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I tried out the demo and thought it was OK, though it did have some annoyances (such as extremely tedious trade) that apparently were fixed in the expansions. What do you guys think? For a strategy gamer, is it worth it? I'd of course be getting the whole pack.
With expansions it is a very good game. The learning curve is steep, but in the end i lost about 60 hours of my life to the game. Thats a whole lot for me, so yes it is worth it IMHO.
It is a awesome game! It is considered a classic already. I also HIGHLY suggest you check out the dev forums for mods.
I didn't like it- while I'm all for strategy, the high learning curve put me off. It also thrust you into a game world with a bazillion options right from the start, and I like to ease my way into a new strategy game. Also, I'm not a huge historical fan, so that didn't appeal as much to me. Too bad I can't resell my copy... 
I'm a fan of this game. It's best, as the others have said, with the two expansions. There are also alot of interesting mods for it. When you play, you can pretty much set your own goals, so it's a fun, sandbox - history game. You can "form nations" which is really fun to do (here's an example of what I mean - you can start out as one of the small german principalities, and unite Germany! Or start as England, and unite and form the British Empire). The game also has colonizing, which is fun to do.
Love this game (with the expansions). Definitely go for the Complete Edition if you're going to pick it up.
If you're really unsure, you could always throw down the...I think it's ten bucks most places...and buy EU2. There are differences, but you'll at least get a handle on the style of the series.
EU3 Complete (The Vanilla game +the two expansions) is currently still $ 8.53 on Amazon.
If you were wanting to check it out, that would be the way to go for as long as that price holds, for a relatively low risk investment.
It's a fantastic game. As others have said, the expansions really make the experience even better. Other than that, just prepare for a learning curve (as you've played the demo you're already well on your way, so that shouldn't be a concern).
I thought the extremely tedious trade was not fixed in the expansion. I really abhor its trade model. It was addressed in the expansion, but not fixed. Auto-sending traders to some place is a great way to bankrupt yourself at a bad time.
I found a lot of problems with the original, even though it had a lot of promise. So I shelved it. Eventually, I picked up the expansion that promised to solve all the niggling details, but I didn't really find it to be much different. What I REALLY REALLY hate is the economic model which does not let you collect any money to do things with, so you spend forever twiddling your thumbs after you burn through your money at the end of each January.
Europa Universalis 3 would have been a good game if only the trade/resource system was made logical and enjoyable, and the player had some way of obtaining money without causing inflation (which is ultimately counter-productive). I always felt like a helpless beggar, unable to do anything but watch the timer tick for a decade or so while I saved up enough money to perform an action... despite a huge cash flow that I was not allowed to touch.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Buy it, you won't regret it. Vanilla is crap, but if you get the expansions, and a mod (Whole World Mod or Magna Mundi Platinum) than it's something you can easily lose a few months of your life too. I've been enjoying it for years.
Don't listen to SaberCherry, he just didn't understand how the game economy worked and how to make any money so now he's being a spoilsport. 
BTW, the way to get that inaccessible money he's talking about is to get the National Bank idea and tax assessors, then mint. 
I enjoy this game a lot. It has a steep learning curve, one that pretty much never ends as they've been tweaking this game forever, and patching it. Compared to another game I play (CK), this one is a lot more stable. Only occasionally get out of sync errors in multiplayer, and no issues I recall in single player. There is a lot going on in this game, definitely not for many outside the strategy lovers circle in this one. If you like it, you will sink hours and hours into playing the game easily.
The game is great, if you like plenty of options. The Grand Campaign can take weeks to play, though.
IMO - Auto trade works fine, as long as you set the priorities for each Center of Trade. You can even tell your merchants not to go to certain COTs. This is really helpful at the beginning of the game...
Me too. The original will just never be fixed enough to play multiplayer. It crashed on us all the time but CK2, where they build the code from the ground up would be awesome and most likely stable. Unfortunately that is definitely a niche game, and I doubt it sold real well. Here's to hoping though.
Personally I don’t really care for a MP fix to be honest. I just want the general bugs and issues fixed - if only I was a programmer. Christ, I made so many mods for that title. I find it to be stunningly fascinating. Hell I even offered them $10k to update the code. Sadly enough I never got a response.
Now if TW or any well developed strat game had that heraldry system baked into it [you listening SD] I think the game would be an instant classic.
Have you played the game much? It is not a "multiplayer" problem persay. There are a certain number bugs that come up more often in multiplayer games, because there are, you know more players getting events than just one. If they fixed the bug it would help singleplayer and multiplayer. Thanks for being honest though, I guess companies that release a product are no longer required to fix a feature of the game so long as you don't care about it.
Sadly enough I have never played it MP. So the issues with it are not of any real concern for me short of the ones that affect both SP and MP. However please dont put words in my mouth about companies not having to fix issues that dont bother me. I believe that craftsmanship is very important and if one sells something it should be the best thing one can deliver on.
National Bank really helps out a ton with Inflation. You can mint fairly well with it and be fine.
Other than that, did you not notice the option added to last expansion that allowed you to turn inflation from minting off?
Let me start off by apologizing. I read a tone in your post that apparently was not actually there. That assumption was my mistake, and again, I am sorry. As for the bugs. basically its the same bugs that you sometimes run into singleplayer but it's magnified in that if you have say 3 people playi
ng, it's more likely that a certain combination of events that cause the crashes when they hit at once, are going to occur. We've not had connection issues or anything like that. It's a very simple Direct IP thing. It's the other bugs that creep up at increasing frequency as the game goes on that make it almost unplayable for any but the most patient individuals. It feels like if you have 3 players you are 3x more likely to hit a bug you might not see until hours into a single player game. I am sure its not that basic but that's the difference we noticed, and I think a lot of it is event issues.
I do think that if they took on CK2 and started with clean code, that it could be a great game. I've always understood they sort of took over the game and so the code has never been up to their (Paradox's) standards. Strategy games from Paradox are rather unique, I think. I mean I play Civ IV and enjoy it, but there is a certain depth to the EU and CK I haven't found elsewhere, especially with the ability to have multiplayer oh and the tweaking of code is fun too. Between the too, I love the court system in CK and which they would do something with just that piece in one of their other games.
@Nesrie - No worries. Also I agree with your position about "clean code". That is one reason I offerd to help pay for the update. I also think Paradox games are unique and always wanted SD and PI to merge and make something wonderful for gamers.
This game + expansion is probably one of the greatest games ever created. I play it until this day, ridiculous replayability, awesome mods, overall this game if you like strategy is GOLD.
I play it multiplayer as well, it is fun.
Not a bad thing, this is a kind of game though that you dont really need to finish to the end of the time limit to consider yourself finishing your own campaign.
I miss games like this, that take time to play.
I do as well. To me the term "grand" should be just that - grand.
That would be great idea. Although I am complaining, albeit just a little bit, about Elemental's graphics at this date and time, in general I find SD games to be more visually appealing and easier to access. I am still learning about stuff in EU 3, and occasional go back to look at CK. They are incredibly complicated games with minimal tutorials and guidance. I am also not a huge fan of the cheating elements in CK/EU 3, where the AI can't go in debt in CK and places like Spain operate with inflation. I know there is a certani amount of challenge being added by doing this but it is frustrating, and makes me feel there has to be a better way. It's been a bit since i played GC 2, but I never got the feeling that the AI was obviously cheating from it.
The two together would just have to come up with something interesting.
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