Hello everyone, and welcome to this weeks development diary for EU4.

This week I want to talk about the loadingscreens of EU4. Our goal is to add to the pool of loadingscreens every time we do a major update, so that you have a large variety of cool pictures to view while the harddrive is booting up the game.

Each picture represents one country in the game, and we do not plan to have more than 1 loading screen for each nation. There is also one of the most iconic leaders of that nation on the picture, as well as a location which represents that nation.

And when making expansions, it is very much important that the country picked fits the theme for it.

Original Game
We shipped with 5 different loading screens, representing about half of the major powers of the era.
Sweden - Gustavus II Adolphus & Stockholm Archipelago
Spain - Isabella & Carribean Islands
England - Elizabeth I & Cliffs of Dover
France - Louis XIV France & French Farmlands
Ottomans - Suleiman the Magnificent & Haga Sophia

Conquest of Paradise
Iroqouis - Hiawatha & Niagara Falls

Wealth of Nations
Venice - Andrea Gritti & City of Venice

Res Publica
Netherlands - Maurice of Nassau & Windmills at Canals

Art of War
Russia - Catherine the Great & Siberia

El Dorado
Aztecs - Montezuma & Tenochtitlan

Common Sense
Austrai - Charles V & The Alps

And for our new 1.13 patch, we are adding a loading screen for Poland, with Jan Sobieski and the Jasna Gora Monastery!

We still aim to have pictures for Portugal, Denmark & Prussia of the europeans majors, but it needs to fit thematically for the expansions. Not that I can think of any important Danish ruler through history.. pokes @Groogy

 

[EldarPanic]

How about him? And give his nation some unit models too.

 

[Path]

They're pronounced the same but spelt differently .

It's the other way around, really--written Danish resembles a language, whereas spoken... well, let's not go there

 

[Groogy]

While I've got nothing against Denmark, it may be worth getting a Chinese and Japanese loading screen in there at some stage (although that'd probably work best waiting for an Asian-themed expansion).

Danish Loadingscreen or riot!
I'll talk Danish for a whole month at the office when I get back from vacation.

 

[Zehir]

Nice though I'd rather see Stefan Batory or Zygmunt Stary instead of Sobieski since he's only known for a Vienna thing, nothing else. Or even better one of the most famous leaders like Stefan Czarniecki with Deluge theme or Jeremi Wiśniowiecki and Chmielnicki's Uprising and especially Jan Karol Chodkiewicz with battle of Kircholm theme but it's just mine opinion.

But Jan Sobieski is kind of a legend with his Vienna victory. There were more important victories for Poland, but Vienna victory is most prestigous, known and romanticized victory of Poland.

 

[Prince Prussia]

What about one for Byzantium?

 

[Martin_Mortyry]

Fixed that for you.

Epic meme. :^)

Constantine XI in worn-out clothes in front of a bunch of ruined city districts?

I laughed at first, but the more I think about it, the more giving Constantine XI a loading screen makes sense - the fall of Constantinople was an extremely important event, the Empire itself was a very influencial nation for centuries(though, at the game start, it's pretty much a shadow of what it used to be). Also, don't forget that you've already made "Purple Phoenix" DLC about Byzantine surviving!

 

[Leon_Aditzu]

My top 10 list:
1. Vlad the Impaler with the Impaled ones, but better candidates for romanians will be Michael the Brave or Stephan III the Great
2. Cesare and Rodrigo Borgia, with Rome in background
3. Oda Nobunaga and Kyoto
4. Seonjo of Joseon and with turtle ships
5. Shah Ismail I of Persia
6. Jean Parisot de Vallete, the grand master of Malta Knights
7. Shunzhi of the Qing dynasty
8. Sonni Ali of Songhai Empire
9. Ahmud al-Mansur of Morroco
10. Matthias Corvinus of Hungary

 

[afb]

What about Christian II of Denmark with the Old Town of Stockholm as background?

Epic trolling!

 

[Kerschey]

What? No loading screen for the most played nation, Custom Nation?

 

[Galaahd]

2. Cesare and Rodrigo Borgia, with Rome in background

This, ten thousand times.

 

[Ornlu Wolfjarl]

How about some historical quotes instead of tips at the loading screens?

 

[wingzero890]

actually the lack of any asian or african nation is more disturbing

BUT ITS EUROPA UNIVERSALIS NOT ASIA UNIVERSALIS LOLOL

 

[Johan]

Jan (Johann haha) sobieski is awesome! In addition, can we expect a major patch with more features and depth (except the random map)?

1.13 is kinda done iirc, just need some issues finalised.

 

[Zehir]

*Polish nationalism intensifies*

But, what about Maurice of Nassau? I don't recall him being in the game.

 

[DarkShb]

Never forget

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Navigator

#not-a-king
#not-an-infant
#Portugalisinthisgamebecauseofhim

 

[208]

we should add more [tips]...

Please don't continue to propagate this terrible vehicle for user education. If the information is important for users to know, place it somewhere that users can read all the tips, without relying on random appearance during a loading screen (which, as computers get faster, will eventually go by too quickly for the tip to be read anyway). If you must put some text there, I suggest some kind of "Did you know...?"-style historical facts or something.

 

[Tazkram]

Christian IV of Denmark, is probably one of the more interesting kings of Denmark.

He started the the construction of some well known danish landmarks, Rundetårn among one of these.
He intervened during the thirty years war on the protestans side, though Denmark lost.
And he's part of the "2nd national anthem" of Denmark, also known as the royal anthem; "Kong Christian stod ved højen mast", in english; King Christian stood by the lofty mast.
Also, he currently holds the longest reign as king of Denmark at 59 years.

 

[giant_sloth]

May I humbly suggest Bohdan Khmelnytsky for the rebels DLC?
In that black&red attire of his

 

[leo93]

HEY!
what do you think about the greatest leader of the habsburg army?
Prince Eugene of Savoy

 

[illathid]

Danish Loadingscreen or riot!
I'll talk Danish for a whole month at the office when I get back from vacation.

I believe this is the proper response.