Played the demo ans disappointed enough to start a thread here about the pace of colonization.
Then I read this thread which confirms all about what I have seen...
When I want to play fantasy history, I play Civ or Imperialism and am fulfilled.
The fact is that the EU brand had deep roots in history and that this was what made it appealing to many players, including me. Unfortunately, Paradox has unrooted EU3 and I'm not going to buy it, even though I owned EU (the boardgame on which the Paradox game was based), EU1 and EU2 and had great expectations about EU3!
I understand and respect that some players do like the "sandbox" feeling of the new EU3, but it should have been provided by a game option disabling the chain of scripted events. This would have kept all players happy. Instead, Paradox has chosen a different path which is to ignore it's historical base of players : players who wanted a game about history and not any generic developement/wargame.
As far as this thread goes, I have seen players liking the new feeling, and others; like me, disappointed. Some of the players have been discussing about what is better ; the problem is not there : Paradox could have made a game acceptable to both communities, but chose not to, and this is where I feel cheated.
Even though it happened (especially in games where you were doing good) that events had strange effects, no effects, or looked like contrary to the ongoing game, they were there and gave some feeling to the game (at least for me). Of course, they could have been better scripted, and probably could also have been trueer to the boardgame ; designers decided to tone down many events, probably for fear of turning down too many players ? In the boardgame, as the French player playing a tolerant blend between Catholicism and Protestantism, you had to confront the full force of the religious wars and this was not a beautiful sight, with revolts springing everywhere... Well, still, in EU2, the fall of the Ming dynasty was certainly something worth playing at least once!
Well, I could accept toned down events. But no event ? heck!
Not speaking about the deplorable feeling I had playing the demo where, within 20 years, the whole african coast was cleared of natives and colonized by such unlikely countries as Venize... where did they find the maps and such remains a mystery... not to mention eradicating natives... Equatorial africa was a bad place to colonize, and no colony was established there until much later ; and these where actually not colonies until the 1800th ; before, they where at most trading posts dealing in slavery or exotic products...
So, not only has EU3 shed all pretense about history as far as events go, but it has also made colonization (a major difficulty in previous titles) a cakewalk...
Very disappointed...
No surprise, I'm just skipping this title this time... Going to play old plain EU2...
Now, just to mention it, I liked the new features and look of the game, which makes me even more sad about having to skip what should have been a great title.
Yves
