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EU4 - Development Diary - 16th of June 2016

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Hello and welcome to today's development diary for Europa Universalis IV. Let's take a good look at our King/Khan/Doge/Emperor/Prince.

The ruler of your state is of prime importance to your nation but when you see your new heir birthed or khan taking the throne, it's often a quick look at their 3 monarch point stats followed by either a face palm or a fist pump. As a feature in the upcoming expansion we will be giving a touch more identity to these walking point generators with Ruler Personalities.

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When a ruler comes of age they will develop a personality important to the function of the state. They will develop another trait after ruling for 10 years and a further personality after ruling for a total of 25 years. These personalities will grant a modifier for your nation as well as bonus options in event and changes to the AI's actions. For Duke Francois do Dreux here, he has become a careful individual who will enjoy lower AE in expansion.

Most personalities are a boon for your nation but not all are so positive. While it would be lovely if all your rulers were Just, Incorruptible and Charismatic, you may well find that your ruler is too greedy for their own good like Vilhelm Skram of Denmark.

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King Vilhelm is a tight-fisted greedy guts and will hoover up 10% of your tax income, but there is a silver lining to his greed. Many events have unlockable options now depending on your monarch's personality which will almost always be a superior option. Obscurantism will normally cost a nation in unrest or prestige, but greedy desires drive Vilhelm to seek out a more...lucrative path.

All personalities will unlock such options in some events, as well as have events of their own. Who knows what your Scholarly King or Malevolent Khan will get up to?

Ruler Personalities will be a paid feature in the upcoming expansion, which will be sold alongside the free 1.18 patch.

While on the subject of monarchs, we will be paying special attention to a very influential dynasty of the time period next week, but for now I must take leave. Vilhelm has shaken me down for every ducat I own and I must take care of this.

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Me_ said:
I think that generals are a bad example here. Quite a number of military commanders in the era were leading armies not based on their skill, but based on being an important noble.
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Indeed. But the king is opposite force, trying to monopolize and centralize the power. So If, you pick a great general, which is not a noble, you lost some loyalty from them. Now you have a choice, a general from nobility, or a self-made man. But again, you can choose. This is the main point.
 
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overruner said:
Awesome! But the way monarchs points are randomly generated it's indeed a problem for a strategy game. Likewise, make no sense at all, that general's and admirals cannot be chosen. Which nation puts a random guy in charge of his armies? We need to have the power to choose our generals without the luck factor. I don't need a general with 6 points of maneuver and 1 shock and 1 fire. I'm the king, make sense that I can pick up whatever guy I prefer. It's a key point. We need to diminish the importance of luck in this game and put some more power in the hand of the players I guess. What do you guys think about it?
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Atm choosing is in, but it costs monarch points; 50 points per choice. (i.e. recruit 2 and pick the better one; 100. Pick 3 and choose the best; 150 etc.).
 
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BrokenSky said:
Atm choosing is in, but it costs monarch points; 50 points per choice. (i.e. recruit 2 and pick the better one; 100. Pick 3 and choose the best; 150 etc.).
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Agree. There is some kind of choice in a very overpriced way. But still is about luck, you can pick a good one at first, or spend 500 monarch points. I think better generals should cost more, period. I don't like to pray every time for a good one. This is a game or a cassino? Press the button and see what do you get! We are strategic players.
Back to the monarch subject. We are trapped, with no choices about our monarchs and heirs. Do you have a bad heir? expect 15 years, until he became a possible general and try to kill him at all cost. It's better put the gifted second in line instead, even if this mean lose some legitimacy, or get some rebels
 
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Well this has made the next expansion an auto-buy for me even if the tech revamp wasn't there, nice to see after skipping Mare for the timebeing.

I worry that since it's a paid feature it won't be built upon in the future though, it seems like a feature that would be fun to have more meat added onto it and integrated with more features as time goes on.
 
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overruner said:
Agree. There is some kind of choice in a very overpriced way. But still is about luck, you can pick a good one at first, or spend 500 monarch points. I think better generals should cost more, period. I don't like to pray every time for a good one. This is a game or a cassino? Press the button and see what do you get! We are strategic players.
Back to the monarch subject. We are trapped, with no choices about our monarchs and heirs. Do you have a bad heir? expect 15 years, until he became a possible general and try to kill him at all cost. It's better put the gifted second in line instead, even if this mean lose some legitimacy, or get some rebels
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Yeah having a better choice system would be good (e.g. a pool, similar to stellaris leader pools, complete with aging (maybe generals in the poll would get better over time, so you can have a young, less competant (on average) general, or an older, better one) but until they put something like that in, there is the less good mechanism.

Wrt heirs, I tend to run with a load of mods most of the time (notably Dei Gratia, improved RNW, tenth idea, dynamised development), the most relevant being HaREM [Heir and Ruler Education Mod]. A bad heir means having to choose between legitimacy and competency (and then Dei Gratia interacts with legitimacy through piety and events etc.). The whole effect together is pretty fun and not (as far as I can tell) game breaking, but yeah. Poor heirs are a problem to try to work around and solve, rather than something to just endure. (and of course there's always the cost of getting your 0/1/0 heir to 3/4/3, at the cost of a lot of monarch power and legitimacy, only to have him die).
 
Looking at the new screenshots, I realized that the description of each advisor's power has been replaced by the icon. I do get how this saves space, but it takes more mental effort to translate the symbol into what it means. I mean there are some that I know well (i.e. aggressive expansion), but others that I have to really think twice, or even look up to even figure out what it is (war exhaustion, for instance). I know it's pretty trivial for people like us who play a lot, but it does make the game even more inscrutable than it already is.
 
Shadowstrike said:
Looking at the new screenshots, I realized that the description of each advisor's power has been replaced by the icon. I do get how this saves space, but it takes more mental effort to translate the symbol into what it means. I mean there are some that I know well (i.e. aggressive expansion), but others that I have to really think twice, or even look up to even figure out what it is (war exhaustion, for instance). I know it's pretty trivial for people like us who play a lot, but it does make the game even more inscrutable than it already is.
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Are you aware of the concept of mouse-over popup Information? Paradox is. It's in the game.
 
ashbery76 said:
Adding personality to the game is much needed.A Vicky2 system for army eaders and units would also be good.
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THIS! Even a single trait for every leader would be good enough, I think!
 
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Honestly, I can't imagine adding traits to generals and admirals would matter, really. It wouldn't change how you use them, that's for sure. Much like how traits barely mattered for generals in Vic2, I can't imagine them mattering in EU4 outside of morale.
 
Honestly, I would like to see an ambitious general who could take over my country if given too much power... but it would require some changes in leader mechanics, for example removing transporting generals, making the pool bigger... I really want it now!
 
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Cri11e said:
But isn't the siege, fire, charge, maneuver kinda like traits when it comes to generals and admirals?
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They are just stats, they don't actually describe or justify the leader's personality and how it impacts on their stats, as in Vic2's system.
 
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