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Sharp163

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Aug 3, 2015
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First of all, let me just say that I am incredibly satisfied with Europa Universalis 4. I've seen it come a long way, and am quite proud to have over 800 hours on it :)

However, I've noticed that there are certain things in the game which stray from historical accuracy in order to make it more enjoyable for the player. For example, the regrouping of certain cultures (especially the Celtic group, which used to consist of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Brittany, as it should, and now consists of Ireland and Wales after a recent update. Scotland and Brittany have been regrouped to the English and French culture groups, respectively, as I'm sure many of you have noticed. Another notable example would be the fact that Andalusian culture is considered to be in the Iberian group, when it in fact held many cultural ties to the nations of the Maghreb.). I understand that it pleases many people to not have the "different culture" modifier, but it is not accurate.

Another very prominent issue I've noticed is the lack of certain historical personal unions. For example, under the reign of Charles V von Habsburg, he presided over the kingdoms of Spain and Austria at the same time. Therefore, shouldn't Spain and Austria be under a personal union during his reign (c. 1550)? I understand that this would shatter the balance of the game, however there can be a series of events to show his abdication, or some other option, which would certainly be more favorable than distorting historical accuracy.

The final point I would like to bring up is the (historically accurate) war that occurred between The Ottoman Empire and Albania in 1444, a war which lasted over 25 years. This war was still occurring when the game's campaign begins, and therefore the Ottomans and Albanians should be at war in 1444, as they used to be up to a certain update. This can be simply balanced by giving Albania better traditions, boosting Skanderbeg, or giving a sequence of events to give their armies more power temporarily.

Thank you for your time. I hope that we can fix these minor issues :) after all, a game of its type should strive for as complete historical starting scenarios as possible

TLDR: there have been many recent updates that have been straying from historical accuracy, in favor of balancing the game.
 
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I prefer historical plausibility as long as its still a fun game. Most of the time it makes it harder, not less fun, so 9/10 times I'm in favor of historical changes. It is important to make the distinction between historical accuracy, which sometimes isnt good as it comes in the form of railroading, and historical plausibility which is almost always a good thing.
I agree :) I hope the developers feel the same way.
 
I do like the idea of allowing gradual culture group shifts through events that are specific to a country/culture :D eg. If Brittany is ruled by France for a certain number of years, then an event can fire saying that the breton language has devolved to being closer to French than anything... It would have to be an event specific to Brittany though, not just any nation. Otherwise, there would be chaos...

Well possibly you could, but I always dislike doing something by events that could be done by mechanics. It isn't really historically accurate that Breton became french because of an inherent quality of French, France or Breton in a way that other countries couldn't do if historical events were deviated from. If My Netherlands controls the entire north coast, from Holstein to Bretony, It's likely Flemish and possibly even Norman would switch to being lowlander (German...ugh). If my England wins the HYW and can into France, Francien should become one with the Anglo-French union.
 
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Well possibly you could, but I always dislike doing something by events that could be done by mechanics. It isn't really historically accurate that Breton became french because of an inherent quality of French, France or Breton in a way that other countries couldn't do if historical events were deviated from. If My Netherlands controls the entire north coast, from Holstein to Bretony, It's likely Flemish and possibly even Norman would switch to being lowlander (German...ugh). If my England wins the HYW and can into France, Francien should become one with the Anglo-French union.
Culture mechanics aren't really the point of my suggestion... I just want to correct the recent updates which have been deviating from historical accuracy.