EU4 - Development Diary - 27th of September 2016

[Zhadum101]

New World Nations 3 Questions

So what removes primitive status?

Can primitives gain institutions through the process of development BEFORE they reform their religion?

What are the conditions to reform your religion? (Western nation adjacent or any nation with institutions adjacent? Ottomans valid?)

 

[Dakka]

Looks like good stuff. Should be one of the past patches to date, and I am glad to see Japan getting some attention, regardless of it is ahistorical Ashikaga power or not.

Asked earlier and I would like to know as well, when do we get content pack info?

 

[Topias]

In 1444, all non-tribal nations start without tech penalties.

This isn't really a very accurate way to describe the setup, since there are non-tribal governments represented among the primitives in Mesoamerica and the Andes. Not that anyone would be misled to believe those somehow start with institutions, but hey.

 

[ERS92]

here was a rather large following for giving the Knights access to Slave Raiding, as they were rather fearsome pirates, so they gained that ability.

Any historical facts to that kind kind of activity for The Knights?

 

[Rinsukaze]

Nice!

 

[Vroobel]

@Johan @DDRJake Will you tell us about the Spectator things menitoned in the Overview and The MP Fixes promised last week?

 

[Afinati]

• American Natives reforming their religion gain all the institutions from their advanced neighbour

• Cultures are now promoted manually, and any culture of at least 20 development can be promoted for 100 DIP.

Lame.

 

[Lubba4Life]

Arbitrary continent restrictions are a bad mechanic resulting in ridiculous edge cases due to the size of continents. Moving away from these was a good thing, please don't go backwards. Either stick with the requirement for territories, or use some other mechanic, like distance to capital, which is already used for state maintenance (although it could be displayed to players better, possibly with a mapmode?). If you feel that Africans or Asians getting early trade companies is too strong, tie the ability to form them to Institutions. Colonialism seems like a good fit.

Will this apply to nations without the income to qualify for level 2 advisors? If so, I don't understand why you would make this change. Also, is this one advisor in every category or only one total?

Other than that, good changes all around.

This idea makes sense

New World Nations 3 Questions

So what removes primitive status?

Can primitives gain institutions through the process of development BEFORE they reform their religion?

What are the conditions to reform your religion? (Western nation adjacent or any nation with institutions adjacent? Ottomans valid?)

This. It would be nice if primitives got at least some form of sea travel if they are technologically advanced (assuming they can gain institutions).

 

[Afinati]

• Lucky nations are now down to 8, sorry Poland, Brandenburg & Sweden.

Good.

 

[Lubba4Life]

Lame.

Agreed. If you get rid of westernization you should get rid of this reform religion too right? Isn't it basically the same thing? And isn't it also historically inaccurate?

 

[grommile]

Agreed. If you get rid of westernization you should get rid of this reform religion too right? Isn't it basically the same thing? And isn't it also historically inaccurate?

There are three reformable religions in EU4. All of them relate to societies that, in our timeline, were conquered by and - to varying extents - assimilated into the Spanish colonial empire.

Thus, questions of historical accuracy are moot.

 

[Jia Xu]

I'd say over half of my 1.18 hands-off runs (of which there have comfortably been over 100) have had Prussia forming. Many of them have been very successful.

I've been playing since launch and have never seen the AI form the Mughals. Any word if that has become more likely in your tests?

 

[sr999]

• Ships now engage in a priority order from heavy, galley, light to transport, up to a maximum of the engagement width (for which heavies count as 3 rather than 1).

This creates a more interesting naval combat experience, as you’ll all notice on October 11th.

Very interesting. Priority is good / common sense. Frontage-weighting is very good - so Atlantic sea powers get much more pain trying to interfere in the Med, as galleys in inland seas again become competitive in numbers?

 

[Azhcristokos]

Agreed. If you get rid of westernization you should get rid of this reform religion too right? Isn't it basically the same thing? And isn't it also historically inaccurate?

Getting rid of the religious reform mechanic for the Aztecs/Incans/Mayans would severely weaken them by robbing them of their religious bonuses and remove a key feature of the El Dorado expansion pack. Reworking paid features from DLC is fine; removing them entirely without replacing them is a terrible idea.

The other thing is that historical inaccuracy is half-irrelevant in the case of the New World nations. It is already possible to play, say, the Pueblo, reform your government, westernize, drive the Europeans out of North America, invade Spain, colonize Africa, and found colonies in Kamchatka. We left strict historical accuracy behind a long time ago.

 

[sr999]

I've been playing since launch and have never seen the AI form the Mughals. Any word if that has become more likely in your tests?

The AI Timurids were one province away from it in today's dev MP: even from a sample of one game that seems an improvement from "never". (IIRC there's a player now controlling Malwa, so probably the Timmies will be stopped by the player)

 

[Ilightmaster]

Please reconsider, I have never seen the AI form Prussia

There are new mecanics in the 1.18 Prussia Patch for Prussia, so hopefully if the AI can deal with them this won't have any consequences for Prussia.

 

[daniel060]

• Penalty for not occupying forts in an area will no longer apply if the enemy does not control any forts in the area.

THANK YOU! This has been SO annoying.

 

[Sexual Velociraptor]

If you are enter battle while in an enemy province with a fort

where were you when burgundy was kill?

In all seriousness though I liked a lot of the changes, but I need to ask about player fort costs. I've never bought more than 1 or 2 level 8 forts in a game, are rarely buy forts in general. They're really expensive for a small benefit, especially as the game drags on.

I'm fairly certain most players don't get them either unless they're playing a tall country with development instead of expansion.

My point is that I think it would make sense to lower maintenance and maybe purchase price of forts by half. They're currently WAY too expensive. One level 8 fort costs as much as a 23 Infantry.

How should I be expected to spend 4 gold in maintenance per 50 development, or 40,000 gold adding forts to my currently 2.5k dev blobbed empire.

Nerf forts defensive stats if you need to, but right now players just don't use them. That's neither historical or balanced.

 

[Ixal]

Forts

• If you are enter battle while in an enemy province with a fort, you will be treated as the attacker in battle and incur that province's terrain penalties.

Building forts is now a strategic decision. Where can you stop your enemies the best?

I fear that this will make combat between players a WW1 style trench warfare where the one who attacks first loses. Especially in the Alps and northern Italy.

 

[Anaeri]

So... when do native americans lose the primitive tag then? Not being able to build boats or having a permanent cb from the colonial powers sounds... awful.