EU4 Development Diary - 18th February 2016

[War_lord]

Worried that the dev team isn't going to implement anything to discourage a 1700's scramble for Africa.

 

[Demetrios]

Magagascar used to be a 3 provinces island in EU3. Signs of time, I guess...

Three provinces for an island of that size and relative importance during the game period was bordering on a travesty when compared to similar locations...

 

[Demetrios]

Worried that the dev team isn't going to implement anything to discourage a 1700's scramble for Africa.

I've seen this brought up numerous times, but the question occurs to me - are we really currently seeing AI European powers going after native states much at all in the entire world? Usually when people post late-game maps that aren't WC attempts, the ones I've seen appear to have the European powers at most nibbling on non-European states. With so many colonizable provinces out there, they seem to focus more on colonizing other than outright conquest. I'm sure there are exceptions, but from what I'm seeing it's not happening all that often.


EDIT - looking over at the maps the "Post Your Empire" thread, other than where the player decisively intervenes on the continent, Africa is almost always dominated by native powers, with the Europeans rarely going beyond the coast.

 

[Shadowstrike]

Looking more closely at the map, it looks like the nations based in Katanga and the Upemba depression are slightly too far north - they should be southeast of the mouth of the Kongo instead of being due east. I'm also wondering whether it would make sense to open up the western part of Zambia (i.e. the upper reaches of the Zambezi), and the highlands in eastern South Africa.

 

[War_lord]

I've seen this brought up numerous times, but the question occurs to me - are we really currently seeing AI European powers going after native states much at all in the entire world? Usually when people post late-game maps that aren't WC attempts, the ones I've seen appear to have the European powers at most nibbling on non-European states. With so many colonizable provinces out there, they seem to focus more on colonizing other than outright conquest. I'm sure there are exceptions, but from what I'm seeing it's not happening all that often.

I've definitely seen Portugal starting to go north into Mali in terms of conquest. And even colonization is an issue when the Spanish or Portuguese AI becomes more interested in owning random stretches of Africa coastland then expanding into the Americas like you'd hope. AI interest in Africa should be mostly in trade posts and naval bases to access the East Indies.

 

[Nicolas I]

Fetichists in Africa? Are some Paradox staff into S&M ? No just joking...

 

[Karlingid]

Holy smokes, these are some HUGE improvements. I like it a lot.

However, this makes me question what will happen to the classic Animist, Totemist and Shamanist pagan religions in the long run. Will you try to replace most of them? will you give them more flavour?

Shamanism is all but gone- the Siberians have adopted Tengri and the Africans are getting a new religion. Oh, who will be our Shamanist overlord?

Animism is still a thing for South America and Pacific groups, at least. Shamanism is nearly gone as a whole. Totemism isn't quite "classic".

 

[Karlingid]

@Johan , can you explain please what Fetishist means lol? Cuz to me and seemingly a lot of other people it sounds like something very naughty haha.

Fetishism is, in a religious sense, the use of crafted objects, such as amulets and dolls, in religious ceremony and context. A voodoo doll is a fetish along these lines, and the concept stems from such traditions.

 

[Karlingid]

Pdox, add an achievement:

I Bless the Rains: Convert all of Africa to Fetishism

Alternate: Own all of Africa as Mutapa, Own all of Africa as Kongo, or whatever can be thought up.

 

[wingren013]

Magagascar used to be a 3 provinces island in EU3. Signs of time, I guess...

Island larger than Britain.

I've seen this brought up numerous times, but the question occurs to me - are we really currently seeing AI European powers going after native states much at all in the entire world? Usually when people post late-game maps that aren't WC attempts, the ones I've seen appear to have the European powers at most nibbling on non-European states. With so many colonizable provinces out there, they seem to focus more on colonizing other than outright conquest. I'm sure there are exceptions, but from what I'm seeing it's not happening all that often.


EDIT - looking over at the maps the "Post Your Empire" thread, other than where the player decisively intervenes on the continent, Africa is almost always dominated by native powers, with the Europeans rarely going beyond the coast.

Portugal and Spain usually conquer parts of West Africa.

 

[generalolaf]

Pdox, add an achievement:

I Bless the Rains: Convert all of Africa to Fetishism

Alternate: Own all of Africa as Mutapa, Own all of Africa as Kongo, or whatever can be thought up.

Owning all of Africa as Kongo is already an achievement - African Power

 

[OnvreOrrivle]

I hope there is a "From Cape To Cairo" achievement

 

[Karlingid]

Owning all of Africa as Kongo is already an achievement - African Power

Ah, I don't have each memorized, so I hope you'll forgive me.

Still, convert all of it, or do the same as Mutapa, or anything that one could imagine for such an achievement.

Toto needs love.

 

[fetusthebard]

Wait, Paradox listened to feedback?

I'm impressed. Very well done Paradox, I might have to purchase the next DLC when Cossacks goes on sale for 5-7 dollars. Making Africa... Africa... is worth at least 10 dollars in my opinion.

 

[GC13]

I've seen this brought up numerous times, but the question occurs to me - are we really currently seeing AI European powers going after native states much at all in the entire world? Usually when people post late-game maps that aren't WC attempts, the ones I've seen appear to have the European powers at most nibbling on non-European states. With so many colonizable provinces out there, they seem to focus more on colonizing other than outright conquest. I'm sure there are exceptions, but from what I'm seeing it's not happening all that often.

The problem is, though, that there's nothing stopping the AI from going there—it's just that they don't want to. While I'll give that the AI may very well lack the ability to utterly crush the native powers militarily, which would both explain why the AI doesn't try and be one part of the equation, it's also missing another big limiting factor: tropical diseases. I'm no expert, but the consensus seems to be that until some medical advances in the late nineteenth century, rolling into the African interior would have been rough indeed.

 

[generalolaf]

Ah, I don't have each memorized, so I hope you'll forgive me.

Still, convert all of it, or do the same as Mutapa, or anything that one could imagine for such an achievement.

Toto needs love.

No problem at all. Just thought I'd point it out

 

[random258]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetishism

LADSSSSSSSS do some research, it's like the worship of objects (almost like the opposite of iconoclasm from CK2)

totally pg-13/sfw

 

[TheDungen]

Greenland is four times bigger

No, Greenland is much bigger. Wiki says a shade under four times the size.

Ah yes turns out greenland is actually closer to the size of the arabian peninsula, I might have overestimated how much beigger mercator makes greenland look. Madagascar is halfway betwen the size of sweden and the size of the entire scandinavian peninsula (about +/- 100.000km2).

2.42 times the size.

Google maps apparently uses an inaccurate and somewhat offensive projection.

Cant be worse than plastering the entire world with a static mercator.

Not at all offensive, they have to use Mercator as it works best for google directions. And that is the primary usage of their maps.

Moving around still change where the map is centered through so if you zoom in the problems of mercators projection decreases quickly.

Well a lot off Maps have wrong dimensions the closer to the polar circle

Not close to the polar circles, far from the centere in the horisontal axis. Which if you centre on the greenwich line and the equator means the poles but if you centre on a pole then the equator will look odd.

The problem is, though, that there's nothing stopping the AI from going there—it's just that they don't want to. While I'll give that the AI may very well lack the ability to utterly crush the native powers militarily, which would both explain why the AI doesn't try and be one part of the equation, it's also missing another big limiting factor: tropical diseases. I'm no expert, but the consensus seems to be that until some medical advances in the late nineteenth century, rolling into the African interior would have been rough indeed.

Only if you considered the maxim machine gun and steam boats a medical advance.

 

[Blindbohemian]

I think, for the first time in my life, I just read a whole dev diary and thought it was not a step forward for EUIV.

Africa needs more wasteland, less provinces, not vice versa. The devs should be focused on making outside interaction with Africa more realistic, not less so. We need trade outpost and fort-enclave mechanics to represent that Europeans did not control territory within the African continent during the timeframe of the game, not whole provinces that will undoubtedly result in European conquests of all Central Africa by 1700. We need less absurdness, not more.

 

[Freudia]

I think, for the first time in my life, I just read a whole dev diary and thought it was not a step forward for EUIV.

Africa needs more wasteland, less provinces, not vice versa. The devs should be focused on making outside interaction with Africa more realistic, not less so. We need trade outpost and fort-enclave mechanics to represent that Europeans did not control territory within the African continent during the timeframe of the game, not whole provinces that will undoubtedly result in European conquests of all Central Africa by 1700. We need less absurdness, not more.

Have you thought, perhaps, that this change was not done for Europe?