To start off, EU IV had many great improvements. The gameplay itself is generally much better, things seem to run more smoothly. The new idea structure is great, and I kind of like the new tech structure (though it has what I find to be some grievous flaws). The new trade system, while I think it definitely needs work, is certainly an improvement.
1. I'll start with what I find to be the most glaring problem - EU IV makes it harder for 'exceptional nations' to exist. By this I don't mean lucky or powerful nations, I'm actually talking about smaller and weaker nations (which I usually play and have more fun with). For a while my favorite nation to play has been Sweden, and in past games (where research was more open) you could invest heavily in one area and surge past your neighbors, getting decades and multiple techs ahead of them. I've played the entire series, and in some of the earlier ones I invested almost entirely in land tech and surged more than ten levels above my neighbors (with obvious other issues that I faced).
I've been reading a lot about Sweden lately, and have been fascinated by it's experiences in war. But try to recreate the lives of Gustavus Adolphus (Gustav II) or Carolus Rex (Karl XII), and you have zero chance. It's just absolutely not possible. Even using mid-war historical start dates, the game simply does not reflect even closely what happened. It also doesn't give those leaders their just deserve, marking Gustav II (significant enough to be considered one of the greatest commanders in history, and make it into the EU IV loading screen) is just a 'good' monarch, and Karl XII (who beat Denmark and Poland-Lithuania, as well as defeating a Russian army under Peter the Great - in this a 6-6-6 monarch - with less than a third of the number of troops).
But now, getting a decade ahead of your neighbors in any tech group is very hard, and you get capped because of the maximum number of tech points (I think at least increasing the max number of mil, dip, adm points would go a long way to solving this problem).
It basically becomes a numbers game. And I know, EU has always been mostly a numbers game, but it's becoming more and more so a numbers game. This makes it easier and easier to play Spain or France (or Russia), but harder and harder to play small nations. It just sucks that a force outnumbered 2x1 with advantages in terrain, leadership, discipline etc. (all except morale) is always going to lose.
The way the game is set up, you can't really decide to focus your efforts in one area (like military tech). You've got points and all and will need to use them all, and can't really choose to invest more heavily in one - except to hire an obscenely expensive advisor, who only give you a 1 or 2 point bonus in that given area (mil, dip, or adm). There needs to be more ways to invest in tech, and they need to raise max tech points. Is there a mod that allows that? Seriously, just fixing what I see to be a tech problem would be huge.
2. The papacy. Constantly going in to click click click is just annoying. I gave up and stopped even bothering until my empire got swole and I racked up the points, so I could just drop them every 6-24 months (I basically waited until my cardinal points reached the maximum).
3. The new cultural system sucks. At first I really liked it, because the old system was way too punishing, making you lose colonists, suffer BB points, and still have to wait half a century. But the new cultural system is just too easy. It's way too easy to change the culture of a province. It ought to take longer, and I really don't think that your technology should hurt for it.
4. Money. Money should be more important. As it is, it is basically only useful for building your military and buildings, but I got to the point where I had all the buildings I wanted and didn't need a bigger military, and I got to that point multiple times. Money should be expended for a lot of the things that tech points are expended for, and you should be able to use money to trade for tech points (maybe something like 200 ducats for 50 tech points). Historically certain leaders did a great deal to modernize their nations, like Peter the Great of Russia, but there's not any real way to do that in this game. It's just wait, wait, wait, and you'll get the same amount of tech points based on his skill regardless. It's annoying.
5. Trade. Insofar as I can tell, it's primarily about control. Historically many nations dominated (or at least did extremely well given their positions) without having vast overseas colonies. They did this through merchant shipping, but the game doesn't reflect that very well. Though most of history, the dominant trading powers dominated trade through their naval power and merchant fleets, not through control of lands. Look at the Hanse - it had 'member cities' in pretty much every baltic country, but it dominated the trade because it's merchant fleet got a monopoly on different trades, and it made basically all of it's money through moving goods.
Don't get me wrong, EU IV is a vast improvement in many ways, but it's just not as fun as it used to be for people playing someone other than a super-power. Weaker powers should be given more ways to break out.
1. I'll start with what I find to be the most glaring problem - EU IV makes it harder for 'exceptional nations' to exist. By this I don't mean lucky or powerful nations, I'm actually talking about smaller and weaker nations (which I usually play and have more fun with). For a while my favorite nation to play has been Sweden, and in past games (where research was more open) you could invest heavily in one area and surge past your neighbors, getting decades and multiple techs ahead of them. I've played the entire series, and in some of the earlier ones I invested almost entirely in land tech and surged more than ten levels above my neighbors (with obvious other issues that I faced).
I've been reading a lot about Sweden lately, and have been fascinated by it's experiences in war. But try to recreate the lives of Gustavus Adolphus (Gustav II) or Carolus Rex (Karl XII), and you have zero chance. It's just absolutely not possible. Even using mid-war historical start dates, the game simply does not reflect even closely what happened. It also doesn't give those leaders their just deserve, marking Gustav II (significant enough to be considered one of the greatest commanders in history, and make it into the EU IV loading screen) is just a 'good' monarch, and Karl XII (who beat Denmark and Poland-Lithuania, as well as defeating a Russian army under Peter the Great - in this a 6-6-6 monarch - with less than a third of the number of troops).
But now, getting a decade ahead of your neighbors in any tech group is very hard, and you get capped because of the maximum number of tech points (I think at least increasing the max number of mil, dip, adm points would go a long way to solving this problem).
It basically becomes a numbers game. And I know, EU has always been mostly a numbers game, but it's becoming more and more so a numbers game. This makes it easier and easier to play Spain or France (or Russia), but harder and harder to play small nations. It just sucks that a force outnumbered 2x1 with advantages in terrain, leadership, discipline etc. (all except morale) is always going to lose.
The way the game is set up, you can't really decide to focus your efforts in one area (like military tech). You've got points and all and will need to use them all, and can't really choose to invest more heavily in one - except to hire an obscenely expensive advisor, who only give you a 1 or 2 point bonus in that given area (mil, dip, or adm). There needs to be more ways to invest in tech, and they need to raise max tech points. Is there a mod that allows that? Seriously, just fixing what I see to be a tech problem would be huge.
2. The papacy. Constantly going in to click click click is just annoying. I gave up and stopped even bothering until my empire got swole and I racked up the points, so I could just drop them every 6-24 months (I basically waited until my cardinal points reached the maximum).
3. The new cultural system sucks. At first I really liked it, because the old system was way too punishing, making you lose colonists, suffer BB points, and still have to wait half a century. But the new cultural system is just too easy. It's way too easy to change the culture of a province. It ought to take longer, and I really don't think that your technology should hurt for it.
4. Money. Money should be more important. As it is, it is basically only useful for building your military and buildings, but I got to the point where I had all the buildings I wanted and didn't need a bigger military, and I got to that point multiple times. Money should be expended for a lot of the things that tech points are expended for, and you should be able to use money to trade for tech points (maybe something like 200 ducats for 50 tech points). Historically certain leaders did a great deal to modernize their nations, like Peter the Great of Russia, but there's not any real way to do that in this game. It's just wait, wait, wait, and you'll get the same amount of tech points based on his skill regardless. It's annoying.
5. Trade. Insofar as I can tell, it's primarily about control. Historically many nations dominated (or at least did extremely well given their positions) without having vast overseas colonies. They did this through merchant shipping, but the game doesn't reflect that very well. Though most of history, the dominant trading powers dominated trade through their naval power and merchant fleets, not through control of lands. Look at the Hanse - it had 'member cities' in pretty much every baltic country, but it dominated the trade because it's merchant fleet got a monopoly on different trades, and it made basically all of it's money through moving goods.
Don't get me wrong, EU IV is a vast improvement in many ways, but it's just not as fun as it used to be for people playing someone other than a super-power. Weaker powers should be given more ways to break out.
