EVERYTHING We Know About EU5 So Far!

Europa Universalis V has not been announced officially yet, but it's fair to say that the cat is out of the bag - the game is coming and it is being developed by Paradox Tinto under the supervision of Johan Andersson!
I condensed all of the info we have on the game so far be it about the design, the start date, the map or the population system!
00:00 Intro
00:35 General info (Tinto, No Announcement, Tinto Talks)
01:30 The Design Of The Game (When To Announce Things, No Mana, Game Pillars)
04:30 The Map of the Game (Projection, Provinces, Terrain Values)
11:50 Population! (Is It A Board Game?, Pop Attributes And Types)
19:33 Start Date?
21:15 Other Johan Responses!
22:10 Can EU5 Convince EU4 Players To Jump Games? (Let me know your thoughts!)
#eu5

[@OneProudBavarian]

What does EU5 need to do to pull you in if EU4 with its 10+ years of content is out there already?

[@DisEkript]

Basically make it a different game. I don't want to wait another 3-5 years of DLCs until it becomes as content-heavy as EU4. I'm not talking about just shoving half of EU4's DLC mechanics into base EU5. I mean some drastic changes, because after thousands of hours put in EU4 - I no longer desire for an experience like it. Sure, you could say to me - just play a different game, then. But this is what I would need from EU5 to lure me in, otherwise I probably won't play it more than a few hours on release.

[@geminusleonem9365]

Pops is a good start. Having a victoria-lite version of the economy with imperator-like combat would be a perfect.

[@pel027]

honestly, the imperator/viki2 style pop system and performance being better than meiou&taxes 3.0 for eu4 will be enough for me to immediately switch over to eu5 when it releases. imperator is easily my 2nd favourite pdx game in vanilla, after stellaris, so they already have me

[@aapjeaaron]

Be released? I haven't played EUIV in 4 years.

[@earlofdoncaster5018]

I really want a game where I play as a ruler not an omniscient logistics factotum.

[@Destragond]

An important life lesson for me has become: "Never be hyped about an unreleased Paradox product."

[@inquerion8867]

+1. Let's wait for the release and player reviews.

[@whyguy12]

I agree with you mostly. I think CK3 actually did a half decent job at release. It wasn’t perfect but it was definitely playable and replayable.

[@ErnestIsGaming]

Not just that. The key to buying pdx product is to wait until a year or so after release. Let patches and sales come in.

[@thefinal9923]

​@@ErnestIsGaming I absolutely understand this take, it's perfectly valid. That said, I always preorder the Paradox games I love (CK, Victoria, EU, etc). To me, there's something about experiencing the bare-bones basic level of the game that makes the first 3 years so enjoyable as the game really comes into it's own. CK3 has NOT disappointed me once, even with a lot of people disappointed by slow DLC and the Royal Court kind of being a flop.

[@erikosericos8271]

never by hyped about an unreleased paradox product because a guy on the internet told you the game's unplayable, akshually

[@theicepickthatkilledtrotsk658]

That population system is a thing of beauty.

[@LuisHernandez-bl7jd]

That’s why I liked playing the meiou mod

[@theicepickthatkilledtrotsk658]

@@LuisHernandez-bl7jd What we know, it seems they are taking a lot of inspiration from Meiou. Never expected that to happen.

[@dr.vikyll7466]

​@@theicepickthatkilledtrotsk658 lets just hope they dont take inspiration from meiou for the optimisation

[@zack2804]

@@dr.vikyll7466 Unlikely. It will probably look like a combination of Victoria 3 and CK3.

[@redryan20000]

It seems like Religion, Trade, and the "Estates" should be front and center for EU5.

[@fish5671]

march of eagles 2 be looking good

[@Zyhmet]

I dont think the Siberia sentence is correct at 7:40 Region sizes will still be vastly different. BUT they will contantly increase from the small towards the big ones. What the sentence is saying, is that there is no little Lichtenstein inside a massive Siberia province. Province A is 1km² then the next one can be 3km³ and the one next to it will be 9km² -> So the area between Germany and Russia will change up a lot in province sizes imo.

[@Hourai]

Personally EU5 will be a day-one buy for me because it appears that they're going to be doing something that is highly transformative from EU4. It looks more like V2 to V3 than it does EU3 to EU4. I hung around EU3 for a year after EU4's release because EU4 was a very "safe" game, it was mechanically almost the same game as EU3, and it wasn't until the ball got rolling on updates that EU4 started to develop an identity of its own. The fact that EU5 is making such massive changes to the core of the game (the introduction of pops, the changes to map layout, the introduction of climatological elements, and even less significant things like the different start date) makes me feel like it'll have a distinct identity on release. Like you I fell off of EU4 around 2018, though, so I don't have much impetus to hang around EU4 regardless.

[@JaKingScomez]

Embarrassing

[@belphegor_tv]

Despite what this clickbait video says, we know absolutely NOTHING about EU5 because it hasn't been announced. And given PDX's track record, it's going to be a an empty, boring game at launch.

[@ultraflopp2802]

@@belphegor_tvthe EU is their flagman, this is their capital ship and after several failures also an only hope. They cannot afford themselves a mistake and furthermore there wouldn’t be a mistake if we acknowledge how high the stakes are

[@gt2721]

EUV needs similar "estates" mechanics to those in Meiou and Taxes. EUV also needs anti-blobbing mechanics, something like communication efficiency (again, it's in meiou) would be great : you would be able to increase it by building roads, ports, and capitols etc...

[@croisaor2308]

MEIOU and Taxes for me is the perfect GS game mechanically, but it's basically unplayable. It lacks polish and accessibility due to it being a complex mod over an already complex game. The fact they managed to fit all those mechanics on top of EU4 at all is already a miracle. Paradox literally just needs to polish the blueprint M&T established and EU5 will be the best game they've made.

[@henryspace_]

If there is one thing I really want, it's a robust trade system that isn't necessarily Eurocentric.

[@spacecalifornian7924]

same, that plus a solid population system is what I want

[@JaKingScomez]

This guy doesn’t want the game Eurocentric when the game is called Europa Universalis😭

[@nevets2371]

@@JaKingScomez trade specifically, China profited massively from the Spanish colonization of the Americas, as that's where much of the silver mined in Argentina and Mexico ended up.

[@JaKingScomez]

@@nevets2371 you know who else profited massively from Spanish colonization of the Americas?

[@darmocat]

It would be interesting if trade routes were dynamic. What if instead of fixed end nodes; Nodes could become end nodes either by decisions or by "maximum trade steering to here" or something

[@maxraynard8433]

Procrastinating updating Victoria tweaks mod

[@giannis_m]

Truly a man of the people

[@TheBeomoose]

My Day 1 Jump incentive is something like an improved version of Imperator's character system. EUIV's always driven me a bit nuts with how poorly it handles characters, it's a game about nations but if you're going to have stuff like succession wars and leader stats buffing (or crippling) your nation then I want a character system that's interesting to interact with. I don't need the level of fidelity CK3 offers where I'm choosing what hat Charles The Bold is wearing, I have Ck3 mods for that, but I DO want him to be something more than just a name in a box.

[@Lancor84]

I'm on the fence here because the implementation in IR wasn't my taste. But I get what you are saying, that we don't have enough control over characters in EU4. For a game that heavily features feudalism and monarchies we should be able to play around with heritage and public opinion, as well as the actual power of the leader. In Eu4 this is basically all summarized under the 3 mana types, which is just sad.

[@TheBeomoose]

@@Lancor84 yes, I mentioned IR because of Johan and because I didn't want to seem to be asking for CK3's system in EU. But the game of thrones is still such a big part of the EU era I really want something much more than we can get in EUIV

[@paulie-g]

@@TheBeomooseA game can not be good to play if it has too many foci/separate game loops. The trick here would be to introduce more options, flavour and agency without shifting the focus too much - we have the CK series for people who are interested in that particular thing. I also have a bit of a problem with the tension that exists already, and would be exacerbated by such a system: a bad roll introduces far too much RNG for my liking. You absolutely need excellent rulers as it's the most historically accurate and reasonable way to model how history unfolded, and probably even bad ones for NPC countries for the same reason. What I don't want is having to either ruin my playthrough or ruin my immersion by reloading with bad RNG, especially if it's ahistorical for various reasons (plenty of countries where a tragically bad ruler would not inherit for various reasons that aren't modeled in the game).

[@nathanmcfarland3568]

I really hope that the currents change with the year, seasons are so important historically and this period saw some pretty dramatic climactic change (imagine being able to set the world to warm up or get colder over the course of the game, having historical climate change or have random climactic change in a future DLC), having to pay attention to the times of year when launching colonial expeditions could be neat.

[@Abd121]

as a guy who did one culture mayan pirate republic Ryukyu, I'd say EU5 would have never been able to beat EU4 at being a board game so I'm glad they're going in an entirely diffrent direction, they'll be making a new type of game instead of being a bettwe looking but hollow EU4

[@plebisMaximus]

Exactly. EU4 is the ultimate board game with the decade of continued development. Trying to make that, but more modern would've flopped something fierce. I'm actually cautiously excited to see how this project ends up.

[@TMThesaurus]

They really need to start releasing their games in Early Access. Right now, their two goals (announce as late into the development cycle as possible and get more feedback on their design) are in tension.

[@neritos1995]

Thanks for the wonderful video 😊 As someone who has played EU4 for just under 5k hours… There are a few things I would like to see in EU5. 1. Development and some buildings are shown on the map. Take inspiration from games like Shogun 2, where there are buildings placed outside the major cities and these could be tied to for example resources, choke points, etc. 2. A much more in-depth economy/development system. I am not asking for Victoria 3 that game already exists. But it would be nice to see buildings and units costing other resources than just generic gold. Perhaps a light version of something like Stronghold Crusader could be achievable. 3. Armies/navies: In EU4 we just research tech and select the next unit from a list and wait a few months for the morale to recover, not very engaging in my opinion. How about tech granting us new equipment we can use in an “army designer” to create our own units. These units could have their equipment not just change their stats and roles but also their unit models on the map. If you, for example, research the first level of guns and you choose to equip your armies with them you see your units on the map carrying guns. This could also tie into the economic system mentioned above where the armaments cost will increase. 4. Building and improving infrastructure should be important to grow your population, facilitate trade/colonies, station/move armies/navies. How about not being able to station 300 Carracks in a random “port” in Greenland. Force limits/supply limits could also be tied to this system alongside your ability to fund said armies/navies. Sorry for the wall of text ☹

[@jRsqILVOY]

I really hope they add logistics like Shadow Empire, so you can't just run stacks around enemy territory, but need to have roads and continuous control to supply them. This would also naturally solve border-gore, and disconnected provinces could not be supplied (or return goods to the capital / armies).

[@weepingbelle4528]

to your question at the end of the video: there's really *nothing* they could do to make me pick up eu5 day one. the mountain of content in eu4 (plus the wave of rocky launches paradox has had recently) means that pretty much no matter what project caesar ends up being, im gonna be waiting a bit before buying in.

[@JoeBurner1720]

That’s chill but for me that’s a reason to get it. I never really got in eu4 and learned it, and when i tried there was so much w all the dlcs and the longer i waited the worse it got. Once this drops it will be a fresh start and won’t be as intimidating

[@doneuplikeakipper6512]

Good for your. Personally i dont care about 90% of the EU4 Ccontent after having played the game for 11 years so yes i will be picking up eu5 the very second it is released even if not a single country has content

[@Everest3000]

I’d buy and play it. So I could follow through the mechanics each major update or DLC release. Learning EU4 with all the DLCs was one of the most painful experiences ever.

[@stevensheeran9069]

I agree with your point. But EU4 has always been my least favourite paradox game. I really hate the mana system so I'm really interested in a new game that doesn't feature it

[@shulululala3426]

The population is already something that will make me play the game, it was something I wanted in eu4 eversince I saw it in imperator. The second thing I want to see is a more accurate HRE and that expension in western europe should be way more focused on diplomacy than conquest

[@Lancor84]

For that I would like something like the victoria 3 pre-war system where diplomacy turns into warfare in a fluid system. But they should also allow surprise attacks.

[@thegreatdodo5092]

No Matter what they do, the game will release and 95% of the people will trash it saying there's no content because it has less than EU4 and the reviews will be shit and everyone will go crazy how bad PDX is etc. Look at CK3, VIC3, CS2..

[@johnlienhart2717]

I use achievements as goals for my campaign, to keep me interested, but I also love using mission trees to guide me while building a powerbase, or waiting during the in between of wars that directly progress my achievement, or even just as a secondary goal. The more modern missions trees, with requirements related to buildings, economics, culture, trade goods, etc. are fantastic in this regard. So I do hope that there are good mission trees included in the base game.

[@JeanLucPicard85]

Funny how a "failed" game is influencing EU5 so much. Imperator truly is a...paradox.

[@Augustus_Imperator]

It's a very difficult task for paradox to stand up to eu4 with 5, for how I see it they have one only way forward: port eu4 and all the dlcs into eu5 world, and then build from there. It would translate almost instantly 90% of the EU4 players to EU5, otherwise they will have a very difficult time trying to convince people who have 40 dlcs on a game switch to the same game without dlc and asking them money for it

[@geokou7645]

That Byzantium in the Timelapse came back so hard

[@richardleavelle3386]

With the granularity of locations, do you think EU5 will manage to include just about every single HRE polity?

[@Einulf_]

O m g😅

[@malgtuzi5020]

Even Wikipedia doesn’t include all of them. You have to cycle between the English, French, Dutch, German, and Czech language versions to even get most of them. Paradox would have to seriously up their level of research to do that, nonetheless add flavor to all of them.

[@Name-bf4ko]

Everyone's CPU is going to explode lol

[@noreturn2231]

*laughs in Volaire's Nightmare*

[@karlpeterson3748]

I really like the mission system in eu4, and I think the dynamic missions of lions of the north (along with future dlcs) has been a huge step forward. I would really hope that if missions return in eu5, they are given to many countries or they make the generic missions much longer. One of my biggest wishes has been even more dynamic missions much like we got in the estate overhaul. For example, historically Russian expansion has been partially driven by a desire to trade and access warm water ports, and while going to the pacific and black sea’s are what was done historically, instead of having missions to “conquer crimea” or “establish Vladivostok,” it would give us a more general direction. It might be easier to take Crimea like Russia did in real life, but if I want to wage a decade long fight against German states in the Baltic for my warm water port, it should also count as fulfillment for missions. This would add so much replayability and make me feel like I was actually deciding the direction I wanted my country to take and less like a simulation

[@phluphie]

I've found mission trees to be extremely helpful in learning the game.

[@Nesta4815]

I watch a few other Pardox KZbinrs and they've all made this same video, but I only clicked on yours. Love your style

[@dynasty6927]

The unique mission trees and achievements are my favorite part of EU4 .They give me goals and direction, and theyre the reason I play EU more than any other pdx game. Also the music, unit models, and mechanics are great flavor and all together create awesome immersion.

[@christianalsakerhenriksen1489]

I play Eu4 frequently... What I want this game to carry on, is how you basically can shape the world history while real world history unfolds at the same time. I want to have a timeline that I can relate to, but at the same time influence. That's what I miss in for example CK or Imperator. Things just feel messy, and it's not really a clear path all the time. I want a clear goal that I don't have to make up every time.

[@basvriese1934]

For me it really needs two things, good mechanics that get me hooked and enough flavour with the nations so that every playthrough can feel unique. I fear that second part will be quite lacking at launch though

[@Ciech_mate]

Hello, I have never played EU, my first paradox game was ck3 but I amnlooking to expand to something new, so I will be tracking this game for sure.

[@MatthewsPersonal]

The most important aspect of eu4 i want them to keep is the level of accessibility. You can focus on only a few aspects and have a good (if notbas succesful)/time in eu4, or you could look deep into the mechanics to maximize your power and influence over the world. The balance in eu4 is perfect for me.

[@xGhost4000x]

I stopped playing eu4 a while ago. At this point I'm already sold on this new game. It looks great.

[@Hungryboi-ey1ct]

Eu5 needs to somehow change everything about the game while keeping it familiar as well. I wonder if Paradox can do it.Either way i'm prolly playing it for at least 400-800 hours lol.

[@prazzlerazzle5565]

I stopped playing eu4 clocked in at about 2200 hours rip I'm sure eu5 will blow right on past that

[@Hungryboi-ey1ct]

I'm also pretty sceptical about the complexity and difficulty of the game.EU4 is known for it's ''big empire win against smol empire issue''. I feel like they need to balance bigger nations by adding a system that naturally causes the slow decline of empires, but the system should be counteractable by skilled players . this system would also gradually increase the difficulty of the game, making it so big nations can't win every war, beat every rebel and most importantly stop having fun.Paradox should also make good AI i'm literally begging at this point.

[@al-muwaffaq341]

I got bored of EU4 at 600 hours

[@prazzlerazzle5565]

@@Hungryboi-ey1ct something like that meiou did would be good to implement where the further away a province is from the capital the more autonomous it is and therefore less beneficial to you would hopefully prevent things like French Scandinavia from happening too often

[@Hungryboi-ey1ct]

@@prazzlerazzle5565Really good idea. Solves the problem without nerfing blobbers too much

[@niall2236]

So hyped for EU5. Put in a weird amount of hrs in EU4 and its my most played game. Still not gonna risk pre-ordering, I'm hyped, but still cautious when it comes to Paradox

[@ZeMalta]

I played EU4 for weeks in two different periods, after buying all the 'most important and needed DLC'. Initially, I needed a lot of help, cuz the tutorial left me knowing close to nothing besides reading numbers. Ludi helped a lot, and to some extent his love for the game carried my playthrough for more days (beside my real desire to like the game and value my money spent on it). But, it just feels like a barren calculator boardgame for me, I'm super biased towards more personal, dramatic, and political experience in games. With lots of aesthetic and flair. EU4 had none of it, just Player A, Player B and Money A, Money B. After I played Victoria 3 I felt that there could be compromise. Cuz my Vic3 Nation (and all the very important characters that made the government) had character, it wasn't just a bank of numbers. It had identity, style, dynamics, names and faces. I'm not asking for EU5 to be CK3, but it can learn a lot, as well as (and perhaps specially) from Vic3, more so to me than Imperator (which I like, just can't get into). It seems to be going to route that fulfills my dreams (I love the Era, and not limited to the European continent and sphere), I just need to hear how governments act and how much 'character' does the characters in each nation have. In terms of Characters, I think Vic3 gave them enough, but since we are still in a time (in Eu5) where individual monarchs, councilors and figures could make big changes (or at least protagonize changes), I believe it work very well to have more detail. Even if history isn't moved by individuals.

[@asdfgzxcvb4761]

depending on the date we could really have the ottoblob as the underdog. Even the sound of it is surreal now because of all the past trauma And the thing that would make me buy it is making it hard to expand really fast, maybe not with annoying rebels but more so on autonomy and instead of just waiting for autonomy to go down we can spend resources etc on it or maybe policies to fix autonomy, more work on statework imo would be great

[@TheSlazzer]

Appreciate the little bars at the bottom of the video, allowing to skip through parts of the dev diary I'm less interested in

[@Zwijger]

As always with Paradox games though: let's see the release day product before we believe all of these things will actually be implemented in a satisfying way.

[@NikMukhin]

Considering I was completely disheartened by both CK3 and Vic3, EU 5 will have to be sth truly great. For me the must-haves are robust trade system, improved war mechanics, overall complexity and jointness of mechanics (impact of decisions not just reserved for a few modifiers, but actually interacting with other systems) and the feeling of a living world, other countries striving to do something. The last thing works great in Imperator: observing gauls uniting while you as Venetia keep Romans at bay to later see a mighty Prolemaic empire ready to contest the Mediterranean sea. At the same time having a string of border towns on the Danube slowly grow from border forts to regional centers of power. Both CK3 and Vic3 as well as Stellaris feel very lackluster in that regard, and it's incredibly hard to come up with any sort of lore to weave the result of ingame systems working into one pseudo-historical narrative.

[@NikMukhin]

And I forgot THE most important thing, that even Imperator (despite all my love for it) couldn't do: the name of a country should stretch even across islands, I need not a miniscule joke of a name over Sardinia, Corsica and the Baleares

[@PS-sj5jg]

It looks exciting but I'm pretty cautious about performance, it looks like the pop system has more in common with vicky 3 instead of imperator. especially with the huge amount of provinces. I love victoria 3 but the performance is the biggest thing holding it back. I can easily see this game slow down massively around 100 years in.

[@daelraelra2289]

To answer your questions I would say colonial stuff. Like I my Main point of playing grand strategy game is to create my own empire and I would like to have a lot of depth. Like growing the right cash crop, exploring for getting exotic ressources, managing the logistic between my oversees territory and so on.

[@Zwijger]

Third comment on a single video; but I need to point out how nice the bars on the screen are for skipping though, or even pausing, so you can read and listen at your own pace.

[@hakuz86]

Idea groups and good gameplay :)

[@rickard1290]

After Victoria 3 and CS:2 I have no hope that this will be playable at release.

[@jonbathurst953]

Vic 3 is brilliant now. Amazing game

[@enabled_nonuser]

@@jonbathurst953 I disagree. I think you can only like that game if you already somehow enjoyed from the very beginning. In my opinion, they are building upon a rotten core (and making you pay for it). That will, sadly, never get anywhere.

[@jonbathurst953]

@@enabled_nonuser honestly I love it. It teaches you about governments and economics. Not for everyone though, took me a while to start enjoying it but well worth it.

[@Eltener123]

I really really hope Project Caesar ends up being a new IP so eveyone clickbaiting with "EU5 confirmed" looks like a fool

[@Ezullof]

There's a good chance that it's the spiritual successor to Europa Universalis 4, but bearing another name that is less eurocentric. Maybe just "Universalis".

[@nnaauujjddaa]

I don't know actually. I mean I am excited for EU5, but as you said is gonna take a while for it to catch up to EU4. I am probably gonna take it for a spin to support the game and check it out, but eventually I am probably end up waiting until it gets a few DLCs under its belt.

[@Renan_PS-zt8lm]

So glad that you will be covering EU5 here, I loved your coverage of CK3 and Victoria 3 and was wondering if maybe you not making much EU4 content would lead to you ignoring EU5. Happy to learn my worries were wrong.

[@hevnervals]

I hope EU 5 deals with unrealistic late game blobbing

[@Lancor84]

blobbing in general. Late game blobbing actually makes more sense than early game blobbing.

[@hevnervals]

@@Lancor84 They’re both unrealistic

[@lithunoisan]

@@hevnervals Let a man blob.

[@hevnervals]

@@lithunoisan The AI does it too. Run a campaign with no players and you end up with 3 or 4 giga empires. Very different from the real world in 1836

[@lithunoisan]

@@hevnervals Blobbing rights.

[@miquelnadal9962]

I played a lot of EU4 and although sometimes I still return to the game because of its replayability, for me it has become too abstract compared to other games. If they can make EU5 more immersive from the jump (as CK3 did, in my opinion, not so much for Vic3), I am all for it. Specially if they nail diplomacy and trade, two of the best parts of EU4 in my opinion. And include some nice 1500s start date, not only 1300s.

[@combrade-t]

Thus far, EU5 sounds like it will be really good. A lot of positive lessons seem to be taken from Imperator Rome, which honestly seems like a really good game. (70% Sale until Wednesday, So might pick it up.) Going Towards Imperator's mission tree system also seems like a generally positive change. It has missions that take time, and allowed for different mission trees from the start. It's a huge upgrade from EU4s, even compared to the new DLC mission trees that vary a lot more than those before. As an EU4 Player (albiet not daily, but probably av. like 20 hours past two weeks), I can't really see myself immediatley picking up EU5 and not playing EU4 again. I have not played nearly enough EU4 for my enjoyment of the game to be at all diminished, and even if EU5 is a year down the road I can't see myself having the time to play as much EU4 over the next year as I want, then throw in the final EU4 DLC and the wealth of modded content and yeah. (doesnt help i'm also kinda learning stellaris to play it with friends, oh and because my computer was broken i was unable to play eu4 for like 4 months)

[@ellidominusser1138]

Honestly, I never thought Paradox would actually step away from the Board-game style of EU4 since it kind of set it apart from the others and it's so engraved in it's identity that it would be weird to make it realistic to most, but I love that they actually went with a realistic world, it's what I wanted when I bough EU4

[@primiera1484]

because i'm a total mark for these things the question is less what will make me jump on day 1 and how much reason to go back will there be and considering that "project caesar" has already announced everything i wish was dfferent about eu4, the total conversion mods and maybe multiplayer could keep me coming back to 4

[@AxelVoninski]

Me personally I think that as long as EU5 has the previously mentioned population and trade system with fairly flushed out mission trees for the major (france, austria, england, castille, etc) and interesting nations (byzantium, ottomans, scotland, brandenburg, etc) + some regional mission trees (like for example south german with a catholic-oriented tree and north german with a protestant-oriented tree) id play that nonstop at launch.

[@asgarzigel]

I just hope they manage to make it more approachable without sacrificing depth. A good UI is super important, I played some Imperator recently and how many functions are hidden behind icons that look like other UI elements but are actually buttons... it can be frustrating. I have been getting into the Paradox games relatively recently with CK3 and it is by far the most approachable one due to the character focus being very intuitive imo. Victoria 3 in contrast does have a bit of an abstraction problem, especially regarding warfare, so I hope they don't go that route with EU5.

[@thenutella8846]

I'm so glad they're adding Victoria2 style populations to EU5. It's something I wished for ever since I played Victoria 2 and always bothered me that each province in eu4 only has one culture and that people can't migrate. Now if we could also add in the crusader kings gimmick of having characters that you can personally play as, then I'd be a very happy man.

[@antorseax9492]

24:21 A leviathan, one might say

[@evanmcvann5188]

I'm so excited for this! With so many changes, I do wonder if they'll change the name and not call it "Europa Unversalis 5." I think this would be a good direction to make it less Eurocentric in title. EU4 has come a long way over the years to portray the whole world during this pivotal time.

[@Ryan-mr3zf]

I think the brand recognition is far too strong for them to want to change the name, but an interesting idea

[@guskiezi]

I stopped playing vanilla eu4 like 4 years ago and only played meiou and taxes since then so if things keep going on the complex and simulation side I would hop in day 1 without a doubt.

[@ShadowDragon1848]

I really really really hope that they will make a good base this time. I also hope that they take a very good look on Imperator. I think Imperator has a few nice features which would also work fine for EU.

[@LibertyMonk]

They're pretty clearly recycling a lot of systems and ideas from Imperator into "Project Caesar", then upgrading them.

[@pul0y]

This looks promising. But if I will play the game for long depends on one thing mainly: intuitiveness. I am a new Paradox gaming enthusiast. I got into CK3, EUIV and Vic3 just last year. It isn't surprising then that I jive more with the newer titles as they didn't feel as bloated and gundam hijacking complex at first glance. I started EUIV first but was inundated by all the tabs and buttons. It took playing V3 and CK3 for me to get a feel of their game mechanics by analogy.

[@dogukan127]

Hey OPB - if EU4 felt too abstract, why ddi you not try MEIOU and Taxes mod?

[@sonofquebec]

I'm looking forward to a modernization of EUIV that include a good basis from wich to build upon. A better experience for simulation all around, with better map, a pops system, no mana and better graphc. Like CK3 for exemple. When it came out it didn't had as much content as CK2 but the graphics were way better and character system was amazing. From there, it is easy to build up. EUIV has a ton of content, but the system is quite dated and I'm glad they're upgrading it.

[@Ezullof]

The difference, I think, is that CK is clearly focused on characters and dynasties. So better visuals that show you infos though visuals, and an improved trait system were clearly improvements over CK2. The new religion system, the stress system, it was also just better than CK2. EU is focused on the building of a nation state through the game, following multiple paths (reformation, colonization, imperialism, nationalism, etc). The only thing that EU4 seems to change radically is the economy, with a pop system. The issue is that is seems to be using the same pops for every country on the map. So China without bureaucrats, for example, but also no pastoralists, no nomads, no warrior class, no separate clerical classes for places where it would be relevant. I'm not really sure that EU5 is actually updating the relevant parts. Pops can be an interesting feature, but Imperator already had them and it didn't make the game better, and CK3 doesn't have them without that being detrimental for the game.

[@xeladas]

I'm personally not too worried about the question of how Paradox will convince people to change over to the next iteration, while the difference between iterations is larger, this wouldn't be the first time Paradox has had to navigate these waters, just look at CK2->CK3, or EU3->EU4. There is also the fact that EU5 would be a fresh start, so people who are interested in EU can get into it without being turned off by the idea of having to navigate which DLCs are worth buying, and which ones are horse armour.

[@Cruxador]

Map slightly disappoints because I was hoping for the holy grail of map projections: A globe. Short of doing that, or otherwise going non-rectangular, it looks great. I prefer simulation but going too far in that direction was part of the problem with Imperator. Sometimes having a discrete number of things, even when the limitation doesn't make much sense (like EU4 colonists) makes for good gameplay. Imperator Rome Mission trees are the best system Paradox has ever made, their main shortfall is that the missions don't have art. Outside of developer spaces, people don't talk about it much, but good UI makes a huge difference. I got EU4 at release but didn't jump into it beside briefly to try it until about two years in. CK3 took me three years. CK2 was basically instant but it was a pretty big step up compared to the original, which had less content. I've had a few good playthroughs of Vic3 but largely have yet to make it mainstay like CK3/EU4, and Imperator I never did. So although I'll buy it right away, I can't imagine I'll immediately be playing EU5 a whole ton. That said, if there's a number of mechanics that I can interact with to make numbers go up in a way that feels satisfying and reaches fun benchmarks that'll eventually do it for me.

[@Outpost969]

I'm quite surprised that he didn't do the comparison between Crusader kings 2 & 3. It will have the same problems. Not as much content in launch but will ketch up quickly after a year or two.

[@daddyleon]

When I first tried EU4, about 3 years ago. I found it very...daunting, complex. I wished I could've turned a few features off and get used to a couple of systems first. Get the hang of it a bit first, then (mid game) turn the systems on and get tutorials on that. But I'm sure I'm a bit of a weirdo.

[@frank4827]

I hadn’t thought about it but I actually think renaming it would be a good move, taking it away from the eurocentric perspective, maybe just call it “Universalis” or something. Not that it matters whether I play it or not, but I think it would make sense since 80 percent of the nations are outside of europe.

[@Bla_Razor]

First thing they need to take care of is to NOT release EU5 undercooked. They did it with Vicky 3, which was a day 1 purchase for me, and even though I have like 300h played I'd say I haven't really enjoyed it as much as I thought, based on all the hype that was built. Don't even need to talk about the CS2 fiasco - so glad I didn't buy this at launch and at this stage I doubt I will buy it before it hits its "75% off" period. Anyway back to EU5 vs EU4 - like the new concepts and that it seems the idea is to really make a different game. Which is why I'll most likely buy EU5 and play it, but also I fully expect to also go back for a EU4 campaign from time to time, especially if both games feel significantly different. After all we (EU4 players) may bitch and whine about the mana points, mission trees, trade system, but at the same time it's that certain pleasure of finding ways to exploit the hell out of those (admittedly) imperfect mechanics that brings us back for another run...

[@belckan549]

Government reforms have to be way more customizable. Building your own government reform to truly feel like you're taking the reins of your country sounds like a dream. Imagine grabbing a middle eastern country and trying to (through dissent and unrest) shift your country in some aspects towards a more european administration, or vice versa or any combination of country and region. I think there'd be a lot of potential for making the game incredibly replayable if you could mix aspects of government identity in that way.

[@cristianpernas1588]

I dont expect a ton of flavour except for the most played nations in EU4, but i do demand a rework of trade that makes it way more complex than in EU4. For me trade is the key in this era.

[@vasiliosmitropoulos5590]

I have not played EU4 for ages, yes it has so much content but it is hard to get back into it with so much going on! hope EU5 is coming soon (do not think it will)

[@Zwijger]

The hundred years war is also when the low countries were truly shaped by coming under the Burgundians half way through, so as a Dutchie that sounds like a wildly cool time to start the game.

[@bastard-took-the-name-I-had]

I don't expect it but allowing depth alike of meiou and taxes while also having a ui that wasn't recycled would make this my favorite paradox game

[@floflo1645]

I may be interested in these game if it has a big focus on internal politics like building a modern state (improving taxation and bureaucracy), dealing with different religions, countering or encouraging different types of revolts. Painting the map is overated and I would dare say a relic of "board game" aspect, they say that this time they are going with the simulaiton as a core design rather than an afterthought so I am quite intrigued

[@alastairlocke4621]

I REALLY LIKE THE SCREENSHOT TIMER THING DOWN THE BOTTOM

[@heathclark318]

Just finally getting around to checking out EU4 and now EU5 is coming out.... Is EU4 worth the investment? Or wait? Content is great as always!

[@paulie-g]

EU4, if it's your kind of game, is unbeatable and without parallel, especially with MEIOU & Taxes mod. There is really no reason, other than performance, to want something else and EU5 isn't going to solve that because the content and mods won't be there for ages and it seems like it'll be a very different experience. So it is absolutely worth checking out EU4 regardless of what PDX puts out - it's evergreen.

[@kevdog6425]

First of all, Byzantines popping off, even beating Austria. Go off, king. Now, I like playing outside of Europe, and while its unrealistic to expect it to be as flushed out as Europe, if i can get different government types with a few tags with mission trees in the middle east or asia, I would never touch eu4 again.

[@LibertyMonk]

I'm really hoping there are more than just the 5 pop categories in the DD, because Nobles just doesn't make any sense for Nomads, and Slaves doesn't accurately describe Mamluks or Eunuchs were. And the concept of Burghers doesn't really apply anywhere without major cities or private (not Noble nor Clergy owned) merchant companies.

[@Czaroslaw]

Avid EU4 player here. If they won't do the same thing as they did in Vic3, that is not allowing to move units manually, then I will give EU5 a try. But it will likely take at least 5 years for the game to not get bored after 20 hours, which is typical for Paradox.

[@gaffalstudios3617]

I never thought I would live to see the day. Crazy excited.

[@jonathondouglas9896]

I'd definitely err on the side of caution when asking people what they feel is necessary for EU5. I'd hazard a guess that the people most invested in that are going to be people who still enjoy playing EU4, therefore people who probably want EU5 to be quite like EU4, therefore... straight into the "why would they buy it" trap. Personally I went off EU4 years ago almost entirely because of the mission trees!

[@galu060]

After thousands of hours of eu4 I'm looking forward to a fresh take on that game. The pops, more detailed terrain, hopefully better trade... Eu4 cannot bring much more to the table, time for a fresh start

[@TheGerudan]

I don't know, EU4 never really clicked with me either and I haven't played it in years. Will see how EU5 turns out.

[@shs_89iyadg39]

i think they should focus on the basics for now, perfect them and take their time when releasing the game after the game is released with perfect basics and no bugs they can start adding flavours to the game and after sometime it will outshine eu4

[@Izadirad1995]

I hope the population can kinda work like imperator. It’s really fun. Also I hope they have a tribal pop and some kind of city dweller pop maybe. Mission trees can be annoying but I do like seeing the ai do historical or alt historical things

[@antorseax9492]

Burghers are city dwellers

[@Izadirad1995]

I thought burghers were wealthier city dwellers? @@antorseax9492

[@Eldiran1]

What would me buy EU V? I don't know. A good war system? A nice diplomatic system for sure (EU IV is one of the great game in this regard).It's less important but i love the moment when you are going to colonize/discorver the world. (love to put random american continent sometimes ) I've more than 2000 hours on EU IV so i like a bit of a challenge. I think my approche to EU V will be the same as CK III . At first, i buy CK III and play a bit with it but it was lacking of a lot of thing so i drop the game and wait that it was nourrish with more stuff. I was following your channel so i see in depth how great CK III are right now and i'm content with what it is. But i needed these one or two major dlc after the release fo CK III to be fully happy. So yeah we have to acknowledge that EU V will feel not finished or at least not as full as EU IV is right now, it's perfectly normal. But as long as this game as the right fondation, i will buy it to support the dev, even if i will not play it that long until these one or 2 major dlcs.

[@andrewreid7582]

I would love Paradox to partner with an existing IP to create a good fantasy grand strategy. Think what Total War did with warhammer. I think that would be amazing. I know they could create their own fantasy IP but very difficult to get people revved up for something entirely new vs revved up for like a GoT or LoTR etc. I know mods etc exist and they are great. But a dedicated game. That would be fun

[@tomhavenith2330]

What would make me jump ship on day one? - Easy: The trade/economy system. Having tradeprofits 'flow' in some predetermined ways only because the game is hardcoded that way ruins every playthrough of mine that isn't in western Europe. So yeah... a decent economy/trade overhaul and I happily migrate to EU5.

[@j1555]

I’d like more historical railroading such as a built in rise of ottomans or empire of Charles V to keep the timeline still diffrent and implantable but still on the rails

[@Zaire82]

I look forward to it. It's hard for me to get into EU4 because the start-up cost with all the DLC is really high. It's also quite dated and the performance leaves a lot to be desired. I hope EU5 matches, or even exceeds, the visuals of Vicky3 and Ck3, with at least a good amount of EU4's main DLC features.

[@Zwheim]

I just want something that makes every playthrough connect and feel unique

[@mrfomo217]

Can't help but wish they'd just do a revamp of 'Imperator Rome' instead.

[@kye4216]

not popular enough to justify. maybe there will be a 2nd game in the future.

[@jonbathurst953]

Ya a good rome paradox game is a literally necessity. I heard imperator is good now, but they should release a new one

[@malgtuzi5020]

The only thing that would make me pick up eu5 in day one is a fully ported Anbennar. I need to know that I will be able to replace the Lorentish with Halflings before spending so much money.

[@Sam_Kings]

All comes down to replayability. Obviously they need to get the foundations right, the core mechanics need to be fun and feel like a step up from EU4. However, content is also important. There needs to be a variety of interesting ways to play the game. I think part of the reason Imperator Rome fell flat so quickly after launch was because there wasn't enough variation between different playable countries. Everything felt sort of the same.

[@emregungor7]

What they announced so far seems like they are adding new mechanics to the game. They are not just copying the EU4 and make it a bit better which is a good news for me. If they can handle creating a game much better than EU4, Paradox becomes by far the best game studio for me.

[@LibertyMonk]

I:R mission trees are a *wonderful* balance between the eu3 and starting eu4 Missions system, and a monolithic "form tag to unlock new content" Mission Tree. You can add a dozen missions into a tree, define the parameters to make it available, and you're done, it doesn't have to conflict with anything, you just have to finish what you're doing first. Using that as a starting point is great. I really hope different pops exist that enable qualitatively different gameplay, or that fundamentally different "tags" actually play differently. I'm pretty confused what "no mana" means exactly, because manpower, money, technological progress, influence/prestige are all mana in basically every game I can think of. Not having the abstract mana points like Paper/Bird/Sword mana or Political Influence is fine and all, but research and organizational changes have to happen somehow. I really don't like the "click on a tech in the tree, and wait while you generate mana towards that tech" approach because it's strictly more annoying than freely investable mana, and there's no tension between doing research and spending it elsewhere, only tension between which research to rush. I think the only way that I'd drop eu4 and never come back is if content gets added faster than is possible. And I don't just mean Mission Trees, I mean actual mechanical differences, like Horse Lords vs Republics in ck2, or if federations (like the HRE, or technically native federations) were a viable option in eu4. The only annoying part about I:R that still remains is that everyone is basically Rome with less flavor, or I guess Tribes are the single alternative. Mission Trees (and National Ideas, and all the other flavor bonuses) are nice too though, I just hope community-built things like that were Ironman compatible and didn't conflict with each other. The only way I see that happening is if Paradox publishes "Content Creator" DLCs like with Cities Skylines, or like Tennogen in Warframe.

[@dariusgunter5344]

No progression manpower etc are not mana they are currency's with clear logical limits, dip, mil and adm power on the other hand are Mana because you do magical things with them that are unrelated to how you get them Like researching tech, why does your monarch affect your research speed? Stuff like that. It's an abstract currency that does magical stuff hence mana. Manpower is the solider in your army, true it's also a currency (if you want to be morbid about it) but it's a logical resource based in theory on your population which we don't have. But in eu5 it would be traced back to your population making it not magical.

[@Ezullof]

Yeah Johan writing "no mana" is super concerning. The issue with Imperator mana is precisely that: there was a lot of "manas" that did the same things and weren't meaningful. It was like a cookie clicker, you'd hoard mana until you spend it, without any thematic flavour. Pretending that EU should be a "simulation, not a boardgame" is missing the point entirely. Similarly, sharing a big beautiful map is concerning. Yes, that was already Imperator's main strength. But the map felt largely empty, when it wasn't just boring and ahistorical. I'd like to see "historicity, not map painting" in a dev diary. I already dropped EU4 years ago, but frankly I'm not sure I'm very excited about what I'm seeing here.

[@Krom5072]

Can't wait to play the full version in 2035

[@inditsnotdenon922]

Excited. Could never get into eu4. Victoria 3 was fun for a bit but ultimately stale once i understood i was just clicking apply new tech to buoding over and over. Im excited for this. Seems like the best of the other games

[@Robert-hy3vv]

Automated armies who preform based on generals experience/skill levels would be awesome.

[@SNWWRNNG]

It would be a big missed opportunity to not include 1444 as a start date to onboard EUIV veterans, but something fresh is also nice. So having multiple start dates would be best.