In this thread, I will present two less significant aspect of EU4 which is already a great game (I invested 800++ hours into this history simulator lol).
Traditionally the navy had less importance than the army, even for the maritime nations such as Netherlands or England. The relatively poor popularity of Maritime idea groups and Naval idea groups (especially in Single Player due to naval AI) clearly represent this. The logic is simple; if you have some kind of naval combat boost in your NI, then you don't need Maritime or Naval for naval supremacy. Else, if you don't have any kind of naval combat boost in your NI, then you don't even care about the navy and just focus on the army. That way you can blob even more harder. You can get your war money by demanding War Reparations and Gold Concessions, so who cares about protecting trade or privateering? (except for colonial nations or trade republics)
The solution is intuitive. We need to change the naval combat for easy and robust AI naval control. In current system, too many things should be considered for naval AI compared to land AI. For example, there is a strait which is ultra-important for defending countries such as Byzantine or Denmark. Also, providing blockade for sieging province is one of the most vital role for the navy (which AI constantly fails to do). In addition to these already complex objectives, naval AI need to implement hunter-killer behavior for enemy main combat fleet only if the enemy have doomstack fleet! This is the most hard part. Naval AI cannot anticipate the enemy behavior, especially that of human player. In the current system, naval AI cannot handle human player at all. In addition to forementioned gigantic tasks, naval and land AI need to transport their army into another continent. Properly designing and implementing this complex AI by heuristics is almost impossible.
I suggest a slight change to solve this problem. EU4 needs Sea Region (or Sea Area) like HOI. The naval patrol option can be changed to patrolling these Sea Regions. What is the difference than? In addition to automatically and randomly patrolling the Sea Region, it should blockade all land provinces adjacent to that Sea Region simultaneously! This neat mechanism solves a lot of headaches for naval AI. Naval AI doesn't need to choose between blockading and patrolling. It can do both at the same time.
There is another problem for the navy. The navy doesn't contribute for war score much. It's monetary contribution (called Spoils of War) is so small that I don't even care for that. I only blockade for the faster siege. This can be solved simply. Giving naval blockade the looting ability of coastal provinces can immidiately boost the importance of naval supremacy. In addition to the ability of transporting armies between continents, making enemy coastal provinces poorer will give the maritime nations a significant war-time monetary advantage. If we combine this naval importance with improved naval AI due to Sea Region, Maritime and Naval idea groups can be very important choices for many countries.
Espionage idea group is quite an interesting option for multiplayer, but for singleplayer nobody choose this because of lack of utility. But the real problem is not the idea group - the Espionage system is isolated from the other aspects of game. For example, almost no advanced Espionage action interacts with Rival system. Why not integrate some Espionage actions such as Infiltrate Administration, Sow Discontent or Sabotage Reputation with Rival system? Many Espionage actions can have synergy with other aspects of game.
So, the pirate or privateer or espionage themed next DLC can solve these problems at once. Overhauled naval AI and naval combat advantages for warfare combined with improved Espionage system and idea group can make another very interesting and strong strategy choice for both single player and multi player games. Privateering is mainly for getting PP, but if we give some kind of utility or Espionage synergy to Privateering (and make the AI use Privateering more) can make the naval and espionage aspects of the game more significant compared to current system.
TL; DR:
1. Navy is less important than army. That need to be solved.
2. Naval AI is weaker than land AI. This need to be solved.
3. Espionage idea group in single player game is the worst choice for every country.
4. The pirate or privateer themed next DLC can solve these problems at once!
Traditionally the navy had less importance than the army, even for the maritime nations such as Netherlands or England. The relatively poor popularity of Maritime idea groups and Naval idea groups (especially in Single Player due to naval AI) clearly represent this. The logic is simple; if you have some kind of naval combat boost in your NI, then you don't need Maritime or Naval for naval supremacy. Else, if you don't have any kind of naval combat boost in your NI, then you don't even care about the navy and just focus on the army. That way you can blob even more harder. You can get your war money by demanding War Reparations and Gold Concessions, so who cares about protecting trade or privateering? (except for colonial nations or trade republics)
The solution is intuitive. We need to change the naval combat for easy and robust AI naval control. In current system, too many things should be considered for naval AI compared to land AI. For example, there is a strait which is ultra-important for defending countries such as Byzantine or Denmark. Also, providing blockade for sieging province is one of the most vital role for the navy (which AI constantly fails to do). In addition to these already complex objectives, naval AI need to implement hunter-killer behavior for enemy main combat fleet only if the enemy have doomstack fleet! This is the most hard part. Naval AI cannot anticipate the enemy behavior, especially that of human player. In the current system, naval AI cannot handle human player at all. In addition to forementioned gigantic tasks, naval and land AI need to transport their army into another continent. Properly designing and implementing this complex AI by heuristics is almost impossible.
I suggest a slight change to solve this problem. EU4 needs Sea Region (or Sea Area) like HOI. The naval patrol option can be changed to patrolling these Sea Regions. What is the difference than? In addition to automatically and randomly patrolling the Sea Region, it should blockade all land provinces adjacent to that Sea Region simultaneously! This neat mechanism solves a lot of headaches for naval AI. Naval AI doesn't need to choose between blockading and patrolling. It can do both at the same time.
There is another problem for the navy. The navy doesn't contribute for war score much. It's monetary contribution (called Spoils of War) is so small that I don't even care for that. I only blockade for the faster siege. This can be solved simply. Giving naval blockade the looting ability of coastal provinces can immidiately boost the importance of naval supremacy. In addition to the ability of transporting armies between continents, making enemy coastal provinces poorer will give the maritime nations a significant war-time monetary advantage. If we combine this naval importance with improved naval AI due to Sea Region, Maritime and Naval idea groups can be very important choices for many countries.
Espionage idea group is quite an interesting option for multiplayer, but for singleplayer nobody choose this because of lack of utility. But the real problem is not the idea group - the Espionage system is isolated from the other aspects of game. For example, almost no advanced Espionage action interacts with Rival system. Why not integrate some Espionage actions such as Infiltrate Administration, Sow Discontent or Sabotage Reputation with Rival system? Many Espionage actions can have synergy with other aspects of game.
So, the pirate or privateer or espionage themed next DLC can solve these problems at once. Overhauled naval AI and naval combat advantages for warfare combined with improved Espionage system and idea group can make another very interesting and strong strategy choice for both single player and multi player games. Privateering is mainly for getting PP, but if we give some kind of utility or Espionage synergy to Privateering (and make the AI use Privateering more) can make the naval and espionage aspects of the game more significant compared to current system.
TL; DR:
1. Navy is less important than army. That need to be solved.
2. Naval AI is weaker than land AI. This need to be solved.
3. Espionage idea group in single player game is the worst choice for every country.
4. The pirate or privateer themed next DLC can solve these problems at once!
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