The Pdx-Unlimiter is a tool for all major Paradox Grand Strategy games that provides a powerful and smart savegame manager to quickly organize and play all of your savegames with ease. Furthermore, it also comes with an Ironman converter, a powerful savegame editor, some savescumming tools, integrations for various other great community-made tools, and full support for the following games:
- Victoria III
- Europa Universalis IV
- Crusader Kings III
- Hearts of Iron IV
- Stellaris
- Crusader Kings II
- Victoria II
Note that there might be some issues with Windows SmartScreen blocking the executable after downloading. If you are facing these issues, click on "More info" and then "Run anyway". You can read this StackExchange post if you want to understand why this warning pops up.
Installers are the easiest way to get started. They set up everything automatically and also come with an automatic update feature, which you can also disable in the settings if you want.
If you don't like installers, you can also use a standalone version, which is packaged in a .zip archive. This version does not come with an update functionality, so you have to manually download new releases if you want to update.
Note that if you utilize any accessibility software, you should use the standalone version.
The main components of the Pdx-Unlimiter are:
- Savegame manager
- Smart savegame launcher
- Ironman converter
- Savegame editor
- Savescumming tools
- Integrations for other Paradox tools
If you want to know how to use a certain feature, you can read about it in the Pdx-Unlimiter Guide. There is also a short FAQ page to answer some of your questions. If you like videos, there's now also a tutorial video on YouTube.
Since keeping track of all your savegames is getting more complicated with every new savegame you start or backup you revert to, the Pdx-Unlimiter provides you with an easy-to-use interface for choosing the right save file of a campaign. This is done by collecting all savegames and creating a browsable and editable savegame history so you can load any prior saved version of a campaign. All types of savegames are supported, including Ironman and modded savegames. The smart launcher also allows you instantly continue a savegame without having to visit the Paradox Launcher or main menu.
Usage guide: Savegame management
The problem of playing modded savegames it that you always need to enable the right mods in the Paradox Launcher. It can become tedious to always keep track of which mods are required by which savegame. The solution to this problem is that the Pdx-Unlimiter is a smart launcher that is fully aware of which mods and DLCs are needed for a certain savegame, before you start the game.
All savegames can be launched directly from within the Pdx-Unlimiter without needing to visit the in-game main menu ever again. When you directly launch a savegame from within the Pdx-Unlimiter, the required mods and DLCs are automatically enabled without having to use Paradox launcher configurations. It is also checked whether a mod is missing or incompatible with the current version, so that nothing can potentially corrupt your savegames. This means that you never have to worry about keeping track of your mod configurations if you regularly switch between them. Skipping the main menu also saves a lot of time when loading a savegame.
Usage guide: Launching savegames
The Pdx-Unlimiter also comes with a savegame editor, which can also be used as a savegame navigator to quickly find certain entries in a savegame. With this editor you can edit any file that is saved in a Paradox text format. This includes EU4 and CK3 non-ironman savegames, all Stellaris savegames, and any game data files for mods and other purposes. You can use the included Ironman converter to also edit converted Ironman savegames.
The editor supports multiple different styles of editing savegame files. The first one, the more simple version, allows you to edit already existing values for entries. It is meant for users that are new to savegame editing, is relatively user-friendly, and tries to prevent users from making savegames invalid or corrupt. The second editing style allows you to use your favourite text-editor and to completely change the data structure if wanted. Using the Pdx-Unlimiter editor has the following benefits:
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You don't have to deal with compressed savegames, the editor does all the extracting and repackaging of zipped savegame files for you
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The editing process is broken down into editing smaller parts of the savegame. You can still use your favourite text editor to edit smaller parts of the savegame and therefore don't have to open and edit >50 MB files in your text-editor
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You can easily navigate the hierarchical data with filters compared to the laborious process of locating a specific entry with a text editor search function
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The editor can visualize certain data entries and provide more context. The most prominent example would be the coat of arms preview for CK3 savegames
Usage guide: Editing savegames
Internally, the Pdx-Unlimiter uses the pdx.tools melter to convert any ironman savegame into a text-based, non-ironman savegame. It provides an easy-to-use frontend for the pdx.tools Ironman converter, i.e. a graphical user interface to convert your own ironman savegames into playable and editable non-ironman savegames.
This is useful if you have ever encountered a situation in which you wanted to create a non-ironman copy of an ironman savegame, but couldn't because the games don't let you do it. You can for example use the included ironman converter to first create a non-ironman savegame and then edit it using the Savegame editor. Moreover, you can also use the in-game console when playing converted savegames.
Usage guide: Ironman Converter
The Pdx-Unlimiter allows you to create savegame checkpoints using the GUI or keyboard shortcuts while being ingame. Having a history of previous savegames of your campaign available protects you against bugs, glitches, and terrible luck that can easily ruin campaigns. You can also enable a timed checkpoint option in the settings that will automatically create a campaign checkpoint every x minutes.
If you want to load a previous savegame checkpoint, you can also kill the currently running Paradox game and load the latest save using a keystroke. This feature also allows you to easily savescum, which is kinda necessary for hard achievements.
Usage guide: Savescumming
The Pdx-Unlimiter is also built as an application that gives you easy access to many other great community-made tools. The supported tools are:
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PDX Tools, a website to analyze and share your eu4 achievements and compete against other players. It is possible to analyze your EU4 savegames on PDX Tools with just one click without having to upload them.
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Skanderbeg, a website to generate maps and statistics for your savegames. It is possible to upload your EU4 savegames to skanderbeg with just one click.
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The CK3 to EU4 converter. This means that you can interact with the converter from within the Pdx-Unlimiter and basically convert any managed savegame with just one click as well.
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The Irony Mod Manager, which can replace the mod-management capabilities of the Paradox launcher, can be designated to be used as the default launcher instead of the Paradox launcher.
Usage guide: Savegame tools
If you have suggestions, need help, ran into any issues or just want to talk to other friendly people, you can join the Pdx-Unlimiter Discord.
To build this project, a JDK for at least Java 21 is required.
You can then build the gradle project using the gradle wrapper with ./gradle/gradlew build or .\gradle\gradlew.bat build.
For running, you can use ./gradle/gradlew run.
Note here that the gradle wrapper has been moved into the gradle subdirectory.
You can use the automatically generated file pdxu.properties, which is created when gradle is run the first time,
to set some useful development options when needed.
Further, note that as this is a pretty complicated Java project that fully utilizes modularity, many IDEs still have problems building this project properly. For example, you can't build this project in eclipse or vscode as it will complain about missing modules. The tested and recommended IDE is intellij.
Any contribution is welcomed! There are no real formal contribution guidelines right now, they will maybe come later.