Europa Universalis 3
 

The game has gone gold and will hit stores on January 23rd. They've made a lot of changes to the last one, some of them controversial, but overall it looks really good. This french review site has some nice screenshots and videos of game play! I know for one, I can't wait!

hxxp://www.clubic.com/test-jeux-video-6139-0-europa-universalis-iii.html

Really looking forward for this.

Just last month, I picked up the Paradox 6 pack with all of their games in it. Pretty sweet from EB for just 20 dollars too

A lot of that looks great, I'm really excited for this. Although, I don't think it looks all that much better. I'm talking about the map, it looks too much like a puzzle, I think the map in EU2 is better.

I cant wait. I pre-ordered the deluxe edition. Paradox has to be one of the companies I love most. I buy every game from them.

What games are in it?

Hearts of Iron
It’s 1939 and the threat of the Third Reich looms over all of Europe. Lead the Allied forces to victory, or take command of an Axis nation and sweep across the entire globe. Take control of virtually any nation and rewrite history as you see fit in this truly epic game of World War II strategy.

Victoria: An Empire under the Sun
Between ironclads and merchantmen, the New World and old homelands, the British Empire seeks to regain and maintain its former glory on the world stage. In this tumultuous, war-torn 18th century, you can choose to help restore Britannia, guide the United States through the Civil War, Japan through its rush of modernization, or lead any country you wish to its own place in the sun in this unique and engaging strategy title.

Europa Universalis II
From the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance and beyond, new empires were created while old ones fell prey to the dangers of war, colonialism, and even faith. It was a time where a brave new idea could be as dangerous as the sharpest cutlass, and a single battle could mean the difference between independence and vassalage. Guide your chosen nation through these 400 years of progress and reshape the world.

Europa Universalis II: Asia Chapters
Asiatic countries are at a crucial turning point. The influence of Western civilization threatens to creep across their borders in an era marked by feuding samurai clans, the strength of the Ming dynasty, and legendary Korean warships. Dig into an alternative look at the 400 years of the original Europa Universalis II, complete with 20 minutes of additional animation and music, and become the conqueror of the four seas.

Two Thrones
The rivalry between England and France rages on from 1337 to 1490 as noble families in both countries fight to lay claim to the two thrones. Choose a side and direct your country through the Hundred Years’ War and the War of the Roses, all while trying to appease the Papacy and the toughest critics of all: your people.

Crown of the North
Torn apart by power struggles and civil war, Scandinavia finds itself being contested between Sweden, Norway, and Denmark in the years 1275 to 1340. Take control of one of six local factions and pursue your right to the crown through high-powered politics, careful diplomacy, and strategic combat.


I never played 3 of those (or the EUII expansion)...I may pick this up too.

Well the new map is very controversial, they wanted to go to a 3D map, and I think it will bring some good things, like much easier and better zooming in and out, better animations, and some good features like striping provinces with a different color when another nation owns them, but the puzzle look is not popular and I agree it sort of takes a step back, but I figure I'll get used to it.

I guessing this game marks the end of my marriage.

What better eu3 or married sex?

The nice thing about a Paradox game is that you need not invest in it for a couple months until they're on patch 1.03 or 1.04.

As I keep saying, I'm somehow going to be duped into getting this, thinking this'll be the one.... only to be disappointed again. Great concept, but it just doesn't deliver in the slightest for me.

Kind of like Lewis Black's bit on candy corn really.

This certainly has been the pattern, but I think they may break it with this game, they've used a much different model with much longer beta testing, and the testers are reporting that the crashes and bugs have mostly been stomped out pre-release, unlike pretty much all their other games.

Then cue the 'we tested it thoroughly but we only have so many testers on so many setups' excuse as the game crashes on EVERY computer. This is PC game BS 101. EVERY game uses this pre-release.

Europa Universalis is the only PC game in the history of America that's never been advertised. And there's a reason. All of the copies that were ever made were made in 1996. And so, since nobody plays that game, every year there's a ton of copies left over. And Paradox sends the guys out into the stores, to collect out of the dumpsters all the copies we've thrown away. They repackage it! They repackage it!

I'll never forget the first time my mother gave me a copy of Europa Universalis. She said, 'Here ISiddiqui! This is Risk that plays like Civilization!' (takes it, plays it) ... 'This plays like crap!'

And every year since then, a new release is here and I, like an Alzheimer's patient, find myself in a room, and the room has a table in it, and on the table, is a PC with Europa Universalis installed and loaded up. And I look at it, as if I've never seen it before. 'Europa Universalis,' I think. 'Risk that plays like Civilization. I can't wait.' (grabs mouse, hits keyboard) 'SON OF A BITCH!'

Well it doesn't really matter to me, I'll play it either way, but this is Paradox, they aren't every game developer. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

The bone they're throwing to commerciality (ie dodgy looking 3d graphics) means that I won't be able to run the game. Pity, because I lurved EU2, for all its quirks.

Nice review of the game here:

http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r28887.htm

and another

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3156420

dola - Also, Gamespot is releasing the demo of EU3 today!

LOL... and eerily accurate. Though the last paragraph would be a on the table is a PC with a NEW EDITION of Europa Universalis on it.

Fixed it for ya. But I agree a couple of years after release with all the patches and the mods for their games, it is a great purchase to make. :D

Anyone with a link of it?

Here you got it buddy :)

http://www.fz.se/filer/?id=2184

It's around 130mb and from that link the speed i get is a nice 400kbps.

Awesome. Thank you! :)

So...I've got EU one....anyone know where I can get a patch for it?

i bought it a long time ago, put it down, and even though it looks awesome, never got around to picking it up again.

This should work, or if not I think you can get it on Gamespot somewhere:

hxxp://dlh.net/cgi-bin/dlp.cgi?lang=eng&sys=pc&file=eu110uk.zip&ref=ps

Game is out as digital download from gamersgate:

http://www.gamersgate.com/index.php?...mart&Itemid=14

Also first patch released on release day, some really good fixes:


This is a listing of things in EU3 v1.1 that have resulted in a change to the way that the game is played. Information provided here supersedes what you may have read in the manual, manual errata, strategy guide, forums, or have experienced with the game’s demo version.

System Specifications/Hardware/Game Launch

• The game will now allow you to launch even if your graphics card does not report as having 128MB of video RAM (however Pixelshader 2.0 support is still a requirement). You will receive a warning to this effect and can then proceed to launch the game; however, we can offer no assurances as to the overall performance of the game on such systems. Older, sub-spec cards are likely to have serious issues, while integrated chipsets that are designed to share system resources may be able to run with little or no performance deterioration. We offer this change on an “as is” basis and do not make any assurances that the game will work perfectly on any individual system.
• A special feature has been added to the launcher to help players manage and launch games with user-modifications. Details of how to use this are provided in the Scenarios & Modifications subforum of the main Paradox forum. In particular this should make it considerably easier for people who participate in multiplayer games to use mods.

Game Play & Interfaces

• A human-controlled country that is an elector in the Holy Roman Empire is now unable to vote for itself (this means that the player is restricted in the same way that AI-controlled countries are restricted). The player will automatically vote for the country that it would vote for if it were controlled by the AI (reputation being the primary determining factor, with ties being broken by other considerations such as prestige, size, strength, reputation, etc.).
• Being the Papal Controller now also helps to improve your country’s reputation.
• The rate that maps will spread to other countries has undergone a large adjustment. A newly-discovered province will not become known to other countries for at least 50 years (unless they discover it independently).
• The cost of new technologies is now scaled to country size. Larger countries must now invest somewhat more than a smaller country to achieve the same technological advance.
• Having a positive national stability now gives an additional bonus to tax income.
• Having a negative national stability now results in a higher revolt risk than was previously the case.
• The “Deus Vult” national idea will now give you a casus belli on any country that does not share exactly the same religion as your own (previously you did not receive the casus belli against a country that had a religion in the same religious group as your own).
• Some of the allowed government conversion possibilities have been altered (so do not rely on the manual’s appendix to determine a valid path).
• The likelihood of a ruler dying is now less linear and increases significantly with time; making very long reigns even rarer than before.
• A country that is ruled by a regency council can no longer be the target of a succession war.
• The effects of advisors have been tweaked to increase the differences between each skill level.
• The monthly salary cost of a newly-hired advisor is now immediately reflected in the domestic budget (previously it would not be applied until month end). The same is also true if you fire an advisor.
• The Outliner now has a separate section to show provinces that are colonies (but not yet full-fledged colonial cities). This makes it very easy to quickly select a province that you wish to further develop through sending a colonist.

Diplomacy & Espionage

• You may only diplomatically annex a country when it is at peace. The option will remain greyed out if this condition is not satisfied (in addition to the other conditions associated with diplomatic annexation).
• It is no longer possible to break an alliance if the alliance is at war.
• Voluntarily releasing a vassal will now improve your country’s reputation.
• The relationship between countries (and changes in those relationships) has been further tweaked and balanced -- particularly within the Holy Roman Empire. The Emperor (if controlled by the AI) is now much more supportive and protective of member states.
• The cost, effects, and penalties for detection for most espionage actions of your spies have been changed to make them somewhat more appealing to use.

War & Peace

• You can no longer recruit mercenary regiments of any type in any of your colonies.
• The cost of hiring a mercenary will now increase slightly for each additional mercenary in your national army.
• Naval attrition has been changed to increase the attrition rates when you are in open ocean waters, and to eliminate it completely when you are in a sea zone that is adjacent to your own territory. This means that a fleet may safely remain at sea in its home waters, but will find exploration and ocean voyages more hazardous.
• Naval attrition will be less severe once you have achieved level 20 in naval technology.
• The details displayed when you select a fleet now show the transport capacity of that fleet (the number of regiments that it can carry) at the bottom of the fleet interface.
• It is now possible to declare war on a country without first cancelling your military access treaty; however, there is a severe stability penalty for doing so.
• The penalty for declaring war on a co-religionist now only applies to an enemy that is exactly the same religion as your country, rather than for countries with a religion in the same religious group. (Example: a Protestant country will no longer receive the stability hit for declaring war on a Catholic country.)
• If one of your vassals is attacked, you will automatically be given the option protect it (via a “call to allies” message). This means that you will always be able to assist a vassal, even if you have not arranged an alliance with it.
• An army will not receive any reinforcements if it is retreating. This only applies to retreating after losing or withdrawing from a battle, and does not affect an army that is moving due to a normal movement order.
• If all possible locations that an army may retreat each contain an enemy army that exceeds it in size, the army will be disbanded. Note that every army in every province must be larger, otherwise the defeated army will retreat towards a province that has an enemy army that is smaller than it is.
• You may now only initiate an assault in a siege if you are the leader of that siege.
• Any alliances a country has will be automatically broken if it accepts an enemy’s demand to become its vassal.
• You cannot refuse a peace offer from an AI-controlled country if it currently controls all of your provinces. You can refuse an offer from a human-controlled country but will pay a stability penalty for doing so if the offer is reasonable (100% or less).
• It is no longer possible to demand that a country convert religion if it has a religious form of government (theocracies, etc.)
• A country that has been forced to convert religions as a result of a peace demand will now be unable to convert religions again (voluntarily) until the ruler who agreed to the peace term has died.

Other
This is by no means a complete listing of changes from 1.0 to 1.1. In addition to the items above, there are a large number of minor alterations, tweaks, bug-fixes, AI tweaks and optimisations, and an assortment of other things that would be far too lengthy to detail. This includes...

• Many events have been tweaked for triggers, modifiers and effects; and a variety of events have been added.
• Many provinces have been tweaked (trade goods, tax values, etc.)
• Some province improvements have been tweaked in cost and/or effect.
• Many tweaks to in-game variables in the static_modifiers.txt and defines.txt files; and tweaks to the effects in static_modifers.txt
• Tweaked many interfaces to improve their display or information
• Tweaked or expanded the information in many tooltips
• Made corrections or clarifications to much of the in-game text.
• Many history files have been further expanded, tweaked, corrected, or otherwise improved.
• A variety of new event conditions and effects have been added.
• Most AI routines have been further expanded, improved, and/or optimised. The AI’s ability to manage all aspects of its country and military has been enhanced, as has its diplomatic policies and behaviours. In particular, inter-relationships within the Holy Roman Empire and decisions made by all countries (worldwide) regarding national ideas and colonisation should be more appropriate than before.
• Multiplayer stability and functionality has been made considerably more robust to address occasional synchronisation issues experienced in games played over the internet.
• And a variety of miscellaneous bug fixes, tweaks, code optimisations, and other fun stuff.

Dola, I'm trying to resist to buy it right now as digital download when it will hit the Spanish stores in Feb 2nd with the printed manual instead of pdf. On the other hand, I prefer to play games in English as usualy the translations are not awesome... Damn, what to do?

Double dola,
Damn why am I so weak? Installing the game now.

Just thought I'd say that EUIII is easily the best Paradox game to date. Yes, the graphics take a little getting used to but trust me, you'll come to appreciate them in time. At least I have. The game has also been quite stable (for me), though there are always going to be little bugs here and there, but I think we (Beta Testers) got most of the bugs.

Just wish I hadn't been so bloody busy the past two months. :( Haven't had time to test the game much. :(

Hey Praetorian, glad to see a beta tester here on FOFC. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my pre-ordered collector's edition.

Pre-ordered this game for my fiance and me. We'll give it a try on Thursday, starting off with mutiplayer co-op mode to help with the learning curve.

Looking forward to it.

Co-op mode is a feature that is going to be really great, two persons running the same country at same time, it could help to make great dynasties with a guy managing the economic part and another the army etc.

This is one of the main reasons we are purchasing it. It also helps cut down arguements because of one person beating on another, like we do in Civ4. The depth of this game can be realized with two people running the same country.

trick question...there's no such thing as married sex.

This will be my second marriage. Your statement is true. :D

We have a winner!

Would anyone else recommend this game so far? I keep trying to get into this genre but can never decide on which one to go with.

The learning curve is big (at least for me). I never played this series before, but I did play Crusader Kings. I thought the personality and character depth would follow into EUIII, but I was incorrect. The game has depth and is enjoyable. It is also slow. Things can take forever to accomplish. I'm hoping my fiance will recover from the flu soon so we can try this co-op. It looks to be an enjoyable game. The ability to mod it should extend the life of this game too.

Having only played the demo it seems to have really kept much of what made the EU series special and built upon it. It is slow moving at times, I'd agree, but this is BY FAR the easiest game in the series to get into.

I'm still waiting for a Crusader Kings II.

I am with Gi, I played Crusader Kings, but this is my first EU game. Im slowly making my way through it. I think I enjoy this game, I think its the game I wish CK was.. but its just taking some time to figure stuff out.

Okay i downloaded the demo and fired it up yesterday. I have to admit i was totally overwhelmed. Is there a tutorial within the game or a written tutorial to get a newbie started?

There is a tutorial with the full version, but I haven't played it so I can't vouch for it's helpfulness. The best way to get into the game is play and read some of the threads at Paradoxplaza.com. It's quite a steep learning curve, though.

The game itself is very good, but there are a number of bugs to get worked out. Right now you see very weird things like traders from the Creek nation in Andalusia, countries that are both allied and at war with each other, growth rates that don't seem to work, etc.

Nevermind it was late and i didn't even notice there was an in game tutorial. I wouldn't mind though if someone new of a strategy guide or guide for newbies that might help.

There is talk of a strategy guide on the EU3 boards, but I haven't dug for it. There is also an EU3 wiki that's just starting. I believe it's stickied on the first page of the forum.

Where's the ditto button.

I haven't come across the strategy guide on the EU3 boards so far, I played through the tutorial, and while they helped some with the basic ideas, by no means could they dig into the incredible amount of depth in this game.

I ended up picking Scotland to try to learn with. Its not really an easy country and most people seem to suggest to try to learn with a country like Portugal. So far though I've been left alone and plodded along trying things and figuring out how they work. I think I have the trade system down now.. but some things I am completely in the dark on.

I still have no clue what i am doing when it comes to most of the sliders, I know the tooltips tell you their effects, but its hard for me to grasp exactly what those effects will mean for my country. I also am thinking only short term and have no long term strategy.

Because of the ability to Mod EUIII, I'm hopeful someone will make a mod that is influenced by Crusader Kings...