Europa Universalis IV – Developer Diary 12 - Dominium Maris Baltici

[Nikolai]

Good dev diary. I still remember fondly an epic Sweden game I had in EU1, where I slowly gobbled up Russia, the Baltic and northern Germany, before I colonized NA. Being incredibly poorly skilled Asa gamer, I still can't understand how I did it.

 

[Dragoneer]

Just wondering, how many countries are you planning to give unique ideas? just the tier 1?

 

[Mirza Khan]

The map looks charming on the outside but it's miserable and terrible inside!

Dear Paradox Interactive! If you set rules for the map at least you should try to follow them. From now on it's not just that the borders are ugly but the province layout is simply impossible in certain areas. Hungary touching the Black Sea and dividing Moldavia and Wallachia which shared a common border during the whole period? How could that happen? That is certainly not for game balance. Not to mention the fact that Hungary occupies half Moldavia.

If you don't do anything regarding this delicate matter you can be sure 'not' to expect the Spanish Inquisition!

Somewhat OT, but speaking of the map, could you please not put Delhi in the Himalayas? That bugged the heck out of me in EUIII (for one, it made the historical steppe-cavalry invasions of India harder).

As for the dev diary, looks great! Glad to see some individual country flavor in this game.

 

[Niptium]

We want a DD on the Netherlands next please Pretty please !

 

[Darkath]

Some places have been distorted when transferring the EU3 map to the new projection.

Is it us or Scandinavia is ridiculously over-large on the new projection ? =s

Sweden is the size of France...

 

[VI Imre]

Some places have been distorted when transferring the EU3 map to the new projection.

Thanks for your repli(es). It's a big load off my mind. Thank you again ...

 

[Svip]

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Dude did you make these comics (whatever thay call'em ) they are AWESOME xD!

Thank you.

Do remind me to buy you a beer if I ever see you. This always cracks me up.

Take that, you bloody Danes!

 

[DanubianCossak]

Is it us or Scandinavia is ridiculously over-large on the new projection ? =s

Sweden is the size of France...

Actually, take a look at this, first the EU4 screenie:



Then take a look at actual real life sizes:



And finally EU3 projection (that i slightly modified in northern Russia to fix part of the landmass that doesnt exist in reality). Also note the red marked areas and compare them to distances and angles of real life map. Youll see what im talking about, and how distorted EU3 map was.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

How is the Kalmar Union handled? Same as EU3 where Sweden simply starts spamming insults?
Or is it handled in a different way?

 

[Red_warning]

How is the Kalmar Union handled? Same as EU3 where Sweden simply starts spamming insults?
Or is it handled in a different way?

In EU3 someone in a personal union would try to break free if they had a stronger military than their masters, I think this mechanic makes sense. In EU3 Sweden starts with a lot more manpower than Denmark, so some swift conquests are needed in order to put Sweden in place.

 

[Sahal]

Thank you.

Oh the Ulm guy!!!

Make one for EuIV pretty please
I stayed up till 2 a.m yesterday reading that!!!

 

[Jay85]

Actually, Google Maps uses Mecrator Projecton that makes land closer to poles appear bigger (for example Sweden is in fact smaller than France). For the best comparison use Google Earth.

 

[DanubianCossak]

Actually, Google Maps uses Mecrator Projecton that makes land closer to poles appear bigger (for example Sweden is in fact smaller than France). For the best comparison use Google Earth.

Is there any other projection that can be put on a flat (continuous) 2D sheet of paper that has more accurate proportions?

 

[Gingerninja]

The earth is round so any and all flat projections will be wrong to some extent.
The only way to fix the map problem is if the EU Map was animated as a globe. I know nothing of programming so I can't say nuffink' of do-ability.

 

[Don_Quigleone]

I'd actually use one of the pseudo cylindrical projections like Kavraiskiy or Winkel, and to get it to "fit", I'd just shrink the Pacific. No one really looks at the pacific much anyway.

If you adapt a projection and have to start making weird compromises, I'd push them all into the pacific, because that region sees by far the least use.

 

[Gustav91]

While that is true, all your examples take place AFTER Denmark lost Skane. Until 1645 or so, the Danes seem to have perfectly held their ground.

The question is really, was that loss and thus the subsequent decline rather inevitable, or was it a fluke/lucky roll for Sweden that allowed them to get out of the Sound dues and take important Danish land, allowing them to snowball until Denmark couldn't stop them?

From what I can see Denmark was also fighting other countries in that particular war (namely the Netherlands, who according to wiki provided the bulk of the fleet involved in the decisive naval battles) and so I would see it as 'Sweden in a good spot smacks Denmark in a bad spot, and Denmark never recovers'. If it hadn't won that war, but instead Denmark at some point had found a rich and powerful ally strong enough to help Denmark seize Goteborg or the Swedish baltic provinces...?

You are right my examples is from after the peace in Brömsebro 1645. But what I mean is after Denmark intervention in TYW 1625-1629 when they lost their chances. Denmarks second intervention 1643-45 on the catholic side they ended with Halland pledged to Sweden for 30years.

 

[Galleblære]

I do wonder what Norway's special stuff will be since they were not independent for that long. Extra explorers and ahistorical colonialism? Something pushing Norway into Greenland and over to Canada? Missions pushing for the creation of Vinlad?

It would start out similar to Sweden I think, throw off the Danish yoke, remove Hansa influence opening the door for what Norway is historically known for, its massive merchant marine (ie trade). Make it a similar to Portugal long term with possibilities to expand into colonial ventures by re-investing into lost territory (as you say) such Greenland, opening the door to North America.

 

[Gustav91]

It is true that Denmark did not win that war... but Sweden didn't either. The Dutch and Danish navies prevented the Swedes from crossing the sea and recapturing the German provinces, while the allies could not do much against Sweden proper. The situation was quite locked when the French pressed for peace - but it should also be noticed that the Swedes didn't really want the peace deals France went through with either.

You're right but France signed peace with the dutch earlier, which left Denmark and Brandenburg alone against Sweden. Sweden wanted to sign her own peace so it went quickly. Without the dutch navy, Sweden could possibly land troops in Pommeria and free the forts in the south, even beat Brandenburg. But get to the danish islands would definitely be hard.

 

[Darkath]

The earth is round so any and all flat projections will be wrong to some extent.
The only way to fix the map problem is if the EU Map was animated as a globe. I know nothing of programming so I can't say nuffink' of do-ability.

I hope the next clauswitz for EUVI will be globe-based

 

[Avernite]

You are right my examples is from after the peace in Brömsebro 1645. But what I mean is after Denmark intervention in TYW 1625-1629 when they lost their chances. Denmarks second intervention 1643-45 on the catholic side they ended with Halland pledged to Sweden for 30years.

Well, my point is: due to all this, we can't be too sure if Sweden winning should be more likely, as Johan apparently is aiming for, or not.

Denmark lost once, terribly, and had serious issues recovering. But what if Sweden had such a terrible loss? Say, a Denmark that is lucky in one of the early Kalmar union conflicts? Or a Denmark that is half lucky, with the southern half of Sweden (somewhat willingly) remaining in the Union and the North out of it?

I do not know about the real relative strengths between the gamestart and 1645, but if those were fairly equal or even in Denmarks advantage, I would expect the game to be modelled to have a balance between Denmark-Norway-with-Skane and Sweden-without-Skane.