Eu2 newbie questions....

[Dinner]

It is real time strategy but the over view is very big. Basically you just see the provience level for combat so it actually works very well with the system.

[ravagon]

IMO classifying EU2 as an rts is only a technicality.
Essentially it does play as a tbs but with the 'turns' (days really) passing continually until you pause again.
There is really no comparison to make wrt games like AoE and their 'ilk'. :disdain:

Major (scripted) events give you an automatic pause to digest all on-screen info before proceeding/selecting options.
If you are micromanaging combat in several provinces simultaneously (which doesn't really happen all that often given the scale) you can keep your finger on the pause button and re-evaluate each one every few seconds or so but this really isn't that common.
Even then it's hardly a clickfest nightmare like some of the abominations in the rts stable.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Heresson

(come back to civ2 - it's EU that's responsible for the decine of my interest in it)

I concur. 'Tis a matter of no small embarassment when somebody else has to post an updated link to a certain someone's civ2 site.

[Nikolai]

I generally don't like RTS, but I love EU and it's likes. Do not fear.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Sparrowhawk
I don't yet qualify as an EU2 Newbie, as I haven't yet bought the game, but I intend to very soon and have been reading whatever I can find in the meantime to see what I am going to get.

I notice that this is real time strategy, which is the only negative I see right now, but that you can both pause and slow the game.

Is this a problem for anyone? I am not a big fan of what real time strategy I have played, but I have not played much (AOE is the only example I think). I prefer being able to view everything, make what changes I want to make and then press enter when I am done to continue to the next turn (which I guess pretty much defines turn based strategy).

So how does EU2 compare with other RTS games and if you want could you essentially play it turn based (pausing the game every turn)?

* Sparrowhawk

Playing EU2 just since a week+ I can only join the chorus and recommend it. To be more specific to your question about pausing the game: Additional to the normal pause and game speed options, you get a huuuge list of customizable messages. For nearly everything that occures in the game you can choose if it should be only displayed as text message or if the game should also stop at this event. Less important messages can be filtered out (if you wish) so that they only appear in a kind of "protocoll" at the bottom of the screen. Also message boxes have a "show" button, which leads you to the location of this particular event.

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by Sparrowhawk
I am not a big fan of what real time strategy I have played, but I have not played much (AOE is the only example I think). I prefer being able to view everything, make what changes I want to make and then press enter when I am done to continue to the next turn (which I guess pretty much defines turn based strategy).

You sound very much like me. I've played a few RTS games: AoE2, SWGB:CC, and RoN Gold. RoN is by far my favorite, but even still I only play it occassionally these days. I much prefer though the grand scale of Paradox games.

As to mechanics, I do not feel you'll be disappointed w/ EU2. The pause feature is not intended for bathroom breaks, but is an essential component for playing the game well. There is simply so much to tend to, which is why I love the game.

You'll very likely have tunnel vision at first, but suffer through it becasue the game is very rewarding.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Sparrowhawk
I don't yet qualify as an EU2 Newbie, as I haven't yet bought the game, but I intend to very soon and have been reading whatever I can find in the meantime to see what I am going to get.

I notice that this is real time strategy, which is the only negative I see right now, but that you can both pause and slow the game.

Is this a problem for anyone? I am not a big fan of what real time strategy I have played, but I have not played much (AOE is the only example I think). I prefer being able to view everything, make what changes I want to make and then press enter when I am done to continue to the next turn (which I guess pretty much defines turn based strategy).

So how does EU2 compare with other RTS games and if you want could you essentially play it turn based (pausing the game every turn)?

* Sparrowhawk

to add to what ravagon said, its not only major eventst that cause an automatic pause - if you play on default settings, every time one of your armies arrives in a new province youve sent it to the game automatically pauses. If youre at war and doing a lot of army movement, the game is almost turnbased, even without player pauses - to the point where apparently experienced players turn off those settings so it pauses LESS (im a noob, and have left it on. And yes, its easy to pause every day if you want to, and occasionally I do. OTOH there are times when youre at peace, have no money to do anything, and you WANT things to fly by - best parallel I can think of is Simcity - where similarly you can pause regularly, but have lull periods where you dont want to.

I actually enjoyed Age of Empires, but EU2 is NOTHING like AOE.

[Sparrowhawk]

Okay, that seems fairly unanimous. Thanks Oerdin, ravagon, Nikolai, BeBro, dojoboy and Lord of the Mark.

I asked at a local computer shop if they could order the Paradox Strategy 6 Pack for me today, they couldn't find it on their order lists, but assured me they would call me tomorrow if they could get one from their supplier (the joys of a small town). If not I will be patient and wait until I can get it from a larger city (but no idea when that could be ).

Sparrowhawk

[Heresson]

BeBro, what's with your civ2 activity?

[Sparrowhawk]

No luck on the computer shop ordering in the game (again sometimes small towns are a pain).

I am actually excited about this game so I am tempted to pay for the download but not very confident in doing so.

As I have mentioned previously (maybe not in this thread) my computer is getting older, so I would prefer having a CD that I could load on a new computer in the future (probably in the distant future at that).

Anyone have much experience with downloading games (legit ones, from the gaming site)?

I could wait until I next return to a major city, but that could be months

/me the impatient

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Heresson
BeBro, what's with your civ2 activity?

I'm out of it.....

[Heresson]

Why? Come back!

[BeBMan]

Well, all good things end....I did some modding and graphics (mainly unit anims) for Civ3 but it is all too time-consuming....Going back to Civ2 would cost me even more free time which I don't want to sacrifice....

[Heresson]

I guess we have to wait until You retire...

[BeBMan]

Ok, here's another thing that bothers me: so far, I've played England, Prussia, and Russia in various scns. From those Prussia was the easiest to form a big realm in central Europe, and England to have a great colonial empire. With those countries I had - after some initial n00b difficulties - not much probs.

However, the game as Russia turned out much more difficult. Not really on the military side, here I was able to conquer vast territories. But technology and stability were problematic over long periods. There was a time (before Catherine the Great came to power) when I had ONLY revolts, revolts, and more revolts. This may even be historically correct for Russia, still I found it annoying that I wasn't able to keep up with other powers like the Osman empire. Although I managed to take some of their provinces I still had only renaissance army techs at the end of the game, my navy was even more backwards.

So in short, any help for playing with huge empires, esp. Russia?