I know pirating is always an option, and I used to play EU4 completely pirated.
But I got some credit remaining on Steam and they’re on sale right now, so lads, which should I go for?
Background info being I only played EU4 before, and enjoyed the nation-building side more rather than the military strategy. Although I was able to do some WCs back in the day and I do like micromanaging and extending a 20hr campaign into a 100hr one.
Stellaris > CK3 > Vic3.
At least until the damn slackers update Elder Kings mod then CK3 will be best.
Vic have way too much micromanagement for me. Stellaris have most content and best mods, but it bloats like crazy and work like shit later in game.
Problem with pirating those games is that all of them live by the mods, and best source of mods is Steam workshop. I think CK3 is the one best here since major total conversion mods usually have github or other alternative download. So my advice would be pirate this one and see if you like it.
Finally there is DLC question if you want to buy. Vic is the newest, it have only single DLC but is pretty barebones overall. Stellatis have shitton of DLC so it’s most polished with most content, but it would be expensive, though you can get a lot of them very cheap in keyshops or whatnot. CK3 is middle way, last DLC about tournaments was banger, easily best PDX DLC ever for me.
@PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml @nimux@Nimux@lemmygrad.ml @WhatWouldKarlDo@lemmygrad.ml @Drewfro66@lemmygrad.ml
Tagging all because I’d rather just do a single reply since everyone mentioned similar things.
Yeah to be honest I was mainly looking at Vic3 or Stellaris in the first place, never was into the dynasties of the CK series that much.
The main issue is really just age, Vic3 in classic Paradox fashion, is often buggy and dysfunctional because it is a new release. Just wondered how much it improved since then, but from y’alls replies, it still has a long way to go.
I guess I’ll settle for Stellaris for now. Thanks for the help.
I’ll definitely play Vic3 one day though - it’s mechanics and setting is just too interesting for me personally. But I’ll give it more time for the devs to sort out everything before committing. When I got sucked into EU4, it was already like 4 years since release so I can definitely wait.
Not a bad choice at all! Stellaris is great fun, and Vicky 3 is still pretty much only for people who are willing to accept a bit of brokenness right now.
I’ve bounced off of both Stellaris and CK3 repeatedly but I’ve fallen completely in love with Victoria 3. I think it’s easily the easiest game to get into if you enjoy eu4.
It has problems, yeah. There are some countries that are just completely broken in the current version. But it’s still overall playable and will only get better in time.
I’m curious which countries you consider broken? I’ve played Russia, Cuba, Dai Nam, Hawaii, France, and Nejd. I found Hawaii to be the worst, simply because of its isolation. But they all seemed quite playable to me.
In the current version, nation unification mechanics are broken, making Italy and Germany games way harder than is reasonable. In addition, it’s ridiculously difficult to keep Dixie as a primary culture in the American Reconstruction.
Ah, I see. I did unify Arabia in my Nejd game in the current version. But I admittedly don’t actually know how the unification mechanics are supposed to work. I conquered my way to unification.
Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia have more involved unification mechanics. At game launch they were fine more or less but the most recent update made a change that means any unification war puts you against all nations that hold land with your primary culture homeland. So since France owns Alsace-Lorraine and Savoy, they always get pulled into these wars.
In addition, the required provinces for forming Italy was upped to the point that you can no longer form them without taking some land from Austria first.
For some reason Austria and Russia ally in like 90% of games, so any unification war from Italy or Germany will put you at war with France, Austria, and Russia. And since it’s so difficult for Italy and Germany to form, you can’t rely on your AI counterpart to help in the war (even though irl the Brothers War was Germany and Italy together against Austria with no allies).
It’s really not worth it, the games aren’t complete unless you own all their dlc, I really recommend pirating paradox in particular
Yeah I agree but I have some money remaining on my Steam that I literally have nothing else to use for (I don’t really play “expensive” games other than Paradox).
May aswell fund some Swedes for wasting hundreds of hours of my time lol
I personally prefer Stellaris. Vic3 is optimized like shit, lacks a lot of basic features and has little replayability. And while there are interesting mods, none managed to really redeem the game in my eyes.
Ck3 is pretty good, I’m just not really into the dynasty and personal relationship stuff. That one is also better on steam, as there are many great mods on the steam workshop and the dlcs are few and unremarkable. You won’t miss much by only buying the base game.
Stellaris is better for nation building, with an economic system that’s somehow better than Vic3. The politic side of things is rather lacking however. Overall it’s a balanced game, with good economy, diplomacy and warfare. Like I said the only subpart department is politics, in which Vic3 is way better. The workshop is also very good for this game, but with the price of all dlcs piracy is also a good choice.
Note: Stellaris’ frequent hotfixes and such mean that you’re unlikely to be able to enjoy multiplayer if you have a pirated version. From personal experience.
I haven’t played the other 2, but I like vic3 for the satisfaction of growing industry as well as the freedom from focus trees and set paths of hoi4.
I know you didn’t really mention it as one of the three options, but if you haven’t tried it you sound like you might like Cities Skylines. Its a micromanagers dream game, and theres plenty of replay value and longevity for each save game. Admittedly a lot of fun stuff is locked behind DLC but this is the case for every paradox game nowadays.
Actually I have played it before. I very much enjoy it but I’m not sure why, it never really had any “staying” power. I would build a city, sometimes up to only 5k population, sometimes 50k and I’ll completely forget about that city and the game for months. I never really got “hooked” into the game, which is usually what happens with others.
It for sure fulfilled my micromanaging needs though. Thanks for reminding me - I know that public transport isn’t as atrocious as it once was with the later DLCs and updates. Maybe the next time I’ll actually able to manage traffic.
It depends what you’re after.
CK3 is pretty well polished. It’s surprisingly accessible this time around, and it’s actually a really fun eugenics simulator. Recommended for fans of medieval royalty.
Stellaris is also well polished at this point. It’s easily the least weird Paradox game. It plays like a traditional 4x game in space. There’s a little something in the game for everyone and you can’t go wrong. Especially for sci fi fans.
Victoria 3 is my pick of the bunch. It’s rough. Rough enough that I wouldn’t argue if you called it broken. But the core is solid. I’ve spent a stupid amount of time with this game already. It’s a nation builder with an economic model that was designed by Marx himself. I’m already pretty much resigned to buying all the DLC for this game on day one. I’ve always waited for sales in other PDS games. Strongly recommended for people with an interest in macro economics and 19th century politics.
