“Emperor focuses on improving the game experience for European nations, adding greater depth for the Catholic states and a more energetic and interactive Holy Roman Empire,” Paradox blast in the blurb. “Revolutions spread like wildfire, demanding action from kingdoms that don’t want to be swept up in the feverish calls for reform. Old mechanics are reinterpreted and new options are available on a freshly redrawn map of the continent.” It’s a lot more complex than that, of course. For over a year, Paradox have been posting dev diaries about Emperor (initially referred to as just the “European expansion) and the accompanying patch. These detail changes for update 1.30 including improved scaling for megahigh-resolution monitors, an overhaul of the mercenary system, and improving the AI’s understanding of the economy. Having been raised around Catholicism, it’s weird to hear this ancient blast of pomp, ceremony, and politics has been a bit bland in EU4. As this dev diary explained: At the very least, I’d want to arm troops with censers repurposed as flails and meteor hammers spreading sweet clouds of incense while they burst heads. That’s just Warhammer 40,000 though, isn’t it? “When it comes to flavour, Catholicism has far been left in the lurch in terms of interesting content when compared to pretty much all other forms of Christianity. “Catholicism is one of the main focuses, fittingly for this European expansion and update. In a nutshell we want to empower Catholicism against the already tantalising Protestantism, such that union between the Catholic faith adds to its strength, where the Pope and/or Curia Controller himself can take action in favour of the entire faith (or potentially lining their own filthy pockets) and take action in response to the growing threat posed by the reformation. Currently, Reform Desire does little outside of igniting the reformation, we would like to make the mechanic more engaging for Pope and Catholics alike, such that they are incentivised to combat or grant concessions against the rift.” Emperor is due to launch sometime this year through Steam and Paradox’s store. I wonder if Paradox will have made a decision around their experiment with a subscription service including all expansions by then.
