Hello EU4 fans! The team have now all returned them their vacations and resumed work, so it's time to get going with the development diaries once more. Because this week has been a busy one, today's diary will be a bit short but should address a topic that people have asked a lot of questions about:

Future Improvements to the Nation Designer

The Nation Designer is, as has been previously mentioned, probably the biggest feature added to EU4 since launch. It's proven quite popular, with custom nations consistently beating out every historical nation as the most popular choice of country to play. It's also received a number of updates, adding things such as the ability to name your own ideas and improved interface support.

However, much as how it is with EU4 itself, with a feature like the nation designer you never feel quite 'done'. There's always more you can add, things to improve and tweak, and we frequently receive requests for updates and improvements to the nation designer, as well as questions about when previously suggested improvements might surface. As such, today's DD is going to be about updates to the Nation Designer: Specifically which ones we either have already done (internally) or are planning to add in the not distant future. So without further ado, here are the planned changes coming to the Nation Designer:

Saving Custom Nation Templates
Probably the most requested feature for the Nation Designer has been the ability to save your custom nations for later use. This has now been implemented and will be available in 1.14. What it means is that while designing your nation, there are now two buttons called 'Save' and 'Load'. Save will save a copy of your Custom Nation (minus the provinces it currently holds) to your hard drive, and Load will load up that copy, replacing the current Custom Nation you are designing with the saved one (again, minus its provinces). This allows you to, for example, quickly re-use a particular setup of ideas or a flag and color combination that you enjoy.

Choosing Government Rank
This is really more of a fix than an addition, as it was something left out of 1.12/1.13 due to time constraints and will be added in 1.14. When designing a custom nation, you will be able to choose your government rank, with Duchy rank being free, Kingdom rank costing 10 points, and Empire rank costing 30 points.

Improved Color Picking
This is something that is not yet done, but we hope to have done for 1.14. In addition to picking from a list of preset colors, I want to add the ability to choose your country's color from an in-game RGB picker, allowing for true color customization.

More Patterns and Emblems
As above, this is something we hope to have done for 1.14. We want to add support for more texture files for country flag patterns and emblems, so that we can create more options for flag customization.

Better Random Setup
While not fully part of the Nation Designer, the random setup option that fills the world with randomly generated countries is nonetheless a feature that we want to improve on. Right now, it suffers a bit from being 'samey': You'll generally always end up with a couple megablobs, a number of medium sized countries, and a general feeling of lack of plausibility on behalf of the generated world. We want to add more options for controlling the size of the countries generated, as well as better country naming (being able to name countries after regions rather than capitals, for example) and better random idea generation. We're also considering adding options such as different tech group distribution and different uncolonized parts of the world.

Achievements
Though the Nation Designer supports Ironman, there are currently no achievements that are able to be unlocked while playing a Custom Nation. In the future, we plan to add some Nation Designer-specific achievements that will require particular point limits to be followed, and may as an example require you to start as a Norse Custom Nation and conquer Northern Europe.


If you have other improvements you'd like to see, feel free to bring them up in this thread and I will do my best to answer as to whether they are likely to ever happen. Note that I will not discuss ETAs on when patches containing these changes may show up.

 

[Kwami]

You do realize that even today there is countries (USA) that don't allow women on combat roles.
I am not saying is right, but it is the WORLD we live on which the game is based on...

I don't know about most countries, but the US most definitely allows women in combat roles.

 

[Promanco]

So a female ruled society is the same as Dragon Soldiers and Gorilla Artillery?

You can create a massive, Albanian cultured Empire in the Caribbean that follows Norse religion, so I don't quite get why a matriarchal society where females can become leaders is so wrong it should be left out.

Making that Albanian Empire is mechanically already there in the game, allowing for women to become commanders is not, and the moment it gets added to the Custom Nations you will see an ocean of demands that they make it so in the base game and that I am not okay with.
Should women had been allow to be commanders? Yes, Would they under any circumstances be allow to be so in large number during this period of history? Not in your dreams.
Face it this period of time was ripe with sexism and racism and the game SHOULD represent that otherwise we are whitewashing history.

 

[Phalanx300]

Being able to choose which models it will use for all four tiers would be a nice addition, especially seeing how we will keep getting more and more models.

 

[Sexual Velociraptor]

Here are some questions. Feel free to only answer some if you want:
1- Have you looked at the nation designer extended mod for ideas?
2- Have you considered unlocking things we can't use yet? (like the No cost for reinforcing from hordes)
3- What about unlinking tech/location from stuff? Why can't I be a eastern/western tech horde? Why can't I be a Indian Dynamo? Seems a little silly to say no to that and yes to giant western theocracy in Mexico.
4- Can you allow us to use a custom point setting, like 300, 500 or 600?
5- What about starting owning or as a vassal or PU partner?
6- What about some negative modifiers to get some extra points or for roleplay purposes? Permanent -1/2/3 diplo rep/relations, +1/2/3 national unrest, etc?
7- What about some flavor things, like the option for the primary french culture nation to get some of the french events and decisions?
8- This might already be, but could you make it possible to mod unit and building packs? If I'm going to be the zerg horde it would be cool to download a mod that allows me to add zerg units for my nation.

Thanks for any insight you can provide. Hope your vacations were awesome.

 

[Pellucid]

I hope that someday you fix the fact that the nation designer flags are all off-center.

 

[Wizzington]

Has anyone mentioned the restrictions on distances between provinces in nation designer.

It's frustrating that, for example, you can include Spanish and Portuguese islands in a united Iberia or combine the Kongo with South Africa or have Iceland combined with Denmark or the Shetland with Scotland or form Genoa ad it starts the game. (Been on holiday also so apologies if this has changed).

I understand it's gamey to spam provinces across the world but I not sure the restriction should apply to same continent provinces.

Here's the problem: Aleppo and Kamchatka are 'same continent provinces'. I'll see about increasing the range though.

 

[Benjamintf1]

Is(shouldn't) raising to kingdom be "free" in terms of points if they have 300 development?

 

[Promanco]

So is this a no on Hellenic and other Pagan religions on the Nation Designer? D:

 

[Galaahd]

Just like colonizing the third Georgia and many other decisions Paradox made in regards to EU4. They said multiple times that sometimes gameplay trumps historical accuracy.

Except that the three Georgia is an ACHIEVEMENT, which are there just for teh lulz / to provide a different and peculiar challenge and doesn't change anything pertaining gameplay.

In the game there's literally no single culture which was dead since several centuries in 1444 that can resurface.

 

[Promanco]

And if that fictional custom nation is a complete matriarchy where the aristocracy consists of females? Some sort of "Amazon society" if you like?

I don't know why I am arguing lol
I point out facts and propose a sensible compromise and all I get back is "But it would be cool and is fantasy!" under that logic I should be able to get Dragon Soldiers and Gorilla Artillery cuz is a Custom Nation named "Dragon Gorilland" because you know is fantasy!

 

[the cool guy]

Can we have an unlimited point mode for going crazy?

 

[Killer_the_Cat]

Will we ever be able to fill the world with more then 32 custom nations at a time? I've always wanted to create a whole world with all the custom nations, but because of the 32-nation cap, I can't do it. And since the random nation generation creates more then 32 nations at a time, it certainly seems possible..

 

[Ironicus]

You do realize that even today there is countries (USA) that don't allow women on combat roles.
I am not saying is right, but it is the WORLD we live on which the game is based on...

I don't know why I am arguing lol
I point out facts and propose a sensible compromise and all I get back is "But it would be cool and is fantasy!" under that logic I should be able to get Dragon Soldiers and Gorilla Artillery cuz is a Custom Nation named "Dragon Gorilland" because you know is fantasy!

What are you going on about? Amazons are already in the game, just not playable. The event "The Amazons" says "If approached at any other time than is appointed, the women will defend themselves with bows and arrows." and the event "When Natives Attack" is even more explicit how fierce they are: "They were a terrifying sight, these half-clothed women with spears, clubs, bows and arrows in their hands and the sound that emerged from their throats as terrifying as the roar from a tiger! These warrior women from $PROVINCENAME$ were named Amazons by the survivors of our expedition and those they did not wound or kill were taken prisoner."
Warrior women are a legend, just like the Fountain of Youth, which btw you can discover in the unmodded base game. Like, the actual literal Fountain of Youth, no jokes. Should there be a legend about Dragon Soldiers - sure, why not. I'm not aware of any and I think it would not fit the style of EU4, but female warrors and female military commanders are grounded in well-known real world legends. I see no reason not to include them given what Paradox has already added to the game.

EU4 is not about history - it's about alternate history. The actual HRE never came even close to becoming a unified country, yet that mechanic has been in the game since forever. And any historical argument immediately goes out the window when we're talking about custom nations. Why shouldn't I be able to found my fictional merchant republic on the Greek island of Lesbos and add some flavour with female rulers and merchants? Or why not build an actual Amzon Empire in South America? I currently can make a Norse Tribal Federation in Macau with Austrian culture and Sub-sahara tech ruled by Elvis Presley. But women on the battlefield? By Elvis (may Thor and Mozart bless him), that is going too far and would be ahistorical!

In the end I think it boils down to this: Why oppose this proposal so fiercely if it will never take anything away from your gameplay experience? Just don't touch that slider or don't make a matriarchical custom nation and you'll never even see that feature come into play. Different strokes for different folks

 

[Clausewitz_]

ETA in final 1.13 release?

 

[Kwami]

This is an unacceptable response "It doesnt work on muh Ironman" is a terrible argument and has been debunked by the devs.

Debunked? Mods don't work in Ironman. There's nothing to debunk. Custom nations do work in Ironman, so your solution is arbitrarily limiting.

So you are telling me that if I set up Female Advisors to 100% on defines and I create a Custom Nation, this Custom Nation won't get 100% Female advisors? If that was the case sounds like a bug.

I'm telling you that having to resort to editing text files is a poor solution when an in-game interface better fixes the problem and adds more features, besides.

Lets go one at the time of the stuff you want in the slider.
Rulers % of female I have not really dabble on modding this but it is my impression that it is fairly easy to do but it is tag specific, however it is also my impression that when you create a Custom Nation with a Female ruler it increases the chances of future female heirs which makes the slider pointless.

Increases the chance by how much? Can I get a nation with all female rulers? Can I get one in which the odds of male/female are basically the inverse of most nations in the base game? Can I get a nation with no female rulers at all?

No? Sliders it is, then.

Generals, it is my impression that generals don't have "gender" they just have names and all of those names are male names. Not really a complicated thing to change to your taste.

Except that there's no way to do it in-game, which is the problem that I'm trying to address.

Advisors, is in defines mod it to your hearts content is literally a single value.

See above about mods, Ironman, etc.

The whole damn conversation IS about female rulers becoming commander so why are you bringing up a slider system that doesnt even apply to the issue at hand?

Get it?

Sorry. I was under the impression that, on a forum, we could discuss more than one idea simultaneously. In the future, I will discuss only the ideas that you personally approve of. OK?

 

[Te. Kenzo]

There is a thing that I want to request, even if probably could be considered a less incentive to create a custom nation, but I think could be cool and fun have the possibility to create our own scenarios with ability of choosing and use also the historical tags, with their decisions, ideas and events.

For example is a like the idea to create a scenario with an Afghan empire, instead to create a custom one I want to use the historical tag.

I'll add another important thing, actually if I create a custom nation with the same name of an historical one the game say that is not possible, and I feel this very limiting.

 

[MiniaAr]

Could it be possible to play a nation that is not available at a specific start but exists already as a tag ?

Eg) Playing as Persia in 1444

You can play as Persia in 1444 already: start as the Timurids (or Tabarestan or Qara Qoyonlu for a much more difficult start) and release Persia + tick "play as released vassal". You're now playing as Persia in 1444.

 

[zezeb]

Anything new on the randomized new world?

 

[johnleeyx]

I would like to be able to change the culture and religion of provinces. I think the current set up, where culture remains what it was but religion is equal to the state's religion, is in many cases already a sort of buff. You can create a crusader state that already has all of its conversion work done. Instead I would like it if by default, provinces did not flip religion, but you could choose to make (any or all) provinces of yours match your culture and/or religion. As this would give you more internal stability, this would obviously come at a cost, perhaps a low cost for religion and a high cost for culture.

Province Designer please

Adding the unique idea modifiers (i.e. No cost for reinforcement, can explore, etc) as options in the Nation Designer would be great.

This too

What about giving us the possibility to modify historical nations using the designer? for example i want to play with Venice and retain all the Venetian events but i wanna change a couple of ideas or start with different provinces for *reasons*

That

PS @Wiz is Friday the new dev diary fixed day?

 

[Krebsig]

Speaking of Norse culture: There is no way you can turn your religion into Norse in a normal historical setting so far and I'd like it if you'd offer such an opportunity either through specific rebel tags or uncommon/rare events.