Time to merge DLC and rework the complex mechanics of EU4

[Autoclave]

When I first experienced EU4 after playing mostly 4X Civ games, I was overwhelmed by the amount of agregate variables in game: Prestige, Power Projection, War Exhaustion, Overextension, Legitimacy/Rep, Military Tradition, Naval Tradition, Religious Unity. While learning seemed to be a bit daunting at first, after a few months of wiki reading and playing I finally felt comfortable with them.

DLCs kept coming and coming, and many of them brought new variables, new agregates which influences tons of smaller variables. Since DLC is optional, Paradox prefers to add new variables on top of the already convoluted system rather than reworking and improving the already existing ones. And it feels like Paradox have driven themselves into a corner.

We currently have the following variables that influence your army: Morale, Discipline, Tactics, Army Tradition, Generals, Terrain, Ideas, Army Composition, Tech level. And now we have army professionalism to gauge the use of mercenaries vs. manpower. Why couldn't this be integrated into army tradition for example?

Actually the system was convoluted from the very start. Military Tactics is supposed to give an advantage to those that have a higher military tech, to force players to invest mil points. What purpose does Military Tactics serve when we also have new units with better PIPS as we upgrade mil tech. Doesn't it serve the same purpose?

Don't get me wrong, complexity is cool and fun, but some things are just being redundant here. Many of them serve the same purpose and don't add extra value in terms of gameplay options.

The mechanics included in the DLC are isolated and not very well integrated with the rest of the basic systems. If EU4 is to provide continous value to the player, it needs to integrate all the separate mechanics and rework many of them.

 

[ScytheV]

You are basically asking for a EU5 in a form of what... a free patch? And who will pay for that? PDX Dev Studio is a business, not a charity.
Dont get me wrong, I support most of your claims about convoluted mechanics and DLC mess, but really, nothing will be done about that until EU5.
Too expensive and impossible to sell as a DLC.

 

[Badesumofu]

Actually the system was convoluted from the very start. Military Tactics is supposed to give an advantage to those that have a higher military tech, to force players to invest mil points. What purpose does Military Tactics serve when we also have new units with better PIPS as we upgrade mil tech. Doesn't it serve the same purpose?

Pips also vary depending on tech group, though. Additionally, you don't get pips every tech level, and you don't get more tactics every tech either. Having different techs improve your military in different ways adds nuance to the game. You could just consolidate all those modifiers and variables into a simply 'military quality' and the game would become simpler. It would not become better, though.

Feature creep is a problem with the DLC model, although I feel like PDS are getting better on that front. Professionalism is integrated with things like Army Tradition much better than I would have expected. It's even somewhat integrated with Estates which are a feature from another DLC.

 

[SolSys]

Time to merge DLC and rework the complex mechanics of EU4
...
The mechanics included in the DLC are isolated and not very well integrated with the rest of the basic systems. If EU4 is to provide continous value to the player, it needs to integrate all the separate mechanics and rework many of them.

Just to clarify: What specifically are asking for?
1. Integration of expansions into the base game for free.
2. Better integration of DLC mechanics with base game mechanics.

While the OP is mostly clear, the title and to some lesser extent the conclusion not so much. I mean, I can get behind #2, but not behind #1.
I also imagine you could get more views if you change the title [in case of #2] as some users might skip it altogether -- "oh no, not another one of these".