Why does late game suck?

Later Game = Bigger Number... right?

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Video Chapters:
0:00 - 0:52 Intro
0:52 - 4:00 Hearts of Iron IV
4:00 - 10:29 Stellaris
10:29 - 16:56 Crusader Kings II
16:56 - 23:47 Europa Universalis IV
23:47 - 23:52 Outro

See you next Video!

[algebraizt]

“And Alexander wept, for he saw there was about 1000 more worlds to conquer but his CPU could handle about 10”

[Sliphantom]

The reason late game sucks is because there's no entropy. By the end of the game, especially in EU4, most of the land has been gobbled up by huge blobs with colossal militaries - the kind that would require an impossibly efficient hive-mind bureaucracy to run and keep stable. Rebellions are a joke, and internal instability doesn't scale up with the size of the empire, even if it conquered multitudes of other peoples to get there.

There are other issues such as late-game lag and micro which make it annoying, but I think the biggest issue with lategame in most of the Paradox titles is that there are no mechanics that inherently counter snowballing.

[Pioneer_DE]

Problem with every Strategy late game:
-Game is too slow
-Player is too powerful
-AI spams units
-Everyone is allied with everyone causing 1 minor war to escalate into total war (WW1 RP)
-There is nothing more to do (Focus tree, research etc)
-There is nothing more to build

[Follower_of_Yeshua]

It Sucks, Because you have Become to Strong and the Most Difficult thing is Not Falling Asleep.

[sean]

Real paradox game moment: "I only have a bit of experience in this game" 500 hours lol

[freddekl]

For all 5 people that care, Imperator is actually fun up to the end-date, mainly cause without try-hardism even for Rome it's a challenge to reach max historical borders or WC, and with anything weaker it's a never ending cycle of build-up, line-go-up and assimilation and you actually have to put effort in keeping your country together to limit just blobbing everywhere

[ghostrangerz]

“And Alexander wept, for he saw there was no more worlds left to conquer.”

[detachedobserver]

"HoI4 is not intended to be played past endgame"
>Looks at Turkey's focus tree
"I'm not sure, buddy"

[domehammer]

I got a modest 1.5k hours in Stellaris and the biggest issue with the game I have is there are a ton of super fun A.I personalities that you will NEVER see. What you gotta do is make a bunch of custom empires following the wiki to get them to spawn with specific personalities. Fanatical Befrienders and Metalheads are wild but you've probably never seen them spawn naturally. A bunch of AI personalities require not just specific ethics but the founder species to have specific traits. So whenever I play Stellaris I have a bunch of custom empires forced spawn so I see variety every game. It also means unless I'm also playing a megacorp only two max will spawn in the galaxy.

For reference Metalheads are so aggressive they usually die, they don't care about being stronger they will just attack. A devouring swarm has 3x aggressiveness while Metalheads have that at 10x.

What I want most in Stellaris is a shattered galaxy option where galaxy is broken into chunks connected by hyperlanes but not to other chunks. Only way to reach the other chunks of galaxy being wormholes, gateways, jump drives, and the catapult.

[ziggytheassassin]

Stellaris would be at its best late game if it didnt slow down so much. World killers, megastructures, the endgame crisis, and late game diplomacy like galactic custodian etc is actually really cool. War in heaven is a game killer tho because usually most of the map joins a single federation.

[Archduke_Astatos]

A huge issue with HOI4 (this is the paradox game Ive played the most) late game is that by 1945, even in mods, 99% of the time you're either so powerful nobody can touch you or you're neck deep into a war that you've been fighting since 1941 or earlier and it's slowly draining the life out of you, the games way of saying "fuck off and touch grass".

[sld]

The biggest problem with Hoi4 late game is that it's generally way too easy. You stabilize the frontline gain air superiority logistic bomb their trucks and trains and just right click past Moscow or something. It just takes about 6 months preparation to unstuck a frontline.

[puransu]

by the late game, the AI just shows that they're really bad at the game. In EU4/Imperator, once you've done your missions (they're always overloaded with buffs for the players) the AI just doesn't know what to do with their army/manpower even if they outnumber or outdevelop you. In CK, it's ridiculous how easy the late game is because you're blobbing even when you're actively not trying to because of how your vassals can sometimes just inherit land outside your realm even at the highest crown authority. Not to mention all the super soldiers you can come up with your retinue/knights.

The Victoria games are the only ones that have somewhat interesting late games, especially Vic 2, because 1) the game ends arguably early when it's just about to be boring and you're about to cruise on gas attack tank/plane and battleship stacks and 2) there's guaranteed world-altering Great Wars to mix things up that sorta compares how well you've been doing against other nations and puts a nice ending to how you've been slowly building your nation internally.

[wintermute]

Crusader Kings has some other advantages over the other paradox games. The game allows for lots of kinds of expansion and map painting that don't involve directly conquering other places through systems like conversion, placing relatives on distant thrones, or the merchant republic trade post mechanics. It also gives you the opportunity to wildly shake up how you're playing even very late in the game. It also shares something like the 'crisis' system from Stellaris, what with the Mongols in the late game (and the more controversial Aztec Invasion slightly earlier if you play with it). In one of the most memorable campaigns I played I spent the first 3/4s playing as a ventian trading family, slowly building up the family palace and crushing the other merchant republics in the mediterranean while playing a careful diplomatic game with the islamic world, then I joined a crusade late in the game with a small force, did way better than expected and almost accidentally ended up becoming king of jerusalem. Suddenly I was playing with all the standard feudal mechanics and had a totally different set of priorities. It was great, and not really possible with any other pdx game.

[pogusmogus]

remain calm
all province tierlist endures
lemon cake will suffer
i finally was early again
there is much to be done

[borginburkes]

CK2 has the best endgame because the game is so random that literally anything can happen. No two play throughs are exactly the same in CK2.

[simona]

CK:s RP elements also adds to the games longevity. When I get bored with developing my empire and dynasty I can just start a love affair with the pope, turn my family tree into a bush or start worshipping Satan.

[Dogman]

Lategame Mount & Blade Warband is brutal slogfest of conquering every single siegable place on the entire MAP

[TheCarloCarlone]

The problem I have with stellaris is that by the time I finish my ring world, I don't need a ring world anymore

[brocklee]

"And Alexander wept, for his campaign had too much late-game lag to conquer."