Welcome back to our weekly series of development diaries about Europa Universalis. This time we’ll talk about four new features that will be part of the next expansion.

Free Cities of the Holy Roman Empire
Now the Emperor can designate up to seven free cities in the empire. A free city is a one province minor with a minimum of 10 development.

Free cities provide Imperial Authority to the emperor, as well as manpower and income. A Free City also have some rather nice bonuses to their development.

If a Free City gains another province or leave the HRE. they lose the free city status. And a Free City is always a type of Republic, so countries that aren't a Republic will become one upon accepting Free City status.

A Free City is always protected by the Emperor if attacked, so be careful when expanding in the HRE. A Free City can never be the subject of another nation.

Of course, as the ruler of a OPM, you can always refuse the offer of becoming a free city, and the emperor can spend some Imperial Authority to revoke a cities rights.

Remove Electorate
The next expansion lets you get even more control over your electors. If your religion is now official in the Empire, you can now spend IA to remove the Electorate status of your disloyal Electors.

Pause Westernisation
Sometimes while you are westernising, you end up where you need to use your power for something else, like boosting stability, but currently you can’t. Now we have added the option to pause westernisation. You’ll still get the unrest from westernising, but there will be no events spawning while westernisation is paused. Most importantly though is the fact that your power is accumulating again instead of contributing to the westernisation process.

Retire Advisor
Have you ever sat there with a lot of money, but cursing the options you for advisors. In the next expansion, you can now spend the amount of money it would cost to hire an advisor, and permanently retire him. Within a month, if there is available space in your pool of advisors, you will get a random new one in the same category. Maybe you get the +discipline one you wanted..


Next week we’ll focus on Luther and Buddha.

 

[Zelius]

Luther and Buddha I would like to see a good improved mechanic.

Hope there will be an improved mechanic for Reformed, Confucian and Orthodox.

Confucian I'm assuming is also being looked at (why change just one of the Eastern religions?), but Reformed and Orthodox already have their own special mechanics...

 

[dskod1]

Nice, free cities, now if only you actually took away there voting rights. Free cities were not officially admitted as imperial estates in the imperial diet until 1489 but even then there vote was considered to be nothing more than advisory

 

[VibiusPanzer]

Interesting, what is the name of this DLC going to be called?

 

[Chaos_TLW]

Interesting, what is the name of this DLC going to be called?

Nothing more than fan suggestions, but Leviathan would be an interesting pick, seeing as it seems to deal mostly with government and rulership, and it also keeps in theme with Wealth of Nations(Adam Smith) and Art of War(Macchiavelli).

 

[VibiusPanzer]

Leviathan would be interesting

 

[Incompetent]

Retire advisor sounds interesting. Advisors have always been an aspect of the game that you are supposed to throw money at, so now we are being allowed to spend ever more extravagant amounts of ducats on getting the perfect set. It's a great example of giving the player more ways to spend money, but in a way that doesn't let rich countries power up exponentially.

 

[IceTytanFang]

Nothing more than fan suggestions, but Leviathan would be an interesting pick, seeing as it seems to deal mostly with government and rulership, and it also keeps in theme with Wealth of Nations(Adam Smith) and Art of War(Macchiavelli).

Someone in the forum of the last Dev Diary also mentioned Thomas Paine's Common Sense, as the devs kept repeating the phrase.

Although Leviathan works too

 

[dav77-b]

Please hear my prays and make policies cost money instead of monarch points. 50% of all policies are useless at the moment. And money has no worth. Fix both by making policies cost money

 

[Mr. ZAP]

What do people think will be in the DLC and what in the free patch?

So far I can see:
DLC:
Parliaments (probably the main paid content)
Theocracies (possibly with unit pack?)
Retire Advisors
Westernization Pause (maybe)

free patch:
Infrastructure/Development
Forts
Religious Changes
All Province/Tag changes

Free Cities could go either way.

Based on past patterns. In any case most of the assumed paid content is around government changes. DLC name will probably reflect that... Leviathan is as good a guess as any.

 

[Duke of Britain]

Confucian I'm assuming is also being looked at (why change just one of the Eastern religions?), but Reformed and Orthodox already have their own special mechanics...

Yeah, my guess is that he meant Protestant and Coptic.

 

[Philadelphus]

Free Cities could go either way.

The first sentence in the original post specifies that all four features mentioned are for the upcoming expansion.

 

[Golladan]

What do people think will be in the DLC and what in the free patch?

So far I can see:
DLC:
Parliaments (probably the main paid content)
Theocracies (possibly with unit pack?)
Retire Advisors
Westernization Pause (maybe)

free patch:
Infrastructure/Development
Forts
Religious Changes
All Province/Tag changes

Free Cities could go either way.

Based on past patterns. In any case most of the assumed paid content is around government changes. DLC name will probably reflect that... Leviathan is as good a guess as any.

I'd say (and primarily based on what we've been told)...

DLC:
-Development (the buttons to increase base tax/production/manpower)
-Parliament
-Devotion for Theocracies
-Government ranks
-National Focus
-Free Cities
-Remove Electorate
-Pause Westernization
-Retire Advisor
-Whatever is happening to Luther and Buddha
-Other stuff not yet revealed

Free patch:
-Base development/building rework
-Fortress rework (would not be surprised if some aspect of this, like mothballing fortresses, is paid)
-Looting rework
-Committed armies
-Forcelimit change
-Map changes
-Other stuff not yet revealed

Hopefully all the disagrees I'm going to get are based on my belief of how development will be and not the other stuff (which have actually been talked about about as part of a DLC or free patch).

 

[Wagonlitz]

Nothing more than fan suggestions, but Leviathan would be an interesting pick, seeing as it seems to deal mostly with government and rulership, and it also keeps in theme with Wealth of Nations(Adam Smith) and Art of War(Macchiavelli).

Art of War was by Sun Tzu; Macchiavelli wrote The Prince.

 

[blackchoas]

I'd say (and partially based on what we've been told)...

DLC:
-Development (the buttons to increase base tax/production/manpower)
-Parliament
-Devotion for Theocracies
-Government ranks
-National Focus
-Free Cities
-Remove Electorate
-Pause Westernization
-Retire Advisor
-Whatever is happening to Luther and Buddha
-Other stuff not yet revealed

Free patch:
-Base development/building rework
-Fortress rework (would not be surprised if some aspect of this, like mothballing fortresses, is paid)
-Looting rework
-Committed armies
-Forcelimit change
-Map changes
-Other stuff not yet revealed

I would be shocked if increasing development was linked to the DLC and not the patch, especially depending on how development interacts with buildings, being able to build tall rather than wide is such a fundamental part of the game I think making it DLC would be silly, literally saying an entire play style can't be played without this DLC

 

[Delta107]

But this is ahistorical. Why 7 cities? Why not twenty?? Why not a thousand??? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_imperial_city#Organization

 

[Golladan]

But this is ahistorical. Why 7 cities? Why not twenty?? Why not a thousand??? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_imperial_city#Organization

Because they provide the Emperor with manpower, tax, and imperial authority. And because there are only so many provinces you can have in the HRE before they start to get too small.

 

[Incompetent]

Art of War was by Sun Tzu; Macchiavelli wrote The Prince.

Sun Tzu didn't write a book known as '(On The) Art of War' in the EU4 era; Machiavelli did. I don't think Machiavelli's treatise is in any way based on Sun Tzu's, but it's possible that 'the Art of War' caught on as a European title for Sun Tzu's work by analogy with European works with a similar name, such as Machiavelli's.

 

[Johan]

This early in the office ? I think the DLC is bound to be great.

No. I was at home working. I always go up at 4.30 on weekdays. Needed to get some stuff done before daycare opened at 6.30

 

[Johan]

Thought thats what Balor is for. Anyways point still stands.

Balor account has retired with the new forum.

 

[Mr. ZAP]

The first sentence in the original post specifies that all four features mentioned are for the upcoming expansion.

You don't count patch changes in that statement?

I'd say (and primarily based on what we've been told)...

DLC:
-Development (the buttons to increase base tax/production/manpower)
-Parliament
-Devotion for Theocracies
-Government ranks
-National Focus
-Free Cities
-Remove Electorate
-Pause Westernization
-Retire Advisor
-Whatever is happening to Luther and Buddha
-Other stuff not yet revealed

Free patch:
-Base development/building rework
-Fortress rework (would not be surprised if some aspect of this, like mothballing fortresses, is paid)
-Looting rework
-Committed armies
-Forcelimit change
-Map changes
-Other stuff not yet revealed

What blackchaos said. I'd also think that whatever has to do with changing religious mechanics (next week's diary) will be free. Nahuatl and Inti were free, as were the reformation changes. Otherwise I agree with your list.

Did I miss something new about National Focuses? I don't remember that.

Balor account has retired with the new forum.