Ping: Europa Universalis 3 fans (Weekly game interest)

[Alan T]

A while back Barkeep49 and I played a weekly EU3 game that both of us enjoyed until the point where Real life got in my way and I had to stop. He and I are starting back up and I figured I would see if 1 - 3 others were interested in committing to playing a weekly game as well.



EU3: IN and NA expansion packs, starting in 1399.
Play Sunday evenings starting at 8pm ET until 11pm ET

Anyone else interested in joining? Let me know if you are interested!

[JPhillips]

Maybe later, but until the middle of October I'm in rehearsal on Sunday nights.

[ColtCrazy]

I'd really be into this as a friend and I play a game about once a month online. I haven't got the expansions yet, though, so it'll be awhile before I can play. Sounds great though.

[Izulde]

I just never got into EU3, though if a CK MP game started up...

[Big Fo]

Off-topic, but are the expansions worth it? I never really got into regular EU3 when it came out but after various patches, two expansions, and mods how are people enjoying it?

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Off-topic, but are the expansions worth it? I never really got into regular EU3 when it came out but after various patches, two expansions, and mods how are people enjoying it?

There was a semi-longer thread somewhere around here discussing EU3 and the expansions. My thought is if you liked EU3, you'll like the expansions. If you didn't get into EU3, the expansions won't improve it enough for you.

[Barkeep49]

Well we just had our first week's game and I must say it was a lot of fun. I'm putting hte call back out there as there are still plenty of good countries and good fun to be had.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

Well we just had our first week's game and I must say it was a lot of fun. I'm putting hte call back out there as there are still plenty of good countries and good fun to be had.

One of the good countries would not be England as it has been beaten to a pulp by rebel factions that have formed Cornwall and Wales, as well as help from France and Scotland attacking them non stop.

One of the things I enjoy about this game is watching what happens in other parts of the world while I continue my peaceful living

[Alan T]

For fun, the map of our current game we've been playing. In 1440 right now.

[Alan T]

Current map after a few more weeks. Colonies starting to show up! 1484 is the year.

[Tasan]

What are IN and NA packs? If you started something like this up again, I think I'd be interested.

[SirFozzie]

EU3 In Nomine, and Napoleon's Ambition

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Tasan

What are IN and NA packs? If you started something like this up again, I think I'd be interested.

the NA expansion extends the length you can play longer into the Napoleon years. In Nomine allows you to start the game earlier (1399). You have to have NA installed in order to install IN. More important than the extended game play however is the extra game changes, and game additions that IN especially adds to the game to make it much more enjoyable.

[Tasan]

Yeah I was just going over the wikis. Both sound interesting, I'll have to give them a whirl. Seriously, if you guys start over anytime soon, let me know.

[TimGuru]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

I'd really be into this as a friend and I play a game about once a month online. I haven't got the expansions yet, though, so it'll be awhile before I can play. Sounds great though.

Tasan and ColtCrazy and I are in the same expansionless boat, maybe we should organize our own game for now.........

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by TimGuru

Tasan and ColtCrazy and I are in the same expansionless boat, maybe we should organize our own game for now.........

All I can say is I didn't enjoy EU3 nearly as much before the expansions as I do now.

If you don't like EU3 or can't get into it, I can't promise that the expansions will change that for you.

If you like plain EU3, I am fairly sure that the expansions will make it even better.

[TimGuru]

Its a $ thing. I have trouble buying full priced PC games as it is (from a cheapness perspective, not a I'd have to eat mac n cheese all week perspective), I'd much rather score 3 $15 titles from the bottom shelf than roll the dice on one for $50. To end up 80 bucks into EU3,,,I dunno.

[twothree]

Originally Posted by TimGuru

Its a $ thing. I have trouble buying full priced PC games as it is (from a cheapness perspective, not a I'd have to eat mac n cheese all week perspective), I'd much rather score 3 $15 titles from the bottom shelf than roll the dice on one for $50. To end up 80 bucks into EU3,,,I dunno.

The EU3 collection, which contains EU3 and both expansion, should be in some stores tommorow with a price of $30, in case you didn't know.

[Galaril]

I got the EU 3 Collection today at Game stop for $30 dollars great deal. It is a single install menaing everthing including both expansions off of one disk and shows as asingle game not three as if you bought each expansion separately from the game. It has a great world map for the game but the three manuals are all PDF SO GET YOUR PRINTERS FILLED UP ON PAPER.

[SirFozzie]

I want to play a MP game sometime

[twothree]

Originally Posted by Galaril

I got the EU 3 Collection today at Game stop for $30 dollars great deal.

Lucky. My Gamestop did not get it. And, I was unable to find a copy anywhere I looked.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by twothree

Lucky. My Gamestop did not get it. And, I was unable to find a copy anywhere I looked.

Europa Universalis is probably not a big enough of a title for it to be out like other mainstream games I would imagine. Some might have the ability to order it or such, but otherwise I can imagine it will be pretty hit or miss. I think it should be in a decent number of Gamestops and Best Buys by Christmas time though.

Meanwhile, it also should be available at some point soon through Amazon as well:

Amazon.com: Europa Universalis III: Complete: Video Games

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by twothree

Lucky. My Gamestop did not get it. And, I was unable to find a copy anywhere I looked.

I was on the east coast on abusiness trip and got it. I think from what I heard it isn't arrived in best buys yet out west. I think mountain states tomorrow and west coast next week.

[Alan T]

This isn't from a multiplayer game, but figured I would post it just for fun anyways. This is my single player game that I have been playing off and on for a few months. I am the Papal States and have managed to take for the most part all of Northern Italy. It is 1454, and I have 3 years before Siena becomes a core for me and I am able to form Italy.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I had EU2, and the game looked so interesting when I was looking at the box and reading a little bit online, but I just felt so confused when I tried to play. I can't blame the game for that, but it just seemed so inaccessible to me. Is EU3 anywhere close to a "pick up and play" type or no?

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I had EU2, and the game looked so interesting when I was looking at the box and reading a little bit online, but I just felt so confused when I tried to play. I can't blame the game for that, but it just seemed so inaccessible to me. Is EU3 anywhere close to a "pick up and play" type or no?

In my opinion it is roughly the same as EU2. It can be intimidating if you try to pick it up without knowing how it works. Especially if you pick one of the larger countries, there are so many options available that you have no idea where to even begin.

My suggestion would be to start off with a smaller, isolated country with less options available so you can understand at least the basics of what you're doing. I used to recommend Portugal for new players, but due to a bug with the current level of code, Portugal could find itself in trouble with Castille early on.

Perhaps some countries like Mecklenburg is far enough away from any super power to have any immediate threats, while it is also rich enough that you should have money to try things with.

[Galaril]

Alan or anyone with especially some one who also has the new complete version with both exapansions. Where does Paradox usually put the PDF game manuals they aren't in the game folder?

[JPhillips]

Did you get the download version?

If so you can get the manual on Gamersgate in the My Games area.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Alan or anyone with especially some one who also has the new complete version with both exapansions. Where does Paradox usually put the PDF game manuals they aren't in the game folder?

I don't have the complete version, I got mine long ago. I think I remember reading something about there being three PDF files on the CD, not in the game folder. check on the CD.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I don't have the complete version, I got mine long ago. I think I remember reading something about there being three PDF files on the CD, not in the game folder. check on the CD.

Alan,

You rule! I might take you up on the multiplayer game in afew weeks once i am up to date on playing this new 3.1.

[Alan T]

I worked most of yesterday outside on the house (put up plastic over some windows for winter, cleaned out gutters, cut the grass, put up a solar powered motion sensor floodlight on my back deck, put up stuff into the attic for winter storage such as kids bikes, etc, got winter clothes down from the attic, etc etc etc). So today I treated myself by playing some EU3 with my single player Papal States game a bit more while watching football. I found out the hard way that evidently the last patch they made it so the Papal States can not form Italy. So my new goal is to push my Catholic might upon others. I just have been a bit distracted with a series of local wars with Bavaria, Austria and Mecklenburg (The Holy Roman Empire). One humorous side effect is with my being at a series of wars with the HRE, it has caused my relations with many other countries to drop thus allowing all kinds of excommunications.

[Alan T]

New map after our multiplayer game last night. Barkeep had a much better evening than I did. He formed Spain during the evening and is no longer Castille. He also had some gains into Northern Africa. I played with the Germanic states some, but spent most of my evening keeping France from eating me alive. 1499:

[Alan T]

New BETA patch is posted and available for people who want to try it out in the public beta testing for it. I personally will wait to make sure there are no new bugs. It looks to contain all bug fixes and no new features, but some of the bugs it fixes are things that bothered me, so I am happy

- Fixed the common out-of-sync problem when loading savegames in multiplayer.
- Major trade nations are more likely to get targetted my competition in trade centres.
- Made a few optimisations to the game.
- Advisors now last a little bit shorter.
- Unemployed advisors now have a very high likelihood to move to another country as exclusive for them after the first year is up.
- Editbox in colonywindow is no longer autoselected.
- The winning avatar won't continue fighting after the battle is won.
- A siege will now end directly after it is broken by a attacker.
- Improved the reliability of selectionindicator.
- The avatar will now be facing in the correct direction when starting an assult.
- The avatar will now be marching in the correct direction.
- The avatar will now stop assulting if peace has arrived with the sieged country.
- Modified the scrollspeed for keyboard so the camera moves a bit faster.
- The camera won't change position anymore, if the game isn't in focus.
- Lobby port is no longer 1632, but 1638.
- Strategic AI: Separate check for suspension of merchants.
- Merchant AI: Slightly altered CoT priorities.
- Added Taizu as a Ming ruler from 1584
- Added Nurhachi as a Manchu ruler from 1583
- Fixed the "Naval officers are retiring" text
- Fixed the text for the "Force convert mission"
- Fixed three typos in the Bavarian and Tuscan monarch lists
- Fixed the Venetian core on Zeta at start
- Fixed the army names for Spain, Castille and the Teutonic Order
- Azerbaijan is no longer transferred to Russia in 1813
- Dauphine gets a core on Lyonnais from 1399
- Fixed the "Colonial Migration" event so that the same province isn't targeted twice
- Fixed the localisation errors for the two "Policy Changes" events
- Added the "Emergency talks" flag as a positive modifier to the "War ends with negotiated peace" and "War ends with negotiated peace" events
- Tweaked the "Tribal reform" decisions so that centralization plays a bigger role
- The "Indian trade company" decision is no longer visible to landlocked countries
- The "Establish trade in cot" decision won't trigger unless you own a cot
- The "Spanish Netherlands should be Catholic" mission aborts if Spain is no longer Catholic
- The "Conquer Ferrara", "Conquere Ancona" and "Annex Avignon" missions won't trigger if the owner is papal controller
- Fixed the success conditions of the "Rule the seas" mission
- Fixed the generic "Destabilize Rival" mission so that the player gets the reward
- The "Rival Army" and "Rival Navy" missions won't trigger if you're allied with the other nation
- The Manchu mission, "Start the Conquest of Ming China" won't trigger if Manchu is a vassal or lesser partner in a union
- The "Conquer Southern Korea" and "Establish footholding in Manchuria" missions will abort if the countries are not neighbours and don't have a port
- Changed the success conditions for the Spanish "Finish the reconquista" mission so that it's only cosidered a success if the Iberian peninsula is Catholic
- Fixed the Lithuanian "Defeat the Livonian Order" mission so that it affects the correct provinces
- The generic "Conquer Core" mission won't trigger for countries that are the lesser partner in a union
- Added target countries to the abort sections of the "Annex Novgorod", "Annex Sicily", "Annex Naples" and "Annex Prussia" mission
- Colonial rebels defection time has been decreased to 36 months from the old 72 months.
- War Exhaustion now increases revolt risk by +1 again.

http://www.europa-universalis.com/fo...d.php?t=380360

[Barkeep49]

I believe the WE increasing revolt risk isn't a new feature per se, but it does have real game consequences. Probably more realisitc that way though I did prefer it unimplemented

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

I believe the WE increasing revolt risk isn't a new feature per se, but it does have real game consequences. Probably more realisitc that way though I did prefer it unimplemented

The history behind that was very high WE used to cause alot of revolt risk around a country, so a warmongering country would end up very at risk to falling apart due to revolts (ie: France). People complained about the frequency of rebels and they tuned it down some.

Then after tuning it down, people complained that France got stronger, and rebels didn't matter as much and that more people liked it the old way after all.. so they changed it back

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by Alan T

The history behind that was very high WE used to cause alot of revolt risk around a country, so a warmongering country would end up very at risk to falling apart due to revolts (ie: France). People complained about the frequency of rebels and they tuned it down some.

Then after tuning it down, people complained that France got stronger, and rebels didn't matter as much and that more people liked it the old way after all.. so they changed it back

I know the history. I'm just saying it's a significant change in a patch otherwise full of insignificant ones.

[Alan T]

Most recent map after this weekend's game. We finally beat France in a war (all of the other wars had been forced out at white peace or giving up some money to get out of them). Both Barkeep (Spain) and I (Great Britain) are expanding into the new world and currently appear to be the only countries over there. (year 1515)

[Alan T]

Most recent map from tonight's game. For the first time, we had a virtually peaceful game tonight, with France only declaring at the very end (we decided to save that war for next time). Both of us focused primarily on colonies this time around and it appears that right now we are dominating the new world. (primarily thanks to Barkeep getting rid of Portugal earlier)

[Alan T]

Played about 20 more years tonight. I was drawn into a ton of Eastern European wars with Lithuania, Prussia, Poland, Denmark, etc.. while Barkeep went looking for the City of Gold in Central/South America.

[Alan T]

After a Thanksgiving break, we played again last night. The balance of power in Europe has changed pretty decently since the last game. France took a big hit due to the forces of Spain, Great Britain and half of Germany. Spain has continued in their colonization of South America, while North America has primarily remained in the hands of Great Britain.

As France loses its hold in Europe just slightly, several new powers rise up in the form of Milan, Austria, Novrgrod, Lithuania and Poland.

[Barkeep49]

With France becoming somewhat neutered look for Milan to suffer the wrath of the Spanish/GB alliance. Or at least that's what Spain hopes .

[Alan T]

New map for this week. We are up to 1583 now. Spain decided to take its vengence out upon Milan this time around and the Lombard empire suffered great losses. The before thought neutered France threw us all a curveball however and has quietly been conquering parts of Africa. Looks like we likely will have to deal with them yet again in the near future.

[Alan T]

Played 15 more years last night. Wars with Milan/Sardina and Austria as well as Spain continuing to expand in South America and Great Britain spreading in North America + founding the East Indies trade company

[Alan T]

The last two weeks of playing. 1619:




And where we stopped last night at 1640:



Some of the main developments from last night.

- You can't easily tell, but Spain has taken virtually all of Italy over, the majority of land there belongs to either weak countries or his vassals. Milan is my vassal (Great Britain) thanks to a war that Milan entered into against one of my allies foolishly.

- This map is actually the first I saw of Spain's foothold into Asia. You can see part of Japan now in the Spanish yellow. I think they went there from South America, but honestly do not know for sure.

- Great Britain has expanded more in India, easily taking over a decent chunk of land.

- Spain and Great Britain are continuing to expand colonies in the Americas, and as best I can tell are the only countries in the "new world" still at this late of a date.

- Europe continues to be an ebb and flow of major powers, France appeared to reform fairly strongly thanks to a strong African foothold, but then suddenly war exhaustion hurt them badly and their European holdings in the France mainland imploded. Several different new countries were formed from that (such as Provence, etc). Poland became a secondary power, but ended up getting steamrolled by virtually everyone else in Europe and is only half as strong as before.

- Current major European powers are Spain, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Lithuania and Norvgorod

[Alan T]

Played 18 years last night (a little technical issues to start the evening, so lost almost 45 minutes)



There seemed to be very little war this time around, probably in part to my War exhaustion being close to 15 (causing Revolt risk of over 30 in numerous territories). I (Great Britain) ended up spending probably most of the night getting that back to manageable levels.

Despite the lack of war, I still progressed in colonies in North America, finally reaching the Pacific as well as taking the entire east coast finally.

Spain appears to have taken the rest of the northern part of South America as. Both countries also continued to expand their far east holdings, with Spain taking most of Japan, and Great Britain expanding further within India.

As far as other world powers go, Novrogod got beat up badly by Rebels and the Golden Horde, Prussia got hurt a bit by Denmark/Finland, even if it is not noticable in the map. Lithuania is the major world power in the East, while Austria remained fairly quiet this time around themselves, the only action of note was the Personal Union formed where Savoy is now ruled by Austria as well.

[Alan T]

New Map after another 17 years (I think)



New World: Great Britain continues expansion in North America as the only country there and Spain continues conquest of South America as the only country there.

Africa: Some minor increases for both Spain and France there.

Asia: Spain has taken control of a larger part of the Japan mainland, while Ming continues to expand in Asia major

Europe: Austria lost some land to the combined forces of Spain and Great Britain (plus vassals) as well as Prussia lost a good majority of their land to Lithuania, Denmark and Great Britain. Great Britain annexed two larger vassals in Germany as well.

[Barkeep49]

Next session, Spain's priorities are to check the power of France in Africa (we actually have a mission to do so at the moment) and to turn back some of the power of the Ming, from the beachhead the Japanese gave us in mainland China.

[Coffee Warlord]

I wanna see the grand Spanish - British colonial war.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I wanna see the grand Spanish - British colonial war.

Spain would easily win that one. I think British troops in the Americas total at maybe 20,000 tops. Only about 5% of its entire forces.

[Alan T]

After the last week of playing. It is hard to tell what Spain was up to exactly in this one, I'll let him comment on it more. I think he hurt France in Africa alot more than the map shows as well as some further war in Japan.

This round featured our first challenging fight in quite some time. Somehow, someone ended up putting Spain and Great Britain at war with France, Poland, Austria and Lithuania, which was probably 6 of the 7 largest powers in Europe. As far as I am aware, France was challenging in Africa while Lithuania took early losses but then pushed back Great Britain in the East. The war ended after a few years with minimal gains. Later wars chose to not include Lithuania