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EU4 - Development Diary - 18th of August 2016

Good afternoon. It's Thursday and that means we in the EU4 team are being shaken down for Dev Diaries. With Johan cooking something up for you all at Gamescom, I'm back in the saddle to bring you another taster of what's to come in our upcoming [name-leak patched] expansion.

Fetishists were introduced lately, diversifying the Pagan religions by having a tailor-made African variant. While they have some purposed African events, the religion was left without its own mechanics, leaving it looking at its religious brothers with envious eyes.

No longer! As a feature in the upcoming expansion, Fetishist nations will have a choice of Cult granting them bonuses and unique events. Where in Africa you start will determine the Cults which are available to you, giving Central Africans a different starting Cult selection from, say, the West Africans

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"Starting" Cult selection you say? Yes. The mechanic will look similar for those of you who enjoy some Hindu campaigns but our Fetishist friends can add some extra tools to their belt as they forge their destinies.

Each Fetishist nation will start with 3 Cults available to them, which can be chosen from by each new ruler. Additional Cults can be unlocked through interaction with other faith groups. Through fighting, bordering with alliance or ownership of heathen land, you can unlock additional cults based on that faith. Each monarch can choose one Cult to worship, granting a national bonus and unlocking events for that cult.

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Last I counted, there are 17 in total If you've been putting off that Victorian Three achievement run, 1.18 is the patch to go for it. Fetishist Cults, along with the Coptic Holy Sites mentioned before, are paid features in the upcoming expansion which will be released alongside the 1.18 free patch.

Between the changes in the throne room, the religious mechanics, Great Powers, Traits, Personalities and tech overhaul, you could be forgiven for thinking we have run out of things to reveal about the upcoming expansion and patch. You would still be far from the truth though. We'll be back with another Dev Diary next week to talk not just about what you can do for your subjects, but what your subjects can do for you.
 
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really wish they would revamp mechanics for shinto, confucionism, orthodox, and I'm really curious to see what's in the free patch since I can't by this or any other DLC
 
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While I would love to see that considering how long it has taken them to get portaits for all cultures in CK2 I'm not so sure I think it's a great idea.

You don't need to have anything as detailed as CK2. Just a random image that can re-appear might suffice.
 
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Zorastrian is unlikely to get more to them other than their decisions. Like Judaism, it's not because we don't want to give them mechanics, but because they are so tiny, isolated and, outside of very fringe cases or Nation Designer, unplayable religions. Yes, Norse got mechanics but, well, Swedish company.

You forgot the converter and fantasy scenarios. ;)

Original mechanics are probably unreasonable, but I think people would be fine with them just piggy-backing off the mechanics of another religion like Norse do. It wouldn't come up often, but as fewer and fewer religions in the game are "generic" (i.e. no mechanic at all), it's a shame they don't get anything at all.
 
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Pagan religion has been removed from Scandinavia, sadly, so released Sami becomes christian.
I wonder what that is. Weren't they still pagans historically in 1444?
 
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I guess that's because they removed shamanists from the game. Hopefully someday there will be a patch adding some old european pagan religions for custom nations. At least suomenusko should still exist in Sami lands, Perm and uncolonised territories beyond Ural.

This. When they changed most of the shamanist lands to Tengri, it probably didn't make much sense to keep it around since it was rather bland and not attached to any tag expected to see independence.

I suspect they'll bring over the rest of the converter religions eventually when they come up with some mechanics for them (or piggy-back of another religion, like Norse)
 
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There are some Pagans and Neo-Pagans, but from what I understand most are Lutherans today.
This is right. There are also a lot of members of the Revivalist churches, particuarily the native sami Laestadianism.
 
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I'm not even sure I can still take myself seriously playing as a fetishist nation. I would be dead from laughter.

As always, RP-ing would help! Just imagine how getting a new cult looks like...
"Hey, what kind of fetishes do you people have? Whatever it is, I want to get on it!"
...
Okay, maybe RP-ing would just make it worse XD

If Sweden is like Denmark then 80+% of the population is member of the state church, but most people don't care a bit about the church most of the time and don't set foot in it except for babtisms, weddings, confirmations, funerals, and possibly Christmas.

A greats lots of people don't go to Churches, other than on major occasions like the ones you mentioned, but are still very religious in most or all of other aspects. Church Attendance is a bad metric to measure the amount of religious people tbh.
 
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Yeah, I know Sweden has a national church and most Swedes are registered, but most aren't religious. How is really there, or are you not allowed or uncomfortable talking about this?
Well we have a formerly national church it is no longer a part of the government. No idea if over half the country are still members maybe, but membership is dropping like a stone. Well it's not just being secular it's also that we have a greater portion actual atheists than any other country on earth except Estonia (I think).
I'm still a member though, it's not expensive and it allows me to vote in the church elections.

I'm not sure I understand the last question how is what? And I am allowed to talk about anything Sweden has almost total freedom of speech (We have the usual exceptions, yelling fire in a crowded theatre and all that) and I am comfortable with talking about most things. When it comes to the Sami issue I'm not sure I'm qualified though I'm not Sami nor do I live in their part of Sweden. In general I would say that Sweden consider the sami culture and it's history and myths part of it's own cultural heritage.


If Sweden is like Denmark then 80+% of the population is member of the state church, but most people don't care a bit about the church most of the time and don't set foot in it except for babtisms, weddings, confirmations, funerals, and possibly Christmas.
That's how things are here too, though I think the actual membership in the formerly state church is a lot lower.

Can't speak for Sweden, but I would say that here most people aren't really religious.
Yeah that's how things are here too.
 
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Could be an interesting way to convert.
You have your nice cult but some far away fast talking Portuguese/Moroccan/English shaman give you a good idea for a nice cult.
You like it and it gets you nice friends.
You stick around with the cult too long and one thing leads to another and before you you know it your somehow protestant/Catholic/sunni.
 
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...is that it? Nothing more than a small improvement for a religion that just came out in last expansion? I thought Johan said that expansion were base around multiplayer and not single player and yet we get another expansion feature for a region that barely sees any play.
 
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The "Sanatana Dharma" event for African nations is somewhat confusing... Sanatana Dharma is not just a "way of life" (although it literally translates to that), it is, essentially the Hindu religion itself. I am not sure why African nations should be getting it.
 
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This is right. There are also a lot of members of the Revivalist churches, particuarily the native sami Laestadianism.

The laestadians are finnish/tornedalian, not sami, though they have some converts obviously.
 
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Oooo... Subjects for next week...
Please for the love of kebab, make it so Unlawful Territory requests of vassals/ personal unions go to the leading nation, instead of the subservient one.
 
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In that case, care to explain why Norse, a religion died 400 years before game startpoint got special religious mechanic way before Shinto and Confucianism?
Swedish company, no one is unbiased no matter how hard they try.
 
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Nice feature. But I really hope the dev team does tweak gameplay for East Asian nations someday. For example, Ming and Korea really shouldn't have their ruler's dynasy changed. Low legitimacy should also result in higher unrest as well. In addition, the change in dynasty meant the state has changed. Also, Confucianism really didn't ban other religion and can arguably be a set of ethics, not a religion. Maybe they can turn it into something like Tengri where they accept another religion as well?
But aside from my personal view on the lack of mechanics for Asian countries, I think this DLC is going to be a great one. Maybe I'll start playing African nations for once. Gonna buy it on steam as soon as it gets released.
 
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