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Tinto Talks #64 - 21st of May 2025

Hello, and welcome to another Tinto Talks for Europa Universalis V.


This one is a little bit special, as it’s the first time we will go into depth on one of the visual systems that we have in the game.


Bear in mind this is all WIP, but as always feedback is welcome.


Armies are one of the most important features in the game, and certainly combat is one of the most exciting things to interact with. So we thought it was important to get the feeling just right.


Unlike in previous games, armies appear as groups composed of multiple individual soldiers. The number of soldiers reflects the size of the armies. The median army size is about 15 models, however they do range from a minimum of 1 soldier to a maximum is 30 in very extreme cases.

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Each soldier model is the representation of a specific regiment in your army, and aside from reflecting your country in its colors, it also reflects that specific regiment’s unit type, culture, and ethnicity. This means that a unit model will have appropriate weaponry for their unit type (for example crossbowmen vs archers), but also that multiethnic empires will visibly have diverse armies in terms of uniform style and skin color.

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Units are further randomised by picking random texture materials for each component. It might be as simple as swapping leather for cloth, or it might even be changing the pattern that the cloth uses.

In general we have approached the idea of having 3 tiers of troops per age to represent the weight of the unit: peasant, soldier, knight.

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Although some features are exaggerated to be visible from the distant camera we use ingame, unit models are always closely based on real references. Historical authenticity is the key to all our artistic decisions and that includes here.

Units will adopt a new visual Age only when they are upgraded to a unit from that age. So your units won’t instantly swap to Age of Reformation clothing the moment you enter the Age of Reformation, you will first need to embrace the relevant Institutions, research the relevant advances, and then upgrade your regiments.

Here is an example of how European peasant levies develop through the ages.

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And some examples of professional soldiers:
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Units appearance is also modified by a hidden system we call Uniformity, which is essentially a calculation of Discipline, Experience, Army Tradition, and whether they are Levies or Regular Troops. As a regiment gains uniformity, they will gradually progress towards the “Ideal” look for your country, which is generated from your Primary Culture. Most countries Ideal is randomly generated, but some are specifically designed to appear historical.

Historically speaking, most peasant levies were not pitchfork wielders but were typically outfitted with a minimum of cheap weaponry and often a helmet. With the Uniformity, we represent the full range: from squishy farmers to ironclad gendarmes. As they climb higher up the Uniformity scale, the more they will draw from the Soldier pool of assets, taking a helmet here, a polearm there, until they are fully outfitted for war.

Furthermore, some elements will look fancier if you have higher uniformity, for example raw leather straps get blackened or whitened, and some wigs might get powdered.

Foreign culture units in your employ will gradually adopt elements of your primary culture's clothing as the become more uniform.

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As they march across the world map, the audio will reflect the visuals; you will be able to hear the size of the army but also the equipment of the individual soldiers. Peasants wearing light cotton tunics will sound different from plate troops brandishing steel.


EU5 will release with 7 main graphical archetypes . As well as impacting unit appearance, archetypes are also the primary way we have divided several other parts of the game, such as character portraits, city buildings, event illustrations, and UI skins. These archetypes are:

  • Central American
  • East Asian
  • European
  • Middle Eastern
  • North American
  • South Asian
  • Subsaharan African
Here's some examples of some non-European units, though some of these are still lacking a little bit of the polish that we have on the Europeans:

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And finally, remember to wishlist Europa Universalis V now! Until next time!
 

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Lovely work! What a huge step uo fron other titles! Already got my card out waiting to pre-order. A question however, when two enemy armies fight, do the units actually interact/hit each other like they do in CK3?
 
So every regiment is counted?
If I have 30 * 100 size regiment = 3,000 men, there will be 30 units on the map?
And if I have 2 * 1500 size regiment = 3,000 men, there will be 2 units on the map?
So a 30 unit army and 2 unit army could be equal in manpower?
No, especially late game or in huge countries with large amounts of levies, armies can become over 100 regiments so that wouldn't work very well.

Instead we first estimate the current expected median army size (it changes through the ages). Then, armies compare themself to that when choosing how big to appear. So a unit of 15 units isn't necessarily exactly 15 regiments, but instead represents the median army size. An army that appears with 3 units doesn't necessarily mean it has 3 regiments but shows that it is dramatically below the median army size.


The idea is that you can always more or less intuitively tell how big an army is just by looking at it.
 
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Lovely work! What a huge step uo fron other titles! Already got my card out waiting to pre-order. A question however, when two enemy armies fight, do the units actually interact/hit each other like they do in CK3?
No, because in CK3 there's only a handful of possible weapon combinations. For EU5, the amount of animations required to show every weapon and shield combination in the world fighting against every weapon and shield combination in the world was simply too many animations for it to make sense.
 
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The Byzantine archetype has to be like maximum the 20th most important one. They should focus on more relevant types like Eastern European, South East Asian or South American.

That's basically what I wrote.

I'd love to see a separate architecture/army units/background/clothes type, but I know it's not worth to do it now just for a handful of tags. It was a theme of one of the later DLCs for EUIV though, so it's almost certain it'll be part of some later DLC for EUV as well.

As for unique units - I believe they will have their 3D models already, as they are a part of base game right now.
 
No, because in CK3 there's one a handful of possible weapon combinations. For EU5, the amount of animations required to show every weapon and shield combination in the world fighting against every weapon and shield combination in the world was simple too much for it to make sense.
Do they at least get into a fighting position?
Also will standing armies always be present on the map?
 
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The terrain mapmode is soooooo good now, have you considered making cities appear smaller as suggested before? I feel like it would up the realism by a factor of a thousand! Anyways, keep up the good work guys!
 
The terrain mapmode is soooooo good now, have you considered making cities appear smaller as suggested before? I feel like it would up the realism by a factor of a thousand! Anyways, keep up the good work guys!
They showed and said in yesterday’s thread that cities are smaller now
 
In theory we can do that if we end up with enough assets, however colonist pith helmets are a little bit late. We used to have topless fellas when the climate was a bit too hot but removed that.
Hey, that actually sounds cool for immersion!! but you could make it so that the chance of a guy being topless is related to the level of uniformity in the army, I can imagine it would be easier to find shirtless dudes in a low discipline regiment rather than in a high discipline one.
 
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A minor thing: the flag on the pavise is a bit too discolored and hard to make out. The white stripes look yellow, and the fleur de lys are very pixelated and hard to make out.

Units will adopt a new visual Age only when they are upgraded to a unit from that age. So your units won’t instantly swap to Age of Reformation clothing the moment you enter the Age of Reformation, you will first need to embrace the relevant Institutions, research the relevant advances, and then upgrade your regiments.
So if you only partially upgrade your army/have mixed regiments from different eras, does the army appear mixed as such? Can there be Age of Discovery and Age of Reformation chaps fighting side to side?
 
I'll miss the Dithmarchsen Peasant Pitchfork unit. I'd love if you could include some farm equipment for really unprofessional levies- at least in the early ages. 'war-scythes' could also be used- the realistic version would be the blade rotated to act as a spear, but the pulp version would keep it at its classical angle.

Barefoot units could also be used to show a severe lack of uniformity- even Washingtons congressional army lacked a lot of shoes at Valley Forge.

I'd also say that 'irregular' units that could be raised by specific nations should also show a lower degree of uniformity.

Will we be seeing unit models for artillery, cavalry, and support? I think it'd be nice seeing some camp-followers modeled- and honestly I think it'd be nice to finally get some female representation that way- many camp followers being female merchants, cooks, and prostitutes.

On the topic of models- will we maybe get advisor models like in Crusader Kings? We did at least get models for missionaries and colonists in EUIV, plus coring. I'd definitely like to see non-white colonist models, and more missionary models- specifically more unique models for the 'pagan' group. I'm still a bit fuzzy on trade- but I hope we could also get merchant models- I hope that it's more in depth than Imperator Rome where trade is just a series of one-way imports, that we also see nations trying to steer trade from multiple nodes to their own.
 
For every ages different unitgroups, so there is 6 steps? If so, it is great. In EU4 there was only 4 speps: