The issue to me is that the discounts aren't even that interesting. I would love to get back into CK3 to see how it evolved since launch, but even during a big sale buying a few of the most impactful DLCs would cost me as much as a brand new game.
Stop buying paradox products, stellaris certainly taught me that lesson
We can only vote with our wallets but people rather drool mindlessly in front of games they’re just addicted to and barely like
I'd consider buying 1 dlc pack for Stellaris but atm I just played the base game on GamePass to learn the basics. I think the other user in this thread had a point about the industry needing to make money constantly and not just make money upon release. I'm glad that paradox supports their games unlike other companies that make dreadful console ports to xbox and never update anything, even when the tools and advice exists from microsoft.
What I dislike more than paradox is these companies that publish a game and abandon it after a few months. They could at least update the graphics for Series S/X consoles but no, games like Aliens: Dark Descent and Batman are left with blurry 2012 graphics because the companies don't care. Even worse is the games with freezing or crashing bugs.
Sure paradox charge a lot of money for dlc and they keep pumping it out but the same could be said for age of empires 2 and 4. If the game is worth it for you then you'll buy a major dlc bundle and spend all your time in the game you like most.
There are now subscriptions for dlc?! 💀 Yikes!
I used to buy a lot of DLC for Paradox grand strategy games. I never thought full-price was worth it, but they regularly had 90+% off sales where you could pick up all but the most recent for a couple bucks each. Nowadays they never seem to go lower than 50%, which puts them solidly in the price range where I could get an entire game for the same price, and I can't justify that.
That's true. I have a similar dilemma with war thunder. It can be expensive and I feel like it's rage inducing. Surely buying a full game is better for replay value. Why spend extra when there are so many other options.
And so, I shop around. GamePass on Xbox Series S has been great for 2 months. It gives me a clear picture of what I might pay for in the future. Stellaris seems pretty cool though and they keep supporting it, which can't be said for the bargain bin games that I pick up for pennies.
I bought the Stellaris "Starter Pack" when it was on sale for 9 EUR. It comes with 4 of the DLCs (out of 32 total).
I had great fun playing that game for over 200 hours, and didn't once feel like I was missing out by not buying more of the DLC.
It's a great game even if you just play the base game.
I think the base game stinks and it doesn't give me much to work with. I can't even do espionage without Nemesis dlc. Options are limited in my opinion. Same thing with cities skylines. Base game doesn't offer much.
Stellaris is like cities skylines - really bland stock game. I think if you just buy pack 1 for stellaris it's pretty good. That's what someone on xbox told me. It's annoying to research it but I think it's hard to go wrong. More money = more gameplay options.
The problem that keeps some people away is that they release a game that is a bare bones experience and then fuck their customers with piecemeal DLC for years afterwards. They are so bold as to release a game with features removed from the previous game then sell those features as DLC.
I have no doubt that the devs working for Paradox make good games, and I would certainly like to play them and experience their work. Their management however are fucking scum who will never see any of my money unless they change their ways (they won't).
This is exactly the case for me. I don't mind a DLC or two if they are actual full expansions of the game, but when I see a hundred little ones that should all have been one thing, I won't have anything to do with it.
They are one of very few studios who update their games for years after release. Games make the biggest chunk of lifetime revenue at release. Unless you are a unicorn and have low development costs (Minecraft, Terraria, factorio), you will simply go bankrupt updating your game for free. See the rise of industry dude, made 4 million and now lost his house. Why? He kept funding development for four years without any revenue. Everyone who wanted the game bought it in the first year.
If you want to keep updating your game for more than a couple of months you need cashflow. You have the choice of micro transactions, subscriptions or dlc. You need to do this or go bankrupt.
Paradox gives free content updates along every DLC. I really fail to see how that is bad. The alternative would be to simply release the game, patch it for a couple months, then start working on the next game, like every other game studio. But people would hate that to. You can really do nothing in the games industry without people hating on you.
They don't though? Okay, i haven't played any of their new stuff (my poison was Stellaris), but the base games have always been decent to play. Their dlc has been getting worse, Stellaris race packs just should not be a thing, but it's not as bad as some people make it out to be.
Stellaris on release and stellaris now are like 2 completely different games anyway
Is there actually a way to get to play the original? We now kind of have Stellaris 2, and Stellaris 1 is some kind of abandonware?! Although officially they are both Stellaris 1, of course.
We are kind of on stellaris 3.5 I would say. I think the 1.0 build is still available on steam
I think the 1.0 build is still available on steam
...wut?! How?
Go in properties of the game to the game version tab. But it looks like the oldest is 2.1.3 unfortunately
Oh, so Stellaris 4 is out already?!
I'm apparently currently running Stellaris 4.2.3. I didn't even know it's not Stellaris 1 anymore!
It's... Weird. If they consider there to have been already Stellaris 2 and Stellaris 3, meaning they see it as a different game, then... Why just delete Stellaris 1?
But also, I do need to try downgrading to 2.1.3 and see how it feels now that I'm used to the ways of Stellaris 4!
Good question, maybe it was compatibility issues ? Might be able to find 1.0 somewhere online I'm sure
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