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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!
 
Why such a huge nerf towards mercs? I don't understand why.

Mercs are unrealistic. Huge bands of mercs just sitting around in your land waiting to get hired.

Wish they refined it to be more dynamic with merc bands traveling around Europe and you can offer to hire them like a Condottieri and have them arrive in a few days if they are nearby.

Maybe something similar to CK2's merc mechanics.
 
Will there be any ruler/general traits that affect professionalism? Would fit Nader Shah.
 
Will Bohemia start with more Professionalism? The Hussite army was basically the first trained standing army in medieval Europe., so the legacy should still be felt.
 
Will Bohemia start with more Professionalism? The Hussite army was basically the first trained standing army in medieval Europe., so the legacy should still be felt.

There are a number of countries that won't start at 0 professionalism. :)
Starting values range from 0 - 10. With the absolute majority of countries starting at 0.
 
I have a few questions for the devs :

Why is it that Italy now produces less Cloth than say Anatolia ?
Why is it that some montain ranges in Persia get more province density that the Low Countries ?
Why as a European would you ever fight over Alsace when you can have much better lands in Indochina, Arabia, India, Korea, -insert random location- ?
 
So we will finally be getting muslim religion mechanics huh. bye bye piety in its current form at least. Nice to see the combat having more depth

Hopefully they will, like finally adding Sufism and their sects such as the Bektashi order, Mawlawi(Mevlevi Turkish Devishes) among others; Sunnis and their sects the Hanafi or Hanbali order and for Shites the twelvers or Zadis
 
Is Prussian Mechanic linked to Professionalism in any way (increases it/decreses it/is increased by it/is decreased by it/other)?

What is the new Muslim mechanic we can see in the Omani screenshot?
 
Also now you have to think to completly raise your Merc Pool, and Drill up again, and never combining your Mercs again, to stay at 100%, if you have the money, and need the military edge.

Thats what I fear will happen. People will fill up their armies with mercs and then raise their professionalism with training and generals, getting the best of both worlds instead having to balance professionalism and the added manpower with mercs.
 
Why is it that Italy now produces less Cloth than say Anatolia ?

It doesn't. Province development differs quite markedly between these two. That said in 1444 the majority of the worlds cloth was not produced in Europe but in Asia (especially India).

Why is it that some montain ranges in Persia get more province density that the Low Countries ?

This is just not nearly true. The low countries have the smallest provinces in the game and have had since release. If you compare what those Persian provinces cover with what the ones in the low country ones do it's not even close. Europe is also larger than it ought to be to give space for more provinces.
Describing Fars as a "Persian mountain range" is also quite misleading ;)

Why as a European would you ever fight over Alsace when you can have much better lands in Indochina, Arabia, India, Korea, -insert random location- ?

First of all development differs. Second proximity surely is and was a factor ;) After all this is the era when several great powers tried to get land in India (a subcontinent that at that time had as much population as all of Europe combined and that for most of the game period also produced more manufactured goods).
 
Do any governments give increase/decrease in professionalism? How about Quality Idea group?
How does Sweden get more professionalism? Through events or passive modifers?
Is there a ruler trait that affects professionalism?