EU3: In Nomine

[Jonny]

Well, I finally decided to get In Nomine from GamersGate a few days ago, and I must say that it has really rekindled my interest in playing EU3. I'm currently playing my first game as Sicily, where I've climbed my way up the peninsula and am now called Italy. A Protestant Italy, might I add. (Turns out the Catholics didn't like my conquering Rome, so the papal controllers kept excommunicating me. Protestantism spread to Genoa and Venice and some of the other northern provinces, so that made my decision easy.)

Anyone else playing this right now?

[Nikolai]

All the time. About the only game I'm playing right now. It really made a good game which had failed some of it's promise into a fantastic game! Right now I'm playing as a resurgent Byzantium which now (early 1500s) has reconquered some of the Balkans, all of Anatolia, the holy land, and, quite recently, Mecca and Medina. Which soon saw the light and went for the One True Faith(tm). I've also had some great games as Bohemia(everything from eastern Germany, down through the Balkans, into Anatolia and the rest of the Middle East) and France (Nappy-size except Austria and Spain, plus some, and Northern America's shore line).

[DarkCloud]

Nikolai, in what ways did In Nomine make the vanilla EU3 better?

[Nikolai]

Well, EU3 was unpolished. It was a good game, but for one thing PI tried a slightly new approach with the franchise, which they didn't get right at first try. Also, the engine was brand new and lacked polishing. Napoleon's Ambition, the first XP, solved the speed issue that plagued vanilla and added some fixes the community wanted. In Nomine, however, made EU3 practically a new game. Lots of content was added, most of the things ingame was changed in some way to the better. Some examples are: New naval system, colonial system, pirate system, religious system, a mission/goal system was added to help both the player and the AI to focus(but it's optional of course if you want to use it), Byzantium was added, as the time frame was pushed back to 1399(you won't believe how much this was wanted, many of us are byzantophiles ). The list goes on, both large and small. It's practically an EU3.5.

[DarkCloud]

Gotcha. Thanks.

[Nostromo]

Too bad you also have to buy the two previous games...

[Nikolai]

You don't. You only need EU3 and the first XP, NA. You have to buy EU3 for 19.99 $ or €(depending on country of residence), which is dirt cheap for any game. And this is a game which have given me countless hours of enjoyment, much more than any Civ. You also need NA and IN, both for 19.99 each. Which is weird really, it's XPs after all and they use to cost less. But roughly 60 bucks for a game with two XPs is cheap no matter how you see it.

[Nostromo]

That's what I meant. You have to buy EU3 and the first XP.

[Nikolai]

That's correct. But it's the normal way to do it. And it's dirt cheap, unlike what's normal.

[Verrucosus]

Byzantophilia is surprisingly wide-spread both among Paradox and Total War followers. One wonders why there is not a game focused entirely on Byzantium yet.

[Jamski]

Because any game in which the player WINS would be ahistorical.

[Jonny]

Originally posted by Nikolai
Well, EU3 was unpolished. It was a good game, but for one thing PI tried a slightly new approach with the franchise, which they didn't get right at first try. Also, the engine was brand new and lacked polishing. Napoleon's Ambition, the first XP, solved the speed issue that plagued vanilla and added some fixes the community wanted. In Nomine, however, made EU3 practically a new game. Lots of content was added, most of the things ingame was changed in some way to the better. Some examples are: New naval system, colonial system, pirate system, religious system, a mission/goal system was added to help both the player and the AI to focus(but it's optional of course if you want to use it), Byzantium was added, as the time frame was pushed back to 1399(you won't believe how much this was wanted, many of us are byzantophiles ). The list goes on, both large and small. It's practically an EU3.5.

QFTFT. IN makes EU3 basically a whole new game.

@Nostromo: I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of combo pack with EU3 + NA + IN be released on GamersGate sometime, though I imagine that's still a ways off in the future.

After I'm done with my Sicily/Italy game, I'll probably try either Byzantium or Ottomans. I hear OE is rather a challenge, as they start the game being eaten by the Timurids.

[Nikolai]

I haven't tried them myself, but the OE only SEEMS hard, if you know what to do, they're said to be quite easy.

The Byz is difficult in the way that you need some luck, but mostly they're a cakewalk after the early years. Just take out the OE and the other small turkish principalities, consolidate, take on the Mameluks and westernize. Westernization is VERY important, I lagged behind the West in every aspect until I did it, a few years later I'm among the top.

[Heraclitus]

How do you Westernize?

[Nikolai]

You need to have a certain amount of centralization and innovation, and bordering a province owned by a country with latin tech group. It's a national decision that shows up if you are bordering such a province, it's all there.