I swear they put more effort in the anti-communist propaganda system than in the rest of the game combined.
Makes me laugh how they call it paranoia, when there are actually 5 groups trying to start a civil war. The devs kinda failed on that one, as they ended up being like “the purges were horrible, but it would have been much worse without them.”
Honestly the obligatory civil war makes playing anything else than historical a massive pain. By the time you finish the civil war and deal with the aftermath, the game is basically already over.
I know the meme about communist infighting, but there really should have been a way in game for Bukharin to get in power legally, while Trotsky could have a coup without a country-wide civil war.
they could have salvaged it if they used the same system but reworked it into a “Coup Risk” or “Counter-revolution” mechanic, but for some reason its one single man’s insane paranoia.
Even keeping the entire system and only changing the word “Paranoia” to “Counter-Revolutionary Activity” would have been leagues better and more historical then painting all the events as just Stalin’s “paranoia”. It doesn’t even make any sense in game, because if the “paranoia” gets high, a coup/counter revolution is launched, so why call it “paranoia” if the threat is actually real?
It all could have all been salvaged with the changing of a single word.
Would be a pretty good mod idea actually.
Definitely. Plus it only involves changing a single word in about 20 .txt files, seems like good practice for a new modder.
IIRC the only thing that happens when “paranoia” reaches 100% when you play the historical path is a lot of people get purged
Yeah if you play the Stalin path then this is it I think. However when you play any of the other paths technically low “paranoia” makes it easier to launch coups and civil wars. Also I believe before No Step Back that not doing the purge would incite a Trot uprising.
Low paranoia is easier for starting the coup, but having higher paranoia means that more generals and advisors get the “Cowed by Stalin trait” meaning that they’ll 100% switch over in a civil war. Plus getting the paranoia high means you can cripple the army and air force to an absurd degree and make the coup much easier to accomplish.
