Welcome to another development diary about Europa Universalis IV. This time we talk about something that will be in the next major patch we do.

One of the parts of the game that has not changed much since eu1 is the concept of technology groups and technological development around the world. We’ve added concepts like westernising, and tweaked that one, but in the end Europe has a huge advantage from day 1, and lots of fun gameplay options are limited the further away you are.

So this is what will happen in 1.18, when it is released this autumn..

A nation’s technology group no longer affect technology research.

There is now a concept called Institutions, which will affect your technology research. There are seven different institutions that appear over the game, and if you don’t get them to spread into your country and then get embraced by your government, your technology costs will slowly rise.

Each institution will appear in a province fullfilling certain factors, and then slowly spread around the world. The nation owning that province will gain prestige and monarch power.

Every year the penalty for not having embraced an institution will grow by 1%, so there is a gradual process.

When an institution has spread to at least 10% of your development, you can embrace it in your government, removing the penalty permanently, and also giving a bonus to your nation. The cost to embrace depends on the amount of development in your nation without the institution.

All institutions spread over borders (including 1 seazone away), if relations are positive, and the spread is based on development in the province getting it. There are also lots of other factors related to the spread.

So which are the the seven institutions then?

Feudalism
This is present from the start in almost all the world, except among the hordes, new world and sub-saharan africa. It will slowly spread into neighboring lands, but it is not quick.
Bonus: Gives 1 extra free leader.
Penalty: 50%


Renaissance
This appears in Italy after 1450, in either a capital or a 20+ development province. It will spread quickly through high development in europe, particularly through italy, but can only spread into provinces that have feudalism already.
Bonus: 5% Cheaper Development & 5% Cheaper Buildings
Penalty: 20%


Colonialism
Appears after 1500 in a port province in Europe, who’s owner has the Quest of the New World idea, and have discovered the new world. And will spread very quickly through any port in countries with colonies.
Bonus: +10% Provincial Trade Power
Penalty: 20%


Printing Press
This arrives after 1550, most likely in germany, but can happen in any protestant or reformed province. It will spread quickly in Protestant and Reformed territory, but also into capitals with dip tech 15.
Bonus: 5& Cheaper Stability
Penalty: 20%


Global Trade
This arrives after 1600, in a center of trade in the highest value trade node, and will spread quicker into provinces with trade buildings.
Bonus: +1 Merchant
Penalty: 20%

Manufactories
This arrives after 1650 in a province with 30 development and a manufactory, and will spread quicker into provinces with manufactories.
Bonus: +10% Goods Produced
Penalty: 20%

Enlightenment
Arrives after 1700 in a province that either is a seat of a parliament, or is a province in europe owned by a monarch with at least 5 in all stats. Universities & Parliament Seats spread this institution.
Bonus: 25% Cheaper Culture Conversion
Penalty: 30%
​

What does this mean?


The progress of Europe is not guaranteed, but most importantly, a nation in Asia or Africa is no longer crippled from day 1, and forced to avoid spending power on ideas and development.

------

We’re constantly tweaking the spread factors, but here are some screenshots from mid 18th century in a hands-off game from this morning.

This is the institutions mapmode, where green are provinces that have all the enabled institutions, and yellow are don’t have them all.

And here is the technology mapmode, of the same game.

Some other aspects that has changed include the following
- New World Native Reforming will give you all institutions that the one you reform from has.
- Trade Companies are available to all technology groups.
- Lots and lots of triggers on western techgroups have been changed to check for specific relevant institutions.

 

[Johan]

Sounds like a fantastic change. I assume since Technology Groups are of less importance, so is westernization? Will it be something different now?

there is no westernisation

 

[Galaahd]

Printing Press
This arrives after 1550, most likely in germany, but can happen in any protestant or reformed province. It will spread quickly in Protestant and Reformed territory, but also into capitals with dip tech 15.
Bonus: 5& Cheaper Stability
Penalty: 20%​

This is absolutely ridiculous from a historical point of view.

The printing press came before the Reform.

In fact the biggest printing center in Europe was Venice, which wasn't exactly a protestant center of reformation...

 

[Johan]

What do we pay with to get institution embraced? Monarch Points? Or money, or what?

money

 

[Johan]

Should printing be available in china then ?

Why are you linking colonization to tech research at all ?

No.

its not the invention of it, but the concept of how it changes things.

 

[Trin Tragula]

OBJECTION! The printing press has been around for centuries before that! Yes, even the movable type.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type#History​

Institutions refer to "stable, valued, recurring patterns of behavior". e.g. organizations that are widely practiced and accepted.

This is good to keep in mind. Especially for those worrying about the Printing Press. Yes Europe had plenty of printers before 1500, the works they produced are known as Incunables due to how they're considered pioneers of a new art and today those books (in much smaller editions than later ones) are worth fortunes to collectors.
The number of active printers a hundred years later is _a lot_ higher than the one for the late 1400's.

Yes Printing Press, Global Trade, Colonialism are not strictly things that are unheard of before a certain date. The idea is that the period after their institution unlocks is highly characterized by them however. They're also game mechanics and as such need names, they should not be taken too literally
The history of the development of the printed book is very interesting and we have no intention to disrespect the work of Manutius or the others, who I'm sure you know also have ingame flavor events related to them

(Sorry for using your post about something slightly different to say this Victimizer I just thought it was well put and wanted to add to it)

 

[Teonod]

Please, the printing press must be able to appear in China!

 

[Darkath]

China had a number of technological inventions that europeans had to get from there, gunpowder was a done deal by game start, but printing was invented in china, also the compass, sealed bulkheads, banknotes, etc.

I think china should have its own institution at game start to represent the fact it was more advanced than europe at that time.

 

[Johan]

Am I right in assuming that this (as a side effect of the feudalism bonus) means that almost all countries start out with one more free leader? If so, neat

yes.

 

[KerbalRocketry]

How will protectorates work with this?

 

[victimizer]

I like the idea, but the actual institutions themselves are pretty nonsensical. I mean, what is "enlightenment" -- How exactly is "global trade" an institution? How is colonialism a distinct institution when we've been doing it for thousands of years?

Add these:

- municipalities (organized local government, providing services that were normally ignored by sovereigns)
- joint stock company (obviously, it was a huge advantage when companies could pool the capital provided by thousands of shareholders. This would also enable the trade companies)
- checks and balances (promoting accountability in government starting from the grass roots level.)
- the academia

Remove these:

- enlightenment
- global trade
- Renaissance
- colonialism

 

[Johan]

@Johan
There are so many institutions that provide such a big penalty (especially when stacked) that unless they spread to neighboring countries at lightning speed it is easy to see that the ROTW will yet again be in a terrible, terrible position really, really fast. This new system seems to be really harsh for everyone in Asia but it hits Sub-Saharans the most that by 1550 should have an 80% penalty to tech and it only gets worse as time passes by unless one expands really fast into... Europe. But how can one do that with a terrible unbalance research typical of ROTW starts whenever trying to expand (especially bad when combined with bad rulers). A

This is another game (observermode)

Its the spread of Manufactories Institution, which enables after 1650, in 1669 and in 1709.

and...

 

[Johan]

So, indirectly, this makes smaller, taller empires an edge on technological development (as well as the perks of having the institutions), doesn't it?

yes

 

[Johan]

This looks really good. Is 1.18 just a patch or does a DLC accompany it?.

Big dlc

 

[Johan]

OBJECTION! The printing press has been around for centuries before that! Yes, even the movable type.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type#History​

yes.. and so has colonising other territories.

 

[Johan]

Please, please make this as moddable as possible. Allow us to add new ones (we'll figure out the UI) and make the effects, penalties and spread conditions fully scriptable

Its 100% moddable.

#######################################
# New World
# 
# Colonising is good.. mkay.-.
#######################################
new_world_i = {
    penalty = 0.2        #20% penalty   

    bonus = {
        global_prov_trade_power_modifier = 0.10
    }



    history = {
        OR = {
            AND = {
                is_year = 1500
                continent = europe
                owner = { has_idea = quest_for_the_new_world }
            }
           
            AND = {
                is_year = 1600
                continent = europe
            }   
           

        }
    }
   
    can_start = {
        is_year = 1500
       
        continent = europe
        has_port = yes
        owner = { 
            has_idea = quest_for_the_new_world 
            OR = {
                north_america = { has_discovered = PREV }
                south_america = { has_discovered = PREV }
                new_world = { has_discovered = PREV }
            }
        }

    }
    start_chance = 5        #in 100 for when a province can_start
   
   
    on_start = institution_events.3
   
   
   

   
   
    can_embrace = {
        always = yes
    }


   
    embracement_speed = {
   
        modifier = {
            factor = 1
            scale = yes
           
            any_friendly_coast_border_province = {
                new_world_i = 100
            }
        }
       
        modifier = {
            factor = 0.5
            scale = yes
            custom_trigger_tooltip = {
                tooltip = tooltip_neighbor_port_province_new_world
                has_port = yes
                any_neighbor_province = {
                    new_world_i = 100
                }
            }
        }
       
        #Port provinces in countries with colonial subjects
        modifier = {
            factor = 10
            custom_trigger_tooltip = {
                tooltip = tooltip_has_colonial_subject_in_new_world
                OR = {
                    has_port = yes
                    is_capital = yes
                }
                owner = {
                    num_of_colonial_subjects = 1
                    any_subject_country = {
                        is_colonial_nation = yes
                        OR = {
                            capital_scope = { continent = north_america }
                            capital_scope = { continent = south_america }
                            capital_scope = { continent = new_world }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
       
        #After activiation spreads also to owners of Colonial Empires in Asia
        modifier = {
            factor = 10
            custom_trigger_tooltip = {
                tooltip = tooltip_has_protectorate
                OR = {
                    has_port = yes
                    is_capital = yes
                }
                owner = {
                    num_of_protectorates = 1
                }
            }
        }
       
        modifier = {
            factor = 5
            scale = yes
            custom_trigger_tooltip = {
                tooltip = tooltip_colonial_overlord_new_world_i
                OR = {
                    has_port = yes
                    is_capital = yes
                }
                owner = {
                    is_colonial_nation = yes
                    overlord = { has_institution = new_world_i }
                }
            }
        }
        modifier = {
            factor = 10
            custom_trigger_tooltip = {
                tooltip = tooltip_new_world_i_embraced
                owner = {
                    has_institution = new_world_i
                }
            }
        }
    }
   
    ai_will_do = { #Cost of embracing institution must be lower than this factor * last month's regular income. (Or it has a more than long term goal...)
        factor = 24
       
        modifier = {
            factor = 0.25
            is_at_war = yes
        }
    }
}

 

[Johan]

So do Americas, Hordes, and Subsahara start with +50% Penalty or do thye start with 0% and tick up to 50% for not having Feudalism?

Start with

 

[Johan]

Is the number of institutions avaialble moddable?

yes.

 

[Johan]

In what way will the technology group affect gameplay in 1.18? Does it only determine the unit types a country will use?

unittype primarily, exploration spread, and some minor flavor.

 

[DarkImpaler]

Looks awesome, but there one thing that's really horrible in your Diary: the fact that this will come in autumn

And by the way, isn't there a new icon in the menu between the government and the diplomacy ones?