[Bossemanden]

Originally posted by Arryn:
(On Sunday I was in a local Ebgames store and saw yet another, new, EU-engine game by Paradox, dealing with just France and England.) Strategy First/Paradox is to strategy gaming as Hasbro/WotC/TSR is to pen & paper gaming.

Not correct. Two thrones is not a EU engine derivative. On the other hand, the coming Crusader kings that deals only with Europe 1066-1419 is.

And EU2/HOI has no more provinces to deal with than Dom2 does when using very large maps.

Not correct. IIRC both EU2 and HOI has more than a 1000 provinces, with Victoria having significantly more. AFAIK Dom2 has a limit of 500.

Couple with the fact that Dom2 has more complex unit interactions than EU2 does. Only HOI can approach the complexity of Dom2 unit interactions. And the HOI AI, while having more "work" to do each "turn", doesn't play "worse" than EU2, which is a simpler model. So explanations such as time available or model complexity simply do not wash for EU2. The EU-engine games simply suffer from an AI with weak internal algorithms, and no amount of excuses can alter that fact. The Dom2 engine isn't better because it has a "simpler" model. It's better because it's been coded to be better. It manages resources better, it evaluates the strategic situation better, and conducts combat better than Paradox's AI does in comparable circumstances (and yes, you can rig up comparable situations, despite EU-engined games being continuous-time).

Peter has refuted this nicely. Suffice to say that I disagree with you.
Edit: (Apparently I´ll say more ) The continous time vs. turnbased introduces a higher level of complexity as well. This means that algorithms must attempt to do more with less resources, not just the same amount of work with less resources.

Even more annoying in EU is not the brain-dead overstacking but the "mouse that roared" syndrome when some piddly little country will suddenly, for no discernable reason, declare war on a "superpower". I see this in Victoria too.

Correct and this is a weakness. On the other hand you might find this very same thing in Dominions as well.

[ March 10, 2004, 09:22: Message edited by: Bossemanden ]