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EU4 - Development Diary - 21st of April 2020

Hey! Everyone I am sorry for this very late dev diary today but I had a mini-vacation this weekend and yesterday in order to participate in the Ludum Dare Game Jam. So let’s jump right into the new features.

First up is an addition to the Custom Nations Designer

upload_2020-4-21_14-20-47.png


We’ve reworked the underlying sprite pack system to make it a bit easier to work with, this also enabled us to make a feature that has been requested ever since nation designers were a thing. You can now pick and choose how you want your nation's armies to look.

Now some time ago we talked about the new Revolutionary mechanics coming with the Emperor and we mentioned that we weren’t happy with the effect of the Revolutionary Zeal. I think the phrase that I used was that they weren’t “sexy enough”.

upload_2020-4-21_13-58-3.png


So for one, we moved the Reform Progress Gain that the Revolutionaries would get to the Republican Tradition value to help both Republics and Revolutionaries. Instead we put Special Unit Force Limit there as we will be giving all Revolutionary nations access to a unique unit type.

The Revolutionary Guard

upload_2020-4-21_13-58-16.png


These are the most zealous revolutionaries in your armed forces. Formed to guard the nation against the reactionary threat of King’s and their lackeys. They can be built as Infantry, Cavalry or even Artillery.

These units can also be upgraded and made either more plentiful or be given more elite training for a higher cost.

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Elite Revolutionary Guard Training
  • +2.5% Revolutionary Guard Discipline
  • +100% Revolutionary Guard Maintenance
  • -10% Special Units Force Limit
Professional Revolutionary Guard Training
  • -25% Revolutionary Guard Regiment Drill Loss
  • +50% Revolutionary Guard Maintenance
Mass Revolutionary Guard Training
  • +50% Revolutionary Guard Regiment Drill Loss
  • +10% Special Units Force Limit
Vanguard Revolutionary Guard Training
  • -10% Shock Damage Received
  • -10% Fire Damage Received
  • +50% Revolutionary Guard Maintenance
You can combine all of these together, however you want, the limitations that are there are if you have Cradle of Civilization and how high your army professionalism is. For example Elite Revolutionary Guard requires an army professionalism of 80. If you don’t have Cradle of Civilization then values get converted to other things.



Next week’s development diary will be focusing on the great Kingdom of Bohemia and the Hussites.

And before I leave you for today, here’s the cavalry unit from the best sprite pack now available in the nation designer.

upload_2020-4-21_13-59-2.png
 
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Look, if the British wanted that flag, they should have had a revolution before the Hungarians.

Here is the flag of Aragon in the game

https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Aragon#/media/File:Aragon.png

Here is the flag of Catalonia in the game

https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Catalonia#/media/File:Catalonia.png

Literally just change the shade of red and green so there are differences, seriously, this is the game where every colonial nation flag looks the same except the side colour but I highly doubt everyone memorizes their colonies by colour. Just put the historical flag in the game, it's ridiculous that we have to have this discussion for a game set in a historical setting. If you want made up flags, use a made up setting. You want to use a women's rights flag for something, make a women's rights game. Don't take the symbol of the hard work of women and men for women's rights and reduce it to a violent ideology of revolution.
 
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I love that they refuse to weaken Austria despite the fact it was never really strong, they really just married the right people at right time and got a bunch of unions, looking through the history of Austria they rather overpowered their enemy because they had so much and relied on their union partners to do most of the work or they had allies come in and save them, and I'm not trying to say Austria didn't have their moments, obviously they did, but Austria was not a big world power that was super strong like others were. So their argument of the Ottomans or French being too strong is too silly, Ottomans are suppose to be strong in Europe, they pushed all the way to Hungary before being pushed back, while the French dominated Western Europe for a while before the Spanish realized they were colonizing so much that they left France unchecked, not to mention that England/Great Britain is weaker then they were, all their naval bonuses take up their land bonuses slots that they suck at land warfare which is dumb for the largest empire the world ever saw. Really disappointed with their decision on Austria being united at start.
I find the lack of historical knowledge hilarious.
 
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I find the lack of historical knowledge hilarious.

Yeah, I'm no expert on Austrian history, why don't you share some knowledge and provide some feedback instead of being a smirky smart ass? Sorry I don't read everything about every country possible and spend my time reading about the "Great Austrian Empire" because frankly I have no interest in them, no connection to them and I'd rather read about other things then a failed empire.
 
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I see quite a few people have wondered about the British revolutionary flag. So we went through a lot of revolutionary flags and changed them for this update, in the case of the British one it looked very much like the French revolutionary flag (and the Russian flag) in a way that seemed very un-fitting for the UK. So we Content Designers sought a better one, and landed on the Suffragette flag. Admittedly it is not quite the right time period, but it is fitting both for the ideals it embodies and for it being different to other nearby countries that are likely to become revolutionary.

Suffragette flag is not only inaccurate (after the woman advisor, why you want promote social values of XX century in a game that end in 1821? Is it EU4 or Victoria 3? ;)) but also a misrapresentation of republicanism (that is not related to the woman vote rights issue) and a completely forgetfulness of the historical real past.
About the revolutionary flag for England context, the flag should change in case of a revolution during English Civil War event if the monarchy is abolished by parliamentary rebels with the adoption of the Republic under a Lord Protector.
In this sense, Commonwealth (The Protectorate) flag during Oliver and Richard Cromwell wasn't the Union Jack (the actual british flag is used only after the Acts of Union of 1707, 60 years after the English Civil War, so it could be adopted only if someone form the Great Britain in the XVIII century as monarchy). Here some historical example of english republican flags.
So in my opinion, the best option could be a flag that depend from the core owned in Ireland, Scotland and England if the parliamentary rebels win the civil war.
If you got all the Great Britain territory core you can have this republican flag:
750px-Standard_of_Oliver_Cromwell_%281653%E2%80%931659%29.svg.png


If you have only core in Scotland and England you can use this republican flag:

1024px-Flag_of_The_Commonwealth.svg.png

If you have core only in England and Ireland you can use this republican flag:

gb-1649j.gif


The Commonwealth should have its own game mechanic (as bonus) and not be like the French Revolution (Edmund Burke historically explained the differences among the two revolutions).
So if the parliamentary rebels win the English Civil War, the Commonwealth cannot have the French Revolution (and the same bonus).
If the monarchy stay in power after the English Civil War, there is the possibility to obtain the Union Jack and the Great Britain bonus during the age of Absolutism (off course, if you have core in all the territories necessary for the decision).
Only with the monarchy in power during the age of Revolution, it could be happen the French Revolution event in England or UK.
 
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About the revolutionary flag for England context, the flag should change only in case of a revolution during English Civil War event if the monarchy is abolished by parliamentary rebels with the adoption of the Republic under a Lord Protector.
In this sense, UK Commonwealth (The Protectorate) flag during Oliver and Richard Cromwell wasn't the Union Jack (the actual british flag is used only after the Acts of Union of 1707, 60 years after the English Civil War, so it could be adopted only if someone form the Great Britain in the XVIII century as monarchy). Here some historical example of republican flags.
So in my opinion, the best option could be a flag that depend from the core owned in Ireland, Scotland and England if the parliamentary rebels win the civil war.
If you got all the Great Britain territory core you can have this republican flag:
750px-Standard_of_Oliver_Cromwell_%281653%E2%80%931659%29.svg.png


If you have only core in Scotland and England you can use this republican flag:

1024px-Flag_of_The_Commonwealth.svg.png

If you have core only in England and Ireland you can use this republican flag:

gb-1649j.gif


The UK Commonwealth should have its own game mechanic (as bonus) and not be like the French Revolution (Edmund Burke historically explained the differences among the two revolutions).
So if the parliamentary rebels win the English Civil War, the UK Commonwealth cannot have the French Revolution (and the same bonus).
If the monarchy stay in power after the English Civil War, there is the possibility to obtain the Union Jack and the Great Britain bonus during the age of Absolutism (off course, if you have core in all the territories necessary for the decision).
Only with the monarchy in power during the age of Absolutism, it could be happen the French Revolution event in England or UK.

As much as I'd like to see those flags in England, or the removal of the coat of arms of France eventually, it's not going to happen, especially with how flags work currently
 
As much as I'd like to see those flags in England, or the removal of the coat of arms of France eventually, it's not going to happen, especially with how flags work currently
Off course, these flags cannot be generated with the revolutionary paint font. Maybe, it could be activated after the English Civil War as decision (like formation of Prussia, Italy or Japan).
 
The Chartist british republican flag was adopted in 1848, so it's not in the historically period of the game.

Obviously, I meant that at least it's the proper flag instead of appropriating a women's rights flag and making it represent 18th-19th century revolutionary zeal.

Off course, these flags cannot be generated with the revolutionary paint font. Maybe, it could be activated after the English Civil War as decision (like formation of Prussia, Italy or Japan).

Again, wish the flag could be there, but I don't think flags could be changed by decisions, but I don't know how flags work in EU IV behind the scenes, since there's no way of changing them except through revolution, so we'd have to ask a dev and hope to get an answer if it is possible to change a flag, there are a lot of flags in game I wish you could change throughout the game.
 
I see quite a few people have wondered about the British revolutionary flag. So we went through a lot of revolutionary flags and changed them for this update, in the case of the British one it looked very much like the French revolutionary flag (and the Russian flag) in a way that seemed very un-fitting for the UK. So we Content Designers sought a better one, and landed on the Suffragette flag. Admittedly it is not quite the right time period, but it is fitting both for the ideals it embodies and for it being different to other nearby countries that are likely to become revolutionary.
That's all well and good but it looks hideous in that screenshot. Even some minor tweaking to turn it down a touch would be welcome. Right now it looks like the Joker is running Revolutionary GB.
 
Unlike the flags used during the Cromwell period, there is no an historical example of England flag for a French Revolutionary event. Robespierre and Napoleon doesn't arrived in UK so it could be painted in fantasy like for many others nations that doesn't had the jacobin revolution.
I don't see any problem with the use of tricolore in EU4, but put the suffragette flag as colour for the revolutionary flag of England (even if that political movement appear only in the XX century) is historically wrong and tendentious like put sickle and hammer in the revolutionary flag of Russia during the XVIII century.
It's a question of historical accurancy.
 
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Obviously, I meant that at least it's the proper flag instead of appropriating a women's rights flag and making it represent 18th-19th century revolutionary zeal.



Again, wish the flag could be there, but I don't think flags could be changed by decisions, but I don't know how flags work in EU IV behind the scenes, since there's no way of changing them except through revolution, so we'd have to ask a dev and hope to get an answer if it is possible to change a flag, there are a lot of flags in game I wish you could change throughout the game.

Yeah, it could be very simple if they create an option (before the start of the game, like for the custom nation, or during the game) where manage this aspect. The client States options could be a good model to emulate for the creation of a custom revolutionary flag. I suggest to create a panel (like for the name of the colony) where to custom the revolutionary republic flag and name.
 
Whig party colours could be used for a tricolour with some validity I think.
Whig party colours were blue, orange and buff (yellow). The only reference to the whig and a possible british flag is this caricature of the time.
1280px-A-Block-for-the-Wigs-Gillray.jpeg

No tricolore, but an Union Jack with orange background, the blue cross and the buff instead of white?.
 
I know that Caligula Cesar said that they opted for the Suffragette flag for Britain's revolutionary flag, but that doesn't seem to be quite correct. According to https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb}rep.html and http://www.republicansocialists.org.uk/battleflag.php, the Suffragette flag was actually green-white-purple. The flag from the screenshot is purple-white-green - which according to a source in the first link was indeed the flag commonly used by the British republican movement until 1885:
https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb%7Drep.html said:
I would suggest that the republican flag developed like this (imaginative exercise): the Foxite radicals were using blue + orange to symbolise government + crown, and the prince regent's lobby might well have imagined the crown to be a moderator of extreme government measures against the people and placed orange between blue (government) and green (people). The committed democrats however would have dropped the orange after the French revolution, producing the early tricolour scheme of blue + white + green (peace between government and people?). The British empire emerged out of the government takeover of the East India Company territories in the mid 19th century, when the new cheap "Perkin's purple" was all the rage and favoured by Victoria, newly declared empress - hence the later tricolour, post-chartist, of purple + white + green (peace between the empire and its peoples) used by the growing British republican movement that was finally bought off by manhood suffrage in 1885 and so disintegrated into several factions (mainly home-rule and socialism that led to the nationalist and labour political
movements in modern Wales). Those that had not got the vote in 1885, i.e. women, used the same colours reversed: green-white-violet for "give-women-votes".

Now, I have no clue how reliable that guy is, this does sound rather plausible, though - and would mean that this flag is indeed a very good choice for revolutionary Britain.
 
Drilling has always been hot garbage. There are other better ways to spend your money. It is especially trash as a revolutionary, where the government form itself forces you to be constantly at war. Now, I don't know about you, but I think units are better used on the front line, than drilling in the back and killing their own general every 2 years.
 
A lot of talk about historical accuracy but I’m not sure that is relevant when the in-game thing that’s happening (revolution in GB) doesn’t have a good historical equivalent. So coming up with an ahistorical tricolour makes sense (although actually I’m not sure the union flag would have been that big a problem for revolutionaries, with its lack of royal heraldry?).

It is sort of nice to have it vaguely refer to a historical flag somehow. I think arguments about promoting twentieth century social values have missed the point somewhat on that. Seems to me that if it’s a choice of a completely new flag for revolutionary GB or one with a vague historical root then the vague historical root is a sensible enough idea. Whether or not the suffragette movement is too thematically different to revolution to be really appropriate is a different matter though.
 
I know that Caligula Cesar said that they opted for the Suffragette flag for Britain's revolutionary flag, but that doesn't seem to be quite correct. According to https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb}rep.html and http://www.republicansocialists.org.uk/battleflag.php, the Suffragette flag was actually green-white-purple. The flag from the screenshot is purple-white-green - which according to a source in the first link was indeed the flag commonly used by the British republican movement until 1885:


Now, I have no clue how reliable that guy is, this does sound rather plausible, though - and would mean that this flag is indeed a very good choice for revolutionary Britain.

Revolution in EU4 only makes sense if we consider the historical period of the game (1444-1821). So suffragettes, Chartists and british Republican/Socialist movement in UK are not in that timeline (it could be useful for an extended timeline but that context is much more Victoria 3 than EU4).
The only revolution happened in England during modern age, it was during the English Civil War with the Commonwealth by Cromwell. So you should look at it for reproduce something of similar also for the flag.
In my previous comments, I have suggested that the English Civil War should be an event much more important than a rebels vs crown clash.
I hope developers can create an unique mechanic for this revolution in England and avoid to export automatically the french revolution in a context that remain very different (politically and ideologically) from the jacobins views.
Adopt the French Revolutionary flag and ideas in England is an absurd like create a protestant centre of reformation in the catholic Spain.
I know that the game is not necessarily the reality and the true history, but i think we should focus much more to the frame of the age and not to spread compulsionary the French Revolution everywhere (even where it never happened or something else had happened before) only because this mechanism is now so cool.
I hope that Paradox avoids making, with the French revolution, the same mistake that led Protestantism to be a stronger religion in the game than the Catholic one (something that this DLC is hopefully trying to rebalance).
 
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