With the release of the excellent Crusader Kings 3 and Victoria 3, we got to thinking about the next instalment of the Europa Universalis franchise. While there’s been no official announcement we can safely predict that they’re at least planning Europa Universalis 5.
So, without further ado, we present what we would like to see from EU5. Feel free to add your opinions in the comments as we’d love to hear from other EU players about what they’d personally like to see.
Europa Universalis 5 - A Better DLC Policy
This is the number one complaint of virtually every player of EU4, and while we appreciate the continued support over the years and the free patches that come with each release, there is a lot to complain about. Yes, Paradox needs to make money to continue backing the game, but do they have to charge extra for a few sprites or alter the base game to hurt the player experience if they haven’t bought the latest?
Europa Universalis 5 - A Better Tutorial
Something they have already learnt with CK3 is that a good tutorial is worth its weight in gold. Getting new players into the grand strategy behemoths that make up the Paradox lineup is always going to be a challenge but having a way to say “just try it” and knowing that the game will take care of the basics would help hook people in.
Europa Universalis 5 - Streamlined UI with the CK3 tooltip system
Much of what we’d love to see can be taken straight from their most recent release. CK3 introduced the clearest and most understandable layout of any game they’ve made. Even just the ability to have multiple windows open was a useful change, but the tooltips are genuinely the most effective way we’ve seen of getting across the complexity of a grand strategy game, all available exactly as and when you need the info.
Europa Universalis 5 - Better Events
The flavour events in EU4 have always irked plenty of people, with everything from cost scaling for balance leading to players paying triple their GDP because they’d been saving up for a few years, to events mocking their mob of an army because they had Quantity ideas… even as their army has the highest professionalism in the world. Balance is important, but the flavour text should fit the cost, otherwise - and ironically - it just feels cheap.
This next suggestion may not be to everyone’s taste, but the branching events in Stellaris added a lot of weight to the world and made you feel the outcomes were at least partly down to your choices. A single sprawling multi-layered event could take the place of half a dozen lacklustre ones and also make for a more enjoyable long game where you don’t keep seeing the same handful of flavour.
Europa Universalis 5 - More Mod Integration
Paradox titles rely on mods and many players won’t game without them. They increase replayability and often solve various issues introduced by the developers, letting you tailor your experience how you like it. The support is already here, and their games are some of the easiest to mod full-stop, but lots of people won’t consider playing with them, partly due to the restriction on achievements.
Now, we aren’t suggesting that achievements be possible with all mods - too many people would cheat to get them - but as we’ve already seen, Paradox is willing to build mod features into the base game rules. We’d like to see this happen more often so that all players, regardless of whether they want achievements, can enjoy the creativity of the community.
Europa Universalis 5 - A Complete Release
Not only did CK3 do a fantastic job of building in many of the features from years of CK2 DLC, but it also felt like a fully functional game right from the start. This is in direct contrast to the Imperator: Rome release that received some of the worst user reviews we’ve ever seen for months after it came out. It appears Paradox learnt their lesson though, and we hope that any EU5 will take heed.
Europa Universalis 5 - Better AI
The Holy Grail of game development and one that must be a thousand times harder when simulating the real world with all its complexity. Diplomacy with an AI is always fraught with bugs and their strategic decisions often leave you scratching your head, and we don’t think anyone expects AI to ever be really good at grand strategy games. However, making them feel more lifelike would be a step in the right direction and Paradox already have the tools to improve it.
Each character in CK3 has their own goals and these can change either in their lifetimes or over multiple generations. Bringing something like this into the behind-the-scenes calculations for EU5 would add life to the nations. Having their politics and ambitions shift from decade to decade could keep you on your toes far more than knowing everyone will always want more and your neighbour will always hate you over border tension, regardless of anything else.
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