Europa Universalis IV – Developer Diary 1 – The world is at your feet

[SewrRatt]

It would be nice, and also solve some problems with oddly-shaped provinces, if Paradox let armies roam freely constrained only by terrain like in real time strategies. Definitely not saying I want the game to be like a typical real time strategy, just that the current system with connections and travel times and armies warping between province centers after travel times elapse is rather clunky and prevents Paradox from ever really doing anything fun with on-map tactics.

Hey, if Paradox is going to spend a bunch of time painting the map with elevation and trees etc., why not use that information for a more free-form movement, terrain, and combat system?

 

[chipsel]

Please add a borderless windowed fullscreen mode.

 

[Norpheus]

It would be nice, and also solve some problems with oddly-shaped provinces, if Paradox let armies roam freely constrained only by terrain like in real time strategies. Definitely not saying I want the game to be like a typical real time strategy, just that the current system with connections and travel times and armies warping between province centers after travel times elapse is rather clunky and prevents Paradox from ever really doing anything fun with on-map tactics.

Hey, if Paradox is going to spend a bunch of time painting the map with elevation and trees etc., why not use that information for a more free-form movement, terrain, and combat system?

Don't you realise the HUGE difference in coding for this?

 

[Svip]

Don't you realise the HUGE difference in coding for this?

Not to mention a huge game mechanic difference. This could also ruin impassable areas, if players could be capable of just finding holes in them. And even if that was resolved, I don't see there being any additional benefit from having units moving around freely. This is a strategy game, not a tactics game. Play Total War or Civilization V if you want tactics.

 

[takedown47]

EU1 was my favourite game at the time - along with Age of Empires 1, Heroes of Might&Magic 3 and the rest... and them graphics were beautiful. I miss them a lot (and I replay them occasionally) but I understand that a lot of time has passed since. though you simply cannot say that this picture makes your eyes bleed. that Sir, is heresy!

I thought I could smell something burning

 

[Lamartine]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but
Can we get some seasonal weather effects to show up on the political map mode? and/or
Can we adjust the transparency of the political map mode colours, so that the underlying terrain is partly visible?

 

[Raph]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but
Can we get some seasonal weather effects to show up on the political map mode? and/or
Can we adjust the transparency of the political map mode colours, so that the underlying terrain is partly visible?

That's a good question! It'd be interesting to know more about the mapmodes (especially political mapmode since it's the one most used) and their relationship to the terrain mapmode and the new graphical features. Would be good if we could adjust the political mapmode in the way Lamartine proposes!

 

[Captain Gars]

And yes... In my opinion there's too much "We made this like in Victoria", "We made that like in CK2"... Stop copy/pasting yourself! Do something like in EUIV and not in any other game. Then i'll believe you that this is EUIV and not Europa Universalis 3.5

Yes, why learn from anything we've done in the past, we should just throw the baby out with the bathwater for the sake of it...

 

[Svip]

Yes, why learn from anything we've done in the past, we should just throw the baby out with the bathwater for the sake of it...

Indeed! Then maybe we can get EU1... again!

 

[Modestus]

Very confused by this new look, I am actually beginning to think its the first Paradox map I wont want to change so I am a little sad.

And then after seeing some of the older versions of EU posted in this thread I am also a little sad because EUIV is looking like every other strategy map, we have entered the Ikea era of the flat pack strategy map.

 

[SweGecko]

Very nice graphics! But, I actually like Eu3s graphics and borders better for some reason.. Great job though!

 

[Phelan]

Very confused by this new look, I am actually beginning to think its the first Paradox map I wont want to change so I am a little sad.

And then after seeing some of the older versions of EU posted in this thread I am also a little sad because EUIV is looking like every other strategy map, we have entered the Ikea era of the flat pack strategy map.

I like the eye candy and hope that eu IV will attract many players, which have been dodging PDS titels, because of the "dull graphics" and "dull map". The more customers PDS-titles get, the more ressources are available for new expansions and new games. If we are to few customers, I fear someday PDS has to develop facebook mini games, and the good days of grand strategy are over. Remember that PDS must make money with their games. As far as I know, they are not financed by an altruistic club of gentleman, dedicated to the development of sophisticated strategy-games.

 

[Hibernian]

I'm glad to see that you guys are giving some much needed attention to the map, but my only comment about is that can you please this time do some more research into the actual terrain and climate of the real world and try to simulate that? I say that because every other Paradox game has major inaccuracies in the terrain and climate of the provinces (i.e. entire Mountain ranges in the wrong places, open plains where there should be dense forests, etc.).

In pervious games it has often seemed as if someone did a very rough job of what they thought the terrains should be and put it in at the last minute. It's not that hard to get it right, you just need to sit down with some climate zone and ecoregion maps and match them up to the provinces. Oh and don't forget that the world was different back then to how it is now, for instance every Paradox game (EU and CK series, etc) that has Ireland on the map always has the terrain as farmlands or plains (which is what it's like today), when in actual fact the country was about 90% covered in Oak forests until the 16th century (you need to look at historical vegetation maps, which are available online). Little details like that really annoy people how know the history of their country, which is kind of screwed up when you get the terrain wrong.

 

[Nikolai]

Lovely DD, so wordy and interesting. much better than some DDs you've had in the past. And I must say: to have the map look this fantastic in the pre-alpha stage certainly is promising...!

 

[thekinguter]

Still here hoping the mongols get their own gfx, instead of using the Asian/Arab ones.

 

[unmerged(303218)]

And then after seeing some of the older versions of EU posted in this thread I am also a little sad because EUIV is looking like every other strategy map, we have entered the Ikea era of the flat pack strategy map.

If there exists a best way of dividing up the map for a given number of provinces, then there is no wonder it will be found sooner or later. We may never know if there is such a best way, but going along natural borders is as good an idea as possible. So I think there is no wonder in strategy games getting more and more similar maps.

It would be nice, and also solve some problems with oddly-shaped provinces, if Paradox let armies roam freely constrained only by terrain like in real time strategies. Definitely not saying I want the game to be like a typical real time strategy, just that the current system with connections and travel times and armies warping between province centers after travel times elapse is rather clunky and prevents Paradox from ever really doing anything fun with on-map tactics.

Hey, if Paradox is going to spend a bunch of time painting the map with elevation and trees etc., why not use that information for a more free-form movement, terrain, and combat system?

Maybe in EU V.
Not that I am against this idea, but it would allow too much freedom for army movement. As in, the AI couldn't hope to cope with the task, while human player-generals easily can. Which would turn the game into something much akin to TW: domination of the world not by strategy, diplomacy and micromanagement, but through tactical prowess.

On the other hand, personally I won't take using HoI3's map (provinces) as an insult.



While I must say that all this eyecandy is appeasing, the main role of the map is to convey information. That's why I praised EU3 in relation to other games - it was a game for the brain, a game where strategy was really set above looks. That is why I love Paradox' titles.
I don't mind looks, just I don't play these games for the looks.

Also I often find myself clicking back and forth between two tabs when trying to choose a major course of action. Could this chore possibly be alleviated by allowing us to have two separate tabs open beside each other?

 

[dskod1]

map looks fantastic. As said by paradox "looks aren't everything" so I know that you guys defintely will have the mechanics to back the looks up.

I will finally be able to say that EU looks good unlike before when all I could say was "it has a great personality"

 

[fëanor89]

i know paradox already explanied its position on map accuracy but why not to use a simplyfied VicII map?

 

[Svip]

i know paradox already explanied its position on map accuracy but why not to use a simplyfied VicII map?

How you mean? But it is probably because of the different time frames.

 

[fëanor89]

How you mean? But it is probably because of the different time frames.

yes, but with few corrections and by merging some provinces (like in North America) we can have a way more accurate map than the preview showd in this Dev Diary...
every time I watch the istria province i got an hearth attack for how bad it looks