Good day. Tuesday has rolled around once more and that means it is time for our weekly Developer Diary for Europa Universalis IV. Today, we continue on from last week where we discussed Army Drilling to elaborate on how it can make an impact on having a better, more professional Army.

As part of the yet-unannounced expansion accompanying the 1.23 update, Your nation's army will have a Professionalism level, indicated both on the Unit view and the Military tab.

Your Army's Professionalism is a national value measuring how closely your army models a “modern” standing army versus heavy reliance on mercenaries. It is increased by:

• Drilling your armies (+1 per year if 100% forcelimit drills, to scale)
• Constructing military buildings: Barracks/regimental camps (+0.5 per tier)
• Recruiting Generals (+1 per general)

Conversely, Professionalism is decreased by

• Destroying military buildings: Barracks/regimental camps (-1 per tier)
• Recruiting Mercenaries (-0.25 per unit)

Professionalism has the following effect, scaling up from 0 to 100:

• Shock Damage +10%
• Fire damage +10%
• Movement Speed +20%

Additionally, low professionalism grants bonuses for the recruitment of mercenaries, starting from 0 and scaling down to nothing at 50 Professionalism.

• Mercenary cost -15%
• Available mercenaries +15%

All nations start the game with low to no Professionalism. Events, decisions and modifiers can affect these values positively and negatively, from standardizing your uniforms to deciding how extensively to loot fallen cities.

The value of your Army Professionalism unlocks a new interface look and new abilities for your armies at every 20 points. Starting at 0-19 professionalism, you'll have a more tattered look to your Unit view...

And as your army gains more Professionalism, the view grows more elegant

So what abilities are gained for each 20 Professionalism?

• 20 - Supply Depot Ability unlocked for army.

• 40 - Refill Garrison Ability unlocked for army

• 60 - Disbanded Units are returned to the manpower pool

• 80 - Military Generals cost half-price to recruit

• 100 - Your reserves take 50% less morale damage.

Supply Depot is an ability accessible in the revisited Unit view which, for a small MIL cost, established a depot in a province. Friendly supply in that entire area is increased by 50%. If the province is then occupied by a hostile force, the Depot will be destroyed, otherwise it lasts for 2 years.

Refill Garrison allows an army to take some of its manpower to restore the garrison of a fort instantly so you can proceed without having your new occupation snatched away.

Disbanded units are normally lost forever, however at 60 Professionalism you ensure that they return to the manpower pool

Half Price Generals cost is fairly self explanatory, they will cost 25MIL rather than the standard 50

Reserves, who normally take passive morale damage in large ongoing battles, will now take far less and can really turn the tide in a battle.

Caveat: All values/bonuses given in the dev diaries are subject to change pending testing and balance as development continues. Also as a note for modders, these abilities are all scripted in as modifiers and so can be used as you see fit.

That should cover the Drilling and Professionalism nicely. Next week we will take a look at a system which, overall, hasn't changed a whole lot in EU4's life, and how it had its influence on the Islamic world. Until then I....hold on, I have a feeling that people are wanting to see some other trade goods across the world, following the addition of 5 new goods. very well, let's look to the ....East!

And additionally, we felt that some local modifiers were in order:

That's it from us this week, see you next Tuesday!

 

[ratkus]

While I agree with you that more realistic borders always are preferable (no idea whether more provinces in the Baltic are warranted; probably, I'd say, but I'm no expect) then be aware that for game optimisation and for gameplay reasons several of the provinces you drew are non starters---i.e. they have no chance of getting included.

I learned that lessen back when I suggested ideas for the Denmark rework.

probably. im a voltaires nightmare modder, and i constantly try to find ways how to reduce lag. for example currently im thinking to create spec govt types for ais or something that reduces the features they get. should research more about them.
my next mod will try to achieve the most detail in the world, hence why i am researching such things with my friends about all of the historical countries that existed
example in east prussia theres a tiny duchy rautenburg

Spoiler: rtbg

i plan to beat extended timeline in time too, 559 BC to 1870 AD (should maybe try to create a hoi4 same mod and a converter to it)

Spoiler: heres the map

by looking at how many provinces does europe have, you can already see how this mod doesnt give a dump about your pc burning maybe it will become playable 100 years later during EU5 times? also as you can see im only doing coastlines at the moment, because i want to create an ultradetailed map too.

Spoiler: florida for example

basically this mod will be only there in years, and your computer will need some firepower for sure. as i said, maybe when EU5 will be around the lag problem might be solved, at least if it wont be solved ill be trying to do something.

 

[sprites]

So either you can have a highly pofessionnal army that performe better, or access to loads of cheaper mercs? interesting choice

 

[Nikoleis]

except if you're going for high professionalism your can't use mercs to beef up your army, so maybe the mechanic for returning manpower is so you can go over your forcelimit during war and then cut back after it's done.

The problem lies in three points:
- You need troops to drill to get said professionalism (and buff generals), so disbanding these will slow down your progress. Granted, if you're at 100 already, that becomes partly a non-issue, but you still need them around if you want them drilled to begin with, sole advantage these troops have on mercenaries (the price is usually not a deterrant)
- If you free your troops right after a war, chances are that your manpower wasn't fully stocked. Returning troops too early won't allow to maximize the amount of men in stock, so it is not useful if you don't plan to stay at peace for a moment
- Your amount of troops deployed has an impact on diplomacy, so returning soldiers can potentially be the cause of a declared war or a disloyal vassal due to looking too weak. And when you'll hire those soldiers again, it will lead to start the war already with a hole in your manpower reserve, weakening you long term... and thus having to rely on mercenaries sooner.

Because of all this, you'd probably want either an hybrid force with mercenaries acting as the standing troops to have a minimal presence and absorb a first hit in case of trouble when your army is being produced back or simply be there for dealing with your usual rebels, or a force of normal soldiers you do not want to return, for any of the three reasons above. And if, for whatever reason, you have needed those mercenaries for a tough war, chance are you don't want to dismiss them as they would impact again your professionalism next time you buy them! So instead, you might keep these leftovers around as long as you can, meaning you can still end up with mercenaries standing troops even (especially?) when going professional, while the opposite (going full merc) doesn't have this problem as their manpower is constanly full, won't lose drilling bonus by not being there, and can be mounted back in no time as they take three time less to be built compared to regular troops.

What I predict will be happening is that we will still see Infantry mercs (built as soon as possible so they are brought when having zero professionalism at start), stacks of cannons and cavalry being drilled on the side to keep professionalism high when you are finished with getting your powerbase and start being able to fill useless provinces with military buildings without care. Then, see the most destructive unit in the endgame dealing more damage than ever with drill+professionalism while giving it's buffed shock bonus to front line defense to help the mercenaries indirectly, and only then in case of need, use the manpower to reinforce units as long as your manpower can hold it so to not lose your buff in the first engagements by using regulars as fill in for any lost engagements by your original force.

 

[ross-g]

Supply Depot is an ability accessible in the revisited Unit view which, for a small MIL cost, established a depot in a province. Friendly supply in that entire area is increased by 50%. If the province is then occupied by a hostile force, the Depot will be destroyed, otherwise it lasts for 2 years.

Is attrition damage going to be tweaked at all to make building Supply Depots more desirable? Currently, as a mechanic it's somewhat tame in most circumstances and feels like it needs to be more punishing for me to actually spend Mil points to build depots.

I assume you can build these in any province? (ie owned OR occupied)

 

[Frederickthegreat]

In my opinion professionalism and drilling are very promising ideas but I think at this point they are a bit simplistic .Maybe you could connect the new warfare mechanics with the existing ones like discipline, combat ability, and maybe even siege ability or army tradition. As a result we would have more interesting and realistic warfare. In my opinion professionalism should also be linked to some national ideas and idea groups to fully implement it into the game. However i do really like the the new concept in gerneral and that it provides a good alternative to merc spam.

Please keep up the great work

 

[Me_]

So. Professional armies are superpowered Waffen SS behemots that move at the speed of a steady gallop. Meanwhile people who have been fighting for a living their entire lives (mercenaries) are equal in strength to just-raised peasant rabble (standard unprofessional regiment). Or do mercenaries get some base +X% bonus to something.

 

[Emoneh]

[re: Mercs should not benefit at all from combat ideas]

This was actually the case in EU3, and it worked out terribly.

Could you elaborate?

 

[Derdiedas]

Except none of what you just said is even remotely the reality of things.

You should use less condescending tone when you are talking about things you seem to have a little knowledge of. Arguing aganist notion that early firearms are easier to handle and achieve proficiency than swords, bows and other earlier weapons is a pretty brave.

Except you did not argue it. You just tried to pretend you have knowledge you don't have.

 

[Slavicist]

Can anyone jog my memory? Why did independent mercs work out terribly in EU3?

 

[Grand Historian]

Good question and @Gnivom can perhaps answer this one, noting this is a typical case where it might be necessary to rebalance the AI logic for AI to be competent with the new rules (if at all possible, new rules can be more difficult for AI than old ones ).

In my opinion this is really just another sign of the need to try to make wars less all-or-nothing affairs.

 

[Ixal]

This was actually the case in EU3, and it worked out terribly.

Thanks for the answer. I havent played EU3 mjch so I do not know what the problems with that was (would be nice if anyone could comment on that). I still think mercenaries are much too good compared to the regular army (gold is more easy to get than manpower) which leads to ahistorical gameplay of people using more and more mercenaries as time progresses and leads to boring mass mercenary brawls in MP until one side runs out of money.
That those features which buff standing armies over mercenaries are paid and not free doesnt help either in addressing this issue. And I also think that the benefits standing armies have with drilling do not outweight the manpower advantage of mercenaries.

 

[Hessian Mercenary]

However, I don't think Professionalism and Army Tradition overlap:

• They represent different concepts: how close your troops are to an organized, modern army vs how much the culture and experience of fighting have penetrated your society
• They behave differently: professionalism only changes as a direct result of your actions (drilling, building) while army tradition slowly rises with each battles and you can only slow its decay

You can have high army tradition - low professionalism armies and vice-versa. Think the classic opposition between nomad and sedentary people.

While this is a good point I still think it would be better to at least somehow link these together. As it is right now it's just another mechanism unconnected to anything else and we have enough of that already. For example high army tradition could increase Professionalism you get from certain actions by some percentage, or reduce the amount of time needed for max Drilling boni

I'm also a bit worried about both Drilling and Professionalism being DLC exclusive features. At least Professionalism should've been a free feature IMO so it could be expanded upon in the future. Right now it just feels like Paradox is repeating the mistakes they made with Estates and manual Development. After all the shift from levies to standing armies is a very important military aspect of this time period and warrants greater attention than it has received until now

In respect with Navies, I think they should get it too, my reason is that Charles V created the first official Marines for the Spanish Navies and they became permanent soldiers of the sea, which in my opinion makes sense to make navies have drills too.

Naval warfare is a sad state of affairs in EU4 and is in dire need of a complete overhaul. Mare Nostrum could've been that but failed spectacularly. Well I suppose Naval Driling could be a nice first step at least

 

[creativitypersonified]

So. Professional armies are superpowered Waffen SS behemots that move at the speed of a steady gallop. Meanwhile people who have been fighting for a living their entire lives (mercenaries) are equal in strength to just-raised peasant rabble (standard unprofessional regiment). Or do mercenaries get some base +X% bonus to something.

These people who have been fighting for a living their entire lives will give up run once their life is threatened. Or they will just betray you if the enemy gives them more gold. Permanent armies wont do that. They wont slow down the armies march in order to plunder for more gold either.

 

[peleliu]

Speaking of mercs...I added the below comment to the suggestion thread so I thought I might as well post it here as well. What about reducing the pool of available mercs as time goes on?

With the discussion regarding the new Professionalism additions perhaps it is time to address mercenaries in general. I don't mind them and find them useful in the early game, but perhaps the pool of available units should be tied to institutions. Feudalism would have the base level, Renaissance a small bonus, and later institutions would see the merc pool slowly drained as nations head toward the endgame and professional/revolutionary armies. Reliance on mercs did die off fairly rapidly as nation states grew. Troops such as the Hessians used in America are best represented by the Condottieri mechanic.

 

[QDI]

@Hessian Mercenary Globally agree with what you said on land.

Naval warfare is a sad state of affairs in EU4 and is in dire need of a complete overhaul. Mare Nostrum could've been that but failed spectacularly. Well I suppose Naval Driling could be a nice first step at least

While Mare Nostrum came up short indeed and could have been so much more, it managed to make quality based navies viable. It was not a small feat!

 

[DDRJake]

[re: Mercs should not benefit at all from combat ideas]


Could you elaborate?

Casting my mind back, in EU3, a mercenary unit would only use your base effects from tech in battle, all other factors like National Ideas and advisors did not strengthen them. As a result, they were a horrible liability in any battle a few decades into the game and were prohibitively expensive in the early game.

 

[Metz]

Casting my mind back, in EU3, a mercenary unit would only use your base effects from tech in battle, all other factors like National Ideas and advisors did not strengthen them. As a result, they were a horrible liability in any battle a few decades into the game and were prohibitively expensive in the early game.

What about removing the espionage idea group and giving those out for free to all countries based on diplomatic level.

Then with that diplomacy slot, a mercenary idea group fits in perfectly. You then add all scattered mercenary ideas founder in the other idea groups. You can also add privateering boosts as well to the mercenary idea group. This would create a perfect idea group for countries like Sweden and others who relied heavily on mercenaries. This would cancel out a lof of the professionalism effects that hinder mercenaries and at the same time make espionage more interesting and accessible for the rest (the espionage idea group is rarely taken).

Current espionage idea group:

Espionage
Efficient Spies
+50% Spy network construction
−10% Advisor costs
Agent Training

+1 Diplomats
Vetting

+10% Provincial trade power modifier
+33% Foreign spy detection
Additional Loyalist Recruitment

−10 Liberty desire in subjects
Claim Fabrication

−25% Cost to fabricate claims
Privateers

+25% Embargo efficiency
+33% Privateer efficiency
Audit Checks

−0.10 Yearly corruption
Bonus:

+50% Rebel support efficiency

New mercenary idea group using ideas from other groups (by adding one or two privateering based ideas):

Organized Mercenary Payments
−25% Mercenary cost
Benefits for Mercenaries

−25% Mercenary maintenance
Mercenary Recruitment

+25% Available mercenaries
Pragmatism

−25% Mercenary maintenance
Noble Connections

+20% Available mercenaries
Tradition of Payment

+10% Available mercenaries
+2.5% Mercenary discipline
Mercenary Contracts

+25% Available mercenaries

This would give 3 administrative, 1 innovative, 1 aristocratic, 1 plutocratic, 1 quality free idea group slots. It would be perfect to finally add administrative ideas like cheaper development, faster development (should be timed based rather than instant), and other ideas... etc.

 

[Grand Historian]

What about removing the espionage idea group and giving those out for free to all countries based on diplomatic level.

Then with that diplomacy slot, a mercenary idea group fits in perfectly. You then add all scattered mercenary ideas founder in the other idea groups. You can also add privateering boosts as well to the mercenary idea group. This would create a perfect idea group for countries like Sweden and others who relied heavily on mercenaries. This would cancel out a lof of the professionalism effects that hinder mercenaries and at the same time make espionage more interesting and accessible for the rest (the espionage idea group is rarely taken).

Current espionage idea group:



New mercenary idea group using ideas from other groups (by adding one or two privateering based ideas):



This would give 3 administrative, 1 innovative, 1 aristocratic, 1 plutocratic, 1 quality free idea group slots. It would be perfect to finally add administrative ideas like cheaper development, faster development (should be timed based rather than instant), and other ideas... etc.

Full +5% Merc Discipline (or maybe +10% at this point, given Mercs won't have the advantage of professional armies?) should be the finisher for such a group. But I wouldn't want a merc group, because not only would that leave Admin to be filled with even more powerful bonuses, but Espionage is a sensible idea group as it stands, especially if you want to play cloak and dagger. It might not be as competitive in the MP sense, but it serves its purpose and does it well, especially now that everyone has access to Espionage actions via Dip tech.

 

[Lysistrata]

Casting my mind back, in EU3, a mercenary unit would only use your base effects from tech in battle, all other factors like National Ideas and advisors did not strengthen them. As a result, they were a horrible liability in any battle a few decades into the game and were prohibitively expensive in the early game.

Maybe just reduce their effectiveness depending on the age?

 

[Hessian Mercenary]

While Mare Nostrum came up short indeed and could have been so much more, it managed to make quality based navies viable. It was not a small feat!

Yeah, disappointment might've gotten the better of me there, Mare Nostrum was not a complete disaster and at least the times of doomstack fleets are mostly over. It's still a long way though to make the naval aspect more important, but I suppose that's going too much off topic so I'll stop here