Hello everyone, and welcome to this weeks development diary for EU4.

This week I want to talk about the loadingscreens of EU4. Our goal is to add to the pool of loadingscreens every time we do a major update, so that you have a large variety of cool pictures to view while the harddrive is booting up the game.

Each picture represents one country in the game, and we do not plan to have more than 1 loading screen for each nation. There is also one of the most iconic leaders of that nation on the picture, as well as a location which represents that nation.

And when making expansions, it is very much important that the country picked fits the theme for it.

Original Game
We shipped with 5 different loading screens, representing about half of the major powers of the era.
Sweden - Gustavus II Adolphus & Stockholm Archipelago
Spain - Isabella & Carribean Islands
England - Elizabeth I & Cliffs of Dover
France - Louis XIV France & French Farmlands
Ottomans - Suleiman the Magnificent & Haga Sophia

Conquest of Paradise
Iroqouis - Hiawatha & Niagara Falls

Wealth of Nations
Venice - Andrea Gritti & City of Venice

Res Publica
Netherlands - Maurice of Nassau & Windmills at Canals

Art of War
Russia - Catherine the Great & Siberia

El Dorado
Aztecs - Montezuma & Tenochtitlan

Common Sense
Austrai - Charles V & The Alps

And for our new 1.13 patch, we are adding a loading screen for Poland, with Jan Sobieski and the Jasna Gora Monastery!

We still aim to have pictures for Portugal, Denmark & Prussia of the europeans majors, but it needs to fit thematically for the expansions. Not that I can think of any important Danish ruler through history.. pokes @Groogy

 

[Castrolol]

Disgusting. Adding some useless nobodies on the loading screen instead of fixing the crippling lack of majesty that is Sho Shitatsu and the Three Mountains. Way to listen to your core audience, Paradupe.

 

[Beanicus]

Awesome, I love the splash scenes

I think Christian IV or perhaps Frederick III would be good for Denmark.

ROTW nations/areas that could do with some representation with timeframe appropriate people:

India/Mughals - Akbar I
China - Emperor Kangxi
Japan - Tokugawa or Oda Nobunaga
Inca - Pachacuti
Ethiopia - Zara Yaqob
Persia - Abbas I
Songhai - Askia the Great
Morocco - Ahmad al-Mansur

I did try to find someone for the Mamluks, but no-one really stood out for me. And yes, I did take inspiration from Civ for some of these!

 

[nOxr]

What about Christian II of Denmark with the Old Town of Stockholm as background?

 

[Tazkram]

Christian IV of Denmark, is probably one of the more interesting kings of Denmark.

He started the the construction of some well known danish landmarks, Rundetårn among one of these.
He intervened during the thirty years war on the protestans side, though Denmark lost.
And he's part of the "2nd national anthem" of Denmark, also known as the royal anthem; "Kong Christian stod ved højen mast", in english; King Christian stood by the lofty mast.
Also, he currently holds the longest reign as king of Denmark at 59 years.

 

[happymix91]

Wasn't the era of Jan Sobieski a golden era? I expected Stephen Bathory..

 

[ThePatriotOfDreumel]

Oh, yes.

My 2 favorite removers on the loading screens!'

REMOVE PUELLA AND KEBAB!!!

 

[CzokletMuss]

Glorious Sobieski is GLORIOUS.

Wiwat Król! Wiwat Sejm, wiwat Naród, wiwat wszystkie Stany!
(Long live the King! Long live the Sejm, long live the Nation, long live all the Estates!)

As for Jasna Gora Monastery, interesting but understandable choice:

Founded in 1382 by Pauline monks who came from Hungary at the invitation of Władysław, Duke of Opole. The monastery has been a pilgrimage destination for hundreds of years, and it contains the most important icon of the Virgin Mary in this part of Europe. The icon, depicting the Mother of God with the Christ Child, is known as the Black Madonna of Częstochowa or Our Lady of Częstochowa, which is widely venerated and credited with many miracles. Among these, it is credited with miraculously saving the Jasna Góra monastery during a siege that took place at the time of The Deluge, a 17th-century Swedish invasion. The event stimulated the Polish resistance. The Poles could not immediately change the course of the war but after an alliance with the Crimean Khanate they repulsed the Swedes. Shortly thereafter, in the cathedral of Lviv, on April 1, 1656, Jan Kazimierz, the King of Poland, solemnly pronounced his vow to consecrate the country to the protection of the Mother of God and proclaimed Her the Patron and Queen of the lands in his kingdom.

 

[Hodge_Hodgson]

1.13 is kinda done iirc, just need some issues finalised.

I'm really hoping the last few issues include sorting out Forts zone of controls. The imagery on the loading screen is beautiful fluff before I play, I'd rather have a black screen on load than have a rage stroke after a doom stack walks through my forts and wipes out my army.

On another note I hope you all had a great vacation, best game I own, or have ever owned .

 

[PhroX]

Nice 'tache.

 

[samin]

I'm not sure if it's related to playing in Windowed Fullscreen, but most of the time I don't even see any loading screen, just black until the main menu appears

 

[Sousuke123]

Wasn't the era of Jan Sobieski a golden era? I expected Stephen Bathory..

Nope Jan III Sobieski lived in time of Deluge, Chmielnicki's Uprising, Independence war from Prussia, Rakoczy Invasion from Transylvania and disastrous war with Turkey which led to losing almost whole of Ruthenia that PLC retained after treaty of Andruszów. PLC Golden Age was like 100 years before. At Sobieski's time PLC was completely exhausted, all stolen goods, arts were in Stockholm, cities destroyed and death toll was only comparable to German occupation during WWII.

 

[winddy]

What kind of expansion it will be for 1.13? Or just a patch?

 

[ASPGolan]

No more loading screens! ... YAAAY!!
wait, what, MORE loading screens?! nay...

Oh well, then I hope Wallachia gets Vlad the Impaler... for president!

 

[Janissary Agha]

I just want to say a few things.
The background image of Suleiman is just wrong.

The mosque just behind Suleiman isn't Hagia Sophia as you said. Hagia Sofia is the one at the very back. You can see the minarets. Then what's the mosque behind Suleiman?

It's Ortakoy mosque, which didn't even exist in that period of time. As a Turk, I would love to get this fixed as I get a laughter every time I look at Suleiman's image

 

[Savagepumpkin]

Ok, Charles V is a tribute to the HRE, but I think every Spaniard player of EU believe he is a great part of Spanish History as well, so technically we have 2 tributes haha

 

[Zoob]

I'm really hoping the last few issues include sorting out Forts zone of controls. The imagery on the loading screen is beautiful fluff before I play, I'd rather have a black screen on load than have a rage stroke after a doom stack walks through my forts and wipes out my army.

On another note I hope you all had a great vacation, best game I own, or have ever owned .

I think the people who do the loading screens and the people who sort out Fort zones of control. Are maybe, just maybe, different people.

 

[giant_sloth]

May I humbly suggest Bohdan Khmelnytsky for the rebels DLC?
In that black&red attire of his

 

[HaaYaargh]

Rush for Vienna was one the most stupid mistake that ever our rulers ever did and through whole my life never heard anything good bout it, maybe in West is viewed like this but not amongst people who know a little bit more history than bs that is taught in schools.

Can you elaborate?

 

[zamieo]

Mansa Musa for Mali

Mansa Musa died more than a hundred years before the game starts.

 

[Martin_Mortyry]

Nope Jan III Sobieski lived in time of Deluge, Chmielnicki's Uprising, Independence war from Prussia, Rakoczy Invasion from Transylvania and disastrous war with Turkey which led to losing almost whole of Ruthenia that PLC retained after treaty of Andruszów. PLC Golden Age was like 100 years before. At Sobieski's time PLC was completely exhausted, all stolen goods, arts were in Stockholm, cities destroyed and death toll was only comparable to German occupation during WWII.

Yet, Sobieski, out of all kings of Poland and Lithuania, is the most famous abroad. He was also very good king himself, compared to what's come next...