The official demo verdict thread.

[Hootieleece]

I wasn't overwhelmed with the Map. I think it is a step back towards the Cartoonishness of EU2 map. (especially the Political map)

Once I figured out the interface had a hard time finding where the Military maintenance slider was, gameplay became rather intuitive. Biggest problem is the limits of Monarch points and the fact that your game is dependent on RNG and luck. The Choices need to be made and I agree it is harder to make a decision so many choices so few points.

Military AI is Still too fond of creating "Doomstacks" I was playing Austria fighting France. I kept having to fight the WHOLE French Army and Vassals about every 3-4months. France seems to be "Lucky" again with Demigod for King. (6/6/6, General) I was winning all the battles because of terrain and reinforcements but could NEVER catch their Army because my leaders were crap comparatively. No more than 2 in any Category.

Other than those criticisms I think that this will be a worthy installment of the Series.

 

[dharper]

My verdict: I'm impressed.

To begin with, the paintings used in the startup screens were beautiful - better than the EU3 ones (sorry!). The speed at which it loaded was also nice - faster than EU3 on the same computer, although that could just be the demo. The game itself responded faster than I remember EU3 doing so (zooming in and out, scrolling, etc.) but since I normally play EU3 with mods, that could be my faulty perception. I liked the map - clear to read, pretty, and showing you the elevation as well as political control. I also enjoyed the music, although that's not a very big point.

In terms of gameplay, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. The new systems are intuitive and there are plenty of hints to help you figure things out. A few times I did end up confused, but I managed to figure things out. I am very happy with the new merchant/trade system, as I hated the old one. The AI is improved, especially when it comes to diplomacy and wars, and honestly, it's just so nice to see WHY the AI feels the way it does that I'm happy. The new idea system is cool and kept me interested during peacetime. Colonization and missionaries both seem intuitive and limiting, and I like the permanent diplomats/merchants/missionaries/colonists instead of sending them off.

Monarch power really makes a difference, and I found myself worrying about raising stability and adding cores. There's now a reason to get three advisors, even if you don't care for a particular bonus. The idea of coalitions and rivals is fun, although I didn't get to see it much. I am especially happy to see Badboy limits disappear, to be replaced with coalitions, rivals and overexpansion. It makes sense and now is more organic instead of breaking the fourth wall. The new production maps are really, really useful - thank you, Paradox!

I am also happy to see that a couple of exploits seem to have been fixed. The hunter-killer stacks make it harder to wage war, the way conquering overseas provinces is handled - now conquering the Cherokee is more trouble than it's worth in the early game. The AI seems to understand how trade works, too. Rivals appeared when I began to expand too quickly.

Some reservations: I worry that the sheer number of ideas will give Western Europeans another huge advantage - more than technology alone - that will tip the balance too much in their favour. The massive emphasis on monarch power over anything else makes me worry about game balance and luck playing too large a factor.

Overall, the demo makes me very excited to play the real game. I've already played two campaigns (Portugal and the Ottomans) and will almost certainly try out the other two before the game's release.

 

[kristoff]

Impressive, though I had little time to play through it. It will be indeed interesting how all new features will affect game balance.

PS. I just hope someone will make a map mod soon - in terms of terrain composition huge parts of the world are totally odd, i.e. Portugal being completely flat and half-desert, Poland being one giant swamp with no forests etc. (can't even imagine what was the source for this, if any...)

 

[unmerged(752433)]

DOWNLOADING! 25% done.

 

[Red_warning]

Impressive, though I had little time to play through it. It will be indeed interesting how all new features will affect game balance.

PS. I just hope someone will make a map mod soon - in terms of terrain composition huge parts of the world are totally odd, i.e. Portugal being completely flat and half-desert, Poland being one giant swamp with no forests etc. (can't even imagine what was the source for this, if any...)

Yeah the terrain is a bit odd. I noticed that Sweden has more open plains than Ukraine...

 

[Xia]

From what I played (a full Portugal campaign, I was disappointed when it ended as I was just starting to expand my South African colonies... ah well) I was, as expected, impressed. Once I got to used to the new UI I got my Portuguese empire running quite smoothly - even after I fought a stupid war against Morocco in order to reclaim the land that England kindly let France give away :unsure:. Regardless, it was a trap I would only fall for once, and never again shall Albion betray me in such a manner!

I have to say though, as the Demo was a little short to get a solid opinion of many features, my main impressions were of the art, UI and music. The Art was prettier than in EU3, the UI was a mix; it was a lot more informative, but at the same time a lot more complex as a result. Still overall an improvement in my opinion. Then there's the music, as was completely expected; it was superb.

 

[kingofnoobs]

I just can't win as Venice. Ottomans have the bigger fleet and you get DOW'd by Austria and Ottomans at the same time. I suppose i cna try an improve relations on the Austrians and go above my naval forcelimit...

Well I went day 1 alliance with Austria and owned Ottomans thanks to the Austrians

 

[Captain Gars]

My verdict: I'm impressed.

To begin with, the paintings used in the startup screens were beautiful - better than the EU3 ones (sorry!). The speed at which it loaded was also nice - faster than EU3 on the same computer, although that could just be the demo. The game itself responded faster than I remember EU3 doing so (zooming in and out, scrolling, etc.) but since I normally play EU3 with mods, that could be my faulty perception. I liked the map - clear to read, pretty, and showing you the elevation as well as political control. I also enjoyed the music, although that's not a very big point.

In terms of gameplay, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. The new systems are intuitive and there are plenty of hints to help you figure things out. A few times I did end up confused, but I managed to figure things out. I am very happy with the new merchant/trade system, as I hated the old one. The AI is improved, especially when it comes to diplomacy and wars, and honestly, it's just so nice to see WHY the AI feels the way it does that I'm happy. The new idea system is cool and kept me interested during peacetime. Colonization and missionaries both seem intuitive and limiting, and I like the permanent diplomats/merchants/missionaries/colonists instead of sending them off.

Monarch power really makes a difference, and I found myself worrying about raising stability and adding cores. There's now a reason to get three advisors, even if you don't care for a particular bonus. The idea of coalitions and rivals is fun, although I didn't get to see it much. I am especially happy to see Badboy limits disappear, to be replaced with coalitions, rivals and overexpansion. It makes sense and now is more organic instead of breaking the fourth wall. The new production maps are really, really useful - thank you, Paradox!

I am also happy to see that a couple of exploits seem to have been fixed. The hunter-killer stacks make it harder to wage war, the way conquering overseas provinces is handled - now conquering the Cherokee is more trouble than it's worth in the early game. The AI seems to understand how trade works, too. Rivals appeared when I began to expand too quickly.

Some reservations: I worry that the sheer number of ideas will give Western Europeans another huge advantage - more than technology alone - that will tip the balance too much in their favour. The massive emphasis on monarch power over anything else makes me worry about game balance and luck playing too large a factor.

Overall, the demo makes me very excited to play the real game. I've already played two campaigns (Portugal and the Ottomans) and will almost certainly try out the other two before the game's release.

Nice to see you back on the forum David, and I'm glad you seem to like the game so far

 

[Jebusrocks]

Has anyone figured out how to play the game in windowed mode? Not sure if its possible in the demo, tried looking for the settings.txt with no avail

 

[Albert I]

Rousssillon in 1492 its part of Aragon. I'ts not part of France.

 

[Blastaz]

Your heir, if your heir is your brother ie pretty similar age is it possible that they get replaced this time round? Same thing with queens.

Tech modifiers. Some events give a small reduction in tech costs for a short time. (mine was 2.5% for five years) With the new tech system of buying them in big chunks this doesn't work any more. It should either be a flat reduction until you research the next level, or a small increase in monarch power points. As it is they are either worthless if you are not going to buy the tech in that time or worth ~15 monarch power. a flat pay out of points would be better.

Country modifiers. Some modifiers (become kalifa) only last the life of your current king (at least according to the decision). These are not marked on your country screen as expiring, although those with an expiry date are.

Old graphics: with all the shiny new stuff the left over art from EUIII is a bit incongruous. This is most noticeable with the inf, cav, art sprites on the army screen. The units look a bit old as well, but I guess this is so you can sell me dlc packs

 

[grechzoo]

I love Mr Waldetoft.

Seriously. he is getting better and better with each game. this soundtrack is simply and purely beautiful. I cant wait for it to accompany my many hours of play on release.

Great decision by paradox to hire him as an in house composer.

 

[woolfer]

I can't wait till Tuesday. I had so much fun while playing the demo.

It also happened to me. Playing as Portugal all of a sudden my African holdings were gone and I didn't know why. There should be at least some notification and a hint so newbies can find this out on their own. Also I hope I won't have to tick off AI Peace negotiation in every single war.

Actually I'm glad I found out now than finding out the hard way in a Ironman game.

Also some of the music has parts that remind me of CK2 sound effects. I get startled everytime they come up. Example: Age of Discovery around 1:25

 

[MaybeNever]

How would you do this outside of revolt risk (which is increased significantly)? It's the same as EU3, really. Perhaps your missionary could be killed and progress halted for some time, every so often?

I've been thinking about this since seeing Quill18's videos. There are some changes I think that would help enormously (I might even make a mod if I do not feel too lazy about the whole thing).

First, the base time for conversion should be MUCH longer. Some experimentation would be necessary, but I feel like 20 years would be a good starting point. Somebody who really wants to convert the heathens/heretics will need to focus on getting more missionaries and ideas to increase their strength to be successful.

Second, during conversion there should be a chance for events to fire ("Missionary Injured By Mob!" sorts of things) that set back progress (if possible) and/or cost additional monarch points ("Make concessions: 10 diplo power and -20% convert speed" or "Convert them by fire or steel!: -25 military power and -5% conversion speed"). Then, to benefit from maintaining wrong-religion provinces, occasional events (perhaps modified by decisions to create millets, which would in turn increase manpower+tax from relevant provinces) along the lines of "our tolerance brings benefits" that give bonuses to monarch points, gold, manpower recovery, relations with nations of the tolerated religion group, etc. In this way, high tolerance of wrong religions would actually be more powerful than total religious unity, but it would require work and some specialization.

 

[MrCimer]

So far loving the demo. I played it only for 2-3 hours totally gonna play it more try other nations too, currently tried out Austria and Portugal. Lag on top speed is lower I think than in EU3 atleast to me. I love monthly income much more than yearly it's great change also advisors are a bit expensive if they are higher level than 1 but hey that's why they are lvl 1 right? Anyway colonizing is about same as it was and is fine for me no extra work there. I really really love new trade mechanics, I hated trade centers and merchants before it was like: "Humm, let's set it to auto and forget about it completely for the rest of the game" . Here you actually need to send some profit from other nodes to your node and after more merchant rotate them etc. Anyway, monarch points are definetly improvement since I really didn't know if I should get stability or just tech up or maybe core something. Decision are ok. Also loving the AI actually hunting my armies but I had few situations where their Hunting army was sieging my province and it just stood there while other two stacks were just standing in other corners of France one was in Normandy or somewhere there the other was in Armagnac and they didn't move them in to help sieging or destroy my armies, just standing and watching, a bit worying. Also coalitions and rivals are nice too. Coalitions didn't took of so much really yet didn't play much into the game. Anyway that's my pice of pie, impressed by game so far but having some worries about AI. Oh and map is awesome, the whole game looks a lot better than EU3. Nothing to say there but great game is coming .

 

[Count_Curtis]

Im going to start saving hours here and there to give me more time to fill out AT LEAST 5000 hours of the next few decades of my life to this game

i'm not being sarcastic or anything. im entirely serious

 

[Kljunas]

It has already been mentioned but religious conversion is way to fast and/or beneficial, Especially when I conquered Jerusalem and got a free additional missionary... I could just start converting all of the Balkans extremely fast and without any real cost or drawback.

 

[Cossack8559]

I've played through as the Ottomans, i was genuinely disappointed WHEN the end of the demo came about. I was enjoying the game so much i didn't want it to end!

I will never touch EU3 again sadly, i feel that from what i have experienced so far, EUIV is a great improvement, thus there is no need to go back to EU3. As the Ottomans i was slowly annexing all the minors around me, when Austria,Hungary,Lithuania,Venice and that large blue country to my south east (can't remember their name) formed a coalition against me.

I started to panic when this happened and started increasing my military and readying the troops for the pending invasion... when suddenly a year later one by one every country left the coalition against me... ?

I won't go in to any detail as i'm crap with words and writing in general, but i will say that i LOVE what i'm seeing so far Paradox. Cannot wait until release so i can play as England and teach them French some manners!

 

[CptVicky]

Love it but for some reason the checksum takes forever to load. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[unmerged(66346)]

- The new mechanics are less a hassle to manage and less spamy/repetitive, than in EU3 wich is very good.
- The whole game seems less random and more polished.
- The combat/siege system is great.
- I like the new technology/ideas system
- The graphics makes the world look more vibrant, but its perhaps too dark and provinces names aren't always easy to read.
- It'll take some time to make the transition from EU3, but its mostly for a better game as far I've seen.
- I hate Austria when I play Venice