• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 9th of April 2024 - Timurids and Mughals

Hello and welcome to another Developer Diary! Today we shall talk about the last two nations that will receive specific content for this DLC. But before we start, I should mention some further tweaks based on your feedback from previous DDs:
  • Montezuma no longer starts as a general for the Aztecs. In exchange, you’ll be able to convert him to one through a decision with the general stats he used to have before. If you feel lucky, you can use the normal way to make a ruler into a general if you think you can roll higher stats though.
  • The modifier for “Rise of Montezuma” will give Average Monarch Lifespan in order to keep your ruler alive for longer.
  • Should Montezuma die, the conquest missions will give alternative rewards.
  • Oman-Zanzibar has been renamed to Zanzibar, and you can rename yourself back to Oman should you ever wish.

With that being said, let us get into the content for the Timurids. Let’s start with the setup, which has been adjusted with the following changes:
  • Timurids now start with the entirety of Afghanistan as core provinces. This means we have added the fort province Roh as a core province of the Timurids, too, allowing you to diplomatically annex them without any cost.
  • All of the Timurid dynasty nations now start with an additional 20 Army Tradition on top of what they already start with.
  • The provinces in and around Balkh now start with increased local autonomy as those territories were governed by Muhammad Juki. In the game, it looks like this:
    image_0.png
  • Timurids now start with 3 estate privileges at the start, but we will get to that later!

Additionally, the situation with Ajam is now properly explained in an early starting event which can force a war between the Timurids and Ajam:
image_1.png

Note: The AI will not declare war through this event on Ajam in order to keep Ajam alive so they can most reliably form Persia.

Now let’s take a look at the new mission tree, which is split into two major sections: the upper part is heavily focused on ending the Ajam rebellion as well as reconquering lost territories of the crumbling Timurid Empire, reaching all the way from Caucasia to the Delhi Sultanate. The lower part, on the other hand, is all about the internal elements of your country, focusing on the government, the economy, the religion, the military, and the development.
image_2.png

The highlights of the conquest missions are the following rewards:
image_3.png

Note: The additional missions from “Timurid Empire” will be showcased later.

Meanwhile, the highlights of the internal part are the following, focusing on topics such as Artistic Patronage, Islamic Schools and Laws, or internal politics:
image_4.png

The mission “Rightful Protector” and its follow-up missions refer to the aforementioned privileges you start with. These would be the following:
image_5.png

image_6.png


You also start with the “Patronage of the Arts” privilege. In order to remove the 2 inconvenient privileges, you have to enact special decisions, which triggers are the following:
image_7.png

image_8.png

As for the Timurid Diwan reform you unlock, it has the following mechanic attached to it:
image_9.png

With that out of the way, let us continue with the branching missions for the Timurids which can be unlocked with the “Timurid Empire”. You have the choice between the “Nomad” branch and the “Persian” branch.

First, let us discuss the Nomad path for the Timurids, which unlocks the following missions:
image_10.png

Note: All the new missions are colored in orange for the sake of presentation.

As the name suggests, the Nomad missions play into the fantasy of your nomadic roots, and as such are quite comparable to the Horde missions as they are heavy on conquest. With that branch, you not only go to the furthest extent of the historical Timurid Empire all the way to Anatolia and Egypt, but fulfill Timur’s ambition of re-establishing Yuan.

Here are the highlights of this part of the mission tree:
image_11.png

image_12.png

The Persian path, on the other hand, is more focused on internal and cultural development:
image_13.png

Here are the highlights of this mission path:
image_14.png

One special mention goes to the “Reform the Soyurghals” which enables a very unique mechanic for the Timurids here, with a new type of Subject:
image_15.png

image_16.png

image_17.png

That would be the end for the Timurid-focused content, leaving only the Mughals for us to explore. But before that, let me explain why we decided that the Mughals should get a rework. With 1.26 and the accompanying Dharma DLC, the Mughals received their unique content as well as their own set of missions. As time has gone, the quality of the Mughal missions could no longer hold up compared to the ones of the other two Gunpowder Empires. This is the reason we have decided to revisit the Mughals to make them somewhat on par with Persia and the Ottomans.

With that being said, let us take a closer look at the Mughal’s missions:
image_18.png

The spirit of the original mission tree prevails as the new Mughal tree also has a heavy focus on unifying all of India under the Mughal banner. Still, the mission tree also provides some other aspects such as religious tolerance, economy, architecture, military, taxation, and a little bit of diplomacy.

I will present some general highlights of each aspect, starting with the conquest-heavy missions first:
image_20.png
image_19.png

Next are the non-conquest-focused missions, with a wide variety of missions to play with:
image_21.png

Note: the mission icons in these screenshots are from an earlier build. The up-to-date icons can be seen in the overview image of all the missions.

That was it for today’s Developer Diary! Next week @Dargeths will present to you the summary of all the features present in the next DLC, that we have been presenting in the Dev Diaries over the past weeks, and an overview of the 1.37 Free Patch. Until then, I wish you all a great week!

As we say goodbye enjoy this comic from FatherLorris:
ComicLorris.png
 
  • 40Like
  • 27Love
  • 12Haha
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
I hope that before you release these DLCs, you will visit Central Europe again and notice what you completely forgot about!

Silesia has not had anything new for a long time, and it deserves it.
 
  • 7
  • 4Haha
Reactions:
Does taking the Nomad path enable the horde idea group?

If not then it should!

Its a great tree for the Timurids but I cant see me taking any other path than Nomad. Especially as you can form Persia as the Timurids anyway.
 
  • 3
Reactions:
I hope that before you release these DLCs, you will visit Central Europe again and notice what you completely forgot about!

Silesia has not had anything new for a long time, and it deserves it.
I certainly hope so. I would definitely like better mission rewards for countries like Brandenburg/Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Switzerland could be interesting for tall play, and ever since Domination Burgundy and Lotharingia are pretty much down with mission rewards. I would include into this also Savoy, Genoa, Milano, Papal states and Naples.
 
  • 3Like
  • 3Haha
  • 1Love
  • 1
Reactions:
Will there be a Brandenburg late 'easter egg' section of the dev diary... they're surely a massively requested by the community nation in need of an upgrade to their mission tree
 
  • 2Like
  • 2
  • 1Haha
  • 1
Reactions:
Will there be any content for either Timurids or Mughals if you decide to go the ahistorical path of converting to Zoroastrianism? And if not, will it at least be possible to complete all their missions if you do so?
Oh, and will the Mughals national ideas get a slight rework? Aside from their traditions and classic 5% discipline, the rest are rather meh/lackluster.
 
  • 1
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
Can't wait to play as Timurids
On another note, could you please make it so
European culture restricted special units can be recruited in Roman culture? Sweden into Rome should still be able to recruit Caroleans, same for France's Musketeers and Spain's Tercio, Russian Streltsy etc.
 
  • 10
  • 3Like
Reactions:
The Mughal Empire is actually one of my favorite countries. Especially if I become Emperor of China with them and then do the Borg run. "Resistance is futile we will make their cultural and religious traditions ours. Their culture and religion will be ASSEMILATED"
 
  • 3Haha
Reactions:
That would be the end for the Timurid-focused content, leaving only the Mughals for us to explore. But before that, let me explain why we decided that the Mughals should get a rework. With 1.26 and the accompanying Dharma DLC, the Mughals received their unique content as well as their own set of missions. As time has gone, the quality of the Mughal missions could no longer hold up compared to the ones of the other two Gunpowder Empires. This is the reason we have decided to revisit the Mughals to make them somewhat on par with Persia and the Ottomans.

To be honest, I don't think you need a justification for reworking the Mughals, it was the only major aside from Austria and the Timurids to have received no attention since Lions of the North, and considering its content was older than pre-Domination Spain or France, I'd say it was long overdue. I'm a little worried that we still not see appear that often in game, though, as you didn't mention any mechanics to help the ai to form it.
If I'm being perfectly honest, I would even have welcomed more content for South Asia, as many minor/medium powers and even possible major ones are still left without anything (Maratha, Punjab, Sindh, Jaunpur, Nepal, Andhra, Assam, Mysore, Gondis, Sinhalese, Malayalis...), but I understand there's only so much content you can put in one dlc/patch and so much updates you can release before having to move to the next game...
 
  • 3
  • 1Like
Reactions:
That comic hits a little close to home. I've got thousands of hours and I don't think I've ever started in India...

Although I've also never bothered to play the Ottomans or England, so what do I know :)
 
Sorry if I sound like a broken record because I've asked this before, and maybe I missed it being answered somewhere, but will there be some changes to the way colonial nations interact? Specifically I just want to know if they'd stop encroaching on each other's territory and whether you can merge multiple CNs in the same region?

It would be a shame if one of the most requested colonial fixes goes unaddressed, in what to many seems to be the last ever EU4 DLC. Especially since this DLC specifically touches on South and Central America...
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions: