Europa Universalis IV

[Serus]

Finally formed Rome, and my god what a fucking miserable trek it was toward the end... worse still I'll miss out on the Mare Nostrum achievement because I have about 1000 AE+ with everyone in Europe, and I can't find a way to declare on Commonwealth to take the last few provinces without aggroing basically the whole world. I'll see if the coalition disbands when I've relaxed for a few years and solidified....

The coalition system is a poorly designed mechanic that often makes conquest-focused gameplay miserable. To succeed, you have to resort to exploiting the system by carefully timing your attacks and striking nations before they can band together again. It also forces you to constantly wage war against different culture groups to avoid triggering larger coalitions. This approach makes map-painting more of a tedious grind than an enjoyable or challenging experience.

Lack of coalitions mechanic would, perhaps, make "painting" less tedious but not more challenging. I am for once not "enjoying" just painting stuff without any challenge. The problem is that there is no challenge even with coalitions once you know a few tricks how to deal with it. You have to force yourself from using them which shouldn't be your job but of games' rules. Similar issue existed since at least EU3 iirc. Coalition mechanic was supposed to give challenge once you have grown past a few provinces but it really never did if you gamed the system, which is relatively easy.

 

[Mortmal]

Finally formed Rome, and my god what a fucking miserable trek it was toward the end... worse still I'll miss out on the Mare Nostrum achievement because I have about 1000 AE+ with everyone in Europe, and I can't find a way to declare on Commonwealth to take the last few provinces without aggroing basically the whole world. I'll see if the coalition disbands when I've relaxed for a few years and solidified....

The coalition system is a poorly designed mechanic that often makes conquest-focused gameplay miserable. To succeed, you have to resort to exploiting the system by carefully timing your attacks and striking nations before they can band together again. It also forces you to constantly wage war against different culture groups to avoid triggering larger coalitions. This approach makes map-painting more of a tedious grind than an enjoyable or challenging experience.

Lack of coalitions mechanic would, perhaps, make "painting" less tedious but not more challenging. I am for once not "enjoying" just painting stuff without any challenge. The problem is that there is no challenge even with coalitions once you know a few tricks how to deal with it. You have to force yourself from using them which shouldn't be your job but of games' rules. Similar issue existed since at least EU3 iirc. Coalition mechanic was supposed to give challenge once you have grown past a few provinces but it really never did if you gamed the system, which is relatively easy.

That's true, but this could be solved by adding more depth to the system, such as penalties or drawbacks for overextension, or better AI. However, we know they are not heading in that direction. They do not want that; they want something simple and dumbed down, event boxes to check off, videos for meme YouTubers, and it is clear they prefer focusing on 3D models rather than enhancing AI.