I haven’t been back since this patch, but I agree. I’m looking forward to some new government reforms, as I almost always picked the same reforms every game.
The new government reforms are an excellent addition. It needed more options and now they are there. Makes reform pts more valuable.
Outside of QOL features, I would love to see more Ideas implemented,.more buildings and maybe some tweaks to great projects.
Those things that make your alternative historical nation feel fun and unique
Agreed!
The AI does seem better, but I haven’t played properly in a year or two so I am not sure when that happened. EU4 is in a much better state than it was after Leviathan or even Emperor released.
Y’all inspired me to start up a game. Didn’t have much of an idea where I wanted to play and ended up feeling a Persia run. But I wanted to do it for some kind of achievement. There is one for conquering Greece and some other places which maybe I’ll do, but my focus is on the achievement for forming Persia as one province Ardabil. After about 7 failed starts I’m finally making progress. They don’t have many friends at start and two regional powers in QQ and Ajam that want to eat you. Lots of luck to make it out of the beginning and find some protective allies. I’ve got three provinces now and am waiting for an opportunity to take my cores in Ajam. I maybe just got that before I had to quit for awhile as they are now at war with the Ottomans. Timurids just fell apart too so it feels like I might have some space in the next few years. It’s all a knife’s edge though and could just as easily go to game over.
Is the EU IV interface better than it was many years ago?
I always thought the interface was pretty good so it’s hard to say. There have been improvements but no big redesigns or overhauls that I can recall offhand.
Were there particular areas you found lacking that you were wondering about?
Some parts are better, but there’s an ever increasing amount of stuff so that sometimes you forget some parts exist. But necessary things like highlights for provinces for a mission or tooltips for potential policies are things you don’t have to look elsewhere anymore.
In general, buttons and information are pretty much in the same place, if that’s your worry.
Really really need to go to bed but also pretty happy with where I’ve ended up tonight with Ardabil. Early 1500s I’ve gone from one province to equal to anyone else in my neighborhood who aren’t the Ottomans. Hoping I can avoid their ire long enough to form Persia. Thankfully I was able to grab what I needed from QQ before they got gobbled up. Mazandaran and Ishfahan are my vassals and I’m close to annexing them both. Mushasha and I have been close allies and I’ve helped feed them to keep a strong balance to the bigger boys. Except I screwed up and let them get one province I need for Persia, so I’ll ultimately have to turn on them in the end. Before that I want to grab everything I need further east and figure out another trusty ally to replace Mushasha so that I don’t look too weak to the Ottomans.
I find CK3 interface easy, but early on found EUIV’s interface very dense and confusing.
EU4 UI is largely the same. CK3 is from another era.
Ah, yeah, with CK3 being so much newer it has the advantage there, it’s something they’ve been getting better at for a long time. I thought EU4 was good when it launched because it was the first Paradox game where basically anything you needed to know could be found on a tooltip, rather than having to look up the wiki or something. That was 2013, though, so it’s been a while!
Nice. Thats one of those, like Lazarus (as Serbia control the Balkans), that is brutal getting started. Once you get past the initial stages, which can take multiple restarts, its jot too bad. But any time you’re a small country in the area of the Ottomans its a tough run thing.
Yep, very hard at the start. Then pretty easy going once your country + allies can beat up anyone in the area. And now back to very hard as the Ottomans have decided to invade. I was trying to tread carefully around them but didn’t have a lot of options. Maybe I can tie them up in the mountains for awhile, but they are after my capital and losing that will probably also make me lose any desire to continue this run. To do the Persia achievement that involves taking all the Ottoman lands probably requires a start with someone like Ajam that can blob more quickly to keep up with the big green machine to the west.
Assuming I start a new game in the area, trying to be Zoroastrian would be fun. Does anyone know if that’s only really possible with a custom nation? Otherwise, I presume you’d have to get Zoroastrian rebels that you let force convert you?
Ding ding ding!
If you want to go Zororastrian the best options are start as Gujurat or Ajam, send a missionary to the respective province, set maintenance to 0, and wait. And if possible lower autonomy even to increase unrest, and don’t have unrest advisors or positive stability. Then keep your troops away. Being at war helps, it keeps your troops from accidentally marching in to the rebels.
To see in practice check this (its in the first few minutes)
Thanks. It begins!
Also, wow Gujarat starts out rich. I didn’t even realize there were world ports at start!
Running a Poland to Commonwealth game.
Ridiculously overpowered with the early mission to get Restoration of Union CB on Bohemia and Hungary. By 1461 I had Bohemia, Hungary and Lithuania as subjects and Moldavia as a March.
By 1505 I had dismantled the HRE. The new AI aggressiveness since the patch has been hilarious. The second I dismantled the HRE then France just started gobbling up central Europe.
But the game is still challenging… The Ottomans are still really tough, and the big powers are actually BIG.
My Gujarat game came to an end once the Ottomans destroyed my army and then everyone else piled on.
I think I am going to roll my Mughals game into a first try at a WC. It’s 1601, I have all of India , Persia, about half of Indochina and all once I conquer Ayuthaya, vassals own most of Arabia, the steppe up to Mongolia, and I just vassalized OPM Muscovy which I can then feed all their stuff back, most of which is owned by mega Denmark.
Aside from a very tenacious Ottomans and colonial Spain, there isn’t a whole lot of dominant powers. Ottomans have wrapped hard north and extend from Croatia to Alexandria, the entire Syrian trade node up to Uzbek territory. our border starts in the Caspian sea and goes all the way to Cairo. Fortunately just finished the first major war on them so the reality is that I should have broken them now. 400k dead ottomans in the first crack, minimal conquest but goal was break army (they had zero manpower and 80k troops post war), take max money and humiliate. Theory being by doing so now I can set up next conquests easier.
We’ll see. But Mughals are a fun nation, and right now they are ridiculous and are the best set for a WC in any game I played. Their government form is ridiculous. Free culture acceptance for every culture in the game? All you need to do is conquer every province and they become accepted.
Nice, keep us updated!
I am somewhat considering a first go at a WC myself, Oirat seems to be a common choice these days. Was afraid of all the micro/repetition, but with all the QoL they have done over the years it seems like the easiest time to do one (mental health wise).