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Hello and welcome to our latest EU4 dev diary. Following our dev diary on some of the larger HRE mission trees, there were many calls for further ones for the smaller, but still interesting nations of Germany. We agreed, and therefore I am now able to present some (but not all) of the results of this, by revealing some of the extra content we have made for the smaller electors of the HRE, by which I mean the Palatinate, Mainz, Trier and Cologne. (Note that these are not the only countries in Germany which have received some extra treatment, they are just the only ones I will present today ).

The latter three – the Bishop-Electors – were particularly hard done by in earlier versions of EU4, since they lacked their own ideas (using instead the fairly generic “Divine Ideas”) and had missions to become Emperor (a hard task for a bishopric…). I am pleased to say that both these issues have been rectified. First of all, here are their new idea groups:

KOL_ideas = {
start = {
global_manpower_modifier = 0.15
missionaries = 1
}
bonus = {
unjustified_demands = -0.2
}
trigger = {
tag = KOL
}
free = yes

kol_pursuit_of_unity = {
fabricate_claims_cost = -0.25
}
kol_archchancellor_of_italy = {
prestige_decay = -0.01
}
kol_hanseatic_city = {
development_cost = -0.1
}
kol_prime_minister = {
devotion = 0.5
legitimacy = 0.5
global_autonomy = -0.03
}
kol_pivotal_ecclesiastic_territory = {
global_heretic_missionary_strength = 0.03
}
kol_shifting_alliances = {
diplomatic_reputation = 1
}
kol_order_of_saint_michael = {
discipline = 0.05
}
}

kol_pursuit_of_unity:0 "The Pursuit of Territorial Unity"
kol_pursuit_of_unity_desc:0 "Our territory is geographically divided between the Rhineland and Westphalia. We have to find a way to unite our secular possessions in order to strengthen the bishopric and to centralize the government. Perhaps we can find some forgotten claims in our archives."
kol_archchancellor_of_italy:0 "Archicancellarius per Italiam"
kol_archchancellor_of_italy_desc:0 "We hold the title of Archchancellor of Italy within the Holy Roman Empire. Although this title carries little in terms of material power or responsibilities, it does bring with it a certain level of prestige, helping us earn the respect of the other princes."
kol_hanseatic_city:0 "Hanseatic Trade City"
kol_hanseatic_city_desc:0 "Because of its central location on the Rhine and its trade links to Western and Eastern Europe, Cologne has traditionally been a leading member of the Hanseatic League. Through its trade with England and its contacts in the league, Cologne has developed into a large and wealthy trade city. By encouraging its further growth, we will secure a bountiful economic dividend in future!"
kol_prime_minister:0 "Prime Minister of Cologne"
kol_prime_minister_desc:0 "The governance of a bishopric as large as Cologne requires a lot of time. In order to administrate this land, the Archbishop neglects his spiritual duties, leading to unhappiness among his subjects. By establishing the position of Prime Minister, to whom the secular administration of the Archbishopric will be delegated, the Archbishop will gain more time for the spiritual needs of Cologne's population. "
kol_pivotal_ecclesiastic_territory:0 "Pivotal Ecclesiastic Territory"
kol_pivotal_ecclesiastic_territory_desc:0 "As a Bishop-Elector and one of the largest ecclesiastic territories in the Empire, Cologne is a pivotal player in the wars of religion. Our support is likely to be key to the success or downfall of either side in the struggle. We shall make use of this opportunity to spread righteousness and religious correctness across Germany."
kol_shifting_alliances:0 "Shifting Alliances"
kol_shifting_alliances_desc:0 "The rule of a bishopric as large as Cologne requires a lot of time. In order to administrate this land, the Archbishop neglects his spiritual duties, leading to unhappiness among his subjects. By establishing the position of Prime Minister, to whom the secular administration of the Archbishopric will be delegated, the Archbishop will gain more time for the spiritual needs of Cologne's population. "
kol_order_of_saint_michael:0 "Order of St. Michael"
kol_order_of_saint_michael_desc:0 "It is our duty to bring the nobility of our territory into line with the church’s accepted beliefs in order to defend the faith in our bishopric. For this purpose, we should establish a military order open only to noblemen. This order, with St. Michael as its patron, is going to teach our nobles to pray and to receive the sacraments with a chaste soul. In this way, they will acquire the discipline and zealousness they need to defend our bishopric from its spiritual and other enemies."

MAI_ideas = {
start = {
global_tax_modifier = 0.1
advisor_pool = 1
}
bonus = {
improve_relation_modifier = 0.3
}
trigger = {
tag = MAI
}
free = yes

mai_archchancellor_of_germany = {
prestige = 1
}
mai_center_of_religious_learning = {
idea_cost = -0.1
}
mai_saint_hildegard = {
devotion = 1
legitimacy = 1
}
mai_weck_worscht_woi = {
recover_army_morale_speed = 0.05
}
mai_perpetual_privy_council = {
global_autonomy = -0.05
}
mai_rhine_fortress = {
defensiveness = 0.2
}
mai_fifth_season = {
global_unrest = -1
}
}

mai_archchancellor_of_germany:0 "Archicancellarius per Germaniam"
mai_archchancellor_of_germany_desc:0 "Ever since the 10th century, the Archbishops of Mainz have held the title of Archchancellor, making them the highest dignitary in the realm second to only the Emperor himself. Our most prestigious duty is to call and organize the Imperial Elections and to guide the other Prince-Electors in their search for a new Emperor."
mai_center_of_religious_learning:0 "Center of Religious Learning"
mai_center_of_religious_learning_desc:0 "As one of the great centers of religious learning and theology in all of Europe, Mainz is home to many of the brightest Christian and Jewish scholars. Guarding over them is St. Martin's Cathedral, the episcopal see of our bishop, where Kings and Emperors have been crowned."
mai_saint_hildegard:0 "Saint Hildegard of Bingen"
mai_saint_hildegard_desc:0 "Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century Benedictine abbess and polymath, is revered as a saint in our region. However, her canonisation was hindered by disputes between our previous Archbishops and the Pope. But now Hildegard has finally been accepted in the Roman martyrology, which will foster even greater reverence for her - and for the church in general - among the common folk."
mai_weck_worscht_woi:0 "Weck, Worscht & Woi"
mai_weck_worscht_woi_desc:0 "Weck, Worscht un Woi - bread, sausage and wine - is a favourite meal of our subjects. Its simplicity makes it easily transportable, and therefore an optimal food ration for our army. As we possess fertile lands - and the best vineyards in all of Germany - we can easily afford to supply our troops with Weck, Worscht un Woi surely keeping their fighting morale up!"
mai_perpetual_privy_council:0 "Perpetual Privy Council"
mai_perpetual_privy_council_desc:0 "The disjointed territory that we rule has made it necessary to create an enduring central administration, the perpetual privy council. From now on, we will impose a more rigid rule on our subjects and deprive the estates of their power as well as hindering them from convening at all."
mai_rhine_fortress:0 "The Guard of the Rhine"
mai_rhine_fortress_desc:0 "The German lands have been under threat by enemies from the West ever since the Holy Roman Empire has come into existence, with many foes looking to push us back beyond the Rhine. As the strongest fortress on the west banks of the river, we are the sword and shield of the Empire and it is our holy duty to stand strong against all intruders!"
mai_fifth_season:0 "The Fifth Season"
mai_fifth_season_desc:0 "Other less enlightened countries might prohibit criticism of the nobility by the common folk, but this is not the case here in Mainz when the yearly Karneval rolls around. People are free to criticize social and political injustices under the shelter of cap and bells, imitating those of a different social rank for the day. Anyone who is not a fool at Karneval is foolish for the rest of the year!"

TRI_ideas = {
start = {
tolerance_own = 2
global_manpower_modifier = 0.15
}
bonus = {
discipline = 0.05
}
trigger = {
tag = TRI
}
free = yes

tri_crusader_past = {
army_tradition = 0.5
}
tri_university_of_trier = {
adm_tech_cost_modifier = -0.1
}
tri_archchancellor_of_gaul = {
ae_impact = -0.1
}
tri_landesburgen = {
defensiveness = 0.1
global_autonomy = -0.03
}
tri_seamless_robe_of_jesus = {
papal_influence = 1
monthly_fervor_increase = 0.25
church_power_modifier = 0.1
}
tri_prum_abbey = {
prestige = 1
}
tri_domkapitel = {
free_adm_policy = 1
}
}

tri_crusader_past:0 "Crusader Past"
tri_crusader_past_desc:0 "Centuries ago, many brave men left our country as crusaders to take part in the Crusades. Their deeds are deeply ingrained in the memory of our bishopric. Our coat of arms - Saint George’s Cross - was chosen to honor these crusaders. Let all our soldiers remember our crusading past and be exhorted to show that the fire of times gone by is still in them."
tri_university_of_trier:0 "University of Trier"
tri_university_of_trier_desc:0 "The Pope has granted us leave to establish a university in our city, where we can train future priests and administrators for our bishopric. Let us do so and furthermore promote the study of law and medicine, so that we can become a true center of learning and draw students from far and wide."
tri_archchancellor_of_gaul:0 "Archicancellarius per Galliam"
tri_archchancellor_of_gaul_desc:0 "As the Archchancellor of Arles, Burgundy and all of France, it is our right and our duty to bring these lost lands back in to the empire. Under our banner shall the Empire in France be restored!"
tri_landesburgen:0 "Landesburgen"
tri_landesburgen_desc:0 "We have several castles called "Landesburgen" spread across our secular territory. They serve a vital role in our administration, acting as seats for our officials, toll collection posts and strong positions around which to rally our defense against our foes."
tri_seamless_robe_of_jesus:0 "The Seamless Robe of Jesus"
tri_seamless_robe_of_jesus_desc:0 "Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, is said to have sent the Holy Robe of Jesus to Trier (then known as Augusta Treverorum) after she discovered it in Jerusalem. It has since been held in a reliquary in Trier’s cathedral, but we sometimes put it on display for the faithful, drawing large numbers of pilgrim to our city for the occasion."
tri_prum_abbey:0 "Prüm Abbey"
tri_prum_abbey_desc:0 "Prüm was the favourite monastery of the Carolingians, receiving many privileges and large estates from King Pepin the Short after his marriage to Bertrada the Younger, granddaughter of the founder of the abbey. Over the years, it became not only a beautiful abbey, but also a center of ecclesiastic learning. However, it has declined considerably since those days, and is unable to survive on its own. We shall take over administration of the abbey and restore it to its former glory!"
tri_domkapitel:0 "Influence of the Domkapitel"
tri_domkapitel_desc:0 "The Domkapitel or Cathedral Chapter has great influence over the Archbishopric, choosing new Archbishops, deciding when the Archbishop may summon the estates, and ruling in his stead in the case of his absence. Through their vigilance, they will see to it that Trier is always well administered, whether the Archbishop is present or not."

In terms of missions, several changes were made. First of all, all theocracies in the HRE now have three missions that replace the missions to become Emperor. Secondly, all three Bishop-Electors now share four missions with each other, two focusing on relations with the Emperor and two on relations with each other. Finally, each of the three have one or two missions of their own, to reflect their own situations.

upload_2019-7-15_15-45-56.png


Mainz’s missions in the new setup.

To begin with the missions for all HRE theocracies, the House of God requires all (or at least 10, if you have more) of your provinces to have churches or cathedrals; as a reward, if you have a church in your capital, it will be upgraded to a cathedral (if you already have one there, you will instead be granted 2 base tax). The Lord’s Army then requires that you turn newfound economic strength into an army capable of holding its ground against all unbelievers – in other words, you must have an army that is at least 30,000 men strong or stronger than those of all your neighbours. Divine Empire then requires the Reformation to be successfully navigated: 50 years after its start, 50 (out of around 80) provinces need to have whichever of the religions you opted for.

The first two bishop-elector missions are fairly uncomplicated: They require good relations with the Emperor and having voted for the Emperor in the last three imperial elections. The second two, however, are more exigent: They first require you to either ally with or conquer the other two bishop-electors, then, once the Reformation has been under way for 50 years, it requires the same again, but this time all three must be the same religion. Achieving this will grant +1% missionary strength and +1 tolerance of the true faith for the rest of the game.

Finally, as mentioned, each of the three will have their own unique mission(s). For Mainz, this would be to claim direct control of Erfurt, a Mainzian core at the start of the game. Doing this will grant claims on provinces between Mainz and Erfurt. In Trier’s case, you will be asked to build Trier University by getting the province to 15 development and making sure it has a church and a courthouse; doing this will cause a university to appear (the university tech itself appears fairly late, centuries after Trier University’s historical foundation date in 1473). Cologne will be tasked with making sure its lands are contiguous (e.g. by conquering Berg), which will then put it in a great position to dominate its ecclesiastic rival in northern Germany, Münster. Subduing Münster will make Cologne a dominant power in its part of Germany and grant claims on Hessen and the rest of the North Rhine area.

---

Moving onto the Palatinate, this nation already had its own ideas, but no missions of its own. Historically, the Palatinate were almost-achievers, in that they were for a long time one of the stronger powers in the HRE without ever becoming dominant. They were involved in numerous skirmishes and dynastic disputes with their Wittelsbach cousins in Bavaria, but gradually ceded ground to them; they led the Protestants in the lead-up to the Thirty Years War and their Elector-Palatine, Frederick V, even became King of Bohemia… only for his reign to last just a single winter (earning him the nickname “The Winter King) and lead to the loss of both his territory and his elector title, as Austria and her Bavarian allies took revenge. It would be another thirty years (until the end of the Thirty Years War, no less) until the rulers of the Palatinate were restored their lands and their titles, but they were a much-diminished force, whose lands would be mainly squabbled over by others in later years.

To do justice to their potential, we added a two-pronged mission tree:

upload_2019-7-15_15-54-0.png


The first two columns contain the new missions.

First, to make any progress whatsoever, you will have to increase your holdings to 7 cities and your armies to 15,000 men. Having done this, you will gain claims to help them unify your lands into a contiguous territory – no mean feat with the new map. If you manage to do this, and the Bavarian Wittelsbachs still exist, you will gain claims on the Wittelsbach throne(s), giving you the chance to fulfil the Elector-Palatines’ longstanding ambition of reuniting their dynastic lands (and reversing the real course of history). Finally, after cementing Palatine power in southern Germany, you can turn your attention back to west Germany and become true “Kings of the Rhine” by subjugating the majority of the provinces along the Rhine; doing this will give a permanent modifier granting +1 yearly legitimacy.

upload_2019-7-15_15-54-32.png


Many provinces now separate Heidelberg from the Oberpfalz.

The other branch of the tree first requires the Palatinate to show religious leadership. In practice, this can mean several things: Owning a Center of Reformation and having 100% religious unity is the easiest one, but one can also do it by being the leader of a Religious League or by being on the winning side of the Wars of Religion; for those without Art of War, these last two conditions are replaced by one of having five neighbours of your own religion 50 years after the Reformation started. Once this mission is fulfilled, the Palatinate’s sympathisers in Bohemia (if it is still free) will kick in and grant you a personal union CB for 25 years. Achieving a complete victory over Bohemia as the Palatinate might, however, not be easy (I speak from experience).

Once the east is secure, again, the Elector-Palatine will have to look west and make sure that no invasions from across the Rhine will threaten his lands. This can be achieved in two ways: Either the you ensure that no French nation has a larger army than yourself, or you ally with France and see to it that the two nations follow the same religion. Completing the mission in the first manner will give claims on the French border areas and Paris, but if you befriend France you will instead gain 200 diplomatic power and France as a historical friend.

Finally, now that the Palatinate is truly glorious, you will have to make sure that your court is a fair reflection of this glory by achieving 75 prestige, having three level 3 advisors, and a capital with 30 development. Doing this will give -1% prestige decay for the rest of the game.

---

One further, purely flavour-based change we made was to add a custom title to the Palatinate: Now, so long as they remain electors, their government will be known as an Electoral Palatinate, and the ruler the Elector-Palatine. Should they however lose their electorate for whatever reason, they will be known as a County Palatine, ruled by the Count Palatine. Speaking of Counts and Counties, HRE monarchies with less than 50 development will now also be called Counties and be ruled by Counts.

upload_2019-7-15_15-55-10.png
upload_2019-7-15_15-56-20.png


And finally, one last thing for today:

upload_2019-7-15_16-0-22.png
 
Ever heard of the Münster Rebellion of 1534 when a pseudo-communist protestant (anabaptist) death cult took over the city (after they failed to do the same in Strasbourg) and reigned with terror for one year until they were crushed by the city's old bishop.
The metal cages were their leaders bodies were exhibited can still be seen on the same curch.
Maybe an idea to fresh up münster...
 
Maybe. We find the historical basis for a Rhinelander tag to be lacking (we couldn't even decide what it should be called) so for now we opted for a joint treatment of the Rhinelanders and Westphalians (even if I know that the people in question might object to this nowadays). What we did change is the conditions for forming Westphalia - they now no longer rigidly need you to have the lands Napoleon gave to his client state, and are instead more suited to a joint Rhinelander-Westphalian state that may organically arise. You also don't need to leave the HRE for it anymore.
Just name it Rhineland. The Confederation of the Rhine was within the same time as Westphalia, even sooner than the Kingdom of Westphalia.
 
Maybe. We find the historical basis for a Rhinelander tag to be lacking (we couldn't even decide what it should be called) so for now we opted for a joint treatment of the Rhinelanders and Westphalians (even if I know that the people in question might object to this nowadays). What we did change is the conditions for forming Westphalia - they now no longer rigidly need you to have the lands Napoleon gave to his client state, and are instead more suited to a joint Rhinelander-Westphalian state that may organically arise. You also don't need to leave the HRE for it anymore.
as a bavarian living in Berlin I can only agree! xD everthing north of Bavaria is basically the same...xD xD
 
@Caligula Caesar Mainz has a few idea-descriptions about their separated territories, could you guys please give it the province of Erfurt, As it historically belonged to them? Even though it was quite independent sometimes, the area was under great Mainzian influence; not Thuringian. The area around the city is quite catholic nowadays, (like the Eichsfeld, for example), because of Mainzian control.

Tl;dr: Mainz should have disjointed areas; it was one of their authentic oddities. Erfurt should be Mainzian.
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Maybe. We find the historical basis for a Rhinelander tag to be lacking (we couldn't even decide what it should be called) so for now we opted for a joint treatment of the Rhinelanders and Westphalians (even if I know that the people in question might object to this nowadays). What we did change is the conditions for forming Westphalia - they now no longer rigidly need you to have the lands Napoleon gave to his client state, and are instead more suited to a joint Rhinelander-Westphalian state that may organically arise. You also don't need to leave the HRE for it anymore.

Nice, hope it can also get a new flag.
 
I will try to explain why divine ideas are better than the ideas of all three bishops.
Divine
- Starts with a missionary and a 15% manpower recovery. The missionary is useless early, but becomes very useful after about 100 years, as you are certain you will need to convert provinces in this region due to the reformation. 15% manpower recovery is very nice, and results this early in having a cheaper army as you will need less mercs. Also note that this only 5% less than in quantity ideas.
- 5% discipline is awesome. It's one of the strongest modifiers in the game, and having that this early is incredible. It is also needed, as German minors start with an important combat modifier (10% inf combat).
- -10% stability cost is for a theocracy rather useless, you rarely receive stabhits. Ignore that modifier. But -10% CCR is awesome, even more in a region where all the minors like to develop their capitals to high dev.
- 25% defensiveness is a very high number. Personally, I don't find it a great modifier (I prefer crushing armies than letting them siege down my lands), but compared to other idea groups, this remains a very high number.
- 2% missionary strength: about just in time (reformation), this modifier kicks in. Like someone else said, it's awesome that you have some of the important modifiers of religious ideas in your national ideas.
- Garrison things. Completely ignorable.
- +1 attrition pairs very well with the defensiveness. Currently, with the merc spam, it's not a great modifier, but it can be devastating against the AI.
- +10% tax is a good modifier for the already tax-focused theocracies. The modifier comes a bit late.
- -10% culture conversion: I don't really like to use that mechanic. Feels almost always wasteful.

The main strength of divine ideas are: early discipline, good army modifiers, great defensive modifiers, CCR and great religious modifiers. The idea set is good for expansion for small countries that tend to get sieged sometimes. Note that the more useless modifiers are at the back.

Let's compare it with the others:
Cologne
- Starting ideas are about equal. I prefer 15% manpower recovery, but I have to admit that for small countries, extra manpower storage could be better.
- Fabricate claims reduction: rather useless modifier. Sure, it can be useful to make a quick claim against someone for a surprise attack, but in the HRE with all the AE, you generally are sitting there long times making claims around you. And you gain like 5 months of diplomat time. That's not really great. Useless later in the game.
- Prestige decay is decent.
- Development cost reduction: decent, but competitively not great.
- Devotion and autonomy reduction are both bad modifiers. Keeping devotion at 100 is extremely easy.
- 3% heretic conversion is good, I prefer universal missionary strength, but it remains good for this area.
- 1 diplomatic reputation: good I guess? I don't like annexing vassals, so I never use dip rep that late.
- 5% discipline: finally a great modifier.
- Unjustified demands -20%: I think this is a great modifier, but it works always in the background. Paires well with the development bonus.

In short, Colognes ideas don't have a great start, give no economical bonues and are generally less geared towards conquest. The development bonus wants you to play taller, but I believe the defensiveness and the attrition are actually better for a tall play. The ideas are slightly worse than Divine ideas.

Trier
- The ideas start better than the other two. Note that Trier loses the extra missionary, which you usually need in the region. In the long run, this is equal to the starting ideas of the other two.
- 0,5 army tradtion is good to start with.
- -10% admin cost is a good modifier I think. Probably not as good as -10% CCR
- -10% AE impact: great modifier. It is also available quite early too.
- 10% defensiveness and autonomy reduction: autonomy reduction isn't really good, at this point you can crush rebels, and early in the game you don't have to up autonomy as you have the tolerance. The defensiveness number is small, doesn't really affect anything.
- 1 papal influence (or else, useless church power or an ignorable small amount of fervor): too late to really matter a lot, but probably depends on how the rework will be. In the current situation, it's bad.
- 1 Prestige: decent modifier(it hides the a good improve relation modifier)
- 1 free admin policy: depends on your available policies. With some planning it can be great.
- Awesome finisher, if a bit late: 5% discipline

Trier has the best ideas out of the three. They start strong, like the divine ideas. You still have to wait a long time before you have a good quality army (I'm not the morale guy). I would say this is equal to the divine ideas

Mainz
- 10% tax is good early, and theocracies are tax focused. 1 advisor pool is very situational, and generally it's better to have a good eco to hire-dismiss adivors instead. Not a good modifier. Works better if there were more advisors, as then getting the one you want becomes more difficult.
- 1 prestige is good this early (cf improve relation modifier). But you already start with an extra prestige modifier, so it won't matter a lot as decay will be big.
- -10% idea cost is decent I think.
- devotion modifiers are useless, devotion is easy to get.
- Recover army morale speed is weak. Rarely it will save you.
- Autonomy reduction is weak/useless.
- 20% defensiveness is weaker than the 25% of divine, and you lack the attrition modifier to make it really worth anything.
- -1 global unrest has its moments. It is a mediocre modifier. It will rarely stop rebels from spawning (-1 unrest on 10 unrest makes nearly no difference). For other countries this can help to not get certain disasters, but theocracies are less prone to disasters I think.
- 30% improve relations is a great modifier. When AE matters. This late, it's much weaker.

Mainz lacks ideas helping in wars, and these modifiers are the most important ones. There is no synergy. There is nothing that stands out. The best modifier is at the back. They're so bad that it's better to compare them to the generic ideas than to the divine ideas.

How to fix? Switching some ideas from position might already make a big difference (like the advisor pool with the improve relations or the Trierean prestige with the defensiveness). Giving 1 devotion is uselessly high, consider giving 0,5 at max, and pair it with something else. I don't want to dictate all potential fixes, you're the dev.
 
Just name it Rhineland. The Confederation of the Rhine was within the same time as Westphalia, even sooner than the Kingdom of Westphalia.
Or Ripuaria refering to the Frankish tribes that lived there and would become a great Empire.

Either way, these were Rhenish Franconians later known as Rhenish. So Rhineland, Ripuaria all are possible to unite these cultures after they fractured from Lotharingen and Franconia.

@Caligula Caesar Mainz has a few idea-descriptions about their separated territories, could you guys please give it the province of Erfurt, As it historically belonged to them? Even though it was quite independent sometimes, the area was under great Mainzian influence; not Thuringian. The area around the city is quite catholic nowadays, (like the Eichsfeld, for example), because of Mainzian control.

Tl;dr: Mainz should have disjointed areas; it was one of their authentic oddities. Erfurt should be Mainzian.

While erfurt was under mainz. That only contains a small area of the province that it covers.

Saxony_(Division_of_Leipzig)_-_DE.png


Electoral_Saxony.png


Gotha and Eisenach are in the same province and are definitely under the Thuringer branch of the Saxon dukes.
 
With all the talk of strong ideas vs weak ones i'd like to offer a different take.

I like that some nations have better ideas than others because it allows the devs to at least give the AI a passing chance of following some historic path.

Why should these nations that aren't the juggernauts of the continent, or even the origins of said juggernauts (brandenburg) be able to stand toe to toe with them?

In multiplayer i get it, and thats why multiplayer games are constantly patched for game balance. In singleplayer which is what i personally do the most of, it can be quite fun playing an underdog, doing well despite lackluster ideas. Looking at them as a new opportunity to find synergies.

The other issue, and one brought up on here a lot around Dharma was power creep. Surely giving a mixed set, with mainz being less war focused and Trier being fairly hench but not too much is what we need for the longevity of the game.

My only personal grip is the lack of morale and the focus on discipline. I feel that idea is a bit overused and morale feelsmore thematic for religious states, but hey thats just my own opinion.
 
Or Ripuaria refering to the Frankish tribes that lived there and would become a great Empire.

Either way, these were Rhenish Franconians later known as Rhenish. So Rhineland, Ripuaria all are possible to unite these cultures after they fractured from Lotharingen and Franconia.



While erfurt was under mainz. That only contains a small area of the province that it covers.

View attachment 500244

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Gotha and Eisenach are in the same province and are definitely under the Thuringer branch of the Saxon dukes.
Some other parts of the Mainzian holdings are inside the province as well, or close by. Like the Eichsfeld, which was under direct Mainzian control.

Erfurt was quite a big city (around 20k people in the 15th century); it really should be Mainzian. The Thuringian dukes didn't control this city. They should call the province Gotha, otherwise, but that town was quite insignificant in comparison (5k inhabitants). Erfurt is way more important. Also, exclaves are fun. It should be treated like an Imperial Free City province.

Thuringian Erfurt is just a very big oddity and false.
 
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Erfurt was quite a big city (around 20k people in the 15th century); it really should be Mainzian.

Strictly speaking, Erfurt was pretty much autonomous at this stage.
 
Some other parts of the Mainzian holdings are inside the province as well, or close by. Like the Eichsfeld, which was under direct Mainzian control.

Erfurt was quite a big city (around 20k people in the 15th century); it really should be Mainzian. The Thuringian dukes didn't control this city. They should call the province Gotha, otherwise, but that town was quite insignificant in comparison (5k inhabitants). Erfurt is way more important. Also, exclaves are fun.

Thuringian Erfurt is just a very big oddity and false.
Yeah,

In my own mod I gave erfurt to Mainz, but the density im using is way too high for vanilla:
20190515180608_1.jpg
 
For the player, Divine ideas are rather interesting and, relatively to the region, rather strong.

- Religious synergy with +1 miss, +2% conversion is one of the best combos in that regard. -10% stab cost in that idea set is also noticeable since, being already enticed to pick religious ideas, you stack it with the -25% from that idea set
- Your army quality is okay (+5% disc), and manpower is fine too (+15% manpower recov is arguably worse than 15% manpower pool - except that the latter are more abundantly found, and with diminishing returns it means that the % recov is quite good.)
- high defensiveness, + attrition is a combo that can be helpful, esp stacked with defensive ideas.
- tax modifier isn't horrible
- 10% CCR is amongst the worse CCR available, but ccr is amongst the best modifiers available so xd it's still quite good. You can get more if you snag HRE too.
- 10% culture conversion cost is UNIQUE. Most of the time it's gonna be useless, sure, but it's an enabler that's not found elsewhere, and stacks dreadfully effectively. Only Karaman has better I think.

And of course, if you get these as a vassal, you dearly want the -10% CCR / stab (makes them excellent land owner), the conversion (but that's for when religious conversion is fixed), and the defensiveness is neat too. They're possibly the best idea groups that you'd want your vassals to have (maybe you'd want Najd or Byz, but not even sure they are better tbh).

Now, when I look at the idea sets you've produced, I don't see much "combo potential". Mainz has idea cost reduction, but appart from that looks worse. Köln has unjustified with reduced cost to fabricate, that's a straight up nombo. The dev cost looks to be the flavour of the set which is traded with ccr, might be good enough idk. Imo the big bread winner is Trier with the 10% AE. It should kick in at tech 7, so in the hand of a player it's -10% from that and -10% from the age objective, so if you want to play on that you could combo it with Curia or, better, Espionnage for a whooping 40%. The AT makes their set slightly more potent than before. I think the idea is that tolerance replaces miss strength, with is okay but that's still one less way to go (and a complete combo at that).

So yeah, I'm fairly convinced the new set is less flexible, and overall more filled with useless things (like -0.05 autonomy - that's a really puny modifier) or things that don't work very well together.

Which, again, is imo okay. They're in the middle of the HRE, it was weird in the first place to have these countries be exceptional administrators / excellent at conversion with crazy defensiveness. It would be a different story if you were remaking LO idea set of course, because LO needs divine ideas, it fits perfectly ^^
 
Maybe. We find the historical basis for a Rhinelander tag to be lacking (we couldn't even decide what it should be called) so for now we opted for a joint treatment of the Rhinelanders and Westphalians (even if I know that the people in question might object to this nowadays). What we did change is the conditions for forming Westphalia - they now no longer rigidly need you to have the lands Napoleon gave to his client state, and are instead more suited to a joint Rhinelander-Westphalian state that may organically arise. You also don't need to leave the HRE for it anymore.

I mean there is this thing, the French client Cisrhenian Republic, for some justification, created in 1797 that lasted until its annexation by France in 1802, which is in the timeframe of the game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisrhenian_Republic. I think you'd be mistaken in conflating Westphalian (Lower Saxon) culture and history with Rhenish (Central and Low Franconian), personally, and I don't think a joint treatment would be justified - considering the northern Rhineland and Westphalia were only really merged for industrial purposes by the Allied occupying powers after the Second World War, and there is still a large internal divide between the two peoples in the Frankenstein state to this day. Yes, they loosely shared a very holey imperial circle, but that didn't mean a lot, as there were 3 seemingly arbitrary Rhenish circles, and the circle only really functioned for taxes and standardization of coinage. As for Westphalia itself, the original definition before the Congress of Vienna included modern Westphalia along with the northern part of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...g/1500px-Westfalia_locator_map_(1000).svg.png While they loosely share a history, it's more of a stretch to treat them jointly than to treat them separately - the Lower Rhine had more in common with the Upper Rhine than with Westphalia - and separate Westphalian and Rhenish formables would certainly make sense and would match Franconian, Bavarian, and Swabian formables.
 
With all the talk of strong ideas vs weak ones i'd like to offer a different take.

I like that some nations have better ideas than others because it allows the devs to at least give the AI a passing chance of following some historic path.

Why should these nations that aren't the juggernauts of the continent, or even the origins of said juggernauts (brandenburg) be able to stand toe to toe with them?

In multiplayer i get it, and thats why multiplayer games are constantly patched for game balance. In singleplayer which is what i personally do the most of, it can be quite fun playing an underdog, doing well despite lackluster ideas. Looking at them as a new opportunity to find synergies.

The other issue, and one brought up on here a lot around Dharma was power creep. Surely giving a mixed set, with mainz being less war focused and Trier being fairly hench but not too much is what we need for the longevity of the game.

My only personal grip is the lack of morale and the focus on discipline. I feel that idea is a bit overused and morale feelsmore thematic for religious states, but hey thats just my own opinion.
You have a completely valid, well formulated opinion. But historically successful/important nations have unique events, unique decisions, large and powerful mission trees, better starting dev (usually), unique governments, unique units, unique golden era boosts and finally powerful idea groups too. I may have forgotten a few things. That list is so big, that I prefer that their is not a big difference between idea groups in how good they are. The other things mentioned are much better at representing how things historically went compared to idea groups. I almost exclusively play minors, even in MP, and I've seen how things go wrong/boring because someone takes/forms a historically important nation and just rolls over everyone, purely because he's better in everything. I also always use choose minors with decent NI, to at least have some that is worth upgrading to great power without forming another nation. Last thing, don't forget that these theocracies aren't ordinary minors.
 
For the player, Divine ideas are rather interesting and, relatively to the region, rather strong.
Which, again, is imo okay. They're in the middle of the HRE, it was weird in the first place to have these countries be exceptional administrators / excellent at conversion with crazy defensiveness. It would be a different story if you were remaking LO idea set of course, because LO needs divine ideas, it fits perfectly ^^

What do You mean by LO?
 
Dynamic mission rewards sounds great, more ways to complete certain missions is already great, since no campaign is like the other, and this way you won't get "no reward", like permanent claims on a big ally, for completing certain missions.

Looking forward to what else can be done with this, and to the expansion