I love EU4 so I really wanted to play Ottoman Empire and as such the problems I'll list are specific to the non aligned OE path.
Probably the most common issue I have seen mentioned, the focus tree takes way too long to complete. It makes it feel as if all my playthroughs so far is just juggling PP. In addition, a problem someone has already mentioned, the extra research slot for OE is locked behind a very restrictive requirement. You need to be in a faction with either Germany and or Hungary, and iirc Hungary needs to do the un aligned path. With the research focus so far down the un-aligned path, in historical focus games this means you can kiss that extra slot goodbye. 3 slots for such a big minor is rather sad, Canada can get 2 extra slots before Turkey can even get 1.
Another focus that feels like it is not working properly, the expand Saaadabad and Pan-national association focuses. One to create a faction and the other, literally right after, to create puppets out of the countries you just invited to said faction? This to me feels unimaginative. I might have missed something like a pop up or not remembering the focus correctly but in my game these two focus only created the Saadabad faction. No response from Iran or Iraq (Iraq had a non aggression pact with me but that was it). I justified Iraq and conquered the old fashion way. I don't know if its a bug but for the two 70 day focuses, all I appeared to get was the faction by myself and Bulgaria as they were already my puppet. Given how far down the tree these two are I was fairly disappointed with how underwhelming they were.
On the military side, you can "unlock" decisions to modernize after the first focus on the left but you need to complete individual focus for their respective military branch, 70 days for each. It just takes way too long and one 70 day focus for just 10 army exp and the ability to see the decisions to modernize but not actually select any of them is not a great design decision imo. They also require 50 pp each to enact. The number of hoops I felt I needed to jump through to simply get Turkey ship shape was exhausting and I hadn't even conquered anyone till 1940.
Lastly, while I like the kind of EU4 flavour of managing states, I have such terrible RNG luck that my last game I didnt even bother to touch Kurdish rebels, simply set to civilian oversight and forgot about them. The religious buffs were nice for some of the other states so I did one or two of those (the name escapes me atm) but overall I found the PP system a bit annoying as so much relied on RNG. The foreign investment for example, some games I got tons of mil and civ factories, other times I'd get nothing and maybe some rail roads. Anytime I asked for investment I always made sure to improve relations first. Also, some games I felt like the event was bugged because I would get no response from the great power I asked for investment from, some games I'd spend over 150 pp and not hear a peep. Other times I'd get the event window LONG after the countdown had happened.
Lastly I believe I found a typo. After doing the Damascus Diktat, the event window said, "The weaklings of the Ottoman Sultanate have demonstrated uncharacteristic wisdom in returning Syria to us without violence". But I am the Sultanate?
Overall the OE path CAN be very fun but at the moment it feels WAY too restrictive and event outcomes and details I feel are too vague.
Probably the most common issue I have seen mentioned, the focus tree takes way too long to complete. It makes it feel as if all my playthroughs so far is just juggling PP. In addition, a problem someone has already mentioned, the extra research slot for OE is locked behind a very restrictive requirement. You need to be in a faction with either Germany and or Hungary, and iirc Hungary needs to do the un aligned path. With the research focus so far down the un-aligned path, in historical focus games this means you can kiss that extra slot goodbye. 3 slots for such a big minor is rather sad, Canada can get 2 extra slots before Turkey can even get 1.
Another focus that feels like it is not working properly, the expand Saaadabad and Pan-national association focuses. One to create a faction and the other, literally right after, to create puppets out of the countries you just invited to said faction? This to me feels unimaginative. I might have missed something like a pop up or not remembering the focus correctly but in my game these two focus only created the Saadabad faction. No response from Iran or Iraq (Iraq had a non aggression pact with me but that was it). I justified Iraq and conquered the old fashion way. I don't know if its a bug but for the two 70 day focuses, all I appeared to get was the faction by myself and Bulgaria as they were already my puppet. Given how far down the tree these two are I was fairly disappointed with how underwhelming they were.
On the military side, you can "unlock" decisions to modernize after the first focus on the left but you need to complete individual focus for their respective military branch, 70 days for each. It just takes way too long and one 70 day focus for just 10 army exp and the ability to see the decisions to modernize but not actually select any of them is not a great design decision imo. They also require 50 pp each to enact. The number of hoops I felt I needed to jump through to simply get Turkey ship shape was exhausting and I hadn't even conquered anyone till 1940.
Lastly, while I like the kind of EU4 flavour of managing states, I have such terrible RNG luck that my last game I didnt even bother to touch Kurdish rebels, simply set to civilian oversight and forgot about them. The religious buffs were nice for some of the other states so I did one or two of those (the name escapes me atm) but overall I found the PP system a bit annoying as so much relied on RNG. The foreign investment for example, some games I got tons of mil and civ factories, other times I'd get nothing and maybe some rail roads. Anytime I asked for investment I always made sure to improve relations first. Also, some games I felt like the event was bugged because I would get no response from the great power I asked for investment from, some games I'd spend over 150 pp and not hear a peep. Other times I'd get the event window LONG after the countdown had happened.
Lastly I believe I found a typo. After doing the Damascus Diktat, the event window said, "The weaklings of the Ottoman Sultanate have demonstrated uncharacteristic wisdom in returning Syria to us without violence". But I am the Sultanate?
Overall the OE path CAN be very fun but at the moment it feels WAY too restrictive and event outcomes and details I feel are too vague.
