the easiest paradox game?

[heime2003]

from recent title, victoria 3, crusader kings 3, imperator rome, hearts of iron 4, stellaris, europa universalis 4. which one is the most newbie friendly game?

[Emperor2000]

Originally posted by heime2003:

from recent title, victoria 3, crusader kings 3, imperator rome, hearts of iron 4, stellaris, europa universalis 4. which one is the most newbie friendly game?

CK3, clearly, because the AI is turned off or to better say it, the AI play so passive, that you will not notice anything, only that you are the only one, who plays the Game.

[Abacus]

ck 3 and Stellaris.

Ck3 has the best tooltip system of all the games. You can get a lot of info from it.

[heime2003]

Originally posted by Subutai:

ck 3 and Stellaris.

Ck3 has the best tooltip system of all the games. You can get a lot of info from it.

is there any way to increase font size?

[Ozan]

Most enjoyoable too tbh

[VoiD]

It depends on what you mean.

If you mean the easiest to learn, I'd probably still say EU4.
If you mean the easiest game in terms of difficulty, then CK3 no contest.

EU4 is a hard game, even good players can get trashed if they don't pay close attention, it's probably, still, the hardest paradox game right now (stellaris might be harder, idk) but the game itself is rather simple, it's almost a board game turned digital, using dice rolls for attacks and such, understanding what's going on isn't an issue, the issue is doing well even though you understand the mechanics.

CK3 has the best UI out of all paradox games, and it will tell you how to play the game, it will remind you that you could be doing certain things through the whole game, and it has a great tooltip system, but the game itself isn't simple, the feudal/dynastic mechanics are unlike anything else out there, CK2 veterans will learn the game with ease, but someone brand new trying to understand sucession, claims, vassal contracts, etc.. Might take a while to learn everything, even though the game does a good job at teaching it.

The issue with CK3 is, as Emperor2000 mentioned, the AI doesn't really do anything, which can be a good thing for a new player, as even though it feels like you have no idea what you're doing, don't worry, the AI doesn't either.

[Abacus]

You simply have to look at the script and see the AI if far more functional then many of the paradox games. It can end up doing some complex algorithms. It is there in code, What it considers and how it weighs it's decisions.

Mind you OP, a lot of people play with save scum at all times. They play "small guns" every time (Fallout reference.) and even pick the exact same lifestyles because "the others aren't optimized."

Anyone who mentions anything optimized in CK 3, is trying to play CK 2. Which is closer to a board game (very objective oriented), compared to the very stimulative CK 3.

I have actually played iron, playing hard starts...AI is far from passive and you can lose within 5 minutes if you don't know what to do.

[Ashling]

They’re all about the same level of complexity and once you’ve gotten a grasp on one of them you can play all of them. Generally, the newer titles have the best learning tools in-game, but the Paradox community is so large that you’ll find good wikis, videos, and guides on all of their mainline titles.

Instead of going by ease-of-use, I’d go by what time period and game-feel you’re most into:

A war game styled off of a board game: EU4 (age of exploration/transition between irregular mercenaries and chaotic nations to professional soldiers under a large state—EU5 might be coming soon)

A war game with an in-depth economy: Victoria 2 (Victorian age; later wars become weird as war changes, but how to ai approaches war doesn’t)

Just the economy (and some politics): Victoria 3

In-depth familial politics and intrigue: Crusader Kings 3 (from early medieval to late medieval)

A war game with some familial politics: CK2 (this game’s free, too, so great starting point for the older titles; also can go back to Charlemagne if that’s of interest to you)

; the Crusader Kings series are also good if you don’t want your only way of expansion being war. Dynasty management is a large draw behind both games.

I, literally, just want war: Hearts of Iron 4 (world war 2; and is the game with the heaviest fan-fair/history for its setting. Technically, Victoria 2 has the most historical backing if you’re including common mods, though)

More into 4x: Stellaris (space)

[Yhvh10]

CK3 is the 'easiest' if you optimize but if you optimize in CK3 you miss the entire point of the game. CK3 isnt about 'winning' its about 'playing'. Much in the same way as Rimworld.

Stellaris is remarkably easy once you figure out the gist of it. I love Stellaris. However Stellaris is also a fun game to crank the difficulty up with.

EU4 isnt recent. Its an old game. And its a hard game. EU4 is easily the hardest PDX game ive played. Its also quite complex if your playing with all DLCs. With lots of small mechanics and whatnot that complicates everything

[GreenEggsAndSam]

Personally I'd say Ck3. Not only does Ck3 have a really good AI (it barely does anything to the player) it also has a ton of content in just the base game. I played just the base game until probably around a year ago when I caved and bought some of the DLCs

[Iskander]

Originally posted by heime2003:

from recent title, victoria 3, crusader kings 3, imperator rome, hearts of iron 4, stellaris, europa universalis 4. which one is the most newbie friendly game?

Having played all of them for at least hundreds of hours, 3 of them for 1,000+ hours, and the earlier editions as well for thousands of hours, my answer is: by far Stellaris is the most newbie friendly.

But: You should want to play the game as well. If you are looking for a dynastic simulator, or a WW2 war sim, or a grand strategy game, there is no point in going for Stellaris. So I would say: pick a game that most appeals to you and then give it a shot. You can always ask your questions on the steam forum or the reddit, or read/watch tutorials to help you out if you are finding it hard.

[Germaine's Bra]

Serious question,

As A Dev or as Publisher?

If you are meaning a Publisher there is quite a few easier ones.

[Hammer Bear]

ck3 is the easiest
in a good way
and bad way

[Arson Aardvark]

This one, honestly. I've tried every title you mentioned above, and CK3 gripped me immediately, and for the longest.

Every time I try HOI 4, I'm demoralized by how obtuse the systems are. Army templates in particular are such a turn off. Not to mention Communism and Democracy essentially feel useless as political identities. The game always just seemed like a coloring book - fill in the other colors with your color until it's all one color. Resupply and equipment managing are literally excel spreadsheets. You have to be a special type of person to enjoy that game continuously.

Stellaris is easy to pick up but it's such a slog to get through a single game. You're staring at a boring galactic map for the entire game, and nothing ever really happens. Then suddenly the game throws Mongol Invasion type stuff at you, but on a far greater scale. And there are a lot of hidden systems I can't make heads or tails of.

I gave up on Victoria 3 after like 75 minutes of the tutorial. I thought it'd be a lot more like CK3 but it felt a little too complex for me, same with Imperator: Rome. Too many economic features for me to care.

[Oubley]

Originally posted by heime2003:

from recent title, victoria 3, crusader kings 3, imperator rome, hearts of iron 4, stellaris, europa universalis 4. which one is the most newbie friendly game?

hands down imperator rome, but isn't very popular; if want the "easiest".

The next one I'd probably say europa Universalis 4 but you'd probably also have to roll back "vanilla" as the current vanilla version probably will feel like it missing a bunch of stuff without certain dlc.

3rd easiest probably say HoI iV

stellaris to me is disqualified because that's more like Stellaris 3 or 4 at this point. There probably a ton of users playing a ton of different versions with this game because the changes have been drastic compared to other games.

EU4 and HoI IV while have a lot of versions too, is a bit more streamline imo across the versions, or in Eu4 case there a bit more must have dlc that most people are going to have.

most fun, probably go more the HoI 4 or Crusader King 3 route.

Crusader Kings3 is a lot easier once get past the learning curve, the learning curve though can be a bit frustrating as it's easier to run into death stacks when a noob.

[Oubley]

Originally posted by Subutai:

ck 3 and Stellaris.

Ck3 has the best tooltip system of all the games. You can get a lot of info from it.

you're one of those lol I find the UI in ck3 to be horrid, to many tooltips inside of tooltips, inside of tooltips.

I miss my spreadsheets, much rather have all my core info all at once even if it looked like horrid spreadsheet