For general game adjustments, see settings.

When starting a new campaign, several options can be changed.

General

Options inteface – General tab.

Difficulty

Different Difficulty settings grant different bonuses to Player or AI nations to adjust the overall game difficulty. If set to Normal, no nations will get bonuses. On Easy, the AI is more forgiving towards Players, whereas on Hard it is far more aggressive.

Bonuses

Difficulty	Player bonuses	AI bonuses
Very Easy	+50%.0 National manpower modifier +50%.0 Manpower recovery speed +50%.0 Land force limit modifier +50%.0 Naval force limit modifier −33%.0 Regiment cost −33%.0 Ship cost 0.05 Yearly inflation reduction −5.05 National unrest −0.05 Monthly war exhaustion −25%.0 Core-creation cost +1.05 Possible advisors +1.05 Diplomatic relations +1.05 Leader(s) without upkeep +2.05 Diplomatic reputation −2.05 Interest per annum +10%.0 Improve relations −33%.0 Aggressive expansion impact −1.05 Yearly corruption +50%.05 Production Efficiency +60.05 Yearly Tax income
Easy	+50%.0 Manpower recovery speed −5.05 National unrest −2.05 Interest per annum −33%.0 Aggressive expansion impact −1%.0 Yearly corruption
Normal
Hard		+50%.0 Manpower recovery speed −1.00 National unrest −0.05 Monthly war exhaustion −1.00 Interest per annum −33%.0 Aggressive expansion impact −15%.0 Missionary maintenance cost
Very Hard		+50%.0 Manpower recovery speed +50%.0 National manpower modifier +50%.0 Land force limit modifier +50%.0 Naval force limit modifier −33%.0 Regiment cost −33%.0 Ship cost 0.05 Yearly inflation reduction −2.05 National unrest −0.05 Monthly war exhaustion −25%.0 Core-creation cost −25%.0 Idea cost −1.05 Interest per annum +50%.0 Improve relations −20%.0 Development cost −25%.0 Construction cost −33%.0 Aggressive expansion impact −30%.0 Missionary maintenance cost

Lucky nations

Determines whether there are eight historical, eight random or no lucky nations.

Terra incognita in lobby

When starting a new campaign with this option active, the random new world will be hidden behind terra incognita in the lobby. When loading an existing save in the lobby, it will also hide provinces which the currently selected country has not discovered yet. This option is always enabled when loading ironman saves.

Use dynamic province names

Enables or disables the possibility of provinces to change their name when cultural group or owner is changed. If the option is off, provinces can only change name if the player chooses to manually do so.

Show monthly Tax income

Show monthly province income as animated map text.

Color 'owned' Wastelands

Wastelands will be colored if a country owns a majority of surrounding provinces.

Exclaves use Region name

Use region names for Exclaves (e.g. 'Swedish Kongo' instead of 'Sweden').

No limits on Idea Groups

You can pick any idea group, and are no longer limited from picking the same category all the time.

Limited Country Forming

Enables end-game tags which are countries which are not allowed to form other countries. Disabling this option disables achievements.

Fantasy Random New World

Controls the chance of fantasy elements such as highly advanced Native Empires to appear in the Random New World.

Show Start Screen

Toggles whether Start Screen with information and background about your country and the region is shown when starting a new game.

Multi player

Allow players to hotjoin

If on, players can hotjoin the game, making it a multiplayer game. Not possible with Ironman enabled.

Allow players to play the same country

If on, players can control the same country. Not possible with Ironman enabled.

Only host and observer can save

If on, only the host or observer will be able to save a multiplayer game.

Only host can pause

If on, only the host can pause the game.

Editable savegame

If on, players can manually edit saved game files between sessions.

Locked ledger

If on, players will not be able to open the ledger, preventing usage of it for seeing other countries' armies.

Limited ledger

If on, the amout of information given by the ledger is reduced.

Use victory cards

Enables or disables victory cards in the game.

Use age scoring

If on, scores and victory cards will be reset with every new age.

Use teams

If on, members in a team can only ally each other and not other players.

Free team creation

If on, every player can create a team in the lobby.

Prevent nation ruining

Blocks certain destructive actions by players that have lost a war as long as the truces after that war are in effect.

Allow province name change

Allows players to change names of provinces.

Custom setup

Custom Nation Difficulty

Determines the amount of points players have available to create custom nations. The more points available, the easier the start.

Points: 50 - 100 - 200 - 400 - 800

Province Tax and Manpower

Determines the base tax and manpower of all provinces. - normal (historical), random or flat(4-4-3) values

Nations

Determines what countries will populate the map.

Normal Setup

The map will be populated by historical nations and custom nations are enabled.

Historical Setup

The map will be populated by historical nations and custom nations are disabled.

Random Setup

The map will be populated by player-created custom nations and randomly generated nations.

Custom Setup

The map will be populated by only player-created custom nations, all other provinces will be uncolonized. All nations start with a colonist.

Allow adding Nations to Save Game

Allows adding new Custom Nations after loading a Save Game.

Random Nations

Determines where randomly generated nations will get their names and flags from - dynamic or historical.

Gameplaysettings.txt

Gameplaysettings.txt is a file in the Game folder which contains the settings used in game. The file is listed as below with descriptions of each digit's purpose.

gameplaysettings={
        setgameplayoptions={
                1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1
        }
}

Digit	Purpose	Options
1	Game difficulty	(-1) Very Easy, 0 Easy, 1 Normal, 2 Hard, 3 Very Hard
2	Handicap	(Deprecated)
3	Lucky nations	0 Historical, 1 Random, 2 No
4	Allow players to hotjoin	0 No, 1 Yes
5	Allow players to play the same country	0 No, 1 Yes
6
7
8	Terra Incognita	0 No, 1 Yes
9	Only Host and Observers can save	0 No, 1 Yes
10	Editable savegame	0 No, 1 Yes
11	Locked Ledger	0 No, 1 Yes
12	Use dynamic province names	0 No, 1 Yes
13	Custom Nation Difficulty	0 Sandbox, 1 Easy, 2 Normal, 3 Hard, 4 Impossible
14	Nations	0 Normal Setup, 1 Historical Setup, 2 Random Setup, 3 Custom Setup
15	Province Tax and Manpower	0 Historical, 1 Random, 2 Equals
16	Allow adding Nations to Save Game	0 No, 1 Yes
17	Random Nations	0 Dynamic, 1 Historical
18	Show monthly Tax income	0 No, 1 Yes
19	Color 'owned' Wastelands	0 No, 1 Yes
20	Exclaves use Region name	0 No, 1 Yes
21	Enable victory cards	0 No, 1 Yes
22	Prevent Nation Ruining	0 No, 1 Yes
23	Fantasy Random New World	0 Never, 1 Seldom, 2 Sometimes, 3 Often
24	Limited Ledger	0 No, 1 Yes
25	No limits on Idea Groups	0 No, 1 Yes
26	Allow Province Name Change	0 No, 1 Yes
27	Only Host can Pause	0 No, 1 Yes
28	Show Start Screen	0 No, 1 Yes
29	Use Age Scoring	0 No, 1 Yes
30	Use Teams	0 No, 1 Yes
31	Free Team Creation	0 No, 1 Yes
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