Real time or turn based?

[Peter B]

Topic really. I never got into any of Paradox's other titles since I dislike real time strategy. Crusader Kings looks interesting though.

[yusupov]

all of their games are realtime but you can of course pause & adjust the timescale on the fly.

i have to wonder why this game is so appealing to people. it looks insanely complicated.

ive tried to like paradox games in the past but always find them overwhelming & lacking entirely in immersive qualities. i guess theyre ok for people who would enjoy playing a boardgame that could play itself. wish theyd make something that feels a little more transportative if that makes sense.

[Glorious Tachikoma Overlord]

You can't really call it "real time strategy" because pretty much every action (like moving troops etc.) takes multiple days or are instant (like in the Total War series in your turn), that means even though the days in the game pass in a real time manner you still get the feeling that you are playing a turn based game, only with tons of smaller turns every year. You'll make 80% of your major decisions while pausing the flow of time anyway.

If you are a Total War fan give CK 2 a shot, I was sceptical of the "semi-turn based" game mechanic when I first heard of it but in the end the difference to a "true" turn based system is pretty negligible. It's basically a Total War game without real time battles but a 200% deeper and overall better strategy campaign (map part). The lack of RTS battles is made up by the fact that the auto resolve battles in CK 2 have massive depth compared to those in TW (including different leadership perks of generals, unit types, terrain, formations/strategies and battle phases) as well.

[Peter B]

Thanks for the answers guys. :)

[Glorious Tachikoma Overlord]

Originally posted by Peter B:

Thanks for the answers guys. :)

And another tip: Wait till the CK 2 Collection is on a 75% sale again (either in the steam store or the Humble Bundle store) before buying the game. Buying the base game without the massive content the DLCs offer is IMO not worth it and wasted time and money (because you'll end up buying them anyway). Besides starting new campaigns before the release of the next DLC are not worth it anyway because old saves won't be compatible with the new content anyway.

[h.arle]

My tip is to wait for the Rajas of India DLC to come out -- the last time they released a major DLC, they sold a package with the game and DLCs at 50 or 75% off (I bought it when The Old Gods came out).

[prince_of_arfon]

Originally posted by Ragnar Blackmane:

And another tip: Wait till the CK 2 Collection is on a 75% sale again (either in the steam store or the Humble Bundle store) before buying the game. Buying the base game without the massive content the DLCs offer is IMO not worth it and wasted time and money (because you'll end up buying them anyway). Besides starting new campaigns before the release of the next DLC are not worth it anyway because old saves won't be compatible with the new content anyway.

I definitely agree about waiting for a big sale, since they happen so often for CKII. Sure, the base game by itself is easily worth full price for the over 100 hours you'll get from it, but most of the DLC is so fantastic that you really will want it to increase the depth and breadth of your game.

One correction, though: I believe all DLCs work with all save games. I know I continued my save games from vanilla all the way through the first 2 or 3 DLCs, and campaigns started with Legacy of Rome have continued through with The Old Gods activated. However I don't have The Republics, the Aztec one, or Sons of Abraham, so I don't know if those affect compatibility.

[Exothermically Eclectic]

Originally posted by prince_of_arfon:

One correction, though: I believe all DLCs work with all save games. I know I continued my save games from vanilla all the way through the first 2 or 3 DLCs, and campaigns started with Legacy of Rome have continued through with The Old Gods activated. However I don't have The Republics, the Aztec one, or Sons of Abraham, so I don't know if those affect compatibility.

All DLCs released before the save was started, yes. However, the patches that come with a DLC release pretty much always invalidate saves.

[Nats]

Originally posted by Peter B:

Topic really. I never got into any of Paradox's other titles since I dislike real time strategy. Crusader Kings looks interesting though.

Europa Universalis 4 is slightly better than CK2.

The real time is not noticable, I play EU4 on slow and pause a lot, its not a big deal in EU4 where you get very good reports on everything that is going on. I have only ever missed the occasional battle when I was busy with something else. The games are so long in terms of timescale that things happen slowly most of the time so you can run it on slow and occassionally speed the game up and pause when you get messages.

The earlier Paradox games werent quite so good on reporting events EU4 is a massive way forward in improving the players awareness of what is going on in the game. But the fact is there is so much going on in the game elsewhere from your empire that you actually dont need to know most of what is happening, it just all goes on around you. As long as you keep tabs on what is happening to your enemies/neighbours that is all that matters.

Plus you rarely get a situation where you have more than two battles going on at once and the side menu makes it easy to keep tabs on all your battles progress as well as seige progress etc. Its certainly not like other real time games like Sins of Solar Empire or Wargame where once you enter a battle things get really hectic and you are lucky to have much control over anything. In this game you never feel out of control.

[happy]

paradox finaly makes user friendly games, without dumbing down the gameplay
learning curves are still steep, but, after a while you get it
as for real time, it s really not a hassle, it s not like you ll be stressed because you get aggro on all side and have 2 seconds to react, just press pause, think, make yourself a coffee, think again, unpause, pause again
no sweat, really, every decision can be made and ordered while paused, just unpause and wait for actions to take effects, pause again, rince and repeat
CK2 is old people friendly