Thoughts on 1.33

[Atomcreator]

I haven't played EU4 for a long time but felt like giving it at go with 1.33.
Heres some observations with my papal states game.

The AI.
Armies often seem to get stuck in areas that are unhelpful during war. They 'judder' between one or two provinces .
The AI never seems to want to go for the provinces you mark for them to capture.
The Austrian AI, despite outnumbering the French, constantly capitulates because it spreads it's armies, while the French cruise around in massive stacks.
If I'm in a battle they very rarely join in to help me, just sitting a province or two away, despite if they joined in, I would win the battle, seemingly they would sooner let me lose.

In general.
The Ottoman blob is absolutely huge. Unstoppable. Happily just picking off whoever it wants to with no opposition.
Castile got beaten up by a native federation in America.
North America is still barely colonisable. GB is hanging on in Newfoundland.

Whilst I am enjoying my run through as papal states, I've encountered these things and a number of others. The game doesn't seem as good as it used to be in general, mostly on AI competency and balance of states.

 

[Gijahr]

I have reverted back to 1.32.2 to continue playing.

Primarily due to the multiplayer desync that exists in 1.33 when an heir dies, but also due to the fact that the AI just feels confused. Often getting stuck on provinces 'judder'ing as you described it, splitting it's armies in front of the enemy and immediately being repeatedly stackwiped and frequently either not moving or hanging out in areas that the AI's armies are not required. I feel this is especially noticeable in vassals on 1.33, where they will rarely support you or move during war.

I'm interested to see how other people have found the AI, it has been a little disappointing since it's good to see changes come to the game, and I am interested to hear how others have found 1.33

 

[Commonblob]

1) AI juddering between provinces is something that happens occasionally on many patches of EU4 from what I've observed. It tends to be a 1 or 2 time per campaign thing. Not sure if it actually became more common on 1.33. I'm playing my first 1.33 campaign atm and haven't seen it yet.

2) AI has never consistently gone for provinces you mark for them.

3) For some reason, your allies always seem to be less competent than your enemies in EU4. Nothing new.

4) Ottomans are OP most of the time on any patch.

5) Colonization has indeed been a problem ever since they added a ton of natives in 1.31. They really should have done something about it.

 

[Gijahr]

Yes, the AI has always juddered and been incompetent. But it's at a whole new level in 1.33, I think its most evident in vassal states if you compare their behaviour to 1.32

 

[Atomcreator]

I thought all this was meant to be sorted out by now.

 

[The_Boominator]

Maybe this is anecdotal, but it seems like the AI's military competence (for allies) dropped off between the beta and the full release. I only had the stupid AI issues about once per campaign in the beta, whereas it seems to happen in more wars than not in the full release. Not sure why.

That said, the AI is managing budgets better, being more aggressive, and (at least when you're fighting against them) fighting wars better overall. IDK how this happens, but it seems like we have two different AI for allies and enemies.

 

[Terixis]

1.32 was a bit too easy but I rolled back and see myself staying there for the forseeable future. 1.33 isn't straight up broken like 1.31 was, it's just way way too ambitious for what was ostensibly a bugfix+balance patch and there were changes to fundamental mechanics that still need some ironing. And the loan button graying out is just why.

 

[Atomcreator]

Just seen this, same game.

 

[egolend]

I am on 1.32 too. The export to variable bug is obscure if you just play vanilla but for a mod I likes it is critcal and it is too much effort to switch back and forward all the time.

 

[Jihem]

Just seen this, same game.


View attachment 818374

What happened ? Have you made the decision to ban soccer ?

 

[AvengedK1ng]

What happened ? Have you made the decision to ban soccer ?

Aggressive ai forgot overextension

 

[Big Bad France]

Just seen this, same game.


View attachment 818374

Assuming you are playing Castile here, this actually has been pretty easy to do on every patch. If the AI is doing that, it's something new.

 

[currylambchop]

Good update but need to release a bug fix

 

[cuendillar]

While I like the football explanation, it's more likely the case that a colonial nation (the word 'New' being above the screenshot - you can see 'New Castille' written out northeast of Xiu) getting too many provinces from your conquests in the region and not enough financial subsidies to build an army to deal with it.

This could always happen, particularly in Mexico and Peru, unless you take care to avoid it since the vast majority of provinces will have separatist cores rather than being previously uncolonized.

 

[Atomcreator]

Assuming you are playing Castile here, this actually has been pretty easy to do on every patch. If the AI is doing that, it's something new.

No, I'm Papal States. I mentioned it in the OP. So perhaps something new ?

 

[Nostalgium]

The AI thing is weird, because I feel like I'm seeing a lot more AI stutter, but at the same time, I also see the AI being objectively way more successful in everything it does, from war to economy to diplomacy.

Overall, I enjoy the patch. The AI puts up more of a challenge for longer now, and it generally takes me longer to complete the goals of each campaign. I think the combat changes are generally good: Wars feel more costly and more bloody now, and paired with what I can only assume is improved diplo AI, this has lead to some hefty wars in the early/mid game which defined the 50 years within which they took place.

New World is still a mess, but I've never really enjoyed the Americas in EU4 as either a native or colonizer, so that has no impact on my enjoyment of the game one way or another.

 

[Melric]

1.32 my AI allies had a tendency to leave a fort siege when they had gotten the percentage positive. In 1.33 my AI allies now do this for territories without forts. They wait for until a few days before the month is up and walk away. Fun times.

 

[Katrex]

Apart from multiplayer being completely unplayable its fine

 

[Big Bad France]

No, I'm Papal States. I mentioned it in the OP. So perhaps something new ?

Yeah, that isn't normal. I do like to see the AI taking advantage of its mission tree to fight easy wars to expand its colonial nations, but it's pretty clearly not correctly accounting for where the OE will end up.

 

[reivaj89]

Maybe it's because I switched to Hard from Normal but I find wars are more tactical and overall more difficult now, with the AI spamming forts and all. I like it a lot. Then again I'm much more of a roleplayer than a blobbing, WC-type of player, so I understand that for others it can be frustrating.

Also, there are small QoL things that are worse than before, for instance now if you have negative missionary strength in a province the tooltip says you have 0.0% strength instead of, for example, -2.5% strength.