Just some thoughts for making the game more realistic (and, hopefully, fun!). I thought I’d put them here to see what the forummers think, and also in case any Paradox staff members read this…
1.) Maybe have base tax, manpower and supply limits change based on the population of the province. Since we’d generally expect the population to increase over time, the income and army size of nations would also tend to increase (e.g., England wouldn’t be able to maintain 90k troops in 1500, but by 1750 its income and manpower would have increased enough for it to easily support such a force.) Although it might be good if the population can temporarily decline if it gets invaded and occupied a lot, and maybe if some random events occur (plagues, famines, exceptionally cold winters, etc. …).
2.) Make it more difficult to support large armies overseas without them getting destroyed by attrition. In the early 1500s, England had great difficulty maintaining one army in northern France, so it’s a bit… immersion-breaking to play EU3 as a Mediterranean country and suddenly find 20k English soldiers bearing down on you. The ability to support overseas armies could increase with advances in naval tech, so by the end of the game you’d be able to plonk relatively large forces on the other side of the world if you want. (Although not too large, hopefully: armies fighting in the colonies tended to be rather smaller than armies in the metropolis, and this ought to be reflected in the game, IMHO.)
3.) Possibly tweak the AI so it doesn’t grab random overseas provinces which it won’t be able to defend easily (Morocco taking Aberdeen, for example). Also maybe code the computer so that, ceteris paribus, it will try and minimise its border length: province ratio (no more snakes!). This would be good from a realism perspective (long borders are harder to defend, so it makes sense to try and avoid them) and also improve gameplay greatly (not so many ugly borders! Yay!).
4.) Allow countries to take provinces in wars even if they’re not occupied. If I manage to conquer all of mainland France, I should be able to demand colonies in return for moving out of their mainland territory, even if I haven’t physically sent an army to occupy those colonies.
5.) Fewer yet bigger rebellions. E.g., the rise of a pretender often led to a major civil war; having 5k troops rise in some random colony seems a bit bathetic by comparison. Maybe when a rebellion starts, several provinces and armies could immediately defect to them, giving them more of a power base. If the rebels beat you in battle, you could see more provinces defecting to them, whereas if you manage to turn the tide, provinces could start defecting back. Rebels’ demands should also vary depending on how well they’re doing: so, say, a rebellion of heretics might start by demanding religious toleration a few provinces, then if they do well demand toleration throughout your empire, and if they do really well demand that you convert to their religion. (This could also work in reverse: if you starting beating them, their demands will start getting more moderate.)
6.) Make changing government type more dependent on what’s happing in your nation generally. E.g., if the head of a republic tries to crown himself king, the usual result would be instability and massive rebellions; if, OTOH, he’s just led the country to victory in a glorious war, he could ride the wave of popular enthusiasm to crown himself with much less fuss. Or again, if your absolute monarchy gets defeated in a war or goes bankrupt, people might start demanding that you give them more of a say in government, and become a constitutional monarchy (as happened in France and Britain).
7.) Have a proper family tree and little portraits for each family member, like in Total War. One of the things I thought Total War did well was make it seem like your royal family was actually made up of different people, whereas IMHO the royal family mechanics in EU are a bit impersonal. (Also, it’s kinda weird that when an heir dies the new one starts out at age 0. What, do none of the monarchs ever have more than one child at a time?
)
1.) Maybe have base tax, manpower and supply limits change based on the population of the province. Since we’d generally expect the population to increase over time, the income and army size of nations would also tend to increase (e.g., England wouldn’t be able to maintain 90k troops in 1500, but by 1750 its income and manpower would have increased enough for it to easily support such a force.) Although it might be good if the population can temporarily decline if it gets invaded and occupied a lot, and maybe if some random events occur (plagues, famines, exceptionally cold winters, etc. …).
2.) Make it more difficult to support large armies overseas without them getting destroyed by attrition. In the early 1500s, England had great difficulty maintaining one army in northern France, so it’s a bit… immersion-breaking to play EU3 as a Mediterranean country and suddenly find 20k English soldiers bearing down on you. The ability to support overseas armies could increase with advances in naval tech, so by the end of the game you’d be able to plonk relatively large forces on the other side of the world if you want. (Although not too large, hopefully: armies fighting in the colonies tended to be rather smaller than armies in the metropolis, and this ought to be reflected in the game, IMHO.)
3.) Possibly tweak the AI so it doesn’t grab random overseas provinces which it won’t be able to defend easily (Morocco taking Aberdeen, for example). Also maybe code the computer so that, ceteris paribus, it will try and minimise its border length: province ratio (no more snakes!). This would be good from a realism perspective (long borders are harder to defend, so it makes sense to try and avoid them) and also improve gameplay greatly (not so many ugly borders! Yay!).
4.) Allow countries to take provinces in wars even if they’re not occupied. If I manage to conquer all of mainland France, I should be able to demand colonies in return for moving out of their mainland territory, even if I haven’t physically sent an army to occupy those colonies.
5.) Fewer yet bigger rebellions. E.g., the rise of a pretender often led to a major civil war; having 5k troops rise in some random colony seems a bit bathetic by comparison. Maybe when a rebellion starts, several provinces and armies could immediately defect to them, giving them more of a power base. If the rebels beat you in battle, you could see more provinces defecting to them, whereas if you manage to turn the tide, provinces could start defecting back. Rebels’ demands should also vary depending on how well they’re doing: so, say, a rebellion of heretics might start by demanding religious toleration a few provinces, then if they do well demand toleration throughout your empire, and if they do really well demand that you convert to their religion. (This could also work in reverse: if you starting beating them, their demands will start getting more moderate.)
6.) Make changing government type more dependent on what’s happing in your nation generally. E.g., if the head of a republic tries to crown himself king, the usual result would be instability and massive rebellions; if, OTOH, he’s just led the country to victory in a glorious war, he could ride the wave of popular enthusiasm to crown himself with much less fuss. Or again, if your absolute monarchy gets defeated in a war or goes bankrupt, people might start demanding that you give them more of a say in government, and become a constitutional monarchy (as happened in France and Britain).
7.) Have a proper family tree and little portraits for each family member, like in Total War. One of the things I thought Total War did well was make it seem like your royal family was actually made up of different people, whereas IMHO the royal family mechanics in EU are a bit impersonal. (Also, it’s kinda weird that when an heir dies the new one starts out at age 0. What, do none of the monarchs ever have more than one child at a time?
)
