The four colonies rule

[vonDuus]

KamSolusar

TWRome is such a sad story. TW used to have decent real time battles. I still play a lot of Shogun and Empire, I even have MTW2 on my disk. But Rome is a mess. The siege AI is still broken. The thing with TW is, that the strategy part is just an excuse to play the tactical battles. If I want a strategy game, I go to Paradox.

I don't think you have any reason to worry. Paradox has a history of listening to the community, and I have personally witnessed how a change I and others argued for was implemented in the next patch, and then a lot of people complained, and then it was changed back.

This new mechanic is a departure from the old and tried solutions, so it is hard to predict how they will respond to criticism. If they already decided to roll out this mechanic over the whole game world through additional DLCs/patches, then the uestion has become political, and they probably won't acknowledge that there is a problem at all. Because of economy based commitments and all that. But I think they are as worried as you are, they know how conservative gamers can be, and they know how a minor mess-up on their part can get totally out of control on the forums.

Anyway, I believe people like you and me, who occasionally find pleasure in coloring a world map in one color, are, if not a majority among gamers, then certainly a significant minority. So chances are they will listen to us. With a little luck we will have an option in the next patch. If not, there is the solution pointed out by sinkingmist. I haven't tried it yet, but I will report back if I have any problems.

Foul language removed - Seelmeister

 

[emux]

You can mod this by changing the following line in defines.lua (I assume you're fine with modding, since you seem fine with tag switching)

MAX_CROWN_COLONIES = 4,							-- How many province a country can hold in a colonial region before creating a colonial nation

Yes! Thank you very much.

 

[KamSolusar]

I am afraid that this is not really your game then.

Lol this is why it's hard to talk about things on this forum some times. I tell u in multiple paragraphs how much i love eu4 and how many hundreds of hours ive played it, and i get this reply, even tho i explicitly state that i dont want this specific reply.

I suppose i messed up when i mentioned total war and an mmo. For reasons that escape me, if it's revealed that you've ever enjoyed a non-paradox game on this forum you're regarded as an 'outsider.' Because i liked empire total war or some mmo then obviously i dont care about history, im not really an eu fan just a passerby, all i want is instant gratification, etc etc. So since i apparently didnt make it crystal clear in my last long winded post, i'll try again. In the 878 hours i have logged in this game, i have never even contemplated a wc attempt, much less attempted one. Instead i try to restore byzantium, make a bigger badder british empire, form germany and start world wars like they do, u know eu type of things. My last game i united japan as hokosawa and proceeded to try and accomplish japan's ww2 goals as i understand them, aka controlling anything that borders the pacific. Hell i even spent diplo points changing the chinese cultures to japanese, even tho han was accepted. 'WC passerby' indeed.

So yeah please try to stay on the topic, and not get off on some "oh this game just isnt for you" thing. Colonial nations obviously wont have an effect on all of my favorite nations, however it will totally change how many of my favorites play, and in a fundamental way. To put it in mmo terms (cause i know you like that lol) it takes a sandbox of earth and turns it into a sandbox of earth/colonial nation overlord themepark hybrid. What i'm seeking here are the opinions of ppl who understand what i'm saying and who can explain to me why im wrong and/or why this wont really change things as drastically as i fear.

 

[Ensiferum]

so how does this work exactly? when you get 5 colonies in a certain area, you are getting a colonial nation created as I understand things. The colonies need to be fully formed and cored for this to happen or it happens as soon as you get claim on 5 areas? Because if it's so, is just a race to claim more land as quick as possible, since I guess you don't have to pay for the colonies' maintenance as soon as the nation is formed, no?

 

[Mojave Music]

Honestly my only two problems with the colonial nations thing is that A) I wish there were more shades for them to be colored (eg. if you're England, all your colony nations will be a slightly different shade of red than you, but it seems to all be the same red as each other) and B) I kind of wish they could occur in places that aren't the Americas.

edit: screencap to illustrate the color problem (from a converted CK2 game, excuse the alt history wank of Great Albion and the out of place Knights of Santiago)

 

[V1ribus]

Perhaps if the ability to "suggest" to your colonial subjects a direction for them to head existed?

 

[edwardianed]

Honestly my only two problems with the colonial nations thing is that A) I wish there were more shades for them to be colored (eg. if you're England, all your colony nations will be a slightly different shade of red than you, but it seems to all be the same red as each other) and B) I kind of wish they could occur in places that aren't the Americas.

If you want non-American colonial nations, I've just finished a mod that adds colonial regions to Africa, Oceania and India.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?747856-MOD-World-Colonisation

 

[Athalcor]

...

Well, I do not know, if you have read the rest of my post, but the only sentence you quoted is quoted (and reacted to) absolutely out of context of the post.

Yeah, maybe you are right and I have misjudged a little bit, for which I sincerely apologize, because from the nature of your post it seemed that you like the game for painting the world the color of your nation while the recent patch does not really do good to this type of gaming. But did I stigmatize it? No. It is a completely understandable and enjoyable possibility of playing PI games.

And also, it seems you have not noticed that I proposed a solution. A solution that takes about 30 secs to do and which reverts the game to your desirable state of being.

You are seeking people who understand you are saying, that is, the people that have the same problem as you. Well, I doubt you will find any who won't be only complaining and wanting the change reverted. Because these who are not complaining, already modded their game to their liking.

And here we come to the sentence you quoted (in case you want to quote it again followed by other accusations): If you, from any particular reason, do not want to erase the sole thing that bothers you by modding and instead go writing long posts about it, then this game is not for you.

I seriously do not know any other way how to respond to your posts because, as I have understood the idea of your posts is finding 'ppl who can explain why this wont really change things as drastically as i fear'. I did explain it to you. This won't change things as drastically as you fear, because if you've tried playing with a colonialistic nation and disliked the new mechanics, you can undo them.

 

[vonDuus]

Okay, I tried to change the figures in defines.lua, but it didn't work. I tried with 100, instant crash. Then I tried 99, also instant crash. Then I tried 9, and that worked some of the way, a few colonial nations spawned but then the game crashed at the end of the month. Now it crashes even though I have changed the number back to 4:rofl:

So for the time being I am stuck with colonial nations, until some modder, or the devs come up with a proper fix.

 

[Te. Kenzo]

Well, Made a game when you click around to paint the world is easy, made a good strategy game is instead the challange.
With EUIV the challange for paradox is to made a good and interesting GSG, with mechanics and interesting worlds, this is the point, and this is the reason why many people play EU instead of other games when want to play something more "believable".

 

[aragonFTW]

I like painting the map as much as the next guy, but there really isn't much point continuing to play once you have under the old system. At least now there is more of a challenge. I might finish more games to 1821 now.

 

[unmerged(94417)]

For reasons that escape me, if it's revealed that you've ever enjoyed a non-paradox game on this forum you're regarded as an 'outsider.' Because i liked empire total war or some mmo then obviously i dont care about history, im not really an eu fan just a passerby, all i want is instant gratification, etc etc.

So aparently you figuered out the forum mechanics quite well. Get used to it. The PI lawyers are everywhere.
This is a completely new system and from my first few hours of it i can say that there are of course some balance problems and i guess there is a fair chance that it will be improved in the future. The lawyers will desperately defend every change as "historically correct" and "totally intended" right up to the moment it is patched. Funny enough even some PI emplyees throw the WAD bat around while having it patched a few weeks later as we saw with the vassal feeding debacle....
My advise: Let it settle, maybe try to change a few values in the defines or just spend some time in CK2 or Civ or TW or whatever and most importantly dont listen to the L2P lawyers.

 

[Jess135]

The reason why Paradox didn't provide an option to turn off colonial nations is the same reason they didn't provide an option to turn off overextension or westernization penalties. The new system models the problems faced by colonizers in a way that the old system (although calling colonial provinces behaving exactly the same as any other ones a system is extremely generous) just didn't, and is objectively more realistic. Paradox creates their games with the core goal of modelling history as accurately as possible, so allowing people to use the unrealistic system now that an improved one exists is going directly against their design philosophy. Even the term "4 colonies rule" is facetious because the creation of a colonial nation isn't a penalty but is intended to be a goal to work towards. As other people have explained, this is an incredibly simple rule to mod out, however you are going to have to break your game on your own time instead of expecting Paradox to endorse it.

 

[vonDuus]

Okay, it seems I f***ed up my game by making those changes in the lua, hopefully it was only the save. So I guess when my game works again I will buy the DLC and try out being a colonial nation. Hoping that some modder will come up with a solution. or better yet, Paradox.

I don't see any valid reasons for not making these mechanics optional. Because the old ones are too easy? That is laughable, and only shows that you have no idea of the goals I set myself in my games. And how do you objectively define "a good and interesting GSG, with mechanics and interesting worlds"? I think what you actually mean by those words are "a game that I like". But relax, I am not going to take the game you like away from you. All I am arguing for is for Paradox to provide me with a game that I like. I am not asking for the impossible, it worked fine on my computer the day before yesterday.

And I really don't think this has much to do with the split between historians and gamers. Which imo has ceased to be a problem a long time ago, because Paradox so far has managed to incorporate the wishes of both factions in their products. Just look at HoI: Lots of bells and whistles, but an old grognard like me can still play the game the old-fashioned way.

 

[FrosT37]

Okay, I tried to change the figures in defines.lua, but it didn't work. I tried with 100, instant crash. Then I tried 99, also instant crash. Then I tried 9, and that worked some of the way, a few colonial nations spawned but then the game crashed at the end of the month. Now it crashes even though I have changed the number back to 4:rofl:

So for the time being I am stuck with colonial nations, until some modder, or the devs come up with a proper fix.

Well, it's not as simple as changing the original file...

Even for changing a single parameter for the entire game, you have to do it in a mod. In your case, your mod will contain only one file (defines.lua), but it has to be done that way or otherwise it will crash.

Check in the mod section, you will find how to do this exactly there.

 

[Comradebot]

Okay, it seems I f***ed up my game by making those changes in the lua, hopefully it was only the save. So I guess when my game works again I will buy the DLC and try out being a colonial nation. Hoping that some modder will come up with a solution. or better yet, Paradox.

I don't see any valid reasons for not making these mechanics optional. Because the old ones are too easy? That is laughable, and only shows that you have no idea of the goals I set myself in my games. And how do you objectively define "a good and interesting GSG, with mechanics and interesting worlds"? I think what you actually mean by those words are "a game that I like". But relax, I am not going to take the game you like away from you. All I am arguing for is for Paradox to provide me with a game that I like. I am not asking for the impossible, it worked fine on my computer the day before yesterday.

And I really don't think this has much to do with the split between historians and gamers. Which imo has ceased to be a problem a long time ago, because Paradox so far has managed to incorporate the wishes of both factions in their products. Just look at HoI: Lots of bells and whistles, but an old grognard like me can still play the game the old-fashioned way.

An easy fix would be to delete the defines.lua file and then have Steam verify the integrity of the game. It'll recognize the missing file and re-download it for you.


And a good argument for why it's not "optional": they'd have to effectively balance and patch for two separate games. It'd be like asking for them to go back and create an option in CKII where you can switch Pagans back to pre-The Old Gods mechanics. It'd be a waste of time and effort just so a handful of people who don't enjoy the new system can keep playing with the old one. It would be a terrible, terrible business decision.

 

[feastonthrones]

Yeah 1.4 ruined the European colonial game. Paradox had something perfect, and they decided to destroy it. EU4 WAS a game like no other in a way that you could have such great scope, manage an empire and was incredibly rewarding. Now 80% of the fun is gone. If people wanted something different they could have modded the game, but now the fun is ruined for players who bought this game.

This is not the game I purchased, that was advertised. And I demand my money back because it was changed in a way that was out of my control and in a way that I did not approve of and which is no longer the same game that I bought. It has been changed and I long for patch 1.5 when they return this nonsense to normal.

 

[Invader_Canuck]

Lol this is why it's hard to talk about things on this forum some times. I tell u in multiple paragraphs how much i love eu4 and how many hundreds of hours ive played it, and i get this reply, even tho i explicitly state that i dont want this specific reply.

I suppose i messed up when i mentioned total war and an mmo. For reasons that escape me, if it's revealed that you've ever enjoyed a non-paradox game on this forum you're regarded as an 'outsider.' Because i liked empire total war or some mmo then obviously i dont care about history, im not really an eu fan just a passerby, all i want is instant gratification, etc etc. So since i apparently didnt make it crystal clear in my last long winded post, i'll try again. In the 878 hours i have logged in this game, i have never even contemplated a wc attempt, much less attempted one. Instead i try to restore byzantium, make a bigger badder british empire, form germany and start world wars like they do, u know eu type of things. My last game i united japan as hokosawa and proceeded to try and accomplish japan's ww2 goals as i understand them, aka controlling anything that borders the pacific. Hell i even spent diplo points changing the chinese cultures to japanese, even tho han was accepted. 'WC passerby' indeed.

So yeah please try to stay on the topic, and not get off on some "oh this game just isnt for you" thing. Colonial nations obviously wont have an effect on all of my favorite nations, however it will totally change how many of my favorites play, and in a fundamental way. To put it in mmo terms (cause i know you like that lol) it takes a sandbox of earth and turns it into a sandbox of earth/colonial nation overlord themepark hybrid. What i'm seeking here are the opinions of ppl who understand what i'm saying and who can explain to me why im wrong and/or why this wont really change things as drastically as i fear.

I don't think you could have missed the point any more than if you turned 180 degrees and shot in the other direction.

He simply said, "If you don't like modding or customizing your game experience, this might not be the game for you". Don't let your lack of comprehension stop you from illiterately wall of texting a bunch of righteous indignation tho!