warhammer player (not sure if 40K or not) and pretty much abandoned it a while ago; I seem to recall the explanation involving some sort of deliberate obsoleting of all the models he'd accumulated, and painstakingly painted, up to then. I got the impression rage was widespread among Warhammer players over this. I can imagine some financial suffering resulting.

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Quoting: noxSo many strategy games :(

So many strategy games :D

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Quoting: skinnyraf

Quoting: KandarihuI wish we could point out to Paradox that the reason for the abysmally small market share in Linux is largely due to growth of Windows in Asia (particularly China) is outstripping Linux growth worldwide.

Reasons are one thing, but cost vs income balance of supporting an ultra-niche market is another thing. Which one will a publisher/developer look at when considering porting a game (or developing cross-platform)?

For a while availability of games on Linux was driven by the fact that there were so few games available, so Linux gamers were buying almost everything that was available. Now that we actually have a choice, share of Linux gamers purchasing a particular game is closer and closer to the overall Linux market share - which is sub-1%.

Generally in agreement although I'd like to qualify "market share". It certainly seems as if the market share of Linux for desktop use for purposes of browsing the web (or, ahem, watching porn) is greater than 1%, being somewhere in the mid 2% or even 3% range. It is looking like the market share of Linux for gaming in specific may be less than 1%. I've been wondering about the difference; are Linux users mostly not gamers? Are those web browsers measured by surveys mostly workstations? Are many Linux users still booting into Windows to do their gaming? Is Wine use throwing the statistics off? Some combination of factors?

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Quoting: KandarihuI wish we could point out to Paradox that the reason for the abysmally small market share in Linux is largely due to growth of Windows in Asia (particularly China) is outstripping Linux growth worldwide.

Growth in Steam membership /= growth in number of computers, and both of those things are /= to growth in game purchases, particularly since a good deal of that growth in Steam use is oriented towards the playing of a single very popular game. That is, the growth in Asian Steam use does not mainly represent a growth in Windows in Asia but rather an expansion of Steam into an existing market which was always of mainly Windows computers. And the growth in Asian Steam use very likely does not imply many Asian Windows sales of Paradox games since, at least for the moment, most of them are mainly interested in purchasing and playing one single game and it's not from Paradox.
So if we pointed your point out to Paradox we would be mistaken.

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Quoting: libgradev

Quoting: liamdaweThis is what I find interesting though, you're not forced to buy the DLC, you can likely buy the base game and be content with the many hours it would bring you. Once it feels stale, pick up one the major DLC and so on. Paradox strategy games are generally full of content to keep you busy without expansions.

True, you're not, but from the article: "I've thought for too long the combat in Stellaris was quite lacking". I'd just rather play a 'functionally' complete game once (either with/without ~3 content expansions). The model often used here just feels like too much of a guessing game personally.

I do appreciate the flexibility Paradox's approach affords though - for myself (and possibly others in my position) it just doesn't sit quite right :)

I think most of the actual gameplay changes/enhancements that accompany a DLC do get rolled into the main game, though. So if I don't buy Apocalypse I won't get the planetbusters or the huge flagships but I will still get the Cherryh rule changes, not so? So if the rule changes improve combat I get my improved combat, and if I buy the game after Apocalypse comes out I will be buying a version of the game with the improved combat.

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Quoting: jens

Quoting: Alm888

Quoting: KimyrielleIn other words, yes, I think you're a part of the problem here.

No, I am part of the solution! :D

Yeah, this is what every extremist believes right? I haven't found a case in history where that ever turned out positive..

I'm not sure disagreeing with one person with "extreme" views on one topic is a valid reason to claim the median between opposing views is the correct answer in all cases without regard for specifics. Maybe the right answer would have been for Stalin to compromise and only kill off half as many people? Perhaps the Americans should only have napalmed half of Vietnam? Maybe we should be working with a theory of the solar system in which the Earth and the Sun switch off which one is at the centre every leap year, instead of accepting those radical Galilean ideas whole hog.
When the radicals turn out to be right, their thesis stops being radical and becomes received wisdom, and so it doesn't occur to anybody to consider it a "case in history" in which extremists were right.

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My problem here is that, from the description, I'm kind of on the dogs' side. I mean, dragged away from Earth to a space station by a brutal regime, the poor dogs are subjected to creepy experimentation. Gaining intelligence, they revolt against their oppressors. Well, who wouldn't? And so the game puts me in the shoes of the last remaining tyrant? Well, crap.

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I've never quite understood the big problem with Steam "DRM". As far as I can tell, I can play my games in offline mode without an internet connection. So, like, the games will play without phoning home. So what's the problem? What Dee Arrs are actually being Emmed here?

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