Is it worth returning to EUIV for Songhai?

[Jafkka]

I was one of the many players who gave up on Paradox products altogether after Leviathan. I rolled the game back to 1.25.1 to get my occasional EUIV fix.

Eventually I played a Brandenburg-Prussia game (1.25.1) that had massive lag issues issues during late game wars (circa 1800) due to AI decisions, controlling massive amounts of armies, etc. Absolutely unplayable. The late game ran fine in peacetime but I that was the last straw and I stopped playing entirely.

With Songhai and the massive overhaul patches, I'm curious:

1.) Have the late game lag issues during wars been addressed since 1.25.1?

2.) How does the latest version compare with everyone's favorite past betas (e.g. I know 1.24 and 1.25)? Does it feel like a finished game instead of an Early Release?

 

[ancapailldorcha]

I reckon so. I'm in late 1600's and performance seems good. I like the new mission trees. I can't comment wrt 1.25.1 but it's better than Leviathan. Johan said that it was mostly back to 1.30.6 levels. I think it's in a good place now. Hopefully, whatever optimisations can be done will be. There's another patch due before Christmas as well.

 

[Pelthis]

I recently played a game until 1815 and didn't experience any major issue. Just once, I felt the game slowing down but I relaunched the game and it was immediately smoother afterwards.
I'm using a really recent and up-to-date gaming setup though (i5 11700 and RTX 2080 with 32GB RAM)

For the bug part, there are still some, but overall it's still way less clunky than it was.

 

[Sarvik]

EU4 is surely back on track. I have had 3 runs already with the current patch: Ottomans, Congo and Bengal. No issues what so ever, with a small exception of a temporary connection issue, which in theory could have been also on my side. The Congo run was one of the funniest I have ever had in my history on 6 138 hours of EU4.

I had a few months break with EU4 after the catastrophic patch last spring. But all the major problems have now disappeared. Love this game again.

 

[AdAstra]

You should have never stopped

 

[JKiller96]

The game performance has improved, but the new missions are not quite as good as the Indian or European ones. As an expansion pack Origins is probably one of the poorer DLCs. The patch is pretty good in terms of performance improvements.

 

[holyvigil]

1) yes
2) good
3) yes

 

[The_Boominator]

Kinda surprised to see a 1.25.1 player here. I was under the impression that 1.30.6 was everyone's favorite patch.

Regardless, here's what I will say about 1.32:

The performance is better. This is marginal and will likely vary with the state of your campaign. I have managed to play an entire multiplayer campaign with 7 players with no issues, and I'm playing on a four-year-old laptop.

The AI is more aggressive, but not necessarily more intelligent. The AI is far too prone to deleting important forts to alleviate temporary financial troubles. However, the more aggressive AI generally leads to larger blobs (Ottos are more formidable if you leave them alone for too long) and more setbacks for unprepared players. If your allies have debt problems, you have manpower problems, some disaster is happening, etc: The AI will make you pay for it. The AI also generally fights wars more intelligently, though its rebel management is still poor.

Diplomacy is more flexible. The favors system slightly alters what you look for in allies and how you use them, but the AI has also seemingly changed its priorities. Alliances among minor powers are much more randomized and this could frustrate your regional expansion. For instance, Brandenburg players have likely noticed Bohemia and Poland more frequently ally minor HRE princes they were looking to conquer. It seems like the AI builds its game somewhat around the player, as one Florence game saw Austria ally exclusively Italian states and one elector.

If you have not already, you will probably have to buy the DLCs you've missed out on. Origins is a flavor pack, so it's not that important, but you will definitely need Emperor and Leviathan to make the most of your experience.

Overall, I would say it is definitely worth revisiting now. I totally understand why many players did not play 1.31 due to bugs, balance, and performance issues, but I can confidently say that 1.32 got things back on track and I believe it is the best patch to date.

 

[Jafkka]

Overall, I would say it is definitely worth revisiting now. I totally understand why many players did not play 1.31 due to bugs, balance, and performance issues, but I can confidently say that 1.32 got things back on track and I believe it is the best patch to date.

Thanks! That is a comprehensive endorsement and I’m sold. Much appreciated!