Hello all.

Sadly we can't yet talk about the big feature of Common Sense, Subject Interaction.. As we are completely redoing the interface for it, so it has to wait until next week.

Instead, we'll talk about a major change to the Holy Roman Empire, and give you the new achievements for 1.12.

Imperial Authority and Reforms

Imperial Authority has had a significant rework in 1.12. The old system tended to advance or retreat authority in big lurches and was very open to exploits. It also did not take into account how well the Empire was doing overall, and there was little benefit for the Emperor to maintain a large number of member states.

This has been changed in 1.12, as many of the events that gave Imperial Authority have been replaced with ticking values. The monthly change to Imperial Authority is now displayed in the interface, and will depend on factors such as:
- Whether there is peace in the Empire
- Total number of member states
- The amount of HRE territory held by outside powers
- The amount of HRE territory held by heretics & heathens
- The number of electors and free cities

An Emperor who is doing a good job will see their Imperial Authority naturally grow without having to resort to methods such as annexing states when authority is at 0 only to release them again later, while an Emperor that allows outside powers and heretics to dominate the Empire will find themselves unable to pass reforms entirely.

As part of this change, we've also revised the old 'Imperial Integrity' modifier for having more than 25 princes. We felt this modifier was both too strong and too arbitrary, so it has been removed. Instead, the HRE reforms were buffed to provide more of an incentive for members to vote for reform.

Achievements

Baltic Crusader - As Teutonic Order or Livonian Order conquer all of the Russia Region and make it Catholic.
Neither Holy, Nor German - Get 7 free cities in the HRE that are not of German Culture, as Emperor
Colonial Management - Have 3 colonial governors directly appointed by you at the same time.
Voting Streak - Get through 11 Issues in a row in Parliament
An Industrial Revolution - As GBR, all in english region, with 25 development.

City of Cities - Create a City with 60 development.
One Family to Rule them All - Have your dynasty on 8 thrones at the same time.
This is My Faith - Become Protestant and get maximum amount of traits.
Bleed them dry - Have 10 different War Reparations being paid to you at the same time.
Subsidize my Love - Subsidize 3 different allies at least 50% of their monthly income without running a deficit.

Take that Habsburgs! - As Hungary, Conquer all of Austria.
The White Elephant - As Ayutthaya conquers all provinces in Indochina region
The Buddhists strike back - As Ceylon conquer all of India and convert it to Theravada.
Better than Napoleon - As France, conquer Vienna, Berlin & Moscow.
Big Blue Blob - As France, hold 100 european core provinces before 1500.

A Full House - Have 3 Vassals & 2 Marches at the Same time.
Black Jack - Maintain 21 different overseas Subjects with more than 5 provinces each, without anyone having more than 50% Liberty Desire - Trade Companies does not count.
A Decent Reserve - Gain at least 1M Manpower.
The Six Nations - Form a federation of at least 6 nations as the Iroqious.
The Bohemians - Conquer and core Dublin as Bohemia.

Komenoi Empire - Make Trebizond into an Empire.
Lucky Lucca - As Lucca, own Lucknow!
A Fine Goosestep - Form Prussia and get 125% Discipline.
Meissner Porcelain - As Saxony own all chinaware provinces.
All Your Trade are Belong to Us! - Have highest tradepower in Genoa, Venice, & English Channel, while gaining 300 income per month.

 

[Khundes]

I would say that culture and naval combat are the two open sores on an otherwise beautiful game.

Add in Ming. Lately every few weeks people point out the ahistoricity of what happens to the Ming. Whether it's about how the Qing took over, or how Ming just Skittles up into a bunch of long dead states that hadn't existed for hundreds of years, people keep asking for a Ming/Qing overhaul as well.

 

[Comes Imperii]

Nice improvements to the HRE. Never played an Emperor game because I felt the mechanics were not very representative of what an Emperor was supposed to do to gain authority. I love how authority is now gained gradually, I'm all for gradual changes based on structural factors. 1.12 may finally be the time I do my first Austrian game ever in EUIV.

 

[Sunspawn]

Why would France need to be fixed? It's working as intended. It's the power house of the era. What they actually need to 'fix' is to remove -AE from lucky nations and France won't be eating up Europe for breakfast without being punished.

That and changing the ideas to match pre-Revolution France - it's soldiers were not uber-motivated compared to all others, so Elan! really does not have much of a place in it's NIs. From cursory examination of some wars it fought in the EU period, France was more like the Russia of the West than some mega-Prussia.

 

[PhoenixDown]

That and changing the ideas to match pre-Revolution France - it's soldiers were not uber-motivated compared to all others, so Elan! really does not have much of a place in it's NIs. From cursory examination of some wars it fought in the EU period, France was more like the Russia of the West than some mega-Prussia.

I don't know about that. Holding off coalition of Habsburgs(HRE+Spain) and GB seem to make their soldiers pretty motivated in my eyes. They could replace it with +manpower and +force limit though. I am not sure if it would not make France too weak.

 

[WeissRaben]

Montferrat still owned by Milan? Come on! It's the literal ONE thing you shouldn't have done with that province!

 

[happymix91]

What's the reasoning behind free cities giving imperial authority? Is it just a reason for utilizing the new mechanics or is there a historical reason I'm not aware of? I was under the impression that they weren't able to play much of a role in Imperial affairs.

Under the feudal system, cities were much closer to kings or emperors than nobles and bishops. Cities of Europe before modern age wanted to be free from feudal lords and churches, and imperial free cities were free from them and directly under an emperor, not under nobles or bishops. Cities and their univercities and merchants provided many things for their ruler, so if a king or an emperor has many cities under him, it means that they beat challenge of their vasslas and have better position than their vassals.

 

[TheDungen]

Why would France need to be fixed? It's working as intended. It's the power house of the era. What they actually need to 'fix' is to remove -AE from lucky nations and France won't be eating up Europe for breakfast without being punished.

France isnt that kind of powerhouse, it's a colonial nation, it's a cultural hub, but in regards to land on the european continent the only thing the kingdom of france manages to conquer is brittany. France is powerful yes but it spends that power trying to keep real powerhouses such as the holy roman empire (up until the peace of westphalia) and later the brittish in check. And it ends up bancrupting itself doing that.
Eventually france is late into the industrial revolution and loses it's global holdings. France is one of the big losers of this period. They are on the crusp of being the first kingdom to abolish the feudal state at the begining of the game (that big centralisation that the HRE never manages to pull of). And at the end, while they have not yet fallen the stage is already set for a former imperial OPM to proclaim itself the german empire in Versailles.

 

[Homusubi]

The Bohemians - Conquer and core Dublin as Bohemia.

This is why I like it when developers are European - obscure intra-continental puns...

 

[Te. Kenzo]

Why would France need to be fixed? It's working as intended. It's the power house of the era. What they actually need to 'fix' is to remove -AE from lucky nations and France won't be eating up Europe for breakfast without being punished.

France need to be limited by its natural competitors, maybe with these changes the Empire will be more effective fighting against strangers, the other competitor that was the power house of the era at least for two centuries was spain, if we are talking about dynasties, habsurg double presence and the internal war, were what blocked France. And also after that even if Spain was in decline, now competitors appeared in europe. Habsburg of the Empire made a more strong "personal power" in their lands outside austria. Great Britain appeared on sea, as well before appeared the united provinces, and also in the empire another power appeared, a tall one we can say, Prussia. And more far a strong Russia lies near to europe.

So maybe we can say that a way to moderate BBB, is made the natural competitors strong, I have to say that Spain for some reason tend to fail against France. Or maybe made some game mechanics (maybe with the forts) when you have a true fight early modern fight, instead of the actual massconsciptions with K and K of units swarming around.

Also I agree that France during early modern history was with civil wars of bankrupt risk, even with the sun king, the great exploit was de facto with Napoleon, but becouse the total change of mind al law, liberated new energies (but after a while these energies use were learned also by the enemy of France.)

 

[OldmansHQ]

I have to say, I love the changes to Imperial Authority. I would make a Common Sense joke, but that's already been done, so I'll just post a link to what happens when the devs leave the forum unattended for a day: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...iction-megathread.855871/page-6#post-19316333 (and an oral version that was made before I wrote the whole thing up): https://soundcloud.com/andrew-pronschinske/wiz-and-johans-magical-adventure

Yeah... Making that joke over and over is Paine in the butt !

 

[migalhone]

France need to be limited by its natural competitors, maybe with these changes the Empire will be more effective fighting against strangers, the other competitor that was the power house of the era at least for two centuries was spain, if we are talking about dynasties, habsurg double presence and the internal war, were what blocked France. And also after that even if Spain was in decline, now competitors appeared in europe. Habsburg of the Empire made a more strong "personal power" in their lands outside austria. Great Britain appeared on sea, as well before appeared the united provinces, and also in the empire another power appeared, a tall one we can say, Prussia. And more far a strong Russia lies near to europe.

So maybe we can say that a way to moderate BBB, is made the natural competitors strong, I have to say that Spain for some reason tend to fail against France. Or maybe made some game mechanics (maybe with the forts) when you have a true fight early modern fight, instead of the actual massconsciptions with K and K of units swarming around.

Well, you could also reduce Elan's bonus from 20% to 10%, same with Castille/Spain(15%-10%).

 

[PhoenixDown]

France need to be limited by its natural competitors, maybe with these changes the Empire will be more effective fighting against strangers, the other competitor that was the power house of the era at least for two centuries was spain, if we are talking about dynasties, habsurg double presence and the internal war, were what blocked France. And also after that even if Spain was in decline, now competitors appeared in europe. Habsburg of the Empire made a more strong "personal power" in their lands outside austria. Great Britain appeared on sea, as well before appeared the united provinces, and also in the empire another power appeared, a tall one we can say, Prussia. And more far a strong Russia lies near to europe.

So maybe we can say that a way to moderate BBB, is made the natural competitors strong, I have to say that Spain for some reason tend to fail against France. Or maybe made some game mechanics (maybe with the forts) when you have a true fight early modern fight, instead of the actual massconsciptions with K and K of units swarming around.

Removing -AE from lucky nations fixes exactly that problem. Europe needs to team up to beat France.

 

[Anthedon]

So many new Achievements, I'll never get them all.

 

[TheDungen]

I don't know about that. Holding off coalition of Habsburgs(HRE+Spain) and GB seem to make their soldiers pretty motivated in my eyes. They could replace it with +manpower and +force limit though. I am not sure if it would not make France too weak.

Well I wouldn't mind if they accidentally swung that axe to far in that direction, atleast it would show them trying to balance france.

Removing -AE from lucky nations fixes exactly that problem. Europe needs to team up to beat France.

No France teams up with others to hold back the truly powerful, like Spain and the HRE. The only time europe teams up on france is when napoleon does what no one even considered and starts taking things ha doesnt have any claim on. And that's outside of this game era. Honestly making taking land harder for everyone and making austria and spain historical friends is probably a better nerf for france.

 

[TheDungen]

What's the reasoning behind free cities giving imperial authority? Is it just a reason for utilizing the new mechanics or is there a historical reason I'm not aware of? I was under the impression that they weren't able to play much of a role in Imperial affairs.

Imperial authority represnt the holy roman empires attempts to get rid of the feudal system by having the citizens as direct subjects of the emperor instead of subjects of some feudal lord who swore fealty to the emperor. Historically speaking the people and the king/emperor has often been aligned against the nobility.

 

[Sir Iain]

What's the reasoning behind free cities giving imperial authority? Is it just a reason for utilizing the new mechanics or is there a historical reason I'm not aware of? I was under the impression that they weren't able to play much of a role in Imperial affairs.

Some Free Cities were very important: Frankfurt for Elections, Aachen for Imperial Coronations, the Regalia were kept in Neurenberg. Free Cities hosted Imperial Diets (Regensburg, Neurenberg, Augsburg, Worms). Wetzlar and Speyer hosted the Imperial Chamber court.

It's true that the cities didn't have much political power, even collectively as they were marginalized during diets. In the early part the period they did have huge economic power, and helped finance the Schmalkaldic Leage against the emperor. Neurenberg was able to wage wars against it's neighbors: it was one of the few cities that actually conquered new territories.

 

[Sunspawn]

I don't know about that. Holding off coalition of Habsburgs(HRE+Spain) and GB seem to make their soldiers pretty motivated in my eyes. They could replace it with +manpower and +force limit though. I am not sure if it would not make France too weak.

From reading about the various wars France was involved in, I really can't see any reason for that - France was equally successful and unsuccessful as the other nations in the time - it won and lost battles, more often than not depending more on the commanding general than the soldiers themselves - such as the difference between d'Amboise and de Foix during the War of the League of Cambrai.

 

[Liquidstuff]

examination

France isnt that kind of powerhouse, it's a colonial nation, it's a cultural hub, but in regards to land on the european continent the only thing the kingdom of france manages to conquer is brittany. France is powerful yes but it spends that power trying to keep real powerhouses such as the holy roman empire (up until the peace of westphalia) and later the brittish in check. And it ends up bancrupting itself doing that.
Eventually france is late into the industrial revolution and loses it's global holdings. France is one of the big losers of this period. They are on the crusp of being the first kingdom to abolish the feudal state at the begining of the game. And at the end, while they have not yet fallen the stage is already set for a former imperial OPM to proclaim itself the german empire in Versailles.

Is that French bashing ??? I'm just gonna give you a number. France, at the 1450's, is inhabited by 18 M people while the Iberian Peninsula is only somewhere around 10 M. The English Islands are empty compared to this number. Secondly, do you remember the TYW. It literally devastated all of Germany and made sure that they won't be a problem for another 200 years. I don't think that you can consider that France did very poorly in history as France managed to grow outside it's cultural borders. Sundgau, Alsace, Roussillon, Calais, Artois, Luxembourg, Corsica, Brittany to some extent. And finally, no country other than France was able to fight back the coalition of the entire European continent, and still win. From the 12th century, the HYW aside, to the 1400's France dominates Europe. Then you have a quick period of about 40-50 years where it's the Burgundian who dominates Europe. After that, you've got the Spanish for a century and a few years. And then, it's France until 1815, (A bit sooner if you want but during the Enlightenment, France and England are about equal).

 

[RMcD94]

When are you going to allow achievements in multiplayer?

Considering you can get all the achievements via cheat engine, etc I have no clue in any way shape or form why you would punish people for getting their friends involved in your game?

This game shines in multiplayer and yet you're telling people that multiplayer is less valuable, absurd.

 

[Kollatius]

I like these changes, are these part of the Patch or the DLC? (as in: HRE changes)

Also: Big Blue Blob - Now this is an achievement I like! Gives a good reason to play france (Other than to destroy Europe)