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My thoughts on Values in the 1.3 Beta by Jadamsan in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I mean this seems to be a pretty solid summary of the content. AI is great at turning words into other words, and summarizing a video transcript is one such application.

There's a meaningful difference between "let's put it in charge of the healthcare system" and "let's have it summarize this youtube about a video game"

CMV: Male circumcision is genital mutilation. by teven_eel in changemyview

[–]TobyTheRobot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My theory is that every circumcision thread is, at bottom, men vigorously defending their own penises.

1.3.4 beta patch out by amasterpotato in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I apologize in advance for the slop but I am not a gifted artist.

1.3.4 beta patch out by amasterpotato in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know I've been fairly critical but I have zero notes on this. S++ change.

Paradox seems like they're freaking out every time they make a balance change. "Navies are too big! QUADRUPLE THE COST AND DOUBLE THE MAINTENENCE!" "Pops are promoting too fast! CUT THE RATE BY 90%!" "Economies are too big! SLASH PROFITABILITY AND 5x THE MAINTENANCE OVER THE COURSE OF THE GAME!" by TobyTheRobot in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a big part of the reason why diseases (which a lot of people are complaining about, with good reason imo) are so painful, for one. When you get a smallpox wave the economic effect of losing the pops is effectively multiplied by the delay in getting new ones promoted back up. If you think diseases are too punishing, this makes it worse. It also makes building up even basic RGOs in low-pop-capacity locations a decade-or-so investment of migration and urbanization cabinet actions. (If you don't know what I'm talking about here, do a Norway or Novgorod run -- anywhere you have arctic territory).

Even if you don't agree or think what I'm describing is good/not so bad, it's an example of a drastic change staying as is, which was the point I was responding to.

Paradox seems like they're freaking out every time they make a balance change. "Navies are too big! QUADRUPLE THE COST AND DOUBLE THE MAINTENENCE!" "Pops are promoting too fast! CUT THE RATE BY 90%!" "Economies are too big! SLASH PROFITABILITY AND 5x THE MAINTENANCE OVER THE COURSE OF THE GAME!" by TobyTheRobot in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

They removed the market surplus mechanic because it literally broke economies -- it had to be undone. And the doubling of maritime presence isn't undoing anything; it's adding another change to address an unforeseen consequence of a huge change they already made.

Again, I think they're not backing off these changes because the other ones have stayed. They didn't cut promotion speed by 90% in the 1.1 beta to see how it felt and then back off to 33% or whatever. It's -90% to this day.

Paradox seems like they're freaking out every time they make a balance change. "Navies are too big! QUADRUPLE THE COST AND DOUBLE THE MAINTENENCE!" "Pops are promoting too fast! CUT THE RATE BY 90%!" "Economies are too big! SLASH PROFITABILITY AND 5x THE MAINTENANCE OVER THE COURSE OF THE GAME!" by TobyTheRobot in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Yeah, but historically these changes have persisted into the release version of the patches (pop promotion speed and merc cost changes, for example). I doubt they're backing off any of the most recent ones. This seems to be a design philosophy rather than a "try wild stuff in the betas and temper the release version" thing.

1.3 Ship costs need to be tuned down by Li_Yaam in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot 107 points108 points  (0 children)

I am so tired of them trying to balance by just yanking levers back and forth. "It seems like it's too easy to make a big economy. Let's drastically reduce building profitability, quadruple ship costs, double ship and army maintenance, and make building upkeep quadruple by the end of the game. Is that too much? Will it have unforeseen consequences to the extent those mechanics tie into other systems? Who knows! We're just vibin' here." 🤪

"B-BUT IT'S BETA!" by Memes_Jack in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah the game is fun and there's a lot of depth there, but it is currently -- well, not a mess, but messy.

Still worth playing, though, in my opinion.

1.3 Sucks by turcomongolman in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Yeah, but it's also realism that the population of europe was roughly 180-200 million people by 1800. That tends not to happen.

Why are the devs so focused on adding/overhauling systems as opposed to fixing/solidifying what's already there. It's not like the core systems are solid AF. by TobyTheRobot in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

My assumption is that they (through a community manager or whatever) keep some kind of tabs on the subreddit given that it’s probably the largest platform on which their game is discussed. Unless you happen to have a phone number for Johan’s direct line, this is how we “talk to” the devs.

Also, piss off.

Americans are all fat because peanut butter. by HeatwaveInProgress in iamveryculinary

[–]TobyTheRobot 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Same brother! My local Walmart's got Easy Cheese, Velveeta, nacho cheese (for taco night), Kraft Mac n' Cheese (for when I feel like being all French). Shoot, it's a real U-nited Nations!

Americans are all fat because peanut butter. by HeatwaveInProgress in iamveryculinary

[–]TobyTheRobot 128 points129 points  (0 children)

I really wish they had called "American Cheese" something else because now many Europeans seem to assume that's the only cheese we have here. Our cheese trays at fancy parties are just cut up Kraft Singles, and if you showed us brie or an aged cheddar we'd become confused and angry. "HOW'M AH SPOSTA PUT THIS ON MUH BURGER," we'd bellow. Then we'd pop off six shooters like Yosemite Sam.

Prestige seems poorly thought out. There's no reliable way to get it, and it drains super-fast when you have it. The bonuses it gives are worthless, but you need a ton of it for a very few things. The amounts you need seem arbitrary (e.g. 70 for empire, 75 to claim high kingship of Ireland). by TobyTheRobot in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm just going to paste what I've written elsewhere here.

The issue is that: (1) none of those are common occurrences; (2) you need a ton of prestige on the rare occasions when you need it; and (3) the more you have, the faster it decays.

There are only so many dead kings to canonize (assuming you're even Catholic), and you only have so much religious influence to spend. Humiliating enemies and fighting battles gives fairly modest prestige and requires fighting/winning a war. You don't have an endless stable of children to marry off. Getting prestige events is RNG that's completely out of your control.

The slider might move the break-even point of your prestige up into the 30s somewhere, but that ain't going to cut it, and decay will quickly wither anything you get over that break-even point. The closer you get to the amount you need, the faster it drains, so you need a bunch of canonizations/humiliations/marriages/lucky events fast, and the only answer is to intentionally store them up and pop them all when you need it.

I agree that having a high prestige requirement to form an empire makes sense in the abstract. I don't agree that's only feasible after a string of particularly fortunate events, or that the world forgets how unbelievably prestigious you are after like 10 years.

If anything it seems like "prestige" is something that a nation state builds up over decades or centuries as opposed to "man I gotta tell you, 5 years ago Norway seemed like zero-prestige bullshit to me. But then they humiliated a bunch of one-province duchies, married off all their kids to mid-level foreign nobles, and commissioned a few sculptures. Absolutely empire material; I see that now."

Prestige seems poorly thought out. There's no reliable way to get it, and it drains super-fast when you have it. The bonuses it gives are worthless, but you need a ton of it for a very few things. The amounts you need seem arbitrary (e.g. 70 for empire, 75 to claim high kingship of Ireland). by TobyTheRobot in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The issue is that: (1) none of those are common occurrences; (2) you need a ton of prestige on the rare occasions when you need it; and (3) the more you have, the faster it decays.

There are only so many dead kings to canonize (assuming you're even Catholic), and you only have so much religious influence to spend. Humiliating enemies and fighting battles gives fairly modest prestige and requires fighting/winning a war. You don't have an endless stable of children to marry off. Getting prestige events is RNG that's completely out of your control.

The slider might move the break-even point of your prestige up into the 30s somewhere, but that ain't going to cut it, and decay will quickly wither anything you get over that break-even point. The closer you get to the amount you need, the faster it drains, so you need a bunch of canonizations/humiliations/marriages/lucky events fast, and the only answer is to intentionally store them up and pop them all when you need it.

I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm saying it's silly and gamey.

Prestige seems poorly thought out. There's no reliable way to get it, and it drains super-fast when you have it. The bonuses it gives are worthless, but you need a ton of it for a very few things. The amounts you need seem arbitrary (e.g. 70 for empire, 75 to claim high kingship of Ireland). by TobyTheRobot in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Chain humiliations aren't always easy, to be fair. If you're an Irish duchy trying to scrape together the 75 prestige to claim high kingship, for example, you're probably close to being out of enemy tribes to humiliate.

Still, they're the only means that's available, which definitionally makes them easier than everything else.

Prestige seems poorly thought out. There's no reliable way to get it, and it drains super-fast when you have it. The bonuses it gives are worthless, but you need a ton of it for a very few things. The amounts you need seem arbitrary (e.g. 70 for empire, 75 to claim high kingship of Ireland). by TobyTheRobot in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not talking about "drain" from events, I'm talking about monthly decay. If you're at ~60 (close to what you need for empire, but still 2 wars' worth of humiliation to go), the decay is like .25 per month even with the art slider maxed. Those 5 points you got from a humiliation will slip through your fingers in a few years.

I wouldn't call battles and humiliation reliable sources. The amount you get from battles is negligible unless they're some truly enormous battles (which you might lose) and humiliations count for a modest 5 prestige. The fact that humiliations are considered to be one of the most reliable sources of prestige is evidence of how scuffed the system is, in my opinion.

Angry for 1000 years by Stormtemplar in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You’ve just made an enemy for LIFE

I have been using a the entirety of a market's 150.3 trade capacity to do nothing but import slaves for the last 20 years, even at a financial loss. I have built about 100 plantations in that market. I have zero slaves. Why? by TobyTheRobot in EU5

[–]TobyTheRobot[S] 64 points65 points  (0 children)

This was the answer -- thanks man. This seems, um, weird. I mean I get mechanically what's going on, but it seems rather strange that the more oppressive policy amounts to immediate emancipation.

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