Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 16th of November 2021

[iClipse]

Hey Johan, Looking great. I've been thoroughly enjoying the latest update.

Just an idea: when you don't have a dev diary to share, you can always spur activity by asking questions to your community.
"- Which monuments do you like best we focus on next?
- What changes would love to see regarding x
- We're working on a mechanic related to y
- Which mission tree would you like seeing reworked most
- etc"

It works as a way to engage your community while also giving input towards yourself on stuff you're currently working on.

 

[Hazes4ever]

Baltics immersion pack?

 

[DominusNovus]

Are there only immersion packs left ahead for EU4, or will there still be larger expansion DLC's to come?

I hope only immersion packs - EU4 is just about ready to be retired, so EU5 can be developed in earnest (lets be honest, we all know that, if they're going to be releasing EU5, they've already started working on it).

 

[riadach]

ah yes the usual eu4 dev post that glosses over all the negative reviews and complaints from fans instead of acknowledging them and apologising for another failer to properly test basic things in the release

Your response got 6 negative reviews. I hope you acknowledge them and apologise for failing to provide a post that people are happy with rather than gloss over those negative comments.

 

[Johan]

Would you be willing to do a different kind of diary during the specified period? I would greatly appreciate if you talked about the team's vision for EU4 at length, as that has been a point of contention in the past. Developer diaries about design decisions you have made, question and answer diaries, design process diaries (especially for newer mechanics like mission trees), diaries regarding how new mechanics have developed compared to your expectations, and your general design philosophy could be fascinating and enlightening were you to share. Even taking the time to clarify some of the more opaque mathematics for combat or trade would be welcome.

yeah, someone else also mentioned similar things, as they appreciated the art and release ones as well

we'll look into something

 

[JaxElite]

Hey Johan, Looking great. I've been thoroughly enjoying the latest update.

Just an idea: when you don't have a dev diary to share, you can always spur activity by asking questions to your community.
"- Which monuments do you like best we focus on next?
- What changes would love to see regarding x
- We're working on a mechanic related to y
- Which mission tree would you like seeing reworked most
- etc"

It works as a way to engage your community while also giving input towards yourself on stuff you're currently working on.

This sounds great. Also i really want to advocate for a "in review", "denied" etc system for the suggestions subforum. The tags have had an immense influence in making the bug report forum better, players felt heard and aknowledged. I know that in the past, devs used to check the suggestion subforuma regularly but rarely answered. This not only had the effect that many suggestions went into the main forum for "better visibility" but also that many people simply thought that dev diaries are the only place to semireliably reach the devs, thus cluttering them and drowning out on topic discussion.
I can only repeat that the Tags in the bug report section have been one of the greatest changes over this year, really bringing back a feeling of being heard (combined with the great effort of some devs who regularly delve into discussions again).

 

[Republic of Mercury]

Can I just take the opportunity to express my gratitude that Origins didn't contain anything like army professionalism or innovation, that I'd feel like I'd need for any campaign even if I was only going to play in Africa once or twice?

 

[Atacama]

South American and colonial immersion por favor
And thanks for listening to the community.

 

[Mindel]

Thirdly, and this ties nicely together to the next part of the diary, we have had a focus on fixing old bugs for EU4, and have managed to reduce our bug count in an unprecedented way for a GSG in the last 14 months. We want to continue this, and make sure that when we finally end development on EU4, the game should not have a large horde of bugs still around, like some previous games sadly have.

So, what happens now?

First of all, we aim to release another larger “hotfix” for any issues remaining, this should be out in good time before the Grandest Lan in December.

Secondly, we aim to release a larger patch with more fixes & improvements during late q1 next year.

After that we’ll start working on another immersion pack. This sadly means though, that for the next few months, there will not be a weekly development diary, but only ones when we have something new to say..

Yes, please. Bugfixing, balancing, and AI improvements is what this game needs for the foreseeable future. It's the things under the hood that can make EU4 into a greater game. I would trade a dozen inspired new mechanics for a better AI and fewer bugs.

Hats off to Tinto.

 

[Moulton]

The age of expansions is over, the age of immersion packs has come.

 

[King Fu]

South America, its natives and its colonies, are in desperate need of some love.

 

[Utik]

South America, its natives and its colonies, are in desperate need of some love.

If they focus on South America, I really hope they reconsider the "no map changes" policy and add some impassable terrain in the Andes.

 

[Jimmyfeellucky]

Good job on Origin. Love the mission trees so far.
It's maybe rude to ask. But is there any chance we have the update mission tree for the Ottoman, the Mamluk and the Persia?

 

[PurpulaPhoenixum53]

Congrats on the nice release! Origins seems to be one of the better releases in a while for EU4. With that let the speculation begin what the next immersion pack will focus on begin...

 

[Siddy00]

Congratulations on the marvelous immersion pack and thanks for the timeline!

This sadly means though, that for the next few months, there will not be a weekly development diary, but only ones when we have something new to say..

This might actually be an opportunity to take some time to share some non-content-design behind-the-scenes stuff. I for one read Rossarness's contribution to last week's dev diary with much interest (about the nightly simulations and using those to balance the game), as I did with SaintDaveUK's showing bits of the entire process from concept art to actual in-game model, two weeks ago. It helps to better understand how changes and additions to the game come to be and why they take time, among other things.
If feasible, I would happily read something about the work being done by the other team members, whose contributions may not be as obvious as things like mission trees but are also important to the game

 

[ROYALISTE31]

thanks for 1.32, please give us more in-game performance it's really important !

 

[Arizal]

Another expansion full of mission trees I won’t buy, then.

Here go my hopes that something big might be done in the aim of making EUIV less railroaded.

 

[Gyrvendal]

Hope you don't limit yourselves to pure bugfixing and actually rework existing game and DLC features to be more viable, and work better together. As well as balance weaker options, etc. Same as the custodian initiative for Stellaris.
I personally won't buy anymore immersion packs unless the previous content is brought up to par.

 

[Pbhuh]

You guys have done a great job on 1.32 & Origins! Here's hoping that the next immersion pack focuses on the greater Middle East. Countries like Ottomans, Persia or Mamluks could use a new mission tree with the same quality/flavor level as those you've released in Origins

I really think that mission trees for the middle east should be a free update for owners of Cradle Of Civilization.

Its an area that only needs that, nothing more nothing less.

Scandinavia and the Baltics however could use a lot more work in general, better events, more gov reforms etc.