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Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 14th of March 2023 - Government Mechanics + Free Content

Good afternoon and welcome to another Developer Diary! This week we will be taking a closer look at various types of new content added to the game, starting with a review of the new Government mechanics that will come with Domination, and the additions we made to previous DLCs as well as to the base game.

Before we begin, let’s take a moment to address the concern around power creeping in 1.35 that has been discussed by the community in the past weeks. The content we showcase in Developer Diaries is usually in a rough form, not just from the perspective of numbers but also even from that bonuses. QA and Beta testing, along with your feedback, shape and changes the content vastly over the coming weeks. As a result, more often than not the content of the Dev Diaries does not reflect the final iteration. We take great pride in combing through and interacting with many of the comments under the Developer Diaries. We wanted to take this opportunity and note that in the cases of the Ottomans, France, Japan, and every other Great Power we have previously showcased, we have taken great steps towards rebalancing, snipping bonuses, nerfing, and even out-right changing modifiers completely. This is at least in part attributed to your stellar feedback, which helps guide us as we move through the development process. Having said that, thank you for taking the time to comment and contribute, even if we’re not always ready to answer as much as we’d like, but we genuinely appreciate it and try to take it into account as much as possible. Now that’s out of the way, let’s move on to today’s content!



Let’s start with an updated review of all the new Government Mechanics available with Domination. You may notice that they are using a similar box, which will now be part of the Government window (Note: the Purple box does not appear for countries who do not have mechanics). This has been done to make the expansion and maintenance of special Government mechanics easier, but also it will increase its modding possibilities (something we will talk about more in-depth next week):

image.png

New look of the Government window. When having more than one mechanic at your disposal, a lateral scrollbar inside the window will allow you to check them.

So, let’s showcase them:

Ottoman Decadence

Decadence.png

Ottoman Devshirme

Devshirme.png


Russian Table of Ranks

Table of Ranks.png


Russian Rule

Russian Rule.png


Spanish System of Councils

System of Councils.png


Japanese Land of the Christian Sun

Land of the Christian Sun.png


The New Prussian Militarization

Prussian Militarization.png

Following up on your feedback for Prussian Militarization, I went ahead and tweaked it a fair bit:

  • Removed Land Forcelimit and replaced it with Land Maintenance Modifier
  • Decay halved in tier 2 and 3
  • Added a decay countermeasure to slow down the loss of militarization
  • Militarization Interactions now cost 20 Militarization instead of 50
Mercenary Militarization

Mercenary Militarization.png

Note; This reform will NOT stack with other types of militarization!

Korean Perfectionism

Perfectionism.png


Parliament vs Monarchy (which is used by the English Parliament)

Parliament vs Monarchy.png


And the Shogunate, which although not part of Domination, received a bit of a re-balance:

Shogunate Starter.png

  • Forcibly Expel Ronin
    • -1 Global Unrest for 10 years
    • 50 Admin Power
    • -5% Liberty Desire in Subjects for 10 years
  • Sankin Kotai
    • +3 Diplomatic Reputation for 10 years
    • 50 Dip Power
    • +0.25 Monthly Autonomy Change in Subjects for 10 years
  • Sword Hunt
    • -15% Regiments Cost
    • 50 Mil Power
    • -10% Manpower Recovery Speed in Subjects for 10 years

Starting off with non-Domination-related, let’s start with the Base Game. A while back we released a Developer Diary around the addition of new Idea Groups as well as the re-balancing of existing ones (this is also a great way to showcase the impact of your feedback by comparing the old iteration with the new one!). Since then, a lot has changed based on a multitude of factors. Here are the current iterations of the 3 new Idea Groups:

Infrastructure Ideas:

Infrastructure Ideas.png

Note; Do not be alarmed by the Expand Administration Cost, granting it does not mean it’ll be free forever, read more HERE


Court Ideas:

Court Ideas.png

Note; the idea “Respected Authority” also carries a unique mechanic that reduces Absolutism loss from every Estate Privilege by -20% (which effectively translates to +1 or +2 Absolutism per Estate Privilege in most cases!)
Mercenary Ideas:


Mercenary Ideas.png

Note; We decided to remove the ability to split Mercs because it led to the impossible situation of splitting them, then mixing their 1k stacks in the same province without being able to consolidate them between each other and then not being able to re-merge them properly. However, the modifier itself is still in the script so perhaps modders can find uses for it! But a warning ahead: it can cause some out of syncs, so use it with caution.

Now that the new idea sets are showcased, let’s take a look at some highlighted changes:

Religious Ideas:
  • Church Attendance Duty now grants +10% Manpower in True Faith Provinces



Economic Ideas:



Economic Ideas.png



Administrative Ideas:
  • Moved the Core Creation Cost to slot 3
  • Governing Capacity Bonus nerfed to 20% (used to be 25%)
Expansion & Exploration Ideas:
  • Changed the Idea Factories to - > -10% Trade Company Investment Cost & -10% Trade Company Governing Cost. It is now in the 5th slot of Exploration Ideas. Expansion now gets the Viceroys idea, which used to be in Exploration (We have also tweaked Global Tariffs, hopefully they will be a bit more worthwhile now!)
  • Additional Diplomats now grants +1 Diplomat and -5% Liberty Desire of Subjects in Other Continents
  • The goal of these changes is to turn Expansion into the “Americas” colonization idea whereas Exploration should now be more useful for general exploring and going into and beyond Africa!
Humanist Ideas:

Humanist Ideas.png

Note; In the interest of time, we won’t showcase every change and instead focus on bigger and more impactful additions!

Espionage Ideas:


Espionage Ideas.png

Note; spy_actions_cost_modifier is new and applies to all Espionage-related actions and notice can_claim_states is now a modifier as well! There is always a cost/benefit relationship between picking idea groups, hopefully Espionage will be more competitive now!
Aristocratic Ideas:



Aristocratic Ideas.png

Note; the biggest change here is breaking down the strong cavalry idea and adding the cost to fabricate claims / reduction as well as unjustified demands
Defensive Ideas:


Defensive Ideas.png

Note; Defensive Ideas have received a revamp in their policies as well! Now many of them focus on more worthwhile aspects of the game!

Quantity Ideas:

For this group, we have elected to increase the Manpower and Forcelimit a bit, to 33% each. It’s an experimental change and we would love to hear your thoughts on it!

Let’s briefly look into some policy changes:

Defensive Policies:

Defensive Policies.png


And one final look at the current version of the new Idea Group Policies (not much changed, for posterity’s sake)

Mercenary Policies:


Mercenary Policies.png

Court Ideas:

Court Policies.png

Infrastructure Policies:

Infrastructure Policies.png

I should also note, that the AI is now far more proficient at not only picking but also combining Idea Groups based on a multitude of factors such as:
  • How militaristic their National Ideas are
  • What is their current mana generation of ruler, heir, etc. (as in, can they support the idea group AND not fall behind in the same type of tech?)
  • How threatened they are by neighbors and how they stack up against them
  • How defensible their terrain might be
  • What other idea groups they have picked (for better Policy combos)
While on the topic, let’s take a look at some of the events associated with the new idea groups!

Infrastructure Ideas:



Infrastructure Event.png

Court Ideas:


Court Event.png


Mercenary Ideas:


Mercenary Event.png

Note; Each Idea Group will come packing 10 new events, equally split between positive and negative!
Another impactful change in this line we decided to go forward with, is turning the "Slacken Recruitment Standards" into a 'toggle' button. Instead of magically making 20,000 dudes appear out of thin air, your conscription centers now lower their standards in order to fundamentally increase your Manpower Recovery Speed:


Slacken Button.png

Since we are catching up on previously shown content, let’s take another look at the Artillery Units, here you have them with proper names, and their final pips:


New Cannon Units.png


Another interesting addition to the base game is the introduction of the Tier 5 Military Government reforms, which we talked about the past week. The vast majority of these (barring some tag-specific ones) will be free:


Military Reform Tier.png

Note; Given the scope of the reforms, spanning nearly the entire globe, you won’t see them all by picking just 1 country. This is what Switzerland sees, as an example!


With 1.35 we introduce some new privileges for free, which add some estate-specific mechanics to estates that were lacking them:


crownlandprivileges.png

Note; Of course there are the Indian equivalents of these privileges too.


Moving on, we have a good deal of new traits related to generals, admirals and even rulers, all of which will be part of the base game:

New General Personalities

  • Cuirassier Leader: +10% Cavalry Combat Ability
  • Cruel Tactician: +10% Morale Damage
  • Frontline Holder: -10% Morale Damage Received
  • Strict Drillmaster: +2.5% Discipline and -50% Drill Decay
New Admiral Personalities

  • Naval Strategist: +10% Disengagement Chance
  • Inspirational Captain: +5% Naval Morale and +10% Navy Morale Recovery Speed
  • Naval Cannoneer: +10% Number of Cannons Modifier
  • Wooden Waller: +10% Hull Size Modifier
  • Cunning Navigator: +1 Fleet Movement Speed
New Ruler Personality

  • Peasant Revolt Leader: +10% Morale Damage and -1 Global Unrest (available to Peasant Republics)
  • Patron of Arts: -5% Technology Cost and -5% Idea Cost
Now let’s move to the content that we are adding to previous DLCs!

For owners of Leviathan, we have added 7 new Great Projects (all shown at their Tier 3):


Aljaferia Palace, in Saragossa.

Aljaferia Palace.png

Note; Spelling of the province is correct, Aragon now starts with Catalan as its primary culture.

Divrigi Hospital & Mosque in Divrigi.

Divrigi Mosque & Hospital.png



Edinburgh Castle in Lothian.


Edinburgh Castle.png



Grand Canals in the South Jiangsu area:


Grand Canals.png



The Imperial City of Kyoto.

Imperial City of Kyoto.png



The Palace of the Popes in Avignon.


Palace of the Popes.png



St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow

St. Basil's Cathedral.png


Taking your feedback into account, we decided to dedicate some of our artist time into reworking the visual for the Walls of Benin, to better reflect how they looked like in real life:


Walls of Benin.png

Note; I left the gfx of the old Benin Walls in the files with a different name, just in case we (or the modders) use it in a more appropriate place!

For owners of Golden Century, as pointed out in a previous Developer Diary, we added new Holy Orders:


Holy Orders.png

Note; We see that 2 of the Holy Orders shown here have similar bonuses (Local Defensiveness) and we will get it fixed asap!


For owners of Rule Britannia we went on to add or re-balance the following new Naval Doctrines:

Venetian Arsenal (re-balanced):

  • Number of Cannons Modifier: +10%
  • Sailors Maintenance Modifier: -10%
Korean Panokseon:

  • Ship Durability: +5%
  • Morale Hit from Sunken Ship: -25%
Japanese Atakebune:

  • Heavy Ship Combat Ability: +5%
  • Naval Morale: +5%
Hanseatic Trade Fleet:

  • Global Ship Trade Power: +25%
  • Naval Tradition from Protecting Trade: +100%
Ottoman Great Navy:

  • Global Ship Cost: -10%
  • Naval Forcelimit Modifier: +20%
Maghrebi Corsairs:

  • Privateer Efficiency: +25%
  • May Perform Slave Raid
  • Available Province Loot: +50%
Letter of Marque:

  • Disengagement Chance: +10%
  • Movement Speed in Fleet: +1
  • Chance to Capture Ships: +20%
Novgorodian Ushkuiniks:

  • Allowed Marine Fraction: +15%
  • Sailor Maintenance Modifier: -10%
Dvoryane Admiralty:

  • Naval Tradition: +1
  • Naval Leader Shock: +1
Malayan Seafaring:

  • Disembark Speed: +50%
  • Naval Attrition: -25%
  • Naval Transport Attrition: -50%
Junk Fleet:

  • Light Ship Cost: -50%
  • Naval Forcelimit Modifier: +25%
Chinese Treasure Fleet:

  • Trade Range: +25%
  • Colonial Range: +25%
  • Treasure Fleet Income: +25%
Maratha Naval Bombards:

  • Naval Barrage Cost: -25%
  • Blockade Impact on Siege: +1
  • Blockade Efficiency: +25%
Polynesian Navigation Seas:

  • May Recruit Explorers
  • Colonial Range: +50%
Naval Tactica: (for Byzantium)

  • Disengagement Chance: +15%
  • Galley Combat Ability: +20%
Basque Marines:

  • May Recruit Explorers
  • Landing Penalty: -1


Furthermore, we have also reworked the UI for the Emperor of China that comes with Mandate of Heaven, as to accommodate the new Decrees and Reforms that were added (and which we showed a couple of months ago), and to improve the user experience associated with it:


Emperor of China UI.png

Reminder; For Mandate of Heaven owners the Emperor of China now has over 10 New Reforms and Decrees. Reforms can largely now be completed in any order but many of them have certain requirements (have X idea group completed as an example)


Lastly, we tweaked the Reformed religion a fair bit, in order to add a lot more versatility, as we did previously with Protestantism! Now, Aspects are activated and deactivated as toggle buttons. Each toggled aspect will drain -8 Monthly Fervor. In most of our tests, players can attain a level of monthly fervor in which they can maintain at least 1 aspect at all times. Moreover, we added a new aspect: Diplomacy while stacking your Fervor higher gives its own different benefits!


Reformed Religion.png

Note; Numbers are not final, we’re openincorporatingrate feedback on them.

And now, to finish, a couple of additional cosmetic changes to the Base Game:


For those of you who love painting the map when it comes to forming Japan, I added the ability to adopt your Daimyo Color upon forming Japan, based on a selection of the top 15 most popular Daimyos. Here's how it would look for a handful of them:

Shimazu Japan

Purple Japan.png



Oda Japan

Red Japan.png



Takeda Japan
Orange Japan.png


So Japan

Pink Japan.png



While these colors certainly look fresh, some may not like the color change and wish to play with the original Japanese color. For this purpose, I added a new decision available for 10 years that will revert your color to the original Japanese one:


Restore our Color.png

Note; I added a similar decision for name-changes for peeps who want their original name!


To make a note on a previously discussed topic, we asked you guys for feedback on the various choices regarding the English and Angevin flags:

English Flag:

English Flag - Base.png



Angevin Flag:

English Flag.png

Note; the flag looks a bit off-putting on the edges due to the zooming/stretching for the purposes of the Dev Diary!

And that’s all for this week! We hope that you like the changes and additions that we have made to the game, as we’ve put a lot of effort into adding more depth to it for 1.35, in parallel with the development of Domination. In that regard, the changelog will again be massive, with hundreds of issues fixed and tweaked.

Next week @Ogele will talk about the new Usermodding features that we’re also introducing in the next update, so make sure you read it if you’re interested in the wonderful mods available for EUIV, as they will probably come with a bunch of novelty in the following months!

image-2.png
 
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You couldn't excel at both though because you'd still have to choose between the continental missions or the colonial ones. One mission tree is historical and the other is an alternate route, allowing you to do both in separate campaigns. It's better to have that rather than have a colonial path and another path where you just form France which is just extra steps to the same end. That's just adding more ways to play France without actually introducing new content for England. Or really introducing new content at all for that matter. France is already getting an extensive update which includes ahistorical missions like "the French isles", which I'm really excited for, but why should England have to form France to get the same privilege of an ahistorical route. I'd rather just have the nonsensical Angevin tag, at least that's fresh content.

They should have just given England the option to choose between a continental focus and a colonial focus instead of locking the continental option behind the Angevin tag.

I think people just don't want England to have nice things.
I didn't say there shouldn't be an angeven tag. Just that I think a nice middle road would be an alternate choice to also form france.
 
So none of my testing with how the game currently works has shown that the way Aragon's culture has been said to work (still being primary tag for Aragonese culture despite being Catalan at start) will work as described, but I think I will cool off and concede because there's no way to know how exactly it will work on the user end until the change happens.
 
Disagree.
Exploration should give Explorers and focus on trade, expansion should focus on the Americas with conquistadors.

Unfortunately Exploration has Explorers, Conquistadors and Quest for the New World.

It is my opinion that the 2 idea groups need a rework so they aren't taken In a duo basically.
Yes, imo Spain, France and England should take expansion

While Portugal and netherlands should take explo.

Cause Portugal is way too good as a colonizer, it's so weird to always see green eastern America or entire Portuguese South America

And Netherlands... Well (Cough cough)

I wish I could see them unified one time
 
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The Caucasian group is small enough as is, so no. However I think Albanian does make sense, as it fits more into the Greek cultural sphere than the South Slavic one, and South Slavic simply doesn't need the extra culture while Byzantine does. As it is right now, many utilitarian strategies as Byzantium advocate for culture-swapping to Turkish because it's part of a much better group.

There is an argument to be made for the connections of culture and language of Albanian and Greek being closer as well, but I think that this is a side-note to the gameplay aspect.
I suggested earlier they need to take the Roman culture from the Lost Cultures group, as that's useless (as no other cultures in that group will ever spawn). I think moving it to Italian or Greek makes sense, and moving it to Greek would help with Byzantium forming Rome, though in that case I think the Roman Culture should spawn and replace the Italian provinces rather than the greek ones. Likewise there should be an option so you can tailor which part of your culture flips Roman depending on your setup. Like if you form Rome as France it's better for all your French provinces to swap to Italo-Roman while then being part of the culture group of Italy meaning you have all of Italy and France in your culture group.

Also speaking of other potential members of the Greek culture group, something could be done with the Ionian greeks who were still majorities in parts of Turkey throughout most of the games timeline. So far there isn't really much simulation of their presense for gameplay simplification.
 
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i think that if you will culture swap to French culture group then you will be able to form France
Yeah, I just think it'd be a quick adjustment to the French mission tree. PU France, annex them, and then get the option of forming France, or forming the Angevins, rather than going through the effort of culture swapping.

I don't know where the new 'anglois' culture group should go, but honestly I think that should be related to it's own couple of missions about you culture-converting the English, because it shouldn't be the King goes 'you're all French now' and all the English start wearing beret's and smoking cigarettes. It should be a process that takes time and has a lot of resistance- regardless of what nation you end up forming. Heck- it should also be optional. There should be an option to just leave the English as is, maybe with English territory getting debuffs to tax and manpower but a bonus to unrest, and the tougher option of making them 'anglois'.
 
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hello PDX team, thx for your work. I have a few suggestions for your awesome game:

1. There should be customizable estate privileges
It would work similar to custom nations, you choose modifiers for this specific privilege and the goods as well as the influence/other bad things would be added to counter act the good I.E. I make a privilege from Nobility for Combat Ability, they give that and influence as well as more cost.

2. a bunch of codes like this:

can_convert_tributary_to_vassal = <yes/no> (to make it irrespective of the empire of china)

convert_tributary_to_vassal_rate = <number> (how important to them to click the button)

hostile_movement_speed = <number> (is in game but not fully useable)

allowed_num_of_manufactories = <number> (is in game but not fully useable)

power = <number> (is in game but not fully useable)

tech_importance = <number> (add to ruler personalities to determine how much or little they care about techs, would affect all techs)

idea_importance = <number> (same as above, but for ideas)

feed_vassal_importance = <number> (this would allow them to use that popular tactic)

change_current_music = {

music = {<music nest path(i.e. battle music)>}

triggers = {<triggers(i.e. when war starts)}

} (to put you in the zone)

thx you so much for your game!
 
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So none of my testing with how the game currently works has shown that the way Aragon's culture has been said to work (still being primary tag for Aragonese culture despite being Catalan at start) will work as described, but I think I will cool off and concede because there's no way to know how exactly it will work on the user end until the change happens.
There must be a way.

Pavía, could you please clear out the matter for us? Some screenshots from game files regarding Aragon's primary and accepted culture and how separatists work would be nice.
 
The reason they started exploring new seas was the same, trading with china while bypassing the ottoman and mamluks.
So you admit that Exploration ideas should be primarily focused on exploring a route to Asia, and establishing an Old World trade network, with colonizing the Americas being side-effect rather than the primary goal (which could then become the primary goal by taking Expansion too).
 
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Great Stuff!

Please please please make it possible to unlock/see the same statistics in the war screen and in the ledger for multiplayer(coop) as is availible in Singleplayer.

A simple ON/OFF button in the options at the lobby screen is enough.
 
To make a note on a previously discussed topic, we asked you guys for feedback on the various choices regarding the English and Angevin flags:

English Flag:

View attachment 956518


Angevin Flag:

View attachment 956519
Note; the flag looks a bit off-putting on the edges due to the zooming/stretching for the purposes of the Dev Diary!

And that’s all for this week! We hope that you like the changes and additions that we have made to the game, as we’ve put a lot of effort into adding more depth to it for 1.35, in parallel with the development of Domination. In that regard, the changelog will again be massive, with hundreds of issues fixed and tweaked.

Next week @Ogele will talk about the new Usermodding features that we’re also introducing in the next update, so make sure you read it if you’re interested in the wonderful mods available for EUIV, as they will probably come with a bunch of novelty in the following months!

It could have within the French missions, the possibility of claiming as true heirs of the Angevin Empire (because when conquering England, the flag changed to better represent the extent of the empire and the origin in the County of Anjou).
 
So you admit that Exploration ideas should be primarily focused on exploring a route to Asia, and establishing an Old World trade network, with colonizing the Americas being side-effect rather than the primary goal (which could then become the primary goal by taking Expansion too).
Well yes I do but that is already the case so I dont see any reason to change it.

Currently you pick exploration to be able to explore oversea, while your colonies pick expansion to push into the interior. Basically this is the “find a new way to the indies” idea group.

Then, you can also pick expansion as a second idea group, to colonize more quickly. But it’s not A or B, rather A + B

I could support a new idea group focused on the colonization of India (so focused more on trade companies than colonial regions ; and on subduing the local kingdoms rather than colonizing “empty” land. Then that would be A + C ; kind of an “influence idea groups” but specialized into trade and the asian

By this I do not mean that America was empty of civilization, but that you have plenty of empty provinces around native tribes ; and that colonialism here was more about pushing the natives west into the wilderness ; while in India / Indonesia or Africa colonialism was more about conquering or vassalizing local states, especially with the EIC.

As a conclusion : there were definitely some differences between the two regions ; but I do not feel they should be represented as two completely different idea groups. A good part of colonialism in these areas was also similar, which is not really represented in EU4 which makes a rather clear distinction.
For example, trade companies were established as much in Europe as in America or Africa. The British funded both companies for Russian fur trade, Hudson Bay Company, some charter companies in the 13 colonies, and the EIC.
What was different though, was how immigration was used to expand the British culture (or French, Spanish, Portuguese) into America ; while in India they relied upon local lords and population.
 
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I could support a new idea group focused on the colonization of India (so focused more on trade companies than colonial regions ; and on subduing the local kingdoms rather than colonizing “empty” land. Then that would be A + C ; kind of an “influence idea groups” but specialized into trade and the asian
Some heavy changes to Exploration and Expansion could achieve just that.
I dislike to have to take both groups. I usually RP without taking Expansion.
 
Yeah, I just think it'd be a quick adjustment to the French mission tree. PU France, annex them, and then get the option of forming France, or forming the Angevins, rather than going through the effort of culture swapping.

I don't know where the new 'anglois' culture group should go, but honestly I think that should be related to it's own couple of missions about you culture-converting the English, because it shouldn't be the King goes 'you're all French now' and all the English start wearing beret's and smoking cigarettes. It should be a process that takes time and has a lot of resistance- regardless of what nation you end up forming. Heck- it should also be optional. There should be an option to just leave the English as is, maybe with English territory getting debuffs to tax and manpower but a bonus to unrest, and the tougher option of making them 'anglois'.
Yes it should all be optional. The choice to form France, the choice to form the Angevin Kingdom, and the choice to remain as England. I'm okay with the restriction of having to choose between a colonial mission tree and a continental mission tree. It's the fact that the continental mission tree is locked behind the Angevin tag that bothers me. The player should have the choice of getting the continental mission tree as England.
 
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Some heavy changes to Exploration and Expansion could achieve just that.
I dislike to have to take both groups. I usually RP without taking Expansion.
Except that you don’t need an explorer when picking expansion ; which is exactly the case for colonial nations (as for Russia if you don’t own Third Rome)

Explorers are only needed for ocean exploration ; hence it is the case for both India and the americas

Technically, Portugal can already explore Africa without the idea Quest for the New World as long as they stay in the coastal seazones
 
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