• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

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!
 

Attachments

  • dd_lxa.png
    dd_lxa.png
    220,6 KB · Views: 0
  • 77Like
  • 29Love
  • 8
  • 6
  • 3
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
I wouldn't read too much into it. I think it's just the Animist religion being split between Asia and other places (possibly even into more than 2), so that they would no longer consider themselves brothers in faith.

If there are any new nations, tribes in New Zealand feel much more likely than Australia.

So new religion?
 
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.

I really second this, especially for Sunda's case.
Also, I think Palembang deserves some exclusive missions.

Overall, this patch looks really promising.
 
Last edited:
  • 1Like
Reactions:
idk I feel like getting that 10% discount in a region where you will barely get any institutions

The 10% tech cost comes late. Even if you somehow form Siam extremely early, you can't get to your 6th national idea before tech 10. And Ayutthaya in particular will get little benefit from that idea as they have to wait until the Age of Absolutism to form Siam.


Bengal can go east and form Rajputana.

since East Asia is somewhat lacking in such easy to access good NIs.

Konichiwa. Japan's military is better than Siam's. 15% ICA > 15% CCA + 1 Cavalry Fire

Its ideas are on par with Yuan and Mughals.

They are not. Unless the rest of its ideas ar trash, any tag with +25% CCR has a better idea set than any tag that has no CCR. And neither Mughals nor Yuan ideas are trash.
 
  • 3
Reactions:
Is that... a religion color in Australia? could it be? *australian aboriginal playthrough intensifies*
Chain of thoughts...:
  1. dreamtime religion confirmed
  2. pdx said they won't add religions without proper mechanics
  3. religious mechanics are always part of an expansion, not the free patch
  4. ergo we are expecting the announcement of an expansion (DLC)
  5. we'll have a lot more dev diaries before this hits distribution
  6. please don't forget that the AI still needs a lot of love
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
Maybe I was wrong all along, I did extensive research and found out that Philippines is in the Western Europe region

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.
 
  • 4
Reactions:
Loving all the new content. Can't wait to see what other new stuff is coming.
 
The 10% tech cost comes late. Even if you somehow form Siam extremely early, you can't get to your 6th national idea before tech 10. And Ayutthaya in particular will get little benefit from that idea as they have to wait until the Age of Absolutism to form Siam.

Well, I guess makes sense.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
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.
 
  • 6Like
  • 3
Reactions:
Hell, even faraway nations like Korea, Malayans not going Naval, probably Manchu as well will want to form Siam now, since East Asia is somewhat lacking in such easy to access good NIs.

Siam's ideas are not *that* good. They are okay, but they are not worth going through all that much trouble to get. I can't even imagine why you would want to form Siam as Manchu, Manchu's ideas are certainly better than Siam's. In fact, you'd be better of forming Manchu if you wanted better NIs as Korea. The ideas are already better and the clay is right there.
 
  • 7
  • 2Like
Reactions:
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

Well, let me try. The tech cost reduction is kinda garbage because the only tech you take ahead of time is Mil, so you'll be getting at least a five percent tech discount on Dip and Adm tech, all game long. dev cost reduction is nice, but since you only need to push dev for institutions and you only need to have an institution when you take a tech, you can just sit on whatever tech you are at in Adm and Dip techs, take ideas and hit the dev button when you are almost capped out, eating the extra tech cost on Mil tech since Mil mana isn't that useful.

The Cavalry idea is pure, worthless garbage. By the time it makes an appearance cannons are blowing everything away from the backrow.

Prestige gives extra morale, better improve relations and absolutism gives Administrative efficiency and discipline and legitimacy reduces unrest.

Those are big deals.

I feel like I'm playing a different game than you.
 
  • 10
  • 1Like
Reactions:
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)
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
 
Well, let me try. The tech cost reduction is kinda garbage because the only tech you take ahead of time is Mil, so you'll be getting at least a five percent tech discount on Dip and Adm tech, all game long. dev cost reduction is nice, but since you only need to push dev for institutions and you only need to have an institution when you take a tech, you can just sit on whatever tech you are at in Adm and Dip techs, take ideas and hit the dev button when you are almost capped out, eating the extra tech cost on Mil tech since Mil mana isn't that useful.

The Cavalry idea is pure, worthless garbage. By the time it makes an appearance cannons are blowing everything away from the backrow.

Prestige gives extra morale, better improve relations and absolutism gives Administrative efficiency and discipline and legitimacy reduces unrest.

Those are big deals.

I feel like I'm playing a different game than you.

I think you're not giving 10 tech cost the credit its due.it doesnt matter if you take it ahead of time or not, the tech cost reduction always saves you 60 mil 60 admin 60 dip every tech. That 60 mil ismore effective than normal because you have another 10 dev cost. Its at a minimum something like 200 odd dev over 20 techs but in reality, if you go wide enough (which this nation is designed to through diploanexation) you average out something like 10 mana per dev click. So closer to 350 dev.

I mostly agree with you on cav, except id probably keep 4 of them in each of my stacks. Even at tech 32 when fire is at its best. infantry are doing 3.1 fire 2.15 shock totaling 5.25 base damage, whereas cav do,1 fire 5 shock 6 base damage, but there damage comes last second and they are more expensive but give them another 1 fire on that. they're doing nearly 50% more damage than infantry.

At a more reasonable important time, tech 15 cav will be doing50% more fire damage than infantry and 2x the shock damage. about 75% more damage in total Not to mention this is scaled by 15% cav combat. Its GOOD its just whether the cost is worth is.

Of course, this fails to take in to account unit pips which act as a muliplier, so the fire is a little bit wasted i sort of imagine it as having -1 fire on your generals for the purpose of cav fire damage. But even so good base stats on a 5/6/-/- general is nothing to scoff at.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
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.
 
Last edited:
  • 5
  • 2Like
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
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. Buddhism already gives +2 dip rep, 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.

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.

where did it seem i was scoffing, top of A teir is REALLY GOOD
We're probably playing different games. For single player id agree, vassalizing is really important, in competitive multi, its usfull,, but it doesnt make it stand up to s tier nations. Also And in competitive multi, im never taking diplo influence.

30% manpower is good but its not force limit and also, it's not multiplicative its additive, with barracks quantity etc, there been so much inflation in the game that 30% manpower is closer to 10% more manpower. That's GOOD but its not insane. but its not 50% better than +20% manpower.

Heres how to make them s teir. Turn the cav combat in to infantry combat. Done.

if you wanted to make them the best idea set in the game, just remove the Diplo stuff and put in goods produced and construction cost of something.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
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.
Yes, exactly, I'm really annoyed to how I spent my time researching for history about it but instead got ignored for all the dev diaries. Never got even replied to, once. Most of all, I'm annoyed how the entire SEA region got updated and Philippines was left for nothing to rot and be a prey by the national ideas of other nations. I play my game as those OPMs because the achievements are amazing and quite challenging to play. But now since other SEA nations have new strength to their NIs and missions, I just want to quit this game for waiting weeks and doing research for the Philippins because of my excitement
 
  • 3Like
  • 2Haha
  • 1
Reactions: