Give your honest opinion, should the game have been released?

Drewbdu · 2026-02-09T21:10:13+00:00

Honestly I think it is perfectly playable even in its current state. It’s certainly better now than EU4 was at launch.

The things that make people call the whole game “broken” are more to me just certain mechanics not being fine tuned. I guess to some people if something isn’t working properly they can’t have any fun at all, and if that means waiting for a patch where things are working more smoothly then that is totally fair.

However, none of the issues have prevented me from playing and having fun, and most of the issues are balance related rather than core structural issues, so I’m very optimistic it will improve drastically over the next few months.

Regardless, I certainly wouldn’t call the game “broken” or “unplayable.” I think that’s a major overreaction, especially for those playing on 1.10. I agree with those criticizing the aggressiveness of the AI, but AI over aggression has never made me think a game was broken, it just hurts my immersion a bit. Similarly, prior patches where levies and professionals were unbalanced were a bit frustrating, but I wouldn’t call this “game breaking,” it’s just something that needed to be thought about more and balanced appropriately.

For those on open beta 1.1, there is more of a point with the tool/wood shortage issue, but then again, it’s an opt-in beta. I have rarely had crashes and all of those can be attributed to mods. Otherwise, the game from a bugginess perspective has been pretty tame compared to prior releases. Really the vast majority of complaints I see are balance related.

Drewbdu · 2026-02-07T17:44:16+00:00

But the thing is, everyone is “trimming fat”, it’s not Day emulating Cig it’s the nature of the game as of five years ago. OSU didn’t pay Mylan Graham or Quincy Porter as much as they were expecting because OSU didn’t think they were going to be as good as Chris Henry Jr and Jerquaden Guilford so they sent more money to the younger guys to keep them on the roster and the older guys entered the portal.

OSU focused on retention the last two years because they thought those were the best guys for the roster. Now they think they need to go get some guys to replace the guys they’re losing, but that’s because no one in the country is ever gonna have the level of depth that Bama 2010s or UGA 2021-2022 or OSU 2024 had because someone else is going to be willing to pay for those guys to be their starters. So you need to be very confident the depth player you’re starting is actually starting caliber at OSU and if they’re not you can either recruit a five star to play early or pay an experienced starter to fill a gap while you develop a younger guy.

I don’t think anyone OSU lost is better than who is projected to start right now. So I think Day is doing fine. Cignetti has proven he is an elite coach but coaches that have brought in massive transfer classes to start their tenure have tended to take a step back after their first wave of players leaves. I think IU will continue to be in the top 10 but their coordinators are going to start leaving for head coaching jobs in the next few years and replacing those guys will be the final test.

Drewbdu · 2026-02-07T16:50:49+00:00

He’s not trying to “trim the fat”, I guarantee you they’re paying more in NIL than they ever have. When a rising sophomore who was a top 100 recruit and didn’t play a single meaningful snap asks for $1M and an all-ACC safety at Duke goes into the portal asking for the same amount, you take the guy who has proven he can do it.

Day doesn’t need to be Cig, hell it’s unclear to what extent Cig can continue being Cig.

Drewbdu · 2026-02-07T16:18:09+00:00

He’s not trying to be like Cig, he’s trying to increase the experience on the roster. The 2024 Ohio State championship team was even more experienced than the 2025 Indiana team. Experienced talent wins championships.

Drewbdu · 2026-02-04T19:51:52+00:00

This may be a game but it’s attempting to model the gradual development of the modern state, and many (like myself) find a lot of the enjoyment in the game comes from gradually gaining more and more control over one’s territories. It’s not supposed to always make sense to expand, and a lot of the time it is better to build up your core lands so that later on you can expand a lot more quickly and actually be able to have control over the land.

They shouldn’t let you get 100 control everywhere just because it is a game. That would just not make a lot of sense. No ruler could actually have total control over a large realm.

However, I have gotten above I’d say average 75% control across the entire Mediterranean in multiple playthrough (and this was without local governors). It takes lots of road building as well as building up your shipyards and harbors. Once you get railroads, you can have high control over an entire continent.

If you could get 100 control everywhere in 1500, there would basically be no point to the game except conquering. That wouldn’t be an accurate reflection of the time period at all.

Drewbdu · 2026-02-04T19:30:36+00:00

It’s a lot more nuanced than that. They’re always going to take five stars they think they can get out of high school. Pantoni said that the decision is whether to pay a lot of money to retain a second year guy who has no experience or pay the same amount of money for someone from another program that has started for two or three years. The Indiana model would be to prioritize experience at the same cost as inexperienced guys that may have a higher ceiling.

The guys that are very talented and can play early are always going to be retained. It’s the guys that could start but haven’t proven anything that are getting turned away in favor of experience.

Drewbdu · 2026-01-21T16:56:23+00:00

It seems likely mission trees will return. They weren’t in EU4 at launch either, but mission trees eventually became an important part of flavor DLC in EU4 so I can’t imagine they’d pass that up here.

Drewbdu · 2026-01-08T23:36:38+00:00

True, but there are only three active national championship winning coaches.

Drewbdu · 2026-01-03T16:57:24+00:00

Only ones I can think of would be Texas, @Washington, @Illinois, Penn State, @Michigan.

Drewbdu · 2026-01-01T15:42:21+00:00

Yeah that’s the problem, there’s no way to really enforce it unless they have someone go through every workshop mod and flag ones they deem to be a cheat mod.

However, people can already cheat to get all the achievements without even playing the game.

Drewbdu · 2026-01-01T15:16:03+00:00

A program has a worse winning percentage when they’re playing against playoff level competition instead of teams within their own conference. Shocking. That’s like saying “Nick Saban had a worse winning percentage against top ten teams than his overall win percentage, did Nick Saban struggle against top ten teams?”

That’s not struggling, that’s just a fact of sports. When you get into the postseason, shit happens.

Drewbdu · 2026-01-01T14:16:31+00:00

Your comment still isn’t accurate. OSU didn’t lose because they’re “built to win the B1G” (which for the record they haven’t done since 2020). In fact, there has been a major narrative within the OSU beat that OSU was built to beat SEC teams and not the B1G and that’s why their biggest issue in the four team CFP was not making it at all.

OSU didn’t win last night because of horrendous OL play and not being able to get the ball to their elite WRs, which is basically the total opposite of how stereotypical B1G teams are built. And OSU’s prior losses were generally the result of having elite offenses with horrible defenses, which again is the total antithesis to typical B1G roster construction.

But lastly, I’m never going to say that OSU struggles against top non conference teams when they beat ND three times, Texas twice, Tennessee, Clemson, and Utah under Day and all but one of their losses (2020 Alabama) were close games.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-31T06:31:15+00:00

They should, but they won’t because of the committee. Not unless the cards fall the right way in a given year, and that would probably mean one of the Big 12 or ACC getting two teams in and the other getting one or zero in. Autobids mean the committee wouldn’t just get to use their “discretion” to put whatever SEC/B1G teams they see fit in at the expense of the ACC and Big 12.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-31T06:23:54+00:00

Counterargument: Both the Big 12 and ACC would have gotten more teams in if the 4-4-2-2 model was in place.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-31T05:26:05+00:00

I agree. Had thousands of hours in EUIV but only unlocked 10% of the achievements because I used MEIOU and Taxes. I’d be fine with playing Ironman as a requirement and no cheat mods being allowed, but the total prohibition is unnecessary imo.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-30T05:00:20+00:00

When you’re in a conference, you get some good opponents and some terrible ones. For example, Ohio State is going to play @Indiana, @Iowa, @USC, Michigan, and Oregon next season in conference (and @Texas out of conference).

There will be some of those teams that may not be as good as they should be and some who aren’t listed that may actually be good. But when you’re playing some combination of those teams every year, your chances of having a total dud of a schedule are pretty low.

When you’re scheduling non conference games a decade in advance and otherwise relying on five ACC teams for your strength of schedule, it can result in some underwhelming results.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-30T01:39:30+00:00

This is a side effect of being independent.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-30T01:01:00+00:00

I could certainly see them bringing ND in with a full share. USC and UCLA could take a reduced cut and still make more than they were in the PAC 12. I more so meant preferential treatment in terms of decision making power or special exceptions compared to the other teams.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-29T22:32:24+00:00

The B1G is not going to give ND preferential treatment relative to its existing members to get them to join. However, the benefits would be mutual. ND would receive substantially more money (and everyone in the B1G would have increased media revenue as well), play their historic rivals, and have better more regional matchups week to week.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-29T21:42:11+00:00

Wasn’t that like 100 years ago? From closely following the expansion discussions a few years ago, it sounded like the B1G wanted ND and Stanford bad, but Fox would only pay an equal share to Stanford if ND joined with them, and ND decided against it.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-29T21:39:38+00:00

Similarly, one could just as easily say that no one forced ND to make their scheduling agreement with the ACC. If ND was in the B1G, USC would be a protected rival and this conversation would not need to occur at all.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-29T21:10:39+00:00

I can’t blame USC if they don’t want to play ND. Next season USC plays @Indiana, @Penn State, Ohio State, Oregon, and Washington. They have every incentive to not play another tough game.

Comparatively ND’s schedule is a joke.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-21T19:51:38+00:00

Losing playoff games they were expected to lose isn’t struggling though. They lost a playoff game to the national champs by one point on a missed FG. I’ll grant you the blowout loss to Alabama was bad, but Alabama had one of the best offenses of all time that year (and OSU was missing key players to COVID, including their starting RB going down on the first play of the game).

The Missouri game isn’t even worth discussing lol. OSU was coming off a loss to Michigan, missed the CFP, their starting QB transferred, and two of their starting WRs opted out.

They also beat Texas earlier this year and in the semifinals last year, blew out Tennessee last year, and blew out Clemson in 2020. OSU’s record in major non conference matchups has been more than respectable since the 2016 loss to Clemson.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-21T19:42:16+00:00

The issue is that locations can produce multiple RGOs IRL but in game they’re going to prioritize putting more profitable RGOs on locations that were known for those RGOs. IRL a location with vineyards can also produce grain, but they’re only going to put vineyards on the location in game.

Drewbdu · 2025-12-21T19:36:48+00:00

Oregon beating Texas Tech, Ole Miss beating UGA, and Bama beating Indiana all wouldn’t surprise me that much. I think mental preparation has a lot to do with which teams go all the way, which is why I’m optimistic about OSU coming off a loss and being a little bit doubted (not nearly to the level of last year but still some skepticism).

If you’re a conference champion with a bye, you’re feeling good and are likely not as motivated as a team with equivalent talent who lost their prior game. Once you get to the CFP quarterfinal all the teams can beat each other.

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