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EU4 - Development Diary - 16th of June 2016

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Hello and welcome to today's development diary for Europa Universalis IV. Let's take a good look at our King/Khan/Doge/Emperor/Prince.

The ruler of your state is of prime importance to your nation but when you see your new heir birthed or khan taking the throne, it's often a quick look at their 3 monarch point stats followed by either a face palm or a fist pump. As a feature in the upcoming expansion we will be giving a touch more identity to these walking point generators with Ruler Personalities.

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When a ruler comes of age they will develop a personality important to the function of the state. They will develop another trait after ruling for 10 years and a further personality after ruling for a total of 25 years. These personalities will grant a modifier for your nation as well as bonus options in event and changes to the AI's actions. For Duke Francois do Dreux here, he has become a careful individual who will enjoy lower AE in expansion.

Most personalities are a boon for your nation but not all are so positive. While it would be lovely if all your rulers were Just, Incorruptible and Charismatic, you may well find that your ruler is too greedy for their own good like Vilhelm Skram of Denmark.

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King Vilhelm is a tight-fisted greedy guts and will hoover up 10% of your tax income, but there is a silver lining to his greed. Many events have unlockable options now depending on your monarch's personality which will almost always be a superior option. Obscurantism will normally cost a nation in unrest or prestige, but greedy desires drive Vilhelm to seek out a more...lucrative path.

All personalities will unlock such options in some events, as well as have events of their own. Who knows what your Scholarly King or Malevolent Khan will get up to?

Ruler Personalities will be a paid feature in the upcoming expansion, which will be sold alongside the free 1.18 patch.

While on the subject of monarchs, we will be paying special attention to a very influential dynasty of the time period next week, but for now I must take leave. Vilhelm has shaken me down for every ducat I own and I must take care of this.

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Finally some personality for rulers! We have been asking for this since before the release itself...
 
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Now that I look at it more, doesn't anyone else find it a bit curious that the advisors seem to also have a near-empty bar under their names with their inherent bonus occupying the first 'slot' of it?
 
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While I like the addition of traits to the rulers, if the reason for that was as stated in the dev diary (change the perception of heirs as purely point generators) I am afraid that won't do. The traits sound fun in that they will allow to get around certain events, etc. but players will still want to kill off a 3/0/2 ruler because magic-points-generation > anything else. Dip/Adm/Mil points are so essential in this game that almost nothing is worth giving them up or taking a sub-optimal point-generation-route.

Still, I do look forward to this feature. It seems like a fun addition.
 
Historical starts will have scripted traits for some rulers. If no trait is scripted it will be randomized on startup.
Can you expound more on this? How many traits will each ruler get on average? And how many of the historical starts will you be doing the scripting for? I ask because I enjoy some of the later start dates as mini scenarios.
 
Can you expound more on this? How many traits will each ruler get on average? And how many of the historical starts will you be doing the scripting for? I ask because I enjoy some of the later start dates as mini scenarios.

Pretty hard to give a comprehensive answer on this :) The ambition is for all important monarchs to have it but given the scope and size of EU4 I'm sure we'll miss a bunch. Once released you can always post in suggestions if there's a particular ruler you feel has been forgotten that should have a trait.
As for the number of traits that will work just as in the normal game, it'll depend on how long they have ruled when you start :) (with the exception of 12 year old Mehmet Fatih who has always been treated like a special case and will start with one trait in the game).
 
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Pretty hard to give a comprehensive answer on this :) The ambition is for all important monarchs to have it but given the scope and size of EU4 I'm sure we'll miss a bunch. Once released you can always post in suggestions if there's a particular ruler you feel has been forgotten that should have a trait.
As for the number of traits that will work just as in the normal game, it'll depend on how long they have ruled when you start :) (with the exception of 12 year old Mehmet Fatih who has always been treated like a special case and will start with one trait in the game).
Thanks for the quick reply. I'll be sure to mention any ideas I have for rulers that slip by the cracks that I happen to know things about, but I suspect that you guys will probably cover the lion's share anyway.
 
Now that I look at it more, doesn't anyone else find it a bit curious that the advisors seem to also have a near-empty bar under their names with their inherent bonus occupying the first 'slot' of it?
Or maybe it's just an empty bar bigger than the symbol it displays... empty space in the UI! we need more content to fill it!
 
I wonder how many different traits will there be and if they are all small bonuses/penalties or if some of them will be big.
 
This patch is looking awesome! Now please just announce family trees and i will be in seventh heaven!! (And I'll throw all my money at your faces) :D
 
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Awesome! But the way monarchs points are randomly generated it's indeed a problem for a strategy game. Likewise, make no sense at all, that general's and admirals cannot be chosen. Which nation puts a random guy in charge of his armies? We need to have the power to choose our generals without the luck factor. I don't need a general with 6 points of maneuver and 1 shock and 1 fire. I'm the king, make sense that I can pick up whatever guy I prefer. It's a key point. We need to diminish the importance of luck in this game and put some more power in the hand of the players I guess. What do you guys think about it?
 
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Awesome! But the way monarchs points are randomly generated it's indeed a problem for a strategy game. Likewise, make no sense at all, that general's and admirals cannot be chosen. Which nation puts a random guy in charge of his armies? We need to have the power to choose our generals without the luck factor. I don't need a general with 6 points of maneuver and 1 shock and 1 fire. I'm the king, make sense that I can pick up whatever guy I prefer. It's a key point. We need to diminish the importance of luck in this game and put some more power in the hand of the players I guess. What do you guys think about it?
I think that generals are a bad example here. Quite a number of military commanders in the era were leading armies not based on their skill, but based on being an important noble.
 
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