Europa Universalis IV

Would love to fuck up some Euros as a massive blob of advanced Aztecs, not gonna lie.

 

You can already fuck europe up from the Aztec start in EU3. Doing it by way of Sunset Invasion in CK2 is just cheating.

Funny thing is that once you westernize as the Aztecs or other natives in EU3 you have arguably the best bonuses, best starting position, best tech rate, etc.

 

It has become extremely hard to pull off with the most recent expansion and patches (the manpower changes make it so that everyone lower than Muslim tech group suffer terrible manpower losses to rebels that can be very hard to destroy).

 

I don't know how vanilla is, but Magna Mundi and Meiu were extremely difficult. I played as Aztec and Inca multiple times, and even if literally everything went right up until First Contact, only luck would sort of save me, not to mention save-scumming. It's pretty brutal. -3 Stability hits every 4 years, land units a half dozen or more techs behind, manpower shortages for no reason(even when Smallpox hit historically, manpower was not lacking for the Aztecs, it just fucked with their politics). Even with a 10-1 advantage in troops it would be hard to defend(realistically it should be much more if Spain etc. can't get native allies).

I'm just hoping EU4 gets mesoamerican civs at least a little right. It's really quite fascinating once you know the history. And considering the impact they have even to today it boggles my mind as to why they never get much work done.

 

You can avoid rebels and become VERY strong before the euros arrive with good play. Basically only take territory that missions give you cores on (these are pretty easy to get usually, no shitty "build a navy" or "improve relations" shit when you are Native Americans). Rush Government 4 in the meantime and start colonizing. While colonies build up, switch to Patron of Art and milk it for the slider switches. You should have no rebels unless you have overextension (shouldn't happen if you've taken lots of cores), bad sliders (can't really avoid this since you need to westernize), AND a poor leader all at once. Though you might have a very low (2%) revolt risk with 2 of those, hire a good advisor and spread troops around. Aztecs have the decision for huge constant culture boost, they can easily afford 6-star advisors everywhere.

Never played Natives in those those, but Natives should have basically 0 stability cost thanks to their religion and government and decisions. In fact for a long time they will actually have provinces that cost negative stability to own. And if your sliders are right (and your leader meets requirements) you can fully westernize instantly as soon as Euros come due to the low stability cost. From there you'll have huge tech bonuses that quickly make you rise to their level (don't fight them and try to ally them early on of course), and later the fact that your provinces are the most valuable in the game means you pretty quickly out tech europe itself.

 

Yeah probably so. I never played Aztecs in vanilla EU3 because I figured they got everything wrong. In those mods, you don't gain stability that quickly, at least not enough to make a huge difference. Maybe get to 0 or +1 when the next stability hit goes into effect. Westernization is also a slower, more agonizing process, and the AI tends to be much more aggressive. I had allied with Spain when they first landed, with near 200 relations....a year later they DoWed me because of the religion causus belli. Unfortunate, and annoying. I won the war, barely, because of transport issues for them I assume(and they were at war with the French). I think they lost nearly 20-25k troops. Didn't stop them from resuming the conflict after a couple years, while I was languishing in negative stability and lack of manpower(!). Something about that gold, they just can't let it go.....

 

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...oper-diary-42-The-Crusader-Kings-II-Converter

More info about the converter

 

Are the events you are talking about the "resist westernization" ones? You don't actually have to take those, just take the resist option and you can still do all but the last, hardest step. Then you can do the last step the instant the resisting westernization modifier disappears, before you get another event. At least this is how it worked in vanilla.

I've seen the incessant AI DoW of New Worldians. Not sure why it happens. My first game basically everyone in Europe would DoW me at a certain point even though I was massively stronger than all of Europe combined by the midgame. On my second game Europe never attacked at all. I'd assume it was because I played much better and was much stronger by the time the Europeans showed up, but the first game seems to disprove that given how little the Euros cared about me smashing their shit in every war.

 

He forgot about Plutocracy, but Paradox already published that idea earlier. Of course, it can be not a final version, but overall it looks much more balanced, than in EU3. Only offensive and innovative looks clearly superior for me, than others ideas.

Problem there, that detailed POP screen isn't the place, where new player going to look after loading the game. He may even not know, that he can look there, despite plenty of useful information in that place. But on most visible space for information about literacy, you can see "education efficiency" which can tell you exactly nothing.
Speaking about Paradox strange interface decisions, "important character" button in CK 2 was hidden very well some times ago. I knew that it exist somewhere only from message setting. And still I couldn't find it without looking on Paradox forums. And you need that button for a comfort game.

Not only for that, but also for event, that give cheap Art Academy or University even before acquiring tech, that unlocks them. These two hidden events put PotA from "it's ok, but I better pick Military Drill" to on of the top starting ideas. And I find the fact, that you can't even suppose how good that idea is, without looking into the code or reading the guide, pretty frustrating.

 

Damn Quill had to spend 90 minutes discussing a few national ideas, it was so tiring I just checked the wiki. Though he has some good qualities, I easily give up on his LPs, don't know why he was selected by Paradox.

Are you sure Plutocracy is going to be included? So far there's 5 national ideas per theme, but if you include Plutocracy that's 6 for military, a bit strange. For me, I find offensive and economic superior to the others. I also have high hopes for Espionage.

God I can't believe this game is only 2 weeks away.

 

I read opinions saying that plutocracy idea group is only available to republics as is aristocracy for monarchies. That doesnt make any sense since we have seen aristocratic republics and plutocratic monarchies, but oh well, design decision.

 

If post by Johan, where he publish how they looks in the code, is the opinion, then I also heard about that.

Also there were situation, when ruling elite was a mix between aristocracy and plutocrasy, so it is very difficult to say, what they were or what form of government that country had in terms of EU mechanic.

 

Europa Universalis IV: Developer diary 43 - Artificially Improved

Today for the 43rd development diary for Europa Universalis IV, we're bringing in a very special guest: The AI or Artificial Intelligence of Europa Universalis IV. The AI, of course, is responsible for controlling all the nations that are not under the reins of a player, and has received a number of face-lifts and upgrades from past games. This is a look at some of the more major changes and improvements it has benefitted from.

Diplomacy
As mentioned in dev diary #17, Europa Universalis IV gets rid of much of the previous randomness in conducting diplomacy. You make a proposal and the AI country responds Yes or No with a detailed breakdown of its reasoning. This makes it apparent to the player why the AI nation will not accept an alliance, and what (if anything) they can do to get them to change their mind.



The AI also follows this system when dealing with other countries: AI nations will not offer alliances to countries whose alliance offers they would decline and will not bombard the player with requests that they know an AI would refuse, getting rid of much of the diplomacy spam that could happen in previous EU games.

The AI's ability to understand the various diplomatic interactions has also been improved, and it will now make use of certain diplomatic interactions that were previously the sole domain of the player, for example selling provinces when it is in its interests to do so.


Attitudes
The AI in Europa Universalis has strategic goals: Countries it wants to ally, provinces it wants to conquer, neighbours it wants to subjugate. These goals were largely invisible in previous installments of EU and could result in frustration on the player's part as the nation they just sent gifts turns on them without an obvious reason. In Europa Universalis IV, the AI's strategic goals towards a particular country are factored into an 'attitude' which reflects its long-term view on that country.



In the screenshot above, we can see that Bohemia has the 'Threatened' attitude towards Austria. This is a rather complex attitude where Bohemia will both try and ally with Austria and seek out alliances with their rivals, all in order to secure their independence against the threat Austria poses.

As indicated by the red blood drop, if Austria was played by an AI it would have the 'Hostile' attitude towards Bohemia, meaning that they would most certainly reject an alliance with Bohemia and actively seek to conquer them.

Attitudes affect almost every part of the AI's thinking including what diplomatic proposals they agree to, which nations they seek to befriend and what concessions they will seek in a war. One very special attitude, 'Outraged', also drives the formation of coalitions, as described below.


Coalitions
Coalitions have changed since they were first brought up in dev diary #23. All the previous restrictions on who can form a coalition have been removed and replaced with the single restriction of only being able to be in a coalition against one nation at any given time. Coalitions no longer have a 'leader', but are simply a group of countries that have declared themselves united in opposition against an aggressively expanding nation.


As discussed in previous dev diaries, Aggressive Expansion is a negative relations modifier that you get with other nations when you conquer territory, force-vassalize or usurp the thrones of other nations. The size of the relation hit depends on your size, your distance to the nation, and their cultural, religious and strategic interest in the provinces and countries that you conquered.



The more your relations drop, the more likely that the country will change its attitude to 'Outraged', representing anger and resentment towards your aggression. An AI country that is Outraged may take the initiative to form a coalition against you, and once formed, countries that hate or fear you may choose to join in even if they themselves are not Outraged. If you declare war or are declared on by any member of the coalition, all other members will automatically join in and a player who lets their AE grow out of control may find themselves fighting some very large coalitions indeed.


War & Peace
Another change towards transparency is the replacement of the old War Capacity value with War Enthusiasm. War Enthusiasm is a number showing you how much the AI wants to stay in the war, and what it thinks of its chances to accumulate more gains or turn a losing war around.

When negotiating peace with the AI, War Enthusiasm acts as a direct modifier on warscore in determining whether they will accept. If they have 10 warscore and 10 war enthusiasm, they will require a peace deal worth at least 20 to say yes. If they have negative war enthusiasm, you will likewise be able to demand deals that are better than your current warscore, though there is a limit to how much you can demand.



A common complaint about the AI in previous EU games is that it is easy to fool: Even if it manages to defeat you in a war, you can offer it a variety of useless but costly concessions instead of the province that it actually declared war for. This has been improved in Europa Universalis IV with the addition of a level of importance the AI places on each possible concession.



Items of great importance, such as taking core provinces or acquiring the wargoal, are shown with a green thumbs-up, indicating that the AI will value them at their full warscore cost in a peace deal. Items of some importance, such as taking provinces for its allies or an offer of gold are shown with a yellow hand indicating that the AI will only value them at a fraction of their warscore cost. This means that if you want to give the AI a bunch of things that it doesn't really want you will have to give up a lot more than if you just give it the things it went to war for in the first place.

Items that the AI absolutely does not want such as landlocked isolated provinces are shown with a red thumbs-down. Offers containing such a concession will always be rejected.


Armies
The AI's ability to command armies has also been improved, particularily in regards to allies. Vassals and AI allies who lack the army strength to operate independently will attach their armies to the war leader's troops, combining with them to form powerful coalition armies. The AI's ability to coordinate action between its armies has also been improved, as well as its ability to give priority to important provinces, especially the wargoal.



Large AI nations in Europa Universalis IV have a new trick up their sleeve: Hunter-Killer armies. Hunter-Killers are specialized armies that will avoid sieging in favor of hunting down enemy armies and wiping them out to the last man. When there are no enemies in sight, Hunter-Killers will instead act as protection for friendly sieges, lingering in nearby provinces ready to move in if the enemy should threaten its besieging allies.


Options
Lastly in this dev diary we'll talk about options. The difficulty and aggressiveness settings from previous EU games have been replaced with AI Difficulty and Handicap.



AI Difficulty
The AI Difficulty option determines the skill level at which the AI operates and how it behaves towards the player. It has the following options:
Easy: The AI plays at a reduced skill level and acts less aggressively towards non-AI nations.
Normal: The AI plays at its full skill level and will treat player and AI nations the same way.
Hard: The AI plays at its full skill level and acts more aggressively towards non-AI nations.

Note that because the AI is more aggressive towards the player this does not mean it will start suicide wars or refuse to ally them simply because of the difficulty, but it does mean that they will react more harshly to players accumulating Aggressive Expansion, for example. AI Difficulty does not provide any economic, diplomatic, military or otherwise bonuses to AI or Player nations regardless of the setting.

Handicap
The Handicap option controls which, if any, nations will receive economic, diplomatic and military bonuses. It has the following options:
Player: All non-AI nations will gain economic, diplomatic and military bonuses.
None: No nations receive any bonuses.
AI: All AI nations will gain economic, diplomatic and military bonuses.

 

A bunch of needed improvements from CK2, particularly the allies attaching troops bit. Also the ability to turn off lucky nations or shuffle that trait around is always welcome.

 

"Uninstalling Europa Universalis III".
Damn, feels so melancholic.

 

Half those AI "Changes" already exist in the current EU3 patch, so not exactly surprising.

 

i like the whole coalition system, finally Greater Sweden will have some genuine terrifying enemies to fight, instead of just bullying smaller scared countries.

and i guess Paradox has been spying on me, i been using my own Hunter-Killer armies since i started playing EUIII.

 

Best thing is that they removed coalition restrictions and made HK-armies. That was the main exploit that allowed human to fool AI in EU3.

 

This looks sooo good
I am genuinely very exited. Haven't been this hyped out for a game in a long time.

 

Hey, they released another one.
Europa Universalis IV: Developer diary 44 - Newbie Friendly

Welcome to the 44th developer diary for Europa Universalis IV!
We are getting closer to the release, and today I'll tell you about some of the ways we try to help you get started and absorb all the information we have in the game, plus a little something on naval warfare.

The Ledger
The Ledger now has an index, with buttons! The buttons are: Country, Buildings, Military, Economy, Trade, Relations. These all have sub headlines and we also have the main buttons at the bottom, so you can switch easily while looking at another part of the ledger.


Country contains a couple of new pages compared with EU3 since we have new stats to look at, and removed some old ones. Score comparison and score over time for example are rather new. We have a religion overview that lists how many countries and provinces follow all the religions in the game.


The buildings part is now divided into separate pages for all kinds of buildings (overview, manufactory, government, army, navy, production, trade, fort, unique). In the Trade pages we have a new page called Trade Nodes that lists everything you need to know about those, like trade power and steering among other things.


Hint system.
You can activate a hint mode. You can then click on buttons with a blue glow, and they will tell you what they do. There will also be links to related topics once you click a button, so you'll be able to read up on anything relevant.


New Production Interface
We now have a shortcut to build both units and buildings.
Click what you want to build and the provinces where you can build that will become green. Just click on the province(s) to start producing.
The unit part of the interface also lists your force limits towards the bottom, so you can see how much you can build without negative impact.
For buildings, you'll also see fer example what the increase in taxes will do in the province you click which comes in handy when you want to maximize your income. If a building will pay itself in ten or 100 years might be a big part of your decision...


Tutorial
The tutorial has a whole new look and has been made with a lot of thought put into it. It has a basic part, an advanced part and then a small tutorial campaign to really get playing. With this tutorial and the hint system, I think we are off to a good start to help newbies to the Europa Universalis games get started. What do you think?




Naval Combat

In Europa Universalis IV, we have given each ship a more defined role. Heavy ships are best for fighting, light ships protect trade and increases your trade power, and cogs transport troops. We have also introduced an early Carrack to make sure that some countries have access to both heavy and light ships at the start of the game. Some types of ship have switched roles from Europa Universalis III to balance the types. For example Caravel, that is now a light ship. We also have Galleys, as someone pointed out below! They are made for inland sea fighting. Not as good as heavy ships, but a whole lot cheaper.
All ship cannons will be equally good, how much damage they do will be based on the ship type they sit on, and what kind of artillery tech you have.
AI does not have any attrition on the sea, just like in Europa Universalis III.


Something extra: Europa Universalis IV Flowchart
Sometimes, on forums and social media, we see you talk about how hard it is to explain to your friends why they should play games like Europa Universalis,
so we put together this flowchart to help you convince them that empire building grand strategy games is something for them as well!

(Feel free to share it with your strategy-unbelieving friends so you have someone to back-stab in the Europa Universalis IV multiplayer come August 13!)

 

I like the new trade system but i get abit annoyed how they are not improving most of the systems from EU III instead, for example japan, aztecs and other leagues / factions, i like the idea with importing data from CK.

Do anyone know if they will have the same pirate system again?
Anyway moders will fix it again

 

Stop copying the fucking development diaries, isnt linking enough? Besides Im sure most of us follow them anyway.

And I finally caved in and preordered. My first preorder ever, hopefully I wont be disappointed by an unplayable mess at launch...

 

Japan looks like it's been improved majorly from EU3, with the country split up into a patchwork of many historical clans instead of the 4 fantasy clans in EU3 Divine Wind. Of course it remains to see how it will play.

 

Hmm interesting and yes we will see how it will play.

Anyway cant wait

 

Well, It weren't fantasy clans, since they existed at some point of Japan history. Problem was, that that point wasn't 15 century, but 12 one.

Beta AAR for ERE was published.
And yes, Bosphorus strait exploit still exist and it still makes Ottomans looks like a joke against human player. And while it makes sence for ERE to be able defend Constantinople, when they have naval superiority, they shouldn't be able defeat Ottomans that way.
Overextension was presented as empire killer in the dev diaries? Who cares about it. It can be ignored if you know what you do.
AI uses Enforce Peace at random, not when it make sence for him to do it.
Mission generator looks horrible. It can give two mission with the same goal. And it send player to conquer random places. It was so hard to make some preconditions for each mission?

But for positive side.
Rivality can help you overcome religious difference. So something like Ottomans-France anti Habsburgs axis is possible in that game.
At some point big countries would constantly facing coalitions against them.