EU4 - Development Diary - 25th of October 2016

[Solfall]

@Trin Tragula Any chance we will see Lofoten becoming a unique fish resource?

 

[Chief of Staff]

Not that easily, as it would cripple the military ai.

Interesting. I typically structured my army stacks into a fixed size up to maximum possible strength. I organized each of my unit stack into a 15k-strong "division" (10k inf, 4 cav, 1 art) while maneuvering them as needed. As nations begin to afford larger unit stacks, I just simply move more than one divisions together simultaneously as if it was operating as a corps (3 divisions for a large corps net you 45k strong group of stacks). I would often create a front line with each division sieging or occupying a province while keeping a few divisions in the rear as a reserve to respond to any attacks upon a front-line division.

That brings up the issue I have with the way military organization works right now. I would love an ability to sort of create a temporary super-stack (or stack group), akin to a corps, so I can just select and move it, rather than selecting and moving multiple stacks at same time. I wanted to create an expeditionary force but at same time, I am very reluctant to abandon the fixed structure used with army stacks. With a super-stack, I could just simply rotate divisions in and out as needed. Ideally, this could be a group selection that can be saved to the outliner, possibly with or without keyboard shortcut, similar to control group which you can only assign to single stack, I believe. And it would be cool to assign names to them (e.g. "1st Indian Army Corps" for British Indian Army ).

One possible objection I can think of is the micromanagement it might entail, even though it would not really be a mandatory and wouldn't really change much at all, simply offering an option to temporarily lasso together stacks you don't want to merge.

However, I am certain that this idea would be strongly opposed on the ground that EU4 timeframe did not have a sufficiently advanced military organization, at least not until during Napoleonic Wars and beyond, which is pretty late. Still, can't hurt to give a little twist to gameplay...

 

[Trin Tragula]

@Trin Tragula Any chance we will see Lofoten becoming a unique fish resource?

Not currently planned. I've seen this suggested from time to time but I'd love to read the entire argument for it.
Remember local goods produced modifiers are pretty rare as is.

 

[Trin Tragula]

Also I take it that the reason I haven't got an answer on the Danish trade goods setup is that it's secret. Though can you at least tell me whether or not the Jutlandic iron production is represented in some way? I've now been speculating about whether it's in or not for 24 hours and really hope I don't have to wait until next week or possibly longer.

There are some changes to Danish trade goods (and obviously development) but currently no planned iron production. I am unconvinced it was a significant enough source to measure up to other iron provinces in the game. If you want to argue otherwise you're free to do so and it will be considered

 

[Trin Tragula]

Denmark is a European major? How large was its transcontinental empire? Did it evolve into a 19th century great power? Did it bring any actual major to heel? How far did it spread Danish, how much did it influence the papacy or the HRE? Did it invent any major political, economic, or military tradition that changed Europe forever?

At game start it certainly did put a lot of influence on the papacy. The Church was in some ways more important to have on your side in Sweden and especially post-black death Norway than on the continent due to a much weaker nobility in general. You'll find the Kalmar union monarchs spent a lot of money, time and effort on influencing the papacy (sometimes going to Rome themselves). The rebel leader on Gotland in 1444 is actually a king deposed by a coup lead by the Archbishop prior to game start (Denmark itself did have a pretty strong nobility though and they certainly were very driving in that deposition too).
The reformation turned out to be a pretty great tool for centralization in these countries partly for the same reason.
Denmark is also certainly a major power at game start in the Northern HRE (successive embarrassing failures to conquer Dithmarshen aside ).

While eclipsed by Sweden they remain a regional great power in the north throughout the era and one with exceptionally rich kings due to the Sound Toll. The Danish navy remained a power factor at least up to the Napoleonic wars when the UK decided to destroy it in a sneak attack rather than risk the Danes joining the other side.
As for transcontinental empire, I don't think that's a requirement to be a "European Major" but Denmark did start up successful colonies on all continents (with the major one in India lasting to the 1840s and others even longer).

They're perhaps not one of the winners in 1820 when comparing to the likes of Great Britain, France or Russia but it is certainly a European major at start and there are plenty of ways things might've ended up differently on the way there (to some extent this sentence holds true for Sweden as well, for one thing Scandinavia hasn't really got the population base to be a major power in the 19th century).

 

[EnvyDemon]

Well, why do we call it Denmark?

Because @Wagonlitz would make your lives a living hell of misery, despair and lion cub dissections if you didn't.

 

[Emir of Aleppo]

I wonder if there are any events for Sweden as well once it conquers Skåne and Bohuslän with regards to the assimilation of the local population into the "Swedish" ethnic group, and vice versa if Denmark or Norway conquer say Västra Gotaland.

 

[Solfall]

Not currently planned. I've seen this suggested from time to time but I'd love to read the entire argument for it.
Remember local goods produced modifiers are pretty rare as is.

To put it simple the cod from the Barents Sea comes to Lofoten to spawn making it an attractive place for fishermen in the surrounding regions to gather. I'm fairly sure Lofoten is Norway's greatest source of income throughout history. I'll include a link. It should be easy enough to find more info on the web. Are there any other similar fishing grounds in Europe?
http://www.lofoten.info/en/history

 

[Olligarchy]

>Patch aimed at improving Denmark and Norway
>Balkantards want it to improve Balkans

 

[JPGM22]

When will you put roads again in the game? More buildings or unique buildings or even wonders.

 

[Olligarchy]

When will you put roads again in the game? More buildings or unique buildings or even wonders.

When Gandhi can nuke your empire.

 

[TorquemadaStark]

Like many before here, I'd like to thank you for putting tons of effort in this game and making new stuff after many years. However, I, like many others, only play at political mode and was super excited about the colorised wastelands. The terrain mode looks...well, wrong to me. So, could I have my grey/lighter shade of gray as an option, please?

 

[branimir1999]

Can you please just tidy up the border shapes in poland so that Prussia 1871 looks autethic while you're already changing provinces?

 

[Andy_Dandy]

Oh yes! The Scandinavian Power conflict will be more interesting and realistic then ever before.

 

[Gwayne]

This map change is terrible for performance. Having all those trees and eyecandy permanently rendered is going to completely butcher game speed. Especially when you play in the new world, when most of the game is speed 5. I paid for a game that runs in my potato, and i wont dish out 2k bucks in an upgrade just because '''trees are pretty'' just so i can play the game again.

Also, pretty much no info in this DD. Everything, except the small MP tidbit, was already on Twitter.

No worries, the next game will be 64 bits. Then you also need a upgraded potato

But you can always play on a lower patch level, you should be happy that Paradox really tries to make it run pretty well on the lower end. But there are limitations, they will usethe average system as benchmark.

 

[Chief of Staff]

This map change is terrible for performance. Having all those trees and eyecandy permanently rendered is going to completely butcher game speed. Especially when you play in the new world, when most of the game is speed 5. I paid for a game that runs in my potato, and i wont dish out 2k bucks in an upgrade just because '''trees are pretty'' just so i can play the game again.

Also, pretty much no info in this DD. Everything, except the small MP tidbit, was already on Twitter.

I thought you can still turn off trees and other eye candies via settings. Was this changed?

 

[LikeNothing]

Not necessarily a great power in comparison to Spain, France, or Great Britain, but a strong regional power in Northern Europe and strong enough to be considered a threat navally.

strong enough to be considered a threat navally.

a threat navally

navally

naval

There are naval threats in EU4?! o___O

 

[Hipster_on_Ice]

>Balkantards want it to improve Balkans

Map improvements are rare, and it would be nice to have a comprehensive one. The Balkans and Denmark were the two most obvious areas in need of revision or new provinces, and it would make sense to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

 

[Olligarchy]

Map improvements are rare, and it would be nice to have a comprehensive one. The Balkans and Denmark were the two most obvious areas in need of revision or new provinces, and it would make sense to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

The fact that the Balkans and Scandinavia are so near to each other only lends more credence to your argument. I mean by Jove! They might as well be neighbours!

 

[vertinox]

It would nice if you let use toggle the classic political map mode or the new one depending on how we are feeling.