Europa Universalis IV

[Malakal]

But what am I supposed to do? Steer trade in each asian nodes toward europe, Hoping it will ed up in my main node?
Or just collect directly with a merchant and the 50% penalty?

I any case, for it to be worth it, you really have to establish a protectorate monopoly over an entire node, and even there it's barely around 10 gold max. For the the troubles of maintaining a big colonial empire, having half you army oversea, beating Other Europeans at the race, the reward seems pretty shit and a net loss compared to american colonies or just blobbing in Europe.

Am I wrong?

Also, how does one deal with having lightships all over the nodes? Seems like a micro nightmare to protect them when war is declared. And Hiding them will result in a huge loss. Not to mention, you will probably lose a big chunk to surprise attacks. Are you supposed to spread them all around, or are they just useful in you main node and the 2 other ones upward?

You are not wrong, trade has been nerfed pretty significantly from the time of the release, you cant make dozens of thousands any more. On the other hand if you get few idea groups with bonus merchants you should have enough to steer trade anyway, especially if coupled with decisions like eastern trade company.

The main point is steering very rich Eastern Asian and Indian trade all the way either to your capital trade node or to a trade node which you control ~100%. And yes, managing light ships is micro intensive and I usually lose most of my trade fleet each time a war is declared.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

It seems like a net loss then. Spending your previous naval force limit and income on that big lightship navy, just to steer trade from china all the way to England. You would have to put at least 20 light ships in each node to get anywhere close to a monopoly (or have every single nations on the way as protectorates), which would make steering worth it, otherwise your just sending money to some african shithole down one of your node.
All these ressources on setting this up, constant rebels overseas, competition, annihilated trade fleets, you're better off doing something else, as far as I've seen, even in late game, trade from there being steered to the Tunis or Atlantic node is 15 gold at best.
Get a huge fleet in your main node and the one above, and you'll have something like a 25 gold node pretty fast, which is the best I ever seen.

 

[Malakal]

Well yes colonization seems way better for huge trade income but on the other hand advanced light ships give more trade power and backwards nations dont build lots of trade buildings so it is beneficial to dominate a few nodes on the way, just not the whole rout to Asia.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

why steer when you can conquer a single region from a small nation in an area you're interested in, establish a protectorate with something huge and only then reap the rewards by collecting with a merchant?

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

Well yes colonization seems way better for huge trade income but on the other hand advanced light ships give more trade power and backwards nations dont build lots of trade buildings so it is beneficial to dominate a few nodes on the way, just not the whole rout to Asia.

And how do you ensure that the remaining node will steer it all the way to europe. If you only steer in some node on the way, the node where you aren't steering just swallow the money.

 

[Malakal]

Well yes colonization seems way better for huge trade income but on the other hand advanced light ships give more trade power and backwards nations dont build lots of trade buildings so it is beneficial to dominate a few nodes on the way, just not the whole rout to Asia.

And how do you ensure that the remaining node will steer it all the way to europe. If you only steer in some node on the way, the node where you aren't steering just swallow the money.

You dont go all the way to Asia? Lke for example if you are Portugal you can only focus on the African trade. Its more or less half the way to Asia and you can dominate that easily.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

as portugal, vanilla ironman, i have absolute control on all the coastal trade nodes except hormus which sucks anyway.

 

[BelisariuS.F]

(...)Why should they try something new when the tards who flood their forums will buy Europa Universalis 16 Electric Boogaloo ?(...)

a) The tards who flood PI forums actually argue for better warfare in EU.
b) The tards have no alternative to EUIV. Or maybe you know any other grand strategy game set in the same time period?

 

[Malakal]

(...)Why should they try something new when the tards who flood their forums will buy Europa Universalis 16 Electric Boogaloo ?(...)

a) The tards who flood PI forums actually argue for better warfare in EU.
b) The tards have no alternative to EUIV. Or maybe you know any other grand strategy game set in the same time period?

I think there are other games set in renaissance/late medieval era like knights of honor but there is nothing really like EU series.

 

[Luzur]

oh, btw, i been meaning to ask, how do i open up trade with Japan? do i have to invade them and ask for it or can i request they open their markets for me?

seems there is no such option for me in the diplomacy window.

 

[Kane]

oh, btw, i been meaning to ask, how do i open up trade with Japan? do i have to invade them and ask for it or can i request they open their markets for me?

seems there is no such option for me in the diplomacy window.

you have to invade them, that is, you need to hold at least once province in a trade node japan is also part of

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

(...)Why should they try something new when the tards who flood their forums will buy Europa Universalis 16 Electric Boogaloo ?(...)

a) The tards who flood PI forums actually argue for better warfare in EU.
b) The tards have no alternative to EUIV. Or maybe you know any other grand strategy game set in the same time period?

I think there are other games set in renaissance/late medieval era like knights of honor but there is nothing really like EU series.

KoH is a orphan series, damn good game but its more of a late medieval game. Would benefit tons from more CK-style gameplay.

 

[Space Satan]

New stream:
- A lot of work with AI promised.
- Trade Port - no longer get penalty for collecting outside of your capital - can designate Main trade port. No longer have to change capitals to the new World.
- Inland trade nodes have a lot of attention.
- Can transfer trade power to another nation to shift some trade route income.
- Some features allowing to get some focus on war trade and one more option I have no time to read. "War" focus have description of something like "Fanatical Warriors" and Defender ofthe Faith enabled.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Is MEIOU and Taxes worth a bother? v1.14.08 keeps crashing on load for me, so I wonder if I should waste time trying to find a fix or not.

So far, I'm keeping track of:
- Veritas et Fortitudo
- Terra Universalis II
- Extended Vanilla Experience

VeT is obviously the most ambitious, but least polished of the lot - kinda playable, but practically in never ending beta. I'm waiting on v1.1.1 to resume playing it.
TUII is a decent combination of more provinces + some very nice changes the included Dei Gratia does to religions, but, again, still has some glaring bugs.
EVE has pretty much vanilla performance, which is great, and its changes are few and careful, so it doesn't break anything, but that also means it doesn't offer much improvement. Solid work, but meh.

Any other mods of note you guys would recommend that are of similar scope (not total conversions), up-to-date and have the option of manual download?
I'm especially interested in better religions, more decisions/events and unique nations (ideas/decisions).
A timeline closer to 0 AD would also be nice, but such mods that I've seen (Extended Timeline and Orbis Antiquus) are still far from being playable.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Derp. To stop the crash-on-load, MEIOU and Taxes needs to be put into the "My Documents" mod folder, like it says in its install instructions ffs. Which is unfortunate, since MyDocs sit on an 5400rpm HDD, while the game is on an SSD.

But on the up side, the mod is actually pretty good. The changes are a bit drastic, but most are for the better, and I haven't seen any problems with it during a few hours of play time.

 

[IDtenT]

What? Your SSD is not your boot drive?

 

[Sranchammer]

EUIV mods are uninspiring.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

What? Your SSD is not your boot drive?

Eh? What gave you that idea?

 

[IDtenT]

What? Your SSD is not your boot drive?

Eh? What gave you that idea?

My docs is not on boot drive? :s

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

My docs is not on boot drive? :s

No? Programs mostly fill MyDocs with temporary junk, so I always move it from SSD to spare it pointless read-write cycles. Especially true for multi-GB save folders of Paradox games.

 

[IDtenT]

Pointless write cycles? Man, an SSD can have billions* before it dies.

* Exageration.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Maybe you're right. I'll have to read up on my current drive's (Corsair Neutron GTX) death rate statistics.

 

[Malakal]

EUIV mods are uninspiring.

Right, they only change everything in the game from interface to provinces and trade nodes. Everything that is moddable of course but thats quite a lot.

 

[Kane]

not having your system in SSD kinda defeats the purpose.

then again, with current RAM prices it's much better to boot completely off a ram disk and also place your programs there.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Good gods, men. Both my system and programs are on the SSD, only MyDocs folder isn't. Don't make me come over there. :tickets:

Regarding RAM disks - actually, a 120GB SSD costs almost the same as 8GB of RAM these days. Used to use RAM disks myself, but their value is pretty much past for most things.