Answers to common questions

• What is PDXGA?

  PDXGA stands for Paradox Gameplay Analyzer and refers to the Paradox Interactive grand-strategy games such as Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron, Crusader Kings, and others. Please note that I am just a fan of these games, and neither I nor this site are affiliated in any way with Paradox Interactive. PDXGA is meant to be a service where you can upload your save files from grand-strategy games and then analyze gameplay data contained within them.

• Why are you doing this?

  I am doing this mostly for fun now. I like grand-strategy games, I like coding, and I would like to collect data on gameplays and share this data with others.

• There is Skanderbeg – what is your point with PDXGA?

  Skanderbeg is a great service based on a similar concept, and is more feature-rich, as it is older than PDXGA. I aspire to implement a similar feature set as Skanderbeg and maybe even surpass its features sometime in the future. Anyway, I think that choice is good for the gaming community, and even if no one will ever use PDXGA, I will still learn a lot 😊.

• What are the current features of the PDXGA?

  Current features are:

  • support for EU4, HOI4 and V3 save files,
  • light weight Windows 10 desktop application to auto-upload saves even when playing games (EU4 only)
  • ability to upload files anonymously or to registered user account,
  • sharing of file groups (for example campaign or multiplayer game file set) via a link
  • viewing details of the file (like an in-game year, game version, player tag, income, etc.)
  • global country ledger with all countries stats (incomes, industrial power, trade, manpower, number of provinces, etc.
  • war ledger, listing all wars that happened in the game, their outcomes and number of casualities (EU4 only),
  • viewing some statistical charts for campaigns (income, treasury, religions, technology, etc.) (EU4 only),
  • map view with political, religious, tax, production, manpower and trade goods modes (EU4 only)
  • equipment ledger for HOI4 files
  • various pops statistics for V3 files
  • viewing global stats (number of files, EU4 versions, top N files, etc.)

• What are your plans for future features?

  The current roadmap includes improvements to system performance, more data analytics and global statistics. I intend to keep roadmap influenced by users, so it may change.

• When would other Paradox games be supported?

  I don’t have plans for games other than EU4, HOI4, and Victoria 3 but this is definitly possible for any game based on Paradox grand strategy engine (CK3, Stellaris, Imperator: Rome) Adding support for additional games depends mostly on how different is the save file format and what is users’ interest in PDXGA.

• What are the benefits of registration?

  If you upload files anonymously they will be visible in the 'Public files' section. Once you register and upload your files using user account all files you upload are assigned to your account and are visibile only to you, unless you decide to share them. Shared files are not visible in the 'Public files' section - but anyone can reach without logging into system them as long as you provide the link to the file. Files in your account can be tagged with custom tags, so you can organize your files any way you want. Another benefit is that anonymous uploads are limited daily to 200, and registered user uploads are much higher (and individual to account). Also, the reparsing feature (the ability to reprocess already uploaded file with current version of the parser) is available only for files uploaded to user account.

• How do I register?

  Simply click on the “Sign In” menu item and it will take you to the login page, where you can register an account. You need to provide an email address to which you have access (as you need to enter code sent from the registration form). Location data is optional. Then you need to provide your user name (which will be used on the PDXGA website). This site does not use your email address on the webpage itself and I don’t send any emails to users other than ones used for registration and password reset purposes. More information on privacy.

• How does the system work?

  Technically system has a frontside component (this website) and the backend processing, which utilizes databases and other storage components. All elements are deployed as serverless components on the MS Azure cloud. I also utilize MS B2C Active Directory for user registration and authentication purposes. When you upload the file, it first goes to the front side component, which talks through API with the backend to send the file and initiates processing. When you request any information from the website, your request is processed and then goes to the backend to get actual data presented on the page. The desktop client uses the same API as the webpage but with limited access to features.

• What data do you collect on the site?

  I collect your email addresses, but only for identification purposes. Like any other webpage, this site uses cookies to be able to work properly. I also utilize third party components – reCAPTCHA from Google, so Google gathers information for reCAPTCHA purposes in accordance with their Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy. And I collect save files – they are stored in the system, but are not available for download once uploaded. I keep the save files for 3 months, but the period may be extended. More information on privacy.

• How do I share files or campaigns?

  You can share file or campaign from any page which shows them (My save files, file details page, campaign details page). Simply click on the respective button next to file or campaign and the link can then be shared with anyone to access file or campaign data (even anonymously).

• What happened to files uploaded before September 13th 2021?

  On September 13th 2021 a bug in maintenance script (or human error if you like) caused the deletion of internal data structures. The files have been reparsed but I was unable to link them again to user accounts. As a result of this event all file IDs have changed, so even if you had the link to the file it is now invalid. All valid files present in the system on 13th 2021 are available in 'Public files' section.

• I have more questions, how can I reach you?

  You can contact me via PDXGA Facebook webpage or on Discord.