• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Showing developer posts only. Show all posts in this thread.

SaintDaveUK

Art Lead @ Tinto
Paradox Staff
120 Badges
Jun 20, 2012
1.387
32.077
  • Arsenal of Democracy
  • Stellaris: Apocalypse
  • Stellaris: Synthetic Dawn
  • Knights of Honor
  • Crusader Kings II: Reapers Due
  • Pride of Nations
  • War of the Vikings
  • Warlock: Master of the Arcane
  • Rome: Vae Victis
  • Victoria 2: Heart of Darkness
  • Victoria 2: A House Divided
  • Victoria 2
  • The Showdown Effect
  • Teleglitch: Die More Edition
  • Starvoid
  • Sword of the Stars II
  • Sword of the Stars
  • Ship Simulator Extremes
  • Sengoku
  • Semper Fi
  • Rome Gold
  • Victoria: Revolutions
  • Naval War: Arctic Circle
  • March of the Eagles
  • Majesty 2 Collection
  • Majesty 2
  • Magicka
  • The Kings Crusade
  • Leviathan: Warships
  • Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition
  • King Arthur II
  • Impire
  • Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods
  • Cities in Motion
  • Hearts of Iron II: Armageddon
  • Cities in Motion 2
  • A Game of Dwarves
  • Heir to the Throne
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Crusader Kings II: Charlemagne
  • Crusader Kings II: Legacy of Rome
  • Crusader Kings II: Rajas of India
  • Crusader Kings II: The Republic
  • Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham
  • Crusader Kings II: Sunset Invasion
  • Crusader Kings II: Sword of Islam
  • Commander: Conquest of the Americas
  • Darkest Hour
  • Dungeonland
  • Hearts of Iron III

9 September 2024 12 May 2025​


What an exciting week we have had, and best of all I finally get to say the name Europa Universalis V. It still feels weird in my mouth after carefully saying Caesar for what feels like a lifetime.

But lo, the day is finally come for the British Isles feedback thread. This short update was supposed to come out a few months ago, but I just had to teach some of you a lesson. Also I had a lot of other things on, like appearing in the announcement show last week.


Here we see the updated topography:

topography.jpg



The updated vegetation:
vegetation.jpg



Many impassable barriers have been added, for example the various peaks of the Pennines and the Wicklow Mountains. The Shannon also now poses a more significant barrier between east and west Ireland, with only a few crossing points often guarded by stockades.


Here we have the Locations map, bear in mind they are only showing the default English names but many places have Gaelic or Brythonic versions.

locations.jpg




Every country has had a general increase in density.

England, in particular the south, has had a big revamp at Location and Province level to more accurately reflect the historical counties, many of them pre-Norman in origin and many of them still in use today in some form. Westminster as a capital has been killed and rolled into a monolithic London.




Provinces:
provinces.jpg


Areas:

areas.jpg



And political mapmode (with overlord colouring off):
political.png




And Dynasties:
dynasty.jpg


We have added the Earldom of Orkney in the northern isles as a Norwegian vassal. Meanwhile the Palatinate of Durham and Chester have both been promoted from a special set of buildings to vassals under England. Wales has also been limited strictly to the Principality of Wales, with the marcher lords existing as very low control locations under England.

Ireland has had a major rework in terms of locations and tags. Mostly there have been minor Irish chieftaincies added. As always we are grateful to the many suggestions that have come from the forumers.



Culture:
culture.jpg



The most obvious culture change is that English has had Northumbrian split off, to represent the divide between southern and northern dialects and attitudes. A practical example of this is how in the south the English are more friendly to Normans, whereas the Northumbrians hate them (the northern shires still bear the scars of the Harrying of the North). Northumbrians and Scots also spoke a similar form of English in this period, so it helps to set them up as a sort of middleman.

Norwegians in northern Scotland and the nearby North Atlantic have also been split into Norn.


As a bonus, Court Language, showing 3 main worlds: Gaelic, Anglo-French, and Roman Catholic Bishoprics.

court_language.jpg



There have also been some changes to Raw Goods, as you can see here:

raw.jpg





We still have time to make some changes, so let us know what we can do to push this even further towards where it needs to be.

I won’t show Population numbers right now, as it’s pending a proper rework. Among other things, the idea is to reduce the population numbers in England.
 
Last edited:
  • 165Like
  • 77Love
  • 8
  • 5
Reactions:
Is there something representing the Cinque Ports? Could they be an extraterritorial country similar to the Hanseatic League?
Also what about the City of London's "ancient liberties"?
Cinque Ports are a special building that starts in some southeastern port locations and there;s some additional content surrounding them. The City of London also has a special building to represent the ancient liberties of the guilds.
 
  • 40Like
  • 28
  • 14Love
Reactions:
Also, not sure if this is the best place to ask, but the ‘Celtic Traditions’ government reform available to Gaelic and Brythonic courts specifies ‘Can be member of a High Kingship’. Would this imply that there are more High Kingships than just Ireland, or is it just the way the localisation is written?
The High Kingship is designed as a generic system so in theory you could have one in any region. There isn't currently mechanics to form a new one though, so it's very theoretical right now.
 
  • 29Like
  • 11
  • 4Love
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
Was the decision to use the 1960s borders of London a gameplay choice or did the devs just take the modern map as an inspiration (as it would have changed from the 14th century)?
The 1337 borders are too small to be a province in its own right. We could also destroy Middlesex and simply attach the city to some other province but I don't think that's very satisfying either.
 
  • 42Like
  • 7
  • 3
Reactions:
@SaintDaveUK Are there going to be any plans to represent the ancient road "The Ridgeway" running from Wiltshire to East Anglia? It is Britain's oldest road and one of the very few pre-Roman ones that still exists even today. Until the industrial revolution and it's canals, the Ridgeway was an important military and trade artery through the south of England.
Post a ref and I'll see if I can add it.
 
  • 36Like
  • 1
Reactions:
I really dislike the term "the Home Counties".
I don't love it. Incidentally I'm tempted to merge the Home Counties with East Anglia to make them more evenly-sized. But I don't have good flavor name for Home Counties or the conglomerate of Home Counties + East Anglia. South East England feels a bit contrived or boring.
 
  • 15Like
  • 5
  • 5
  • 1
Reactions:
View attachment 1297569
Thought I'd leave some quick Wales feedback - it's looking good, but a couple things stand out as a result. The most important of these is that the city from which the southern half of the Principality of Wales was administered from is not part of it in this setup! Fortunately, there's enough space to add a proper Carmarthen location, with the remaining part of Carmarthernshire south of the Towy (the historic Cantref Bychan and Cydweli) becoming the key Norman stronghold of Kidwelly. Also, I'm not sure why you've changed to the small town of Llangollen from Wrexham for the Powys Fadog/southeast Denbighshire location. It sounds a little modern, but by this time it was already an important market town specialising in arms manufacturing and iron and lead mining. It was one of the largest settlements in Wales, and the seat of the Marcher Lordship of Bromfrield and Yale. It should also being readily accessible directly from Denbigh, rather than blocked off by Flint and Eryri.

Apart from these I think it would be nice to split the Montgomery and Builth locations for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the majority of the Builth location is outside of the lordship of Builth and cantref of Buellt, half of which has actually been assigned to the Brecknock location - Builth is actually is actually in a key location between the Cambrian and Black mountain ranges, controlling access to the Towy valley, so there definitely should be access from the location to Carmarthenshire. Additionally, the lordships east of the river Wye would become the county of Radnorshire rather than joining Builth in Brecknockshire. Extending Builth southwards and adding a Radnor location to represent these much more English-influenced lordships would also us to avoid the awkward and ahistorical "Powys" province, letting us include Builth and Radnor in a Brycheiniog/Brecknockshire province.

Likewise, splitting Machynlleth from Montgomery also allow a split between the rugged, Welsh parts of Montgomeryshire and the more easily-controlled lowlands, as well as letting us represent the Dee valley (the bit of the principality that sticks off to the east) as part of the Harlech location, adding a wasteland for the rugged Berwyn mountains. Machynlleth was important in its own right as a market town with sea access along the Dyfi river (something very remote indeed from Montgomery), but is most famous as Owain Glyndŵr's capital during his rebellion against England. Given that he eventually controlled most of Wales, I think that's pretty significant!

View attachment 1297582

View attachment 1297589
This setup also allows for provinces based on either historic Welsh kingdoms (as it is currently, albeit with a weird modern Powys) or on the later counties. An extra location in each of historic kingdom of Powys and the often Brycheiniog-associated "Rhwng Gwy a Hafren" region allows for nice three-location provinces for Brycheiniog and Powys (which if included has to have the Llangollen/Wrexham Powys Fadog location), with a nice border between north Wales (Gwynedd and Powys) and south Wales (the rest). You could also split Deheubarth into Dyfed and Ceredigion, but Ceredigion might be a little small.

View attachment 1297591
A setup based on English provinces wouldn't need too much amendment - in the south just rename Deheubarth/Dyfed to Carmarthenshire, Brycheiniog to Brecknockshire, and optionally Ceredigion to Cardiganshire. We can then add a Denbighshire province, with the remains of Gwynedd and Powys becoming Carnarvonshire and Montgomeryshire, which if too small can be included with either Denbighshire or Brecknockshire.

If Denbighshire, Brecknockshire, and Montgomeryshire are too anachronistic (all of which being having been organised in 1535), we can rename them "Denbigh", "Brecon", and "Powys" after the largest Marcher Lordships in the provinces.


A sketch of some Wales changes based on this feedback
1747152201733.png
1747152245210.png
 
  • 33Like
  • 18Love
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
I wish you'd be consistent with -shire as a suffix. Either use it for all counties that ought to, or drop it altogether.
Which provinces are missing a shire? Off the top of my head only ones that aren't named after towns like Devonshire and Morayshire, but they are more commonly displayed without.
 
  • 18Like
Reactions:
The river Dyfi should not be sailable up to Machynlleth, although its estuary is fine after a certain point the river become too small and shallow for most boats and considering that the town is positioned much inland it feels weird to have the opportunity to land there with post medieval sea vessels, as such I think that the two coastal locations should be redrawn a bit
View attachment 1298401View attachment 1298402
Yeah the Dyfi is a weird one. The intention was to make Harlech and Cardigan not accessible to each other from land. I could replace the estuary with an impassable lake perhaps.
 
  • 15Like
  • 2
Reactions: