Plato's Europa
Type
Author(s)
Status
Forum
Steam workshop
Plato's Europa is a total conversion mod for Europa Universalis IV set in the Alternative History World. While Plato's Europa reshapes the well-known map with both familiar and unseen countries, it also overhauls number of base game features, as well as adds new ones. This page aims to give a proper explanation of what's inside.
Noteworthy Features[edit | edit source]
Alternative History[edit | edit source]
This page won't go into the depth of explaining the lore and history of Plato's Europa. Instead, it will focus on new and changed countries. First of all, Plato's Europa adds 35 countries (both already existing, formable and releaseable), including countries like Latgalia, 
Latvia, Varant, Francia, 
United Baltic Provinces, Kurdistan, Belgium, Israel, Oeselian pirates and more. 
Sweden, while not existing at the start of the game, can be formed by christian Swedish culture countries. Various existing countries of pagan religion can reform into their modern counterparts (Litvia to 
Lithuania, Suomia to 
Finland) as long as they are christian. While the usefulness of such reformation may seem questionable, it may come useful if a player wants to change his technology group to Western, adopt Christianity and perhaps even join the HRE.
Already existing countries had major edits, for example, 
Austria has different flag and national ideas, because they are no longer ruled by Habsburg dynasty, which greatly changes their future progression. 
Norway, now being pagan, has different flag, name and religion. And 
Poland and 
Hungary have a monarch at the start of the game. Historical Lucky nations were changed as well.
Diplomacy was also changed with different alliances, truces, wars and historical friends.
National Values[edit | edit source]
Inspired by Victoria II National Value mechanic, Plato's Europa implemented a similar system. While appearing like permanent country modifiers at first, the National Value is much more important and game-changing. First of all, countries will have improved/worsened relations, based on what national value they follow (same boosts relations, different - lowers them). Secondly, National Values lock/unlock various government reforms, such as Authoritarian reforms being available only to Order national value. Thirdly, each National Value has a unique Idea Group. Lastly, National Values affect the events - when a player picks an option that would contravene with their national value, they will experience stability drops and other penalties. National Values also unlock some options to existing events and increase/decrease the likelihood of certain Random Events popping. For example, if a countries National Value is Order, they will never gain a 'Decline of Nobility' event. Speaking of Estates, they are also influenced by chosen National Value.
National Values are:
- Order
- Equality
- Liberty
While player can pick any National Value he desires, the AI will pick one based on their religion, government and other parameters.
National Value is permanent and can only be changed by Forming/Reforming new countries, for example, forming United States will change National Value to Liberty.
Anti-blobbing system[edit | edit source]
Works quite simple. Every 10 provinces a country claims brings it proportionally growing penalties, such as unrest, state maintenance, advisor cost and other. The author was always annoyed by how some the Europa Universalis IV players mindlessly conquered one province after anoher (AKA map painting simulator) without ever thinking about playing tall and developing your country, focusing on diplomacy, espionage and trade, while at the same time - the game, in his opinion, did not restrict and give challenge when doing so, making large countries practically unstoppable and always growing. The Anti-Blobbing feature was introduced to restrict players (and AI) from becoming abnormally large; to make nations eventually shatter over time (The ‘Rise and Fall’ feature of the mod); to make conquerors think and plan their expansion more carefully and to encourage tall play.
While Anti-Blobbing does restrict everyone’s expansion (including AI) it does not completely forbid one to 'blob'. A player can still try to form 
Roman Empire, but now he has to work harder and smarter. His main foe is unrest, and hence he must focus on avoiding it by seeking advisors, ideas, religions and other aid that will lower it. A better idea would be to use Vassals, Personal Unions and Client states instead, as Vassal territories do not count towards Anti-Blobbing (annexing them does, however).
Finally, as the technology progresses, Anti-Blobbing slowly stops being an issue. While the first three centuries may seem like a mess of states growing and exploding, the end game is more stable in this regard and states actually begin to turn into ‘blobs’ (while still being affected by Anti-Blobbing)."
New Missions[edit | edit source]
As expected from a mod like this, Plato's Europa adds missions to both new and old countries, largest mission trees belonging to Latgalia, United Baltic Provinces, Ruthenia and Varant. The full list of countries with new missions can be found on mod's workshop page.
New Government Reforms[edit | edit source]
Excluding unique government types (Military Democracy, Kingdom of David and Athenian Democracy), Plato's Europa adds several government reforms to Republics and Monarchies. The existing ones were changed (buffed).
New Events[edit | edit source]
Plato's Europa adds new events for Varant, Litvia, Latgalia, Norge, Ireland as well as random ones for National Values, Religions, Buildings.
Ideas[edit | edit source]
While changing already existing ones (for example, buffing Maritime ones), Plato's Europa also adds new Idea groups:
- Equality Ideas
- Order Ideas
- Liberty Ideas
- Christian Ideas
- Muslim Ideas
- Zoroastrian Ideas
- Pagan Ideas
- Commerce Ideas
- Glory Ideas
- Military Science Ideas
- Siege Ideas
Country ideas were also changed, as well as unique ones added for many, including Iceland, Cree, Brandenburg, Malta, Mongolia and more.
Customizable Start[edit | edit source]
At the start of the game, player is given an option to change the starting map to his liking and select a 'blessed nation' (one with incredible bonuses like Lucky nations but times 5x). These options are purely optional and include options such as creating unified Italy, christianizing Northern Europe, buffing Aztecs (AKA Sunset Invasion option) and more. This can only be done once.
Other features[edit | edit source]
- Aesthetical changes - new loading screens, interface, religion colors, icons, country flags and colors.
- New Buildings - Carpenter, Blacksmith, Theatre, Opera Square, Tavern and Library.
- Terrain Change - mostly changed terrain of major provinces to farmlands (For example - Riga).
- More stuff to do during peace time and less boring 'tall' play.
- Permanent Province Modifiers, such as Alhambra, Damascus and Toledo steel, Holy Sites (similar to CK 2) and more.
- Different Historical Lucky nations.
- More Church aspects as well as personal deities`
- Culture Bonuses
- Larger HRE.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Plato's Europa has nothing to do with the philosopher Plato. The mod's name comes from the steam nickname of its author - Plato.
- The mod started as a fix for converted game from CK II, but slowly, as author made one edit after edit, he decided to shape-shift his mod a bit and eventually created the mod the way it is known now.
- Plato's Europa was highly influenced by games, such as Crusader Kings 2 (largest influence), Victoria 2 (national values), Civilization (number of things, including idea groups, government reforms and events) as well as Age of Empires 3 (minor influence, mainly national ideas for some countries and idea groups).
