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EU4 - Development Diary - 1st of September 2020

Good morning! This will be the last in my series of dev diaries about new content coming to South-East Asia. This week we’ll be covering another assortment of countries, with a focus on Lan Xang and Sunda.

dd_lxa.png


Above is the mission tree for Lan Xang, the Land of a Million Elephants. Lan Xang was founded in 1353, in the midst of the collapse of the Khmer Empire. A Lao prince, Fa Ngum, was given an army by the Khmer king and as well as authority to establish a friendly buffer state in modern Laos. Laos was once ruled directly by the Khmer, but the empire was no longer capable of exerting any control over the region. Fa Ngum was successful in his campaigns and carved out the Kingdom of Lan Xang, ultimately becoming even more powerful than the crumbling Khmer empire.

Some highlights for this mission tree:
  • Much like in the Vietnamese mission tree, one part of the tree kicks off with the conflict over the one-province nation of Muang Phuan. Owning the province or having it owned by your subject will grant a Subjugation CB against Dai Viet.
  • The Raid on Cambodia mission grants a Subjugation CB against Khmer.
  • You’ll have to Subjugate Lan Na using your own means, but once you do you’ll get a Subjugation CB against Ayutthaya.
  • Last week we talked about the Emerald Buddha mini-mechanic, and Lan Xang is one of the nations that must acquire the Buddha as part of their mission tree. I’ll get into the subsequent mission in just a bit.
  • I’ll also talk about the Avoid Fragmentation mission below, but essentially it requires surviving intact until 1700.

Lan Xang has also received a couple of tweaks to their national ideas:
  • 10% cavalry power increased to 15%
  • 1% Missionary Strength replaced with 15% Cavalry/Infantry Ratio

LXA can form Siam to get their more extensive mission tree as well as a new set of National Ideas.

dd_lxa_animists.png


I mentioned that I’d talk more about Lan Xang’s religious missions. Above is a new Estate Privilege for the Monastic Orders, available to Lao countries in the Eastern religion group. Lan Xang begins with this privilege in 1444. It greatly increases your Tolerance of Heathens and negates the religious unity penalty of your Animist provinces, but it also significantly increases the Influence of the Monastic Orders and entirely negates the +2 Tolerance of the True Faith from your National Ideas. The Convert the Polytheists mission requires that you revoke this privilege, convert all the Animists in your country, and achieve at least 90% Religious Unity. To help with revoking the privilege, completing the Steal the Emerald Buddha mission grants +20 Monastic Orders Loyalty.

dd_religion.png


On the topic of religion, here’s the religion mapmode in 1444. Of particular note are all the Animist provinces owned by Lan Xang, the bastion of Mahayana Buddhism in inland Pahang, and the fact that Ligor is now a Siamese Buddhist nation.

I also mentioned Lan Xang’s Avoid Fragmentation mission. Unlike several other countries in the South-East Asia update, this doesn’t refer to a full-fledged Disaster, but instead it’s a series of additional events added to the existing Civil War Disaster if you are playing as Lan Xang.

dd_lxa_civil_war.png


If during this Disaster pretender rebels occupy either Vientiane, Champassak, or Luang Prabang an event will fire that releases the respective country from their home state as well as the Khorat state for Vientiane and Champassak if you own any of it. If when one of these events fires you do not own the other two cities, instead your tag will change to either Vientiane, Champassak, or Luang Prabang depending on the circumstance. Players will be warned about these events when the Civil War Disaster begins for Lan Xang. You can prevent this from happening by either avoiding the Civil War Disaster, completing the Prevent Fragmentation mission, or forming a different nation (such as Siam).

Now on to a very different nation:

dd_sunda.png


Shown above is the mission tree for Sunda, with unique missions highlighted in red and the rest being the Malay mission tree. The Sunda Kingdom is an ancient realm, surviving through the rise and fall of great empires without ever establishing a hegemony of their own. For nearly all of their shared history, Sunda and Majapahit had excellent relations and recognized each other as equals despite the disparity in strength. This changed when the Majapahit leader Gajah Mada - having vowed to bring all of Nusantara under Majapahit rule - used a royal wedding to declare Majapahit’s supremacy over Sunda. This resulted in the Battle of Bubat in 1357, which Sunda decisively lost. Despite this, Majapahit did not go on to conquer Sunda. Instead, the Majapahit court punished Gajah Mada for his dishonorable actions and stripped him of his power. Sunda survived, but relations between the two states would never recover.

Some highlights from the Sunda mission tree::
  • The Consider Islam mission requires owning 4 Sunni provinces and fires an event giving you the opportunity to convert your nation to Sunni Islam, immediately converting several of your provinces. Alternatively you can gain 1% Missionary Strength and +1 Tolerance of the True Faith for the rest of the game while remaining Hindu.
  • The next mission, Develop New Cities, requires increasing the development of Cirebon, Kalapa, and Banten to 20. This will then fire an event prompting you to relocate your capital: picking Banten or Cirebon will immediately cause you change your nation to Banten or Cirebon. Whichever capital you pick, it will gain +2 additional development in each category and Kalapa will be renamed to Jayakarta.
  • The Rebuild Candi Temples mission requires owning at least 15 Temple buildings and finding an ally that follows any Buddhist faith. Completing this mission unlocks the Buddha Personal Deity discussed previously.
  • The Improve Rice Production mission unlocks the Improved Irrigation privilege discussed previously that reduced the development cost of your grain-producing provinces by 10%.
  • The Legacy of Bubat mission can be completed in two very different ways. One method requires that you become strong enough to guarantee Majapahit - this fires an event that describes a royal wedding between Sundanese and Majapahit royalty, and in a reversal of the betrayal preceding Bubat Sunda will take the opportunity to make Majapahit into a vassal state.
  • The subsequent Rule Java mission requires directly owning all of Java, and rewards a free Administrative Policy for the rest of the game.
  • The Conquer Lampung mission rewards Subjugation CB’s against every country with its capital on Sumatra.

dd_spice.png


Shown above are the missions unique to the Spice Islands of Ternate and Tidore - they’ll also get the Malay mission tree. These nations have the potential to become very rich through a monopoly on the trade in Cloves, a new trade good discussed in a previous dev diary.

Some highlights for Tidore and Ternate:
  • The missions begin by tasking you with removing your rival spice traders from the map. Once you accomplish this, an event will fire asking you to select a location for your first colony. This will naturally great a colony in the selected location. Subsequent missions in the leftmost branch require the completion of these colonies and reward additional colonies on completion.
  • Completing this branch of missions rewards you with +1 Colonist and -50% Native uprising Chance for the rest of the game.
  • Export Cloves requires being the strongest trade power in the Moluccas node, as well as building to your naval forcelimit. It awards permanent claims on Sulawesi, which you pursue in the Conquer Sulawesi mission.

dd_bali.png


One last set of missions: Bali! Once again, Bali also receives the Malay mission tree.

  • Bali begins as a tributary state of Majapahit, and its first mission requires ending that relationship while not having a truce with Majapahit. Completing this mission rewards you with a free colony on the neighboring island of Lombok. Completing this colony allows you to complete the Expand Eastwards mission, which then rewards an additional colony on Sumbawa and +25 Global Settler Increase for the rest of the game.
  • The Majapahit Refugees requires that Majapahit either does not exist or is a subject nation. This grants you a massive -80% advisor cost for 20 years, representing the flight of many former Majapahit nobles to Bali. It also awards permanent claims on eastern Java.

Last thing for today: national ideas for the formable nations of Siam and Malaya.

Code:
MSA_ideas = {
    start = {
        global_trade_power = 0.15
        land_morale = 0.1
    }
    bonus = {
        ship_durability = 0.1
    }
    trigger = {
        tag = MSA
    }
    free = yes
    settle_the_islands = { # same as malay ideas
        global_colonial_growth = 20
    }
    msa_advanced_galley_warfare = {
        galley_power = 0.25
    }
    msa_expert_haggling = {
        trade_efficiency = 0.15
    }
    msa_chart_the_seas = {
        own_coast_naval_combat_bonus = 1
        naval_morale = 0.15
    }
    msa_in_every_port = {
        merchants = 1
        ship_power_propagation = 0.2
    }
    msa_sea_nomads_steering = {
        trade_steering = 0.25
    }
    msa_spice_kings = {
        global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.1
    }
}

Code:
SIA_ideas = {
    start = {
        land_morale = 0.1
        global_manpower_modifier = 0.3
    }
    bonus = {
        discipline = 0.05
    }
    trigger = {
        tag = SIA
    }
    free = yes
    sia_royal_poets = {
        prestige = 1
        idea_cost = -0.1
    }
    sia_advanced_elephant_warfare = {
        cavalry_power = 0.15
        cavalry_fire = 1
    }
    sia_experienced_ambassadors = {
        diplomatic_reputation = 2
    }
    sia_encourage_immigration = {
        development_cost = -0.1
    }
    sia_integrating_the_realm = {
        diplomatic_annexation_cost = -0.2
    }
    sia_education_reform = {
        technology_cost = -0.1
    }
    sia_royal_absolutism = {
        yearly_absolutism = 1
        legitimacy = 1
    }
}

That’s all for today! This concludes the 8-part series of development diaries on content for South-East Asia. There are a few things I've done that haven't been featured in dev diaries and there's a possibility of more content for the region being added before release, so don't take these dev diaries as a completely exhaustive list of all SEA content. This content update for South-East Asis is something I’ve wanted to work on for a few years now and I’m very happy that I was able to see my vision realized before the end of my time on the project. I hope you enjoyed reading. Thank you and goodbye!
 

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Man i can't wait to try this out. Thanks @neondt for awsome work with SEA update.

Thank you <3

What happens if the country has converted into Islam via mission tree? No rewards or just some prestige bonus?

I think there's a fallback prestige reward.

You've certainly given SEA a shot in the arm, Neondt. Plenty to be getting on with here!

I have one question however: In one Dev Diary you hinted at something encouraging high development of your Capital State. Was that just the Stateless Society reform, or was there another feature you had in mind?

Nice update! I can’t wait to play new SEA!
Btw when will we know about new Mandala government effects?

I'm still looking forward to seeing the new Mandala gov reform. Hope that it will be revealed in the next DD.

More on that some other time. Not next week.

Also: how about adding a simple event for the creation of Lanfang, it seems to be one of the last tags in the region that cannot come to be in normal play starting in 1444.

It's formable now! You have to play as Sambas and Ming must not own that one coastal Hakka province. Lanfang has a unique government reform and national ideas.

Before ending project, can you change the positions of these 2 tribes, sir? In fact, the Koho people living in Lam Dong province(southern Tây Nguyên), and the Rhade living in Darlak(Central Tây Nguyên).

Sure, will add it to a to-do list.

@neondt awesome dev diary! But could you perhaps elaborate on the bottom-right hand corner of the religious mapmode screenshot? ;)

I have no idea what you're talking about ;)
 
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I'm not trying to be rude but honestly, this is a little bit an "eh" for me.

1) According to Tome Peres' Suma Oriental and local history, Sunda was vehemently against Islam.
Not only as a state, its people are also recorded to be hostile to Muslim merchants. If anything, Sunda should begin with "fight against Islam" mission.
Sunda even created an alliance with Portuguese to fight neighboring Sultanates by guaranteeing monopoly of grain in exchange of military aid and forts. The alliance was the oldest kingdom in Southeast Asia to have an alliance with European nation. I would never understand why you put "Consider Islam" as its first mission.

2) Sunda was in crumble
Like I mentioned in my thread, Sunda was in crumble in 1444. The 700-years old union with Galuh kingdom were broken in 1440. Moreover, in 1445, their holding in Sumatra tried to gain independence:
- Sultanate of Sekala Brak in Lampung
- Sultanate of Cirebon in Cirebon
- Sultanate of Banten in Banten
Sunda never reformed into Cirebon, Banten or the lesser known Sekala Brak. Sunda and Galuh, collapsed by them.

3) Ternate and Tidore were a center of Islam in the Moluccas.
4) They would spread Islam to Sulawesi and Lesser Sunda Islands.
5) They created Islamic alliance against European with Johor and Aceh.
6) They spanned from Southern Philippines to Northern Australia. Sigh.

I don't want to sound like a hardcore nationalist. but this feel really bad, especially after you guys created that much for Emperor.
 
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That Siamese idea set is hands down top 10.

30% Manpower, +2 dip rep, 20% diplo annexation cost, -10% tech cost, -10% idea cost, 10% morale AND 5% discipline?

Guess Siam is the new Mughals in Southeast Asia, everyone from Ternate to Chukchi is gonta culture convert to form them.

(Also Cavalry fire is a thing now, although I have no idea how impactful that would be)
 
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That Siamese idea set is hands down top 10.

30% Manpower, +2 dip rep, 20% diplo annexation cost, -10% tech cost, -10% idea cost, 10% morale AND 5% discipline?

Guess Siam is the new Mughals in Southeast Asia, everyone from Ternate to Chukchi is gonta culture convert to form them.

(Also Cavalry fire is a thing now, although I have no idea how impactful that would be)
That's sick. NIs should be a topping on the cake, not a game changer making some countries into kings and other into beggars.
 
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It's very nice to see even small nations getting some extra flavour.

Any chance of one day splitting the Animist in Asia and the Animist in South America into two separate religions? With such a strong Animist presence in SEA now, it would seem appropriate.

Also: any plans on adding a unique naval policy for any/all of the Indonesian nations?

Also: how about adding a simple event for the creation of Lanfang, it seems to be one of the last tags in the region that cannot come to be in normal play starting in 1444.
 
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Lol.

While I appreciate the effort that Paradox put into other SEA nations, after seeing several posts clamoring for any word on the Philippines on the past few dev diaries, I really wished that they did a better job in communicating that they had no apparent intention to update the Philippine states in the game's upcoming update. At the very least, the Sultanate of Sulu could have been given something.


He stated it in one of the first dev diary's comments.

The Philippines received a lot of attention during the Japan patch (1.24) compared to the rest of SEA (bar Burma) that hasn't meaningfully been updated since Art of War (1.08) I believe.
 
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You've certainly given SEA a shot in the arm, Neondt. Plenty to be getting on with here!

I have one question however: In one Dev Diary you hinted at something encouraging high development of your Capital State. Was that just the Stateless Society reform, or was there another feature you had in mind?
 
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It's satisfying to see all the tags that only appear in historical scenarios finally get a chance to show up, thaank you neondt. By the way, when wiil the 1.31 patch be released? Will the next DD be the changelog for version 1.31?
 
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There are a few things I've done that haven't been featured in dev diaries and there's a possibility of more content for the region being added before release, so don't take these dev diaries as a completely exhaustive list of all SEA content.
Please update Sulu before release!

4. Moro pirates (Sulu) (1444 start)
http://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/11766475
https://historyofsulu.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/moro-pirates/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_the_Sulu_Sea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish–Moro_conflict

a. The Moro Pirates, also known as the Sulu Pirates, were Muslim outlaws of the southern Philippines who engaged in frequent acts of piracy, primarily against the Spanish, beginning in the late 16th century. Because of the continual wars between Spain and the Moro people, the areas in and around the Sulu Sea became a haven for piracy which was not suppressed until the beginning of the 20th century. The pirates should not be confused with the naval forces or privateers of the various Moro tribes. However, many of the pirates operated under government saction during time of war.
b. The Sultanate of Sulu became notorious for its so-called "Moro Raids" or acts of piracy directed towards Spanish Settlements in the Visayan areas with the aim of capturing slaves and other goods from these coastal towns. The Tausug pirates used boats known as Proas which varied in design and were much lighter than the Spanish Galleons and could easily out-sail these ships, they often carried large swivel guns or Lantaka and also carried a crew of pirates from different ethnic groups throughout Sulu such as Iranums, Bajaus and Tausugs alike. By the 18th century, the Sulu pirates had become the virtual masters of the Sulu seas and the surrounding areas, wreaking havoc on Spanish settlements. This prompted the Spaniards to build a number of fortifications across the Visayan islands of Cebu and Bohol, Churches were built on higher ground and watchtowers were built along coastlines to warn of impending raids. The maritime supremacy of Sulu wasn't directly controlled by the Sultan, independent Datus and warlords waged their own wars against the Spaniards and even with the Capture of Jolo on numerous occasions by the Spaniards, other settlements like Maimbung, Banguingui and Tawi-Tawi were used as assembly areas and hideouts for pirates. The Sultanate's control over the Sulu seas was at its height around the late 17th to early 18th centuries were Moro raids became very common for the Visayans and Spaniards. In Sulu and in the Mindanao interior, the slave trade flourished and majority of these slaves that were being imported and exported were of Bisaya ethnicity, the term "Bisaya" eventually became synonymous to "slave" in these areas. Its maritime supremacy over the Spaniards, at the time, the Spaniards acquired Steam-powered ships that began to curb Muslim piracy in the region, the Moro piratical raids began to decrease in number until Governor Narciso Clavería launched the Balanguingui expedition to crush the pirate settlements there, effectively ending the moro pirate raids. By the last quarter of the 19th century, Moro pirates had virtually disappeared and the maritime influence of the Sultanate became dependent on the Chinese Junk trade.
d. For three centuries, intermittent attempts were made by the Spaniards to destroy the homes of tihe Moro pirates, who, almost without exception, raided the Spanish colonies throughout the Philippine Islands, south of Luzon, and even occasionally on that island.


Sulu ideas are somewhat ok but could be improved by more naval/pirate modifiers and "raid" option should be added to their country.
 
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Let's go through them:

Traditions: 10% morale, 30% manpower

Good start, but in SEA you will need that manpower bonus more than anywhere else.

Royal Poets: +1 yearly prestige, -10% idea cost

Decent. You will save at most 2.120 monarch points over the course of a game (likely less), which is not that many honestly.

Advance Elephant Warfare: Cavalry Fire +1.0, Cavalry combat ability +15%

LOL cavalry

Experience Ambassadors: +2 diplomatic reputation

Good.

Encourage Immigration: -10% development cost

Filler

Integrating the Realm: -20% diplomatic annexation cost

Best idea in the set, synergizes very well with Experience Ambassadors.

Education Reform: -10% technology cost

Filler

Royal Absolutism: +1 yearly absolutism, +1 legitimacy

Second-best idea of the set.

Ambition: +5% discipline

Good.

What did I just read -

That Cavalry idea is insane. Cavalry only get +0.5 Fire at tech 11 and then tech 22, so Siam's cavalry getting another +1 on top of 15% CCA might make their Cavs viable and slam you during shock phase.

-10% Dev is not "filler." It is one of the best economic ideas in the game. -10% tech is not filler as well, -5% tech is. -Tech Costs saves a good amount of mana in the long run.

Do you seriously think +1 Yearly Abs is somehow the "Second-best idea of the set?" lmao
 
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I am actually very disappointed, because I agreed fully with @neondt when he stated that idea sets should be thematic and represent flavour, not stacking few strong bonuses for world conquest. However here in Siam and Malaya we have some of the most min-maxed idea sets, Siam ideaset is munchkined for mana efficiency in an area where mana efficiency is most important, and such huge amount of saving on mana costs is very important in a world-conquest run and Siam also gets absolutism and discipline bonuses on top, then Malaya has the strongest naval idea set for galleys bar none by far while also exceeding all other naval powers minus GB because of 15% naval morale and +1 combat rolls in a single idea which is near munchkin, regardless of how important naval warfare is, it is Prussia/Poland tier stacked and gets 10% morale on land too absolutely randomly, as if Prussia and Poland would get ship bonuses as well. Comparing Venice and Malaya just drives the point further.

These two ideaset represents some of the most min-maxed ideasets in their categorical aims, of course Siamese one is a contender for top tier ideaset for world conquest while Malayan is not but Malaya ideaset is definitely the best ideaset in what its aiming with so many stacked bonuses.
 
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Not sure its top ten, it's very close, depends exactly how good +1 cav fire is, if it's worth running 50% of your army as cav or not, it will probably be a noob trab that tricks people into taking aristocratic espionage.
The dev cost combined with good mil ideas is excellent, but being in tropical basically just means its competitive to europe deving.

They don't have force limit or infantry combat. As I said depends how good cav are. if it was +1 infantry fire id say they were the best nation in the game But are you really going to be willing to run 300 cav 300 infantry? when you could instead have like 700 infantry for the same price?
However, that said its definitely good enough to not be worth forming another nation from. And honestly thats all I really want in a nation in a region.


But compare the ideas to the top 5 Japanese minors oda, shimazu tokugawa uesegi not to mention serious nations like russia Spain Poland Prussia Hindustan Rum

id say not S teir but definitely top of A teir just above nations like adulusia ireland dithmarchen swiss etc
First of all, Siam's sheer diplomatic prowess alone is amazing. Not only do you get a bunch of Subjugation CB's through your mission tree, you also get +2 dip rep AND -20% diplo annexation cost. Note on how Austria, the supposed diplomatic juggernaut of Europe, only has +2 dip rep and -15% diplo annexation cost. On top of that, Buddhism already gives +2 dip rep (compared to Catholic's temporary +1), which means you're gonta be sat at a base of 5 dip rep, without taking any diplomatic ideas. Throw in diplo, influence and admin you get 9 dip rep, and -65% diplomatic annexation cost.

And even if we ignore the cavalry combat ability entirely, Siam comes with +10% morale, +5% discipline, and most importantly, +30% manpower. Considering how Italy and Russia have the ingame maximum of +33%, Siam comes in at a close third globally when it comes to manpower modifiers. +5% discpline and +10% morale are nothing to scoff at either. And the cav combat ability, if what the people above me have said is correct, could be similar in power to Poland's hussars, although we aren't sure yet.

Furthermore, Siam gets -10% idea cost, -10% tech cost and -10% dev cost. Considering how Siam is located far away from Europe where most institutions spawn, the -10% off basically everything tech and institution related is a huge buff, especially considering how you can stack dev cost with the new estate edict that reduces dev cost even more.

Even the filler ideas aren't some random garbage like -10% cost to reduce war exhaustion or +10% tax, but +1 prestige, +1 legitimacy and +1 yearly absolutism. Nothing to scoff at.

The only way Siamese ideas could get even more broken was if they replaced the +1 yearly legitimacy with -25% coring cost reduction. Even now though, Siam's idea set is like someone took Austria's diplomatic ideas, Poland's military ideas, Date's tech/idea/dev cost, and upgraded all of them into a single idea set.
 
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The Rebuild Candi Temples mission requires owning at least 15 Temple buildings and finding an ally that follows any Buddhist faith. Completing this mission unlocks the Buddha Personal Deity discussed previously.
What happens if the country has converted into Islam via mission tree? No rewards or just some prestige bonus?
 
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Before ending project, can you change the positions of these 2 tribes, sir? In fact, the Koho people living in Lam Dong province(southern Tây Nguyên), and the Rhade living in Darlak(Central Tây Nguyên).
 

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