DEV DIARY 7
EL DORADO
Here we are at last - the new dev diary! Many changes and tweaks were made in order to make "Imperium Sine Fine" fully compatible with current version of the EU4 (patch 1.11.4). Some modifications however weren't so limited in scope and in fact were far more ambitious. Before we start I would like to point out something:
1) Since a new expansion is coming to EU4 which will fundamentally change many aspects of the game (parliaments, new siege mechanics, basetax and manpower changes, new provinces etc.), probably in a month or two I will have to once again work on making "Imperium Sine Fine" compatible with the latest patch. Expect huge changes in this upcoming dev diary.
2) All of the changes included in this dev diary take effect on 1 January 1520, that is
AFTER chapter 4 and thus will affect chapter 5 and all subsequent updates.
3) You won't read about all the changes I made in this dev diary because spoilers - after all, I can't really talk about Far East of Far West without spoiling some surprises hidden beyond the chartered waters. Keep this in mind while reading this.
It's been way too long since the last update (a little more than 2 months I think), so let's dive straight into this dev diary, shall we?
MAJOR CHANGES
Compatibility with 1.11.4
The most important change of all - "Imperium Sine Fine" runs now on v.1.11.4 of Europa Universalis IV. This means all changes made to the game since February now apply, which means not only that I'll be playing with all new events and decisions etc. but also that the latest version of EU4-to-V2 converter should work on "Imperium Sine Fine".
End date moved from year 1820 to 1836
This simple change in defines.lua enables a smooth transition to Victoria 2 - assuming we will reach year 1836, because after 6 months of this AAR we're still stuck in 16th century
Religions
"El Dorado" introduced fancy new mechanics for New World religions, which are a really nice addition to the game. Unfortunately they are hardcoded, which makes it impossible for me to use them in creative ways. However, the
xenoi did manage to reform their religion - in late 13th century. That's why I decided to give the religions of the Far West their reformed status anyways using triggered modifiers as a workaround:
This particular modifier is triggered for every country with Nahuatl as a state religion and yes, this includes Xenoi Xolal.
Other changes considering religions are as follows:
- Every religion may now declare war while in regency
- Every religion with the exception of standard pagans (Shamanism, Animism etc.) has now access to Defender of Faith mechanic
- Religions of the Far West give now -2% of missionary strength in provinces of such faith, making it harder to convert them
- For historical reasons (see "This Is Madness" in CK2) the Sunni no longer give -2% of missionary strength in provinces of such faith, making it easier to convert them - after all, this branch of Islam basically collapsed entirely in 14th century
There are naturally more - for instance, I wrote a very long event chain of far-reaching consequences - but right now I can't talk about this in detail
AI handicap & Great Power bonuses
Like some of you suggested, I decided to give substantial bonuses to AI in order to make it more eager to wage war. To balance this, I increased AE gain - this should make wars more frequent, more decisive and more brutal but on the other hand coalitions should form much easier. As you can see, there is also a triggered modifier for the Horde. That's because I decided to give some bonuses to some of the Great Powers (top 10 countries) as well, in order to make the game a little more dynamic. Here are some of these bonuses:
Code:
#GREAT POWERS - THE HORDE: +2 colonist, -50% colonial range, +10 colonist growth
great_power_7 = {
potential = {
normal_or_historical_nations = yes
Z22 = { exists = yes }
tag = Z22
}
trigger = {
tag = Z22
}
range = -0.5
colonists = 2
global_colonial_growth = 10
}
#GREAT POWERS - THE TIMURIDS: +1 legitimacy, +50% heir chance, +1 prestige
great_power_8 = {
potential = {
normal_or_historical_nations = yes
TIM = { exists = yes }
tag = TIM
}
trigger = {
dynasty = "Timurid"
}
legitimacy = 1
heir_chance = 0.5
prestige = 1
}
#GREAT POWERS - REPUBLIC OF PISA: +25% trade efficiency, -50% mercenary maintenance, +10% trade income
great_power_9 = {
potential = {
normal_or_historical_nations = yes
PIS = { exists = yes }
tag = PIS
}
trigger = {
tag = PIS
}
trade_efficiency = 0.25
merc_maintenance_modifier = -0.50
global_trade_income_modifier = 0.1
}
#GREAT POWERS - SULTANATE OF MALI: +1% missionary strength vs heretic, +1 hostile attrition, +1 missionary strength
great_power_10 = {
potential = {
normal_or_historical_nations = yes
MAL = { exists = yes }
tag = MAL
}
trigger = {
tag = MAL
}
global_heretic_missionary_strength = 0.01
hostile_attrition = 1
global_missionary_strength = 0.01
}
Each modifier comes with full localization:
I've been also cleaning the mess my exported save became and transferring files into what I hope will one day become a full-fledged mod. There is still a lot of work to do but perhaps sometime in the future everyone will have a possibility to download "Imperium Sine Fine" and play in this strange world
Technology
Technology files have been updated (which allows for instance Forced March for everyone on MIL lvl 9). This doesn't mean that I didn't made some changes of my own though - Administrative Efficiency now kicks in on lvl 12, 16 and 19 instead of 22, 26 and 29.
Additionally, a new triggered modifier slows down technological progress in Europe. In this world the Renaissance never occurred and great artists, philosophers and scientists like Gutenberg, Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, Machiavelli, More, Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler were never born, forever swept away from the history by the horrors unleashed by Sunset Invasion. This effectively makes Eastern tech only slightly better than Muslim (115% Eastern + 15% Dark Renaissance = 130% tech cost while for Muslims its 140%) but slower than Ottoman.
Code:
# DARK RENAISSANCE: +15% technology cost, +15% idea cost
hypatia_6 = {
potential = {
capital_scope = { continent = europe }
religion_group = christian
NOT = { tag = PIS }
}
trigger = {
capital_scope = { continent = europe }
religion_group = christian
}
technology_cost = 0.15
idea_cost = 0.15
}
New colonial regions, trade companies removed
I was looking for quite some time for a good mod introducing new colonial regions but to no avail - so I decided to make my own. Now part of the "Imperium Sine Fine", the modified files remove all trade companies regions from the game and in their place (Africa + Far East) new colonial regions were introduced.
I would like to show you the map of the whole world with these new regions but this is somewhat spolier-ish, so I guess you will have to wait until the proper parts of the map are explored by brave Roman sailors
MINOR CHANGES
Governments
Updated to current version of EU4. Empire government (used by Xenoi Xolal) gives now the following bonuses:
Code:
imperial_government = {
monarchy = yes
valid_for_new_country = no
allow_convert = no
valid_for_nation_designer = yes
nation_designer_cost = 30
#bonus
land_morale = 0.05
global_autonomy = -0.1
}
There is no longer a minimal 10% level of autonomy mind you, which means that
xenoi may now use resources of every province with 100% efficiency.
Changes to Italian Ideas
Somehow I missed the fact that one of the National Traditions for Italian Ideas - namely +2 papal influence - is completely useless for the only Italian state still alive. To make up for it, I decided to give Pisa a possibility to recruit conquistadors and explorers. This not only is completely reasonable story-wise (the Republic was a protectorate of the
xenoi after all) but also opens new possibilities for greedy merchants, who despite my numerous attempts to destroy them in CK2 and completely on their own managed to survive so long.
Localization changes
I made some minor localization changes but the most important of them all was something I should've took care of months ago - the "greek" culture is now localized as "Romaioi". I also fixed problem with "noculture" which somehow made its way to 1 province in Africa after CK2 conversion.
Cores and claims
As it was suggested by some of you dear readers, events were created which will periodically fire giving claims on some regions to several countries.
***
And that's about it, at least for now. As soon as the new expansion comes out, I will start working on compatibility - I hope the changes to the provinces and basetax won't force me to manually change every single province in the world, because in that case it will take a while before >2000 provinces are fixed. On the other hand, in 2nd April dev diary Johan talked about new parliament mechanics, which I hope to adapt for the Imperial Senate:
In any case, as I told you before as soon as the new part of the map is explored you can expect a dev diary dedicated to the changes made in that part of the world. So for example if you are interested what lies in mythical Hindustan be patient, sooner or later you will learn its secrets
The new chapter is coming next (sooner than you expect) and as soon as it is released we will begin preparations for the IV Senate Session - new Senators have to be accepted, Faction Leaders have to be elected, new Faction bonuses have to be chosen and above all else the Imperial Senate will have to advise the Emperor on a very important matter...
The Angeloi protect!
