Featuring a distinctively maritime theme, the latest EU IV expansion has come ashore. The plunder it brings includes a comprehensive free patch that should shake up things for all players.
Mare Nostrum is the first expansion for EU IV this year and it sports a few features such as a naval mission system, trade leagues, Barbary pirates raids and more in-depth espionage. Players are also given the ability to rent their armies out as mercenaries during peacetime; the condottierri system should help rulers keep their armies from being too idle and make a little money on the side. The more unscrupulous players will be able to play off two sides and keep the conflict going by switching sides if the war is going too well for your employer.
While proxy warfare is always neat, the thing that has most caught my eye is the inclusion of the timeline feature. It’s a simple enough premise: there’s now a button that lets you watch how the world changed over the game. Watching empires rise and fall around the map is a rather neat way to cap an interesting game.
The release also comes with a sizable patch free to all players which adds a few nifty features. Most noticeably, naval combat has been overhauled and the concept of naval manpower by the way of sailors has been introduced. The map has been touched upon as well, with states and territories added as a new level of organization for provinces. Additionally, reworked and new provinces in areas like Central Africa, Ireland, Scandinavia, Hungary and Russia should make games in those areas more interesting. You can see the full extent of the changes here.
It’s important to note that the 1.16 patch breaks save game compatibility so any players who wish to finish their existing games should opt into the 1.15 branch through Steam.
Personally, I’m more excited about the free features than the DLC this time around. Map changes and cultural tweaks interest me a lot more than expanded naval gameplay and espionage. It’s been nearly 3 years since EU IV launched and, despite hundreds of hours spent in the game, the game still feels fresh because of big patches like these.
You can grab Mare Nostrum from the official Paradox Webshop, Steam or Games Republic. Note that using the Games Republic link will help GOL, as we’ll get a small share of the sale. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Mare Nostrum is the first expansion for EU IV this year and it sports a few features such as a naval mission system, trade leagues, Barbary pirates raids and more in-depth espionage. Players are also given the ability to rent their armies out as mercenaries during peacetime; the condottierri system should help rulers keep their armies from being too idle and make a little money on the side. The more unscrupulous players will be able to play off two sides and keep the conflict going by switching sides if the war is going too well for your employer.
While proxy warfare is always neat, the thing that has most caught my eye is the inclusion of the timeline feature. It’s a simple enough premise: there’s now a button that lets you watch how the world changed over the game. Watching empires rise and fall around the map is a rather neat way to cap an interesting game.
The release also comes with a sizable patch free to all players which adds a few nifty features. Most noticeably, naval combat has been overhauled and the concept of naval manpower by the way of sailors has been introduced. The map has been touched upon as well, with states and territories added as a new level of organization for provinces. Additionally, reworked and new provinces in areas like Central Africa, Ireland, Scandinavia, Hungary and Russia should make games in those areas more interesting. You can see the full extent of the changes here.
It’s important to note that the 1.16 patch breaks save game compatibility so any players who wish to finish their existing games should opt into the 1.15 branch through Steam.
Personally, I’m more excited about the free features than the DLC this time around. Map changes and cultural tweaks interest me a lot more than expanded naval gameplay and espionage. It’s been nearly 3 years since EU IV launched and, despite hundreds of hours spent in the game, the game still feels fresh because of big patches like these.
You can grab Mare Nostrum from the official Paradox Webshop, Steam or Games Republic. Note that using the Games Republic link will help GOL, as we’ll get a small share of the sale. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Segata Sanshiro Apr 5, 2016
QuoteWhile proxy warfare is always neat, the thing that has most caught my eye is the inclusion of the timeline feature. It’s a simple enough premise: there’s now a button that lets you watch how the world changed over the game. Watching empires rise and fall around the map is a rather neat way to cap an interesting game.
That certainly is cool. Surprised they never thought of doing this before, it's something I've always wanted and I've had to do online through third parties.
Do you not worry with the massive amount of DLC that the HoI and Victoria will be a little barebones when they're out? I mean the old HoI for instance allowed you to play into the cold war, and that's gone now, presumably to be added later as DLC. I preferred the old system of two or three big DLC and then the little optional extras like unit skins for people who want them.
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I like what paradox is doing with this game, there is payed content with the DLCs, but there is also plenty of free content like the new provinces in Africa and the new naval combat system . The game gets more dept with every patch they bring to this game :).
I will buy this DLC in the games republic store ofc :)
I will buy this DLC in the games republic store ofc :)
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Quoting: Segata SanshiroDo you not worry with the massive amount of DLC that the HoI and Victoria will be a little barebones when they're out? I mean the old HoI for instance allowed you to play into the cold war, and that's gone now, presumably to be added later as DLC. I preferred the old system of two or three big DLC and then the little optional extras like unit skins for people who want them.
Actually, the Cold War was added in the second HoI 2 expansion. And it wasn't around for either 1 or 3. I wouldn't be too worried about HoI4 being bare bones given what they've shown with the various press releases, let's plays and their weekly multiplayer games.
I prefer the new system of DLC because I can just skip what I don't want and still have the latest game version and free patch content. I haven't felt that any of their sequels have been dumbed down, generally. I felt that CK2, EU IV and Vicky 2 had a good amount of content at launch. Some of their experiments like Sengoku and March of Eagles on the other hand...
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Segata Sanshiro Apr 5, 2016
Quoting: BTREI prefer the new system of DLC because I can just skip what I don't want.
See, I don't prefer it because I'm incapable of doing that :'(. I see a Paradox expansion and I have to buy it, 9/10 full price as well. It just always seems essential for some reason haha.
With HoI I guess I remember it that way because I bought HoI 2 with all the expansions (or at least the cold war one), so that's why I thought it was the base game (and that this was around 10 years ago now). Never owned 3 because it's my least favourite series tbh, but I'll get 4 and see if I can get into it..
But yeah, I agree that all the games had a good amount of content at launch, I guess I'm more concerned that they might get tempted some day. It's a pretty fine line.
Last edited by Segata Sanshiro on 5 April 2016 at 11:48 pm UTC
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QuoteI guess I'm more concerned that they might get tempted some day. It's a pretty fine line.Yeah, I hear ya. I'll definitely call them out when/if that ever happens. Sometimes I think that the DLC should be slightly cheaper, maybe $5 less. Which is why I usually skip the cosmetic DLC until it's discounted. But then again, things are worth what people will pay for and apparently each expansion has done better than the last.
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NovenTheHero Apr 6, 2016
Welp, this put me over 2200 hours on EU4. I almost have 3000 hours on CK2 (2991).
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Mountain Man Apr 7, 2016
Paradox is frequently criticized for the amount of DLC they release, and to be fair, for anybody who's looking at these titles for the first time, seeing over $200 worth of DLC can be a bit shocking, but I think they're one of the few companies to actually do DLC right. There aren't many developers who actively support their products for years after release.
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As much as I love Paradox games. They could at least try to fix the absolutely broken cross platform multiplayer. Wanted to try the new changes with some friends last night. Three Windows people and me with Linux. I was basically out of sync straight after unpausing every time we tried. Had to go back and use wine to play EU4. That kind of sucked. Especially since they probably won't convert soon after seeing that it didn't work because of me.
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