Europa Universalis 3

I got this in the Steam sale. Are there any mods that improve or change the interface? And is there a way to force it into windowed mode? At 1920x1080, the interface buttons become pretty tiny and hard to make out. I didn't see anything in video options to select window mode.

Anything I should do to improve the vanilla game?

thanks

You can enable windowed mode by going into the install directory (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\europa universalis iii - complete) and editing the "settings" file. Change "fullScreen" to No and then manually enter in your preferred resolution.

As far as mods go, I haven't installed any on top of the base version. You can find a pretty comprehensive list here, though: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...

Prozac wrote:

Yeah, EU3 only ate 261 hours of my life :D

For generous definitions of the word "life".

Quintin do you go trawling threads just to harass me? You're the Nemeslut, surely there are others that need your attention

No, I just see an opportunity and can't pass it up.

Michael wrote:

You can enable windowed mode by going into the install directory (C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappscommoneuropa universalis iii - complete) and editing the "settings" file. Change "fullScreen" to No and then manually enter in your preferred resolution.

As far as mods go, I haven't installed any on top of the base version. You can find a pretty comprehensive list here, though: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...

Thanks a bunch, Michael. That worked. My next problem is that I'm having black squares where I believe flags are supposed to be:

IMAGE(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/ziffel66/Snap63.jpg)

I've tried disabling anti-aliasing, turned off trees & shadows, no luck.

Win7-64, GTX 285 video with 260.99 (latest) drivers. I'm running the game from the Steam game list.

Jeff-66 wrote:

I got this in the Steam sale. Are there any mods that improve or change the interface? And is there a way to force it into windowed mode? At 1920x1080, the interface buttons become pretty tiny and hard to make out. I didn't see anything in video options to select window mode.

Anything I should do to improve the vanilla game?

thanks

I used to use a map mod (this), but it had a couple of issues with the mini-map so I stopped using it. These may have been fixed.

In what way would you like to improve the vanilla game? I believe there's a mod that makes things more "historical", but to me that is antithetical to the whole reason to play this. In my world, Aragon rules over everything from Siberia west I'm sure there are a couple of things that could be tweaked, but really the out-of-the-box game is really really good (note: by "out of the box" I mean "with available expansions up and including to Heir to the Throne").

The biggest issue with playing a Paradox game is unlearning what every other game has taught you: that you must be doing something all the time. In EU3, doing nothing is usually the best thing you could possibly do at any given time.

Thanks for the info, Nightmare. I think what I'm really looking for are interface, map, texture, etc mods that will improve the game's visuals or make the interface easier to see & use.

I'm not very experienced at this sort of game, so I'm not looking for anything that changes core gameplay.

Which expansions do you have? As noted, HttR and it's predecessors are pretty much required. Divine Wind brings over the graphics from Victoria II, which a lot of people prefer.

Lastly, register your game and check the Paradoxplaza forum for technical issues.

Edit - Quick Google search found this for the black flag issue:

If you are running Windows 7 there are a couple of things to try: renaming the gfx\flags\flagfiles.dds file (the game should re-create it) and disabling Windows' 'desktop composition' feature.

If there's a second flagfiles file, rename that too.

The engine sadly isn't really open mods on the interface. There are things like this that is just a re-skins of the regular interface without substantive changes.

If you have Divine Wind, then I'd say its map is nice enough that you should just stick with it. For the earlier expansions ToT is a good choice as Nightmare said, but I prefer HandDrawn Map by Strannik. Been rolling with it for a long time and its even included in Magna Mundi.

For the black flags, try doing the stuff in this thread. Some combination of these, could probably just try them in order to see what works:
* Deleting gfx/flags/flagfiles.dds and gfx/flags/flagfiles.txt
* Disabling Desktop Composition on the executables
* Running the game executables as Administrator

Good luck!

Robear wrote:

Which expansions do you have?

According to Steam, I have:

"Europa Universalis III Complete includes the original Europa Universalis III as well as the expansions In Nomine and Napoleons Ambition"

As noted, HttR and it's predecessors are pretty much required. Divine Wind brings over the graphics from Victoria II, which a lot of people prefer.

Thanks, I'll take a look at those. edit: Divine Wind doesn't seem to be on Steam, though HTTT is.

Lastly, register your game and check the Paradoxplaza forum for technical issues.

Edit - Quick Google search found this for the black flag issue:

If you are running Windows 7 there are a couple of things to try: renaming the gfxlagslagfiles.dds file (the game should re-create it) and disabling Windows' 'desktop composition' feature.

If there's a second flagfiles file, rename that too.

Thanks, I'll try that.

And thanks Gunner, for the help as well.

edit: using the steps above, I got the black flag issue fixed.

Thanks to Buckidharma who saw this on my wishlist and got it for me. WOO.

Jeff, a couple pages ago someone said that Divine Wind was supposed to be on Steam sometime this month. I don't know where they got that info from though.

Earlier in December one of the Paradox devs mentioned the January date on their forums:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...

/lurkmode off

I own this entire series including HttT, and I'm wondering if I can get some newbie enabling & encouragement as I've never actually broken into the game past the tutorial. As I posted on Octopus Overlords, the Paradox games ought to be games I would just devour, and I'm a proud owner of HoI2, Crusader Kings, and E3 Complete (or nearly so), but I'm finding the learning curve to be a cliff...I simply have no idea what to do most of the time. I've been directed to EU3 Wiki, and that should help, but anything further would be greatly apprecated. Almost everyone who plays these types of games goes into raptures over them, and I should be that person, dammit!

I am most intrigued by Nightmare's assertion that usually doing nothing is better than doing something. Very curious. Love to hear more meta-game thoughts like that.

Thanks, all!

Natus, choose a small nation that interests you and learn as you go. EU3 is pretty forward UI-wise, not as obfuscated as other games. Hover over almost any number or button to get a rundown of its factors and effects. Aim to have your stability at 3, inflation at the lowest possible and evolve slowly. Watch more than interact, there will be decades without doing anything worthwhile (if you're a small nation). You'll get a grasp of it soon.

I like starting as a small Italian state (like Firenze) and slowly go and unite Italian peninsula. Not too many neighbors, a natural chokepoint, not too many provinces to oversee. Don't choose American natives or other "primitive" nations, they have significant drawbacks in their technology departments.

One thing to remember is that all those economic and tech sliders are there for you and your dog to manipulate. You are responsible for setting them at the start of the game. Your dog is meant to bite you if you try to change them later.

Okay, that's an exaggeration. But you should not mess with sliders unless something has drastically changed. Even going to war will usually only require hitting the War Taxes button. So don't think you have to micromanage your economy. Set it at the start and let it roll.

Turn the speed up to 3 or so to let time go by in a less excruciating fashion. Don't forget to set your policy sliders (Innovation, etc) as soon as you're allowed to change one. That will happen every decade or so. And keep your advisor slots full, too.

Robear wrote:

Don't forget to set your policy sliders (Innovation, etc) as soon as you're allowed to change one. That will happen every decade or so. And keep your advisor slots full, too.

Basically, you always get a small reminder icon right at the top middle of the screen (empty advisor slot, can move sliders, losing money etc.). Just resolve them ASAP.

Natus wrote:

Love to hear more meta-game thoughts like that.

Thanks, all!

The thing to keep in mind is the scope of the game: 1400 - 1815 where every day is simulated. Especially early on, things move at a glacial pace; trying to micro that will just end up making you crazy. At least it did me. And Paradox has provided so many clicky things to click on too - resist that urge!

Also, realize deep in your bones that there is no win condition that you don't make for yourself (I suppose you could argue that surviving the length of the game is the win condition). The game will not hold your hand and tell you what to do. With the IN(?) expansion, it will give you hints, through the missions it gives you, of things you might find advantageous to do. It will also give you crazy insane missions that you should take the prestige hit on and cancel. You have to decide if a mission is worth the effort and risk. Aside from the missions though, only you determine what success means.

Robear has it right: set things up, accelerate time to 3x and see what happens. Think of how to carry your nation-state forward and how might be the best way to do that be it militarily or diplomatically, then set up to implement this.

Jeff-66 wrote:

I got this in the Steam sale. Are there any mods that improve or change the interface? And is there a way to force it into windowed mode? At 1920x1080, the interface buttons become pretty tiny and hard to make out. I didn't see anything in video options to select window mode.

Anything I should do to improve the vanilla game?

thanks

I made a mod that uses a more readable font for the text, though there are still some glitches. PM me if you are interested in trying it though.

I'm finding the learning curve to be a cliff...I simply have no idea what to do most of the time. I've been directed to EU3 Wiki, and that should help, but anything further would be greatly apprecated.

Try reading the Strategy Guide for HTTT, it makes a lot more sense than the manuals as it consolidates everything to be up to date. I highly recommend it.

Nightmare wrote:

Robear has it right: set things up, accelerate time to 3x and see what happens. Think of how to carry your nation-state forward and how might be the best way to do that be it militarily or diplomatically, then set up to implement this.

Funny, I was going to suggest the opposite, set it to the lowest speed and simulate only one day per real time day. At that pace by the time you'd get to anything important actually happening you will long ago have grown bored and forgotten about the game, thus solving your problem :p

So I pretty much spent of all yesterday playing Heir to the Throne. Started a grand campaign as Spain on normal and pretty much just went along completing the missions that would pop-up. That's been a pretty good way of getting to know the different options you have for growing your empire. I sent up some royal marriages between Portugal and Aragon, and bribed here and there to get them on good terms with me, that got my stability up to 3.

For advisers I hired one guy for increasing missionary chance, as I knew i had to head south and convert the moors to Catholicism, and 2 for increasing trade efficiency. In the CoT page I ordered the Centers of Trade by chance and set the system to auto-send merchants to the the CoT's with a combination of high chance and high value.

I managed to conquer Granada with little trouble and converted them after about 4 years. I then went on a crusade across the Mediterranean to conquer Morocco and got my ass handed to me by them and the Algiers. This was pretty costly as I forgot to raise war taxes and I had to take a loan to cover expenses. So I then started to put money into the treasury, bumping up my inflation. I gathered my forces and rebuilt my armies and tried again after a few years, this time with an alliance with Portugal and we mopped the floor. Portugal took control of the western coast (bastards) and I was able take control of the Mediterranean coast with some inland provinces. Since then I've converted some more of their provinces to Catholicism and gained control of the Holy See a few times. I had to take a few loans to raise armies but I've paid them back, though I had to raise inflation a couple times, currently running at 6.4 or so.

I made a bold move and thought it would be a good time to go east and try my hand at taking on Aragon. Nope, they crushed my invasion with the help of England, and Portugal decided they didn't want a piece of that action. Luckily I managed to raise some mercs and drive out their forces in their counter-attack. I was able to haggle a small tribute of gold out of them and got some prestige out of it.

So right now I'm just going to play it cool for a bit and try out colonization. But this inflation is starting to worry me. Is there any way to lower your inflation rate? Also, if I bought Divine Wind will I be unable to load my save? I'm interested in the graphics overhaul and some of the new diplomatic options it offers.

The automatic history blurb that the game writes for you is awesome. I'll have to find where it saves it and post it somewhere.

Inflation is something that's pretty hard to control, especially early in the game. At first you don't have any ability to make a negative impact on it, it's all about minimizing your minting, which means being careful about how much you overextend yourself financially.

As time goes on you do get more options to control. The easiest way to do so is a great idea that lowers inflation (National Bank or somesuch). If I am not going for colonization or having urgent manpower shortages or anything like that I usually pick that up as my first idea. A little later in the game you get the ability to build Banks in your provinces which will lower your inflation as well. The hardest thing to count on (although I've read something about HttT having mechanics to increase your chances of getting Advisors you want) is lucking into Advisors that will lower your inflation.

Yeah, HttT allows you to "buy" advisors with your cultural tradition. Pretty much breaks the game because it is so easy to get 100% tradition fairly quickly and then have a nearly unlimited supply of 5 and 6 star-ers. Get three Masters of Mint and you'll be rolling in inflation-free cash.

Divine Wind does a good job in making it more difficult to get cultural tradition and also restricts you to only one of each advisor type at once.

Your save game will sadly not be compatible if you upgrade. I actually tried loading one and was treated to a really funny map of Europe where there were pockets of permanent Terra Incognita everywhere that new provinces were added. Crashed when I unpaused and it tried to process the first day.

Gunner wrote:

Yeah, HttT allows you to "buy" advisors with your cultural tradition. Pretty much breaks the game because it is so easy to get 100% tradition fairly quickly and then have a nearly unlimited supply of 5 and 6 star-ers. Get three Masters of Mint and you'll be rolling in inflation-free cash.

Divine Wind does a good job in making it more difficult to get cultural tradition and also restricts you to only one of each advisor type at once.

Crap, now I *really* want to pick up Divine Wind.

Nightmare wrote:
Gunner wrote:

Yeah, HttT allows you to "buy" advisors with your cultural tradition. Pretty much breaks the game because it is so easy to get 100% tradition fairly quickly and then have a nearly unlimited supply of 5 and 6 star-ers. Get three Masters of Mint and you'll be rolling in inflation-free cash.

Divine Wind does a good job in making it more difficult to get cultural tradition and also restricts you to only one of each advisor type at once.

Crap, now I *really* want to pick up Divine Wind.

Did I mention that they combined buildings with the province decision system and balanced magistrates too? It's a pretty good expansion.

I want Divine wind now, BUT I also want to have a life outside of EU3. I'll wait on it as long as i can, then cave, spend another 100 hours playing EU3, burn myself out on it again and come back for the next expansion

I caved.

Nightmare wrote:
Gunner wrote:

Yeah, HttT allows you to "buy" advisors with your cultural tradition. Pretty much breaks the game because it is so easy to get 100% tradition fairly quickly and then have a nearly unlimited supply of 5 and 6 star-ers. Get three Masters of Mint and you'll be rolling in inflation-free cash.

Divine Wind does a good job in making it more difficult to get cultural tradition and also restricts you to only one of each advisor type at once.

Crap, now I *really* want to pick up Divine Wind.

I swear Paradox deliberately putss an imbalanced system in place every expansion so they can "improve" it next time and get some more money out of their customers. :p

OK, so I caved and got Divine Wind. Now I am re-hooked.

That being the case, I thought I would share my pain. I am going to try and write up an AAR of a Grand Campaign. This will probably fizzle out but let's see how it goes.

Set Up
Playing as Burgandy starting 13 Oct 13 1399.

I wanted to start as an easy nation but I wanted something different from my go-to start of France. I am very interested in European history of that era, so wanted a nation with a Euro-centric viewpoint. Most of the other strong nations either have outward interests (Castille, Aragon), are peripheral (England), or have crappy starting positions (Austria). So Burgandy it is.

Long Term Goals:

  1. Use diplomacy as much as possible I want to play this game to get as much a "feel" for the era as I (and EU3) can. With that in mind, I am going to try and play in what I think would be a style that a monarch of the era would use. This means tying countries together by diplomacy and marriage to a large degree, with the occasional war to help move things along. To that end, I plan on keeping offensive wars to a minimum, usually only starting them as a result of a "quest" in-game. The real measure will be infamy, so I want to make sure my infamy is as low as possible at all times. No Bad Boy for me in this game.
  2. Marginalize France France is the bugbear. I know that when I play as France, the first thing I do is take out Burgandy. I need to insure that they are not in a position to do the same to me. If I can keep France carved up and unable to get on its feet, I think I can have a free hand in consolidating all the minors in Germany. If I let France get itself together, then I will have to concentrate on it just to insure Burgandy's survival to the detriment of my other goals.
  3. Dominate the HRE and try to reconstitute it as a nation The idea of the HRE as a real entity (as opposed to a mostly-autonomous collection of states) has always appealed to me. Since Burgandy has a number of provinces in the HRE, that's my "in". Attempting to create one state that dominates most of Europe is one of the reasons we play games like this and voila! there's one ready-made that just needs some work to make it happen.

Stuff I probably won't be doing

  1. World domination As fun as a Prozac-style game is, I'm going to try as best I can to hold off on attempting to make the whole world drink red wine (Burgandy...get it? ). Instead, I will attempt to make my gains through diplomacy and limited war. Also, I will try not to start too many wars and to really watch my infamy rating. Since the idea is not to conquer every last province on the map, I want to try and play as a decent, if Machiavellian, state in that era. That's not to say that this won't devolve into a romp, but I am going to try and not have that happen.
  2. Colonization We'll see how this goes but, initially at least, I want to keep the game centered on Western Europe as much as possible. This means that I will not be going for colonies nor will I be doing a lot of exploration, if any at all.

I'll try and post the first 10 years or so tomorrow. I anticipate the first few of these will cover relatively small spans of time, since the opening stages of the game are usually the most frenetic and set the tone. Once we get 50-100 years in, I anticipate my posts to cover more time.

Anyway, this is the starting point. Like I said before, we'll see how it goes. First and foremost, I am playing and writing this to have fun. If it becomes less fun, then I will change my strategy or stop doing it. But for now, the world is full of promise!