"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - A.C. Clarke

[Jeje2]

Europa Universalis

Here are now my comments about the game after a few hours of game.
(Friday to Sunday)

This article will have the following parts[list=1][*] Background about my likes/dislikes in general[*] What I have played so far (This of course affects my opinions)[*] Features I dislike[*] Bugs[*] What features I like about[*] My opinion[/list=a]

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1. Background

First I am a huge fan of turn based games (Sidaholic) and generally dislike RTS. (Exception: Pirates, Doom I & II and Quake I, loved them. But finally got bored) But I was positively surprised with this game I like the game idea a lot.

2. What I have played so far

So far I have played twice the tutorial, Northern war as Russia twice and are now into my Grand campaign as France. The learning curve was very steep; I gave up the idea already once, but continued the next day to finally understood the basic idea. Very hard and he manual I find of little help. (Instead read the FAQ:s online) In grand campaign I have taken the policy of no colonies. I have instead made France big enough. (I am happy with the since, something like France + Luxemburg + Belgium) So the first was very happy ones, I loved every minute. Then it got boring until the computer decided to make troubles for me. I got big problems with religion causing a 15 year civil war (OK, many colonies revolting every year) Finally I changed religion and after a couple more years the situation eased. At the moment I am third in points after Austria and Spain. Spain i will pass any time soon. Austria is getting points in my speed so that will take a while to fix. Oh, the Missions I just ignore most of time. They just are against my desires most of the time.

So far most of the game is a mystery to me. Have a lot to learn.

3. Features I don't like.

• English not Jeje2's skill. Frankly some of the words are hebrish to me and my little pocket dictionary doesn't help either.
• When you receive a message box the game automatically pauses. This I really like, but when you close it clock starts to run again. I HATE IT!! Many times I want to do something with the received info. (Now think that a car would automatically put in a gear, release the break and hit the gas pedal every time you start the engine. What could happen the time you forgot to put your foot a the break pedal?) The game may pause it, but I shall be the only one to restart it.
• Missions are quite good as a idea, but what or where is Detroit, Saxony etc. History not Jeje2's skill. So how about a quick link to it? Ex. why couldn't the map recenter on the capital when clicking it and if you haven't found something yet then leave the link out.
• The ability to pause is good, critically good if you ask me. To pause the game you need to hit the "pause" key. Now after x hours my left hand got tired to lying near "pause" (Right hand for mouse) I would like to have for ex. "Esc" as pause. Then i could keep my on the table relaxing near pause.
• Speed. OK, maybe I played quite slowly but after two days of GC game (~15h) and now it's year 1623.
• If your units are moving at end of month you suffer from attrition. So when moving units inside your empire you give go order on first of month, since that way make it before end of month and you don't suffer from starvation.
• The same province revolting up to three times per year. And a unit occupying the province doesn't help at all.
• The army seams to be the same, until I read the FAQ. All that matters is who's got most men. Now I just have the biggest army sitting and waiting for someone to declare war. (Meanwhile it just gets bigger) I am quite happy with what I got - game could end now.

4. Bugs

Oh yes, despite the fact that I am using the newest version (1.08), there still are some.

• If you are in the political view and save the game you are in for a suprice when loading that game. You can't leave the political map anymore. So the units remain hidden to you. So remember to be in basic mode when saving the game.
• During my plays I once lost the music and had to exit the program and run it again to get the music back.
• Also once the program shut itself down without any warning.

5. What features I like about

• Well most of it I like the idea itself. (I can't describe this at all - so i leave it)
• You can't win in a single war a whole major country; have to settle for a province or two.
• The fact about religion and its effect on the game. (Some reservation here.)
• The idea of some provinces wanting for independency. Ex. Spain had Frisen, Holland, Netherlands and Zeeland in the beginning. (They had more, but I have them now.) Well, those provinces revolted a lot and finally they declared independency and so Netherlands was formed. I don't understand the logic in how this happened, but I like it. (Just as long as I don't lose provinces that way )
• Fortresses. When I enter a province I still have to take the city. Easy way is just to sit and wait for them to surrender, but attrition is quite heavy. Hard way is to assault the city, but then you need a 100000000000/1 advantage. Else your men just retreat finally in lack of morale. => So to take a city is hard work. Like it, you can control the wass areas but the city is still loyal to own capital. (This way you have, or then not, time for rescue)
• Graphics are just as good as they need to be. Nothing hilarious, they just get the job done.
• Stability. The way it moves up and especially down I like. Very good indeed, like it. And I haven't understood it effects yet at all. Have to do some research.
• Morale. Sometimes you love it, mostly you curse it out loud. In the end you like it.

6. My opinion

This is the difficult question. Part of me likes the game part is disappointed. (And I think you can figure out why) Maybe I should have built colonies, don't know. Well was it worth 45USD? I'd consider it as worth 35 USD, but not a bad investment at 45 USD. I hope they fix the pause. I must be in control of it. Oh and how to avoid getting bored, can anyone help on this one?

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That I think is my two-cent for now. Like it? Want to reuse or abuse it - fine just give a reply why you like/dislike this game. (And if you also state why I am happy)

I have been thinking about how to do this game in TBS. Yeah, how could this be a scenario in CivIII? Have to think about it and hard I guess

Btw. I listen to good hints.

To anyone who wants to start playing this game: RTFFAQ first
[This message has been edited by Jeje2 (edited April 03, 2001).]

[yin26]

Great work so far! I will most certainly share my views later on. I'm waiting for the next patch to see if various "things" get fixed. But I think you've outlined some of the real highs and lows.

[axi]

quote: When you receive a message box the game automatically pauses. This I really like, but when you close it clock starts to run again. I HATE IT!! Many times I want to do something with the received info. (Now think that a car would automatically put in a gear, release the break and hit the gas pedal every time you start the engine. What could happen the time you forgot to put your foot a the break pedal?) The game may pause it, but I shall be the only one to restart it.

The messages are fully customisable you know. Just go to Menu/Options/Message Settings and there you will find a list of all possible messages and you can choose not to see it at all/to see it on the log/to see a mbox/to see a mbox and pause. You should choose to see in the log when another nation discovers a new province, to get some idea of other nations explorations (you have to know good geography for this though).

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"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
George Orwell

[Imran Siddiqui]

quote: English not Jeje2's skill. Frankly some of the words are hebrish to me and my little pocket dictionary doesn't help either.

I'm not sure, but I believe they are coming out with a Finnish version. Or perhaps you know Swedish better... they have that version out already. When it does come out, you should ask for their language file, I believe, and you can change your game's language (I think... don't quote me on anything ).

[Jeje2]

quote: Originally posted by axi on 04-03-2001 02:12 PM The messages are fully customisable you know.

Yes I know and I have set my prefenrences.
The problem isn't that I get unnessessary messages. The problem is that the clock starts automatically running when you close the message.

Now I do want a messagebox, let's say as example: when someone declares war on me. (As a bonus the game pauses at the box appearing) After reading the message, I would like to close the window and give orders to my troops beforte the clock starts again. This since it is critical who gets his troops moving first, I don't want to give the CPU an advantage by letting one day pass at the time of closing the messagebox and when I get the game paused to give orders to my troops.

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quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui on 04-03-2001 08:17 PM I'm not sure, but I believe they are coming out with a Finnish version. Or perhaps you know Swedish better... they have that version out already. When it does come out, you should ask for their language file, I believe, and you can change your game's language (I think... don't quote me on anything ).

THX.
But I prefer English. What I meant is that there are some words that are quite rare, at least for me. (One word that coused problems was vasallisice. Now I know what it means but in the beginning.)

LOL
Have I told here that I speak both Finnish and Swedish as my mother tounge, can't remember. Damm good guess if I haven't told it earlier

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Then about the pause-key.
I found in my game directory a config.*** file, were apereantly all the keys are defined. I tried to add to pause-key "F11" ut with no luck. (If "F11" would work, i then just config my mouse third button to "F11" and could play this game with one hand )

Does anyone know how I could succed in this?

[Imran Siddiqui]

It was a guess . I'd figure Finnish people would know Swedish (I know that makes some Finns mad though ).

Another point:

quote: The army seams to be the same, until I read the FAQ. All that matters is who's got most men. Now I just have the biggest army sitting and waiting for someone to declare war. (Meanwhile it just gets bigger) I am quite happy with what I got - game could end now.

Well, remember, that what the army is comprised of and leaders makes a difference. A 1k army can beat a 10k army if the 1k army has one of best leaders (like Gustavus II Adolphus). Also an advantage in cavalry will help greatly. Remember, cavalry helps greatly.

There are some stats compiled on some FAQs that explain in more detail. You can check out the main site (www.europa-universalis.com) and look for Huziack's (sp?) site in the links... or ask in the forums there.

I don't think you can remap the controls. I'd love this (to make it the pause button or one of my side mouse buttons), but so far no dice .

[Jeje2]

quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui on 04-04-2001 05:31 PM It was a guess . I'd figure Finnish people would know Swedish (I know that makes some Finns mad though ).

Well as you see in the game Finland was part of Sweden until beginning of 19^th centry. Then came the Russain period for about 100 years before independancy. => In Finalnd about 6% of people have FinnishSwedish as theire mother tounge. (Swedish language is a little different from FinnishSwedish, but quite close) So I have two mother tongues... and can't write in any language

quote: I don't think you can remap the controls. I'd love this (to make it the pause button or one of my side mouse buttons), but so far no dice .

Me too

[Hannibal Ad Portas]

Hi

For those who dont realise,when you set your prefrence for pop up and
have it set to pause,you can goto the event,zoom out or in to see whats
what,give orders and react to any new situation,then close the message
box and you havent been penalised by the cpu moving on to a new day
or having any advantage as to movment start dates.
hannibal

[Jeje2]

quote: Originally posted by Hannibal Ad Portas on 04-05-2001 06:55 AM For those who dont realise,when you set your prefrence for pop up and have it set to pause,you can goto the event,zoom out or in to see whats what,give orders and react to any new situation,then close the message box and you havent been penalised by the cpu moving on to a new day or having any advantage as to movment start dates. hannibal

Yes you can, but then there is this big box in the way in some corner.
That works now, but I want/demand something better.


And if I don't get what I want, I'll play SettlersIII Gold intead
(Found it yesterday for ~10USD in a shopwindow. I just had to take the last copy )

What should I play tonight?

[Shadowstrike]

Us left hadned people have an advantage when playing EU. I use my left hand to move the mouse, and my right can hover over the pause button. That way, I can also change the speed or map zoom with the same hand. Those piano skills finally came in handy when I had to multitask (i.e. changing speed and ap zoom at the same time)

[Jeje2]

My first GC ended last night.
Played as France and after a spurt in the end I came as number 1, just before Austria.

I made several mistakes in my game (One of my biggest mistakes was to begin colonisation way too late.), but since my first GC took me from saturday to thursday I am not so sure I want to begin my nextone imidiately.

[Jeje2]

My second game ended last night after about 30-35h of play as England.
Now I think it was harder that my first game in the beginning, but later on it was just the same. (Except this time I made sure I chosed the task every time and did it too => just for points)

I pretty much had hole North America East of Rio Grande, South Africa, India hole way to Singapore and up towards China.

This time I tried to play as fast as possible with 2years/min when not in war and 4months/min when in war + pausing when needed.
But just as in the first game I got to the point of "OK, I'm done with this game". This time that time came first around 1740.

I Annexed Scotland quite early and lost my only mainland province to france too. After that I pretty much tried to fight my wars outside Europe
Btw. I tried quite successfully also to stay out of alliances, so that my time don't go to wars I didn't ask for.

There would be still quite much to learn in the game i think, but think I now shall play Settlers for a while...