• Looking Back At The Genesis...

In 2006, I had the habit of playing mega-campaigns, starting with Crusader Kings (CK), continuing with Europa Universalis II (EUII), and ending with Victoria. It was really a lot of fun, but I kept having a feeling of slight dissatisfaction, because the maps were so different between the three games.

Don't get me wrong: three games covering such varied eras (1066-1419, 1419-1836 and 1836-1936) are bound to have different maps, but here, it was too different. So i decided to start a map mod for EUII to adapt to the CK map.

Only a few months later, Paradox Interactive released Europa Universalis III (check the Favorite Game banner above). As I tested the demo, I was hooked. And even before the game came out, I started working on a new map. Quite enthusiastic about my project, I soon posted my ideas and first screenshots on the EUIII Modding Section of the Paradox Plaza. Discussion with other players pointed out the fact that the CK map contained quite a few errors and approximations, that needed to be corrected. At that point, MEIOU (Mihi Est Imperare Orbi Universo) was set on its tracks.

As the map took shape, other ideas popped up to increase the gameplay experience of Europa Universalis III and its expansions, and a new vision of the game was born.


• What Kind of Mod Are We Looking For ?

In February or March 2011, a player started a discussion on the MEIOU subforum of Paradox Plaza about the category of mods that MEIOU should be placed in : map mod or total conversion mod. To be honest, neither of the two labels satisfied me :

Although the initial aim of MEIOU was changing and improving the map, given the work I've put into, the amount of script fuzzbug has corrected, improved and added, and the interface and graphics built by Solo_Adhémar... well, "map mod" comes quite short when attempting to describe MEIOU.
In my opinion, the main examples of total conversion mods are Magna Mundi (MM), Death & Taxes (D&T), Rising Nations (RN) and The Dark Years (TDY), and there are a few others. RN and TDY change the scope of the game, by changing the era (to, respectively, the 20th century and Medieval Age). MM has a completely different vision of the game, that eventually led them to make their own game based on the Clausewitz engine used by EUIII. Although we have set the start date slightly earlier, converion mod is not the intent of this mod.

In that discussion, a player came up with a label that I like : Content Extension Mod. What does it mean ?
I love Europa Universalis III, otherwise I wouldn't have even thought about spending countless hours on it since january 2007. I, and the other members of the MEIOU team, feel that it falls a little short on some aspects, and some other features had some room for improvement.

When Europa Universalis III came out in January 2007, many players complained about the loss of the historicity of EUII, that Paradox had made a sandbox game along the lines of Civilization, with just a historical setting on a real world map. I, along with many others, saw it as an opportunity, an opportunity for "historical plausibility". I remember being frustrated several times in EUII because, playing as Spain, with a sound economy and stable nation, I'd go bankrupt, just because Spain historically did.... however, in history, Spain had overextended itself, had relied too much on the gold of the Americas, and had pretty much ruined its own economy. So one of the goals of the MEIOU team is to understand not just why and how an event happened, but also how the situation could change to make it not happen.

All in all, MEIOU is a mod for EUIII that aims to provide an experience which is both more realistic, detailed and varied than vanilla. It aims to achieve more realism by modelling more of the forces in play in the world, not by forcing the game into paths that real history happened to follow. The greater detail includes:

a more detailed map with many more countries and provinces
additional decisions, events and missions
additional advisors, cultures, trade goods and policy sliders
modified versions of other great mods such as SRI and Dei Gracia
many new feaures such as building improvements, trading posts and Treaty of Tordesillas

The greater detail gives the player (and the AI) more choices to make, thereby making each game more varied, and, ultimately, more interesting.


• Moving on to Europa Universalis IV




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