Europa Universalis IV: Developer diary 35 - Alt for Norge!

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Welcome to the 35th development diary. This time we look at the remaining powers in Scandinavia, and also take a deep look at the changes to siege.
Our goal in Scandinavia has been to emphasize the differences between Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and you will have three countries that play rather differently.


eu3_DAN.gif
Denmark
We have revised the map of Denmark rather heavily since EU3, giving them several new provinces, making them a formidable second rank power in Europe, and a fair amount of the time, becomes the winner in the north.

Denmark has a fair amount of historical events, including an eventchain for the Counts Feud, where you can select to back the monarch or a pretender.

National Ideas
Denmark starts with +5% Trade Income and -10% Ship Cost.
  1. Vornedskab: +15% quicker manpower recovery.
  2. Old Naval Traditions: +1 Navy Tradition
  3. Rentekammer: +10% Tax Income
  4. Klaedekammer: -33% Naval Maintenance
  5. Expanded Dockyards: +100% Naval Forcelimit
  6. Den Danske Lov: -1 Revolt Risk
  7. Religious Orthodoxy: +2 tolerance own & -10% Stability Cost.
When Denmark has all their ideas, they get +15% Light Ship Combat ability. All of this together, turns Denmark into a formidable naval power with some resiliency.

eu3_NOR.gif
Norway
Norway did not last long in history, as they never broke free from the Union of Kalmar, but instead became a group of provinces in Denmark. This means that they only have a very few amount of historical events that can occurr for them.

National Ideas
Norway starts with 20% cheaper Light Ships, and 20% Light Ship Combat ability.
  1. Norwegian Fishing: +10% Production Efficiency
  2. Natural Seamanship: +0.33 Naval Morale
  3. Norwegian Shipbuilding: -10% Ship Cost
  4. Call of Our Forefathers: Allows Exploration and gives +33% Colonial Range.
  5. Pioneer Spirit: +1 Colonist
  6. Seize the Opportunity: +10% Trade Power
  7. Write new Sagas: +1 Prestige & 5% Discipline
When Norway has all their ideas they get a +20% bonus to trade steering. They have possibilities to forge a colonial empire without sacrificing an ideagroup for it, and also get benefits to become a decent naval and trade power.


Sieges
How sieges worked in previous incarnations was rather opaque to the player. You saw the progress number increase at what seemed like random intervals, and then eventually the siege was won.

Every non-colony now requires a siege as all cities have 1 fort level as default. The level 5 and 6 fort buildings each add +2 to fortlevels.

At default, there are 30 days between siege ticks. There are several factors which impact how long it takes between each tick of siege. First of all, your defensiveness value either increase or decrease the time. Then, there is the difference in military tactics between the sieger and the besieged, where each level of difference can affect it with up to 8 days.

Warexhaustion & Prestige is the primary impacts on defensiveness, but positive piety, luck & difficulty also affect it.

Each siegetick a diceroll is rolled. If the roll is the maximum value, there will be a breach. If the diceroll, previous results, and the modifiers get above a certain level, the siege will be won.

The modifiers are commanding officers siege ability, amount of artillery compared to fortlevel, blockade, fort level & breach.

In the new siege interface, you can always see when the next tick will happen, what the last diceroll was, and all the modifiers, and you'll also see the chance of the fort falling during the next tick.

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And just to make sure you are all aware - Europa Universalis IV will release on August 13th!
You can pre-order the game here: http://www.europauniversalis4.com/buy ;)

[video=youtube;fz7e4sDl4Rk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz7e4sDl4Rk[/video]
 

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Awesome, this just gets better and better :)
Kalmarunionen skal herske over norden!

If I play as sweden, is it possible to make all of Denmark swedish like they did with Skåne? Sweden looks much better with the danish land on their hands.
 
Norway looks like an extremely tempting choice now. Especially with the colonial idea, might be a lot of fun to try them out actually instead of Sweden.
 
Norway looks like an extremely tempting choice now. Especially with the colonial idea, might be a lot of fun to try them out actually instead of Sweden.
*gasp* Now they're going to nerf Norway to make sure you play with Sweden.

:p ;)

edit:
Question regarding the Scandinavia union, whose National Idea do you get when you form the union; do you get a new one or do you simply keep the current one (e.g. if you form Scandinavia with Denmark you keep the Danish national ideas)

Also what about Finland is there a generic North European idea group for the minor Norse countries?
 
The siege changes are good. I remember how much more effective I became when I understood how sieges worked in EU1 or 2, and making that information easy to discover in game must be a big plus for new players.
 
Norway looks like an extremely tempting choice now. Especially with the colonial idea, might be a lot of fun to try them out actually instead of Sweden.

Norway are dirt poor and have low manpower.. But they are really different to play..
 
I love the way sieges work in EU compared to your other games which is - if I may say - awful. It's far more realistic rather than have your troops sit on a province and wait for the bar to become full to win the siege. It could be 2 months or 2 years! And now it's even better!!!!!!!
 
With Norway actually having the potential to become the northern Portugal and colonise Vinland will become a decent and attractive choice for newcomers as well as older fans. Now please give us a Central European DD with Hungary, Wallachia and Bohemia.

Is it possible to integrate the Colony Name Change Mod from EU3 into the final game or release it as some sort of colonial dlc? That would give a lot of flavour and would be awesome! :D
 
It's just wrong! I've been waiting 35 DDs to see diary dedicated to the Poland and still nothing! if I don't get to see it real soon, I'm gonna bust a nut!
Yeah, I wanted to make a joke "You forgot Poland", but decided not to. I'm waiting for that Brandenburg/Prussia DD too, I guess we'll get Poland and Prussia just before release :)
 
Love the map, Scandinavia looks great. Hopefully it will take ages for an army to move from Bergenshus to Eidsiva or Akershus. In those days the best way was to go by sea in that case.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I wanted to make a joke "You forgot Poland", but decided not to. I'm waiting for that Brandenburg/Prussia DD too, I guess we'll get Poland and Prussia just before release :)

It's not just Poland. It's generally Central Europe. Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, Wallachia, Lithuania, Prussia/Brandenburg. But there are still 8 DDs till release so we will get one. Eventually. Hopefully. Will we get one, Johan?
 
Norway are dirt poor and have low manpower.. But they are really different to play..
We hadn't found the oil yet :)

On another note, this is really matching the plan I had for norway, colonising Canada and the US. I'll probably invest in some ideas that give me manpower, and then I'll break free with Sweden, so the Kalmar Union will crumble.. FOREVER!!