So what have we done lately? Well, plenty of stuff that will go into 1.14 and the next expansion. Lots of stuff we are not ready to talk about yet, but this week we'll give you information about some new systems.

The first one is the new areas system, which will be a part of the patch.

Areas are a new type of region, usually consisting of between 3-6 provinces, and with no province being in more than one area. A new areas mapmode will show you which provincs are in what areas. This will be used for various mechanics we will explain more next week.

And then we have a feature which will be part of the as of yet unnanounced expansion.. The Victory Cards system. This is a feature that is primarily designed for multiplayer games, as it is introduced to reduce hugboxes and permanent allianceblocks.

At the end of a campaign, the top countries end up with 15-20K in score, so our goal was to create a system that could provide 30-50% more score for those that are willing to go for it.

And thus, we introduce the Victory Cards.

Starting in 1450, and every 100 years after you will be able to get a Victory Card if you have at least 300 development. Of course if you don't qualify for 1 at a given date, you will get 1 as soon as you qualify for it.

A victory card grows in score value every month if you own, control & core every province in its area, and it takes 20 years to grow to its maximum, and 20 years to drop to zero from its maximum.

The area selected is slightly randomised, but average development matter & it must be adjacent or within 1 seazone of any part of your nation or its subjects. Only provinces belonging to potential or current rivals are take into consideration, and you are far more likely to get ones on nations ahead of you in score or belonging to other players.

The first card is worth 1000, second 2000, third 3000 and the final 4000 points.

Here I've loaded up a savegame from 1.13 in our office MP campaign, and in the first 2 months I've gotten 2 victory cards to basically fight my game-long-hugbox-friend France.

 

[lolada]

I have to admit, it is somewhat impressive how Paradox manages to avoid fan demands sometimes. They've had calls to fix Buddhism, espionage, naval mechanics, peacetime gameplay, multidirectional trade, blob stability, etc., and we get a Dev Diary on... the score.

Partly true, it would be unfair to says they didnt try.. they made some changes and put some efforts into resolving these but they were slow and it is not enough for lots of people. They did a lot for Buddhism thats ok. Naval combat was broken for a long time- they eventually made some important fixes (like not to sink whole fleet always) - but lots of people want more improvements. Espionage was slightly tweaked - still trash group. We got development and new building system for peacetime gameplay, but in reality this area needs more work - development is very restricted and there's not much to do in peace time. Multidirectional tride might not be a thing at all.. lots of people don't care - but there's quite a few suggestion to improve trade. Blob stability - gotta agree, all revolt changes were pretty meh, revolt system needs improvement, overextension handling (>100) is ridicuolus.. end so on.. they should probably focus a bit more on actual problem in the game, if 95% on forums say there's a problem than the problem is probably there.

 

[CrabHelmet]

Is this the last dev diary? How do you know they're not already working some of that stuff and just aren't ready to talk about them yet?

I mean, I named 6 different issues there. I could probably think of at least 20 different issues more important than score, because nobody cares about score in SP and I'm willing to bet good money less than 1 in 10 MP groups do, which means score changes effect something like 1.28% of EU4 games. Even if they have 10 more dev diaries, I find it really unlikely that they'll have covered all of the material that is more important than score (i.e., basically all of it).

 

[frolix42]

This is really only meant for MP games that want to play with score, AI does not get victory cards and you don't get them in SP period.

I feel like this is important information. A lot of people, including myself, were assuming that these 'control area' victory cards were going to be like 'Get a Presence in India' and cause random wars.

 

[GameGabster]

I normally love everything you do, but I have to say... I am not too sure about this.

 

[Hakuromatsu]

Sounds like it's going to be used for stuff that regions cannot be used for.

Which means they should've reworked regions, not added areas. I don't know why the EU4 team keeps piling mechanics on top of each other.

 

[highsis]

Looks like I'm one of the few who like the change.

The endgame score is purely aesthetic. Your nation's strength, income, capability does not change from accumulating victory points. The card system gives players motives to try warring other human players without forcing those uninterested to play along the forced path.

Unless Paradox gives in-game bonuses such as income boost as part of victory cards, I see no reason why one wants to get rid of it. Ignore it if you want to.

 

[Rome mos revert]

So what have we done lately? Well, plenty of stuff that will go into 1.14 and the next expansion.

Next expansion? You guys are awesome. I have purchased every expansion you have released and if you keep up the quality of them like you have, you can expect me to stay a regular customer. Good work.

 

[VVyrd]

There is one.. its on the screen at all times.. You score and your rank.

I mostly only play MP games and I can assure you no one really cares about the score. Some times it's used to determine who might be stronger than you, to know if you'd be able to attack him or not. The idea is not bad and is a step forward to stop those who only can win by allying all the players playing major powers. It's really ugly to see Austria, Ottomans, Commonwealth, Prussia and Italy allied just to war on France whose only ally is the Netherlands.

Still, you should fix the score (It seems kinda buggy to me) and make it interesting somehow. Else the winner will simply be the strongest one, if the MP gets to be finished which usually it doesn't. Also, most of the times there's no winner at all, by that I mean people doesn't care who's winning, all they want is play for fun (even though those shitty massive alliances aren't that fun from my point of view), so maybe consider changing the new feature to something that actually gives you some benefit in-game? Something that could make you go ahead and actually break your alliance/s?

Overall, I'm really happy you're trying to help it, but as I said, consider changing a few things.

 

[Kwami]

You're missing the point. Even if "only the host" has to have Common Sense, it's still a new feature that requires a different paid DLC to work.

The new feature does not require CS to work. If you don't have CS, then you'll just need more provinces to activate the feature.

 

[lokiey0000000]

Why are people who say they don't care about multiplayer getting worked up over a change for multiplayer? It's not nice to not want other people to get nice things just because you don't care about them. I don't care about multiplayer but I'm interested in the various new mechanics we're going to hear about next week that have to do with these areas.

 

[Mafiabrett]

Single Player focused content > Multiplayer content.... any day.

We all know that the Score in the top right is only used for Multiplayer, in single player I could care less if im "7th" in the world. Because to myself, I'm #1 and did all of my personal goals.

 

[keynes2.0]

Paradox is free to make whatever game they want. I am just stating why as a longtime fan of the series is moving in a direction that wont get me playing the new patches or buying the DLC.

 

[crowdemon]

This week development diary has left me confused, but I'm happy to wait next week for Paradox to show more information about the area system.

 

[maltsefalcon204]

How about adding some control over our ruler stats so we aren't at the mercy of random chance.

Ruler cards , when you complete a chain of task your leader improves.

 

[Reyfou]

I know this isn't the right topic, but I think the End Game should really have a big improvement.

I mean, you can not even save your score? I'm no score addicted, but Id like to at least compare my campaigns. I would like to know who was my better king in all campaign. The period he lived. The best general. That stuff that are easy to implement(I guess?) to buff a little bit End Game.


Anyway, about the news, I don't play MP, but I honestly think these Victory Cards will be a good addition for MP games..
About areas, Im thinking of Conquest all area CB. Easier religion conversion, if part of the area is already converted. Same with culture... and etc...

 

[nOxr]

Areas could fit pretty nicely with a specific mechanic for feudal monarchies. It could also drive conflict between neighbours. For example, if you own an entire area you will get a bonus to trade power from those provinces. You could also get a slight bonus to tax and production income from completely controlled areas. It would be because provinces in an area have intertwined economies and if you only control part of the area you will not have a full grip on everything that goes on and you will lose out on income. Technically it could work better with a small penalty when you not control an area.

 

[shaldon]

One idea to make multiplayer more interesting : do not reveal the 'real' identity of each player until the game ends. That way 'pals' won't team up, and you may end up allied to the guy that backstabbed you in the last...five...games...in a row - without realising it. .

One thing I've found in multiplayer is that an individuals real identity can certainly play a part in how they are treated (normally, for good reason!)

Of course, power assignment then has to not be in advance with each player, once in the game, picking their power under some sort of alias that persists for that player and that game. But think of the fun!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Agreed. Especially since the final score doesn't account for different starts, does it yet?

It sort of does/doesn't. Score is weighted over time; leading late in the game is worth significantly more than leading early in the game on a monthly basis. Even just screwing around as Mutapa I'm first in score in SP not long after 1600 for example.

A nation that leads in trade income and has 50 heavies might lose out because it's not current in diplomatic technology, despite that there isn't a nation in the world that could challenge its navy. Score is also problematically low for huge nations doing neighbor bonus slingshot timings. Finally, it's a capped deal. If you're 1st/1st/1st, from a score perspective it doesn't matter if you own 2/3 of Africa with a bunch of CNs versus owning all of Europe and Asia combined. You're still 1st/1st/1st either way and your score growth will be identical...but these are not identical positions.

So score only has partial reliability as a performance measure. It doesn't reliably tell you the state of your empire in the absolute sense, or create any comparability between games. It doesn't even reflect the current state of the current game consistently (a nation trailing in score could have over double the active army and be more advanced).

 

[Deathlinger]

I do hope these "areas" are put to good use and not just frittered away on MP only score aspects. I mean I like gloating about my score as much as the next guy in MP, but in no way is it really a measure of the nation.

 

[Riekopo]

Well, I don't play multiplayer so I don't really have any thoughts on Victory cards. What I really want to see done in EU4 is Espionage fixed and expanded.