I know this is no secret to many of the more active, experienced people who had played this game over the many years this game has existed. What I find peculiar, however, is the very fact that the PDS devs and possibly some of the more casual players do not recognize this: the game is broken beyond belief.
Now, I know what reputation negative threads of this kind have. Let me assure you, I have 4.5k hours in it by playing and modding alike, and while there are many people who would beat me in both playtime and skill, I believe I can claim a degree of knowledge in the mechanics of the game.
I could spend a lot of time complaining about my dislike of mana, age mechanics and etc., but such complaints are rather well known, so I shall divert my attention to diplomacy within the HRE, a small part of the game, which alone makes the game unbearable to play.
Suppose you are playing in the HRE and become the emperor. As I am trying to get some of the rarer achievements, I found precisely in such a situation, playing as Mulhouse.
Imagine that a fellow HRE member attacks another and you want to stop it. In fact, you are incentivized to, as it will ensure the number of HRE nations does not decrease, which you are supposed to work towards. You as a player have been granted with a diplomatic option to enforce peace, so all is good, right? I truly wish it were so. Firstly, the very option is strictly limited by relations. These conditions are somewhat relaxed in the HRE. Yet it would be foolish to anticipate that every nation in the HRE likes the emperor and as such, regardless of the imperial strength, the emperor finds himself unable to enforce peace. He is the bloody emperor, he has every right to at least try to do that, regardless of who likes him.
And yet, we can overlook this issue. Suppose you, as the emperor find yourself trying to enforce peace while defending a friendly nation, one that you may have just released by a peace treaty. Such a nation likes you and thus the Enforce peace option is available. Still, the game finds a way to implode before your eyes. Almost irrespective of your strength, the attacker, HRE member or not, is extremely unlikely to accept it, as the AI finds the apparent prospect of victory more important than the fact that the entry of a powerful emperor into the war will cause their complete downfall. You may think that it is a little issue. After all, if the player emperor is strong, and by entering the war, he can restore the status quo. Oh how I wish it were so. You see, emperor or not, after entering the war, you will find yourself as a mere war ally. This means that the defending nation will be able to do whatever they want at the peace treaty, and as a result will likely take multiple provinces from the attacker if they manage to occupy them, leading to the same situation as to what would happen if you ignored the war, except the roles are reversed.
And yet, suppose that the attacker, or the defender you aided took some provinces off of each other. You would think you are all good, as you can demand unlawful territory to restore the status quo. Well, in theory yes. In fact, the AI is somewhat likely to accept. If it does, it is likely that the returned province will go to someone completely different! I may for example crack down on a tag that had conquered Saxe-Lauenburg in order to ensure that Saxe-Lauenburg exists once more. In fact, that is very much what happened. Firstly, I had a war with Lubeck, forced them to release Saxe-Lauenburg (which was by now their core) and convert (damn heretics) and soon found the newly released Saxe-Lauenburg to be under attack by Mecklenburg. Immediately, I wanted to aid Saxe-Lauenburg, but if I had enforced peace, Mecklenburg would refuse and bring me to a war, which, if I had won, would result in Saxe-Lauenburg taking some Mecklenburger provinces. Thus, I opted for Saxe-Lauenburg to be annexed in order to be able to demand unlawful territory off of Mecklenburg. Technically, that happened. However, Saxe-Lauenburg was returned... to Lubeck!
And yet, we can overlook that and imagine that the province will be returned to the proper country. Lets take a look at a different example. After cutting Brandenburg down to a more manageable size, I was happy with the situation in HRE for a moment. The moment ended when I realized that Saxony had invaded Brandenburg as the latter had no army anymore and AI considered it to be a good target. Once again, enforcing peace will cause Saxony to refuse and commit suicide, making Brandenburg stronger. So, I waited for Saxony to make peace in order to demand unlawful territory. I asked for the province of Brandenburg and they accepted. Yet, another problem has risen... Saxony took several provinces and are willing to give me only 1. The clearly ill-implemented diplomatic option only allows for 1 province to be returned and if you ask again, the AI will refuse, because it will add a huge modifier to the chance of giving you another province, even though you wanted all of them in the first place. Hell, I am not asking them for my own sake balance is not at stake here. Well, suppose they refuse because of this foolish modifier. After asking them for the province number 2, I can go to war with them. Or can I? If they are my ally or have truce with me, I will have to commit suicide by stability and AE just to declare it. And even if I declare the war, crushing Saxony may lead to yet another nation, like Bohemia taking a hit on Saxony, thus repeating the cycle. What an unbearable and absolutely not fun of a situation. The enforce peace and demand unlawful authority options are, in the grand scope of things, completely broken. I know that developing a game brings many hardships and I would not dare insult the devs. Still, the game is 7 years old and this is just one tiny area of the game that is completely broken and unfun. I respect the PDS for making such unique games, but EU4 plays like a game that is actively trying to make you infuriated. Hell, I have spent at least 2k hours of my game time on modding alone. If that is not the proof of my affection to the game, I do not know what is. Still, it is utterly broken on many levels. I wanted to exemplify this, in order that, if not this game, the future EU games will make good on what the EU franchise can really be. EU4 does not cut it. Never for a moment do I want to whine or insult the devs, but I must nevertheless state my view that the game is deeply flawed. Too flawed, in fact, to be fixed by patches or even by payed expansions, which there were plenty of, anyway. I wish for EU to live up to it´s potential just like CK is arguably doing. CK3 is great. CK2 was an amazing game in it´s own right. My great hope is that my mod Project Parabellum to which I gave much of my time will find a better home in a future EU game. I would not want to go off topic, yet currently, the level of detail I bring to it is proving harder and harder by the game to manage. I am literally unable to enlarge the map by any meaningful way without the devs making impactful, probably time-consuming changes to the game code. I know I am not the only modder with this issue. Yet, I dream of a time when PDS will put "Grand" in the Grand Strategy game for EU franchise. I truly hope and wish the devs good fortune. I wish for my mod and all others to have a more optimized, moddable game to work with.
I hope I did not sound off as too cocky, this thread is but a small-scale pouring of frustration that has been building up throughout the time I have been playing this game. I could go on and on for ages, with the multiple issues this game has and had for ages, yet I believe my point is made. I hope my hope is not in vain and wish PDS good luck with it´s efforts.
Now, I know what reputation negative threads of this kind have. Let me assure you, I have 4.5k hours in it by playing and modding alike, and while there are many people who would beat me in both playtime and skill, I believe I can claim a degree of knowledge in the mechanics of the game.
I could spend a lot of time complaining about my dislike of mana, age mechanics and etc., but such complaints are rather well known, so I shall divert my attention to diplomacy within the HRE, a small part of the game, which alone makes the game unbearable to play.
Suppose you are playing in the HRE and become the emperor. As I am trying to get some of the rarer achievements, I found precisely in such a situation, playing as Mulhouse.
Imagine that a fellow HRE member attacks another and you want to stop it. In fact, you are incentivized to, as it will ensure the number of HRE nations does not decrease, which you are supposed to work towards. You as a player have been granted with a diplomatic option to enforce peace, so all is good, right? I truly wish it were so. Firstly, the very option is strictly limited by relations. These conditions are somewhat relaxed in the HRE. Yet it would be foolish to anticipate that every nation in the HRE likes the emperor and as such, regardless of the imperial strength, the emperor finds himself unable to enforce peace. He is the bloody emperor, he has every right to at least try to do that, regardless of who likes him.
And yet, we can overlook this issue. Suppose you, as the emperor find yourself trying to enforce peace while defending a friendly nation, one that you may have just released by a peace treaty. Such a nation likes you and thus the Enforce peace option is available. Still, the game finds a way to implode before your eyes. Almost irrespective of your strength, the attacker, HRE member or not, is extremely unlikely to accept it, as the AI finds the apparent prospect of victory more important than the fact that the entry of a powerful emperor into the war will cause their complete downfall. You may think that it is a little issue. After all, if the player emperor is strong, and by entering the war, he can restore the status quo. Oh how I wish it were so. You see, emperor or not, after entering the war, you will find yourself as a mere war ally. This means that the defending nation will be able to do whatever they want at the peace treaty, and as a result will likely take multiple provinces from the attacker if they manage to occupy them, leading to the same situation as to what would happen if you ignored the war, except the roles are reversed.
And yet, suppose that the attacker, or the defender you aided took some provinces off of each other. You would think you are all good, as you can demand unlawful territory to restore the status quo. Well, in theory yes. In fact, the AI is somewhat likely to accept. If it does, it is likely that the returned province will go to someone completely different! I may for example crack down on a tag that had conquered Saxe-Lauenburg in order to ensure that Saxe-Lauenburg exists once more. In fact, that is very much what happened. Firstly, I had a war with Lubeck, forced them to release Saxe-Lauenburg (which was by now their core) and convert (damn heretics) and soon found the newly released Saxe-Lauenburg to be under attack by Mecklenburg. Immediately, I wanted to aid Saxe-Lauenburg, but if I had enforced peace, Mecklenburg would refuse and bring me to a war, which, if I had won, would result in Saxe-Lauenburg taking some Mecklenburger provinces. Thus, I opted for Saxe-Lauenburg to be annexed in order to be able to demand unlawful territory off of Mecklenburg. Technically, that happened. However, Saxe-Lauenburg was returned... to Lubeck!
And yet, we can overlook that and imagine that the province will be returned to the proper country. Lets take a look at a different example. After cutting Brandenburg down to a more manageable size, I was happy with the situation in HRE for a moment. The moment ended when I realized that Saxony had invaded Brandenburg as the latter had no army anymore and AI considered it to be a good target. Once again, enforcing peace will cause Saxony to refuse and commit suicide, making Brandenburg stronger. So, I waited for Saxony to make peace in order to demand unlawful territory. I asked for the province of Brandenburg and they accepted. Yet, another problem has risen... Saxony took several provinces and are willing to give me only 1. The clearly ill-implemented diplomatic option only allows for 1 province to be returned and if you ask again, the AI will refuse, because it will add a huge modifier to the chance of giving you another province, even though you wanted all of them in the first place. Hell, I am not asking them for my own sake balance is not at stake here. Well, suppose they refuse because of this foolish modifier. After asking them for the province number 2, I can go to war with them. Or can I? If they are my ally or have truce with me, I will have to commit suicide by stability and AE just to declare it. And even if I declare the war, crushing Saxony may lead to yet another nation, like Bohemia taking a hit on Saxony, thus repeating the cycle. What an unbearable and absolutely not fun of a situation. The enforce peace and demand unlawful authority options are, in the grand scope of things, completely broken. I know that developing a game brings many hardships and I would not dare insult the devs. Still, the game is 7 years old and this is just one tiny area of the game that is completely broken and unfun. I respect the PDS for making such unique games, but EU4 plays like a game that is actively trying to make you infuriated. Hell, I have spent at least 2k hours of my game time on modding alone. If that is not the proof of my affection to the game, I do not know what is. Still, it is utterly broken on many levels. I wanted to exemplify this, in order that, if not this game, the future EU games will make good on what the EU franchise can really be. EU4 does not cut it. Never for a moment do I want to whine or insult the devs, but I must nevertheless state my view that the game is deeply flawed. Too flawed, in fact, to be fixed by patches or even by payed expansions, which there were plenty of, anyway. I wish for EU to live up to it´s potential just like CK is arguably doing. CK3 is great. CK2 was an amazing game in it´s own right. My great hope is that my mod Project Parabellum to which I gave much of my time will find a better home in a future EU game. I would not want to go off topic, yet currently, the level of detail I bring to it is proving harder and harder by the game to manage. I am literally unable to enlarge the map by any meaningful way without the devs making impactful, probably time-consuming changes to the game code. I know I am not the only modder with this issue. Yet, I dream of a time when PDS will put "Grand" in the Grand Strategy game for EU franchise. I truly hope and wish the devs good fortune. I wish for my mod and all others to have a more optimized, moddable game to work with.
I hope I did not sound off as too cocky, this thread is but a small-scale pouring of frustration that has been building up throughout the time I have been playing this game. I could go on and on for ages, with the multiple issues this game has and had for ages, yet I believe my point is made. I hope my hope is not in vain and wish PDS good luck with it´s efforts.
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