Planning to get back into this game soon, I have the "Chronicles" pack that includes EU3, Napoleon and In Nomine, don't have Divine Wind however.

I really did not like vanilla EU3 much (loved EU2, vanilla EU3 just felt really generic in comparison, although I think they were trying to make a change from EU2's "railroaded into history" approach with events and etc), but played around for awhile with and enjoyed the Magna Mundi mod, it's just been so long since I've played with the game that I'm not sure what's out there now.  Do any of you guys have any good mod suggestions?  Preferably in the "vanilla" time period and historically based (Magna Mundi might still be a good choice, just not sure what else is around now), but I'm open to anything fun and with a decently functioning AI.

Divine Wind resolves a lot of the issues that I had with the basic game.  So don't skip it just because you aren't interested in the Far East.  After Divine Wind the game finally looked (and played) like a heavily modded version of EU II -- which is what it was supposed to be in the first place.  I should add that I resisted moving from EU II to EU III because I found the look of the game to be a bit of a let-down.  Divine Wind changed that.

I use Gamersgate a lot so I've had a fair number of blue coins to spend on DLC.  The graphics enhancements, though minor, are very nice.  I have all of them, but would have been very annoyed if I had had to spend real money.  The DLC graphics enhancements are essentially mods that you pay for, only there's a lot better quality control.

I used to use a heavily modded version of EU II, but with Divine Wind and the uniform improvements, I haven't felt the need to use mods in EU III.  Which is a great relief, because with a game like EU III, half the problem with using mods is figuring out whether the person who made it really had a good reason for doing it.  So not using mods saves an awful lot of time (which I spend making  mods for other games).

Phillipe- Thanks for your reponse!  (unnecessary caffeine fueled blabbering ensues)

Pardon this rampage, what exactly does DW add to the base game that makes it so much better?  I just found the vanilla "collector's edition" EU3 to be boring, and playing as , say, Morocco was no different at all other than start position and arbitrary tech level than playing as England, whereas in EU2 both were like totally different games.

Originally Posted By Caffeinator (26 AUG 2012 9:45pm)

 

 

Pardon this rampage, what exactly does DW add to the base game that makes it so much better?  I just found the vanilla "collector's edition" EU3 to be boring, and playing as , say, Morocco was no different at all other than start position and arbitrary tech level than playing as England, whereas in EU2 both were like totally different games.

There is still no country-specific scripted events in EU3 and I'm willing to bet they'll never go back to doing it that way either, sadly.  It must be too much scripting work & research for them.  As close as you get to counry-specific individuality in EU3 is the specific decisions available to your country and there are only a handful (or less) with some prequesite conditions to be met.  Everythine else that happens is just open & random, and there really aren't many random events, either.  I think the lack of events, in both cases, is why the game just isn't as fun as it could be.

If you can still put up with the EU2 engine running at hi-res (or run at low-res anyway), then you could always pick up For The Glory if you don't already have it.  It has more of the same from EU2 in it, IIRC.  The interface just drives me nuts when I run it at 1680x1050, however, because it can be very difficult when trying to click on your armies' bars, and other interface items, because they're so tiny.

Countries get country-specific missions, although not every country gets them.  I think this started in Heir To The Throne, although it may be DW, I'm not sure. 

I got EU 3 when it came out.  It didn't really ring my bell, and I didn't play much.  After hearing over and over how much the expansions added, 3 or 4 months ago I got the expansions I didn't have yet and have been playing Divine Wind incessantly.  It's light years better than the original game, with all kinds of flavor and events.  Bear in mind, it's terribly documented and you have to figure a lot of it out yourself or from the forums/wiki, but it's really worth the effort.

I only played the original, and then DW, nothing in between.  So I'm not sure how many of the changes are in your version.  Paradox is continuing to refine the game with major patches, though, if you get up to date.  I'd recommend playing with the 5.2 beta patch if you do get DW.  It has been in beta quite a while and is pretty much release quality by now.

I agree that it's generally heinous to release further expansions after releasing "EU Complete," but in this case it is justified IMO because the expansions add so much.  It has been years since I hit a strategy game this hard.  I was just playing my Netherlands game on 5.2 earlier tonight. 

I actually don't know much about mods, as I have had trouble with modded versions crashing on my system.  But DW vanilla is a treat.

From what I gathered, Pdox had taken a couple votes on which game people would prefer to have another expansion made for - evidentally EU3 got a high enough vote to warrant more after the 'Complete' edition was already out.   This is what I've read on the Pdox boards, anyway.

I hadn't realized there were actual historical events scripted into specific countries - I've only ever experienced the few you can trigger yourself that are out in plain sight.  Which nations have these, and are there only a very few?  The random yearly ones usually drive me nuts with the constant stability losses.. I guess they need that since there's not much else to lower it.

I need to check out the latest beta updates for DW as I've not fired it up in awhile.   Hopefully the MEIOU mod is still chugging along too, because I liked a lot of the small adjustments made in it (even though it's main goal was to make the map MUCH larger).

I don't know if I'd use the word "historical," but they're country-specific.  EU 3 isn't really about replicating history so much as producing another version of it.  France has missions leading it to unite France, England has missions leading it to reclaim its French claims, Austria has a mission to inherit Burgundy, the Ottomans to take Thrace, Muscowy to unite Russia, and on and on.  There are numerous country-specific missions.

It's not at all like the original EU or EU II where you got the same leaders the nation had originally and the gameplay is shaped by historical events.  Most players thought, and I agree, that the historical events were straitjackets that often seemed quite arbitrary.  So you won't see a replay of history, but you'll see an interaction of nations many of which are acting based on historical or quasi-historical goals.

Originally Posted By glen55 (27 AUG 2012 10:31am)

I don't know if I'd use the word "historical," but they're country-specific.  EU 3 isn't really about replicating history so much as producing another version of it.  France has missions leading it to unite France, England has missions leading it to reclaim its French claims, Austria has a mission to inherit Burgundy, the Ottomans to take Thrace, Muscowy to unite Russia, and on and on.  There are numerous country-specific missions.

 

It's not at all like the original EU or EU II where you got the same leaders the nation had originally and the gameplay is shaped by historical events.  Most players thought, and I agree, that the historical events were straitjackets that often seemed quite arbitrary.  So you won't see a replay of history, but you'll see an interaction of nations many of which are acting based on historical or quasi-historical goals.

Yeah.. those are Missions, though.  Not actual historically scripted Events.  I know about the missions, and those are nice to nudge you in a generally historical direction.

I realize that EU3 was meant to be a loose sandbox, and not very historical.  Just kinda sad because I think it could still be quite a nice sandbox even with country-specific historical events popping up regularly.  I think it was the quick way to finishing EU3 by cutting such work out, but I could well be wrong.

Thank you all for the input, I haven't had time to play around with EU3 lately, but maybe the "Chronicles" pack ( I have HttR as well) is more fun in it's "vanilla" state than the original EU3 was?  I found EU2's "locked into history" approach to be irritating at times, but not as bad as vanilla EU3 (no add on's) totally generic world where nothing interesting ever seemed to happen. 

Is MEIOU without Divine Wind possible?

What do you guys think of Magna Mundi?

Originally Posted By Caffeinator (2 SEP 2012 1:41am)

Thank you all for the input, I haven't had time to play around with EU3 lately, but maybe the "Chronicles" pack ( I have HttR as well) is more fun in it's "vanilla" state than the original EU3 was?  I found EU2's "locked into history" approach to be irritating at times, but not as bad as vanilla EU3 (no add on's) totally generic world where nothing interesting ever seemed to happen.

Chronicles is the whole EU3 set, including the Divine Wind expansion.  If you see it for a good price (same or cheaper than Divind Wind expansion I guess) then get it.

Is MEIOU without Divine Wind possible?

I don't think the latest version is, but there may be older versions created for various expansion situations.   I'm sure they recommend the DW one anyway.

MEIOU is a favorite of mine thus far because most of the core EU3 concepts are still there, but with some small adjustments made and a HUGE map divided into smaller provinces.  The interface art is the best I've seen, along with some new sounds, and it feels more immersive to me.

What do you guys think of Magna Mundi?

I've never played it.  As I understand, it requires an earlier expansion combination so it's behind on the vanilla updates.  Since I have either plain Jane EU3 or the whole Chronicles collection, I can't use it (if this is the one I'm thinking of).  Since they were producing it for sale, the one based on DW was supposed to be going retail so they didn't put out a freebie of it.  It looked interesting, even though some of the art and especially the fonts were a step back even from vanilla.