Hello and Welcome to yet another Europa Universalis development diary. Today we’ll first delve into the results of the survey we sent out earlier this autumn, and also do some comparisons with the analytics we have. We’ll also talk about some minor balance changes and an interesting new feature for our future expansion.

First of all, I’d like to thank the over 10,000 people who took their time to reply to all the questions in our survey. While this is but a fraction of the entire playerbase, it gives us an indication of what the more hardcore of the audience likes, with over half of the respondents having played over 1,000 hours.

The most common play-styles, by far, as reported was role-playing and changing history. It is probably not a surprise to anyone that you viewed Victoria to have the best economy, Hearts of Iron the best military, Europa Universalis the best diplomacy and Crusader Kings the best politics.

You also overwhelmingly prefer simulation over boardgame mechanics, and you think that we should focus more on the economical buildup and flavorful content.

While the Golden Century was easily the worst expansion in your eyes, the top 5 expansions according to you were.

• Art of War
• Common Sense
• Emperor
• Rights of Man
• Mandate of Heaven

While talking about the survey, I thought it would be fun to look at the top 10 most played countries right now.

France          6.16%
Ottomans        5.08%
Austria         4.39%
Byzantium       4.39%
Custom Nation   4.23%
England         3.35%
Castile         3.29%
Brandenburg     3.11%
Ming            2.24%
Portugal        2.12%

A minor balance change for the people who play multiplayer and play with victory cards enabled, is the small little change that Estates will now become less loyal if you ally with nations which you have victory cards upon.

And for those that play as Cossacks and have the Sich Rada government enabled, as requested by the community, you now have the ability to raze cities, just like hordes does.

Finally, it's time to reveal another feature for our upcoming expansion, a new unit mission called Carpet Siege. It is similar to the hunt rebels mission, but with the difference that the army actively will avoid combat unless it is sure of winning, and primarily focusing on sieging down hostile territory. You can set it to just targeting specific areas on the map, or let it decide on its own when there are valid targets to consider.

Stay tuned, because next week Groogy will be back, talking about a major religion without unique mechanics that will get one.

 

[Xetfield]

It's probably still the easiest and most mechanics-/flavour-rich RotW country.

I tend to disagree. The GC limit is almost full from the start, meaning no serious expansion in the first 50 or so years, eye-rolling Mandate mechanics in general and huge disaster that will fire after Age of Discovery unless you decide to ignore reforms completely. Also no fun missions

 

[C.N.]

While the reduced micro from carpet siege is really helpful, what's I'm really excited about is that I have to be less paranoid during two-front wars. This way I don't have to constantly monitor armies to avoid them getting overrun.

 

[Pbhuh]

Not really sure you should add an Army Mission to a mechanic which should hardly be a thing.

Carpet Sieging? Is that really a thing we should look for in Eu4?

I dunno, seems like we are now promoting things that are not really healthy to overall gameplay.

 

[Me_]

The only religions that have no mechanics are Animist, Totemist and Jewish; the major ones are Animist and Totemist, of which Totemist has been confirmed to be left untouched...

Animist rework time!

I'd add to that that it has been shown that Australia is no longer Animist and a number of Animist provinces and nations have been added in Asia, supporting the idea of Animist being focused on.

 

[Sidolowka]

I'd add to that that it has been shown that Australia is no longer Animist and a number of Animist provinces and nations have been added in Asia, supporting the idea of Animist being focused on.

Actually now that you mention it there's also the possibility that they'll be discussing Dreamtime (or whatever religion Australia is now) instead. I'd like that too.

 

[Canute VII]

I tend to disagree. The GC limit is almost full from the start, meaning no serious expansion in the first 50 or so years, eye-rolling Mandate mechanics in general and huge disaster that will fire after Age of Discovery unless you decide to ignore reforms completely.

I like these. Call me a masochist then. Also, I guess you will not enjoy playing in SEA in next patch then, since a couple of countries will start right away with a triggered disastet.

Also no fun missions

Agreed to some degree.

 

[John the John]

Since custom nations are so popular will there be more content for them? I personally like to play as custom nations the most too.

It would be great if we could change development of provinces when we create custom nation.

 

[Froonk]

Hopefully this survey will motivate the devs to take look at lacking trade and economy tabs, as well as the zero-sum trade dynamics in the game. A focus on trade revenue increasing based on volume (I.E in-flow and out-flow) could be very effective, so if a lot of trade is flowing into and out of Alexandria controlled by Mamluks they could benefit from that, instead of being deprived of all their revenue.

 

[AFKaiser]

And for those that play as Cossacks and have the Sich Rada government enabled, as requested by the community, you now have the ability to raze cities, just like hordes does.

This is AMAZING. Can we pls have the Cossacks estate added to Cossack nations? It is weird that they have no estates or factions, while there is a Cossack estate.

 

[Metz]

I wonder if in the future, units can be divided into light infantry, heavy infantry, light cavalry, heavy cavalry, light artillery, and siege artillery. This would let countries specialize based on their culture, traits, geography, and unique bonuses.

Also let armies dig in/encamp and occupy fortresses for siege defense bonuses.

 

[Romanix90]

Wow, BYZ is in 4th place never guessed they were that many.

The 5th place goes to the one without the mission tree. After Rule Brittania, I have somewhat become a person that can't play without any mission tree so quite surprised. It's a survey, not a collected data so I think it excludes the people who play with a coat of arms glitch.

Besides the custom, Ming is the only nation without a mission tree. I don't play Ming but, this makes me wonder about the neondt's decision to not make a mission tree for Ming.

I once suggested that Ming and Ming revolters should have "Chinese generic missions". Ming is a very powerful nation at the beginning, in the hands of experienced players it can overcome Mingplosion. Granting them unique mission tree would overpower them.

 

[By_Science!]

... talking about a major religion without unique mechanics that will get one.

$10 American fun bucks says it's Judaism

 

[Jesus was a communist]

All of these improvements will be pointless if the ai isn't fixed

 

[IndigoRage]

The most common play-styles, by far, as reported was role-playing and changing history.

That is really interesting given how much conversation there is around what things are useful in competitive multiplayer or for minmaxing purposes whenever a new thing is announced. I guess that may be the bias of people who want to talk about the game on a forum.

 

[RMS Oceanic]

Does Sich Rada also get Horde CBs? I was disappointed seeing an old video saying Zaporozhie was the only Christian Horde and could make a fun campaign, and by the time I tried it Dharma had came and how it models governments of released countries made this no longer true.

And speaking of Dharma Governments, is there a fix to avoid Inca losing its empire rank by being forced to adopt the Duchy-only government type of a Colony when reforming its religion?

 

[Biegeltoren]

And for those that play as Cossacks and have the Sich Rada government enabled, as requested by the community, you now have the ability to raze cities, just like hordes does.

Does this mean that razing is no longer solely tied to the nomadic government? That'd be great for modding!

 

[Lavilledieu]

That is really interesting given how much conversation there is around what things are useful in competitive multiplayer or for minmaxing purposes whenever a new thing is announced. I guess that may be the bias of people who want to talk about the game on a forum.

Even in multiplayer, where there is some competitive action, I do roleplaying. But, I am also in an environment where there is heavy minmaxing and abuse of certain mechanics. It's not really fun to become a non-factor in these games just because I didn't abuse stuff enough. Point is, even if everyone does roleplaying, they also all want to achieve their goals, and players will be in the way. To overcome these, the easiest way is to minmax, forcing everyone else to lose or to do the same.
Admitted, I was last time in the HRE, which is also an incredibly boring region to start in due to the much slower conquest speed (cf more AE gain and higher claim cost).

 

[Me_]

Actually now that you mention it there's also the possibility that they'll be discussing Dreamtime (or whatever religion Australia is now) instead. I'd like that too.

Even if they were to add tags in Australia (extremely unlikely, more likely that they would add tags in the Polynesia and New Zealand, but the Polynesians and the Aborigines are completely different groups with no common cultural heritage), it would not qualify as major religion. They certainly wouldn't separate 1-2 tags (at most if at all) from Animist for a new religion with unique mechanic and leave Animist with multiple existing tags in Asia with nothing.

Whatever religion is now present in Australia is almost certainly just filler (Polynesia and New Zealand might be a completely different story).

Major religion without unique ability. Oh boy prepare to get Totemist,, my guess.

We know it will not be Totemist

Will there be any reworks to the totemist religion? Because currently it doesn't have any mechanics associated with it.

Nope

On a different note: razing as hordes gives horde unity. What will razing as Sich Rada give? Republican tradition (odd at it sounds it kind of makes sense)?

 

[Bandua_of_Gallaecia]

All of these improvements will be pointless if the ai isn't fixed

Every single time

 

[LeSingeAffame]

Finally, it's time to reveal another feature for our upcoming expansion, a new unit mission called Carpet Siege

Oh wow, another QoL feature locked behind an expansion, further adding to the mess caused by half the buttons on the unit screen being locked behind half a dozen different expansions.
When I first saw the image on Twitter I thought that it was neat that both Imperator and EUIV would get the feature roughly on the same time, and that maybe we'd see more of QoL changes being "transferred" between the games.
But that just goes furhter into one of EUIV main problems: the artificial bloat of expansions with features that have nothing to do in here. I can understand that you guys have to sell expansions and DLCs, but come on, at least have some confidence in your actual expansion features and do not virtually lock half the game behind DLCs when it shouldn't be.

The last DDs were really cool and showed a lot of work and effort, which was great! But please don't throw all that away by repeating the same mistake you've been doing for years.