Europa Universalis III in Production

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by DanielXY
Hm, has eu3 only the cooperative mp mode, or is there mp where you can actually compete against each other? Always read only about the cooperative one...

Where do you get this from? Coop MP is one way to play MP in HoI2 f.ex., but it's by no means the only one. And different teams can compete in coop MP. I think you've misunderstood.

[conmcb25]

Originally posted by Main_Brain
It states the Demo will be availible in ~7 hours. =)
Are you a subscriber?

No I dont pay for those type of sites. I think I just registered there a while back because I occassionally buy thinmgs online from Gamestop/EBGames (now the same company)

[Nikolai]

I tried the Gamespot DL. It was awful, with swiching DL speeds between 0 and 11 KB/s. Now, instead I recommend you to DL from http://gamer.no/nyhet/pc/europa_universalis_iii/35447, it's free(no registration) and I have had speeds near 500 KB/s.

[Main_Brain]

1,4 MB/s at http://www.gamershell.com/download_17351.shtml ;=)

[Heresson]

Originally posted by Nikolai


Rightclick on "my computer" and choose "properties". Then you get how much RAM and processor speed you have(if it's a laptop, the processor speed showed varies depending on what power properties you have, for the right result apply "always on"). If you go to the "hardware" tab and choose the button at the top. There you can find all your hardware specs, also what card you have.

Intel (R)
Pentium (R) 4 CPU 1,70 GHz
1,67 GHz
96,0 MB of Ram

To play Victoria, I have to increase my coding page. I set it to 500 MB

[SirOsis]

So how is the demo? Worth the DL?

[Jonny]

Yes.

After an hour or so with the demo, I've concluded that I Must. Have. EU3. ASAP.

It took a while for this EU2 vet to get used to the rearranged interface, but after that it was essentially smooth sailing.

[Nikolai]

Absolutely. A must have this game is.

[BeBMan]

Damn I have a lot of graphic errors when starting the demo

I expected rather speed problems with my old comp, but not this.

[RobRoy]

Originally posted by SirOsis
So how is the demo? Worth the DL?

Certainly worth the download! Kudos to Paradox for coming out with such a robust demo! You get to assess the UI, features and graphics for yourself. It also gives a great sense for what the game will demand, hardware-wise.

Unfortunately, having tried the demo on two machines, both of which meet/exceed the program specs, I am disappointed in the performance. A machine almost three-years old (GeForce5200, 512mb RAM, 2.4Ghz) does not run it acceptably, IMHO; way too much lag and jerkiness. That machine will run Civ4 "okay" but lags on huge maps in late game. Even a newer machine (RadeonX300, 1gig RAM, 3.2Ghz) that runs CIV4 just fine has a noticeable lag, but it's probably acceptable (barely!).

Considering the mediocre quality of the graphics (blocky map that reminds me of DOS games, counters rather than sprites at the default zoom level, sprites are rather wooden when you do get them), I'm surprised they think the graphics justify a significant hardware commitment.

Perhaps they'll be able to improve performance in patches? Civ4 is better than it was upon release.

I'll probably wait a bit before deciding on this game, and probably pass if a major hardware upgrade is needed. Some of Paradox stuff was great, some terrible.

Also, I was surprised to see two or three minor, but rather obvious and irritating, bugs: the text on the advisor screen overlaps too much to be readable; the message log scrolls the wrong way, so you see the oldest messages but not the current ones; and naval movement/attrition seems to have taken a big step backwards (think EU2 before patches). The last could be a concious design decision, but since it was eventually fixed in EU2, I'd expect the same for EU3, once they "finish" the product.

I'm curious, for the people who aren't having performance problems, what graphics card are you using and how much RAM does your system have? Seems silly to consider investing hundreds of dollars just to play a game, but one never knows, if the cost isn't "major"...

[Nikolai]

I have no performance problems. My system is a laptop, an AMD Turion 64 X2 1.7 GHz, 1 GB RAM, nVidia GeForce GO 7200 256 MB. That machine didn't cost me that much.

[BeBMan]

I have been able to get it to work by the help of people at Paradoxplaza, but it's very slow, nearly unplayable. But then of course my system is so old that I expected this (CPU only 1 GHz).

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Heresson
EU3 if it comes true,
but starting in 1453 and having no byzantines unless Morea, Trebizond and some Greeks of Crimea are included

That is the single biggest rub for me. I loved guiding Rome back to its former glory and crushing the mohammadian scum.

[Nikolai]

Then mod them in or DL the mod that has already been made.

[Dinner]

Modding it is so unofficial. I want an official recognition as occured in EU2.