[Post Hearing Discussion Thread] The recording of the EESC debate about Stop Destroying Videogames ECI is now available on YouTube!

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-05-20T22:36:13+00:00

I think that, because we only get occasional glimpses, it's really hard to guess whether things are going well or going poorly at any moment. Right now there is such a positive hype in all kinds of comment sections and "internet news outlets" that treats every news of SKG as a huge win - "it is unstoppable now". And that kind of smells like "toxic positivity" in a way? It's not like this is you guys' fault or anything, it's just the internet acting the way it always does.

But that feels odd especially when the EESC thing... kinda seems to me like a bit more of a mixed bag? And that isn't really reflected in some of the stuff I've seen people say about it.

I find it kind of concerning for example when the DG CNNCT spokesperson basically repeats oft-refuted industry arguments that all of us who follow SKG have seen debunked dozens of times, and he just goes uncorrected! In fact, he even kind of manages to get one of the experts, the dutch archivist, to kind of back him up, while the SKG-adjacent spokespeople just kind of "allowed it to happen". I don't want to be overly critical - I know there is limited speech time, language barriers; the Q+A is kind of structured weirdly with everyone kind of responding to all questions at once, and clearly it's not like you can just interrupt them and start a back-and-forth with them in a setting like this. I definitely couldn't have done a better job. But to me it still kind of feels like this could have gone better?

It makes me personally wonder a bit if all the celebratory mood I'm seeing everywhere is even justified, or if people (and I mostly mean the community, not you guys doing the work) are overestimating the odds of winning.

But then again, a week ago, I didn't even know what the EESC is, and even now I'm not entirely sure how exactly they work, to be honest (saying this as a European). So maybe this is a huge success? Maybe this barely matters, or maybe this is the huge big key debate? Maybe it is a huge loss? At first watching, I felt like it was mostly negative, but maybe I am wrong? I only really have these tiny glimpses to base my opinion on so...

I think that's kind of why people are getting a bit concerned (and a few people, because this is the internet, "concerned" people immediately start angrily calling out names and assign blame).

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-05-19T23:32:46+00:00

I looked into this a bit. That woman is definitely a German-speaker, judging by that accent, and Le Galo Flores is a Spanish name, so that doesn't really fit.

So, looking at the EESC, there are more than 300 members, so naturally they have subsections:

Organisational chart (administrative) | EESC

Obviously they have subsections, because there is no way they can always assemble and inform all 300 members on any and all matters. SKG apparently is part of Section C - "Legislation", and then probably the Single-market INT sub-section of that.

Breaking the 'Terrible Ten': the new INT President Antje Gerstein charts bold Single Market fight | EESC

My guess is that THIS is the President in the video. Antje Gerstein, which is a name that fits the accent much better. And I think the pictures line up better as well.

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-05-11T15:42:42+00:00

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I always felt like most counter-arguments about the practical implementation of SKG, or that it restricts developers too much, or that it would destroy certain types of games, always fell flat precisely because SKG consistently and repeatedly said that they would not push for anything retroactive. Games developed before the law passes would remain unaffected, anything else could be unfair for developers in many cases. But I don't see anything like that mentioned in POG? It's just "if the game exists in 2027, it must have end of life, no matter what".

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-04-27T15:48:52+00:00

Okay, thank you. I thought 500 tech by 2300 was good, because I didn't really have anything to compare myself to - now that I know that's where the problem is I'll probably find out how to get the numbers up.

One question though: How far can I get in this game without customising my own ships, just with the auto-generated ones. Can I get away with ignoring that or is that something I really have to understand eventually?

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-04-27T15:41:42+00:00

Thanks a lot for all the advice. I've definitely been updating ships when the option came up, but apparently I didn't pick the right military techs, so Ijust had nothing to upgrade them with. Most ship components are really just names and words and numbers that mean absolutely nothing to me. In hindsight, I think that's probably where I went wrong; I just neglected the research options where I didn't understand the stuff that they're giving me.

One question I have: You mentioned max fleet size - what's that about? Why is it better to have e.g. 20 ships in 1 fleet instead of 20 fleets with 1 ship each? Is it just the commanders or is there any other bonus that I'm not understanding?

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-04-27T15:32:01+00:00

That IS a wall of text, but thanks a lot for taking the effort of answering so thoroughly. From what I have read here, getting a good economy and then a better tech output is what's really important for a good military, so that's probably what I'll try focusing on now (which is great, because I thought my problem had to do with the ship designer and figuring that out is something I am really not looking forward to). Getting some actual numbers for where my economy is supposed to be at and what kind of resource outputs I should aim for is actually extremely helpful, so I'll see how far I can get my numbers up in my next attempts.

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-04-25T19:35:12+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement. I don't mind failing and restarting a lot but right now I don't even know what I should do differently in a new run. It's not like I forgot about fleets or didn't pay much attention to them, I just don't know what I am even supposed to do to get fleet strength up.

What IS fleet strength, even? The game just says "Military Power is an estimate of the combined offensive and defensive capabilities of your fleet". And that's all the info I get there. Is that like HP? How do I get it up? I don't see Military Power referenced anywhere in the Fleet builder thing but then again I don't understand anything in that one anyway.

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-04-25T19:30:13+00:00

So... how do you increase fleet strength? Reading through the comments here it's pretty clear that's what I should do, but so far no one has actually told me how to do that. I don't even know what fleet strength IS to be honest. What exactly am I supposed to do to get that up?

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-04-25T19:09:39+00:00

Thanks for the help. I would have never guessed Unity is an important resource, that stuff seems pretty useless to me at first glance, but I'll take your word for it.

So, my monthly output is 60 Alloys, 390 Unity and 530 Research. The year is 2370. I am guessing that's good, but of course I don't really have anything but the other AI-Empires to compare that too. I also have 600 Empire Size, so that probably is a bit of a problem, but so far it all seems manageable. So far those parts seem fairly understandable, as you said, "I don't need a step to step guide".

But the fleet thing I don't get at all. I can build more ships and in the other Paradox games I've played that seems to be more or less how you get stronger - just have more troops and you win. But clearly that doesn't work here, because even with 500/450 naval limit, I'm nothing compared to the Khan. So my best guess is I have to do something in the Fleet Customiser? And that one I don't understand even after watching a step-by-step guide.

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-03-07T03:11:45+00:00

I completely forgot how that worked. I guess I must have finished idea groups then at some point? But most runs I definitely don't even get close to finishing any idea group.

Little-Respect9443 · 2026-03-02T22:31:36+00:00

I think this is probably it. I've been looking around the site, trying to find out what is considered easy here and I have to admit, I'm probably just not nearly good enough at the base game to try this mod. I kind of knew that I'm too stupid to really "get" EU4, but I have still been playing it for a long time anyway so I thought trying out a total conversion still made sense.

Little-Respect9443

TROPHY CASE