same here till i watched one hour of videos on youtube explaining the UI. not how to play....
i spent days reading wiki on my way to school and work just to grasp the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD639FE6C98CD8923

As much of a fan of Paradox games as I am, I have to warn people that it's typically a bad idea to pre-order from them, as their games are often a buggy mess at release, and only become great after a few patches and sometimes an xp pack or two.

That being said, I'm still pre-ordering since I want to support them and I know I'll have plenty of fun eventually with EU 4, but waiting for user feedback and the first few patches wouldn't be a bad idea for people who don't love Paradox games already.

Didn't they actually say the exact opposite, that the game will be tightly integrated with steamworks features and therefore won't be able to work without Steam.

I wouldn't recommend that for other reason as well - as soon as the first expansion comes (sually few months after release), the price will drop AT LEAST 50%.

It's gonna be -75% before Christmas, and finally patched so it's playable.

Preordering a Paradox game is paying extra for the privilege of beta-testing.

Also applies if you buy it a few months after release.

The only Steamworks features it's actually utilizing are auto-updates and multi-player. So yeah, the CK2 method of running the game right from the executable without needing Steam running should still work. You will need Steam for installation, DLC installation and updates, though.

Well, that's not quite true anymore. Their last 3 games were mostly stable on release, and the first 1 or 2 patches took care of any problems.
Meaning that while I wouldn't preorder except to support Paradox, if the reviews a few weeks after release are positive you can be pretty sure the game is stable, and there is no reason not to buy it then.

Not based on CK2 at launch. PDS has really tightened up their in-house releases.

CK2 was DRM-free, unless they changed their mind since the initial announcement (that the game wouldn't be available DRM-free) it was strongly implied that the game would require Steam not just being distributed on it.

Anyway unless there is an official post from the devs that the game will be playable on a Steam-less PC there is no real way of being sure of either before the actual release date.

Yes, it will require Steam to install, and to install DLC and get updates. If you want to play it without using the Steam client, that will still be possible. It will also be possible to move the entire game folder somewhere else on the drive and run it completely independently.

Here we go, a post by one of the devs (scroll down a bit to see Tegus' post) : http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?659511-Have-to-download-through-Steam-%28for-devs%29/page4&s=5cdf788d7aa76493b925e2fb74363472

[i]My two cents:

For those of you who dislike the Steam auto-updates out there(or maybe Steam altogether). Please note that Steam is only required to install the game, but not required to run it. Steam can be configured to also act as a DRM for games, but currently we do not use this feature for our games(and there are currently no such plans in motion that I'm aware of).

In essence, this means that you could do the following if you really, really, hate Steam:

1) Get a separate computer with internet connection
2) Register Steam under an email which you don't use anywhere else(with a unique password)
3) Install your Paradox game of choice
4) Copy the game from the Steam folders to a USB stick
5) Format the computer to obliterate all traces of Steam
6) Copy contents of the USB stick to the computer you want to play the game on
7) Mark stick with current version number of game and store it somewhere safe

8) Optional: If you want to get the latest patch, goto step 1.

Now, this is of course a lot of extra hassle to play our games, but it is an option. One of the reasons we as devs want people to use Steam is that Steam forces everyone to patch, which ensures that everyone that contacts us for support are guaranteed to run the latest build of our game. From our point of view, this is a really good thing.[/i]

A bit later on that page, he explains that you will need to load the game up once through Steam to get any newly added DLC to add, then you can again play untethered to Steam with full access to the DLC you've purchased.

It's good to hear that they're not using Steam's DRM, even though that doesn't make much of a difference for those of us who don't wish to support Steam. I hope the people that are buying it will enjoy it; the EU series is great and I have no doubt EU IV will continue that tradition.

I just hope that their recent talks with GOG mean that they are considering releasing games here. The reasons for the Steam exclusivity they've mentioned are primarily related to games that are still in active development. Once that is no longer the case, those reasons more or less cease to be relevant; at that point, they could easily just rip out the Steamworks API and release the game and its expansion packs here. Of course, this would result in certain disabled functionalities (like multiplayer and achievements), but I don't think people on GOG would mind. Paradox's games tend to be SP-focused, anyway.

AFAIK, the only reason they went with Steam-only this time is that the DRM-free option they offered on Gamersgate for CK 2 only got a tiny amount of sales compared to the Steam version (I think they gave 6% as a figure), and yet needed a wholly different patch. In their opinion, it just wasn't worth the bother.

So I'm not sure GOG could change their mind on that.

Like I said, after a game would cease being in active development, that would no longer be an issue. At that point, it could be released on GOG without a problem, since the release would no doubt be updated to the last patch they made anyway.

Hearts of Iron 3, yeah. CK2 not so much.