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

 

[Admiral Fisker]

If anyone wants a specific loadingscreen, I can readily recommend making it yourself. Really quite simple once you get the basics down. I actually did a Denmark Frederik III loadingscreen for personal use a while back, based on the "enamel" portrait:

Yeah, Frederick III would also make a really good loadingscreen. Definitely one of the most underrated monarchs of all time.

 

[SchwarzerKaiser]

Frederick the Great with Charlottenburg palace in the background would be quite neat I think.

Or something war related.

 

[Malatesta]

The image of Isabella represent Gibraltar from Estepona, not Caribbean Islands.

 

[Chaos_TLW]

That's called disbanding regiments. Putting a reduced maintenance option similar to mothballing forts and fleets would probably involve depopulation an army until it is practically nonexistent.

Oh yeah, it is not like that leaves your homeland wide open and completely vulnerable for any entrepreneuring nation seeking to expand.
Mothballing them would require a couple of months for the morale to recover. With the new forts mechanics, you can have that leeway. Disbanding completely would leave you vulnerable much more time, specially if you need a big army and not doesn't have too many provinces like, I don't know, some medium-sized colonizing nation with the majority of its territories overseas. Multiple soldiers spawning in different provinces are also *extremely* vulnerable to hunter-killer stacks once the fort lines are broken and the enemy starts pouring in.

It also does not necessarily mean depopulating that army. Reducing maintenance probably involves sending less gunpowder and equipment, making less new armors and weapons, training fresh troops less, etc etc. Mothballing would be exactly the same, just, like I already said, for specific armies.

 

[GeneralJhon]

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

I love Byzantium, i breath Byzantium; but this made my day! lol!

 

[Phalanx300]

So Paradox, do you guys also happen to have the Maurice art without Maurice? So just the backgroud?

 

[chrnno]

Ottomans only because of the strait in Edirne are not having the distant overseas modifier though, right?

Ottomans are Europeans(sick man of Europe remember?) and in game even ignoring that Asia Minor is considered to be in the European continent their capital is Edirne which is by any measure in Europe.

 

[Herr Doctor]

Really nice to see Sobieski. Only one remark - Wilanów would be a better background for him. Or even the fortress of Chocim, representing one of his famous battles.

I think Hungary defiantly deserves its loading screen with Matthias Corvinus. The realm and the king with great ambition in all possible ways (politics, war, culture, economy etc).

One for Lithuania won't hurt as well. Its "golden era" in sense of expansion was in the past (13th-14th centuries), gradually loosing foothold to Muscovy, but it was still one of the greatest dynastic states of Eastern Europe. For EUIV era (starting in 1444) Alexander Jagiellon would be good (he lost wars and many territories, but his reign brought the golden age of culture to Lithuania and start of Renaissance, great progress was done in the law codification and legal system in general). With Gothic Cathedral and castles of Vilnius of his time on the background.

May be also Tuscany and one for the Papacy?

And I agree with Beanicus, at last Mughals, China and Japan (Tokugawa) could nicely add into the loading screens.

Portugal (Dom Manuel I or Dom Sebastian - mythical enigma of Portugal) and Denmark (Christian IV - well, he wasn't lucky in wars but still a fascinating historical figure) would be awesome as well.

Frederick the Great with Charlottenburg palace in the background would be quite neat I think.

Sanssouci probably would fit better?

 

[pharaomatic]

I can't really support Christian IV being the monarch for the Danish loadingscreen. Although definitely the most iconic monarch of the period he was also the one starting the Danish decline by loosing the involvement in the 30 years war and thereby opening the door for Swedens entry to the wsr. After his defeat to the Swedes in Torstenssonskrigen, he was the first to loose territory to Sweden and died a broken man. The Swedes have a lot to thank him for though, so a loadingscreen with him could be a subtle teasing, from a Swedish gaming company to the Danes.

I much prefer Frederik III and he's not underrated in Danish history imo. Introducing absolutism and saving thre kingdom by beating back the Swedes at the siege of Copenhagen is in my eyes enough to make him deserve a screen.

Although I would also love to see Frederik II infront of Kronborg or Erik of Pommerania infront of the Øresund Strait or maybe King Hans infront of his shipyards. Lots of possibilities.

 

[SchwarzerKaiser]

Sanssouci probably would fit better?

Well, I wanted something from Berlin and seeing that Charlottenburg palace is the biggest one in Berlin and was used by Frederick at one point as his residence, I thought it'd fit. Sanssouci would be more personal to Frederick, but that doesn't seem to be an important criterion for the background.
An obvious alternative would be the Brandenburg Gate, even if it was built only shortly after Frederick's death. Some landscape could be used as well like in Russia's, GB's or Spain's, but I just can't think of a nice one for Prussia (maybe a potato field ).

 

[Gurluas]

We need a Japan loading screen.

 

[Sian]

>america is brown

kekekekek

Nope, spray-tanned

 

[Herr Doctor]

Some landscape could be used as well like in Russia's, GB's or Spain's, but I just can't think of a nice one for Prussia (maybe a potato field ).

I agree, somewhere in East Prussia.

 

[Tibi088]

What im interested in is what DLC will fith Prussia? I mean we are done with Art of War... Does this mean we can except another major landwar DLC?

 

[sesn]

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

Freezeframe as he jumps into the breach and is never seen again plz.

 

[Wagonlitz]

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

Is that selective memory? Have you already forgotten you shipped it with a wrong Isabella initially? So you actually shipped it with 6.

By the way does anybody still have that Isabella II loading screen lying around?

Not that I can think of any important Danish ruler through history.. pokes @Groogy

I believe Christian II wants a word with you; he is standing down at the city square in the old town of Stockholm...

e: Apparently he's featured in the national anthem from 1778?

So is Niels Juel.

Danish is pronounced at a pace of approximately 200 words per second, I don't know if I'd really call it 'pronounced the same'.

It is called efficiency.

Introducing absolutism and saving thre kingdom by beating back the Swedes at the siege of Copenhagen is in my eyes enough to make him deserve a screen.

So much this; though I would still prefer Niels Juel.

King Hans infront of his shipyards.

That would be a really good one actually. After all he was the one founding the Danish navy and if anything has been important to Denmark it is her navy.

 

[Artess]

we should add more...

There should be an "expert mode" for tips. I mean, it's nice that the game reminds me "overextension is bad", but maybe something more advanced? For example, I only recently learned that a stackwipe occurs when your morale is down to zero within the first two (four) combat phases. This knowledge would have helped me earlier...

 

[Wagonlitz]

There should be an "expert mode" for tips. I mean, it's nice that the game reminds me "overextension is bad", but maybe something more advanced? For example, I only recently learned that a stackwipe occurs when your morale is down to zero within the first two (four) combat phases. This knowledge would have helped me earlier...

Are you aware there is a wiki? I am pretty sure such things are mentioned there since they have been known in the community for a long time.
So try and have a look at it; you might discover other things you didn't know.

 

[exenter]

How so?

Territory of modern day Albania was first part of Serbian and later of Ottoman Empire. In 1444 Some principalities united in League of Lesche. That was not a League of Albanians because beside Albanian there were also Serbian and possibly Greek lords. Definitely population and lets call them rebels were made of Albanians, Serbs, Greeks and Vlachs(not modern Romanians but of Roman origins). Also it was not whole Albania that rebelled(like it is shown in game), but only northern part. Many Albanian lords and population fought for Ottoman or Venice against this League.


So yeah... Historically there was no Albania in 1444...

PD could call it "League of Lezhë" instead of Albania but then they probably should change the name of many other nations too to be as historical as possible. The League of Lezhë consisted mostly of Albanians. Many foreign soldiers and mercernaries were used during some of the battles in Albania, yes, but they were mostly Hungarians and Neapolitan/Sicilians.

 

[Demetrios]

just take a random swede and put them them on something danish :-*

So we're putting a rutabaga on a pastry...