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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.

Professionalism Mil Tab.jpg


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...

Professionalism Unit view low.jpg


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

Professionalism Unit view hight.jpg


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!

trade goods East.jpg


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

Golconda.jpg


That's it from us this week, see you next Tuesday!
 
@DDRJake I'm really glad that you have started adjusting combat system, but since 1.12 (CS) patch the balance between manpower and mercenaries has been changed: manpower pools have been cut at least twice, so most wars are won by mercspam. This creates an extremely awkward situations when the early conflicts (like France + England vs Burgundy + Castile + Austria) can take millions of mercenaries lives in mid XV century, which is absurd from historical demography point of view. On the other hand, manpower pools are jokingly low, which almost completely deflates attrition and attrition wars (just place a stack of mercs on that scorched mountain fort and don't worry about anything). In general, players have no choice but to build as strong as possible economy and rely on mercspam.

Edit: I know that lower manpower pools have been somewhat compensated by increased manpower recovery (like Nobility estate loyalty, for example), but it still doesn't fix the current situation's awkwardness. Also, unlike pre-1.12 where you could build any building in any province, now the buildings slots are limited, therefore it's irrational to construct barracks in hypothetical 2/2/1 province with 3 slots.
 
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What is this alert? Is that new or something old?
LkA0Mcb.png

That looks like a Qizilbash mechanic. The Qizilbash were Shite(twelver sect) military group that were instrumental in the rise of the Safavid Dynasty in Iran. Similar to Janissaries they were known by their red taj spire crown-turban as you can see in image.
 
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That looks like a Qizilbash mechanic. The Qizilbash were Shite(twelver sect) military group that were instrumental in the rise of the Safavid Dynasty in Iran. Similar to Janissaries they were known by their red taj spire crown-turban as you can see in image.

The thing is that Oman is Ibadi. Would that still apply?
 
That looks like a Qizilbash mechanic. The Qizilbash were Shite(twelver sect) military group that were instrumental in the rise of the Safavid Dynasty in Iran. Similar to Janissaries they were known by their red taj spire crown-turban as you can see in image.

Isn't the Oman Ibadi in 1444 atm?
 
The thing is that Oman is Ibadi. Would that still apply?

I think it would because Babur of the Mughals obtained a few battalions of Qizilbash and they helped him in his conquests. Seeing this mechanic makes me positive this next expansion will be about Persia Shah Ismail, Or Abbas the great as the poster image which I am happy about. Hopefully new unit models will come for Persia and for the Muslims.
 
Looks good! But shouldn't Professionalism also depend on Army Tradition or vice versa? Both mechanics seem quite closely related.

Kinda like Prestige should be connected to Power Projection and Diplomatic Reputation, or Russian Boyars should be connected to Boyar estate, or Corruption to Inflation, or dozen other not connected systems?..
 
@DDRJake I'm really glad that you have started adjusting combat system, but since 1.12 (CS) patch the balance between manpower and mercenaries has been changed: manpower pools have been cut at least twice, so most wars are won by mercspam. This creates an extremely awkward situations when the early conflicts (like France + England vs Burgundy + Castile + Austria) can take millions of mercenaries lives in mid XV century, which is absurd from historical demography point of view. On the other hand, manpower pools are jokingly low, which almost completely deflates attrition and attrition wars (just place a stack of mercs on that scorched mountain fort and don't worry about anything). In general, players have no choice but to build as strong as possible economy and rely on mercspam.

Edit: I know that lower manpower pools have been somewhat compensated by increased manpower recovery (like Nobility estate loyalty, for example), but it still doesn't fix the current situation's awkwardness. Also, unlike pre-1.12 where you could build any building in any province, now the buildings slots are limited, therefore it's irrational to construct barracks in hypothetical 2/2/1 province with 3 slots.

@DDRJake my two cents on this issue: why not simply bring back the flat percentage increase to manpower per mil tech level that was patched out at 1.12 (IIRC)? Never understood why that was abandoned in the first place.
 
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Stupid question of the week here, but just confirming: we're speaking of BUILT buildings, there, and not CAPTURED? Because the AI in general loves to put buildings where they shouldn't for their own good, and so if we do not gain professionalism for gaining these buildings, but lose it upon clearing these, then looking at what is built in a province will change what province you want to capture when mounting an economic base.

Also should point out that the picture shows Land fire damage instead of Fire damage, while the accompanying diary says land shock and fire damage without mentionning Land or not. Actuallly having the bonus works for navy too there? Or something that changed since the picture was taken?
 
Disbanded units are normally lost forever, however at 60 Professionalism you ensure that they return to the manpower pool

Wish all disbanded units went back to your manpower or at least half of it. Why do they just disappear into thin air?

Disband unit in your own territory - Full manpower value restored.

Disband in allied territory - Half manpower value restored.

Disband in enemy territory - Quarter of manpower value restored.
 
Are you guys going to optimize the game for a better performance? If I understand correctly, this expansion will add new variables to every army, which seems like it might cause a performance drop considering the amount of armies in the whole EU4 world. Don't get me wrong I love the changes, especially the long needed mercenary nerf, but I am just worried about performance, especially late game. Thank you :)