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Hello everyone and welcome to another development diary about Europa Universalis. This time we have a feature for Common Sens, that is so large that it is spread over two weeks of development diaries. It is how we interact with your subject states.

In the subjects overview screen, there is now an additional button where you can open up an interaction menu with all your subjects.

Today we’ll talk about the tools you have regarding vassals, marches and lesser union partners.

Placate Local Rulers
This can be done on both vassals and marches, and lets you pay prestige (if you have positive prestige), to reduce the liberty desire of that subject by 10%.

Embargo Rivals
This is a toggle you can put on any subject. If it is on they will embargo all your rivals as quickly as their diplomats can travel. However, this increases their liberty desire by 5% while active.

Place Relative on Throne
This can only be done on vassals, and only when they have a regency. You can replace the regency with a ruler from your own dynasty.

Enforce Religion
This can only be done on vassals, unions and marches. This is possible if the subject is in your religious group, have less than 50% of Liberty Desire, and you have positive relations. Of course, this increases Liberty Desire by 50%, so its something you have to evaluate when it is desirable to do.

Scutage
This is a toggle that can be set to on or off on a vassal. When it is on, they will not be called into wars, unless declared war upon. However, they will provide 50% more of its income to you.

Subsidize Armies
This is a toggle in marches, where if on, you will send up to 10% of your manpower to them each month, to fill up their manpower pool.

Fortify March
This allows you to build or upgrade a fort in a march, where you as overlord fronts the build costs.

Enforce Culture
This is the option if you got some diplomatic power to burn. You can swap the primary culture of a lesser union partner to your culture for a power cost, but this is only doable if they are below 50% liberty desire and it will increase it by 50% as well.

Siphon Income
Unions usually do not provide money to their overlord, but history is full of rulers who took from one part of their realm to provide for another. This action lets you take 50% of a lesser union partners yearly income if you have positive relations. It will increase liberty desire by 10% but also reduce relations rather dramatically.

Support Loyalists
Unions don’t have any local ruler that needs to be placated, so instead you have a toggle where you spend 10% of their monthly income each month, while reducing liberty desire by 20% as long as its active.

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Next week we’ll talk about protectorates, trade companies and colonial nations, and their unique actions.
 
Not really a fan of the enforce culture option. Seems a bit gamey but I suppose everything with the current culture mechanic will seem that way.

Personally I really want to be able to extract trade power from my vassals. I would love to set up trade vassals if I'm an island nation instead of having to be forced to expand into the mainland or create enclaves.
 
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Looks like liberty desire, royal marages, unions and marches are getting some love. Placate Local Rulers, Scutage, Embargo Rivals, Support Loyalists, Siphon Income - all deal with liberty desire and nets you some money or hamper your rivals a bit. Bunch of smaller features tho it will probably add up if used consistently.

- Enforce religion with those rules can be used nicely, convert smaller heretic states to you religion. Not having to everything convert manually is great.



How will Place Relative on Throne work and what do we get with it? Why would i want to click this, do they become lesser union partner then? I can annex the vassal after ten years, but we have to wait for a chance to integrate union partner.. If they become lesser union partner then we could use Enforce Culture option which only works on union partners (not on vassals).
Also, vassals take +1 diplo slot, while union partners do not cost diplo slots if i remember well.
The benefit would be the relations bonus (for same dynasty) and a chance to inherit them, like already happens with vassals of your dynasty. No doubt they stay a vassal, you aren't putting yourself on the throne, just a family member. Also, PUs do take up a relationship slot.
 
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These changes look good, but I think you need to remove the 60 base tax cap for Marches. Not being able to annex them is enough IMO. You're committing a diplo relation for most likely the rest of the game, you should get some real benefits.

As it is I've never seen a reason to make a march. If they're under 60 base tax I'll annex them, and if they're big enough that diplo annexxing isn't feasible I can't make them a march. That's where I'd want it most.

Maybe scale the bonuses down a bit, but the 60 base tax limit basically assures that what could be a cool feature is never used.
 
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The benefit would be the relations bonus (for same dynasty) and a chance to inherit them, like already happens with vassals of your dynasty. No doubt they stay a vassal, you aren't putting yourself on the throne, just a family member. Also, PUs do take up a relationship slot.
If its somehow possible to switch a vassal to a personal union through this, remember that vassals get their liberty desire from combinend strength, but personal unions just from their own. So if you go on crazy vassal feeding, liberty desire is much easier to keep in check if they are PUs and not vassals.

And I would give and wait a lot if I could inherit North Africa without paying Dip points. And maybe its just not a 1% chance of inheriting but more. If they introduce such a feature, maybe they thought about the underlying mechanics. At least a little bit :)

And I'm fairly sure all these actions which increase or decrease liberty desire are decaying.
 
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Liberty Desire increases go away over time
 
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Used a march a few times as an anti dutch revolt measure. Also if I'm not planning on expanding in a direction for quite a while, such as playing Novgorod when France PU'd the commonwealth I made the LO a march as thoses culture would never be accepted.
 
These changes look good, but I think you need to remove the 60 base tax cap for Marches. Not being able to annex them is enough IMO. You're committing a diplo relation for most likely the rest of the game, you should get some real benefits.

As it is I've never seen a reason to make a march. If they're under 60 base tax I'll annex them, and if they're big enough that diplo annexxing isn't feasible I can't make them a march. That's where I'd want it most.

Maybe scale the bonuses down a bit, but the 60 base tax limit basically assures that what could be a cool feature is never used.

March cap is gone in 1.12
 
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This sounds ridiculously amazing.

Make it come now!. The current game pales in comparison to what the DD's are promising.
I'm busy with a Savoy ran, but Northern Italy just seems so boring now, I want Montferrat!
 
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Excellent concept I think

Now I would wish for an option to transfer trade power from your vassals to yourself. With a cost, maybe less income transfer and of course liberty desire. It is something you can do even with non-vassalized realms, after all, so what is it in a vassal-overlord relationship that prevents this request from being valid? . That would simulate well the approach Merchant States would take on how to profit from "vassals".
 
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