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Welcome to the 35th development diary for Europa Universalis IV. This time we look at the remaining powers in Scandinavia, and also take a deep look at the changes to siege.
Our goal in Scandinavia has been to emphasize the differences between Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and you will have three countries that play rather differently.


Denmark
We have revised the map of Denmark rather heavily since EU3, giving them several new provinces, making them a formidable second rank power in Europe, and a fair amount of the time, becomes the winner in the north.

Denmark has a fair amount of historical events, including an eventchain for the Counts Feud, where you can select to back the monarch or a pretender.
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The development team has reached a verdict and the winners have been decided from the "CONTEST! Invade Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods with your very own in-game event" -thread.
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It's not easy being a Game Master in real life (unless you have a really good role playing group and let's face it, even they kill a couple of important NPCs once in a while). It's no cake walk in Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition either, but at least none of the players can leave in the middle of a boss-fight because their dinner is getting cold.
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Rewrite History and Bring Your Civilization Out of the Dark Ages, Latest Trailer Revealed

If your dreams of leading a global empire have lain dormant for too long, the time to take action is finally here! Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio today announced that the empire-building game Europa Universalis IV will be released worldwide on August 13th, 2013. Europa Universalis IV is the latest installment in the award-winning series with more than a million copies sold worldwide and will be available on PC, Mac, and Linux at launch.

Strategy fans can now take the first step to fulfill their quest for global domination by pre-ordering Europa Universalis IV from digital distribution channels everywhere for $39.99, with a Digital Extreme Edition available for $44.99.

To pre-order Europa Universalis IV and read the full details on the pre-order and bonuses, please visit:
http://www.europauniversalis4.com/buy

For a glimpse at Paradox’s most epic historical strategy yet, view the new trailer here:

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"Preordering anything in a digital format seems like an odd thing to do, unless you’re absolutely confident of the product’s quality and are getting some form of discount.
Otherwise, why not wait, look for the best deal on release day and purchase then?
All of that said, Europa Universalis IV is now available for preorder and, having spent almost a hundred hours with the pre-release version, I’m not afraid to say that it’s very good indeed."
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/06/13/selling-europe-by-the-pound-eu-iv/



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Hello & welcome to this rather short gameplay AAR for Paradox Interactive & Paradox Development Studio's latest expansion The Old Gods for the magnificent grand strategy game Crusader Kings 2. ...

Jazz Boatman, famous high-budget trailer-voice, has narrated the multiplayer games in Leviathan: Warships since Patch 1.1, ...

Hey everyone!

Here are the newest hands-on previews from a multiplayer event for Europa Universalis IV in Stockholm,
so you can see different reporters experience from playing different countries in a 20 person MP game!

And Europa Universalis IV is now available for pre-order, just so you know
http://www.europauniversalis4.com/buy

Cheers,
regina

Europa Universalis IV Hands-on Previews from the Multiplayer Event in Stockholm

NEW! The End Of Days: Europa Universalis IV Diary Part One - France
"A few weeks ago, Paradox invited a group of journalists to Stockholm in order to see how much violence we could do to one another in a massive two-day multiplayer session of Europa Universalis IV. I packed my bags, steeled my nerves and prepared to present Rock, Paper, Shotgun the only way I know how – with fruitless acts of violence and a burning desire to reduce France to ashes. Inevitably, it transpired that I would be playing as France but I wasn’t going to let that petty detail shake my resolve. Europe was about to meet its maker."
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013...iary-part-one/

New! The End Of Days: Europa Universalis IV Diary Part Two - France
“Seriously, what are you doing?” He was looking at my screen now.
I looked at the chat window sheepishly and the hundreds of English ships gathering in the channel, ready to invade.“What are they doing?”
I sent the message.
SOME NATIONS JUST WANT TO WATCH THE WORLD BURN."
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/06/06/the-end-of-days-europa-universalis-iv-diary-part-two/

Europa Universalis IV: Rule, Britannia!- Building the British Empire in two days
NEW! "I had been given control over England, as lead developer Johan Andersson thought it would be hilarious to force a Scot to play as his hated enemies. Thus, I had one goal in mind when the game began: I would unite the British Isles and create Great Britain. But that was a dream that would take a long time to make a reality -- as England needed to conquer much of the Isles and have a high level of administrative power to pull such a thing off -- and I had much more pressing issues pushing their way to the front of my mind. England is in the unfortunate position where it starts at war with its traditional nemesis, France. "
http://www.destructoid.com/europa-universalis-iv-rule-britannia--254841.phtml

NEW!Not here to make friends - Europa Universalis IV with 20 people/PCGamesN
“There is a lesson here. About the power of creation over destruction, about seeing the big picture, about holding yourself to your own standards and not measuring yourself against others. The rest of us clawed in the dirt to win a few patches of land while Joe won a continent. It makes me think.
Someone should have killed him.”
http://www.pcgamesn.com/not-here-mak...s-iv-20-people

New! Not here to make friends - The dark side of historical strategy /PCGamesN
"There’s a romanticism to this place, and it’s one that Europa Universalis and many games about history share. They tell stories of how nations rise to power, how they struggle with their neighbors and conquer new, unknown lands. It’s right there in the name: the Europa Universalis series is the story of how the West conquered the world and came to dominate the modern era.
That story can be glorious, but it is just as often squalid and vicious, and sometimes I wonder at what our love of these games says about those of us who play them."
http://www.pcgamesn.com/not-here-mak...rical-strategy

New! Europa Universalis IV Preview / Strategy Informer
“Europa Universalis isn’t due out until the autumn, but it’s already an incredibly polished game, even more so than perhaps Crusader Kings II was at a similar point in its development.”
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/e...4/preview.html

Quill18: Europa Universalis IV – Multiplayer Hands-on Preview Videos – Complete list
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs3acGYgI1-tHGlPhfp32gDYzyG2aMD8m
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Hey everyone!

In case you missed the latest live stream "Europa Universalis IV - The Battle of the Balkans", here is the highlight video!


You can find the full live stream here:
http://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive/b/412171031

Cheers,
regina
ps. And you can pre-order the game here
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?693431-Where-to-pre-order-Europa-Universalis-IV
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Hello everyone! Heart of Darkness has now been out for a while so I thought it was time to do a post-mortem dev diary.

Reception of Victoria II: Heart of Darkness has been really good! Victoria II is one of our smaller franchises but, Heart of Darkness was our highest day one seller expansion ever which makes me really happy! It tells me that our hard work on having games polished and stable on release is working, and that people trust us and don't feel the need to wait for a patch worrying about bugs. Not to say we can't improve more, but I feel like we have come a really long way over the last 3 years. It also tells me that the Victoria fans are extremely loyal, its one of our games with one of the highest player retention rate (how many players of the original game stick around and buy expansions) and a really high average playtime that could put some MMOs to shame
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To keep you going until release, we're going to play an old fashion text adventure! You'll be the player, we'll be the text! Options will be given to you at the end of the section, tell us in the thread which one you'd like to pick, and the most popular one will progress the adventure! Shall we begin?

"Dice Hard" a Knights of Pen & Paper +1 Edition community driven text adventure (DH-KoPP+1ECDTA for short)
Part 1

You are in a DARKENED ROOM. A musty smell of mold and a pervasive aura of suffering hang in the air, reminding you of a prison cell, or a long-forgotten temple. There is one exit to the WEST.

Before you, a trio of SHADOWY FIGURES sits in silence, their gazes upon you expectantly, waiting for a kernel of wisdom or a decisive act. The central figure has assembled the artifacts of tonight’s ritual before himself, with a MYSTERIOUS TOME to his right and a collection of POWERFUL TOTEMS on his left.
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Welcome to the 34th development diary. Today we'll talk about our changes to the unit interface, and also give you two small bonus snippets. This is a rather shot development diary, due to the fact of the holidays this week, and I got a lot off things to do today on Eu4.

Changes to Unitview
First of all, we've taken a hard look at how to make the interface more streamlined and userfriendly.

The top part of the unitview, that is shown when you got multiple units selected, or while you are sieging or in combat, allows for instant interactability. You can easily see where your army is moving, its morale, leader and amount of troops. Here you can instantly split the unit in two, detach a force large enough to siege the current hostile fort, or load an army into a ship.
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New Trailer Released for Those Who Clear Their Perception Checks, Release Date Announced

NEW YORK — June 6, 2013 — Paradox Interactive, a publisher of games and an entry on the random encounter table, today invited their party to pre-order the hit meta-RPG Knights of Pen & Paper +1 Edition for the PC and Mac. Working closely with Behold Studios, Paradox has helped to level up the game and optimize its build into a min-maxing beast, including new features such as a tavern, dungeon areas, a longer campaign, and plenty of new unhealthy snacks for the players’ in-game players.

Knights of Pen & Paper +1 Edition can be pre-ordered for $9.99, and there is a premium Knights of Pen & Paper +1 Digital Deluxe Edition for $14.99 which comes with plenty of extra loot and an absurdly long title. Both versions are scheduled to launch on June 18, 2013.


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New Trailer Released for Those Who Clear Their Perception Checks, Release Date Announced

NEW YORK — June ...

The ground trembled and hell froze over - England and France were buddies.

The End Of Days: Europa Universalis IV Diary Part One - France
"A few weeks ago, Paradox invited a group of journalists to Stockholm in order to see how much violence we could do to one another in a massive two-day multiplayer session of Europa Universalis IV. I packed my bags, steeled my nerves and prepared to present Rock, Paper, Shotgun the only way I know how – with fruitless acts of violence and a burning desire to reduce France to ashes. Inevitably, it transpired that I would be playing as France but I wasn’t going to let that petty detail shake my resolve. Europe was about to meet its maker."
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013...iary-part-one/

The End Of Days: Europa Universalis IV Diary Part Two - France
“Seriously, what are you doing?” He was looking at my screen now.
I looked at the chat window sheepishly and the hundreds of English ships gathering in the channel, ready to invade.“What are they doing?”
I sent the message.
SOME NATIONS JUST WANT TO WATCH THE WORLD BURN."
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/06/06/the-end-of-days-europa-universalis-iv-diary-part-two/

Europa Universalis IV: Rule, Britannia!
Building the British Empire in two days
"I had been given control over England, as lead developer Johan Andersson thought it would be hilarious to force a Scot to play as his hated enemies. Thus, I had one goal in mind when the game began: I would unite the British Isles and create Great Britain. But that was a dream that would take a long time to make a reality -- as England needed to conquer much of the Isles and have a high level of administrative power to pull such a thing off -- and I had much more pressing issues pushing their way to the front of my mind. England is in the unfortunate position where it starts at war with its traditional nemesis, France. "
http://www.destructoid.com/europa-un...--254841.phtml
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Welcome to the 33rd Development Diary for Europa Universalis IV, where we go into details about Ming China, the great dynasty that ruled over as much as a fifth of the world’s population in 1444, and dominated East Asian politics and diplomacy until the arrival of Western traders.

China is a country we tried to make interesting and unique in the Asian Dynasties expansion for Europa Universalis III, and we are keeping some elements of those changes. But we’ve refined them to, again, emphasize player choice and flexibility.

China
The Ming Dynasty ruled China for about 300 years, from 1368 till the Manchu conquest in 1644 (founding the Qing Dynasty). The Ming have traditionally been held as one of the high points of China’s long history, Chinese art and literature flourished, the government reinvigorated the ancient system of civil service examinations to seek new talent and great trading voyages that drew tribute from as far away as Africa.

By the game’s start in 1444, however, these merchant adventures have stopped and China has turned inward. The scientific progress of the Song Dynasty has slowed, and the rise of an anti-trade faction of bureaucrats has weakened the power of the eunuchs that championed this expansion. As we will see later, managing these factions will be one of the great tests for you as a Chinese leader. ...

By Odin's flaming eye, the heathens are invading! Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studios are proud to announce that all gamers can loot and pillage their way through Europe as a pagan ruler in the expansion Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods.
Get the expansion here: http://www.crusaderkings.com/buy

The fourth expansion to Crusader Kings II, the critically praised strategy/RPG, finally enables you to play as a Pagan, with particular focus on the dreaded Vikings, and features a delicious blend of war and pillaging with a dash of ruthless brutality thrown in for good measure.

The heathens have arrived. View the brand new launch trailer here:

http://youtu.be/Y53_GV2aAg8

In The Old Gods, the medieval soap opera now extends the timeline by 200 years, all the way back to 867 AD, allowing bearded heathens to storm the fine cities of Europe. Gamers will soon have most of Europe out for their blood after they have stormed ashore with gigantic axes in their hands.
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Victoria II: Heart of Darkness patch 3.03 (checksum: NSPY) is now out!
It can be downloaded from launcher or directly from here:
http://www.paradoxplaza.com/in-game/...h3_03setup.exe for non-steam customers (patch is a 16MB download).

Patch is live on steam now as well. Restart steam if it doesn't automatically notice the update.
This is a small update on 3.02 to fix a crash issue. The 3.02 patch log can be seen here.
Changelog 3.02 -> 3.03 (also included inside patch):

Enjoy!
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I sincerely apologise for the delay. And possibly the offending material below (such as being the final chapter!)
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Read the Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods developer diaries here!

Get Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods here!

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