What changes occur between Eras?

[Jingo7]

Hi there, long-time fan here. I'm playing the latest package.

I have some questions. I started my FREE PLAY game in 1735 (age of piracy) with the intention of playing through to 1740 (colonial era) and beyond.

1) Will I see any changes occur when I cross into 1740?

2) I have been seeing national relations changes since I began. Now (1737), bizarrely, all the nations are allied! Since I work for the Spanish and I want to unlock the 'Landing Party' ability, it's going to take me a while if I'm just capturing pirates. Will these national relations be changed again? Are the changes affected by the year of play or are they random?

3) If there are changes when I cross into 1740, will these be evident at the level of, for example, the type of ships floating around, the ownership of various colonies etc.?

4) Lastly, are the changes of each Era evident at the level of actual productive development of towns and cities themselves? I.e. will Cartagena look less grand in 1550 than it does in 1800? I have had a look at the Early Explorers Era and I notice that everything is Spanish and many island and town names are different. I really love that, it's such a nice touch and reflects with what care and sensitivity the people who make this mod strive to apply. All I'm asking is for some for information, if possible, into the depth of these changes because they interest me greatly.

All the best.

 

[Homo eructus]

1) The era is set by your starting year but doesn't change dynamically, if you start in one era, you're stuck in it even if you progress past the date the next should start.

2) Equally, the nation relations are set at the beginning according to the situation in that era or some more specific conflicts within each era, but then they do their own thing and change randomly.

3) The different eras do indeed affect the types of ships, ownership and names of colonies, flags, uniforms, governor names, availability of some items, etc. but as said before you won't see those changes appear dynamically in an ongoing game, you hae to start a different game in a different era.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@Homo eructus already responded quite clearly, so I've got not a whole lot more to add.

The reason we didn't bother to have the change occur in mid-game is because it was simpler to implement this way.
Also, the change would otherwise be quite sudden.

The appearance of the towns doesn't really change; though there may be some where the textures are changed to reflect their different nationality in another period.