I know this is not the most important aspect of the game but it still merits to be discussed :
One thing that CK2 did quite well, but was less "fun" in EU4 was the Prestige/Score that allows to evaluate how well the player did during the game.
The prestige was very fun in CK2 because it encouraged you to perform actions that benefited your dynasty as a whole and not just the player character. Meaning you were enticed to place your family members as Kings or Dukes, marry into other powerful families, and perform various deeds that would increase the prestige of your dynasty as whole, being counted for your overall score.
In Victoria 2 the Score mechanic were integrated with the Great powers one, where you always had to be the top dog compared to other nations (which was fine because it was a whole part of the gameplay, and was fairly dynamic), again it was fun and meaningful as it was representing the power and prestige of your country in the real time.
In EU4 however the score fails to convince me of its relevance, it basically promotes the past of the great powers and heavily advantage (in terms of score) the country that starts in a strong position, even if they fall short of doing anything of note during the game.
As a player of a lesser nation, you can't do much to reverse the trend (you can't have someone lose some score) or even compete with them.
Even if spain is completely broken during the last century or so, it will remain at the top because it had accumulated so much score during the previous 300 years. So basically even if you rise at the status of superpower during the late game with a smaller nation, you'll have hard time competing with anyone of the major european powers, and your success won't be represented through the score even if you achieved more, starting with less.
My suggestion is to make the score more dynamic by taking more into account the present situation of the world so that by 1821, your score reflect the present situation your country is in, while still acknowledging it's past successes. A spain that had been successful during midgame but broken by europeans powers by 1821 should have a rather good score but not necesary be at the top of the ladder as it is often the case now.
Another suggestion would be to take into account successes that are not necessary related to the country you play, similarly to CK2 mechanics. For instance acknowledging the strength of your religion, dynasty or culture. A player that managed to protect the integrity of the Catholic religion for instance, or has established the Habsburg dynasty accross the world should be acknowledged, even if those territories are not directly under your control. This could be represented as a separate "cultural" score as opposed the more country specific score related to your power and prestige.
Finally one thing that always bugged me in both EU4 and CK2 is the "historical scores" displayed on the endgame screen alongside with your current score. I don't care if Spain had this arbitrary 7000 points in the Official Timeline, i only care about the score that Spain made during my own timeline. So please paradox, display the actual scores of other nations (what is in the ledger basically) rather than those arbitrary figures that make no real sense.
One thing that CK2 did quite well, but was less "fun" in EU4 was the Prestige/Score that allows to evaluate how well the player did during the game.
The prestige was very fun in CK2 because it encouraged you to perform actions that benefited your dynasty as a whole and not just the player character. Meaning you were enticed to place your family members as Kings or Dukes, marry into other powerful families, and perform various deeds that would increase the prestige of your dynasty as whole, being counted for your overall score.
In Victoria 2 the Score mechanic were integrated with the Great powers one, where you always had to be the top dog compared to other nations (which was fine because it was a whole part of the gameplay, and was fairly dynamic), again it was fun and meaningful as it was representing the power and prestige of your country in the real time.
In EU4 however the score fails to convince me of its relevance, it basically promotes the past of the great powers and heavily advantage (in terms of score) the country that starts in a strong position, even if they fall short of doing anything of note during the game.
As a player of a lesser nation, you can't do much to reverse the trend (you can't have someone lose some score) or even compete with them.
Even if spain is completely broken during the last century or so, it will remain at the top because it had accumulated so much score during the previous 300 years. So basically even if you rise at the status of superpower during the late game with a smaller nation, you'll have hard time competing with anyone of the major european powers, and your success won't be represented through the score even if you achieved more, starting with less.
My suggestion is to make the score more dynamic by taking more into account the present situation of the world so that by 1821, your score reflect the present situation your country is in, while still acknowledging it's past successes. A spain that had been successful during midgame but broken by europeans powers by 1821 should have a rather good score but not necesary be at the top of the ladder as it is often the case now.
Another suggestion would be to take into account successes that are not necessary related to the country you play, similarly to CK2 mechanics. For instance acknowledging the strength of your religion, dynasty or culture. A player that managed to protect the integrity of the Catholic religion for instance, or has established the Habsburg dynasty accross the world should be acknowledged, even if those territories are not directly under your control. This could be represented as a separate "cultural" score as opposed the more country specific score related to your power and prestige.
Finally one thing that always bugged me in both EU4 and CK2 is the "historical scores" displayed on the endgame screen alongside with your current score. I don't care if Spain had this arbitrary 7000 points in the Official Timeline, i only care about the score that Spain made during my own timeline. So please paradox, display the actual scores of other nations (what is in the ledger basically) rather than those arbitrary figures that make no real sense.
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