Worst ideas

[ahyangyi]

the +1 advisors is actually useful you want to hire a specific MP adviser to do things its sort of like picking your own Idea of +2% missionary strength or if you need dip reputation for dip annexing or the army morale one

It is useful. But I think it's one of the things that anti-synergizes with itself: the more advisors you are able to choose among, the less useful it is to have one more.

(The other thing I think is anti-synergizing is heir chance: stacking those +25% heir chance ideas should also be hilariously weak, since they are fixing a problem that's getting more and more irrelevant)

 

[Pornek]

If you're constantly at war/ trucebreak reducing WE cost is fairly decent.

Imo any military bonus past the 2nd (non european) or 4th national idea is largely useless. +% on MP or + leaderstat are the only exception

 

[ahyangyi]

If you're constantly at war/ trucebreak reducing WE cost is fairly decent.

Imo any military bonus past the 2nd (non european) or 4th national idea is largely useless. +% on MP or + leaderstat are the only excpetion

Prussia underpowered! Ulm overpowered!

 

[Pornek]

Prussia underpowered! Ulm overpowered!

Prussia is fun and all that, but I would take -20% corecreation cost over 20% inf CA or 7.5% discipline any day.

 

[ringhloth]

Ireland's NIs are pretty terrible. There's three okay ones and 4 rubbish ones, and neither the ambition nor the tradition are particularly good.

 

[Santoes]

Ireland's NIs are pretty terrible. There's three okay ones and 4 rubbish ones, and neither the ambition nor the tradition are particularly good.

Terrible? Play Ireland as a republic and tell me it's terrible. If they survive they have the potential to be awesome, and unique.

Traditions:
+10% Trade efficiency *It won't get much better then this. The poor node doesn't make this bonus bad.
+10% Trade steering *On par with most trade steering NI's.

Irish Endurance -10% Land attrition *Pretty good bonus and very unique for Europe. Getting this stacked allows for doomstacks that will win everytime.
The Clanns -10% Stability cost modifier *It's not exciting, but not bad
More Than Irish -2 National unrest *This is better then most NI's out there
Ineffectual Overlords +10% National tax modifier *More money and more forcelimt.
Foreign Nationals +1 Diplomatic reputation *Faster diplo annex is great, allies are good.
Loyal Catholics +2 Yearly papal influence * It's a free 100 ducats worth of influence a year.
Unconquerable Ireland +25% Rebel support efficiency *More unrest when supporting rebels is great, and very unique

Ambitions: +1 Legitimacy *It should still give republican tradition.

 

[slv]

Terrible? Play Ireland as a republic and tell me it's terrible.
Ambitions: +1 Legitimacy *It should still give republican tradition.

How did you convert to republic? But yes, the +1 legitimacy idea is pain when you're republic.

 

[Santoes]

There's a decision or you eventually get a rebel stack that can do it. I played a Hungarian game where I had the ideas to switch to a noble republic but I couldn't ever get the requirement of no heir. I luckily had a revolutionary rebel event happen so I let them take my capital, and switched to an admin republic.

Edit: paradox removed there tradition. I'm disappointed that they don't have it anymore. Paradox knows we all want to remain a monarch...

 

[pgroves]

the +1 advisors is actually useful you want to hire a specific MP adviser to do things its sort of like picking your own Idea of +2% missionary strength or if you need dip reputation for dip annexing or the army morale one

Circassia and Georgia both have some pretty unique, while not the most useful, ideas. Few others get extra diplomats or lower build cost. I'd rate the extra diplomats the higher, and the extra missionaries that Circassia will help in a strongly Islamic corner of the world. Missionary strength would have been nice, though. The hostile core creation means that you are pretty free to pick an opportunity to jump on the hordes, and aren't going to be pressured to defend. Infantry cost down will save a fair amount of money in the long run. Combined with the lowered build cost, it will mean that Georgia can make do with less. BROT and manpower recover is great.

The Caucasians might only have one or two ringers (yearly army tradition and hostile coring cost are both good situationally) but they also have a fair spread of "okay" ones. I'd rather have a lot of those over -10% stab, or war exhaustion reducing cost.

Have they changed something from before? I distinctly remember perma-stable Hungary in earlier patches, as even AI countries didn't want to deal with the coring cost.

This is also one of the reasons Britanny often survives for quite a while, as it has +50% coring cost

 

[ringhloth]

Terrible? Play Ireland as a republic and tell me it's terrible. If they survive they have the potential to be awesome, and unique.

Traditions:
+10% Trade efficiency *It won't get much better then this. The poor node doesn't make this bonus bad.
+10% Trade steering *On par with most trade steering NI's.

Irish Endurance -10% Land attrition *Pretty good bonus and very unique for Europe. Getting this stacked allows for doomstacks that will win everytime.
The Clanns -10% Stability cost modifier *It's not exciting, but not bad
More Than Irish -2 National unrest *This is better then most NI's out there
Ineffectual Overlords +10% National tax modifier *More money and more forcelimt.
Foreign Nationals +1 Diplomatic reputation *Faster diplo annex is great, allies are good.
Loyal Catholics +2 Yearly papal influence * It's a free 100 ducats worth of influence a year.
Unconquerable Ireland +25% Rebel support efficiency *More unrest when supporting rebels is great, and very unique

Ambitions: +1 Legitimacy *It should still give republican tradition.

-10% land attrition isn't great. -10% stab cost is bad. -2 unrest is good, but not great. +10% tax is pretty standard. +1 diplo reputation isn't that useful that late, though it's not terrible. +2 yearly papal influence forces you to stay catholic when it might not be great. It's also not that useful. +25% rebel support efficiency. Woo. Look, maybe it's just me, but I never support rebels. +1 legitimacy is rubbish. They had decent ideas when they had republic tradition, but no more. Honestly, I'd much rather have +100% core creation cost over essentially every single one of those ideas. Getting England off your back would be perfect.

 

[ChildeR]

The only one I agree with is the +5% tax, which truly is useless. The +5% cavalry CA would be bad as well if it wasn't a tradition. That makes it borderline decent, since it gives you a slight edge before any tech or ideas.

Most of the others are just "I don't use these", which is your loss. For example, war exhaustion is a big deal with the new unrest system and I end up buying it down frequently if I don't pick innovative.

Another candidate for worst are the many ideas giving +1 land maneuver, which was nerfed to the ground. Those that give it as 2nd idea aren't that bad, since attrition is a bigger deal early and you may need movement tactics as an underdog, but as 5th or so it's quite useless. Likewise, +10% heavy ship CA as a late idea is quite useless.

 

[ChildeR]

-2 unrest is good, but not great.

IMO it's one of the best ideas out there. Like, only worse than insane things like Ottoman traditions. Sure, some military ideas are probably much better in multiplayer, but I don't really play MP.

 

[TenshiN]

Err, just look at Ayutthayan idea set. Its downright awful besides the extra diplomat one. Worst set in the game.

 

[Santoes]

-10% land attrition isn't great. .

With two policies Ireland is able to get a 95% attrition damage reduction. You could not be beat with that amount of reduction and a doomstack worthy of its value.

 

[Legend92]

even major power have ridicilous ideas, ottomans have -10% cost of reducing war exhaustion too

 

[sermaciej]

Anything with -cavalry cost.

Why? It may be very useful as Eastern country.

 

[Clownie]

Why? It may be very useful as Eastern country.

Unless you're playing Poland, the small advantage cavalry has over infantry is not worth its 150% higher price. Even if you reduce that higher price down to just 125% higher or even twice as expensive, it's still at least twice as expensive, and cavalry is not more than twice as strong (unless you're playing Poland).

 

[slv]

Unless you're playing Poland, the small advantage cavalry has over infantry is not worth its 150% higher price. Even if you reduce that higher price down to just 125% higher or even twice as expensive, it's still at least twice as expensive, and cavalry is not more than twice as strong (unless you're playing Poland).

Unless you are so rich (most europeans are in 1.8) that you're floating over forcelimit. Forcelimit of infantry is much less strong than forcelimit of a good mix. Army of inf+cav which is 20% over forcelimits will be more competitive (since combat width and supply limits matter) AND cheaper than infantry army 40% over forcelimits.

On techlevel 8-10 Cavalry has 2 shock while infantry has only 0.8 shock + 0.35 fire. Quite close to being twice stronger.

 

[Less]

Great NIs: Start with +discipline (at least 5%), +infantry combat ability (at least 10%), or +morale (at least 15%). Other combat bonuses circumstantially useful.
Good NIs: Get one of the previously listed NIs with completion of first idea group.
Bad NIs: Get one of them with completion of 2-3 idea groups.
Worst NIs ever: Never get any worthwhile combat bonuses.

Slightly exaggerated maybe, but you get my point. If Japan's NIs subbed in for any European major you'd have a dismantled France before they could get Elan.

As for the worst single idea in the game, I'd have to go with +garrison growth. Because why. Just why does that even exist?

 

[slv]

Great NIs: Start with +discipline (at least 5%), +infantry combat ability (at least 10%), or +morale (at least 15%). Other combat bonuses circumstantially useful.
Good NIs: Get one of the previously listed NIs with completion of first idea group.
Bad NIs: Get one of them with completion of 2-3 idea groups.
Worst NIs ever: Never get any worthwhile combat bonuses.

Slightly exaggerated maybe, but you get my point. If Japan's NIs subbed in for any European major you'd have a dismantled France before they could get Elan.

There are definitely other things with a lot of value:

Naval Forcelimit bonuses (+50% of Denmark/Netherlands)
Coring cost
Land leader shock if completed on the first idea group
Land leader fire
Idea/Tech cost if completed on the first idea group (Milan/Tuscany)
Yearly republican tradition
Missionary Strength
Religious Unity
National Unrest
Army tradition decay/yearly (debatable, but constant 100 tradition without policis is quite good).
Diplomatic Relations


Missed something, possibly.

But most are pretty meh.