You know EU4 concepts and terms aren't always literal?

[ImperatorLJ]

People's definition of things in EU4 REALLY need to be discussed. It seems like so many problems people have is confusion with what the system represents, rather than the system itself.

I'll list some examples:

1. Monarch Power does not represent the ruling person's abilities alone. Monarch power represents the strength of the government under that particular ruler. So, you can have a good ruler, but they have low stats because of incompetent government.

2. Westernization does not represent a country merely catching up technologically. It means a nation is radically changing its society, culture, government and military to be in line with the future and leaving behind old traditional powers and mindsets.

3. A fort does not represent the only fort in the entire province! It is merely an abstraction of that province's defenses.

So, with those examples, let's talk about definitions and what they should represent. What do you think?

 

[neondt]

Literally everything in the game is an abstraction. Because it's a videogame, not a history book.

 

[Incompetent]

My favourite 'don't take it literally' is the way individual envoys have names, but then you realise the same name persists for centuries, so e.g. if you have a diplomat called Lestat de Lioncourt in 1444, you'll probably still have a diplomat called Lestat de Lioncourt in 1819. Clearly they are immortals, unlike your rulers and advisors.

 

[Choombi]

Yes, being a colonist, diplomat, merchant, or a missionary in a service of a nation gives you immortality, wars were fought over the jobs.

 

[Philadelphus]

That's just a case of a tiny portion of people being naturally immortal, like the Laputans from Gulliver's Travels. You wouldn't want to let an immortal be king because he might be a 1/1/1 or something terrible like that, but they're fine in positions that don't involve monarch points like missionaries, traders, diplomats, etc. And they're perfect in those roles because they can accrue hundreds of years of experience—no need to worry about a new diplomat making a horrible faux pas, or having to bring a new trader up to speed on the best practices. It's really a win-win situation.

 

[Salking]

all hail the diplo core the true rulers of time and all!

 

[Chlodio]

1. Monarch Power does not represent the ruling person's abilities alone. Monarch power represents the strength of the government under that particular ruler. So, you can have a good ruler, but they have low stats because of incompetent government.

That would be ideal, but if that would really represent the government ruler's stats would change radically every 10 years.

 

[Thesian]

In the game, a co-belligerent does represent a belligerent that is connected closer to the warleader than a regular ally, while in history it is applied to belligerents who fight against the same enemy but want to distance themselves from each other. (Example: Italy and Japan were considered allies of Germany in WW2, while Finland was a co-belligerent in their own war against the Soviet Union).