EU4 Development Diary - 2nd of February 2021

[LSF]

You do realise that New Zealand and Australia are two different regions right? As in the Aboriginals are not the same people as the Maori.

From Merriam:

Definition of aboriginal​

(Entry 1 of 2)
1: being the first or earliest known of its kind present in a region
aboriginal forests, aboriginal rocks
2: of or relating to the people who have been in a region from the earliest time : of or relating to aborigines
aboriginal languages, aboriginal tribes/customs/art
specifically, often capitalized : of or relating to the indigenous peoples of Australia


When the poster originally wrote about "abos in NZ", or something like that, I fully understood what he/she meant. Why do people pretend they didnt?

 

[LSF]

I'm not sure I fully understand of Drafted Transports. It does not appear that useful, given that the construction time is only halved. Why can't there be mercenary navies? Wouldn't that be a better system, much more useful to players and with my complete lack of historical context also seemingly more realistic than whatever drafted transports would be?

It is useful to small and poor tags. The true advantage is being cheaper in terms of money and sailors, since the cost is not constant, but variable according to the monthly income. In the example of Ming it was more expensive in money just because Ming is rich, but Ming still saved sailors.

 

[Rashie]

well, they are lucky to avoid the merchant republic factions.

If you're recognising that avoiding the merchant republic factions is something to be lucky about, maybe it's time to overhaul those factions a bit to begin with too?

 

[Battlex]

Out of curiousity, do you plan to add unique government reforms for "Emperor of China"? If it's out of scope of this update and expansion would you consider to do it in future?

It already gets the reforms in the mandate screen, what more could it need

 

[sesn]

Glad to see you finally fixed the missing strait between Java and Bali.

 

[sprites]

draft transports... maybe not as the ming. are the number tied to income or naval limit?

 

[Skyfus]

Then do

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forums/euiv-user-mods.815/

Can't ironman achievements with mods, no matter how balanced they are

 

[Shadowstrike]

I feel like we are starting to drift towards a model of "levies versus regulars" here, which kind of reflects the real-world usage of ships in the earlier half of this period. It's kind of an interesting direction that might be more fun - having the choice between levying larger numbers of merchant ships/feudal levies versus smaller professional forces (and then with mercenary/pirate bands as a third option).

 

[Battlex]

Ooh, and maybe there could be a cheaper cost to accept other cultures from an already accepted culture group. Or maybe making it so that, for example, if we make Greek an accepted culture, the rest of the Byzantine culture group is automatically bumped up to "tolerated culture".

Byz is an empire so auto accepts the others, hellenic Greeks being accepted by the Ottomans whilst pontic Greeks are left by the way side I'd prefer

 

[Lord Hoosier]

Two more things, is Bali using Afghanistan's flag and how is Central America explored all on its own in the mini map? I have a feeling we might have some more NA mechanics next week.

 

[TheDungen]

Feels like they'd be most similar to Jains

Yeah the guilds could be pretty much a clone of the jains, and the merchant families estate could be a clone of the Vaishyas estate. Essentially those two are the merchant guilds estate everyone else gets but split into two.

If Paradox is worried about offending the three people who would actually mind if Merchant Republics lost factions and gained (essentially baseline) estates, then they could make it a government reform:
---

Broaden Power Base (Requires: Has merchant-republic style factions and no estates)

"As our republic grows from a single city to a mighty realm, we must now take into account the desires of entrenched powers outside mother [capital name]."

Gain Estates.

---

Done.



EDIT: I would put it under the "Frequency of Elections" tier, so it competes with "Consolidate Power in the Doge " and "Disperse Power Across the Cities" for consideration of what sort of merchant republic you are.

That's a really good idea. The Venice and Genoa specific ones should probably disable trade leagues too. Because they really didn't have those. Venice and Genoa had more of an overlord relation to those in their trade networks.

Novgorod in Lubeck's coalition would significantly screw AI Moscow; and it is already brain damaged by the Streltsy.

It would slow down moscow which is good since moscow conquerts Novogorod 70 years ealier in game than they did in reality. In my personal mod I have made moscow garantee noviogord at the start of the game (i'm thinking of making them a tributary) and also made Novgorod historical friends with Lithuania, to slow down moscuvy a bit.

Yeah, because MP and SP play the same... right...

No one plays MR in SP either it's just not very much fun. You end up babysitting your factions a lot and if you don't they give you fairly bad maluses.

Interesting, but so painfully short. I think this will really spice up the Indian Ocean. Will Hormuz or Oman have access to these plutocratic mechanics?

I think Hormuz already had something like this. Oman however is an ibadi feudal theocracy.
I would however like to either give Hormuz the Omani missions or make Oman a formable country by those of Omani primary culture.

 

[RichardOlcese]

Drafted Transports cost a fraction of your income instead of a fixed amount, so it is not really beneficial to large empires, but it is a great way to quickly and cheaply get a new transport fleet when playing a lesser naval power that can not afford keeping it around all the time.

Very good, very socialist, very Scandinavian. But it's a pity the Scandinavian region hasn't got any love recently in EU4. Go see, there's a megathread about it. I have nothing to do with it, the people (the penguin and the cat) are demanding a full Scandinavian renewal. Will Paradox answer with an appropiate rework of the region? Mission trees, events, intermediate formables like Denmark-Norway, etc. That's what EU4 so desperately needs right now.

 

[Dregness]

In NZ

NZ considered as Polynesia not Australia

 

[iClipse]

Since you say the drawbacks as well, I recon you mean the hit to Absolutism as well as no estates? Because those are quite the drawbacks.

Then again, maybe the reform is easier to switch out of when the age of absolutism hits, so it's not all that bad.

I'm curious about next week. Something unprecedented?

 

[petertju]

Why then can't we get rid of the factions for merchant republics altogether and just replace them with regular estates?

Johan said in his last DD already that he would do this if it would be possible, but it isn't.

 

[Battlex]

There are already mods which does this. But Paradox can't merge mods into their game, that's not how this works.

You clearly missed Minecraft fiascos with Notch nicking mods

 

[Battlex]

Mercantilism is strong as it is because you can raise it through other means. Whether mercantilism should even be a net positive to begin with is also debatable.

You get events for it being high or low, burghers asking you to raise or lower it, it gives more secure income but raises liberty desire of colonies

Well, considering that us modders can do it, not sure what he means by that he couldn't do it unless he has a different idea of how to do it.

The primary problem i forsee is the crownland thing, which wouldn't really make sense for a republic, but other than that.

Well, considering that us modders can do it, not sure what he means by that he couldn't do it unless he has a different idea of how to do it.

The primary problem i forsee is the crownland thing, which wouldn't really make sense for a republic, but other than that.

Because you can't completely scrap dlc features

 

[Romanix90]

Yes and I'm saying why do you want it to have more unique flavour, that might possibly make it unbalanced

Why not. I'm not telling over power Ming and the rest of China but simply give them unique play via govenrment reform. They don't need to be strong or something.

 

[Battlex]

draft transports... maybe not as the ming. are the number tied to income or naval limit?

Ottomans will be even more fun with debt shenanigans

I feel like merchants should also have a chance of generating a colony in uncolonised provinces within their trade range. Each merchant should have like a 1% chance of generating a colony per year with each +1 of mercantilism increasing that chance by 0.1%.

This would be historically accurate. Not all colonies were directed by government sending off happy little colonists in some massive overarching plan.

There's so much that can be done with that too; if an unexpected colony sprung up in a claimed Colonial Region, then it could trigger an event. For example, say you're playing as Genoa a trade colony spawns in Central America which is claimed by Spain.

You get a pop-up box saying "Our merchants have set up a trade colony in Belize. This region is claimed by Spain and their government is a bit miffed about it."
1) Send an envoy asking for trade concessions = +5 relations with Spain & +1 mercantilism & -10 diplomatic points & the colony stays
2) "Order our merchants to abandon the colony" = +5 relations with Spain & -mercantilism & burgher estate -10 loyalty & the colony is disbanded

Colonies spawned by merchants wouldn't cost upkeep. However, upon reaching 1,000 colonists it would cause a -30 diplomatic hit to relations with Spain as you'd promised it was only a trading post.

Something like that.

Trading posts also often weren't state endeavours but local families who could then be protected by the state. As genoa its practically impossible to have a colony in the americas early on, you'd need to No CB granada or wait for dip tech 20 to charter somewhere in Africa and then expand that way

 

[Wendigo514]

I saw a lot of discussions in the forum about changing the faction system (not only for Merchant Republics, but also for the Pirate and Revolutionary ones) without removing it. A simple idea is adding a mana point of the corrisponding category and removing the drawback for having a faction in power.
Another idea is a change to the Trade League: so that also non OPM merchant republic can stay within a trade league even if it isn't the leader and the ability in a peace deal to force an OPM or a Merchant Republic into a Trade League. In this way a trade city will remain in the league if it menage to gain province or you could put Novgorod back into Lubeck Trade League.