Europa Universalis V confirmed

[Josquius]

There is one issue now that is ruining the fun. The constant "so and so is 16 years old now" spam. I am getting one of those every two days. In addition to the So and So can be educated alerts. It's gotten annoying. I am ignoring them, which I know is probably not wise.

The character system just doesn't work.

You need to get a large court but the large court really sucks and is boring to manage AND it is really important you manage it. Because you need those 90+ skilled generals and cabinet members. Also 99% of your court does not have any role to play at all. So you spend a ton of time managing something that you only get an in game impact for 1% of it.

And it is constant. Every single month. It is a constant distraction from the more interesting things you need to do. This should be automated or changed in some way. And it is way to easy to successfully manage. In CK I constantly had to worry about betrayals and mass death of my courtiers. I was usually scrambling to find enough nobles to to rule counties and duchies and fill important posts and marry. And key deaths could be devastating to your game. Now...you have hundreds and hundreds of people and only a couple matter or do anything.

I remember this was a core problem with Imperator. You had all these people existing and doing things but...you couldn't do anything with them by and large so...why did it matter?
CK gets that way on occasion but less so since thats the core of the game.

[Valmy]

CK gets that way on occasion but less so since thats the core of the game.

Also in CK you would have people die young. People would be infertile. People would be murdered or try to murder you. People would go insane. There would be plots.

None of this happens in EUV. Every woman seems to have several children who all grow up to adulthood who do next to nothing of note and die at a ripe old age.

[crazy canuck]

CK gets that way on occasion but less so since thats the core of the game.

Also in CK you would have people die young. People would be infertile. People would be murdered or try to murder you. People would go insane. There would be plots.

None of this happens in EUV. Every woman seems to have several children who all grow up to adulthood who do next to nothing of note and die at a ripe old age.

That is not accurate. There is character trait variability in EU5 and characters can die young, as happened to one of my heirs that had good stats. I found that to be a cool part of the game. I felt the loss of a character who was going to become a great ruler.

[Valmy]

CK gets that way on occasion but less so since thats the core of the game.

Also in CK you would have people die young. People would be infertile. People would be murdered or try to murder you. People would go insane. There would be plots.

None of this happens in EUV. Every woman seems to have several children who all grow up to adulthood who do next to nothing of note and die at a ripe old age.

That is not accurate. There is character trait variability in EU5 and characters can die young, as happened to one of my heirs.

Ah. Well that's good. I had played up until the 1600s and none of my kids died young. And I didn't notice any of my courtier's kids dying young. But maybe there were just so many of them I didn't notice. They need to make infant and child mortality more common...historically common.

[crazy canuck]

CK gets that way on occasion but less so since thats the core of the game.

Also in CK you would have people die young. People would be infertile. People would be murdered or try to murder you. People would go insane. There would be plots.

None of this happens in EUV. Every woman seems to have several children who all grow up to adulthood who do next to nothing of note and die at a ripe old age.

That is not accurate. There is character trait variability in EU5 and characters can die young, as happened to one of my heirs.

Ah. Well that's good. I had played up until the 1600s and none of my kids died young. And I didn't notice any of my courtier's kids dying young. But maybe there were just so many of them I didn't notice. They need to make infant and child mortality more common...historically common.

One of the main reasons for building a hospital and other health related buildings in your capital is to try to increase the longevity of your court characters.

I am surprised you didn't experience young characters dying in your game. Did turn disease off in the options?

[Valmy]

One of the main reasons for building a hospital and other health related buildings in your capital is to try to increase the longevity of your court characters.

I am surprised you didn't experience young characters dying in your game. Did turn disease off in the options?

Not unless they are turned off by default.

I got constant death spam to but everybody was dying rather late in life.

[Syt]

Had a quick look at the reception of the 1.0.10 patch that was released last week after being in beta for a while. According to latest Dev Diary, this is the final patch before 1.1 in February, after Cristmas break.

From what I can see players have three issues:

1. Crazy AI aggression (e.g., England/France/Bohemia now blob crazy into the HRE and eat most of it within a century). They seem very fond of non-CB wars, and don't mind going after any and all minors they can gobble up (even if they're vassals of their friends). Also leads to border gore. Some players say this is awesome, most seem rather pissed off.

2. Nobles not marrying/breeding. People run out of potential cabinet members and commanders fast. Apparently the game is balanced so it tries to maintain twice as many courtiers as you have cabinet positions. Players note that it means that they often don't have enough commanders for their armies and navies. Johan said on the forums today that the game was balanced around not every army/fleet having a commander.

3. Fleet battles seem broken and often result in no battle being fought (but ships being taken as prizes).

Though I guess Ryagi, who posted the patch notes, expected some "reaction" from fans, considering they used this illustration depicting a comet to headline the post.

[Syt]

Or as OPB puts it:

[Tamas]

Az usual I agree with OPBs video. The release version needed tweaks not the hatchet that Johan has been wielding.

[jimmy olsen]

I noticed the Ottomans were called "The Kingdom of the Ottomans." I found this very confusing. Then I clicked on them. They had converted to Orthodoxy 

Not even the most deranged alt-hist freak would talk about what would happen if the Ottomans had embraced Orthodoxy. Paradox has make sure totally deranged things like that would ever happen.

Now maybe Bulgaria just really kicked their ass and forced converted them during a war but I don't think so.

Wouldn't people just call them the second Eastern Roman Empire if they converted to Orthodoxy?

[jimmy olsen]

Or it is just needlessly complicated to code to cater to a niche group.  Better to spend those resources elsewhere.

No it is pretty shitty coding if clicking between start dates causes the game to load improperly.

I totally understood their stance that maintaining many little used start dates (let alone history of everyday in the period) was not worth the resource. But if you do have more than one, game shouldn't break as you browse the different scenarios.

For EUV, I think time will tell if they need to budge or not. Difference with EUV is it picked only start date in a century none of the others covered. Could possibly be there are enough legacy fans who would actually play a 15th century start date.

Pretty sure I do remember a dev report where they looked at the data and said basically nobody chooses any dates but the earliest ones.

I pick the 1066 date in Crusader Kings like 95% of the time.

[Syt]

Az usual I agree with OPBs video. The release version needed tweaks not the hatchet that Johan has been wielding.

Well, Johan is a quite chill person who doesn't dig in his heels on silly topics, so I'm sure things will get fixed quickly.

Part of me is wondering if his design philosophy is just not well suited to simulations games as opposed to more boardgamey approaches.

[Solmyr]

Johan said on the forums today that the game was balanced around not every army/fleet having a commander.

This is why the game relentlessly pesters you about any piddly army that does not have a commander, and offers a button to automate assigning generals and admirals.