History YMMV / EuropaUniversalis

* GuideDangIt:
** For ''IV'', when building Manufactories, the interface only informs the player of the direct boost to income. The indirect boost through increase in the province's trade value (as more goods are produced) is not mentioned - ''despite being the main reason to build then''.
** ''IV'' in general is absolutely full of these, as tooltips often don't properly inform you of things or even give the wrong information. One of the most common is the total inaccuracy of the trade ship income estimates (which often scares off new players from building them, even though they're the best investment one can make in the entire game).

* In IV, no-CBing Byzantium as a country near then is commonly used to break the Ottoman AI and preventing them from snowballing, making them easy to defeat fairly early.

* UnfortunateImplications: With the rework to migratory tribes, they now cause devastation in their capital province (attributed to "tribal grazing"). If colonisers decide to develop said provinces after conquering them, it comes across as perpetuating the "mighty colonizer saving the land from ignorant natives" stereotype (even if said development is entirely self-serving by removing devastation, which makes the province more useful).
* WhatAnIdiot:
** [=OPMs=] tend to make idealistic stands against an aggressively-expanding player. However, annexing [=OPMs=] will eventually drive up [[ThanatosGambit your infamy]].
** For similar reasons, honouring alliances in the face of a much stronger enemy only helps the aggressor to gain more with a single war.

*** While it makes some sense for European nations to have semi-independent colonies, it's completely nonsensical how Siberian tribes and the Ainu have to follow the same system. Alaska is barely a stone-throw away from them, yet they have to form CNs all the same.

*** ''[=EUIV=]'''s ''Conquest of Paradise'' introduced colonial nations. The moment a player colonises (or otherwise have cores in) five provinces in arbitrary decided regions in the Americas, and Australia[=/=]New Zealand, a colonial nation is automatically formed from the colonies and from then on works as a vassal, while each new colony in that particular region will be automatically handled over to the [=CNs=]. This is all done with ''[[ScrappyMechanic absolutely zero control on the player side]]''. For some players, it is enough reason to ''not colonise at all'' (unless you're colonising the Old World), treating them as money sinks with zero monetary gain, while others love the fact that [=CNs=] build large armies which the mother country doesn't have to pay for and then provide them expeditionary forces whenever asked. Bringing up this issue on the official Paradox forum is an almost guaranteed way to start an all-out brawl.

** Again with ''IV'', the first few things a player would do when optimizing a nation is (a)lower local autonomy, (b) convert religions and cultures, starting with provinces with highest priority and in states, and (c)reduce any devastation. Local autonomy, different cultures and religions and devastation all decrease various parameters of a nation.

** [[VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077 Cyberpunk 1444]] [[note]] A nickname for the 1.31 release due to its [[ObviousBeta notorious glitchiness]] as well as the tendancy of Native American nations to develop megacities by the 16th century.[[/note]]

** As mentioned above, the way how Colonial Nations are formed and interacted with. Players can't pick which provinces they handle over to their newly minted vassal state and any new provinces colonised in the same colonial region will be instantly handled over the very next day. Any overlord nation can only have one CN in any given region[[note]]Technically, there can be more - if country A and B have [=CNs=] in the same region and country B is a vassal of A, once B gets integrated into A, its [=CNs=] will change ownership to A - but trying to pull this with AI is exceedingly hard due to, well, [[ArtificialStupidity it being AI]][[/note]], so the end result is a ''really'' big, unitary vassal state that's by design written to eventually stage a revolt against you. The benefit of having CN is laughable - rather than earning all the riches from the controlled territory and trade, ''half'' of it is retained by the CN for own use and everything else is given to the overlord, leaving the CN with not enough money to build anything anyway and forcing overlord to invest into it... to benefit CN, not overlord. In case of trade, this is a deal-breaker, as CN is going to ''collect'' trade locally, for own profit, while the goal of the overlord is to ''steer'' trade away. Even if some of the profit made from collecting trade is given back to the overlord, it just pales in comparison with simply steering it to home trade node. Colonisation done by the CN itself is under heavy penalties, meaning it will have a hard time to spread by itself and will always require support from home... even if home gains nothing from it directly. Overlord can't set goals for [=CNs=] aside generic call to arms and collecting revenue, not even deciding who gets to be ruler ([=CNs=] work like republics, but the fluff for election event openly states they are send from metropoly, rather than voted for locally). All of this goes without even mentioning ArtificialStupidity, which makes various issues multiplied by the magnitude of ten.
*** The main reason why [=CNs=] are so infuriating to handle is two-fold. First, while players have zero control over how CN is formed and which lands are given to it, there is an option to form your own nations in the game, as long as they aren't in colonial region. That's right - there is a tool in-game for making new countries out of conquered territories and hand-picking which provinces are given to it (along with option to give it additional ones), but CN is on full auto, with ''no'' customisation aside giving it a name when formed. Second is related with historical starts. You might have a bunch of provinces in any given colonial region under your direct control ''and'' a colonial nation controlling some other provinces in the same region, to represent the historical administration of the region. Load the game, unpause it... and the next day all your provinces are handled to the CN. And if none exists, it will be instantly formed. Fun!
** Trade nodes as such. The entire thing is pre-definied. No matter how the history will play out, the direction in which the trade is going is fixed and there is no way of changing it. Say you're playing as Korea. Short from conquering most of Manchuria and colonising West Coast of the North America[[note]]Which not only means you are the only country present in that area, but it's ''only'' the West Coast, as any other nodes simply can't send trade toward it, meaning there is no point colonising any further[[/note]], you have no inflow to the Nippon node, in which Korea is located. Even if you conquer large part of China, you can't send trade from there, you must instead ''move your collecting node'' to China, sending trade from upward Nippon node there. And it goes like this the entire chain of trade, so if you happen to be a country placed somewhere upward, especially near starting points, you can't in any way trade in nodes down the line, unless you conquer majority of provinces set there and establish it as your new, collecting node. This even affects various European countries, who face the choice between inability to use trade at all, or going on a massive conquest spree, just to get access to different node.

*** And if you are any of the nations from around the Danish Straits, good luck collecting in Lübeck, because English, Dutch and French ships are going to do their very best to steer that trade to neighbouring English Channel node. Inflow from the colonies? Good luck competing over England[=/=]Great Britain over the North Sea, so they ''will'' send that trade to English Channel. Short of conquering or vassalising Scotland and[=/=]or Ireland, it's nigh impossible to send colonial trade toward Lübeck. Lübeck is even worse because it has zero access to the maritime spice routes around the cape of good hope. Generally colonial nations generate far less income than trade companies, and those who want to keep their home node in Lübeck have zero access to the riches of China and India without establishing a russia-sized land empire

* SeasonalRot: It is generally admitted among the community that updates and accompanying [=DLCs=] started declining in quality later in ''EUIV'''s lifecycle. Depending on who you ask, the rot set in early to late 2018. The reasons for this are multiple: first of all, updates became increasingly unbalanced, with nations receiving [[PowerCreep massive buffs]], exacerbed by [[ArtificialStupidity the AI rarely being capable of exploiting these buffs]]. Second, while Paradox was never stranger to unstable launches, some updates went as far as being an ObviousBeta, plagued by crashes and bugs. Third, the update rate slowed to a crawl starting from 2019, with a single major patch in 2019 and another in 2020, while 2018 and prior had at least four each.

** ''Leviathan'' and its 1.31 update were outright nigh-unplayable at launch [[ObviousBeta due to the sheer quantity of glitches]] affecting even parts of the game that weren't modified by 1.31 and some dangerous enough to [[GameBreakingBug stop a campaign entirely due to repeated crashes]] or even ''[[UpToEleven wiping out its savefile]]'', giving the impression that despite having taken one year in the making, QA was essentially nonexistent[[note]]which, given [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/paradox-interactives-qa-staff-allege-poor-treatment-low-pay-and-mismanaged-layoffs the closure of Paradox's QA department and alleged mismanagement]], might be literally true[[/note]]. The content of the DLC itself was lambasted for being badly unbalanced [[note]]Among some of the worst offenders, the Alhambra monument gave 15% admin efficiency at launch for a mere 2000 ducats, the pyramids of Gizah gave -15% technology cost to pagan nations, concentrate development/pillage capital allowed you to easily build a megacity of 60 dev and more by 1500, and tribal development was given too generously, causing the whole of North America and Australia to be covered in ludicrously well-developed provinces rivalling Rome or Beijing, some reaching to up to ''80 development'' in just a few decades.[[/note]], unfocused [[note]]more idea groups for North American tribes, but no unique ideas for the Iroquois to explain why they're "interesting nations" in the region. Some new formable nations stripped away the previous unique ideas and replaced them with the most generic "national ideas" group[[/note]], and sometimes outright unfinished[[note]]Many Polynesian missions had generic art or sometimes even no art at all, Sikhism religion tab had obvious placeholder art, Zoroastrianism and Alcheringa could not hide their origin as (haphazardly) reskinned Copticism and Fetishism. The horde idea group icon was obviously a cut-and-paste job from a historical painting and does not blend in at all with other idea groups.[[/note]]. All that caused an overwhelmingly negative reaction of the fanbase against Paradox and the DLC, with the user review of ''Leviathan'' reaching the abysmal '''7%''' and becoming ''the worst-reviewed product on Steam.'' This, combined with the controversial "reorganizing" that led to the end of development for ''VideoGame/ImperatorRome'', made some question the very future of Paradox as a game studio. Even studio manager and game director Johan Andersson later admitted in a statement that PDS had dropped the ball as early as ''Golden Century''.

* TierInducedScrappy: Playing as a land-locked nation removes roughtly third of gameplay from your experience and in the long run, makes the game unfun, as it cuts you off from all the interactions with naval mechanics and exploration. Even just having a single port is more engaging than having none, not to mention the passive effects it has on your nation in ''II'' and ''III''.

*** ''Eat your Greens'' requires you to play as the tiny nation of Kale and conquer all grasslands in Asia... before absolutism. There are generally two paths to this achievement, one that involves blocking global trade from ever spawning to stall the age of absolutism (which isn't easy on itself), while the official way is a struggle to conquer the immense amount of grasslands all over the continent before 1610. Doing so you will have to fight almost all major powers in Asia, including Ming, in a relentless race against time sometimes said to be even harder than the aforementionned ''True Heir of Timur''. And unlike the Mughals, Kale merely sports mediocre ideas and a generic mission tree.

** The way how rulers are handled between games. In ''II'', you had historical monarchs with stats corresponding to their achievements. This meant regardless of your play you could be stuck with entire string of lackluster monarchs[[note]]And if your country outlived its historical destruction or conquest, you either got stuck ''forever'' with your last monarch or get fictional heirs, all with mediocre stats[[/note]] and obviously made various scenarios far less plausable if history didn't repeat itself. From ''III'' onward, rulers are randomly generated - so you can pretty much say good-bye to all the historical rulers except those at the game start and their heirs, while having to deal with RNG for the rest of the game. Depending who you ask which system is better, you can get conflicting answers, especially when ''IV'' and its mana system (describe below under ScrappyMechanic) are concerned. And then there is also ''[[VideoGame/CrusaderKings CK]]'' fandom overlapping to ''EU'', which complains about rulers being nothing but a name and three stats.

*** The max number of states and 'too many territories' penalty above has been replaced in 1.30 with governing capacity. It's also a soft cap that can be increased by spending government reform progress, increasing your government rank, granting estate privleges, or researching technology. This no longer penalizes countries with lots of low development states and the penalties for exceeding governing cap aren't especially steep. In addition, governing cost can be decreased by building courthouses and other buildings. These changes have been received much better as there is now a lot more player involvement with the mechanic and massive blobbing is still quite possible.

** Revolts of any kind and type for first 100-150 years, especially in ''II'' and ''III''. At low tech, battles are pretty much randomly resolved and morale is so low, the spawning morale of rebels will be nearly the same level as your "prepared" army. This means even if you have army in the same province as the rebel army spawning, you can easily get curbed right off the bat. Still in ''II'', rebels remain a serious threat, especially once you start having a spread-out global empire - it will take months, or even years to get troops to the right place. And rebels are always at the same tech level as you are, so unless they are dealth with instantly, they turn into a massive problem once their morale rises to your own level. This is especially contrasted with rebels in ''IV'', who are at best GoddamnedBats and usually don't pop-out at all, unless you seriously mess-up.

** For ''IV'', anything which increases a nation's capacity for more states, since states are just so darn better than territories. On the other hand, expanding towards trade company regions where one's nation can form trade companies is almost mandatory because territories which are added to trade companies do not contribute to corruption AND can have a minimum autonomy of ''0%'' (the same minimum as states).

** Another mechanic accused of being "anti-fun" was introduced in 1.28: if a nation wishes to move its capital, the continent where the proposed new capital is located must have at least 50% of the nation's development. This made it next to impossible for large nations to move their capitals to other continents. With the nerf to territories in 1.26, trade companies are regarded as mandatory in any playthrough; a nation with its capital located in Asia can only set up trade companies in three regions in Africa[[note]]While said nation can have trade companies in two regions in Asia due to these regions having some provinces which are marked as part of Oceania, these provinces are few in number and are poorly developed.[[/note]]. In contrast, a nation with its capital located in Africa can set up trade companies in ''thirteen'' regions in Asia. [[note]]Nations with capitals located outside the two continents can set up trade companies in all 16 regions.[[/note]]

** Ironically, 6/6/6 heirs or rulers are also considered as such,[[ViolationOfCommonSense as they usually end up dying more often or]] [[TooPowerfulToLive earlier than lower skilled heirs and rulers.]] [[FridgeLogic Whatever happened to survival of the fittest.]]

** Enrique (Castilian for Henry), the atrocious 0/0/0 heir to the Castillian throne in 1444 has gained this status. TruthInTelevision, as his historical counterpart, [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_Castile Henry IV of Castile]], was nicknamed ''the Impotent''.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: It could be argued that ''IV'' is ''build'' from those. The general consensus among players is that due to the design philosophy of [=DLCs=] being self-contained and non-interacting with each other, any mechanic that exists within a DLC is by default shallow and doesn't carry much weight in actual gameplay. Examples include things like innovativeness[[note]]A scaling modifier in regards on how advanced technologically a nation is, gained by rushing technology or adopting an idea first (this one gets exhausted within first 50 years of the game) and utterly meaningless unless reaching 100% value[[/note]], army professionalism[[note]]Another scaling modifier that gives small bonus to dealt damage on national scale and unlocks such stunning abilities like reinforcing a fort instantly or decreasing costs of hiring a general, all rendered completely moot once mercenaries were reworked, as it never decays now[[/note]] and related with it drilling[[note]]A specific, exact regiment non-stop training outside of combat, for another scaling modifier to performance. Openly mocked as a gimmick to occupy players army with something during peace time, as the gain of drilling is extremely slow and bonuses provided by it virtually invisible, while tied to specific regiments, rather than all units in general[[/note]] or Prussia-exclusive (thus even more underused) militarisation[[note]]Yet another scaling modifier - see a pattern already? - that increases discipline and decreases maintenance of the Prussian army, but in the same time forcing player to stay at all times at a very small size of a country in a game that ''doesn't support tall gameplay''[[/note]]. Various game mechanics that originally were DLC-exclusive eventually got moved to core rules and only then reworked into something more impactful, with estates being probably the best example of this.
** Though not yet released, this sentiment has only grown with the previews of the content coming in the 1.31 patch. Initially though to be a free patch providing flavor for the underdeveloped southeast asia region (as Poland was in 1.27 and Northeast Asia was in 1.29) the DLC appears to also contain a grab bag of random mechanics to justify charging for another DLC. It appears to contain a cut of ''Golden Century'' (slightly different types of colonial nations), a slice of ''Emperor'' (reworked regencies and a controversial favor mechanic) and a grab bag of other ideas aimed at tall play (pillage capital, expand infrastructure, and centralize state).

** ''Leviathan'' and its 1.31 update were outright nigh-unplayable at launch [[ObviousBeta due to the sheer quantity of glitches]] affecting even parts of the game that weren't modified by 1.31 and some dangerous enough to [[GameBreakingBug stop a campaign entirely due to repeated crashes]] or even ''[[UpToEleven wiping out its savefile]]'', giving the impression that despite having taken one year in the making, QA was essentially nonexistent[[note]]which, given [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/paradox-interactives-qa-staff-allege-poor-treatment-low-pay-and-mismanaged-layoffs the closure of Paradox's QA department and alleged mismanagement]], might be literally true[[/note]]. The content of the DLC itself was lambasted for being badly unbalanced [[note]]Among some of the worst offenders, the Alhambra monument gave 15% admin efficiency at launch for a mere 2000 ducats, the pyramids of Gizah gave -15% technology cost to pagan nations, concentrate development/pillage capital allowed you to easily build a megacity of 60 dev and more by 1500, and tribal development was given too generously, causing the whole of North America and Australia to be covered in ludicrously well-developed provinces rivalling Rome or Beijing, some reaching to up to ''80 development'' in just a few decades.[[/note]], unfocused [[note]]more idea groups for North American tribes, but no unique ideas for the Iroquois to explain why they're "interesting nations" in the region. Some new formable nations stripped away the previous unique ideas and replaced them with the most generic "national ideas" group[[/note]], and sometimes outright unfinished[[note]]Many Polynesian missions had generic art or sometimes even no art at all, Sikhism religion tab had obvious placeholder art, Zoroastrianism and Alcheringa could not hide their origin as (haphazardly) reskinned Copticism and Fetishism. The horde idea group icon was obviously a cut-and-paste job from a historical painting and does not blend in at all with other idea groups.[[/note]]. All that caused an overwhelmingly negative reaction of the fanbase against Paradox and the DLC, with the user review of ''Leviathan'' reaching the abysmal '''7%''' and becoming ''the worst-reviewed product on Steam.'' This, combined with the controversial "reorganizing" that led to the end of development of ''VideoGame/ImperatorRome'', made some question the very future of Paradox as a game studio. Even studio manager and game director Johan Andersson later admitted in a statement that PDS had dropped the ball as early as ''Golden Century''.

** ''Leviathan'' and its 1.31 update were outright nigh-unplayable at launch [[ObviousBeta due to the sheer quantity of glitches]] affecting even parts of the game that weren't modified by 1.31 and some dangerous enough to [[GameBreakingBug stop a campaign entirely due to repeated crashes]] or even ''[[UpToEleven wiping out its savefile]]'', giving the impression that despite having taken one year in the making, QA was essentially nonexistent[[note]]which, given [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/paradox-interactives-qa-staff-allege-poor-treatment-low-pay-and-mismanaged-layoffs the closure of Paradox's QA department and alleged mismanagement]], might be literally true[[/note]]. The content of the DLC itself was lambasted for being badly unbalanced [[note]]Among some of the worst offenders, the Alhambra monument gave 15% admin efficiency at launch for a mere 2000 ducats, the pyramids of Gizah gave -15% technology cost to pagan nations, concentrate development/pillage capital allowed you to easily build a megacity of 60 dev and more by 1500, and tribal development was given too generously, causing the whole of North America and Australia to be covered in ludicrously well-developed provinces rivalling Rome or Beijing, some reaching to up to ''80 development'' in just a few decades.[[/note]], unfocused [[note]]more idea groups for North American tribes, but no unique ideas for the Iroquois to explain why they're "interesting nations" in the region. Some new formable nations stripped away the previous unique ideas and replaced them with the most generic "national ideas" group[[/note]], and sometimes outright unfinished[[note]]Many Polynesian missions had generic art or sometimes even no art at all, Sikhism religion tab had obvious placeholder art, Zoroastrianism and Alcheringa could not hide their origin as (haphazardly) reskinned Copticism and Fetishism. The horde idea group icon was obviously a cut-and-paste job from a historical painting and does not blend in at all with other idea groups.[[/note]]. All that caused an overwhelmingly negative reaction of the fanbase against Paradox and the DLC, with the user review of ''Leviathan'' reaching the abysmal '''7%''' and becoming ''the worst-reviewed product on Steam.'' This, combined with the controversial "reorganizing" that let to the cease of ''VideoGame/ImperatorRome'' development, made some question the very future of Paradox as a game studio.

** ''Leviathan'' and its 1.31 update were outright nigh-unplayable at launch [[ObviousBeta due to the sheer quantity of glitches]] affecting even parts of the game that weren't modified by 1.31 and some dangerous enough to [[GameBreakingBug stop a campaign entirely due to repeated crashes]] or even ''[[UpToEleven wiping out its savefile]]'', giving the impression that despite having taken one year in the making, QA was essentially nonexistent[[note]]which, given [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/paradox-interactives-qa-staff-allege-poor-treatment-low-pay-and-mismanaged-layoffs the closure of Paradox's QA department and alleged mismanagement]], might be literally true[[/note]]. The content of the DLC itself was lambasted for being badly unbalanced [[note]]Among some of the worst offenders, the Alhambra monument gave 15% admin efficiency at launch for a mere 2000 ducats, the pyramids of Gizah gave -15% technology cost to pagan nations, concentrate development/pillage capital allowed you to easily build a megacity of 60 dev and more by 1500, and tribal development was given too generously, causing the whole of North America and Australia to be covered in ludicrously well-developed provinces rivalling Rome or Beijing, some reaching to up to ''80 development'' in just a few decades.[[/note]], unfocused [[note]]more idea groups for North American tribes, but no unique ideas for the Iroquois to explain why they're "interesting nations" in the region. Some new formable nations stripped away the previous unique ideas and replaced them with the most generic "national ideas" group[[/note]], and sometimes outright unfinished[[note]]Many Polynesian missions had generic art or sometimes even no art at all, Sikhism religion tab had obvious placeholder art, Zoroastrianism and Alcheringa could not hide their origin as (haphazardly) reskinned Copticism and Fetishism. The horde idea group icon was obviously a cut-and-paste job from a historical painting and does not blend in at all with other idea groups.[[/note]]. All that caused an overwhelmingly negative reaction of the fanbase against Paradox and the DLC, with the user review of ''Leviathan'' reaching the abysmal '''8%''' and becoming ''the worst-reviewed product on Steam.'' This, combined with the controversial "reorganizing" that let to the cease of ''VideoGame/ImperatorRome'' development, made some question the very future of Paradox as a game studio.

** ''Leviathan'' and its 1.31 update were outright nigh-unplayable at launch [[ObviousBeta due to the sheer quantity of glitches]] affecting even parts of the game that weren't modified by 1.31 and some dangerous enough to [[GameBreakingBug stop a campaign entirely due to repeated crashes]] or even ''[[UpToEleven wiping out its savefile]]'', giving the impression that despite having taken one year in the making, QA was essentially nonexistent[[note]]which, given [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/paradox-interactives-qa-staff-allege-poor-treatment-low-pay-and-mismanaged-layoffs the closure of Paradox's QA department and alleged mismanagement]], might be literally true[[/note]]. The content of the DLC itself was lambasted for being badly unbalanced [[note]]Among some of the worst offenders, the Alhambra monument gave 15% admin efficiency at launch for a mere 2000 ducats, the pyramids of Gizah gave -15% technology cost to pagan nations, concentrate development/pillage capital allowed you to easily build a megacity of 60 dev and more by 1500, and tribal development was given too generously, causing the whole of North America and Australia to be covered in ludicrously well-developed provinces rivalling Rome or Beijing, some reaching to up to ''80 development'' in just a few decades.[[/note]], unfocused [[note]]more idea groups for North American tribes, but no unique ideas for the Iroquois to explain why they're "interesting nations" in the region. Some new formable nations stripped away the previous unique ideas and replaced them with the most generic "national ideas" group[[/note]], and sometimes outright unfinished[[note]]Many Polynesian missions had generic art or sometimes even no art at all, Sikhism religion tab had obvious placeholder art, Zoroastrianism and Alcheringa could not hide their origin as (haphazardly) reskinned Copticism and Fetishism. The horde idea group icon was obviously a cut-and-paste job from a historical painting and does not blend in at all with other idea groups.[[/note]]. All that caused an overwhelmingly negative reaction of the fanbase against Paradox and the DLC, with the user review of ''Leviathan'' reaching the abysmal '''8%''' and becoming ''the worst-reviewed product on Steam.''

** Though not yet released, this sentiment has only grown with the previews of the content coming in the 1.31 patch. Initially though to be a free patch providing flavor for the underdeveloped southeast asia region (as Poland was in 1.27 and Northeast Asia was in 1.29) the DLC appears to also contain a grab bag of random mechanics to justify charging for another DLC. It appears to contain cut golden century content (slightly different types of colonial nations), cut imperator content (reworked regencies and a controversial favor mechanic) and a grab bag of other ideas aimed at tall play (pillage capital, expand infrastructure, and centralize state)

** ''Leviathan'' and its 1.31 update were outright nigh-unplayable at launch [[ObviousBeta due to the sheer quantity of glitches]] affecting even parts of the game that weren't modified by 1.31 and some dangerous enough to [[GameBreakingBug stop a campaign entirely due to repeated crashes]] or even ''[[UpToEleven wiping out its savefile]]'', giving the impression that despite having taken one year in the making, QA was essentially nonexistent[[note]]which, given [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/paradox-interactives-qa-staff-allege-poor-treatment-low-pay-and-mismanaged-layoffs the closure of Paradox's QA department and alleged mismanagement]], might be literally true[[/note]]. The content of the DLC itself was lambasted for being badly unbalanced [[note]]Among some of the worst offenders, the Alhambra monument gave 15% admin efficiency at launch for a mere 2000 ducats, the pyramids of Gizah gave -15% technology cost to pagan nations, concentrate development/pillage capital allowed you to easily build a megacity of 60 dev and more by 1500, and tribal development was given too generously, causing the whole of North America and Australia to be covered in ludicrously well-developed provinces rivalling Rome or Beijing, some reaching to up to ''80 development'' in just a few decades.[[/note]], unfocused [[note]]more idea groups for North American tribes, but no unique ideas for the Iroquois to explain why they're "interesting nations" in the region. Some new formable nations stripped away the previous unique ideas and replaced them with the most generic "national ideas" group[[/note]], and sometimes outright unfinished[[note]]Many Polynesian missions had generic art or sometimes even no art at all, Sikhism had obvious placeholder art for its bonuses, and Zoroastrianism could not hide its origin as revamped Coptic Christianity. The horde idea group icon was obviously a cut-and-paste job from a historical painting and does not blend in at all with other idea groups.[[/note]]. All that caused an overwhelmingly negative reaction of the fanbase against Paradox and the DLC, with the user review of ''Leviathan'' reaching as low as '''8%''' and becoming ''the worst-reviewed product on Steam.''

** ''Emperor'' and the 1.30 update were plagued with [[ObviousBeta numerous bugs at launch]], with many of its features simply not working, despite its developement having started even before 1.29. The artificial intelligences of large nations, already rather bad at managing their economy, became almost memetically so, a problem that none of the hotfixes managed to fully eradicate, much to the frustration of many players suddenly finding themselves betrayed by a loyal ally at the worst moment. Even some of the well-received additions, such as imperial incidents, were criticized for being [[UnderusedGameMechanic underused]].
** ''Leviathan'' and its 1.31 update were outright nigh-unplayable at launch [[ObviousBeta due to the sheer quantity of glitches]] affecting even parts of the game that weren't modified by 1.31 and some dangerous enough to [[GameBreakingBug stop a campaign entirely due to repeated crashes]] or even ''[[UpToEleven wiping out its savefile]]'', giving the impression that despite having taken one year in the making, QA was essentially nonexistent[[note]]which, given [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/paradox-interactives-qa-staff-allege-poor-treatment-low-pay-and-mismanaged-layoffs the closure of Paradox's QA department and alleged mismanagement]], might be literally true[[/note]]. The content of the DLC itself was lambasted for being badly unbalanced [[note]]Among some of the worst offenders, the Alhambra monument gave 15% admin efficiency at launch for a mere 2000 ducats, the pyramids of Gizah gave -15% technology cost to pagan nations, conventrate developement/pillage capital allowed you to easily build a megacity of 60 dev and more by 1500, and tribal developement was given too generously, causing the whole of North America and Australia to be covered in ludicrously well-developed provinces rivalling Rome or Beijing, some reaching to up to ''80 developement'' in just a few decades.[[/note]], unfocused [[note]]more idea groups for North American tribes, but no unique ideas for the Iroquois to explain why they're "interesting nations" in the region. Some new formable nations stripped away the previous unique ideas and replaced them with the most generic "national ideas" group[[/note]], and sometimes outright unfinished[[note]]Many Polynesian missions had generic art or sometimes even no art at all, Sikhism had obvious placeholder art for its bonuses, and Zoroastrianism could not hide its origin as revamped Coptic Christianity. The horde idea group icon was obviously a cut-and-paste job from a historical painting and does not blend in at all with other idea groups.[[/note]]. All that caused an overwhelmingly negative reaction of the fanbase against Paradox and the DLC, with the user review of ''Leviathan'' reaching as low as '''8%''' and becoming ''the worst-reviewed product on Steam.''

** ''Leviathan'' and its 1.31 update were outright nigh-unplayable at launch [[ObviousBeta due to the sheer quantity of glitches]] affecting even parts of the game that weren't modified by 1.31 and some dangerous enough to [[GameBreakingBug stop a campaign entirely due to repeated crashes]] or even ''[[UpToEleven wiping out its savefile]]'', giving the impression that despite having taken one year in the making, QA was essentially nonexistent. The content of the DLC itself was lambasted for being badly unbalanced [[note]]Among some of the worst offenders, the Alhambra monument gave 15% admin efficiency at launch for a mere 2000 ducats, the pyramids of Gizah gave -15% technology cost to pagan nations, conventrate developement/pillage capital allowed you to easily build a megacity of 60 dev and more by 1500, and tribal developement was given too generously, causing the whole of North America and Australia to be covered in ludicrously well-developed provinces rivalling Rome or Beijing, some reaching to up to ''80 developement'' in just a few decades.[[/note]], unfocused [[note]]more idea groups for North American tribes, but no unique ideas for the Iroquois to explain why they're "interesting nations" in the region. Some new formable nations stripped away the previous unique ideas and replaced them with the most generic "national ideas" group[[/note]], and sometimes outright unfinished[[note]]Many Polynesian missions had generic art or sometimes even no art at all, Sikhism had obvious placeholder art for its bonuses, and Zoroastrianism could not hide its origin as revamped Coptic Christianity. The horde idea group icon was obviously a cut-and-paste job from a historical painting and does not blend in at all with other idea groups.[[/note]]. All that caused an overwhelmingly negative reaction of the fanbase against Paradox and the DLC, with the user review of ''Leviathan'' reaching as low as '''8%''' and becoming ''the worst-reviewed product on Steam.''

** ''Imperator'' and the 1.30 update were plagued with [[ObviousBeta numerous bugs at launch]], with many of its features simply not working, despite its developement having started even before 1.29. The artificial intelligences of large nations, already rather bad at managing their economy, became almost memetically so, a problem that none of the hotfixes managed to fully eradicate, much to the frustration of many players suddenly finding themselves betrayed by a loyal ally at the worst moment. Even some of the well-received additions, such as imperial incidents, were criticized for being [[UnderusedGameMechanic underused]].

** ''Leviathan'' and its 1.31 update were outright nigh-unplayable at launch [[ObviousBeta due to the sheer quantity of glitches]] affecting even parts of the game that weren't modified by 1.31 and some dangerous enough to [[GameBreakingBug stop a campaign entirely due to repeated crashes]] or even ''[[UpToEleven wiping out its savefile]]'', giving the impression that despite having taken one year in the making, QA was essentially nonexistent. The content of the DLC itself was lambasted for being badly unbalanced [[note]]Among some of the worst offenders, the Alhambra monument gave 15% admin efficiency at launch for a mere 2000 ducats, the pyramids of Gizah gave -15% technology cost to pagan nations, conventrate developement/pillage capital allowed you to easily build a megacity of 60 dev and more by 1500, and tribal developement was given too generously, causing the whole of North America and Australia to be covered in ludicrously well-developed provinces rivalling Rome or Beijing, some reaching to up to ''80 developement'' in just a few decades.[[/note]], unfocused [[note]]more idea groups for North American tribes, but no unique ideas for the Iroquois to explain why they're "interesting nations" in the region. Some new formable nations stripped away the previous unique ideas and replaced them with the most generic "national ideas" group[/note]], and sometimes outright unfinished[[note]]Many Polynesian missions had generic art or sometimes even no art at all, Sikhism had obvious placeholder art for its bonuses, and Zoroastrianism could not hide its origin as revamped Coptic Christianity. The horde idea group icon was obviously a cut-and-paste job from a historical painting and does not blend in at all with other idea groups.[[/note]]. All that caused a massive InternetBackdraft against Paradox and the DLC, with the user review of ''Leviathan'' reaching as low as '''8%''' and becoming ''the worst-reviewed product on Steam.''

%%* SeasonalRot: It is generally admitted among the community that updates and accompanying [=DLCs=] started declining in quality later in ''EUIV'''s lifecycle. Depending on who you ask, the rot set in early to late 2018. The reasons for this are multiple: first of all, updates became increasingly unbalanced, with nations receiving [[PowerCreep massive buffs]], exacerbed by [[ArtificialStupidity the AI rarely being capable of exploiting these buffs]]. Second, while Paradox was never stranger to unstable launches, some updates went as far as being an ObviousBeta, plagued by crashes and bugs. Third, the update rate slowed to a crawl starting from 2019, with a single major patch in 2019 and another in 2020, while 2018 and prior had at least four each.
%%** ''Golden Century'', released with the 1.28 update, was criticized for being unfocused on Iberia, despite being touted as an immersion pack for it. Instead, many of its features were centered on pirates. This resulted in the DLC being seen as too shallow to justify its price tag. Furthermore, some of the mission trees included in the mod were seen as overpowered, most notably Spain's, which can easily get many Personal Union.
%%** ''Imperator'' and the 1.30 update were plagued with [[ObviousBeta numerous bugs at launch]], with many of its features simply not working, despite its developement having started even before 1.29. The artificial intelligences of large nations, already rather bad at managing their economy, became almost memetically so, a problem that none of the hotfixes managed to fully eradicate, much to the frustration of many players suddenly finding themselves betrayed by a loyal ally at the worst moment. Even some of the well-received additions, such as imperial incidents, were criticized for being [[UnderusedGameMechanic underused]].
%%** ''Leviathan'' and its 1.31 update were outright nigh-unplayable at launch [[ObviousBeta due to the sheer quantity of glitches]] affecting even parts of the game that weren't modified by 1.31 and some dangerous enough to [[GameBreakingBug stop a campaign entirely due to repeated crashes]] or even ''[[UpToEleven wiping out its savefile]]'', giving the impression that despite having taken one year in the making, QA was essentially nonexistent. The content of the DLC itself was lambasted for being badly unbalanced [[note]]Among some of the worst offenders, the Alhambra monument gave 15% admin efficiency at launch for a mere 2000 ducats, the pyramids of Gizah gave -15% technology cost to pagan nations, conventrate developement/pillage capital allowed you to easily build a megacity of 60 dev and more by 1500, and tribal developement was given too generously, causing the whole of North America and Australia to be covered in ludicrously well-developed provinces rivalling Rome or Beijing, some reaching to up to ''80 developement'' in just a few decades.[[/note]], unfocused [[note]]more idea groups for North American tribes, but no unique ideas for the Iroquois to explain why they're "interesting nations" in the region. Some new formable nations stripped away the previous unique ideas and replaced them with the most generic "national ideas" group[/note]], and sometimes outright unfinished[[note]]Many Polynesian missions had generic art or sometimes even no art at all, Sikhism had obvious placeholder art for its bonuses, and Zoroastrianism could not hide its origin as revamped Coptic Christianity. The horde idea group icon was obviously a cut-and-paste job from a historical painting and does not blend in at all with other idea groups.[[/note]]. All that caused a massive InternetBackdraft against Paradox and the DLC, with the user review of ''Leviathan'' reaching as low as '''9%''' and becoming ''the worst-reviewed product on Steam.''