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[Mgoblue201]

so i'm considering buying some EU4 music packs,thoughts on them?

there appear to be 4 of them at the moment(songs of war,republican music pack,songs of the new world,guns,drums and steel music pack)

Songs of the New World is the only original music pack, and in my opinion it features some of the best music (not surprising, since it's done by Andreas Waldetoft). The Republican music pack (and I believe Songs of War also) is just repackaged EU2 music. It's not even recorded by Waldetoft and in my opinion it doesn't fit with EU4's style. The Guns, Drums, and Steel music pack, on the other hand, is essentially a metal remake of a few EU4 songs. It's worth buying if you're into that kind of music.

Instead of trying to guess which ones you might enjoy, though, you can listen to all the music packs on this youtube channel and judge them for yourself.

 

[nacimento]

Does anyone else take forever deciding on your first wife in CK2? I sit there comparing each and every attribute. What is best for your first wife? Do you want one that marries for love? Which of her skills or traits are most important? I tried following the LP that someone posted, but it didn't play out like the LP and I was overwhelmed pretty quickly. The names of people and land are different also. I'm really enjoying myself even though I know I'm just scratching the surface of the game.

I like the wife that gives me a country to inherit. I don't care if she's a blind hunchback if she comes with Poland or Castille as dowry.

 

[Kyougar]

I just noticed that Sengoku on Steam is £1.99 until 2nd Jan. I've seen it mentioned and figured i'd post a reminder.

I lucked out a few years ago when a massive Paradox bundle was on sale at something like 90% off! Almost their entire catalogue on Steam for about £30. Bought! I've since dabbled in a couple of them and regularly buy the DLC when on sale too.

I thoroughly recommend looking at some After Action Reports (AAR) on Paradox Plaza for inspiration and entertainment. I'll have to raid my old bookmarks to check for others.

I also bought that bundle. And am forever thankfull for that. I would otherwise never have played one of my alltime favourite games Mount & Blade Warband.
Before that, I already played Hearts of Iron 2 and 3 and countless hours of EU3 and Vicky 2.
And the pack also brought me:
- Darkest hour (the best conversion for HoI2 and Kaiserreich compatible!)
- Warlock, a good HoMM-like Game
- Pride of Nations (a good game for reading a Book between the 3-5 minute turns)
- and most of the DLC for these games.

A shame that this doesnt happen anymore. So much more customers could be brought to these unique games.

 

[Pociask]

I like the wife that gives me a country to inherit. I don't care if she's a blind hunchback if she comes with Poland or Castille as dowry.

Is there any good way to sort by claims, or is it just scrolling through and checking? And on the same note, I realized recently the importance of not just claims, but strong and weak claims. I had invited over someone with a claim on a neighboring county, made him a landed noble, and then realized I had no casus belli - because he only had a weak claim. (Luckily I was still able to knock off its ruler when I noticed his heir was a child, and still able to manufacture a war declaration eventually).

But anyway, is there anyway way to use the marriage or character finder to find, say, only women who have strong claims or title to lands?

 

[Haly]

If you click the flag of a country/province/whatever, you can go to a tab called "Claimants".

Inheriting a country is extremely rare and difficult to achieve, however. Very few are the kings who will marry their inheriting daughter off to some foreign monarch.

 

[LurkerPrime]

If you click the flag of a country/province/whatever, you can go to a tab called "Claimants".

Inheriting a country is extremely rare and difficult to achieve, however. Very few are the kings who will marry their inheriting daughter off to some foreign monarch.

Arrange a marriage with the second heir and knock off the rightful one before they ascend to the throne. Not only will jealous members of the court help you, but it will be cheaper and easier to pull off too.

The claimants view is also an easy way to find someone willing to join you in exchange for pressing their claim. Not always beneficial, but handy nonetheless.

 

[Haly]

Second daughter, pfft. Try 4th or 5th in line. Then you'll have to mow down a row of petulant brats and hope you don't get caught.

 

[belushy]

If I had a better PC that didn't crash the game all the time, Crusader Kings 2 would be my most played game on steam by a large margin. I don't even play the vanilla game, just the Game of Thrones mod + sub mods. It is amazing.

edit: I was thinking of getting Victoria 2 during the Steam sale but it is WAY to in dept for me, same thing with the EU games. Crusader Kings 2 is a nice middle ground for me, I think.

 

[hunchback]

I like the wife that gives me a country to inherit. I don't care if she's a blind hunchback if she comes with Poland or Castille as dowry.

Hey, I resemble that comment.

I'm loving this game. The random things that can happen is great. I started up a fresh game yesterday and before I could even get going I was told something about my son. I had the option to hide/banish him and take a penalty or keep him around and he could be in danger. I sent him away. I then get a report that they uncovered what was going on. I bring my son back and have proof of who was behind the plot and worked to my advantage.
I'm very new to this game and things like that keep me playing.

 

[Haly]

edit: I was thinking of getting Victoria 2 during the Steam sale but it is WAY to in dept for me, same thing with the EU games. Crusader Kings 2 is a nice middle ground for me, I think.

Funny, I find CK2 much more complex when you delve into its deeper mechanics than EU4.

 

[KorrZ]

If I had a better PC that didn't crash the game all the time, Crusader Kings 2 would be my most played game on steam by a large margin. I don't even play the vanilla game, just the Game of Thrones mod + sub mods. It is amazing.

edit: I was thinking of getting Victoria 2 during the Steam sale but it is WAY to in dept for me, same thing with the EU games. Crusader Kings 2 is a nice middle ground for me, I think.

I did end up buying it and I'm completely lost. Thought I'd be OK with a good CK2/EU4 background but nope, this game is on a whole other level.

 

[belushy]

Funny, I find CK2 much more complex when you delve into its deeper mechanics than EU4.

I haven't played EU personally. Just from videos I've watched it looks more complex. Maybe i should give it a try some day.

I did end up buying it and I'm completely lost. Thought I'd be OK with a good CK2/EU4 background but nope, this game is on a whole other level.

I saw this menu during a video I was watching. NOPE.gif

I'm sure it isn't as bad as it looks when actually playing, but it looks like there is a lot more micromanaging in that game compared to something like Crusader Kings 2, which isn't something I'm particularly good at.

 

[Haly]

I heard EU3 was awful in terms of complexity, but EU4 is much more streamlined and as a player of both EU4 and CK2, I'm inclined to agree.

Family trees and inheritance shit. Not even once.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

90% of the stats in Vicky can be ignored. It lets you drill down to ridiculous depth but most of the time they're unimportant. OTOH this does lead to irritating and somewhat opaque market forces acting without your understanding. Your once profitable factories are now bankrupt and you don't know why. But that's ok, it's realistic for the leadership of the country to be incompetent

 

[Mgoblue201]

I haven't played EU personally. Just from videos I've watched it looks more complex. Maybe i should give it a try some day.



I saw this menu during a video I was watching. NOPE.gif



I'm sure it isn't as bad as it looks when actually playing, but it looks like there is a lot more micromanaging in that game compared to something like Crusader Kings 2, which isn't something I'm particularly good at.

Unless you're really trying to maximize your economic well-being, Victoria 2 probably requires not much more micromanagement than, say, EU3 or HOI3, with their emphasis on sliders and, especially in the case of the latter, order of battle and chain of command and all that. Even managing your vassals in CK2 can involve quite a lot of micromanagement. Factories are relatively simple to maintain once you understand how they work, in my opinion. The game doesn't literally require you to track the price of goods every day. Most of it is automated, leaving you to make higher level decisions, and you may only need to take a cursory glance at the information from time to time. I almost never even look at the production screen. What makes it seem inscrutable is that the game does a poor job of explaining how to manage your economy.

 

[JohnDoe8865]

Anyone have links to good starters guide/let's play for Vic 2?

Bought it and all expansions during the steam sale and it's my first grand strategy game. I may have messed up lol, but I love the time period.

If CK2 goes back on sale on the last day, is that an easier game to get into?

 

[KorrZ]

The problem that I'm having with Vic 2 is that it isn't nearly as tool tipped out as EU4 - it's leading me to many situations of just not knowing what something on the interface means at all without looking it up.

 

[Georome]

I'm a huge fan of medieval history, so I spend the majority of my time in Crusader Kings II on the select screen, cycling through kings and vassals, occasionally getting diverted by a Wikipedia link.

 

[Fragamemnon]

The problem that I'm having with Vic 2 is that it isn't nearly as tool tipped out as EU4 - it's leading me to many situations of just not knowing what something on the interface means at all without looking it up.

Vicky 2 also came out before Paradox really put the screws to their systems design to make them less opaque, and unlike EU3/EU4/CK2, only had two expansion packs to reform parts of the game that were too fussy. Hearts of Iron 3 suffers a lot of the same problems.

There are some seriously fun starts in Vicky 2 though-my Persia campaign in Vicky 2 is easily one of my top five Paradox campaigns, and I've been playing their games since EU2.

 

[Kyougar]

I Hope we get the same Support for HoI4 like we get for CK2 and EU4.
Paradox really stepped up their game when they released CK2.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I Hope we get the same Support for HoI4 like we get for CK2 and EU4.
Paradox really stepped up their game when they released CK2.

It actually feels like too much sometimes. When a new person getting into the game asks what they should buy and you have to say "well, there's six major content expansions some of which change the way the game plays completely", I feel like they need to do something about that. The old DLCs up to a certain point need to be made free and part of the base game. The number of boxes available to tick or untick when booting up EU4 or CK2 is ludicrous, lol.

 

[Kyougar]

It actually feels like too much sometimes. When a new person getting into the game asks what they should buy and you have to say "well, there's six major content expansions some of which change the way the game plays completely", I feel like they need to do something about that. The old DLCs up to a certain point need to be made free and part of the base game. The number of boxes available to tick or untick when booting up EU4 or CK2 is ludicrous, lol.

Yeah, I agree, older X-Pacs should be included into the base game (song dlc and unit packs can stay the same).
I even think that can be beneficial for future X-Pacs if Paradox can integrate and build upon the things they put into earlier X-Pacs and dont have to take into account the people that dont have the specific content.

 

[Fitz]

Anyone have links to good starters guide/let's play for Vic 2?

Bought it and all expansions during the steam sale and it's my first grand strategy game. I may have messed up lol, but I love the time period.

If CK2 goes back on sale on the last day, is that an easier game to get into?

This is a good LP that's often linked, also the Paradox Wikis are generally very useful for specific queries. CK2 is probably easier to get into, but for a total beginner to Paradox games, it'll still be a big learning curve and worth sticking to the game that looks most appealing.

 

[belushy]

It actually feels like too much sometimes. When a new person getting into the game asks what they should buy and you have to say "well, there's six major content expansions some of which change the way the game plays completely", I feel like they need to do something about that. The old DLCs up to a certain point need to be made free and part of the base game. The number of boxes available to tick or untick when booting up EU4 or CK2 is ludicrous, lol.

Yeah, usually gotta wait a full month for the AGOT mod to be updated and I exclusively play that version of the game. (I don't know why, I just can't get into the vanilla game)

 

[Chance Hale]

So I have most of the main expansions for CKII now outside of Charlemagne. Is stuff like the weather system just part of the game now or do I need to get the dlc to have it?

 

[Mgoblue201]

So I have most of the main expansions for CKII now outside of Charlemagne. Is stuff like the weather system just part of the game now or do I need to get the dlc to have it?

The Charlemagne DLC mostly just unlocks the 769 start date. The weather system, tribal mechanics, etc should be free.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Hrm... clearly I have a lot to learn about trade in EU4.

As France I went over 200 years before I decided to shift around my merchants. By making more of them collect (as opposed to steering trade) from their nodes I have tripled my monthly trade income, which has more than doubled my monthly profit.

So much has suddenly been explained.

 

[Haly]

Hrm... clearly I have a lot to learn about trade in EU4.

As France I went over 200 years before I decided to shift around my merchants. By making more of them collect (as opposed to steering trade) from their nodes I have tripled my monthly trade income, which has more than doubled my monthly profit.

So much has suddenly been explained.

I posted this earlier in the thread if you want to go further in depth: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=143502772&postcount=78

 

[LurkerPrime]

I posted this earlier in the thread if you want to go further in depth: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=143502772&postcount=78

Oh man, I remember seeing this a while back and thinking, "I should read this!" That time's finally arrived.

Helpful info, Haly. Thanks for typing it up.

I will blame my reluctance to learn trade in EU4 on the clunky merchant interfaces that barely make sense. (Recalling and setting merchants needs a clearer, smoother interface, at the very least.)

 

[Haly]

Nowadays, you can tell a merchant at a node to collect or steer directly. Before 1.8? 1.7? You had to recall them. And then send them back out in order to switch modes.

NICE UX DESIGN PARADOX.

 

[Striek]

So I've uhhh...I've gotten pretty into CK2 in the last couple weeks.

Been playing as the Ua Briain's of Eire as per every noob LP ever, gotten all the mechanics down, after a rough start get a solid foothold all up in the British Isles, booming economic base, nearly ready to form the Empire of Brittania, have myself and my only son and heir married to geniuses. Smooth sailing.
Pope calls a crusade for Jerusalem, I answer like every good Catholic King should, or at least any good CK2 player who wants to make himself, his heir and his vassals super buddy-buddy with the crusader trait.

Suddenly my PC gets brained in the course of war and becomes invalid, his wife takes over regency and channels her energies spending all the kingdoms money on peasants while denying all my would-be scheming, my beloved son gets ill and dies leaving my grandson heir followed shortly by my PC croaking leaving me as a 5 year old with a regent who doesn't want to co-operate, enemies who want to press claims on my lands, vassals who are forming factions against my authority and worst of all, family plotters plotting plots against my head.


This game, this game :[

 

[Haly]

Welcome to CK2.

Fuck Crusader countries, the worst.

 

[Jaevlar]

As someone who has put down around +200 hours into EU4 and has a good grasp of the mechanics I'm horrible at playing CK2. It feels like it's too steap of a learning curve in terms of micro management unless you really put some serious game time in. Tried a few times but all I really accomplish is getting into trouble right at the start.

Can anyone recommend me some good let's play videos that cover the basics and some of the more detailed things for someone who has a limited amount of time when it comes to playing games?

 

[G-Fex]

I still really really want to learn Darkest Hour. I got it and I need to get around to playing it.

Not to mention i own arsenal of democracy and HoI3 as well.

 

[Silent D]

I have played only the Crusader Kings series and CKII is simply amazing. I've been thinking about getting into EUIV, but realized that it would take all my free time. The genre seems to be dominated by Paradox at least after browsing the Steam tags. Well, there's Rambo the Video game in that list, so probably not the whole truth.

Both Crusader Kings games had tutorials that left me very confused and I presume that's one of the "trademarks" of this genre. The learning curve is steep. But after something like 15 hours I finally got it. At least to a point that I think I understand how most of the stuff works and feel comfortable. Instead of in-game tutorials I recommend Youtube and something like ckiiwiki.com.

After the initial frustration the game is pure bliss and actually I've never played anything else where "losing" or doing bad is fun. Lost your titles and major part of kingdom due to a series of mind-boggling events? The story that was created in itself can be enough, but the game doesn't end there. For example as a mere count you have very different experience and goals, but it's still very rewarding. And after a few generations you can find your heirs doing better than ever.

Those RPG elements really stand out. I don't have the Way of Life DLC yet, because I've been waiting for "reviews", so how is that? Worth the price I presume?

 

[Haly]

No, the tutorials only suck because Paradox sucks at making tutorials.

It's like fighting games. The developers know that their core audience is dedicated enough to figure it out so they can just half ass the learning tools and still sell their game.

 

[PoweredByHentai]

Thanks to the good folks who recommended that I get into Crusader Kings 2, I have accomplished the following:

-Conquered all of Ireland and established the Kingdom of Ireland
-Told the King of England to fuck off and promptly sent an assassin
-Waged war against the Scots for invading my lands
-Invaded Denmark, because why not? Sent my traitorous vassal on a suicide mission against the Danes and watched him die, alone, before "avenging" his death
-Wooed my cousin's daughter who is the heiress of her respective kingdom; my cousin disapproves

My god, this game is excellent. XD

 

[The Llama]

If I form the Roman Empire in CK2 then import the game into EU4, would it show up as the Roman Empire? Because holy crap that'd be awesome haha.

 

[Haly]

If I form the Roman Empire in CK2 then import the game into EU4, would it show up as the Roman Empire? Because holy crap that'd be awesome haha.

Yep: http://www.eu4wiki.com/Roman_Empire

 

[Chairman Yang]

If I form the Roman Empire in CK2 then import the game into EU4, would it show up as the Roman Empire? Because holy crap that'd be awesome haha.

Yes.

EDIT: Dammit

 

[PoweredByHentai]

Yep: http://www.eu4wiki.com/Roman_Empire

Yes.

EDIT: Dammit

God, I love this series. XD

 

[The Llama]

Aaaaaaaaand I know what I'm doing after I finish learning how to play CK2.

 

[The Llama]

So I'm finally getting to be ok at Crusader Kings 2, but I have a question about forming Kingdoms. I'm currently playing as the Byzantines. and I've formed the Greek and Serbian (IIRC) kingdoms... but is there any point to it? I don't really get why I need an additional title. Or should I form them and then give them away to vassals?

 

[Haly]

As a King, if you have too many King titles (from conquests, inheritance, whatever) your vassals get uppity. There are also problems with inheritance (like in Gavelkind, for example) that would make holding too many King titles risky.

As an Emperor, you can appoint vassal Kings, and they'll remain your vassals so long as you're holding the Emperor title.

Might be missing some other stuff.

 

[Almighty]

I would say grant them as viceroyalties if you have that option. If you don't the you can still grant them as hereditary titles if they are relatively small compared to you. Either way be careful as you want to avoid having one or two vassals that rival you in power. I also suggest that if you don't need the titles to form an empire you either grant them or destroy them. In my experience the more titles you have just means the AI has more titles to plot/fight against you over.

 

[The Llama]

I would say grant them as viceroyalties if you have that option. If you don't the you can still grant them as hereditary titles if they are relatively small compared to you. Either way be careful as you want to avoid having one or two vassals that rival you in power. I also suggest that if you don't need the titles to form an empire you either grant them or destroy them. In my experience the more titles you have just means the AI has more titles to plot/fight against you over.

As a King, if you have too many King titles (from conquests, inheritance, whatever) your vassals get uppity. There are also problems with inheritance (like in Gavelkind, for example) that would make holding too many King titles risky.

As an Emperor, you can appoint vassal Kings, and they'll remain your vassals so long as you're holding the Emperor title.

Might be missing some other stuff.

Thanks, yeah. I've seen that having too many duchies causes my vassals to get mad at me, so I normally just give them away to vassals who are sort of on the fence about me (like -30 to +10 opinion) to prevent them from joining factions against me. I'm only like 100 years into my Byzantium game but this has worked pretty well for me so far. Since I'm already an empire, I don't need to form kingdoms to form an empire, which is part of why I'm confused as to whether I should even bother with them.

 

[Haly]

Don't form additional titles, because ambitious vassals will then try to gun for them.

In fact you should try to keep your territory as titleless as possible. If you can get away with destroying a title, all the better. Sometimes this might mean shuffling territories around so a single duke can't control the necessary titles to form his duchy/kingdom. You can probably see this under "ambitions".

 

[Almighty]

Since I'm already an empire, I don't need to form kingdoms to form an empire, which is part of why I'm confused as to whether I should even bother with them.

As i see it if you don't plan to immediately grant to help with your vassal limit(which also has it dangers) then no you shouldn't. As Haly said all it will do is lead to is people gunning for pretty much every kingdom title you have. Which can lead to some nasty scenarios like fighting multiple civil wars over different titles.

 

[Erheller]

So what's the deal with the CK2 to EU4 converter? Is it always in a not-working state?

 

[Pociask]

As i see it if you don't plan to immediately grant to help with your vassal limit(which also has it dangers) then no you shouldn't. As Haly said all it will do is lead to is people gunning for pretty much every kingdom title you have. Which can lead to some nasty scenarios like fighting multiple civil wars over different titles.

Wish I had read this and similar advice earlier I'm trying different things in CK2 to keep it fresh, so on my most recent playthrough I started as Croatia - it looked like a region with interesting possibilities. I gobbled up the independent provinces nearby early on and formed the Kingdom of Serbia, and then (in the spirit of trying something new) swore fealty to the Byzantine Empire. And how great it was! Now, instead of fighting the Byzantians, I could fight as a Byzantian! My lands sprawled from the northern border of Greece to the duchy of Wallachia (and if it wasn't for a last second conversion to Orthodoxy by the Pechenegs, I would have had Moldau as well). It was a simple matter of time until I grew powerful enough to claim the purple for myself.

Now, for reasons too boring to get into, I hadn't been able to implement primogeniture yet, so I'd been doing electoral succession as an interim measure. This was working pretty well until both of my sons died (after I ventured an uncuessful civil war to lower crown authority, I had been castrated (!) so more sons weren't an option). I still had a couple daughters, one of whom was matrilineally married. Alright, then. But while I could nominate my youngest daughter as the next leader of the glorious Kingdoms of Serbia and Croatia, I couldn't give any landed titles to that daughter (I didn't know how to change that, either). Serbia only had like, two voters, and I was one of them, so that was fine - but I was a vote short in Croatia, which by far was the larger kingdom.

Aha! I thought. I'll just make my son-in-law a duke - surely he will vote to make himself the future spouse of the depost of Croatia! No. No he didn't, the stupid idiot. He supported one of the rivals for the throne, making me two votes short.

My last-chance gamble to plot the death of my own son-in-law, so I could remarry my daughter to someone more inclined to support my dynasty. However, before I could achieve this, someone poisoned the elderly eunuch despot of Croatia and Serbia. Almost all of my holdings passed out of my control to the new despot of Croatia, while I took on the mantle of the Queen Despot of Serbia, with like 6 provinces total and a demense of 1.