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So what have we done lately? Well, plenty of stuff that will go into 1.14 and the next expansion. Lots of stuff we are not ready to talk about yet, but this week we'll give you information about some new systems.

The first one is the new areas system, which will be a part of the patch.

Areas are a new type of region, usually consisting of between 3-6 provinces, and with no province being in more than one area. A new areas mapmode will show you which provincs are in what areas. This will be used for various mechanics we will explain more next week.

And then we have a feature which will be part of the as of yet unnanounced expansion.. The Victory Cards system. This is a feature that is primarily designed for multiplayer games, as it is introduced to reduce hugboxes and permanent allianceblocks.

At the end of a campaign, the top countries end up with 15-20K in score, so our goal was to create a system that could provide 30-50% more score for those that are willing to go for it.

And thus, we introduce the Victory Cards.

Starting in 1450, and every 100 years after you will be able to get a Victory Card if you have at least 300 development. Of course if you don't qualify for 1 at a given date, you will get 1 as soon as you qualify for it.

A victory card grows in score value every month if you own, control & core every province in its area, and it takes 20 years to grow to its maximum, and 20 years to drop to zero from its maximum.

The area selected is slightly randomised, but average development matter & it must be adjacent or within 1 seazone of any part of your nation or its subjects. Only provinces belonging to potential or current rivals are take into consideration, and you are far more likely to get ones on nations ahead of you in score or belonging to other players.

The first card is worth 1000, second 2000, third 3000 and the final 4000 points.

Here I've loaded up a savegame from 1.13 in our office MP campaign, and in the first 2 months I've gotten 2 victory cards to basically fight my game-long-hugbox-friend France.

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The victory card thing actually seems interesting for Single player. For MP it seems rather baffling.


For MP we actually have a power level calculator that some groups use for figuring out alliances. It's heavily focused on military of course.
 
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I kinda get the idea, yet it seems like initial reaction has been an entree of overwhelming negativity, combined with a side-dish of unenthusiastic apathy.

What I find fascinating is that they would "lead" the discussion for the future of EUIV with an MP feature, when, by their own admission, MP is a small minority of the base.

In other words, the idea of "areas" is interesting, but the pragmatic application of "Victory Cards" as an initial roll-out of how areas will affect gameplay is, to many players, utterly unappealing.

I'd probably have opted for a huge slew of "area"-related events: "Hurricane hits the Florida coast." "Famine in the Ukraine." "Economic boom in the Chamagne region." "Earthquake in Western Anatolia," "Good harvest in southern England," etc.

The other thing is that "Victory Cards," sound pretty darned "gamey." They are not appropriate for a "simulation" since they do not simulate actual real-world issues. No King or Emperor ever said, "I rulez Normandy! lol! I win!"

However, if the card was something that was historically topical and relevant, and potentially conditionally-triggered, such as an anti-Ottoman "Defense of the Gates of Vienna," a colonial region "Establish the Spanish Main," or the Napoleonic "Polish Ambitions," seeking to partition or unite Poland, then I can see how people could get behind it.

Think harder, my Paradoxian friends. Please think harder.
 
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I have to say that I'm very disappointed. Most of my games are multiplayer, I host games with my friends and all, but... I don't see a point in these "victory cards". I'm playing Europa Universalis IV not Risk!
Multiplayer doesn't need any new features - it needs a fix of the old ones.


Though, I have to say that "area system" is something I've been waiting for a long time. Perspective of being able to claim the whole region is pretty nice.
 
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How bout you announce the new Eastern Europe expansion already nobody is bought off with.....victory cards? We want that sweet sweet Russian Yarlick overhaul and the civil war and more Polish events and dynamism in the east and everything :)
 
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An arbitary criterium to gain an arbitrary boost to an arbitrary score in a game mode most people don't even play and if they do they usually do not care about score (does anybody actually care about score?).

Let's hope they'll deliver the goods the coming weeks because I echo the prior sentiment that score really isn't interesting at all.
 
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Sounds like it's going to be used for stuff that regions cannot be used for.

Which means they should've reworked regions, not added areas. I don't know why the EU4 team keeps piling mechanics on top of each other.
 
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I like this region idea, it might prevent stupid and messy orders if in war score you'd get it's cheaper or even the ai favour taking provinces all in 1 region where possible.

But this Victory Card idea, I really do not care for, I never play competitive multiplayer like that and don't really plan to.
 
Why make areas in the first place? We already have regions that need reworking - some provinces belong to two or more regions, as the things are now - regions are awful! It would be alright if they replaced them with areas, but the name wouldn't stick.
Probably because they needed something different than regions.

What's wrong with some provinces being in two or more regions? As a player you don't have much direct interaction with regions, but they are used extensively in the game code. The alternative would have been to use individual province IDs in those places. But then that means that when a new province is added in an area Paradox would need to go through every single event, mission, and decision that deals with that area and then add the province there. Or they could just open the region file and add the province to the regions.
 
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It's probably a lot simpler to create the areas and what they will be used for than rework regions and make it compatible with the areas stuff.

You're right, it probably is easier for the dev team this way, since they don't have to pore over decisions, events, and missions to bring the script into compliance.

However, would it be for the best to add a new game mechanic altogether? Vic 2 does well with just continents and states (states being the target of certain CBs and the units factories/RGOs are grouped into), and CK2 does well with a nesting system of de jure empires, kingdoms, and duchies (which the entire de jure title system is built on). But EU4 needs continents, non-exclusive regions, and now areas? -- the non-exclusive regions only being used for decisions, events, and missions; the areas only being used for victory cards (as far as we know right now -- I won't speak too soon).

I could see this working if regions didn't overlap and areas were nested within them, or if areas weren't added and the region mapmode striped provinces that are part of multiple regions. So basically a province is either a part of 1-2 regions or 1 region & 1 area. But the possibility of a province being a part of 2 regions and 1 area is just, like, needlessly complicated.

(e: just read that areas are going to be featured more in next week's DD. I should hold judgment until then.)
 
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