Tags: Europa Universalis III; Europa Universalis IV; Paradox Development Studios; Paradox Interactive
With the release of EUIV ever edging closer Paradox has released a 30MB PDF detailing the changes between EUIII and EUIV.
Here is the introduction:
Full PDF download.
Don't forget to also have a look at all the developer diaries.
With the release of EUIV ever edging closer Paradox has released a 30MB PDF detailing the changes between EUIII and EUIV.
Here is the introduction:
Creating a sequel is a huge challenge; you have to balance keeping the features that made the previous game what it was while at the same time adding enough new things so that existing fans feel the game is value for money. But we wanted to re- conquer Europa Universalis IV with a new vision. So much has happened since we released Europa Universalis III, we felt it was time to take and use what we’ve learned through the games that we’ve developed since then, like Victoria II, Hearts of Iron III and Crusader Kings II. But we also wanted to look at what Europa Universalis III had grown into with all the expansions and what we wanted Europa Universalis IV to be.
One important thing though, is that while we had lots of interesting ideas for Europa Universalis IV, we simply couldn’t just add them all in, as the game would become an unwieldy mass. Europa Universalis has a complexity level that we do not want to dramatically increase and while improving the interface can reduce it a fair bit, it is a very fine balance when it comes to designing a game.
So we took a step back and looked at what Europa Universalis was and what we wanted to do - this allowed us to rewrite entire systems from scratch, and create para- digm shifts. The major gameplay changes we have made include a complete overhaul of the trade system, adding a new monarch power system, and a dynamical historical event system.
We are also putting a lot of focus in Europa Universalis IV on improving the us- ability and reworking the interface to keep the complexity in the game, but make the game less complicated to get into. We are not opposed to complexity, in fact it is part of the charm of Europa Universalis, but that doesn’t mean it should be difficult to play. The nice thing about a sequel you can start from a blank sheet of paper and make sure that things like interfaces are nicely laid out. This is why we are putting effort into interfaces rather than adding more features. That way we can keep the complex- ity and not make things complicated.
And even though Europa Universalis IV is developed upon Europa Universalis III, we decided early on that no feature was off limits. Therefore, to be perfectly honest, almost every feature has had at least some tweaking done to it. Therefore it is almost impossible to detail every single change, but we have tried to nail down the largest changes as well as smaller changes that impact on the gameplay.
One important thing though, is that while we had lots of interesting ideas for Europa Universalis IV, we simply couldn’t just add them all in, as the game would become an unwieldy mass. Europa Universalis has a complexity level that we do not want to dramatically increase and while improving the interface can reduce it a fair bit, it is a very fine balance when it comes to designing a game.
So we took a step back and looked at what Europa Universalis was and what we wanted to do - this allowed us to rewrite entire systems from scratch, and create para- digm shifts. The major gameplay changes we have made include a complete overhaul of the trade system, adding a new monarch power system, and a dynamical historical event system.
We are also putting a lot of focus in Europa Universalis IV on improving the us- ability and reworking the interface to keep the complexity in the game, but make the game less complicated to get into. We are not opposed to complexity, in fact it is part of the charm of Europa Universalis, but that doesn’t mean it should be difficult to play. The nice thing about a sequel you can start from a blank sheet of paper and make sure that things like interfaces are nicely laid out. This is why we are putting effort into interfaces rather than adding more features. That way we can keep the complex- ity and not make things complicated.
And even though Europa Universalis IV is developed upon Europa Universalis III, we decided early on that no feature was off limits. Therefore, to be perfectly honest, almost every feature has had at least some tweaking done to it. Therefore it is almost impossible to detail every single change, but we have tried to nail down the largest changes as well as smaller changes that impact on the gameplay.
Full PDF download.
Don't forget to also have a look at all the developer diaries.
