EU4 - Development Diary - 9th of October 2018

[neondt]

Welcome all to today’s dev diary, where I’ll be covering the long-awaited Iberian and North African map update coming in the 1.28 ‘Spain’ update.

Nations released for the sake of example

As things currently stand, though as always things are subject to change before release, Iberia consists of 571 development over 63 provinces. This includes the Macaronesia area but now excludes Labourd, which has been returned to the French region.

In Aragon, the distinction between the Kingdom of Aragon, the Kingdom of Valencia, and the Principality of Catalonia has become more pronounced. Tarragona is now rightly in the Catalonia area, and the province of Valencia has been split so that Castello and Xativa have become separate provinces. Valencia itself has the potential to be a very rich city indeed, as the player’s actions can lead to it becoming a major producer of silk. The three major Balearic Islands have become provinces in and of themselves, linked together by a strait and comprising their own Area.

Likewise, Galicia has seen itself grow from 1 province to 4, and now has an Area all to itself.

Portugal and Granada have been gifted one additional province each: Aveiro and Malaga respectively.

Last but not least, many citizens of Navarra are looking a little confused as they wonder where their coastline has gone. Wedged between major powers and with no immediate means of escape over the ocean, Navarra will be a very challenging nation in 1.28.

New releasable nations:

Valencia: The Kingdom of Valencia was a major constituent part of the Crown of Aragon in 1444. In 1.28 the former kingdom of El Cid will be a releasable nation.

Asturias: The Kingdom of Asturias ceased to exist long before our start date, but it nicely fills the absence of releasable nations in the region.

I’ve also taken another look at North Africa. Here we can see several new provinces along the coast, including those belonging to new nations that can emerge during the game.

The province of Demnate allows a route through the Atlas mountains; a convenient shortcut and potentially a deadly choke-point.

The Canary Islands have been split between Gran Canaria and Tenerife to represent the somewhat incomplete Castilian conquest and colonization of the islands.

For the masochists among you who play as Granada, they now have a core on the province on Ceuta.

New releasable nations:

Salé and Tétouan: Home to some of the most infamous Barbary Pirates, these nations will be releasable in 1444, and may emerge dynamically in the course of the game in the style of Habsan.

Finally, I’ve made some minor changes to the eastern Maghreb. The province of Kairwan has been added for Tunis, and the addition of Sabha has allowed a more aesthetic redrawing of Fezzan’s borders.

That’s all for today. Next week, @Groogy will reveal some of the new features coming in the as yet unnamed Immersion pack to be released alongside 1.28.

 

[Groogy]

Likewise, Galicia has seen itself grow from 1 province to 4, and now has an Area all to itself.

Best change in entire update <3

 

[neondt]

Definitely didn't make the Baleares into an island chain just for this.

 

[Meneth]

View attachment 409289

Definitely didn't make the Baleares into an island chain just for this.

The best part of this was receiving this message the other day:
"Are you around? We want you to come and look at your country name stretching thingy
My desk
Something looks weird"

Some minor map tweaks ended up made in order to ensure the name of Aragon would be as beautiful in 1444 as it should be.

 

[neondt]

The best part of this was receiving this message the other day:
"Are you around? We want you to come and look at your country name stretching thingy
My desk
Something looks weird"

Some minor map tweaks ended up made in order to ensure the name of Aragon would be as beautiful in 1444 as it should be.

Turns out tweaking some sea zones can have a big impact on aesthetics. We love your country name stretching thingy <3

 

[HottestRod]

Devs need to work more. Do more research. This seems kind of lazy to be honest.

May I ask you what is it you find is lacking or being implemented lazily? The dev team is already working as much as they can, with milestones and deadlines that we endeavor to reach in an efficient and timely manner. Working more hours is not a solution when the development team is already on full-time – doing so would be counterproductive. Asking them to work more would be awful to them and would put the project in jeopardy.

 

[HottestRod]

I hope you guys read the feedback, though. And next to reading it, actually doing something with it.

Gameplay feedback is generally listened to, but one for provinces seems to be lower priority? I don't know, just use Google Maps is my tip I guess.

We always take the time to read the community's feedback no matter the subject. Naturally, depending on not only the length but also the complexity of the feedback, it is sometimes hard to implement all of it in a single action. You have to bear in mind that game teams have a vision for what they want our games to be and the goal with each update is to bring us closer to that. Suggestions made by the community are sometimes in line with this, and sometimes they detract from the intended goal. That's not to say they're not considered, but the key here is that they have to be carefully considered.

 

[neondt]

I could have sworn those two already existed in game. Weird.

Valencia definitely has never existed as a tag in EU4. But the really strange thing is that it already had a flag buried in the gfx files for some reason. A mystery indeed.

 

[HottestRod]

@RodDel

Using google maps would be a good idea for example. It doesn't take more than 5 minutes to google maps Lleida and see, welp this doesn't belong in that province at all.

I see the map and what you are saying doesn't correspond to the results. The map rework is not satisfactory and ahistorical. -> Asturias tag encompassing most of Castile and Lleida province.

You are saying the dev team is working as much as they can. But it doesn't show in the results. I see the map and I see things where they don't belong to.

Oh and if the devs work as much as they could like in the Irish update, maybe the could've added more than 1 province to Portugal. I can't believe what you've said. We've seen the rework of Ireland, and we've seen this. Ireland got more attention than the Iberian peninsula.

@RodDel


Sorry, but again. What you've said before doesn't correspond with the final result. This is not a good map update, how is it possible that you could find enough time to research for the British Isles and Russia but not for the Iberian peninsula.

It's not complex to add Majorca tag, you've added Asturias that gets cores in completely ahistorical provinces.
If you wanted to balance the region you could even add a Cordoba tag! It wouldn't have been that far fecthed. Portugal again is being forgotten. No, this is not good, and splitting Galicia into 4 provinces like IRL is not something that requires more than 10 minutes of research, let's be real.

Moreover: I would like to know who did the map and new tag rework. Because he did a bad job and he doesn't deserve to be praised. That person didn't do a good enough research, it is bad.

Edit: I'm complaining because this is not obscure history from a country that does not longer exist. It's google, you can google most of the information and it doesn't take time what we see here is lack of attention.

I completely understand your point, and here you are giving us good feedback. Yet, you have to remember that the development diaries are here not only to inform you about the direction we are taking, they are also a good way to gather feedback. Development diaries are usually work in progress and not the final product, hence they can be subject to change (depending on the suggestions made by the community and if they align with our vision - see my previous post). Development diaries are a good way to correct mistakes that might have gone under the radar. Now, regarding the points you have brought up:

• Lleida will have a rework - and Zaragoza might be more central.
• The Majorca tag is under consideration.
• The Cordoba tag as been deemed unnecessary as Granada already covers the area (we are currently doing great work on the latter, stay tuned for more information). But again, maybe you might have a good suggestion as to why we should include this tag? If so I will bring it up in my report to the dev team.
• Province density for Portugal hasn't change much as it was on par with the rest of Spain. By changing it we would upset the game balance.

Hope these points will address your concerns.

 

[HottestRod]

Thank you very much. I didn't want to try to offend you, it's just that the way you've answered the first time rubbed me the wrong way and I'm sorry for that.

None taken! You were voicing concerns, and understandable ones!

 

[neondt]

I expected a bit more tactical depth for Portugal to be honest. I understand that adding provinces for Portugal exclusively would upset game balance, so additions to Castille and Aragon would be needed which would affect France and so on and so forth.
However I still think that compared to the status quo in India Europe is a bit lacking in terms of number of provinces.
This would quickly snowball towards having many many many more provinces but I wouldn't consider that a bad thing.

I think that adding a large (as in, much more than I've added here for Iberia) number of new provinces in Europe would require a look at overall development balance. Particularly raising the global total amount of development. I won't say that will never happen but it isn't planned right now. And that means there's a limit on how many provinces we can add before each province becomes too weak individually.

 

[HottestRod]

Aveiro Province in Portugal has a awful shape! Rather you might add Minho splitting Porto in 2. And Ribatejo splitting Lisboa. You missed a good opportunity to improve every iberian nation.

• Province density for Portugal hasn't change much as it was on par with the rest of Spain. By changing it we would upset the game balance.

Regarding other Iberian nations, which suggestions would you give us to improve map changes?

 

[HottestRod]

Have to disagree with this reasoning in case of Portugal specifically. The nation is already imbalanced since it is so pathetically weak that it regularly gets conquered by Morocco. It is also highly ahistorical because Portugal was one of the few nations that punched way above its weight, like Prussia and Netherlands. Yet the latter two get huge development and tiny provinces to buff them up, while Portugal does not.

When you add more provinces to both Spain and Morocco, and give Portugal just one province in the name of proportionality, you don’t really restore balance to the nation. In fact it is likely going to do worse because while the ratio stays the same, the cumulative implicit effects for different nations would be different.

In case you are drawing the line and won’t ever consider buffing Portugal via provinces or development, I hope you can offer it something else that would allow the nation to give serious trouble to the Ottoman Empire and Mamluks simultaneously.

I understand your point, but Portugal is not that imbalanced. Historically speaking Castille and Portugal were good allies, hence you have a powerful friend to face Morocco. Portugal is quite safe under the Castilian umbrella thus bringing balance to a Portuguese run... unless you want to go up against Castille yourself but here again you can find a good ally in Aragon. You know who is the real loser of tags? Navarra. Here is a real challenge! But I'm sure our Basque fans will rise to it! And yes, we have more in store for Portugal but that is still a secret!

 

[HottestRod]

The capital of Algarve should definetely be Lagos instead of Faro, as Faro is still the capital in 1.27, while the location depicts the more important Lagos. Not sure if this was already checked.

Tarragona is placed in the location of Tortosa.

The capital of Beira shouldn't be Viseu; wrong location on the map.

I'd also suggest renaming Extremadura and Castilla la Vieja to their respective capitals; those historical regions are larger than just those two provinces. Extremadura was also a term used after Salamanca split from those southern provinces, creating the Extremadura.

Avila should be placed closer to Madrid:


If there's time, you guys should try to look at Google Maps if all the cities are placed correctly.

That is a HUGE PICTURE! I've drafted a few notes to pass on to the devs! Cheers Mingmung!

 

[neondt]

I'm making a few changes. Will also be revising city placement later. Oddly enough most of the cities people have noted are in the wrong place are old cities that I didn't even touch.

re: Majorca tag - Convince me and I'll do it. Make a case from both a gameplay and historical perspective

 

[neondt]

Nice work man! Reminds me how much I appreciate the Paradox dev team.

If you can do this for Poland, too, then I will be eternally grateful!!!

The problem you've managed to uncover is also the problem we see with older province-reworks. A rework needs some current-provinces checking it seems.

I suspect that there's a huge number of cities in the game that could be placed better. Make some detailed suggestions and I'll see what I can do.

 

[Groogy]

@neondt

Please can you make sure that all the new Spanish provinces have the appropriate dynamic Basque names

If you provide the list then we can have a look at it

 

[neondt]

Any chance of the Sirt province becoming part of the Maghreb region instead of Egypt? It looks bordergorish and doesn't reflect Roman borders that we all obviously care about.

I actually did this. Though not for the sake of Roman borders

 

[neondt]

Does it break the game to have provinces of 0 development in some category?

No, but do we really want to be adding provinces to Iberia with 0 dev in any category?

 

[neondt]

Heard you like island nations.