Europa Universalis IV

And then they charge you 20 dollars for an expansion that offers about the quarter of the content free mods like MEIOU add.

 

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Sadly MEIOU does offers you a dogshit optimization on top of it. Fuck this is the only mod that runs so fucking badly.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/eu4/comments/g5ld06/i_encircled_the_whole_old_world_america_was_never/

 

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...development-diary-21th-of-april-2020.1382966/

 

Yeah, having a good CPU is an absolute must for MEIOU, but if you have it, it's one of the best ways to experience EU4. On a more positive note, I think the mod starts running better after some time in the game passes (maybe because number of nations drops thanks to conquests?). The first couple years are always really painful, but after you wait through that, the game speeds up a bit. Just how much depends on your rig.

 

What's everyone's take on Trade idea group?

I don't really like it that much, but I constantly find myself thinking about picking it. Some ideas are completely useless (the worst one is +25% trade range, really, who cares?) and +3 merchants is a bit overkill if you already play a colonial nation. However, if you are able to put those merchants to use (you need to play a non-colonial nation with access to a lot of nodes), the +20% global trade power, +10% trade efficiency, +25% trade steering and +25% caravan power ideas don't seem so bad. Moreover, the group unlock some really cool policies:
- with Administrative or Quality: +20% trade efficiency (dip);
- with Economic: +10% trade efficiency and +10% production efficiency (adm)
- with Plutocratic: -10% regiment cost (mil);
- with Offensive: +10% trade efficiency and +10% movement speed (mil);
- with Innovative: +10% trade efficiency and -0.25 interest (adm);

My two favorite policies, however, are with Religious (+10% Goods produced and +1% missionary strength) and Quantity (+20% goods produced modifier). The Quantity one might very well be my absolute favorite diplomatic policy (tied with the Quality-Diplomatic that reduces monthly war exhaustion).

I'm currently playing a game as Russia and, after Religious, Quantity and Innovative I picked Trade and I'm thinking it would have been a good choice even as third idea group, since with Religious, Quantity and Trade you unlock a nice policy of each tipe, for a grand total of: +30% goods produced, +10% morale, +1% missionary strength and +5% morale recovery speed.

 

It's one of the better choices if you are focusing mainly on trade in your playthrough, but it could also come in handy if you need that extra income as to fuel your constant expansionism.

 

Those bonus merchants are great if you want to build a strong economy. Especially in early-mid game before you build your colonial nations and trade companies.

 

Depends if you are playing modded or vanilla. In a mod where money actually matters, getting even one more merchant is a godsend as they can each rack up really good profits if you get enough trade power in a wealthy node.

 

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or you go the "right way" and get it for free

 

I've never really played a "trade focused" nation, usually my only strategy to maximize trade profits is to conquer the entire node.

Right now, the moment I clicked the last idea and activated the two policies with Religious and Quantity, my monthly income instantly went from 60 to 90.

Anyway, Timurids managed to form Mughals:

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I think it's the first time I see the AI reach such a remarkable achievement.

 

there must be something important i miss or don't understand. i don't exactly suck at the game, i even did the 1001 provinces achievement, yet i'm puzzled every time people speak of income. i spent 90-95% of my games piss poor with pitiful income, every time i pick a trade based nation i get rotflstomped by everyone passing by because i can't afford an army, let alone mercenaries.
is there something i don't know i have to click on?

 

What nations do you usually play as? Around what year do you end your playthroughs?

Usually, building all the churches, workshops and manufactories you can while developing provinces when you reach 999 points is enough to never care about money.

 

any kind of nation, up to last day, i build every thing that gives money and yet i'm always on the brink.

 

Somewhat interesting note at the start of the latest dev diary:

EU4 missions are kinda ... ehhh, but more detail / fluff is always a positive in my books.

edit: oh, this is a month old, steam is just borked.

 

This is my economic situation in my current Russia game in 1636 (I don't think I will keep playing):

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These are the manufactories I built:

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And these are the workshops (almost the exact same map):

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Trade-wise I'm not doing anything particular:

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I've been lucky with my rulers, but the situation would be the same in any case, because after you reach a stable income, with the right ideas and reforms (full Innovative idea group, Meritocratic Recruitment government reform, Russia national ideas), you can easily afford +5 advisors without problems, even without relying on the estate discounted ones:

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These are my idea groups:

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They all give a relevant boost to the economy. My favorite one is the Innovative finisher: -25% advisor costs allows you to afford better advisors and it guarantees you will have plenty of mana to develop your provinces.

 

my eu4 is bugged then. i had that kind of money only during the 1001 provinces run. maybe. usually i struggle to keep army and navy next to the limit. did economy change drastically during the last 2-3 years?

 

Have you seen Imperator: Rome? You DO NOT want them to make a new Vicky game.

 

Imperator was shit mostly because of Johan being a washed up hack.

King/Wiz will do Vicky justice

 

I can't say for sure, the last big patch I remember economy-wise is one which actually damage income for most nations, increasing maintenance costs for almost everything and nerfing maintenance reduction ideas.

Right now I'm trying a Spain game and it's even more ridiculous than the Russia one. With any nation that can easily access trade companies regions and control a node that can reap the benefits of trade coming from east Africa it's impossible not to swim in ducats.

Also, Aragon really needs to drink less:

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I gave EU4 a pause and ended up trying Vic2 for the 100th time and.... I finally grokked it (I think), and I'm finding it reaaaaally good. Differently from EU4 it's like the peacetime here is the real thing with all the POPs and industrialization and shit, which is great for my playstyle. I must be too peaceful a guy for expansionist games. What's really cool is that you compete against the other superpowers for prestige, not lands. The higher you are in the prestige ladder the more benefits you accrue (influence spheres, colonizing, trade privilege, etc). And you have various ways to rise in this ladder: war, industrialization, culture, technology, etc.

Also, the game feels much simpler somehow than EU4. It's subsystems are clean and tight, different than EU4 which feels bloated somehow with all those ideas and missions and buttons everywhere. My only complaint so far is the interface, which is old gen and it shows. I guess this is to blame for me repeatedly bouncing off from it before.

Does it makes sense? Or is it just initial excitement?

 

It's been a while since I played either game now, but that summarizes my feelings on both I think. Vicky1 kind of gives you even more to do in peacetime since you need to manage POPs manually, though that becomes a pain with a large empire/huge population.

 

To me the main problem of Victoria is the era, because the number of nations, the number of relevant nations and the number of potential playstyles for those nations are all much smaller than with, for example, EU.

At the end of the day it's mostly just about turning Prussia into some version of Germany.

 

Well I understand the only no-go in Vic2 is being an Uncivilized nation, as those apparently are doomed to eternal shitness. From Civilized up you can fight your way through the ladder (I started as Brazil, for e.g., and it's been an interesting game trying to reach Great status to sphere my neighbours).

About EU4 openness, I don't know. I feel like the game tries hard to give non-european nations their due but it doesn't totally succeeds in my experience. Tried nations as Huron, Cusco, etc and their culture specific mechanics felt perfunctory to be honest, like playing a poor Euro nation disguised as an amerindian. In the end of the day, for all the openness that's preached I think EU4 only really makes sense as an European power IMO. Or maybe another culture where the gameplay meat of creating alliances, fabricate CB, make war, paint map, rinse repeat (or go colonize route) makes thematic sense. It really doesn't for a lot of cultures.

Also, and this is totally my subjective taste, but I don't like the gonzo possibilities EU4 opens. Like dominating europe as Aztecs or painting the world French-blue. I play Pdox games for the historical experiences. Vic2 apparently offers a much more plausible experience in this sense. I mean, I know it's possible to paint shit your color here too but it seems there are more locks in place to make it more difficult, besides the shorter time span.