Europa Universalis IV Developer Diary 10 - It all belongs to Mother Russia...

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Johan

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Welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. This time we focus on the great nation of Eastern Europe, Russia, one of the greatest nations the world has ever seen and a major player through much of the course of the time period represented in the game.

Russian Possibilities.
If you start at the one of the early points in the game, there is no Russia, really – just a bunch of principalities and republics that, historically, were conquered or coalescaed into a Russian Empire. Most players start with Muscowy and then use that strong and historic base to form Russia, but you always have the possibility to start as another minor Russian state and form Russia that way. Russia has at least one major strategic advantage - once it has removed the Tatars and Mongol threats to its immediate east, its back is free of danger, so it can focus on expansion to its West (into Lithuania and the Baltic states) or to its south (into the Caucasus and Ottoman Empire). As Russia you have options to fight for warm-water ports in the Baltic and Black Seas, direct the conquest of the heartland and oversea the colonial progress through Siberia. A well-played Russia becomes one of the greatest powers at the end of the game, but there is always the risk of falling behind in the technology race.

Russian Dynamic Historical Events
Russia has a rich and interesting history, and we are representing it with lots of interesting Dynamic Historical Events. They have two major chains.

The first is the Time of Troubles. Europa Universalis III had a generic Time of Troubles series of events, and that one has been kept, but under a new name, so we could use “Time of Troubles” to represent the dynastic crises that rocked Russia for over a decade.

In Europa Universalis IV, Russia runs the risk of running into their Time of Troubles at any point between 1550 and 1650 if its stability is low. This event series gives neighbors the chance to back pretenders to the Russian throne and extend the chaos within the Eastern giant. How will you handle it as a player?

Now don't get the idea that all major Dynamical Historical Events are purely bad or challenging for the player! There will be event chains that are quite helpful as well. Russia has one of the most interesting big event-chains in the Grand Embassy dynamic historical event. If , past a certain date, Russia has not yet westernised, and its monarch has good stats, . the roaming king can then travel around Europe, learning various things for your country, and increase relations with neutral nations. This models what Peter the Great did in the late 17th century.

Missions and Decisions...
The Russian missions are still mostly geared towards expanding and forming a Russia with historical borders, and we have kept the Russian decisions from Europa Universalis III, including the possibility to form Russia itself if it doesn't exist and you are a strong nation with Russian culture controlling the important cities in the region.

Russian National Ideas.
The Russian idea set is common to all countries that have Russian as their primary culture, as our major goal is to get one united Russia – the state that forms it is not as important. We are still debating whether Novgorod should be unique or not; it is a major player in the Russian theater, but also has many attributes that distinguish it from principalities like Muscovy and Kiev.

The Russians start with two traditions that should feel rather natural to anyone who played them in the previous versions of the game. They get 25% extra manpower and 20% cheaper infantry.

The 7 National Ideas for Russia are:

  1. Subednik: 10% more tax income.
  2. The Streltsy: 50% higher land force limit.
  3. Opprichina: 30% cheaper infantry, and 10% faster manpower recovery.
  4. Abolishment of Mestnichestvo: 10% more production efficiency.
  5. Siberian Frontier: +1 colonist, and auto-exploration of all territory adjacent to owned home territory.
  6. Table of Ranks: +1% army tradition/year.
  7. Curriculum of the Cadet Corps: 10% cheaper technology.

The reward for gaining all seven is +100% on manpower.

With these ideas, a Russian nation will be a country relying on a large number of infantry, and can easily afford them. The Siberian Frontier Idea allows them to colonise towards Siberia without being forced to take the exploration ideas that drive expansion for other potential colonial powers.

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Bonus details: Army & Navy Tradition changes.

As a little bonus today, I'm going to talk about the changes we did to the army and navy traditions for Europa Universalis IV. First of all, recruiting a leader does not reduce the military tradition, as you usually can only afford a few leaders at a time. You use Military Power accrued by the monarch and his advisors to hire them instead. It is also slightly harder to maintain a high tradition, especially in peace time

Secondly, military tradition now also gives a bonus depending on its strength. Army tradition gives you higher morale and quicker manpower recovery, and naval tradition gives you higher morale and better trade steering.

Thirdly, you can now also increase naval tradition by having trading missions going with your fleets (scaled by your naval force limits) so that if your entire fleet is out doing trade missions, you get an extra +1% naval tradition per year.

Finally, tradition is now changed each month instead of just at the end of the year.

That´s all for now!

Also make sure to check the Europa Universalis IV - Developer Walkthrough that just went live at Gamespot!
http://www.gamespot.com/europa-univ...universalis-iv-developer-walkthrough-6399827/

Cheers,
Johan
 

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Hopefully we will see Russia forming more often in EU4.

From your playtests, how many times did you see the AI forming Russia? Most of the time? Some of the time?
 
Good to see Åland is its own province. In EU3 it was a part of the Stockholm province which made no sense.

Also, interesting DD.
 
Question: This is to the last part about army tradition.
I think it's really great that generals get hired using monarch power, but can we also have the generals living longer?
I mean, even though the general has a name, he is still somewhat a generic representation. I'm not saying they should live for 200 years, but they seldom make it past year 5 in my games.
 
Question: This is to the last part about army tradition.
I think it's really great that generals get hired using monarch power, but can we also have the generals living longer?
I mean, even though the general has a name, he is still somewhat a generic representation. I'm not saying they should live for 200 years, but they seldom make it past year 5 in my games.

There has been some minor changes, they should last about 7-8 years on average now.
 
YES! Project Novgorodian uniqueness!
Russia united by Novgorod would be totally different than Muscovite. It'd look a little similar to Poland with decentralized government and tendency to anarchy. Since playing as republican, European-oriented Russia might be what many players want, I think that giving some attention to Novgorod would be awesome.

Idea for interesting chain of events: if weak Novgorod is being threatened by Muscovy it may ask Lithuania (Poland) for help. The consequence of a war won by the coalition could be incorporation of Novgorod into the LIT and finally PLC. It'd decentralize the state (unless other regional powers managed to destroy the new hegemon) and may bring PLC into earlier partition. OR maybe LIT enforced by NOV didn't want to get incorporated by Poland? It could occur a lot of history changes.
 
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Very good :)
although I think Streletsy should also have a negative effect as they caused troubles similar to those of Janissaries, and they shouldn't really exist anymore after Russia westernizes
 
There has been some minor changes, they should last about 7-8 years on average now.
It's still a little too little IMO.
I understand it's for gameplay reasons but a good example is André Masséna who became a general in 1793 and functioned until his death in 1817, so 24 years. There are countless of examples just like him.
But when I start up EU3 using the Revolutionary France bookmark, Masséna never makes it past 1800.
Could the average be closer to 15 years without offsetting game balance?
 
I like the feel of Russia. This DD showcases the benefits of the Nation Idea approach, I think, especially the Siberian Frontier. That idea might be totally awkward and out of place in some scenarios, but it really makes it amazingly easy to create specific solutions to specific situations.
 
Absolutely sweet - EU3 was the only game where i liked playing Russia and this sounds like it'll be far better. I would like if Russia got some sort of cultural assimilation bonus mind you.

Incidentally, the sprite shadows looks really cool.
 
It's still a little too little IMO.
I understand it's for gameplay reasons but a good example is André Masséna who became a general in 1793 and functioned until his death in 1817, so 24 years. There are countless of examples just like him.
But when I start up EU3 using the Revolutionary France bookmark, Masséna never makes it past 1800.
Could the average be closer to 15 years without offsetting game balance?

I agree, it should be longer. IRL commanders could easily be a commander for 30 years or so. I think it would be pretty cool when you think "hmm, should I attack France... no wait, that awesome general is still alive, better wait". Btw it would also be cool if it is possible that a general defects to a different nation (maybe if you underpay them?), as they sometimes did IRL.
 
Meh. EU4 looks more and more like a scripted experience with screenplay already written and not taking into account possible improvisation too much - real shame, disappointment and step backwards. Nothing to boast about to be frank. Scripting is poor man's way of achieving historical feel and realism.