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EU4 - Development Diary - 3rd of April 2018

Good morning all. It's Tuesday and that means time for another Dev Diary. As I mentioned in the last non-alcoholic dev diary, we're going to start looking at changes and features coming with the 1.26 and its accompanying, unannounced expansion.

Before that though, we are currently looking to iron out the kinks with the open beta 1.25.1 hotfix (AI allies deciding that money is more important than friendship and nations sometimes failing to explore for a long time). These fixes will be made, applied to the open beta and rolled out in due time.

Governments

The way governments work have remained mostly unchanged for the duration of Europa Universalis IV, still being almost entirely lifted from EU3. While we have added new government types and their own mechanics such as Theocracy devotion, Steppe Nomads and American Natives, the government progression has remained quite stale, where tech sometimes unlocks a new tier within your government tier and you will switch to it at a cost of 100 ADM if you want its better effects, different election times, absolutism etc.

As a feature in 1.26's accompanying expansion this goes out the window and instead we introduce the system of Government Reforms where you will hand-craft your own government through a series of reforms as the game progresses.

The start of any great project starts with burning a few things down, so to set things straight:

All Monarchy types are merged into one
All Republic types are merged into one
All Theocracies are merged into one
All Tribals are merged into one

The differences we had between government types, for example between Administrative Republic and Oligarchic Republic, or Steppe Nomad and Tribal Despotism, will now be modeled through the reforms

Each Government has a starting reform and maximum number of reforms available. When a Reform value ticks up to a required value, a Governmental reform can be made granting a choice of modifiers and effects and advancing Government reform by 1 step. Each bonus gets incrementally more expensive to increase.

Each reform costs 100 Government Reform Progress, plus 50 for each additional reform. Each nation gains +10 Government Reform Progress towards reform per year, multiplied by 1-(its average autonomy across all provinces. As ever, the numbers we talk about today are subject to balancing and can and likely will change by release, but the net effect is that nations who crack down on autonomy are going to have a far easier time passing their government reforms.

We will cover all the different types of governments over the course of a few dev diaries, but today we will focus on the reforms for a Monarchy.

  • Feudalism vs Autocracy
    • Feudalism: +25% Income from Vassals

    • Autocracy: -10% Unjust Demands
    • [Other Special monarchies]*
  • Hereditary Nobility
    • Enforce privileges: +15% Manpower

    • Quash Noble power: +10% Tax Modifier
  • Bureaucracy
    • Centralize: -0.05 Autonomy reduction

    • Decentralize: +2 Accepted Cultures
  • Growth of Administration
    • Clergy in Administration: +1 [HIDDEN] , +5% base loyalty of Clergy

    • Of Noble Bearing: -10% hire leader cost, +5% base loyalty of Nobility

    • Meritocratic Focus: -10% Advisors Cost

    • Seizure of Power: [Early path for Government type change]
  • Deliberative assembly
    • Parliamentary: Enables Parliaments if Common Sense DLC enabled, else -1 Unrest

    • Royal Decree: +5 max absolutism

    • Aristocratic Court: -0.5 Army Tradition Decay

    • States General: +10% Production Efficiency
  • Absolute Rule v Constitutional
    • l'etat c'est moi: +5 States, -15% State Autonomy

    • Regional Representation - 25% lower autonomy in Territories
  • Separation of powers
    • Political Absolutism: +5 max absolutism, +0.1 Yearly Absolutism

    • Legislative Houses: +1 Possible [HIDDEN]

    • Become a Republic

    • Install Theocratic Government
"What about unique government types?"

The game is host to various different unique government types, with their own effects or mechanics. some examples:

  • Shogunate - +1 Diplomat, -25% Envoy Travel Time, +2 Number of states, +5 Max Absolutism. Dynasty is fixed, Enable Shogun-Daimyo mechanics
  • Daimyo - +10% Morale of Armies, 10% Infantry CA. Dynasty is fixed, enable Daimyo mechanics
  • English Monarchy - +0.5 Yearly Legitimacy, -1 National Unrest, 1 states, -30 absolutism, uses Parliaments
  • Prussian Monarchy - -2 Unrest, -0.02 War exhaustion, +3 Monarch Military skill, uses Militarism.

These special tools will now be modeled by unique reforms. In most cases, it will be a special reform on the first level (Feudalism vs Autocracy) ready-unlocked for said countries. We will also be making the system more flexible in that if you fulfill the criteria for having a certain government type, but previously had no way of switching into it, you will be able to change your reform to pick it up. Changing reforms that have already been passed comes at a cost (currently 10 corruption)

This system is still Work in Progress, so expect changes along the way. Here's a screenshot of it in-game at this current time:

government.png

Return of the pink coder-art and overflowing GUI. Games are like sausages, beware of seeing them made.

Next week we will have more information about this feature as well as looking at another reform path. Which shall we look at, Republics, Theocracies or Tribals? See you next week for it!
 
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o may god this soun good

and there is a photo with castilla and portugal!!!1

o may god i am veri excited this mean that the dlc is Spain!!! dlc confirmed!!!!
Now that Spain keeps on getting Burgundian inheritance let’s see Castille having to actually fight for the Portuguese crown, Elizabeth would be rolling in her grave
 
Looks interesting, and more engaging than what is today. But I'm a bit concerned it's an expansion feature; I fear it might end up awkwardly sandboxed and limited by the need for the game to work without the expansion.
 
  • It will be highly customisable, you will be able to mix and match mechanics and modifiers in reforms. There are a few exceptions (E.g. Daimyo/Shogun mechanics)
Will it be possible to mod in conditions for individual reforms? Another question, are there chances for effects to add and remove reforms?
 
Can we finally have a cabinet with different ministers as part of the government? Like replacing the advisors' mechanics?

It can be similar to Empire Total war system
The Prime-minister (it gives +/- prestige) (head of the cabinet),
The minister of war (this one can be divided into the minister of the army and the minister of the navy) (it gives +/- Military MP, if separate maybe +/- tradition + MIL MP)
The minister of the treasury (it gives +/- inflation and +/- annual interest or +/-
Foreign minister (+/- diplomatic reputation or +/- trade efficiency and +/- DIP MP),
Justice or administration minister (+/- unrest or +/- autonomy decrease or +/- missionary strength and +/- ADM MP),
The overseas/colonial minister (+/- colonial growth, +/- autonomy limit in overseas provinces, +/- trade efficiency in overseas trade nodes) (only available if you have a colonialist)

every role can increase or decrease the corruption of your country.

If you are an absolute ruler you can choose or swap your ministers freely (no so, like one change in your cabinet per year or so and with a penalty to your nobility or clergy estate loyalty)
If you are a constitutional ruler you can fire ministers (at expense of prestige +/- in case you are firing a corrupt minister or not) but you can never choose who replaces it and a new cabinet is formed after each election or parliament debate.
 
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Next week we will have more information about this feature as well as looking at another reform path. Which shall we look at, Republics, Theocracies or Tribals? See you next week for it!

Republics.

Also, this almost goes without saying, but would you say the magic words “work in progress”? Some have already raised some valid points about various naming and potential overpowered reforms.

Also also, I have now hit “I have no interest in playing until 1.26 comes out.” On the first substantial DD for the next version. Impressive.
 
This looks like everything I could hope for in a new government system, a great step forward :).

One thing, is the progression linear in its entirety, like it's top to bottom without conditions? Or are the reforms planned to be gated by trigger, allowing us to unlock any set of reforms when the triggers are met?
 
Wowcha, very unexpected.

I like how this could lead into HRE changes, updates to the Mandate of Heaven, and God please a French Fief system like Voltaire's Nightmare!!!

1+ from the clergy suggests Catholic changes.

Being over Iberia could be a subtle suggestion for Iberia map overhaul!

Just to clarify: Is this a DLC feature or base game?
 
What about estates and ideas? Does it influence reforms is some way? I'm worry that this will be just totally separate ticker.

Though I totally support move to internal mechanic development.
 
So all the "Special" Governments: English Monarchy, Prussian Monarchy, Russian Tsardom are being scrapped..........then why did we buy the DLC's.

It seems EU is going "Back to the Future" with the return of sliders............all to sell more DLC.........maybe EUIV shouldn't have been made.........just DLC's for EU3!
 
So all the "Special" Governments: English Monarchy, Prussian Monarchy, Russian Tsardom are being scrapped..........then why did we buy the DLC's.

It seems EU is going "Back to the Future" with the return of sliders............all to sell more DLC.........maybe EUIV shouldn't have been made.........just DLC's for EU3!

I firstly made this mistake too. Read this:
These special tools will now be modeled by unique reforms. In most cases, it will be a special reform on the first level (Feudalism vs Autocracy) ready-unlocked for said countries. We will also be making the system more flexible in that if you fulfill the criteria for having a certain government type, but previously had no way of switching into it, you will be able to change your reform to pick it up.