Welcome to the 32nd Development Diary for Europa Universalis IV and this time we give you the juicy details about how to make the most fun aspect of the game more accessible to all players. And nothing is more fun than playing with your friends, and conquering their puny empires with mighty Ulm.

New Network Code
The old network code that served our games for many years has been discarded. We are now running on Steamworks, and this gives us some advantages. For example, this code supports NAT punchthrough, so you no longer need to open ports to be able to play with your friends.

Hotjoining
One major complaint we've had about the multiplayer experience in our previous games, is the hassle with having to rehost if someone loses their connection or wants to join the game at a later time. We have rewritten our network kengine from scratch and, if the host so desires, players can join a game already in progress through what we call hotjoin. That player will then connect, and get the savegame sent to him or her, allowing that player to join with minimal work, and with just a small pause for the rest of the players.
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