Another Thinking about getting back into EU4 Thread...

[wildbillhdmax01]

So I haven't played EU4 since Common Sense as I wasn't happy with the direction the game was going. Last time I looked not a single DLC past/including Common Sense excluding Rights of Men, had a review score well above 50%, and sometimes right down mostly negative. I've even seen a lot of complaints here on the forums as well. Now that it's all on sale I'm thinking of dropping almost $70 on getting all the DLC, but before I pull the trigger I would like some insight as I would hate to waste $70 on something that I might not enjoy or that may not even be good.

The thing is I really used to love EU4, I just didn't like direction the game was going, and I really want to/would love to be able to get back into the game. I just don't want to drop $70 only to be disappointed... or regret my purchase.

 

[Count_of_Ljubljana]

Honestly, get them except Cossacks, which adds unrealistic numerical trust and favors system, and useless estates. And Third Rome is totally optional. If you like Russia, get it.

 

[Zelius]

Honestly, steam reviews are toxic. Especially so for this game.

Go ahead and read individual reviews instead of looking at that score. "Too expensive" <- Rated most helpful. The hell? Helpful "review" my ***. Also, a lot of DLC reviews (just check the dates...) were generated when PDX raised prices for some weaker currencies (including mine, which previously it was cheaper exchange-rate wise). Surprise surprise, nobody then bothered to update their reviews when price changes reversed.

It's up to your personal preferences. I don't find Cossacks' Favours system to be unrealistic nor estates to be useless (though the event decisions can be a headache to sort out due to how many values are changing at once), for example.

I would just play without DLC for a while, that's what I do. Then if you can't get back into it maybe DLC will not magically fix that.

 

[Count_of_Ljubljana]

It's up to your personal preferences. I don't find Cossacks' Favours system to be unrealistic nor estates to be useless (though the event decisions can be a headache to sort out due to how many values are changing at once), for example.

I meant useless to the greater game, as in you can basically ignore them. I really like the concept. I won't follow up to your possible reply, there are too many similar threads out there.

 

[ElGranCapitan]

Estates are really helpful, both their advisors and their direct MP contributions

And favors really helped me learn how to play the game, rather than let allies do the work for me

 

[Nyrael]

Steam Reviews here suffer from the so-called "Review Bombing". In this case, most of them exist to complain about PDS' DLC policy, them making DLC instead of a new game every year, etc. And for all games, this year Review Bombing became so bad that I just sopped looking at them until Valve gets its shit together and does something about it.

 

[wildbillhdmax01]

Well this is the thing, I have read a lot of the reviews before raised prices, and Review Bombing. I kept a close eye on all the DLC. I read a lot of good(Negative) reviews about each DLC when they 1st released, and a lot of them were very reasonable/well written. Rights of Men is the only DLC since the Common Sense to come out the door swinging with Positive reviews. Same on forums.

I have 216 hours on EU4, and would love to get another 216. Especially since I there is a lot parts of the world I didn't get to play.

 

[Nyrael]

If you are wondering about the direction of the game, the best way to check it would be to install it and play it a bit. Without the DLC, some of the new features will be missing, but it should be enough to check the direction of the game. After that, you can check LP's or something for precise features.

Other than that, you would need to be more precise about what you want to know and that you did not learn through the DLCs. Can't myself say if it got better or not as I loved CS so I, and many other here, was clearly not in the same boat.

 

[lymond]

Yeah, I'm curious as to why you "did not like the direction the game was going" after Common Sense. Honestly, I've been pretty vocal about my dislike of the DLC policy (no Steam bombing though), but that was not til after Art of War (not AoW itself which is probably the best/most vital of the DLCs). But Common Sense added some great stuff to the game, albeit in hindsight it really made us pay for stuff that should have been included and quickly became standard...in other words you really could no live without it.

Steam is having a sale, so I think you should be able to pay quite a bit less, especially if you ignore all the fluffy content packs. Just get the major expansions like Art of War, if you don't have it.

I stopped purchasing new DLC myself after Mare Nostrum. I still have many of good achievements to earn and use the relevant beta patch (1.17.1) for that release. Rights of Man is last major change to the game with Institutions (no Westernization...tech permeation) among other things. Yet to take the plunge into that. I may by the some of the new DLC eventually one day at a very low price.

Anyway, not sure what "insight" you want. EUIV is great despite the dlc policy. You don't really even have to buy anything else to enjoy it, except..again..Art of War if you don't have it. A lot of good stuff has been added to the game since you stopped playing. So buy some of it or all of it..whatever...but it sounds like you want to play EUIV again, so just play it. I have well over 3000 hours in the game myself.

 

[Memoryjar]

All DLC have theirs pros or cons parts.

Pretty new in EU4, I'm looking for last DLCs I haven't : Mare Nostrum, Right of Men, Mandate of Heaven (Third Rome is not for me, yet).
What I missed without them ?
Steal maps and some naval management, specially admiral reassigned in naval supply instead at port.
Great powers, sometimes it's frustrating to see a neighboor be eat by another one and can't prevent this without casus belli or garantee. I like checks and balances mechanics, so it miss me a lot in my games.
Macrobuilders in diplomatic, building pannels. Easier to manage game and big empire, as I prefer blobby games.

Thoses features worth 35€ for me. So I will buy them this week-end.

 

[wildbillhdmax01]

@lymond This was posted back in Feb 24, 2016.

I used to love this game, but stop playing around when that big update that split the community in half years ago. COP (Conquest of Paradise) was the last time I really ever played the game. To me it seemed every update, every expansion, just made the game worst. Didn't like the fort system, didn't like the building system, made going to war harder and harder while not making peace anymore fun. The last expansion I played was Common Sense, and it was very meh. While I did enjoy El Dorado a lot, I think COD was the best expansion before everything went down hill.

It seems every new expansion and or patch just add more bloat, nefts the game, making it slower to play and progress. A lot of times it seems like they're just changing the core game mechanics rather then adding new fully fledged features.

I can only agree with the OP and many others who explained how the game went from a "messy, but still interesting EU3 game" to a complete mess.

I never thought to buy Common sense or Cossacks (I play only with the 1.11.4 downgraded version), the game became such a bugfest I do not even want to think about spending my free time with that.

1. 5. Nothing To Do But Expand and War ... but lets make that as annoying as possible
2. 6. Sometimes You Feel The Game Doesn't Play Ball

The OP perfectly highlighted the problem...the game is not fun anymore.
I just completed the "Silk Road" achievement and I'm wondering what was the point of doing it.
I spent most of the playthrough fighting against annoying features built to punish successful players (Mughals getting Lucky, went past 100% OE by mistake and lost 10 years...), which -as always- proved to be only an annoyance, instead of a mechanism making the game more challenging and fun.
When you realize that instead of "playing the game" you are "playing against the game", what is the point?

I was surprised I manage to stomach the 'shattered retreat' and 'monarch points' nonsense, something that initially discouraged me.
But ultimately the game IS playable...not EU3's level (far from it) but decent if your expectations are not sky high.
Provided you do not go past 1.11.4, that is.

I hope EU5 will return to an older formula, without the devs' habit to insert countless new 'features' who reveal to be 80% bugs, 15% AI cheese, 5% "good idea, poor implementation".
I admit I'm quite disappointed...

I think Checco said it best, "When you realize that instead of "playing the game" you are "playing against the game", what is the point?". This is what killed the game for me. Expansion and patch after patch has done nothing but punish successful players like me, who loved this game used to know the ins and outs of it. So what did they do? Make it more annoying, and harder to be successful.

I've already heard all your guys(and gals) complains already. This is nothing new to me. I've seen it all before years ago. "War no fun anymore" "Events are all bad" "AI sucks" "Allies suck, have Multiple Personality Disorder" Been there done that. You hear the same thing every time. "You just want to paint the map" "You're just a small part of the community" "Just stop playing" It seems quite a few people listen to that one since the EU4 community is not what it once used to be (which by the way isn't good for the game). "insert insult here". After a while people just move on.

We said fine, if you're going to make war, and conquest such a bitch then we make peace time more fun and interesting? After they failed with that, I just quit. I was looking into getting back into the game but it still seems to be the same problems that I already experienced.

Remove war and expansion and this game is sorely lacking in anything to do!

And this was a major complaint that never got addressed.

I hoping that a lot of this has changed. I've been wanting to get back into EU4 so bad, but always been afraid to pull the trigger.

 

[Nyrael]

In this case I repeat what I said already: download the game and play it. Most of things you mind are patch content, not DLC content, so that should give you your answer.

 

[wildbillhdmax01]

In this case I repeat what I said already: download the game and play it. Most of things you mind are patch content, not DLC content, so that should give you your answer.

Okay, Thanks for the advice. I've give it a go.

 

[wildbillhdmax01]

So I ended up pulling the trigger after downloading it and play it without the DLC. These are my first 2 games. With all the DLC of course. Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[Count_of_Ljubljana]

Why is everyone, AI and human, too lazy to get Cyprus?

 

[wildbillhdmax01]

Why is everyone, AI and human, too lazy to get Cyprus?

hahahaha Didn't think it was worth the effort.

 

[Count_of_Ljubljana]

Them de Lusignans are getting lonely. And usually Sunni for some reason.

 

[RagingMonkey]

So I haven't played EU4 since Common Sense as I wasn't happy with the direction the game was going. Last time I looked not a single DLC past/including Common Sense excluding Rights of Men, had a review score well above 50%, and sometimes right down mostly negative. I've even seen a lot of complaints here on the forums as well. Now that it's all on sale I'm thinking of dropping almost $70 on getting all the DLC, but before I pull the trigger I would like some insight as I would hate to waste $70 on something that I might not enjoy or that may not even be good.

The thing is I really used to love EU4, I just didn't like direction the game was going, and I really want to/would love to be able to get back into the game. I just don't want to drop $70 only to be disappointed... or regret my purchase.

Out of curiosity, what about the direction of the game were you unhappy with?

 

[Kadanz]

Man, that ottoman bordergore is making my eyes bleed!

 

[wildbillhdmax01]

Out of curiosity, what about the direction of the game were you unhappy with?

I posted a quote from a Feb 24, 2016 up above. The game seems to be a lot more enjoyable from since then.

Man, that ottoman bordergore is making my eyes bleed!

Actually that happens every game. It's kinda getting old. They love to snake for some reason.