Paradox Development Studio have released another big free content update to the empire building game Europa Universalis IV.
The 1.29 Manchu update went live yesterday with these headlining additions:
- More detailed northeast Asian map: New provinces and greater historical fidelity to Manchuria and Mongolia.
- Empire of China rebalance: The Celestial Throne should be something worth fighting for! New challenges in holding the title, but great bonuses for a wise emperor that can keep the Middle Kingdom together.
- Increased dynamism in the Ming Empire: Changes to meritocracy and the Mandate encourage a more challenging and less static Ming experience.
- New Historical Events: Flavor events and new event chains that add greater depth and context to Ming and Manchu development through the game.
- Host can now be observer in multiplayer games
- Added Korean mission tree with 27 missions in total
- 64bit only now
There's quite a lot more to it including plenty of balance changes and bug fixes. See all about it here.
Much like what happened with the Prison Architect update, the Linux version does have some issues due to the new Paradox Launcher. If it doesn't work for you, try this as a launch option on Steam (right click -> "Properties" -> "Set Launch Options…"):
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libc.so.6 %command%
If you wish to bypass the launcher entirely, you can do so quite easily just by launching EU IV directly. To find the installed folder, right click on the game and go to "Properties" and then -> hit the "Local Files" tab and press "Browse Local Files…". Then just run the "eu4" file.
You can pick up Europa Universalis IV from Humble Store and Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
So it is possible to skip the launcher? Very good news! I hate launchers. I can't understand why executives waste hundreds of manhours into "features" that detract value from their products.
Regarding the update, it's a small one. The big one will arrive later this year. Apparently at Paradox they started to listen and decided to make only a single DLC this year in order to focus on fixing the game. Much to my satisfaction.
Regarding the update, it's a small one. The big one will arrive later this year. Apparently at Paradox they started to listen and decided to make only a single DLC this year in order to focus on fixing the game. Much to my satisfaction.
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Philadelphus Sep 18, 2019
Sounds like on the forums that the new launcher…er, launch has been pretty rough—lots of people reporting being unable to launch the launcher from Steam (though launching the game directly from the executable works fine), or problems with it not recognizing owned DLC or mods not working. (Though to be fair, the reports of problems seem to be pretty evenly split between Linux, Mac, and Windows, so it's not just a Linux issue.) I'm a fan of Paradox, and understand bugs get missed sometimes, but…oof. This sounds like it really should've spent some more time in QA. Anyway, if you're thinking of trying the new update, maybe just do some reading to see what to expect, or hold off for the next hotfix patch that hopefully fixes the issues.
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Quoting: MalSo it is possible to skip the launcher? Very good news! I hate launchers. I can't understand why executives waste hundreds of manhours into "features" that detract value from their products.
Regarding the update, it's a small one. The big one will arrive later this year. Apparently at Paradox they started to listen and decided to make only a single DLC this year in order to focus on fixing the game. Much to my satisfaction.
In this case, the launcher will eventually allow for better mod management and mods across various stores (instead of being tied to the Steam workshop), among other things.
Being more cynical, it is easy to understand: while it creates some inconvenience for users, it is pretty valuable as a marketing tool.
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Quoting: eldakingQuoting: MalSo it is possible to skip the launcher? Very good news! I hate launchers. I can't understand why executives waste hundreds of manhours into "features" that detract value from their products.
Regarding the update, it's a small one. The big one will arrive later this year. Apparently at Paradox they started to listen and decided to make only a single DLC this year in order to focus on fixing the game. Much to my satisfaction.
In this case, the launcher will eventually allow for better mod management and mods across various stores (instead of being tied to the Steam workshop), among other things.
Being more cynical, it is easy to understand: while it creates some inconvenience for users, it is pretty valuable as a marketing tool.
You're not being cynical. All the features "packed" in the launcher (mods, dlc and such) could have been easily integrated in the main game GUI. Even more so for EU4 that already has to restart every time you change any kind of setting or option (and I really mean any kind, like switching to a different save game... and good for us that the linux version starts in mere seconds. Windows guys have to wait minutes every time!).
The only reason why some black suit decided that you have to click the game icon to launch a launcher which then requires you to click an icon of the game to actually launch the game instead of allowing you to do the obvious thing i.e. click the game icon to launch the actual game, is precisely to run ads of their others game in your face every time.
If they just showed some banner in the game loading screen or main menu instead of getting out of their way just to multiply the clicks needed for one single action I wouldn't care. But no! If you don't specialize in annoying the entitled gamer you won't make it to a publisher board room.
But yeah, launchers became the norm for publishers long ago. Paradox is just catching up. I'm just ranting for nothing. :) Maybe one day they will learn from mobiles experts not just the shit also the useful things like the art of designing effective GUIs. Or maybe not. It's just a click right?
At least the actual game continues getting better and better.
Last edited by Mal on 18 September 2019 at 12:56 pm UTC
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Whatever the intent behind the launcher, most of these issues EUIV is experiencing have been around since the launcher was included with Imperator at release. That Paradox have expanded the launcher to EUIV without fixing those or properly testing beforehand is pretty appalling.
Last edited by Supay on 18 September 2019 at 7:21 pm UTC
Last edited by Supay on 18 September 2019 at 7:21 pm UTC
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Btw my eu4 now doesn't start even by starting directly the game executable. It crashes soon after the loading screen. My plan has always been to rename the game executable like the launcher executable and live happily thereafter. But at Pdx they are always one step ahead... they fixed a lot of game backlog so the game runs better. But you can't benefit from it if you can't even start the game. :D
But there are also good news! The launcher actually works! Except when I start it from Steam ofc. Oddly enough there are no links to buy their other games. I was expecting "a buy everything we sell" a la Battle.net. Instead it's just an uglier and non functional version of the previous one. I'm confused by this move.
But there are also good news! The launcher actually works! Except when I start it from Steam ofc. Oddly enough there are no links to buy their other games. I was expecting "a buy everything we sell" a la Battle.net. Instead it's just an uglier and non functional version of the previous one. I'm confused by this move.
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Philadelphus Sep 19, 2019
Supposedly they've got got an internal fix for the Linux/Mac issues with the launcher not launching from Steam already, hopefully the sheer number of other important bug reports doesn't keep it from being delayed too long. :|
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I have not played EU4 in a while (and waiting for Imperator to go on sale, despite having an unusually positive view of it) so I haven't tested the launcher. But it seems like it was released a bit rushed? Last I tried it was a standalone beta that could install Stellaris and it worked but was a bit barebones, and obviously a work in progress. I was actually quite happy they had released a working beta for Linux so early. But the actual release (with a much larger install base) seems buggy even for Windows...
I also had a shower thought recently that the big issue with recent games isn't spurious launchers, but spurious main menus. We already have launchers that allow us to select mods, load saves directly, change settings (even better, before loading the main software where those will apply so no restarting), and so on. Having an in-game main menu looks like a waste. (I was thinking particularly about what @Mal mentioned, that EU4 already needs to reopen the game to load saves)
I also had a shower thought recently that the big issue with recent games isn't spurious launchers, but spurious main menus. We already have launchers that allow us to select mods, load saves directly, change settings (even better, before loading the main software where those will apply so no restarting), and so on. Having an in-game main menu looks like a waste. (I was thinking particularly about what @Mal mentioned, that EU4 already needs to reopen the game to load saves)
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Quoting: eldakingI also had a shower thought recently that the big issue with recent games isn't spurious launchers, but spurious main menus. We already have launchers that allow us to select mods, load saves directly, change settings (even better, before loading the main software where those will apply so no restarting), and so on. Having an in-game main menu looks like a waste. (I was thinking particularly about what @Mal mentioned, that EU4 already needs to reopen the game to load saves)
That reminds me of the old worms 2 launcher. Which was in fact the game menu. It works. If the menu is in the launcher there are no useless buttons or clicks in the way.
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Almost related, but was I the only one who didn't know that Groogy (one of the public-facing devs) works and plays on Linux?
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