|
Guys, I am elaborating some custom setups and I would like your input: - For a money NI, +trade efficiency or +tax is more powerful? (I believe it is the former) - Infantry combat ability or arty? - Tech cost discount is pretty much a solid pick, but what about idea cost? Is it unnecessary (since you are aiming to get those ideas anyway)? - Accepted culture threshold, religious unity, stuff like that is unnecessary (Humanism) or should be compounded like the ottos? - Obligatory ones for me are +discipline, +morale, -cc and -tech cost; any others that are must haves, in your opinion? Thanks 
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 15:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 20:44 |
|
|
Transmetropolitan posted:Guys, I am elaborating some custom setups and I would like your input: For money, Trade Efficiency is generally better than Production Efficiency and both are better than Tax modifier. It depends somewhat on where you conquer and how many trade nodes you can dominate. For a land locked horde as an example, production efficiency will be better, while for a western nation capable of routing trade around Africa/from the Americas/both, trade efficiency will be better. Money is easy to get though and you'd be better off grabbing something harder to find like inflation reduction or monthly war exhaustion. For military, +discipline, +morale, +leader shock/fire and yearly army tradition/decay are your best bets. I would only go for combat ability after picking up those. For Humanist stuff, depending on your religion, the only thing worth stacking is national unrest reduction(and Culture Threshold if you are a republic) Obligatory stuff is as much mil stuff as you can reasonably afford, colonist and colonial growth if you're planning on colonizing and either unrest reduction or a missionary/missionary strength depending on if you go religious/humanist, your religion and where you start. Lastly, always pick up monthly war exhaustion. Now that Innovative is pretty bad compared to the other admin options, getting it from you national idea set is a great boon. Cynic Jester fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Sep 25, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 15:50
|
|
|
I think you should be able to rival above your weight class. You're an opm and want to rival great Britain because you have nobody else go for it champ
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 16:16
|
|
|
BBJoey posted:this is all I can think it could be and I'm so excited. my dream is for a Europe-wide internal politics system, but even a France-specific mechanic ala English monarchy would own. I want to see an Isaac Newton expansion at some point. Work faster Wiz 
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 17:07
|
|
|
Hi guys, I know you don't care but my Florence game is going really great. I beat the snot out of Venice while they were weak, basically grabbing all their Italian land and leaving them on the Balkans. Good luck with Serbia you assholes. Also managed to poo poo all over the Papal States while their big ally Castile was looking elsewhere, they now only control Rome and Avignon; I really wanted to vassalize them too, in anticipation of forming Italy, but that would've made a pretty nasty coalition against me... I'm kind of a big deal now since I've been grabbing land left and right since day 1. As soon as the Reformed religion appeared I got myself a Reformation Center just to spite the Pope some more, and it's in Verona so it should spread nicely to Austria and my other northern / eastern neighbors. Sadly Milan has swallowed Genoa and is allied to France plus a bunch more nations, and even if I'm allied to Austria and England they're involved into wars all the time and I'm not sure I can take them head on unless both join me. I just finished Quantity ideas and my army is as big as France's army, and I have full Diplo ideas too. In a while I'll unlock the third idea group; what should I be going for? I'm not particularly eager on colonization, I'd rather fortify my position (both in a diplomatic and military sense) and achieve Italian unity asap so I can start eating Naples before Castile swallows them + Aragon... TorakFade fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Sep 25, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 18:03
|
|
|
TorakFade posted:Hi guys, I know you don't care but my Florence game is going really great. I beat the snot out of Venice while they were weak, basically grabbing all their Italian land and leaving them on the Balkans. Good luck with Serbia you assholes. Some thoughts on idea picks in general: Your first few are the most important because they are unlocking your unique NIs and also are the ones that you'll have most of the game. You don't even unlock the sixth idea group until almost 1700 and the last two groups unlock with less than a century of game time left. Sometimes I see posters theorycrafting like six idea groups deep. Oh man Quality + Economic for the +5% Discipline policy combined with Quality + Innovative for +20% infantry combat ability is monstrous! Yeah, but you're not going to have that combo up and running until quite late in the game. I usually have deliberate picks in mind for my first 3-4 groups depending on which nation I'm playing, and after that it's all situational. Maybe I need more money, or want to get Expansion to grab some of Asia, whatever. For the first three, I suggest getting your most important expansion-related idea sets. You want to get big ASAP, and since those early picks are the ones you'll have all game it makes sense for them to be your core expansionist choices. ADM - anything but Innovative is potentially a good first admin pick. Religious if you want to expand hard into Muslim territory, Humanist stacks really well with Tolerance and Cultural Acceptance bonuses and makes you super chill and stable. Expansion is frankly kinda lovely and you take it mainly for the colonist and CB but it's important for colonizers. Econ gets you cash and autonomy reduction that is hard to come by early. Admin gives coring discount and cheaper mercs to core faster and conserve manpower. Innovative is not very good right now. DIP - Exploration if you're a colonizer or Influence if not, imo. Diplomatic is fine if you're stuck at Duchy level and therefore the extra Diplomat is really nice, otherwise I think Diplomatic is better as a later pickup. Coalitions aren't quite as scary right now, but I still think Influence is a lot more useful unless you really need another diplomat or plan on truce breaking and no-CB shenanigans. Trade and Maritime are alright but usually you can get plenty of merchants from trade companies and/or colonial nations and naval focused ideas are kinda eh. Espionage is poo poo. MIL - Offensive, Defensive, Quantity all great for a first pick. Quality is equally good but imo works better as a later pickup since it doesn't really give you any utility, just straight up combat strength that works better stacked with other military ideas. Aristocratic is not completely terrible but kinda weird, ok if you're a nation that loves horsies and/or is stuck at Duke rank so you can't get a free leader and diplomat. Skip Naval, just build more boats. Personally for colonizers I go Exploration, Expansion, Quantity (usually in that order). For non-colonizers I typically like Influence, Administrative, Defensive then pick up Economic, Diplomatic and other military ideas later. In your situation I would probably get Admin or Economic next. If you are flush with military points and caught up on tech you could consider taking Defensive third. If not I would take Defensive fourth.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 18:59
|
|
|
IMO, Quality is your best bet. France doesn't take military ideas till later but their NI set and traditions are ridiculous. You need modifiers as well as numbers
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 19:00
|
|
|
TorakFade posted:Hi guys, I know you don't care but my Florence game is going really great. I beat the snot out of Venice while they were weak, basically grabbing all their Italian land and leaving them on the Balkans. Good luck with Serbia you assholes.  I think Quality or Defensive are your best bet for your next idea if you can afford another Mil idea. I personally would go Defensive but both are good. You could also do Admin next but it does not seem like you need Mercs so that does not seem very ~optimal~.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 19:05
|
|
|
Larry Parrish posted:IMO, Quality is your best bet. France doesn't take military ideas till later but their NI set and traditions are ridiculous. You need modifiers as well as numbers I like Quality if I also stand to benefit from the naval ideas in it, since those are half decent now. Playing in Italy, you can make good use of the naval bonuses so seems like a good option too. Defensive will also give you combat modifiers, not quite as strong as Quality but significant. It comes down to whether he wants stronger troops and slightly better boats, or if he wants stronger troops (but not quite so much as Quality) and better forts and "logistics" (maneuver, attrition, reinforce speed). Edit: mentally I kind of break them down into Aristocratic - horsies and diplomatic stuff which is nice if you're stuck at Duke rank Offensive - combat strength and underwhelming utility stuff (other than siege ability which rules). Defensive - combat strength and awesome utility Quality - combat strength and also slightly stronger boats Quantity - does what it says Pellisworth fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Sep 25, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 19:11
|
|
|
Don't forget about the policies either. Taking Religious and Quality lets you take the +Discipline +Morale one that makes your troops even better.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 19:15
|
|
|
I generally like to take Defensive early where you need a safety net and Offensive late when you've got your snowball rolling.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 19:22
|
|
|
StashAugustine posted:I generally like to take Defensive early where you need a safety net and Offensive late when you've got your snowball rolling. Yeah, Defensive is my top pick usually because it's so well-rounded. You get combat strength (morale, army tradition, maneuver), -10% army and fort maintenance which is a similar discount to Quantity, plus the fort defense and attrition. Offensive has arguably better combat strength, but the utility bits are a lot worse imo. -10% recruitment speed, +100% prestige from battles, +20% forcelimits, +2.5% morale recovery are all poor to mediocre. I pretty much just take it for the pips, siege ability, and Discipline. You're not getting any discounts or anything to help with manpower, so Offensive feels better once you're big enough those aren't major concerns.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 19:38
|
|
|
Genoa sniped Constantinople in the first two years of the game. It's been occupied by Byz separatists for 30+ years and I'm guessing Ottomans are never going to get around to grabbing it now.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 19:46
|
|
|
Pellisworth posted:Offensive - combat strength and underwhelming utility stuff (other than siege ability which rules). Completely agree with everything you've said about ideas, and just wanted to reiterate how awesome Siege Ability is. Nothing worse than trying to seige some Chinese fort, only to discover they have 75% defensiveness or some poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 19:53
|
|
Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
|
Bort Bortles posted:I care and would care even more if you posted screenshots Thanks all for your input, I guess it's time for another military idea then. Defensive sounds the best and I fully expect France, Milan, Savoy or Austria making a move on me in the coming decades so it will be useful. I'm a bit worried about lagging behind on tech, at the moment it's 1519 and I'm -5% "behind" on DIP and MIL tech (both level 9), but the nice thing about republics is you basically have free focus, I'll just elect the military guy and keep him around for two terms. Behold mighty Florence  (lucky nations are off, that's why France still hasn't kicked England out I guess)
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 20:44
|
|
|
Do y'all think lucky nations are a relic of past design?
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 20:51
|
|
|
No, they're pretty necessary if you want to have large late game powers other than yourself.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 20:54
|
|
|
Baron Porkface posted:Do y'all think lucky nations are a relic of past design? While this might not be important to some, lucky nations would make some achievements much easier. They're also there not to let the world be a 100% sandbox - Paradox wants France and Ottomans to be military powerhouses, Spain and Portugal to be dominant colonial powers, etc. I'm making an assumption of course on that last point.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 20:58
|
|
|
Baron Porkface posted:Do y'all think lucky nations are a relic of past design? I don't like it because an aggressive AI leader combined with lucky nation bonuses has ended so many of my runs. Just making more nations aggressive and stop the thing where lots of nations don't do anything but collect income and build buildings for hundreds of years without expanding or anything would be a suitable replacement for lucky nation bonuses.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 21:06
|
|
|
TorakFade posted:Thanks all for your input, I guess it's time for another military idea then. Defensive sounds the best and I fully expect France, Milan, Savoy or Austria making a move on me in the coming decades so it will be useful. Nah you're not behind on tech at all. The most important military techs are the ones that give Tactics (and the few that give Morale). Like you say as a republic you can just stick to a military focus and rulers and have no issues. You don't need to buy mil tech until you're actually at war, so not a bad idea to store some up. If no war happens, buy an idea or two. If it looks like war, tech. Don't forget to switch on your Reformed morale bonuses for wars, it's quite strong. Can you beat up Ragusa or something? Taking another military idea will likely mean you start piling up Admin points so you'll want to do some coring. Edit: regarding lucky nations I seem to notice their bonuses a lot less since CS.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 21:06
|
|
|
Node posted:While this might not be important to some, lucky nations would make some achievements much easier. They're also there not to let the world be a 100% sandbox - Paradox wants France and Ottomans to be military powerhouses, Spain and Portugal to be dominant colonial powers, etc. I'm making an assumption of course on that last point. I play with lucky nations off and France and the Ottomans are military powerhouses and Spain and Portugal are dominant colonial powers. And the occasional game where one of those things isn't true just makes it more interesting.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 21:08
|
|
|
Cynic Jester posted:Money is easy to get though and you'd be better off grabbing something harder to find like inflation reduction I don't really get why people seem to talk much about inflation reduction like it's an important thing. .1 inflation reduction works out to 75 admin saved every 20 years (3.75/year) under the best case scenario, and if you have it on all the time as an idea, odds are good that you aren't going to be using the full reduction a lot, aside from events. Admin tech cost is a much bigger deal; 10% is 60 admin saved every ~13 years (4.6/year), and it also means you can get techs faster, it stacks with other modifiers to give really cheap techs at times, and it's always active. Inflation reduction is just not worth it as a custom NI pick. That said, I really hate how ideas like -10% Reduce inflation cost in Innovative are completely useless. It if costs 400 admin to grab, you have to use it 54 times per game to get any benefit over not having to buy the idea. OneTwentySix fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Sep 25, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 21:15
|
|
|
Pellisworth posted:Nah you're not behind on tech at all. The most important military techs are the ones that give Tactics (and the few that give Morale). Like you say as a republic you can just stick to a military focus and rulers and have no issues. You don't need to buy mil tech until you're actually at war, so not a bad idea to store some up. If no war happens, buy an idea or two. If it looks like war, tech. At the moment I have two claims on Milan which I really want to take advantage of, just need that AE to tick down a bit to avoid a coalition against me. I might use admin points to develop some more tax base, money is kinda tight with my current army and navy...
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 21:20
|
|
|
TorakFade posted:At the moment I have two claims on Milan which I really want to take advantage of, just need that AE to tick down a bit to avoid a coalition against me. I just pointed out Ragusa because I'm surprised they're still independent, dunno who they have as allies. But Ragusa is a strong trade province in an important node for you, taking it might give you a decent income boost and it also opens up expansion in the Balkans. I would try to find other useful things to spend Admin on before development. Base tax is not really all that good and the return on investment is going to be poor. I would wait a few decades until you start getting development discounts from tech, University building, maybe Economic ideas.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 21:28
|
|
|
OneTwentySix posted:I don't really get why people seem to talk much about inflation reduction like it's an important thing. .1 inflation reduction works out to 75 admin saved every 20 years (3.75/year) under the best case scenario, and if you have it on all the time as an idea, odds are good that you aren't going to be using the full reduction a lot, aside from events. Admin tech cost is a much bigger deal; 10% is 60 admin saved every ~13 years (4.6/year), and it also means you can get techs faster, it stacks with other modifiers to give really cheap techs at times, and it's always active. Inflation reduction is just not worth it as a custom NI pick. You could instead amortize it. You're paying 800 admin for optimism which is still worth it, and reduce inflation is a freebie 
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 21:37
|
|
|
Pellisworth posted:I just pointed out Ragusa because I'm surprised they're still independent, dunno who they have as allies. But Ragusa is a strong trade province in an important node for you, taking it might give you a decent income boost and it also opens up expansion in the Balkans. Will try to assess the situation and kick their rear end if possible then, I need the cash. Plus expanding into the balkans would be great - as long as I don't incur any AE towards German minors, Milan or Savoy I could easily swipe quite a bit of land, as Reformed I can basically ignore religious differences with heretics, Hungary is already my (defensive) ally, Serbia isn't all that threatening and Venice gets to be wiped off the map if they dare annoy me. Speaking about trade, should I relocate my home node to Venice? I didn't pay much attention to it, I've been mostly focusing on expansion and didn't so much as look at the trade view in the last 30 years.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 22:06
|
|
|
My 3-4-5 heir died. I was sad. Fernando is going to die, isn't he 
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 22:14
|
|
|
Cynic Jester posted:My 3-4-5 heir died. I was sad. Juana II will outlive him since you can't make her a general. And then you'll go into interregnum.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 22:24
|
|
|
vyelkin posted:I play with lucky nations off and France and the Ottomans are military powerhouses and Spain and Portugal are dominant colonial powers. And the occasional game where one of those things isn't true just makes it more interesting. Yes, it is just more likely that situation will occur with lucky nations. Cynic Jester posted:My 3-4-5 heir died. I was sad. Just don't let him go hunting and he'll be fine. Don't find solace in the arms of the maid.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 22:25
|
|
|
10 minutes later: This game 
Cynic Jester fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Sep 25, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 22:25
|
|
|
TorakFade posted:Will try to assess the situation and kick their rear end if possible then, I need the cash. Plus expanding into the balkans would be great - as long as I don't incur any AE towards German minors, Milan or Savoy I could easily swipe quite a bit of land, as Reformed I can basically ignore religious differences with heretics, Hungary is already my (defensive) ally, Serbia isn't all that threatening and Venice gets to be wiped off the map if they dare annoy me. I would finish off Venice and get Ragusa. German minors won't give a poo poo about you pushing into the Balkans, AE is based on distance, culture, and religion. Pushing around Slavic and Orthodox Serbia won't much bother anyone in the HRE. I would say Genoa is a better home node than Venice. Venice is also pretty easy to completely dominate and you're almost there. Grab Ragusa and steer Ragusa -> Genoa with some ships. Send a merchant to collect in Venice if you don't have one there already, you take -50% trade power for collecting a non-home node but you should have a huge share there anyway so whatever. Edit: also why I was saying go for the Balkans is specifically because you were worried about AE and coalitions. One of the reason you can get so huge playing Ottomans is you can alternate conquests between Christians in the West and Muslims in the East and neither one gives a poo poo about the AE you generate against the other. Opening up another front of expansion (which you can grab the sweet trade from) in the Balkans lets you do something while waiting between Italian conquests. Italy is slow and expensive to conquer. Pellisworth fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Sep 25, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 22:29
|
|
|
Cynic Jester posted:10 minutes later: I CANT SEE poo poo.jpg
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 22:29
|
|
|
Node posted:I CANT SEE poo poo.jpg I have no idea what you're talking about. (stupid photobucket autoresize)
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 22:30
|
|
|
Cynic Jester posted:10 minutes later: I hope to god you inherit Burgundy next.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 22:37
|
|
|
BabyFur Denny posted:Persia will most likely just convert back to Shia, they have an event/decision for that. At least in my experience it was pointless trying to keep Persia Sunni, and together with the historical enemies modifier I actually regretted vassalising them as Ottoman quite quickly. Much easier to just use the oversees discount to grab and core their provinces yourself. I must be a lucky SOB because my Persia happily took religious ideas and converted every province to Sunni. Their independence desire was at 100%+ for about 40 years before my expansion, integrating other vassals, event liberty desire tick down, and finishing influence ideas now they sit comfortably at ~20-40% liberty desire mostly depending on my overextension at the time. The only reason I haven't continued is that I haven't touched the colonizers at all and I finished Sultanate of Rum and kinda lost steam.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2015 22:41
|
|
|
For gently caress's sake. Please, delete the diplomacy menu - enter = press yes. I was waiting for my truce to end, ready to press "yes to war". A few notifications popped up and I pressed enter to dismiss them - turns out enter doesn't go to the highest menu but prioritises the diplo menu. 5 stab down the toilet and a bunch of people pissed off at me. Thanks, UI.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2015 00:29
|
|
|
Should religious ideas be my first pick as Byz if I'm going for Basileus? I kind of want to go maritime, mediocre as it is, so that I can compete with Venice for galleys without taking out fifteen loans.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2015 01:11
|
|
|
How exactly does The Shadow Kingdom work? Do all of the provinces have to be in the empire or will a member of the empire owning a province prevent it from happening? Am I screwed here basically: 
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2015 01:18
|
|
|
skasion posted:Should religious ideas be my first pick as Byz if I'm going for Basileus? I kind of want to go maritime, mediocre as it is, so that I can compete with Venice for galleys without taking out fifteen loans. Nah, Byz gets a fat +3% Missionary Strength from their NIs and you can get tons more from Patriarch Authority and decisions. Reconquering Jerusalem and Mecca will also give you +1 Missionary each. Religious isn't terrible because the CB is going to be useful for you, but the actual conversion bonuses are super overkill. Maritime is alright but keep in mind there's +25% naval forcelimits in Quantity which will help. However, galleys are really cheap, and if you're already struggling financially to compete with Venice, the small discounts from Maritime are not going to catch you up. A lot of the Maritime bonuses are geared toward steering trade with light ships. Trade would actually not be a bad pick, you're unlikely to get much in the way of bonus merchants from trade companies or colonial nations, but you will really benefit from steering Asian trade home. I personally would not take Trade as an early pick, I would still grab Influence to aid expansion. However, I think you will probably get more bang out of Trade than Maritime. Edit: DeeEmTee posted:How exactly does The Shadow Kingdom work? Do all of the provinces have to be in the empire or will a member of the empire owning a province prevent it from happening? Am I screwed here basically:
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2015 01:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 20:44 |
|
|
So, uh, if you integrate a nation that has a colonial nation in the same region as one of your pre-existing ones, what happens to it? Does it get released?
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2015 01:48
|
|