Is just me, or you get more ships when you win a naval battle in comparison with EU3?
The official demo verdict thread.
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I played through as Portugal. Allied with Castille, picked up a couple provinces in Morocco, but focused on trade and colonization. My only prior Pardox experience was with CKII, but I was so much happier with warring. Much less tedious movement micromanagement, and the ability to adjust peace treaties is like a balm from heaven. I'm also loving the feel of the trade and colonization elements.
Obviously it's not perfect. I agree that the conversion/culture mechanics are a bit dull and wonky. And there is something odd about how making decisions that on the surface neglect the military (not hiring generals, not picking military ideas) leads to massive tech advantages. I wish there was some mechanism to genuinely convert military power into administrative or diplomatic power to reflect a country that truly eschews land warfare.
But perhaps my greatest praise for the demo is how it cut off at such an exciting moment, leaving me wanting more. My two allies, Castille and England had just plunged into all out war, and I had been forced to betray England to save my Iberian jugular. Meanwhile, my conquistador army was completing a first smashing of the Aztecs (I piggybacked my way into a claim on the Yucatan using Caribbean colonies). Soon the gold of Mexico would start pouring into Iberia...if I could hold my new American territories and not have the European diplomatic situation spiral out of control. The 1520s were destined to be an exciting time, and I can't wait to play them once the game proper comes out.
Obviously it's not perfect. I agree that the conversion/culture mechanics are a bit dull and wonky. And there is something odd about how making decisions that on the surface neglect the military (not hiring generals, not picking military ideas) leads to massive tech advantages. I wish there was some mechanism to genuinely convert military power into administrative or diplomatic power to reflect a country that truly eschews land warfare.
But perhaps my greatest praise for the demo is how it cut off at such an exciting moment, leaving me wanting more. My two allies, Castille and England had just plunged into all out war, and I had been forced to betray England to save my Iberian jugular. Meanwhile, my conquistador army was completing a first smashing of the Aztecs (I piggybacked my way into a claim on the Yucatan using Caribbean colonies). Soon the gold of Mexico would start pouring into Iberia...if I could hold my new American territories and not have the European diplomatic situation spiral out of control. The 1520s were destined to be an exciting time, and I can't wait to play them once the game proper comes out.
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As a huge Paradox / CK2 fan I fully expected to enjoy the demo, and I did. I found the interface at first overwhelming but after I did the tutorials and played around with the help pointer a bit (which is great, thank you!), I started to feel more settled. I only played for about a half hour or so after completing the tutorial, but it was enough for me to spend $44 on the deluxe edition preorder. I know I'm gonna like it, and since Paradox is literally my favorite game company, I'm comfortable supporting them at full price. Also, I know it's gonna have support and expansions for years to come.
overall I am fairly dissapointed with EU IV(at least the demo).
The Balkans and Transilvania region are a mess,small nations(Albania,Moldovia) don t even stand a chance against the huge ottoman stacks(as they historically did),and the graphics seem extremley kitchs,unlike the CK II ones who felt more natural.
But let s not forget that CK II also had many bugs,and uninteresting things,same with EU III,who were resolved after a couple of expansion like DLC s and of course mods,I believe the same will be with EU IV
The Balkans and Transilvania region are a mess,small nations(Albania,Moldovia) don t even stand a chance against the huge ottoman stacks(as they historically did),and the graphics seem extremley kitchs,unlike the CK II ones who felt more natural.
But let s not forget that CK II also had many bugs,and uninteresting things,same with EU III,who were resolved after a couple of expansion like DLC s and of course mods,I believe the same will be with EU IV
it's nice to care about trade for once, i barely put much thought into it in EUIII, cant wait for the 13th!
also first post.
also first post.
Why? Im from Serbia and i see just one thing badly drawn in it, thats the Vidin part which should go to Bulgaria. Its far from being a mess. EU3 Serbia, now that was a mess. EU4 Serbia, huge improvement.
What did you not like about Transilvania specifically?
So, I am in my second game as Austria right now. Things are going very well.
First, I won the initial war against Flanders (no real challenge, even though their army is bigger than mine at the start). I took two provinces and released Brabant, reducing Flanders to a OPM. I ate the aggressive expansion penatly, even though I have cores on all their stuff (WAI?). Then I declared for my cores in the Low Countries (including Brabant, yes I know I am evil), also fabricated a claim against Utrecht to make borders pretty.
While this was going on (no challenge, the dutch states had next to no allies), I got two events against Venice: I got claims on Treviso and Friul for free. Of course I had to follow up on that. A short war later (Venice was also in wars with Milan and the Ottomans) I took Treviso and Friul, and cored them.
Next on the menu was Bohemia; there is a subjugation mission. They are now in a PU with me. I already have another PU mission against Hungary, which I will also pursue if there is still time and my aggressive expansion penalty allows it.
Oh, and I also turned on Bavaria (my ally since the start of the game) because they were grossly incompetent and relied on me to win their many wars against their weaker neighbors; all those extra provinces from those wars made a great imperial liberation CB. I took Niederbayern+Nürnberg, made them release Ansbach and return Oberpfalz to the Palatinate. Suddenly they were only a two-province minor.
The coring costs for those 2 provinces were extraordinary though; not sure why, forgot to look (like 150 for Niederbayern and 240 for Nürnberg). Maybe this was not a good idea; those two cores are almost a tech!
Anyway, it seems remarkable to me that all those HRE minors are constantly at war with each other. I have tons of imperial liberation CBs on various HRE members.
No war with France yet, even though they were (and I think also currently are) members of a coalition against me.
Oh, and I am confused what exactly a "diplomatic relation" is. I can only have 6, but I have 7, reducing my diplomatic point gain by 1 per month. I have
- 4 Alliances (Cologne, Silesia, Trier, Milan)
- a PU with Bohemia
- 2 royal marriages (Silesia, Milan)
Huh, now that I see that, that is exactly 7 things. But I would have though that having a royal marriage+alliance with a country only counted as one... Oh well.
First, I won the initial war against Flanders (no real challenge, even though their army is bigger than mine at the start). I took two provinces and released Brabant, reducing Flanders to a OPM. I ate the aggressive expansion penatly, even though I have cores on all their stuff (WAI?). Then I declared for my cores in the Low Countries (including Brabant, yes I know I am evil), also fabricated a claim against Utrecht to make borders pretty.
While this was going on (no challenge, the dutch states had next to no allies), I got two events against Venice: I got claims on Treviso and Friul for free. Of course I had to follow up on that. A short war later (Venice was also in wars with Milan and the Ottomans) I took Treviso and Friul, and cored them.
Next on the menu was Bohemia; there is a subjugation mission. They are now in a PU with me. I already have another PU mission against Hungary, which I will also pursue if there is still time and my aggressive expansion penalty allows it.
Oh, and I also turned on Bavaria (my ally since the start of the game) because they were grossly incompetent and relied on me to win their many wars against their weaker neighbors; all those extra provinces from those wars made a great imperial liberation CB. I took Niederbayern+Nürnberg, made them release Ansbach and return Oberpfalz to the Palatinate. Suddenly they were only a two-province minor.
The coring costs for those 2 provinces were extraordinary though; not sure why, forgot to look (like 150 for Niederbayern and 240 for Nürnberg). Maybe this was not a good idea; those two cores are almost a tech!
Anyway, it seems remarkable to me that all those HRE minors are constantly at war with each other. I have tons of imperial liberation CBs on various HRE members.
No war with France yet, even though they were (and I think also currently are) members of a coalition against me.
Oh, and I am confused what exactly a "diplomatic relation" is. I can only have 6, but I have 7, reducing my diplomatic point gain by 1 per month. I have
- 4 Alliances (Cologne, Silesia, Trier, Milan)
- a PU with Bohemia
- 2 royal marriages (Silesia, Milan)
Huh, now that I see that, that is exactly 7 things. But I would have though that having a royal marriage+alliance with a country only counted as one... Oh well.
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I'm not overly concerned with possible game imbalances, the odd spelling mistake or other cosmetic issues. The fact is it works smoothly seems stable and looks beautiful. All other concerns can be smoothed out with the help of the Forum community and the excellent patching and after sales team. EUIV in a couple of years will be simply Epic. I personally love watching these games grow. Look how with our input and help Crusaders has evolved into a stunning game that sort of feels 'ours'. Here's to the success of EUIV, this is just the beginning.
I played as Venice in an amazing game. Started out by allying Switzerland and Austria, managed to grab two balkan provinces (Ragusa and Montenegro) before austria broke alliance and eventually after a year or two declared war on me. I felt this was reasonable as it was gradual, not just "BREAK ALLIANCE AND DOW!". I had been building ships meanwhile, and quickly hired tons of mercs using my stockpiled money, and managed to halt austria + savoy for about 6 years before I was eventually defeated, but at that point austria had barely 300 manpower left, savoy peaced out, but my war exhaustion was incredibly high and my coffers drained. Still it was really tense, both navies and armies were about as equal as possible, really enjoyable.
A few observations:
1. Ottomans absolutely paralyzed by rebellions. Almost all their balkan provinces became rebel controlled... yet in another game, none rebelled. This randomness is a HUGE game changer and not-so-fun imo, hope its different in release so Ottomans arent sick man of europe from day1
2. I wonder why austria decided it was a good idea to claim a mountain province which is harder to take rather than one of the plains provinces in their war justification. A small issue, but not very smart from AI.
3.Is it just me or is there no way to sue for peace and just ask the AI what it wants for a peace deal rather than spend alot of time mixing the offerings?
A few observations:
1. Ottomans absolutely paralyzed by rebellions. Almost all their balkan provinces became rebel controlled... yet in another game, none rebelled. This randomness is a HUGE game changer and not-so-fun imo, hope its different in release so Ottomans arent sick man of europe from day1
2. I wonder why austria decided it was a good idea to claim a mountain province which is harder to take rather than one of the plains provinces in their war justification. A small issue, but not very smart from AI.
3.Is it just me or is there no way to sue for peace and just ask the AI what it wants for a peace deal rather than spend alot of time mixing the offerings?
This is a stupid question, but what exactly determines how another nation feels toward you (and you to them, etc)? Is it hardcoded so certain nations will always be hostile to other certain nations?
Sorry if this is the wrong place, couldn't find a 'quick questions/answers' thread.
Sorry if this is the wrong place, couldn't find a 'quick questions/answers' thread.
A combination of things like relations, army strength and the various strategic lists that the AI builds up for countries it fears, provinces it wants to conquer, etc. If you can read paradox script, you can see the factors involved in common/ai_attitudes/00_ai_attitudes.txt (though you can't look at things like how it builds up threat score, that stuff is hardcoded).
Thanks for realsing demo.
I have pre ordered, and am looking forward to the release : )
I does not look dumb down, it looks complex in a good way.
I like that i can see more the modifiers that influence the AI behavior.
I have pre ordered, and am looking forward to the release : )
I does not look dumb down, it looks complex in a good way.
I like that i can see more the modifiers that influence the AI behavior.
Inflation is flat increase in the cost of buying stuff. It has absolutely no relation to your income.
Yeah, I did a short Austria game- too bad it crashed and I couldn't continue due to no saving. PU'd Bavaria, reclaimed the Netherlands, enroached on Venice and just generally bullied everyone. Though in that time I totally forgot about the HRE and so lost Emperor to Brunswick.. woops.
After a lot of games(I think 10 or 12) I believe I may gift valueable hints:
Austria:
It does not matter if you loose the war against Flanders as long as you are getting a white peace. You have fast expansion against the whole of the Netherlands save Utrecht and East Frisia but if you want to stay Emperor mix those conquests with the imperial liberation cbs the constant wars in the HRE present to you. It might be best to ally electors and NOT Bavaria to do so as Bavaria fights against two to three electors at the same time with the wish to annex them.
If the HRE is not important to you (should though be else the first Austria Idea loses all appeal) go on a conquering spree against northern italy(since those are claims and not cores getting more in a single round will see your favor drop fast).
PUing Bohemia helps a lot. The starting Idea Group should be ignored, get a diplomacy one as fast as possible. Diplo itself helps but trade is solid too.
Portugal
You start with an explorer and a conquistor, don't forget them: Discover Americas now! Also move your normal navy to Fernando Po at game start to crush the pirates.
Dissolving the alliance with England saves a lot of time although bashing France is fun. Ally Castille/Spain for an unbroken and secure alliance. Having Castille is good agaist Berber states, but they tend to attack France sometimes too for Rousillion even if the latter is still strong. Taking down Morocco is easy, but might tight down your armies.
A good second idea group is expansion as you get a second colonist, if you don't conquer Morocco getting a third idea group is easily possible (took Economy but other Adminstrative techs or Naval/Trade might be more viable). Getting Benin via claim is an easy core in Africa which helps as a basis to colonize the whole Ivory Coast Trade Provinces securing your hold and making it much more profitable. This helps other getting colonies in Brazil.
You might conquer Mexico early too if you like but it is a larger time, money and military investment. Conquering inner East Africa is nort worth the costs.
Ottomans
Name Mamluks, Ak Quoyun and someelse(perhaps Venice/Georgia) your rivals which helps getting more provinces from them. That way you can get Syria and Levante fairly easy. Allying Astrakhan helps making Crimea more powerful sinc GH tends to attack Astrakhan and you can force them to return cores to Crimea though sometimes Crimea loses provinces fighting against Lithuania in their starting war.
Actually you can do almost nothing wrong as Ottomans as you are more powerful than most of your neighbors combined.
If you battle Venice, Naval helps (its is not bad against Mamluks either but the starting navy is enough combined with your Admiral), gettin Trade though gets you more cash than you can possibly waste. Diplo might be good too since you have many yummi frontsd and vassals to integrate.
Austria:
It does not matter if you loose the war against Flanders as long as you are getting a white peace. You have fast expansion against the whole of the Netherlands save Utrecht and East Frisia but if you want to stay Emperor mix those conquests with the imperial liberation cbs the constant wars in the HRE present to you. It might be best to ally electors and NOT Bavaria to do so as Bavaria fights against two to three electors at the same time with the wish to annex them.
If the HRE is not important to you (should though be else the first Austria Idea loses all appeal) go on a conquering spree against northern italy(since those are claims and not cores getting more in a single round will see your favor drop fast).
PUing Bohemia helps a lot. The starting Idea Group should be ignored, get a diplomacy one as fast as possible. Diplo itself helps but trade is solid too.
Portugal
You start with an explorer and a conquistor, don't forget them: Discover Americas now! Also move your normal navy to Fernando Po at game start to crush the pirates.
Dissolving the alliance with England saves a lot of time although bashing France is fun. Ally Castille/Spain for an unbroken and secure alliance. Having Castille is good agaist Berber states, but they tend to attack France sometimes too for Rousillion even if the latter is still strong. Taking down Morocco is easy, but might tight down your armies.
A good second idea group is expansion as you get a second colonist, if you don't conquer Morocco getting a third idea group is easily possible (took Economy but other Adminstrative techs or Naval/Trade might be more viable). Getting Benin via claim is an easy core in Africa which helps as a basis to colonize the whole Ivory Coast Trade Provinces securing your hold and making it much more profitable. This helps other getting colonies in Brazil.
You might conquer Mexico early too if you like but it is a larger time, money and military investment. Conquering inner East Africa is nort worth the costs.
Ottomans
Name Mamluks, Ak Quoyun and someelse(perhaps Venice/Georgia) your rivals which helps getting more provinces from them. That way you can get Syria and Levante fairly easy. Allying Astrakhan helps making Crimea more powerful sinc GH tends to attack Astrakhan and you can force them to return cores to Crimea though sometimes Crimea loses provinces fighting against Lithuania in their starting war.
Actually you can do almost nothing wrong as Ottomans as you are more powerful than most of your neighbors combined.
If you battle Venice, Naval helps (its is not bad against Mamluks either but the starting navy is enough combined with your Admiral), gettin Trade though gets you more cash than you can possibly waste. Diplo might be good too since you have many yummi frontsd and vassals to integrate.
Other than my two Austria games I also played a Venice game, and two Portugal games.
Venice: I was not really sure what to do. Austria is really, really powerful and scary, which I knew well, since I had played them before (the start with 66k troops!!). Also, I think the Ottoman DoW is inevitable. Sooo... Venice is not in a good position, I think. I tried to build up my navy and also army, but I ran into money problems. Trade was okish, but it did not make me heaps of money. Maybe I'm missing something. I essentially just left the starting merchant setup (one in Venice collecting, one in Ragusa forwarding and one in Alexandria forwarding). Set my light ships to patrol in Venice. Anyway, I managed to get some provinces in the Balkans. Then lost wars to Austria and Ottomans. Just as I had thought the game would go
Portugal: Used the starting explorer/navigator to get to america. However, I also needed the next naval tech+a colonist, so it was a while before I could colonize. In the meantime, I of course allied+RM Castille. Castille became Spain fairly quickly, but it still only had Aragon in a PU? I am a bit confused about that. Anyway, I also went to war with Morocco (+ Algiers/Tunis) for some pieces of North Africa. I was mainly after the triggered modifier "Defeated the Berber Pirates" which requires you to own Melilla. I also took Casablanca (mission) and Fez (had a claim) but it's probably not wort it, as the provinces are not very rich.
Anyway, my money situation was not very good. I used my colonist to build only one colony at a time. I got like 5 provinces in Brazil by the end. All in all, quite a boring game. Since I probably do not really understand trade mechanics, I probably did not get as much out of it as is possible.
Of those three nations, Austria was by far the most fun. Probably because they are really rich, I could easily afford two level two advisors by the end of the demo. Also, bullying everyone never gets old
Venice: I was not really sure what to do. Austria is really, really powerful and scary, which I knew well, since I had played them before (the start with 66k troops!!). Also, I think the Ottoman DoW is inevitable. Sooo... Venice is not in a good position, I think. I tried to build up my navy and also army, but I ran into money problems. Trade was okish, but it did not make me heaps of money. Maybe I'm missing something. I essentially just left the starting merchant setup (one in Venice collecting, one in Ragusa forwarding and one in Alexandria forwarding). Set my light ships to patrol in Venice. Anyway, I managed to get some provinces in the Balkans. Then lost wars to Austria and Ottomans. Just as I had thought the game would go
Portugal: Used the starting explorer/navigator to get to america. However, I also needed the next naval tech+a colonist, so it was a while before I could colonize. In the meantime, I of course allied+RM Castille. Castille became Spain fairly quickly, but it still only had Aragon in a PU? I am a bit confused about that. Anyway, I also went to war with Morocco (+ Algiers/Tunis) for some pieces of North Africa. I was mainly after the triggered modifier "Defeated the Berber Pirates" which requires you to own Melilla. I also took Casablanca (mission) and Fez (had a claim) but it's probably not wort it, as the provinces are not very rich.
Anyway, my money situation was not very good. I used my colonist to build only one colony at a time. I got like 5 provinces in Brazil by the end. All in all, quite a boring game. Since I probably do not really understand trade mechanics, I probably did not get as much out of it as is possible.
Of those three nations, Austria was by far the most fun. Probably because they are really rich, I could easily afford two level two advisors by the end of the demo. Also, bullying everyone never gets old
I played them, very fun nation, their missions to PU Bohemia and Hungary makes it easier to follow the historical route, and Vienna is actually a pretty sick tradehub, and ofc it also helps having flandern, things to really watch out for in austria games are the fact that you WILL most likely be over the diplomatic relation limit alot, which means very slow diplo tech, PUs and vassals just crush it, i had like 10points diplo before i vassalized ferrara, baden and salzburg, pluss the PU with bohemia, i was at 2 measly diplo points pr month. Pretty fun game though, will play them on release for sure
PS absolutely love the trade system <3
yeah but don't you see its a tradeoff generals are a short term benefit if you recruit alot of them you benefit in the short term but it will damage you in the long run as for ideas if you pick trade ideas over diplo tech your basically receiving similar benefits (i.e. it boosts your trade income) but your approach is different the only case where you can go mad with both is if you have a leader who specializes in diplo points