I can't wait for it, I've never played any paradox games before, but quite a while ago, on this exact forum, someone posted an AAR of a game as Milan I think, where he united Italy, colonized America, etc. and it got me incredibly interested in the game. Still, I couldn't find the game, so I never got to play it, and I kind of perceived the game to be a bit too static with the events happening no matter what, so I kind of put it off. I thought of getting Doomsday, but, well, didn't. But with the new dynamic stuff, the events and random monarchs and new map and such, got me really wanting this game.

Anway, Once the demo comes out this Wednesday, I'll be downloading right away, and playing for hours, probably making me fail my midterms, until I get the chance to go out and buy the game the week after that. Probably play as Bavaria first, to get the hang of the game, maybe Austria, I'll decide in the demo.

I've never played a Paradox game before either, and I am really looking forward to the demo. I can blame Kan and others with their AARs getting me fascinated with the series.

Anway, Once the demo comes out this Wednesday, I'll be downloading right away, and playing for hours, probably making me fail my midterms, until I get the chance to go out and buy the game the week after that. Probably play as Bavaria first, to get the hang of the game, maybe Austria, I'll decide in the demo.

Dude, no amount of digital pleasure can equal edumacation. Play AFTER mid terms ;)

Luckily for you, EU III will be released on the 23rd. I don't think I'll be able to get it then, but it looks like it'll be very good. Currently an owner of EU II and Victoria.

EU III Gamespot page (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/europauniversalisiii/index.html?q=europa%20universalis%203)

I'm really looking forward to it too. Hopefully the demo will be a good experience!

I can't wait for the demo! I own EU2, Crusader Kings and Victoria, and I'm so eager to get this game too. I think I'll start as Sweden, and if possible give Finland independence.

The problem is, we have one computer that may run it, an it's my brother's. Yes, may run it. My heart is broken if it doesn't work.

Less than 48 hours to the demo, and 8-10 days until my preordered CE arrives :-D

And count me among those who can blame this forum for becoming Paradox addicts. KD's fault, I think - his Japan Victoria AAR some years back started me looking at the Paradox games; which got me to pick up EU II and Victoria (and later, Doomsday). Two of these have been on top of my to-install list on each of my new computer ever since (Victoria, not so much - too much micromanagement and annoying stuff in it).

Can't wait for EU III :-D

Also, nice to see Gamespot advertising the demo - they sent out a broad email to their subscribers advertising the new demo, and they have an ad for it on their front page as well.

(By the way, if any of the fans here are over on the P-dox forum, I'm GuillaumeHJ (yes, the Unofficial FAQ maintainer) over there.)

Less than 48 hours!

:run::run::run::run::run::run::run::run:

Too bad the demo is Europe-exclusive. I can't wait to have fun with Japan and her new 20-province (or so) setup :-D.

Really? Do you know anything more about the demo, like time-span, number of playable nations and so on?

It's taking place from I think 1490 to 1520, you can play anyone in Europe I think, but the whole world is open I thikn. From what I gathered anyway.

"All the western nations from 1492 to 1520", per Gamespot.

You also get select Tutorial chapters.

I am looking foward to this, I will probably get it at some point sooner rather than later.

Like Subi, I blame Kan, Dell, Olav and others for getting me interested, with all those damned AARs. :D

I will buy soon, but not right away like with M2TW and Civ 4. Need to wait a little for the price to drop down :)

I've got a $50 gift card for EB, so I'll probably get it within a week of it coming out.

I can blame Kan and others with their AARs getting me fascinated with the series.


Like Subi, I blame Kan, Dell, Olav and others for getting me interested, with all those damned AARs. :D

:lol: Blame Dell, if it wasn't for one of his EU2 AAR's I wouldn't have started my own HoI ones.

Demo sounds very generous, so it would be foolish of me not to take a look. Hopefully it'll be a great game.

By the way, for those of you not on the P-dox forums, these may prove of some interest...CE screenshots, including large parts of the wall map that comes with it.

Looks like I'm one of the few who played Paradox-games without reading Dell-AARs.

You get a wall map with the game? :crazyeye:

That's insane.

You get with Rome: Total War too. It's kinda cheating, you know where the cities are.

You get a wall map with the game? :crazyeye:

That's insane.

In my old flat, the wall beside the computer had maps for Rome, Silent Hunter and Guild Wars. If I were still there then this map would have pride of place with them :D

With the Collectors Edition only, I think.

Note the way the PTI has shrunk noticeably, and is now in those boring places (kola, etc) we never had any use for anywayé

PTI?

Kola is not useless, it goes into warscore!

PTI is Permanent Terra Incognita (sp?).

Only 19 hours until the demo arrives! :D

Just one more day of school tomorrow, then the demo, a half day on friday for tests, then plenty of free time to try different nations to pick for my first game. How long should 30 years of gameplay last anyway? I'm guessing it'd last a while. Next week I'll probably just fool around with the demo, get the game over the weekend maybe.

And about that map, why are some provinces colored, and the majority not? It's seem like a random spattering of provinces in the area of major nations.

Those are the border of what I would assume would be considered the more powerful nations. England, France, Spain, Sweden, Austria, Russia, Ottomans.

Only 3 hours until the demo!

Less than an hour!

What excellent timing for me to have finished work now and be all done for the evening :D

Do I have to register at gamespot to download the demo? I can't seem to find the download-button :undecide:

I don't see a download button either. It would be really stupid if they only released the demo on a site where you have be a paying member to download...

Man, an old favorite of mine gets another Roman numeral. :)

I played the first one way too much and didn't get into the second as much. I'll definitely be downloading the demo for this one. Writing and reading AARs is the best part of this immersive game.

You have to register, but not to a paying account. All you need to do is provide a legit email to register.

(126.8 MB download)

You have to pay to register?! That's pretty lame...

Edit: Nevemind... xpost

You do have to register, but don't have to pay. The demo button confused me too, it's hidden near the top, going by Gamespot UK

http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/1368/helpyv8.jpg

126.8 MB, if anyone is wondering :)

Edit: So mean Oda, I wanted to sound all informative :p

Hey, I'm the (unofficial) FAQ maintainer, it's my job to keep people informed :-D

I have never played any of the Universalis games. Are they turn based? Is it a pretty good assumption that if I enjoy Civ that I'll enjoy these?

I'm curious to try it.

No, they are real-time strategy games, though you can pause it when ever you want.

Signed up for the free Gamespot account. Now I just have to wait 2 hours to get home so I can get the demo. :run:

I guess I'll download over the weekend.

I just checked the requirements. I don't think my computer can run it.

Downloading right now. 23% done. Estimated time ~ 1:15:00.

I found this (http://www.fz.se/filer/?id=2184) site to be a lot faster when downloading the game rather than Gamespot :)

:cry:

"Error: Failed to create a graphics device. Exiting."

Great. Just great. :badcomp:

Demo is loaded but for some reason it doens't recognize the graphic card. :(

Well, I hope it will work after some configuration...

Olav, you used a laptop? I have the same trouble.

Yeah... but that is my only option. I don't got a stationary PC where I live now.

I found this (http://www.fz.se/filer/?id=2184) site to be a lot faster when downloading the game rather than Gamespot :)

Wow that is fast. A quarter of the time.

1) Check that you have the newest graphic drivers. It may help.
2) Check Paradox-forums.

Downloaded new drivers, but didn't help. Checking the forums for help now - they got a thread for graphic problems: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=281406

Thanks for the new site link. :D

Wow that is fast. A quarter of the time.

:lol: Before posting that I clicked to download to see if it was still running as fast. Completely forgot about it, and just got a little notification that I've downloaded the demo...again.

:dance:

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/9379/subilw0.png

I downloaded it from Filefront. It was downloaded in maybe 5-10 minutes. I always get my stuff from there.

Anyway, time to go try it out.

Sorry Beaver. Nothing personal, but...:ar15:

(Conflicting with my graphic cards, if anyone was wondering)

(for those of you with lower-end video cards, don't give up hope just yet. Johan (Head programer type person) commented on the Pdox forums that they were looking to make the game compatible with 64MB VidCards for the 1.1 patch)

My only graphics problem is that I can't see the whole screen in 1280x1024 resolution, so I have to go down to 1024x768. Will look into it later.

FIRST GAME :D

Played a brief game as Scotland, only until 1497. After building up a large army I backstabbed England and, along with France, invaded their puny nation. Oh, they attempted to attack Orkney in retaliation, but they did not reckon on the great Highland warriors.

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/539/eu3aw8.jpg
The extent of our captured land, and that's France in Oxfordshire (they did siege East Anglia a while, before deciding they had to have Oxford.

We made it into East Anglia (was hoping to get to London) before the English began annoying our captured possessions, so I was forced to turn back to defeat their armies. Was too tired to continue though, so I got a peace treaty where they gave me Northumberland, Cambria and Yorkshire. Not bad for a decade's work.

Thoughts: Little bit of lagging when at full speed, though nothing too bad. The thing I was most dreading was the graphics and the map, though I must say I very quickly accepted them, and I do love how the political map shows captured territory. The interface is brilliantly intuitive, though I haven't worked out how to send merchants yet. Should probably have played the tutorial first :p

I like how Aberdeen is in, yet Dundee is not :smug:

Got the game running now playing as Milan. About 1500 now, earlier really, nothing much has happened. I wanted to invade Venice but the large stability drop put me off of doing that. So I have 10,000 troops total in 2 armies, standing around, doing nothing, no money, one colony in africa because I can afford no more, and I can't load my troops onto my damn fleet. :/

Oh, and there'a really annoying graphics bug with the water.

It's out, It's out? Best Buy stop tomorrow. ;) Unless it's not out in the US? :confused:

It's only the demo. Game is released next Tuesday.

I think I'm starting to get a hang of the warfare. Started a second game as Austria, as there wasn't enough action with Spain. After capturing Friuli from Venice in the first war, I am currently routing the Venetians in the second war, capturing Venezia, Verona, and Istria. :D

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/7729/austriagv4.png

NOoooooooo!! :cry: :cry: :cry:



Okay, so I gave Milan a second go using my experience gained from my first try. So, I build workshops or whatever in Milan and Genoa, build transports, build an army, get lucky and get soem events that help out some too, and I end up with decent money, take my second army down to Tunis, war, siege Tunis, take it, kill another army, go back to Tunis to break their siege, and they sue for peace, give me the other two provinces, the coastal one rebels a few times, but I left the army there and built another in Italy leaving me with 15000 troops over 3 armies.

I'd made a bunch of allies and royal marriages, got a new king, when Naxos, my ally, gets attacked by the Ottomans. I go to war, but too late, they're annexed quickly after. Soon after that, Corsica is sieged by an ottoman army with aid of the Crimean navy to fight my damaged navy, so a long naval battle, and I win, steal a ship from Crimea, and ship the new army over to Corsica, break the siege, and right after I won the battle, the game crashes! :mad:


This game is addicting, and this is just the demo, and I only played for 10 years. I can't figure out how to make money though.

The interface is brilliantly intuitive, though I haven't worked out how to send merchants yet.

I figured it out. Just go to a center of trade and in the little thing that shows who is trading there, there is a button that says Send Merchant. Just click on that and it will send them.

I couldn't easily find the CoT's in this game, but to be fair I wasn't really looking hard enough. Thing about such a short timeframe is that there's little to fear from inflation and minting money in the budget.

Does anyone have a computer that is close to the minimum requirements?

While playing, I noticed Muscovy had an....interesting new leader. Known in history as... (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=4542608) (And I can assure you it's pronounced differently in Russian)

There's also a way to play as any nation in the demo. Just go to C:\Program Files\Paradox Interactive\Eu3 - DEMO\common\countries and find the .txt file of your country. Switch graphical_culture = easterngfx (or whatever it is) to latingfx. The buildings and etc will look European, but meh. (It has been confirmed on the game developers forum that doing this is fine)

I conquered a large portion of southern Asia and nearly unified China. Had I just been given like, a year, Ming (me) and Manchu would of united. (Albeit not peacefully)

Upper Ming (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=4543737)
Lower Ming (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=4543738)

Besides two bugs I noticed (both being fixed in full game) such as the event log always displaying oldest events first, and text overlapping on the history log, it's pretty good.

Does anyone have a computer that is close to the minimum requirements?

I have. It has the minimum requirements, but the game for some reason hates the graphic card. The main meny can be seen, but not the map...

Does anyone have a computer that is close to the minimum requirements?

I do. Runs okay as long as I turn all the graphics to minimum.

I guess I shouldn't get it then.

I couldn't easily find the CoT's in this game, but to be fair I wasn't really looking hard enough. Thing about such a short timeframe is that there's little to fear from inflation and minting money in the budget.

It's quite easy to find the CoT's. They are the provinces with a large stack of gold coins on them.

Got them, cheers.

And is it just me, or does the guy in the bottom-right of this pic (one of the loading screen ones) look a lot like Christopher Lee. I know he's old, but American Revolution old? :p

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/5052/leefy3.jpg

My graphics card doesn't seem to be supported. In full screen everything is screwed up and in windowed mode I cannot see the bottom and right of the screen which seems to have a number of menus.

My graphics card doesn't seem to be supported. In full screen everything is screwed up and in windowed mode I cannot see the bottom and right of the screen which seems to have a number of menus.

Intel?

It has compatibility problems.

It's possible to run the game with Intel cards if you use a program called 3DAnalyze (free).
When I try to run it, I get a new message: Need 128MB RAM - hopefully Paradox will fix this in a patch.

Do you know that can you see the map with 3DAnalyzer??

ANSWER NOW!! Keen to try!

Many says it's solves problems, but there's something wrong with displaying the sea...

http://www.3dcenter.org/downloads/3d-analyze.php

Ah, my bro said he tried it but didn't work... :(

Intel?

It has compatibility problems.

GeForce FX 5600 so basically it is the same problem as with the Medieval 2 Total War demo. So I assume it will be fixed otherwise I will not be getting EU3 as there is no way I am going to upgrade my graphics card for a game that basically displays a map.

It's possible to run the game with Intel cards if you use a program called 3DAnalyze (free).
When I try to run it, I get a new message: Need 128MB RAM - hopefully Paradox will fix this in a patch.

What did you have to do? I'm trying to get EU3 to run on my laptop (Intel chipset), but just simply running the thing through 3DAnalyse didn't change my failed to enitialise graphic device error.:(

Did you have to turn anything off or on?

An update from me: Playing as Brandenburg, and my reputation has become absolutely destroyed. Currently at war with France, was at war with Austria. Right now those pesky Scots keep landing in the north and I haven't been able to dislodge them completely. And my only ally is The Palatinate. I wonder if I'll be able to unify Germany :mischief:

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/8155/brandenburgep0.png

my computer can run it but i didnt like it at first :(
















now im just downloading it to piss everybody off XD


im just jkin im going to see if i can get back into it because its so hiped up i just think i was playing the boring nations

What did you have to do? I'm trying to get EU3 to run on my laptop (Intel chipset), but just simply running the thing through 3DAnalyse didn't change my failed to enitialise graphic device error.:(

Did you have to turn anything off or on?

Yeah, you have to turn on the "emulate HW TnL caps". It worked for me, but I got another error-message (I need a 128MB card).

@Superbeaver's last post: Oh good, it does have a map like that. Thoguh it doesn't look as nice as the old world map. I'll download the demo tonight and play it Saturday or Sunday when I have time.

@Prince - Do you mean the minimap? Didn't it used to have a minimap that only showed what you had discovered? If so, then I agree, it was better.

@Prince - Do you mean the minimap? Didn't it used to have a minimap that only showed what you had discovered? If so, then I agree, it was better.

No, but I agree that the minimap should only be what you discover, but oh well. I meant the world map. I like the risk-board-game-territory-like map style.

Yeah, you have to turn on the "emulate HW TnL caps". It worked for me, but I got another error-message (I need a 128MB card).

Ack. Got the same thing. Guess I'll wait for the patch and see how it goes.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=281780

My Jerusalem mod. :P

I downloaded it, but I don't yet really know what to make of it. As Scotland it was pretty boring, all I did was run out of money very quickly. (FWIW, I've played Crusader Kings but no other Paradox game very extensively, so I don't really know what I'm doing anyway). Portugal was more interesting, if you really enjoy colonization, but it would be hard to touch Castile's army, and it seems to take a really long time to get everything up and running.

You should try France. Really easy, and a lot of money to play around with.

We made it into East Anglia (was hoping to get to London) before the English began annoying our captured possessions, so I was forced to turn back to defeat their armies. Was too tired to continue though, so I got a peace treaty where they gave me Northumberland, Cambria and Yorkshire. Not bad for a decade's work.

How'd you manage that? England owns me every time. They have a huge economic advantage, and better leaders to boot.

How'd you manage that? England owns me every time. They have a huge economic advantage, and better leaders to boot.

I just balance the budget and start building an army from the start, I also shift my military slider one closer closer to 'land. Two armies for the border - 5 infantry+2 cavalry to each army, King James leads one and I buy another leader for the other. When the first army tech comes in I launch the invasion.

I usually find that England has left the border very lightly guarded, usually due to rebellion in Wales or are gallivanting around Ireland. France normally helps out by invading the southern coast. I can normally reach Wales and southern England before their armies really start annoying me, so I grab a peace treaty claiming their northern provinces. Rinse, repeat and start again ten years later :)

Well, this is an interesting game I must say. I pretty much left the sldiers alone though. I played as France for the last hour (Dangit! No saving sucks!) and colonized Rio de something (it's south of Morocco) and Ivory Coast. Also was attacked my Lorraine (even though at the beginning I had a marriage alliance with them (that I made)). I defeated them easily and utterly crushed them. I gained a province (B-something) from them. My start of game allies were Norway, Scotland and Brittany.

Sweet game. Lots to learn! The tutorials did tell me what what is what but why did they have to block off the other ones that tell you how to play the game? Meh.

EDIT: I think I did change a slider in favour of Land over Sea army.

Okay, how do I assign new units to an army that already exists?

EDIT: And how do I put guys on ships?

In order to put guys on a ship you need a Cog or Flyte. Then make sure you have enough space on the transport. I know that the Cog can only hold 1000 soldiers. Not sure about the Flyte.

How do I add units to my armies? I've got Portugal by the nose (I'm Castille) (somehow I got a casius belie, didn't inform me at all until it was almost up).

Okay, so after Portugal is finished it's off to the Aztecs in cogs!

EDIT: Dangnamit! Portugal won't surrender but I've defeated everything they've thrown at me and took all of European Portugal.

EDIT: Yay! They offered me Alento, Beira, Braganta (Spelling is wrong) and renounced their claim on Gibralter. I'll take it! Now thoguh to get casius belly against England so I can get the canaiers back >_<

EDIT: Yay! England payed me 94 ducats for peace!

Started a new game as Bavaria, and I'm doing quite well. Unified most of southern Germany, and then Austria went and declared war on my ally Cologne. I almost declined joining the war, but after checking out Austria's forces along my border, I decided I could take them. So after a couple of months of warfare:

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/2917/bavaria6gm.png
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/1993/bavaria15ie.png

:D

Okay, I figured out how to add units to armies. Thanks you shift button!

This no saving allowed is a piss-poor idea.

Well, it is a demo. :p

And France just declared war on me...

Hopefully the Austrians can hold them off long enough for me to finish off my war against Poland and Lithuania. Getting your reputation too low is so much fun :D

Well, it is a demo. :p

And France just declared war on me...

Hopefully the Austrians can hold them off long enough for me to finish off my war against Poland and Lithuania. Getting your reputation too low is so much fun :D

Yeah, but, still, I don't have 5 horus to just play the one game, I switch around a lot, depending on the map rotatinos of a couple of servors.

I quit that game, as I was essentially invincible. Steamrolled France, and with a little bit more effort I could have captured all of their provinces and vassalized them. I had captured probably a third of them. A Bavaria with a 110K+ army, half of Germany, and a vassalized Austria and France would just take all the fun out of it. Perhaps I should bump up the difficulty level from Very Easy. :crazyeye:

Okay, combat in this game has serious problems. Explain to me my my Scottish army led by my king with 5000 galloighs and 2000 cannons couldn't beat an unled army of 5000 longbows, and why even when I do win, I'll lose 1000 troops at least, while they'll lose 50, walk off, make me chase them over and over until the same thing happens enough that my army is destroyed, even if I started the campaign with 15000 troops, and they had 4000 maybe? :/

Because you don't have 2000 cannons. At least, I bloody hope not as that would be horribly unrealistic.

What is that unit made of anyways?

I finally downloaded the demo. It works better than what I thought it would. Only bit of slowdown I noticed was when I put it on the highest speed, and then it was a tiny bit.

Okay, combat in this game has serious problems. Explain to me my my Scottish army led by my king with 5000 galloighs and 2000 cannons couldn't beat an unled army of 5000 longbows, and why even when I do win, I'll lose 1000 troops at least, while they'll lose 50, walk off, make me chase them over and over until the same thing happens enough that my army is destroyed, even if I started the campaign with 15000 troops, and they had 4000 maybe? :/

How was the morale of your army?

It was full when I started the war obviously, by the last few battles before I got pissed off and quit, it was down to 3/4, but theirs was only about half. I really don't get why I lost, or why a single caravel can hold off 15 other ships by itself, even if they are only galleys and a few barques.

Heh, yeah, the fleet battles can be odd. I've won a battle while losing all but one of my ships (3 of mine, 1 of the enemies :crazyeye:)

It was full when I started the war obviously, by the last few battles before I got pissed off and quit, it was down to 3/4, but theirs was only about half. I really don't get why I lost, or why a single caravel can hold off 15 other ships by itself, even if they are only galleys and a few barques.

My only other guess would be that longbows have some sort of advantage over your infantry.

well, the galloighs were only good offensively, but with little defense, so I guess when the longbows fired I lost a lot from that, but still.


And exactly what's left out of the demo? Units? Technology effects? There's a lot of tech levels with nothing happening in the demo.

I think the only thing missing from the demo is about 270 years worth of play time.

I got my collectors edition in the mail on saturday. Wasn't supposed to show up until the 23rd, but for whatever reason paradox decided to ship overseas orders early. Haven't had time to play due to work, but I have to tell you guys that the strategy guide and manual are AWESOME! They are glossy, picture and chart filled pages that actually readable and full of useful information. I'm very glad I bought the collectors edition. Not to mention it comes with a pretty good sized map of the EU III world.

As Europa Universalis is released, Paradox published a patch that allows the game to work on 128MB video cards. So Olav, our wishes have come to true. :woohoo::dance:

No linky, as I heard this from my bro.

This is good news :) (you meant 64MB right?)

Do anyone know if they will release a new demo which can run on 64MB video cards? I don't want to buy the game only to get something that barely works on my laptop.

So you have a graphics card with 64mb and pixel shader 2.0?

I have 64MB, but it will take memory from the RAM if neccesary. Where do I find info about the pixel shader?

What's your card?

Also, my copy is in, and work under the patch :-D. (And works well, even). SWEET game :-D.

But colonization is fast. I have a Japanese colony in Baja in 1463 :-D.

It's a Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express (64MB).

Nice to hear that it worked for you! Would have been a bit frustrating if it didn't work after all that work you put in the FAQ.

Oh good news so they improved its playing ability? When I played the demo everything worked fine except the menus they lagged like crazy. I should be able to play it though.

Pentium 4 HT 3.2 ghz, 1gb of RAM, 128mb Radeon X300 gpu

What's your card?

Also, my copy is in, and work under the patch :-D. (And works well, even). SWEET game :-D.

But colonization is fast. I have a Japanese colony in Baja in 1463 :-D.

It worked for you after the patch? What card do you have? My card is a Nvidia Gforce4 MX 440 which has 128MB of graphics card but dosnt support pixel shader 2.0.

The only performance problems I had with the demo was when it started to lag a little bit during an absolutely massive war of me(Bavaria) and Austria vs. France which took place over half of Europe with probably at least 250K soldiers :crazyeye:

It'd be great if someone with a 64 MB video card checked to see if the rumors of it working on them was true. :mischief:

If that graphics card supports PS 2.0, it will work.

If that graphics card supports PS 2.0, it will work.

And where would I find if my graphics card supports PS 2.0?

It worked for you after the patch? What card do you have? My card is a Nvidia Gforce4 MX 440 which has 128MB of graphics card but dosnt support pixel shader 2.0.

Radeon X1300 HyperMemory. It does support PixelShader 2.0, it was the memory that was the issue.

It's funny because on another forum I post at we have a thread with this exact title.

Europa Universalis III seems to be a good game. However, I have one big problem with it; the Graphical presentation. I know that gameplay is generally a better thing to strive for, but for me EUIII (I had a little look at the demo) would have been much better if it had nice graphics. In my opinion, it can't compete with other games of a similar genre, notably the ones I am playing right now; Civilization 4 (I trust you all know it?) and Medieval 2 Total War (brilliant game, get it if your computer can handle it).

Civilization 4? Never heard of it. :mischief:

I have a couple of hours to kill in the middle of the day, so I think I will go to some of the EB Games nearby and see if they have it in. Of course, I doubt they will. :p

IMO Europa Universalis is better than both Civ IV and MTW2, but of course in a special way.

Diablodelmar, EU III needs to run a lot more calculations (AI, economy, etc) than the other games you pointed out (which are turn-based strategy games, so they only need to run the calculations once per turn, at the end of turn ; and then have as much time as they need to do so), so it just cannot assign as much of the system RAM to the graphics as those other games do.

(And other, similar RTS are far less complex, with far fewer AI actives at any given time, so the same argument essentialy apply).

I leave it on the political map view anyways so I just see coloured territories. Of coruse, it still doesn't look great but it's better than the terrain view.

Well, the political map has been standard since HoI...

I prefer the political map. I occasionally use the diplomatic map before wars or right after the start of the war to see who I'm fighting...especially in Germany. :p

I'm getting anooyed that I don't get informed about my vassels being involved in wars. And getting conqoured.

I get annoyed at how there is no easy way to see who you have a cassus belli against. Having it shown on the diplo layer would be great.

My solution to PrinceScamp's problem is easy : the Alliance documents are now a standard fixture of the become-my-vassal form I make those countries fill :-D

Yeah, but I am also annoyed that I've had to wait months to get a diplomat. I need to learn the sldiers, I was palying as the Ottomans, and I just turned off the navy slider as it said 1508! (I was in 1492...)

Ooh! It's FRIDAY! Weeeeeeee!

Could someone explain to me how I load troops onto my ships, I just cannot figure out how that is done

You move the ship to sea, then click the army you want to load onto the ship, click on the sea zone the ship is in, and voila.

Note, of course, that the ship (ships) need to have enough room to carry the entire army.

A cog can carry one regiment ; most other ships none at all.

Also, all hail Burgundy, beloved Emperor of the HRE :-D

Is the Ottoman's tech research always slow? While Scottland's is fast (enough) but has less money (while Otto has plenty of money).

Otto is (as ever) in the muslim tech group, which is slower than the western one.

Plus large countries get penalized for researching in the game.

Okay, that makes some sense. I think.

Why does Austria have the Netherlands?*



*I mean historicaly how did they gain control?

Because it owned it at the time.

And since I have yet to get the game and am stuck with the demo, the game I just quit, since I think I'll go to sleep now.

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8504/hedjaztz3.png

Unified Arabia as Hedjaz, as well as vassalizing Ethiopia, forming a personal union with Oman, and allying the Timurids. I really wish saving was possible. :cry:

PrinceScamp, Burgundy lost most of her lands in France to France. Heir of last king of Burgundy was Austrian king, I think. Austria got it through heritage.

My bro downloaded the game to see if it works. It didn't. Intel graphic cards should be illegal. :mad:

I just dl'ed the demo and watched the tutorial section.

What is the point of religious intolerance in EU3? It seems that religious tolerance has diplomatic and domestic advantages but what is the advantage of religious intolerance in your country? IMO by homogenising the religion it should help mobilise the country for war and other advantages but...

:( Curses, the demo can't find my graphics card on my crappy dell (did it check for thei ntegrated intel (that oddly enoguh has shaders), nope.). So yet another game I can't play when I am at my dad's. >_<

Geez, I can run Morrowind on this pos, but not anything bigger.

Wow.....I gotta say, first EU game IOve played and I quite liked it, was playing the demo of course but it was awesomeness nonetheless. Was France and gave whoever that was to my southwest hell, invaded and conquered baby. I think I might buy this one.

Everybody loves Burgundy :-D

(This is actually pretty old as far as screens go. By now I've actually lost two of the votes...but since five of the other six belong to my vassals and allies at +200 relations, I'm not especially concerned.

I've also restored much of the Empire - now halfway through the third row of member states - via waging war on all the annexers and releasing as vassals everything they give me.

Theres some things I dont like about it though, like when I have 5000 men going up against three hundred enemies and a fort one city and my morale is low. My morale should bebeyond one-hundred, its not like the fort can make that big of a difference either, fort level one is like what, a slightly point stake in the ground and a small ditch you can spring a leg in? Just dont seem rite.

How do you get a bunch of troops to join into one army?



EDIT: Do your armies return to full strength over time in an enemy province they have captured?

Yes they do, at the end of every mnoth, say, 50 troops are added to each unit to rebuild them.

TO put troops into an army, hold shift and click on the troop icon on the map (make sure there is mroe than one army there).

Your morale depends on what happened before, not what will happen again. An army that just lost several battle isn't going to be too confident, even about sieging a lightly defended province - they're going to be afraid of the enemy.

Level 1 forts are very good at what they do. Level 2 forts are very annoying. I'd hate to face a level 4 or 5 fort.

Level 1 forts are very good at what they do. Level 2 forts are very annoying. I'd hate to face a level 4 or 5 fort.

Avignon and it's Level 3 fort is quite annoying. And if you want to dominate Italy, you are going to have to take it on eventually so that you can take Rome from the Papal States.

I also absolutely despise the stability meter. And merchants! They tick me off so much! It takes forever in some palces for stabiltiy to rise. And my merchants are always knocked out of the running (if they even make it in >_<).

I agree with the merchants. I sometimes don't even bother. They always get chased away.

I ignore merchants whenever I can safely get away with it.

I was Bohemia and I conquered Franken (to my west) and also Romagna (the Papal state) but they still won't give me Franken in tribute when I try to sue for peace!!! They have no other provinces do they??? WTF how do you refuse me if I have all of your provinces?:mad:

Diablodelmar, EU III needs to run a lot more calculations (AI, economy, etc) than the other games you pointed out (which are turn-based strategy games, so they only need to run the calculations once per turn, at the end of turn ; and then have as much time as they need to do so), so it just cannot assign as much of the system RAM to the graphics as those other games do.

(And other, similar RTS are far less complex, with far fewer AI actives at any given time, so the same argument essentialy apply).
More calculations? Ahhhh..... I'm rubbish at calculations in real life - and hence I avoid calculations in games. It's one of the reasons why I'm not very good at keeping a stable economy in M2TW.

EU3 looks good, but once again I would only get it if the graphics were better.

I was Bohemia and I conquered Franken (to my west) and also Romagna (the Papal state) but they still won't give me Franken in tribute when I try to sue for peace!!! They have no other provinces do they??? WTF how do you refuse me if I have all of your provinces?:mad:

Franken belongs to the Palatinate. You have to capture Pfalz too in order to take all of the Palatinate's territories and be able to get Franken.

Bad Player's living up to his name!

Not necessarily bad, just confused. Just confused Papal States and Palatinate. An understandable mistake.

They were in an alliance... Thanks I didn't realise about Pfalz.

And yes I am a bad player.

Harr! As France I foguht a 6 year war against Austria, utterly crushing them, except for one pesky frikking army that just wouldn't die (bloody hell those are annoying). However I wasn't allowed to annex Austria :( but I did gain Vandareen and one other territory. Later on I fought a 7 ear war against England, also defeating them finaly making peace after their crnered army in the very north-east province of their's fought like a cornered lion. Also my ships were getting repaired and wouldn't be able to bring more toops over until the next month. (Yay for Mercenaries!). I gained Calais, 50 gold and VASSALIZED England! Yippeee!

I also vassalized Navarre right at the beginning and captured Stockholm later on.

Harr! As France I foguht a 6 year war against Austria, utterly crushing them, except for one pesky frikking army that just wouldn't die (bloody hell those are annoying). However I wasn't allowed to annex Austria :(

Of course you weren't. You can only annex vassals and 1 province countries.

Oh, okay, that makes sense.

Still, when you catprue all their territories, they've kind of lost most of their barganing, and a gov't in exile (they'd have to be for I took Wien the capital) really shoud be forced to give in to mroe terriroy demands!

I really wish that EUIII was actually available in Canada. Someone really screwed that up. :mad:

What do you mean? is it not going to be sold in Canada? Or just delayed?

So far, there are no stores selling it in Canada, and it should have been on sale a week ago. If you look at the Paradox forum in the thread about it in Canada, everyone who has asked at a store received an answer of it not even being in the companies system.

Noooooooooooooooooooo!

Yup. So pretty much you have to download it off Gamersgate or wait it out until it finally gets around to us.

It comes out tomorrow for England.

I pre-ordered the collectors edition and I got the normal edition today instead, which is great.

Oh, okay, that makes sense.

Still, when you catprue all their territories, they've kind of lost most of their barganing, and a gov't in exile (they'd have to be for I took Wien the capital) really shoud be forced to give in to mroe terriroy demands!

When you capture all of their provinces the meter goes to 100%. When you capture all of Austria it isn't much, but if you conquer a two province state it's quite a leap. Why bother killing his armies, though? As long as you capture his whole land battles are irrelevant. Unless they accept a 99% or lower peace offer they will lose 1 stability until they're at -3, at which time they have to accept your peace offer.

The same can be directed at Bad Player. You can always check the Sue for Peace screen and check the percentage. If it's not 100% your opponent controls atleast one other province.

Why do you even have to go through all of that peace crap, why cant you just say "I am ugg" Ive already gotten all of your land so now its mine, I shouldnt have to ask them permission to ask them if I can annex there country.

I was chasing the last Austrian army becuase they keep trying to retake their provences.

Stupid game wasn't released in the UK until today. But I has it now. Beware Englanders - the Scotsmen cometh!

Why do you even have to go through all of that peace crap, why cant you just say "I am ugg" Ive already gotten all of your land so now its mine, I shouldnt have to ask them permission to ask them if I can annex there country.

It is yours as soon as you gain control of it. You will get the income from it and any benefits from their buildings. So you really don't have to ask their permission to get their land, but you need their permission to end the war, which they generally won't do unless you give them back atleast some of their land.

Stupid game wasn't released in the UK until today. But I has it now. Beware Englanders - the Scotsmen cometh!

At least it was actually released on the day it was supposed to

True, but I was under the impression that it was supposed to be released on the 26th Jan :)

Game is, like the demo, very streamlined and easy to get into. Just seems a little too easy - I have England beaten down to just a few provinces as Scotland after a mere 60 years, and I'm sure I could have done it faster. The new event system hasn't offered that much to me, but to be fair that's probably because I'm playing a lesser nation. Gonna play my old favourites that are the Ottomans when this game's done!

The event system is parred down to start with.

Work is in progress to rectify this :-D

Saving up to buy it.
Some one should make an AAR

I recently got my hands on the game and have been enjoying it very much. The main problem I have is that the AI seems to be able to outtech me very fast. I fought a war against France as Castille when we both land tech level 2 it went for 9 years and shortly afterwards I finally got Land tech level 3 fastfoward about 10 years later they have land tech level 9 and I just barely got 4. The only way I could understand how they did it so fast is if they only funded land tech but during the time they also got their three national idea. Where did they get enough money to fund their research? I have a lot of provences in the Caribbean and some Incan provinces and I make 120 gold a year and most of my techs take around 10 years to research.

Another thing that's rather frustrating is that during my campaign against the incans is that when I fought one battle at a time they were always lead by their general even if he had been three provences away a day ago. :\

NOT Kan, he needs to finish his AARs he already has!

EDIT: Generals can't die and they can be re-assigned.

NOT Kan, he needs to finish his AARs he already has!

But they're so easy to start :cry:

I would make one if, you know, they had actually shipped the game to Canada.

NOT Kan, he needs to finish his AARs he already has!

EDIT: Generals can't die and they can be re-assigned.

Generals actually can die in battle(I killed the Incan Emperor in the first battle) and of old age, I was just complaining that the Generals can move so fast.

Well, yeah, there is a small chance, and explorers make it back from Somalia awfuly fast. Without my ships.

Hey, they DID ship the game to Canada...

...to people who ordered it in Canada, anyway. :-p

is it out in the States or UK?

Both I think. It came out in the UK yesterday.

Hey, they DID ship the game to Canada...

...to people who ordered it in Canada, anyway. :-p

Oh sure, rub it in :p

I was going to do it anyway, but since you're asking...

:-D

Is it possible to annex the Papal States as a Catholic Nation? I invaded their only province and the warscore went to 100% as soon as I took the fort but I couldn't annex them. The only thing I could do to get something from the war was to make them give up a core I had conquered earlier.:(

The Papal States has 3 provinces at the start, so unless someone has taken them you will have to take those.

Yeah they had been taken. I ended up annexing it when they went to war against me. The reason I couldn't annex it before was because my ally went to war with the Papal States and conquered Roma so I couldn't annex it. This leads onto my other question. If I control Roma does that automatically make me controller of the Papal States? As soon as I annexed them I got a message saying that I became controller.

There was one point as Austria the Knights in Rhode declared war on me :crazyeye: They were easy to dispatch and vassalize. I later gave them freedom to weeten the deal with France when I decided I was losing the war against them.

One provence states quite often confuse me a lot. At one point I fought 4 consecutive wars against Corsica, The Knights, Crete and Cyprus. :crazyeye:

I loved when Mecklenburg declared war on me during my Burgundy war.

Mecklenburg : Have at thee!
Burgundy : Errr, dude, I have 20-odd provinces. You have 1.
Mecklenburg : We shall be home by christmas!
Burgundy : ...you have one army of three regiments. I have about seventy regiments...
Mecklenburg : With my valliant one-province ally Connacht at my side, I shall not fail!
Burgundy : ...Did you check MY vassal-allies list recently. It's like, the entire Holy Roman Empire minus you!
Mecklenburg : They are weak and worthless!
Burgundy : ...any of them could take you or connacht one on one and win easily...
Mecklenburg : But we are two!
Burgundy : ...and we're thirty or so...
Mecklenburg : Surrender before my might!

(Two days later)
Mecklenburg : Can I be your vassal? Pretty please?
Burgundy : I thought so, too.

Harr harr harr! maybe I'll play a late night game of the demo.

Britain and Ireland are united under the flag of Scotland. The way the United Kingdom should be :D

Also have colonies in South Africa, the east coast of America and Brazil. To Canada, to prevent the French from grabbing Quebec (:mwaha:)

I always colinize Cape and Karoko (SP?) no matter what natino I am (well, one of the western Europe ones anyways).

Heh, Scottish or Austrian South Africa!

I always colonize Quebec and Canada. :D

I always colonize europe..........with guns

I always colonize europe..........with guns

I don't colonize Europe. I seize the land that is rightfully mine. ;)

How do you colonize Europe? THe only two unclaimed places are in northern Norway.

How do you colonize Europe? THe only two unclaimed places are in northern Norway.

Not even captain obvious himself can save this one.....

How do you colonize Europe? THe only two unclaimed places are in northern Norway.

http://209.85.12.231/2135/53/emo/pat.gif

We colonize it with our armies

Ah, yeah, I was thninknig "They probably just vassalize everyone".

Last night I had a good game gonig as Castille, colonized Cuba, a few other islands, took out several of Portugal's colonies, 3 provinces from port as well. Navarre, a couple from Morroco as well. Invaded cornwall twice, then moved my defeated forces to Ireland and took both of England's provs there. Sued for white peace. It took me a loooong time to get Aragorn to be friendly thoguh. I managed to vassalize them in 1517 but didn't want to wait until 1527 to get them to join so I quite in 1520.

Fun game.

One thing I think that needs some fixing (or explaining at least) is that log of wars n such with your different rulers that appears at the end of the game. The naming sometimes seems off and also things result in The Status Quo a lot, sometiems even when I think it should have said something like crushing victory. I do like it though and even though it's slightly odd it's still neat.

You should try a game as Portugal. It's quite fun to try and create a mini trading empire. I started out by capturing the entire Moroccan coastline and then colonizing Cuba and Florida. Even managed to beat Castille in a war and gain enough land out of it to form a land connection to my African holdings so I could march from Lisbon to Tangiers without ever leaving my soil.

Yeha, I hate it that Portugal really, REALLYdoesn't want to give up Tangiers. That's one province I really want so I don't have to shuttle over my armies. (I had one big fleet of 10 transports, and 15 gallies, barques and caravels).

I really hate it when you've defeated another country and they refuse to give up a province. I tried Utrecht once and captured all of the Austrian Netherlands, and they refused to give me Holland despite me having 99% warscore. I could get other provinces, but never Holland, which is one of the ones I really wanted.

If you offer them really good terms (it'll say when you're negotiating peace) and they refuse, they'll suffer a stability drop. I think if they drop to -3 stability they're forced to accept the treaty. Or so says this guide :)

New game now - playing as Sicily and am going to peacefully annex Italy under my banner.

Hmm, yeah, for my next game i'll try one of the larger Italian States, perhaps Sicily. Or Venice.

Too bat I'll have to wait until next Monday (maybe tuesday).

Try Sicily and see if you can retake Sicily. I almost manage to take it from Aragon, but only managed to get the eastern province on the island as well as Sardinia in the peace treaty.

I got bored with my lack of EUIIIness, so I learned how to create my own flags. I think Kan will like this one. :D

http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/4962/scotlandfb9.png

Hoe many of the graphics can be changed? It would be VERY nice if units and other map icons can get changed.

Not to mentino the map it'self (the sea is fine, but the coast is a wee bit unatural).

Also, why is a calvar or artillery only unit/army still using the same HALBERDIER infantry unit symbol? That needs a changing as well.

I get the feelnig that the graphics designer(s) didn't get much time to work.

I think you could pretty much change everything. And since it's only the demo, some of the graphics might be missing, which would account to the Cavalry/Artillery/Halberdier thing.

Unfortunately even in the full game it's got halbeirders only although once you get to Land tech 10 they turn into musketmen.

Also, why colonise provences of Africa for slaves. They are only worth 0.1 ducats and because I rely on production cash rather than trade cash I only get 65% of that. Right now I can't see a point to colonising regions of Africa that have large amounts of aggressive natives just for that.:(

I got bored with my lack of EUIIIness, so I learned how to create my own flags. I think Kan will like this one. :D

*sniff* oh flower of Scotlaaaaand...

Nice job SuperBeaver. I've gotten used to the lion rampant though - yellow is my favourite colour, and I always enjoy seeing the world in my colours :evil:

Unfortunately even in the full game it's got halbeirders only although once you get to Land tech 10 they turn into musketmen.

Also, why colonise provences of Africa for slaves. They are only worth 0.1 ducats and because I rely on production cash rather than trade cash I only get 65% of that. Right now I can't see a point to colonising regions of Africa that have large amounts of aggressive natives just for that.:(

I agree. Perhaps thoguh they add a benefit to other colonies? Slaves were used to work the fields in the Caribean and other American colonies.

Beaver (and other canucks who are game-less) : appears certain stores in Canuckistan ASKED for games release in January to be delayed to make room for the Vista release.

It appears Paradox's N-Am distributor decided to comply.

Yes, they're utter twits.

EDIT : Game is underway to the Canuckistan stores now.

Sons Of ---

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=287396

Mdos thread.

Bah. The Great Big Mod isn't even listed yet (probably because it's not released at this point)

How do you get the cheat window up in EU3 on laptops?

And how do you buy provinces? The manual says you can...

1)Turn numlock on.
2)Alt-21 on the NUMERIC KEYPAD (or its replacement) (on my Thinkpad , that would mean alt-JK with numlock turned on).
3)Voila, the cheat window.
4)Turn numlock off to enter cheats.
5)Enter cheats.
6)Turn numlock back on
7)Type alt-21 (alt-JK)
8)Voila, console closed

1)Turn numlock on.
2)Alt-21 on the NUMERIC KEYPAD (or its replacement) (on my Thinkpad , that would mean alt-JK with numlock turned on).
3)Voila, the cheat window.
4)Turn numlock off to enter cheats.
5)Enter cheats.
6)Turn numlock back on
7)Type alt-21 (alt-JK)
8)Voila, console closed

Ah yes. Thank you.

Any idea of how to buy provinces?

Do the cheats work in the demo?

Yes, they do. :mischief:

I just realized I forgot about this game completely since the demo came out. I played it a few times, was a bit disappointed(not nearly as deep or solid as I was led to believe it'd be) so I'm kinda conflicted on whether to buy or not. It was fun, but not asdeep as I wanted.

Britain gets overrun with rebels!

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/8049/britainlq8.png

At one point half of England was captured by rebels, and Wales and Northumberland managed to get independent, and Scotland grabbed some land.

HAH! Burn on England. I havn't played them yet. I'll try them (or Denmark again) next time.

I might get the game for my birthday.

^^

Lucky one. The game doesn't run on our computer.

Waiting for summer&better computer...

So is the byzantine empire in yet? (i am pretty sure it is)

In mods yes, in vanilla no.

I did a quick search and found one Byzantine mod. I don't think it's in the vanilla game at all, though I didn't check to see if it could be released as a vassal (I would doubt it) :)

ARGH! When is it going to be released in Canada?

Never while I'm alive!

Can someone post a pic of the balkans?
It seems that the game has less regions than Victoria.

^^EU normally has less regions than Victoria.

Balkans, at the earliest start-date.

http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/4097/balkansgs6.jpg

Yup, less provinces than Victoria.

Which is just as well.

Whats with the thing that says I need Pixel shield 2.0 to run, and were do I get it?

Whats with the thing that says I need Pixel shield 2.0 to run, and were do I get it?

It comes with the graphics card, if yours does not have it, you need a new card.

were can I get one? My Uncle can pick me up one if I know were I can get one.

You can get a new card in lots of palces. But you have to have one that works with your computer. Create a thread in the Computer Talk sub-forum, the people there can REALLY help you.

ARGH! This is getting REDICULOUS! When is it gonig to be released in Canada!?

NEVER!!! You gut owned!!!

Looks Horrible (even with all setting at max)
Runs Slow (even with all setting at min)
I uninstalled it after less than 30 mins

I prefer EU2, especially with the massive ammount of well made mods that can be downloaded.

Maybe i'll re-install EU3 if good mods/expansion is made, till then i'll stick to EU2,V:R and HoI2: DD.

I just hope that Paradox does not, will not and is not using this "engine" to create Victoria II and HoI3

Hhh, it didn't run slow for me, but that was on a comptuer that can run Oblivion farily well.

The demo ran fine on my computer, and I don't think it can run Oblivion.