3D Map and UI Reveals

[LordThanatos]

So it looks like we finally have screenshots from the 3D map and I think the map is pretty good overall!
I'm far less enthusiastic about the UX, but I'm curious to know what others think.

First thing that stands out to me here is the notification banners on the top of the screen. They seem intrusively large to me, but a welcome returning feature.
I'm hoping for a fair amount of UI customization here, as it seems like it might be cluttered. I'm particularly interested in how the top bar changes if more estates are introduced.
The cities here look good, but perhaps a little too large. I suspect this is a side-effect of high development, but slightly smaller models would not hurt in my eyes.

This is a really pretty, well saturated political map. It looks like the capitals of nearby nations are being indicated with diamonds.

The weather effect here is a great touch. I also like the opacity on the political mapmode.

I'm noticing the settlements here curving along the coasts, which is a lovely detail if intentional. Also note the army forming a column along the narrow landmass there. I suspect they're mid-animation moving between locations.

Greece is looking a little more arid than I'd expect around Larissa and the colours a little more washed out.

It looks like town/city models have a fair amount of cultural and development diversity, though that might be my eyes tricking me at this resolution.
The values screen looks great, and I'm looking forward to having some missions revealed at some point soon.

Really loving the way dense forests look on the Eastern portion of this image.

I see the "Commission Conquistador" button here, but was under the assumption that that mechanic was locked to Hispanic monarchies.
Has this changed? If not, I'm not sure that should be there.

This very close up view looks really good to me, though the upper bank of the river looks a touch too thick. As an aside, I don't believe we'd seen the Yamasee before now, so that's a welcome reveal! I'm looking forward to the North America feedback!

The Nile delta here is a bit of a disappointment. It's drab and could use a lot more greenery.

The uninhabited inner land on Borneo looks a pretty ugly to me, and the colours of the political mapmode also seem more washed out than other screenshots we've seen.
Also what is going on off of the shore of Gows?

We've seen a few screenshots with these icons in the bottom of the screen. They seem a little large to me and are floating quite intrusively far up. I wonder what they're for? (Edit: They're control groups, and should definitely be somewhere else.)

 

[Enku7071]

We've seen a few screenshots with these icons in the bottom of the screen. They seem a little large to me and are floating quite intrusively far up. I wonder what they're for?

I believe those buttons can be much lower considering it's almost sitting at the centre of the screen. The bigness of those buttons however does not concern me, my guess is that it'll be easily tweakable (accessibility features are an industry standard).

 

[Enku7071]

The cities here look good, but perhaps a little too large. I suspect this is a side-effect of high development, but slightly smaller models would not hurt in my eyes.

That was one of my other general concerns: the cities looking mighty big. They look great though, maybe lesser buildings? Feels like when it comes to the Age of Revolutions, the entire screen might fill up.

 

[trooper828]

3d map looks great, think the scale of models may be a bit wonky but we got time and hopefully they can scale them to how the community wants, was a bit jarring seeing how big they were

 

[EastonAugustus]

Hoping for something more Imperator Rome graphically. EU5, as it currently stands, reminds me visually of the Civ games for some reason. I like the idea of having visual armies moving around the map (rather than a single soldier).

 

[Marcxs272828]

The screenshots look beautiful (look at that 3D map!) but as a first UI suggestion, they should move the IO icons to the bottom left of the screen like they are in EU4 with the Papacy, HRE or Chinese Empire icons. Them being at the center is really blocking the view.

Overall the fact that there is no release date yet makes me optimistic about the game, since there will be plenty of time to polish it before release, be it wrt UI, performance, bugs or balance.

 

[LordThanatos]

That was one of my other general concerns: the cities looking mighty big. They look great though, maybe lesser buildings? Feels like when it comes to the Age of Revolutions, the entire screen might fill up.

Agreed. Perhaps the papacy had an extraordinary 180 years of gameplay up to that screenshot, but if not, a little toning down would be nice.

The screenshots look beautiful (look at that 3D map!) but as a first UI suggestion, they should move the IO icons to the bottom left of the screen like they are in EU4 with the Papacy, HRE or Chinese Empire icons. Them being at the center is really blocking the view.

Overall the fact that there is no release date yet makes me optimistic about the game, since there will be plenty of time to polish it before release, be it wrt UI, performance, bugs or balance.

Ah, I hadn't considered that they might be IO icons. I definitely don't think they need to be so central, and should probably have a way to be easily collapsed/hidden if that is what they are.

 

[Kaiserslautern]

Mhh, in my opinion there should be an option to switch to single or three soldier representation, paradox games are not AoE games where you need to see the actual number of soldiers in the field, one-three soldiers is enough to represent any army, because... it is just a representation on the map.

Same logic for the cities, we do not need to see all the actual buildings, because if you do not remember if you have that X building in that city you are not going to check by visual representation, you are entering the city-screen instead.

 

[Enku7071]

Mhh, in my opinion there should be an option to switch to single or three soldier representation, paradox games are not AoE games where you need to see the actual number of soldiers in the field, one-three soldiers is enough to represent any army, because... it is just a representation on the map.

Same logic for the cities, we do not need to see all the actual buildings, because if you do not remember if you have that X building in that city you are not going to check by visual representation, you are entering the city-screen instead.

Or just make them a bit smaller.

There is no reason for the soldiers to be the height of a castle when a player can zoom in that far.
Especially considering the units have card display, control with a mouse is good enough already.

 

[peteoj]

Not as pretty as imperator but definitely better than crusader kings and Victoria, I'm sure modders will be able to make it even more vibrant and beautiful. Love the way the armies look on the map.

 

[Nostalgium]

The mobile screen aspect ratio on the menu box is a baffling mystery to me. It makes the menu on the left feel cramped, and feels like a choice made to put the map front and center even when you're not actively looking at it. I hope they reconsider, and that menus will be large and wide to let you see more information at a glance. I also find the absence of a minimap strange. Since this is their largest map, I hope I can engage with it faster than by scrolling and zooming around on it.

I also strongly hope they reconsider having the leader portrait in the top left, unless clicking the leader and clicking the flag takes you to two separate, equally important menus.

Other than that, I like it very much. Information-dense top bar that seems to present all the info I need at a glance, and no ugly minimalist "orb of all things"-element in sight. Praise the coloured notification banners!

 

[Enku7071]

Not as pretty as imperator but definitely better than crusader kings and Victoria, I'm sure modders will be able to make it even more vibrant and beautiful. Love the way the armies look on the map.

I think it will be more crisp as the development goes on. Seems like the screenshots did not put the graphics to High or the graphics are simply WIP.

 

[HowlingKestrel]

We've seen a few screenshots with these icons in the bottom of the screen. They seem a little large to me and are floating quite intrusively far up. I wonder what they're for?

With the icons and numbers these look like control groups, although the icons are a little intrusive. Being able to hotley armies and navies would be great!

I can’t figure out what the shield icon is for. Maybe you can control group specific screens and that one opens the war view for a specific war as well?

 

[Enku7071]

The mobile screen aspect ratio on the menu box is a baffling mystery to me. It makes the menu on the left feel cramped, and feels like a choice made to put the map front and center even when you're not actively looking at it. I hope they reconsider, and that menus will be large and wide to let you see more information at a glance. I also find the absence of a minimap strange. Since this is their largest map, I hope I can engage with it faster than by scrolling and zooming around on it.

I personally think having the menu box to be wider robs the player of the ability to look at the map at the same time. I personally find the current arrangement much better, it is similar to the UI of HoI4 where the Decisions tab also highlights things on map which makes actions easy to do.

There should be a minimap imo, maybe they didn't include it in the screenshots.

 

[Asheviere]

I guess we'll have to wait for version 2.0 of EU5 to get good UI, too.

They didn't even give us a minimap this time! Yipee!!

 

[Friedrich von Deutschland]

In what I think is a first for paradox, armies are represented as actual armies! Well, squads if we take the GFX literally but still, no longer is your army represented as a single dude, now we get teens of men. Not sure how I feel about the lack of a minimap. IMO it’s actually not all that useful when you can just zoom out all the way, then zoom back in on what you want. Stellaris and Vicky 3 both lack minimaps and I’m just realizing that, since I don’t really use them in CK, EU, or HoI anyways.

 

[Friedrich von Deutschland]

We've seen a few screenshots with these icons in the bottom of the screen. They seem a little large to me and are floating quite intrusively far up. I wonder what they're for?

They’re your quick select hotbar. The number is your numpad keybind. Most of them are IOs I presume, with the two swords being armies and the spoked wheel being navies.

 

[MasterPaw]

looks quite good
i wasnt convinced by the look of the battle progress windows in the dd but in game it looks good

 

[Nikicaga]

I'm noticing the settlements here curving along the coasts, which is a lovely detail if intentional. Also note the army forming a column along the narrow landmass there. I suspect they're mid-animation moving between locations.

Interestingly, everything we see here is a part of the Amsterdam location, but it looks like there are distinct settlements within it? Notably one would match where Haarlem is, and the other Naarden/Hilversum

 

[Ahmadmltft]

The flag attached to the portrait on the top left looks very awkward,imo they should put the flag on top(and bigger) with the ruler portrait below it.