Hello and welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis. This time I’ll talk about a new feature for our soon to be announced expansion. This is the mechanic we called Hegemony.

The purpose of this feature is to create a greater narrative for the endgame, but there are two cases in which this will become the most used one.

First of all, our goal was to create something for those of you who like to conquer the world, and make part of that more interesting, and hopefully less tedious.

Secondly, our goal is to create an interesting and dynamic last century in larger multiplayer games.

So what is a Hegemony then?

A Hegemony is something a Great Power can proclaim when they fulfill certain conditions.There are 3 different types of Hegemony, each excelling in their own area available to Great Powers. They do come with their own requirements to become Hegemon and you must excel in their specific area. The AI will proclaim Hegemony whenever they can.

What is interesting is that there can only be one of each Hegemon, and a Hegemony is lost when you lose a war, no matter how you lose it.

Proclaiming a Hegemony gives you a bonus which partially depends on which Hegemony you have proclaimed, and the longer you keep your Hegemony, the bigger your scaling bonus gets, and finally when you reach max progress you gain a further finisher. Currently it takes about 20 years for a nation to get their Hegemony Power maximised, but that's subject to tweaking.

A Hegemon can not be allied with one of the other two Hegemons, and all other nations get a relation penalty against you. A Hegemon gets a very nice power projection boost, and will also gain score at a higher gain, while any nation allied with them gets less power projection and score.

All Hegemons have -0.1 monthly War Exhaustion and a +25% to Spy Defence, and all get 10% cheaper power costs when they have their hegemony power maxed.

Let's take a look at the different Hegemonies then.

Economical Hegemony
A Great Power with a monthly income of 1000£ can proclaim this Hegemony.

The base bonus is +100% manpower on all mercenary companies recruited, and the 100% power bonus is +50% Global Trade Power

The scaling powers go up to.
+33% Mercenary Discipline
+25% Trade Goods Produced
+25% Tax Income


Naval Hegemon
A Great Power with 1000 Heavy Ships can proclaim this Hegemony

The base bonus is +20% Naval Morale, and the 100% power bonus is +50% Naval Engagement Width

The scaling powers go up to.
+100% Naval Force Limit
+200% Sailors
+200% Blockade Efficiency


Military Hegemon
A Great Power with 500 Infantry Regiments can proclaim this Hegemony

The base bonus is +20% Land Morale on all mercenary companies recruited, and the 100% power bonus is TO BE DETERMINED.

The scaling powers go up to.
+10% Discipline
+30% Manpower
-10% Land Maintenance

Please remember that no numbers are finalised yet, and also that the Great Power mechanics will be unlocked by this expansion as well..

 

[Nikoleis]

Oh, silly idea: why not changing the fixed value into something that varies with the current world? Like, you need to get 10% of the world's income, or have 10% of the number of sailors working around the world... this means, other people would actually fight the hegemon indirectly by making fulfilling their goal harder

 

[PrussicAcid]

So... If I gather correctly.. This is the feedback?

1 - Its too easy to snipe after defeating the other.
2 - Too easy to get them.
3 - Too powerful.
4 - Not fun enough?

4 - I have fun when my goals are difficult to get and that I must have a tedious time to try to achieve them. Not when I already have them completed and receive help to reach them whereas I have already succeeded. My reward comes when my personal goal have been reached, and I take my fun in the way I manage to accomplish it.

 

[Spartakus]

So, apart from the already mentioned issues about the bonuses,if I can loose the hegemony my losing a single war, those bonuses must be stuff I can actually afford to lose.

For example if I'm naval hegemon and actually use the +100% naval support limit (or unlimited diplo slots as has been suggested) god forbid I ever get defeated.

 

[Vohen]

Hello and welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis. This time I’ll talk about a new feature for our soon to be announced expansion. This is the mechanic we called Hegemony.

The purpose of this feature is to create a greater narrative for the endgame, but there are two cases in which this will become the most used one.

First of all, our goal was to create something for those of you who like to conquer the world, and make part of that more interesting, and hopefully less tedious.

Secondly, our goal is to create an interesting and dynamic last century in larger multiplayer games.

So what is a Hegemony then?

A Hegemony is something a Great Power can proclaim when they fulfill certain conditions.There are 3 different types of Hegemony, each excelling in their own area available to Great Powers. They do come with their own requirements to become Hegemon and you must excel in their specific area. The AI will proclaim Hegemony whenever they can.

What is interesting is that there can only be one of each Hegemon, and a Hegemony is lost when you lose a war, no matter how you lose it.

Proclaiming a Hegemony gives you a bonus which partially depends on which Hegemony you have proclaimed, and the longer you keep your Hegemony, the bigger your scaling bonus gets, and finally when you reach max progress you gain a further finisher. Currently it takes about 20 years for a nation to get their Hegemony Power maximised, but that's subject to tweaking.

A Hegemon can not be allied with one of the other two Hegemons, and all other nations get a relation penalty against you. A Hegemon gets a very nice power projection boost, and will also gain score at a higher gain, while any nation allied with them gets less power projection and score.

All Hegemons have -0.1 monthly War Exhaustion and a +25% to Spy Defence, and all get 10% cheaper power costs when they have their hegemony power maxed.

Let's take a look at the different Hegemonies then.

Economical Hegemony
A Great Power with a monthly income of 1000£ can proclaim this Hegemony.

The base bonus is +100% manpower on all mercenary companies recruited, and the 100% power bonus is +50% Global Trade Power

The scaling powers go up to.
+33% Mercenary Discipline
+25% Trade Goods Produced
+25% Tax Income


Naval Hegemon
A Great Power with 1000 Heavy Ships can proclaim this Hegemony

The base bonus is +20% Naval Morale, and the 100% power bonus is +50% Naval Engagement Width

The scaling powers go up to.
+100% Naval Force Limit
+200% Sailors
+200% Blockade Efficiency


Military Hegemon
A Great Power with 500 Infantry Regiments can proclaim this Hegemony

The base bonus is +20% Land Morale on all mercenary companies recruited, and the 100% power bonus is TO BE DETERMINED.

The scaling powers go up to.
+10% Discipline
+30% Manpower
-10% Land Maintenance

View attachment 543114

Please remember that no numbers are finalised yet, and also that the Great Power mechanics will be unlocked by this expansion as well..

Aren't those requirements incredibly arbitrary?
Like, if you reach 1000 heavy ships but the second place has 999, you can hardly call yourself a hegemon.
To me, the requirement should be something like having more h. ships than the second, third (and maybe fourth) powers combined.
That goes for trade, regiments and fleet.
It'd make it more dynamic and more interesting to challenge.

 

[Major Malfunction]

Welp

 

[Rashie]

1000 heavies sounds way too much. Anyone that manages to reach a number that high is likely to already have an unbeatable control of the seas.

 

[MateuszNH]

RIP multiplayer games [*]

 

[xMer]

Secondly, our goal is to create an interesting and dynamic last century in larger multiplayer games.

Could someone explain me how adding even more snowball mechanic would make MP game more interesting?

For now this expansion doesn't look good for MP.
Hegemony - additional snowball mechanic to further enhance snowballing of top players.
Coastal Batteries - let's kill any offensive naval warfare in MP

 

[Mindel]

This Hegemon mechanic might just give us a way to finally model the rest of the world banning together against a global threat.

There should be an anti-Hegemon coalition against each Hegemon available at all times for (non-Hegemon) nations to join, and their inclination to do so should scale as that Hegemon grows stronger.

 

[Nyrael]

On a related note, I wish that you dropped the whole "Player should not be penalised for accomplishments or selecting an option" policy that you once confirmed to be true. There should very much be penalty for everything, and the player's goal should be to strategize on which penalty is worth which reward in a given situation

Countries collapsed through history exactly because there was no gain without major setbacks. If not immediate, then down the line (Absolutism being a great example: great when it appeared, but later killed off support for Monarchism).

 

[MateuszNH]

Guys this is stupid, i find idea of economical and naval dominance giving bonuses to land strength cool (but not naval bonuses, because you should gain diverse benefits for dominating the waves, not just even stronger navy because of that xD) but military hegemon is destroying entire game, like seriously. It's like double revolutionary republic which was already huge game changer, and country can just "claim it" to get his army magically stronger. I can guess you are already delayed but i appeal to remake everything u have shown in this dev diary

 

[magriboy0750]

On a related note, I wish that you dropped the whole "Player should not be penalised for accomplishments or selecting an option" policy that you once confirmed to be true. There should very much be penalty for everything, and the player's goal should be to strategize on which penalty is worth which reward in a given situation

Countries collapsed through history exactly because there was no gain without major setbacks.

Completely agree,the game need more challenges and internal politics.I guess it's the reason why most games are quit before year 1700.The late-game is simply boring because of the lack of challenge,at least for me.

 

[gasior]

Another thing that is important is that dev's talk that this mechanic is only if u are not afraid to tank the player coalition. But 'the coalitions' are not always working and require good well mided mp group.
First of all fighting GB is literally not possible due to him camping in islands. And if gb gets mil hegemony then he can literally win the game by afking in islands with strong fleet.
Second of all if x country gets a hegemony and in an instant becomes stronger than it's entire region is fucked. Meaning entire region needs to 'gather up' and they need also help from 'outside' foreign powers. Thats assuming that hegemony wont get friends.
For example... russia gets a hegemony ->entire east EU is fucked->East EU needs help->France(or any other strong power) either needs to send troops across half of europe because of it or france says that its not his problem because hes far and entire east eu is fucked.

That's not healthy imo.

 

[noldorin]

I liked it as thoughts, but I did not like the necessary conditions.

Things that I dont like

* These bonuses will not be available in the early game
* I don't like large armies.

When we had a certain percentage of power, these could be distributed automatically. For example, the strongest army in the world, the strongest navy or the largest economy. Others may claim with war this hegemony.The bonuses given may be slightly reduced. so we can use these mechanics throughout the game.

 

[magriboy0750]

Another thing that is important is that dev's talk that this mechanic is only if u are not afraid to tank the player coalition. But 'the coalitions' are not always working and require good well mided mp group.
First of all fighting GB is literally not possible due to him camping in islands. And if gb gets mil hegemony then he can literally win the game by afking in islands with strong fleet.
Second of all if x country gets a hegemony and in an instant becomes stronger than it's entire region is fucked. Meaning entire region needs to 'gather up' and they need also help from 'outside' foreign powers. Thats assuming that hegemony wont get friends.
For example... russia gets a hegemony ->entire east EU is fucked->East EU needs help->France(or any other strong power) either needs to send troops across half of europe because of it or france says that its not his problem because hes far and entire east eu is fucked.

That's not healthy imo.

Also,the coalitions are simply not a thing when you go for a three-mountains achievement.At this point,you have simply no challenge because of the lack of internal politics.The rebels are tedious,but they are not really a threat.

 

[gronak]

So you are saying it doesn't make any difference at all, except for someone else to take the naval hegemony and catch up? You can't really be double invincible.

No that's not what I'm saying. Britain will get the biggest navy in most cases then get the hegemony for themselves.

"You cant really double the invincible"

Me saying they're often undefeatable doesnt mean they're invincible... had i meant invincible, believe it or not I would have said invincible. The key word that i used was often. I deliberately used that word. Had i not, i would have said they're undefeatable. In the vast majority of games, the british navy is undefeated when controlled by a player (sure, maybe a small exploration fleet or trade fleet may be but not their main war fleet). Adding this bonus is going to decrease the likelihood of someone else defeating it.

 

[WorldWarIV]

I don't want to be rude, but why are we wasting precious development time on this? In my mind, the European update should be about making Europe as complete, final and fun as possible. A lot of what you announced is just that, but marines and this... I know you need to add new stuff, but it just sound like more useless fluff. People have been asking for a canton system for Switzerland for example, why not focus on stuff like that, which could add some unique flavor to Europe?

 

[flogi]

Hate to say it, but it seems like a horrible feature, especially for MP games.
All "clicking first and winning" features are bad and this is what it is actually. 500 Infantry Regiments should be easily achievable for the cost, even if it means going 100 over the forcelimit, just to click the button.
Also what others mentioned just getting better at something because you already excel at it may be realistic, but is horrible gameplay wise.
I can only hope that this is heavy modable because it just seems like op revolution all over the place.
For MP purposes actually it is horrible as well that you cannot ally other hegemons. Thats just stupid, it does not make sense and it is not realistic. Why wouldn't the biggest naval and the biggest land empire not ally when they have similar interests?

 

[MateuszNH]

Sorry it's not meant to be offensive, i can analyse these changes more essentially

 

[Kaosorer]

Aren't those requirements incredibly arbitrary?
Like, if you reach 1000 heavy ships but the second place has 999, you can hardly call yourself a hegemon.
To me, the requirement should be something like having more h. ships than the second, third (and maybe fourth) powers combined.
That goes for trade, regiments and fleet.
It'd make it more dynamic and more interesting to challenge.

I like the idea of promoting an arms race to see who gets the title of Hegemon, but I'm not sure how it would fit with the current loss of hegemony status, unless it just puts them out of the running; e.g, if 2nd place wins against the 1st place, the 1st place is out of the running until the modifier expires.

Additionally, as mentioned in a previous message, it seems somewhat pointless for the strong to get stronger in what they're already doing, and hegemony should maybe help the nation improve in areas less directly related to military, such as diplomacy or the like. For military in particular it just seems sort of weird to to restrict it to amount alone, and especially infantry in particular (though this was addressed) instead of something like military power in general (though it seems hard to quantify fairly).

I think my biggest complaint, though, is it's just somewhat boring. You click a button for extra bonuses that you don't really need, and then you call it a day. I don't have a solid idea on how specifically to change it but I'd appreciate it if it spent some more time in the oven.