Experiences with the demo

[psykho]

overall, I have found this game enjoyable, if slow.

1 year takes 15 minutes, if I do nothing.

That's strange. I measured that last night and found that it takes about 3 - 3,5 minutes for 1 year to pass at maximum speed. I have a P4 3GHz with a nvidia 6800. 15 mins sounds unbearably slow.

Have you tried using the lowest graphics settings?

 

[TheLand]

Overlapping text, I'm experiencing the same thing.

It's an overrunning line problem. e.g.

Advisor Sensibilus
Diplomats +0.2
1.43d

doesn't overrun but

Advisor Otherwises
Production Investment Yearly +6.00
2.7d

finds the second line is too short for the text and the line below isn't set to budge down - should be an easy fix.

 

[TheLand]

aaaaand:

The tooltip on Inflation helpfully lists about 20 different things that inflation effects with exactly the same magnitude. e.g. Land unit cost +0.3%, Naval unit cost +0.3%, etc.

If the inflation -effect is uniform (as in EUII) it would be neater to scrap this tooltip ;-)

 

[hildoceras]

An interesting experience I had while playing Sicily, I was fighting Castile and they sent a regiment to attack Naples, I sank their transport ship then sent land forces against their regiment, I beat them pretty badly and they took 300+ losses (out of a full 1000), then their regiment just disappeared. What happened? I'm not sure if I captured them, they fled somehow, or what, there wasn't any kind of feedback.

where you with 10000 soldiers or more ?

 

[daemonofdecay]

So, anyone else try making the protestant Papal states?

It's fun. You convert to protestantism, and you automatically gain the trait 'conquered Rome', plus you keep the government type 'The Papacy'.

I'm still working that one out in my mind. . .

 

[Peregrine]

where you with 10000 soldiers or more ?

I had 4000 men when I attacked, and lost only a few in the battle.

 

[smn_]

Phantom leaders?

I played as Castile, starting 1492, difficulty normal.

After annexing Granada I sailed to the new world (Exploration was very easy, almost no problem). Built up a colonial city and with a recruited conquistador scouted the Aztec lands. Looks like it's possible to scout the entire country if you land on the first unknown territory from a ship.

So, war time. Initially only the conquistador with 2k knights and 2k infantry, I didn't fare so well so I shipped another 4k from the continent.

At some point in the war, I wanted to get even more troops from the continent since the war wasn't faring too well. So i sent my fleet back, and, having not taken them into a port in a long time, the whole fleet promptly sank in the middle of the Atlantic. Serves me right for being stupid

However, somehow Columbus swam to the shore and found his way back to the leader pool.

Likewise, when I fought the Maya, their chief-become-general Can Ek I had shock 5 and kicked my armies badly a few times. Finally I thought I managed to get his stack, but Can Ek I soon reappeared in the helm of another stack. I thought it was an oversight from me, but after I was certain for the third time that I had got him and he still came back, the only conclusion is that the leaders survive stack annihilation. And the 'luck' of Columbus is quite good evidence on the issue, too.

This sounds really really bad and a drastic 'dumbing-down' of strategical warfare, removing the biggest risk to leaders. In EU2 it was the random battle death of leaders that sucked, not the stack annihilation death. Is this a bug or a feature? If a feature, is there a percentage chance for the leader to survive or is it always?

 

[Havard]

good point. to my knowledge, it´s already been brought to the attention of the devs and being dealt with

Yes. It's a known issue.

 

[dense]

Provinces

Provinces: I dont understand the reason of changing the provinces (in comparision with EU2) . New provinces are less historical and their names too. Names of provinces are more names of cities. (Austria changed to Wien. Ostmarch to Linz?, Bayern to Munich).
And other problem is esperanto of some names. E.g. Plsen? (in Czech Plzeň, or in German Pilsen – but Plsen is nothing. Or another example: Im from Czech rep. and I never heard about Ratibor (one of provinces).

 

[Boblof]

wow portugal AI seems to go on sterioids or something, in the demo they managed to paint all of brazil + the new york area with 600-1000pop colonies by 1521... that can't be right

 

[Havard]

Im from Czech rep. and I never heard about Ratibor (one of provinces).

It's the German version of Racibórz

 

[unmerged(48749)]

As France, played peacefully from 1492 to 1515.

I diploannexed all French minors easily, and started a good piece of colonizing in Western Africa (two cities) and Newfoundland (nearly two cities). With an alliance Austrian blob/Castille/German minors, war... hum...

Notable : Discovering is clearly easier than in EU2, since attrition is applied to each ship and rapidly reset to 100% by staying in a harbour. Never lost one of a six-ship-fleet in spite of very long expeditions through Caribbean from France... Natives are not less agressive, but less combative : with a 1 to 6 smaller army they are generally defeated... AI seems less agressive : not a single major war in Europe during those 20 years ! The new system for alliances (bilateral) is great, great, and great.

(Uninstalls demo and goes back to exams ).

 

[unmerged(25822)]

Colonization in the demo is a bit weird (i mentioned an austrian colony in west sahara in another thread) everyone go colonize like crazy , got their colonies burnt and they keep on sending people , i wonder where the hell they find the money.

 

[dense]

It's the German version of Racibórz

OK. But Who choose these "district villages" (without history) that they are going to grow into "main provinces" in the game?

 

[unmerged(41978)]

My review and first impression of the demo

Well. I must say I missed this.
Been waiting a very long time for this.
And it's finally here. I didn't really have that large of an expectation, but I'll sum up my experiance here.

First, it took some doing getting it all sorted so I could play it. You should seriusly put 1024 - 768 as default in setting.txt You'll save yourself a shitload of trouble if you just do such a simple change.

Ones started up. I really can't complain. The function is ok, it's a little less complicated than I would expect if you carried on the line from Victoria. But I see you kept in line whit the old EU games. I just wish you kept the Barocue feel you got in the old games. That seems to be missing here. I know thats a very defuse argument. But I dunno how else to describe it.

National ideals I think is a very nice touch. However, Conquest of the new world is way to overpowered. It's a do or die thing to get to the new world. And I feel the situation in Europe get left behind quite quickly. It should be much much harder to colonize Africa and North America. And you get the feel that PE haven't really managed to carry this one well enough off. It needs a lot of tweeking. Imho.

Alt - Tab I just plainly stay away from. Talk about asking for a ctd. This have always been a problem for me on the EU games. And thats a shame really. Becus if you need to save and go close the game everytime a friend message you or you have to check anything on the web. (like this forum) You run the severe risk of not bothering to log back in. It so quickly becomes a hassle.

Gameplay in itself is very much like it was in EU2. I would almost say to much like EU2. A bit dull. Thats a problem really. Becus I've played every game PE have given out. I to quickly manage to master it. I see the lines and the actions I need to take to get ahead to quickly. I don't like that, I get a constant deja vu feeling. And that takes away some of the enjoyment of the game.

Content,
One thing I miss is major landroutes. Limited range on ships should also be made. Example. When Ottomans suddenly showed up in north-germany whit their trimarans and I had high seas ships. And they still killed my fleet in the north sea, whit their low tech ships *shakes head*. We had this problem in Victoria to. Where MoW's kept killing ironclads. One should stand above the other in tech level imho. And why arn't those ships limited to the calm seas of the Meditarainen? There was a reason why Venice was left in the dust when Portugal discovered Goa you know. And this should have been carried out much better.

My problem is that these ships can discover the new world just as easily as the cogs that are ment for the high seas. New World discoveries should only be allowed for those who have the vessels to actually go the distance.

Also. The number of costal colonies you can have should be determined by a tech factor to. And ones you have the colony to a sertain size you can expand around it's boarders. That and decrease the cost of sending colonists. It's rather high as it's now.

However. Even though I feel like I'm playing EU2 whit a little more content. I still feel compelled to play it more. Mesmorized into the history of the world.

Whit all it's flaws I still would give it the thumbs up. And it's still a quality game though I expected more from it. I just wished they had taken a little more from Victoria over.

All in all.

9 out of 10

 

[unmerged(6105)]

National ideals I think is a very nice touch. However, Conquest of the new world is way to overpowered. It's a do or die thing to get to the new world. And I feel the situation in Europe get left behind quite quickly. It should be much much harder to colonize Africa and North America. And you get the feel that PE haven't really managed to carry this one well enough off. It needs a lot of tweeking. Imho.

From someone who played the game much more I would say you are incorrect about this one. "Quest for the new world" is far from overpowered and/or sure choice. that is because even if you don't choose it at all there will be plenty of empty space to colonise and you will still get to see the world eventually (won't take long). Also, colonisation is much less overpowered than in EU2 because of two reasons. One, you get clearly less income from colonies than you got in EU2. Two, there will be a lot of more competition for colonies so you can't even dominate if you are first there...

What you are correct in is that colonising is easier to succed in.

 

[unmerged(55024)]

Impressions:

I have never played an EU game before... HoI2 only. And yet, despite that, after about an hour of play time I knew where everything was, and basically what everything meant. A real testament to Paradox I think. The interface is very elegant and the tutorials were easy to follow. I played my first game as Venice and I think I did really well for a beginner (took Milan, Savoy, Sicily, Ragusa, Modena, and everything along the nile). It really was a challenge. My monthly income was almost always below 0, armies were usually scraped together for one final climactic battle, and for some reason my allies never backed me up, even against Muslim nations.

Couple questions;
- Despite constantly fighting land battles my tradition never went over 5%. I wasn't using mercenaries either so that can't be it. By the end of the game I was fighting a huge battle against the Mamluks every couple of weeks (with hilariously lopsided results). Still around the 5% range.
- Is there any advantage to a monopoly? Just a few extra bucks?
-Why do some battles take weeks, while others are over in a day (with similar casualties)
- By the end I owned 3 CoTs, 2 filled with my merchants, but my yearly income only changed by a few ducats from 1492 - 1514. Is there any advantage to owning them?
- Where do I see upkeep costs? I built 15 Carracks at least and they couldn't have been cheap to keep sea worthy.
- No matter how much I conquered, my economy never grew. Gotta be cores?
- If so, how long before a territory becomes you're core.
- Are saves not allowed?

Sorry bout all that, I just had a ton of fun playing today and the thirst for knowledge can never be slaked!

 

[Jodien]

It is irritating to see a defeated enemy ''retreat'' into your country and lay sieges on your cities. When playing Castile, I had to go rabbit hunting and re-take my capital for almost 5th time, in order to get rid of that 250 men of Granada.

 

[Darth Tracid]

Couple questions;
- Despite constantly fighting land battles my tradition never went over 5%. I wasn't using mercenaries either so that can't be it. By the end of the game I was fighting a huge battle against the Mamluks every couple of weeks (with hilariously lopsided results). Still around the 5% range.
- Is there any advantage to a monopoly? Just a few extra bucks?
-Why do some battles take weeks, while others are over in a day (with similar casualties)
- By the end I owned 3 CoTs, 2 filled with my merchants, but my yearly income only changed by a few ducats from 1492 - 1514. Is there any advantage to owning them?
- Where do I see upkeep costs? I built 15 Carracks at least and they couldn't have been cheap to keep sea worthy.
- No matter how much I conquered, my economy never grew. Gotta be cores?
- If so, how long before a territory becomes you're core.
- Are saves not allowed?

Sorry bout all that, I just had a ton of fun playing today and the thirst for knowledge can never be slaked!

-tradition gain is pretty slow at times. National ideas help
-money,money,money
-depends on terrain, leaders, number of troops and other stuff.
-of course there is. keep in mind that if there is no competition in a CoT, it becomes less profitable (at least I think so)
-the ledger?
-you mean you got no tax income from the new provinces
-don´t remember exactly, a few decades
-saving is not enabled in the demo.

 

[unmerged(41978)]

And plz, plz I beg you. Do merchants automated. Major pain to always focus on them. If you have one war, your merchant empire is in a shamble. And why oh why arn't your own provinces forced to trade to your own merchant house?

But on the colonization bit.
There should be a higher income from population in the province and the cities in the old world to upset the balance of the trade. I agree the trade should be high income. But it should be harder to get it in the first place.
I agree that it should be tough competition for the colonies. But when you think of it. There was only a very select few who managed to get to the new world. Spain was nearly alone in the new world for 50 years. Espesially on the mainland.

It should be harder to explore it. Take longer to get the squeres clear. How long took it from Colombus discovered new havanna until they discovered the mainland? It's a bit to easy. imho. But that might be just me.

Another thing. To many contries doesn't have a casus belli from the start.
It's a bit hard to get started whit the smaller contries. As you need to generate a CB. And ones you have done that. It targeted contry have allready sorted out some allies.