EU4 Do you still like it?

[HolyPire]

Hi,

just been curious how much the game fan base still likes the game in current state ?
Since the latest patches and add on I am personally kind of disapointed.
I allways liked challenging games.
But now EU4 is all about merc spam and sieging down a whole country just to get 2-3 tiles of land... And that after I destroyed the enemys army twice... and still he wont give up... cause out of magicland new men for new merc troops appear.... Thats no more fun to me... I know its a game, but still a historic sand box game. When a army was destroyed in those days, you could not replace them in 30 days and definitely equip them....
Make mercs more expensive, 2 tech level behind, less available in general... what ever.... many ways to deal with it...
Your oppinion?

 

[hitchens]

I like it better now than at launch, thats for sure. EU4 has gotten better and better. That said, I really dont use mercs. Didn't really use them in EU3 and dont use them now. I have no idea why not.

 

[tip001]

Hi,

just been curious how much the game fan base still likes the game in current state ?
Since the latest patches and add on I am personally kind of disapointed.
I allways liked challenging games.
But now EU4 is all about merc spam and sieging down a whole country just to get 2-3 tiles of land... And that after I destroyed the enemys army twice... and still he wont give up... cause out of magicland new men for new merc troops appear.... Thats no more fun to me... I know its a game, but still a historic sand box game. When a army was destroyed in those days, you could not replace them in 30 days and definitely equip them....
Make mercs more expensive, 2 tech level behind, less available in general... what ever.... many ways to deal with it...
Your oppinion?

In this period mercs dominated the battlefield and were in general more professional than any home born troops. However, I totally agree with you that its impossible to raise a new army in 30 days. Also you are right on when a nation should capitulate, if the whole army was destroyed that should give 100% WS.
The problem is in EU4 the peace negotiation is badly implemented, or at best overly simplified. Imagine France taking half of Castile or Burgundy. It would have meant a huge coalition and certain defeat. Acquisition in those days took many decennia and had mainly to do with marriage and related rights on land.
This political aspect is not simulated very good in current game, possibly on purpose. If you implement a "correct" political UI all the blobbing will be very limited.

Finally I have to say I am also less interested in the game these days, mainly due to broken AI troop mechanics

 

[moscal]

Unfortunately not. Many time ago I liked EU4, but not now.

Main factors that caused me to stop liking the EU4
*practical lack of cooperation of mechanisms. It should be like in the clock mechanism, but current one mechanism "work for self" and almost ignores the others. Game is more like a series of mini-games, where you collect winnings.
*too easy way to exploits. Eg. disasters. If you react immediately or if you react when you have 95% - there is no difference.
*military and conquest focus. OK, this isn't game from Victoria series or EU:Rome, BUT still this isn't game from HoI series. In EU1/2/3 I could play well by running a small number of wars, focus on internal development. In EU4 this style of game is wrong way.
*snowball or bonuses inflation. Too many things are based on the fact that you get only the + X modifier and you are not interested others things. In EU1/2/3 many elements gave bonuses and maluses. As a result, the big country had big strength and big problems. [EDIT]Many things (mainly decisions) also work on the "click and forget" principle; often do not have side effects.[/EDIT]
*stability of blobs. Great problem in EU3 was too unstability countries. Sometimes was fun, when Krakow was first power in central Europe, but similar ahistoricism happened too often. In EU4 countries is too stability and collapse of power is almost unheard (in other way than total war).

Unfortunately, but I see that Pdx doesn't want to leave the current way. So I must wait to EU5 or other Pdx strategy games (eg. Victoria 3 or EU:Rome 2)

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I do like it, but have probably played it too long to still capture the magic of a few years ago. I don't play it as much.

It also has its share of problems. Poor UI/tedium, regressed design in new world, broken fort design, and consistent longstanding bugs that influence gameplay (while less common ones are prioritized), and feature creep with increasing dependence on DLC have bogged the game down a bit. I'd still play it a lot more if I didn't have thousands of hours. That is what it is. The game has improved a lot in some ways and regressed in others.

It's still a good game, though quite pricey if buying all the DLC.

 

[queermobile]

I do like it, but have probably played it too long to still capture the magic of a few years ago. I don't play it as much.

It also has its share of problems. Poor UI/tedium, regressed design in new world, broken fort design, and consistent longstanding bugs that influence gameplay (while less common ones are prioritized), and feature creep with increasing dependence on DLC have bogged the game down a bit. I'd still play it a lot more if I didn't have thousands of hours. That is what it is. The game has improved a lot in some ways and regressed in others.

It's still a good game, though quite pricey if buying all the DLC.

Pretty much feel the same. Post-AoW was the high point of the series for me. CK2 is the most enjoyable series for me out of the current games, after all these years, though I think that has a lot to do with the sheer volume of mods compared to eu4.

 

[hitchens]

I should have said this in my first post but I forgot...I still belive that EU3 was a better game. EU4 has tons of features EU3 does not have, but in my eyes EU3 is the gold standard. Hordes got cores on lands in a way that was unique, you as a player could focus your technology in a way you cant in EU4. Sliders will ALWAYS be better than mana. Bad boy worked better than AE, coalitions is a good idea but it dosent work lets be honest, inflation worked better, buildings and their impact on culture/religion etc worked better.

 

[gigau]

just been curious how much the game fan base still likes the game in current state ?

I'm still quite addicted.

 

[darth254]

beyond the 2 glaring issues of merc spam (and thereby infinite troops) and zone of control zaniness not being addressed to my own personal liking....yes, I am liking the game increasingly more and more with the changes made elsewhere.

 

[Wenla]

Currently I don't play EU IV at all, Since Stellaris launched, it took my whole gaming time (near 2000h now).

I don't say that I don't like EU IV, but I like Stellaris more...

 

[Kagemin]

Currently not having as much time to play EU4 as I'd like, but whenever I do I'm having a blast.

 

[Jorlaan]

Large countries, especially ones that have conquered lots of land, are FAR too stable. Some artificial disasters are all we usually get in the way of internal challenges, and those can often be avoided with prior planning.
Endless merc spam also gets old very, very fast and usually prevents me from wanting to play past 1650 when it just gets out of control.
I do enjoy the game overall and continue to play it, everything has flaws, no game is exactly what we might want. I'll likely be upping the cost on mercs though once I'm done my rare ironman game.

 

[Dokar]

I just started playing EU4 again relatively recently after not having played it at all for about a year. It's still pretty fun but the things that stand out to me in terms of what I don't like are probably the following:
White peace is too difficult to achieve and too rare. I think the "length of war" modifier needs some serious attention. Also, all wars quickly turn into ahistorical total wars with carpet sieging etc.
Second thing is probably mercenaries. Largish nations (like 300 dev+) seem to never ever run out of manpower no matter how many of their armies are defeated and, more importantly, never run out of money so when a war is quickly going south they just spit out mercenaries. Things seem much worse now than when I played it last so I don't know whether they've changed anything pertaining to merc recruitment or if I am simply imagining things.
I think mercenaries need to be reworked in some fasion. They are far too ubiquitous in the game atm (yes, I know that mercs were a big thing historically during this time).
I wonder if greatly increasing merc recruitment time in combination with greatly limiting their availability would help. This would mean that if you're playing a small but rich nation you can still have the core of your armies be mercenaries (saving you a lot of manpower) while stopping the ability to just magically summon 50k mercenaries out of thin air when a war is not going your way.

 

[MarshalRomel]

While I liked the way you fought hordes better in EU3. I think it would be remiss if we sit here and pretend that EU3 didn't have ahistorical blobbing (Bohemia snakes anyone?).

 

[abedfo]

i like/love it still i just dont really feel like playing it at the moment, give it a few months!

 

[Yxklyx]

I'm just playing for some achievements now - the game isn't as good as it was a few months ago. There's just way too much money available.

 

[yerm]

I am a fan of the changes, even if some levels of boredom and burnout have hit me. The game is better now than it was. I am not sure I would ever care to play with static tech groups, original inflation mechanics, or no development again.

 

[hitchens]

While I liked the way you fought hordes better in EU3. I think it would be remiss if we sit here and pretend that EU3 didn't have ahistorical blobbing (Bohemia snakes anyone?).

Bohemia superblob and Spain colonizing eastern Russia. Hoardes were better in EU3, and gaining cores were also better hands down. Building bonuses were also better. There are so many things EU3 did better, but since EU4 is a great game, the things EU3 did better is forgotten/ignored.

 

[moscal]

original inflation mechanics

Inflation in EU4 still work this same like in first version.

 

[yerm]

Inflation in EU4 still work this same like in first version.

It is calculated differently, you can actually pay it down (my first ever japan game I died basically because of it). I didn't want to list only new features; inflation is something where they have gradually adjusted the mechanics for the better.