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EUIV - Development Diary - 28th of April 2020

Good morning! Those of you who have been watching the dev clash with a keen eye will have noticed that a new religion has appeared on the map, emanating from the Kingdom of Bohemia. Today I’ll talk about the Hussite faith and its associated content, as well as the new mission tree for Bohemia coming with the Emperor expansion.

hussite_1.png

The Hussite faith may now experience a resurgence.

The Hussites were in many ways a precursor to the Protestant Reformation. It was a very broad movement encompassing both moderates who merely wished to reform the Catholic Church and radicals who denounced the Church entirely in favour of strictly Biblical authority. Jan Hus, the leader of the movement and its namesake, was executed as a heretic in 1415, sparking a series of conflicts known as the Hussite Wars which lasted until 1434. This was not the end of the Hussites however, as the wars ended in an uneasy agreement between the Church and the moderate Hussite faction, and many people in Bohemia still believed that Jan Hus knew the truth.

In our 1444 start date, Bohemia begins with several Hussite provinces, but retains its Catholic state religion. Early in the game the Return of the Hussites event will fire, which gives Bohemia the opportunity to elect Jiri z Podebrad, a Hussite noble, as King. This event chain has been reworked to allow for three outcomes:
  • Bohemia adopts a Hussite state church and permanently breaks with Rome
  • The Hussites and Catholics reconcile, causing the remaining Hussites in Bohemia to revert to Catholicism. This is the path the AI will usually pursue.
  • Bohemia pursues an aggressive policy of Catholic orthodoxy and strives to convert the remaining Hussites to win the favour of the Pope.
When the Protestant Reformation begins, Hussite nations will be given the choice of whether to retain their unique Hussite faith or convert the nation and all Hussite provinces to Protestant instead. Hussites are only eligible to become Emperor under the Religious Peace.

hussite_2.png

The Adamites were a curious sect that believed that church services should be held entirely in the nude. Note: numbers are not final

The Hussite faith uses the Church Aspects mechanic, much like Protestant nations. Hussites get an entirely unique list of Church Aspects to distinguish them from Protestants. We’ve aimed to make these Aspects, as well as the base bonuses of the religion, relatively powerful to offset their diplomatic isolation. And of course no rework of Bohemian content would be complete without a button to enact Regular Defenestrations. Here’s the full list in script for those curious:

Code:
clerical_poverty_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        church_influence_modifier = -0.1
        stability_cost_modifier = -0.15
    }
}

punishment_of_sins_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        nobles_influence_modifier = -0.1
        yearly_corruption = -0.05
    }
}

orphan_hetmans_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        shock_damage_received = -0.1
    }
}

bread_and_wine_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        tolerance_own = 1
        global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.05
    }
}

sola_scriptura_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        warscore_cost_vs_other_religion = -0.1
    }
}


adamite_services_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        culture_conversion_cost = -0.2
    }
}


pacifism_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        stability_cost_to_declare_war = 1
        improve_relation_modifier = 0.3
    }

    ai_will_do = {
        factor = 0
    }
}

regular_defenestrations_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        harsh_treatment_cost = -0.33
    }
}

taborite_resurgence_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        global_manpower_modifier = 0.2
    }
}


freedom_to_preach_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        religious_unity = 0.1
        tolerance_heretic = 1
    }
}

hussite_3.png


This is the new Bohemia mission tree, available to owners of the Emperor expansion after the release of 1.30. The upper left branch concerns the matter of the Hussites in Bohemia. The requirements and rewards change depending on which path the nation takes through the event chain. One notable reward is that if Bohemia becomes Hussite and breaks with Rome, a Hussite Center of Reformation will spawn in Prague upon completion of the Hussite Resurgence mission. To avoid an overwhelmingly non-Catholic Europe (as we’ve seen in dev clash), we’ve decided to make this CoR last only 100 years rather than until the end of the Age of Reformation.

At various points in the not-so-distant past, the Kings of Bohemia held prestigious titles such as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Poland, and King of Hungary. The majority of the Bohemian mission tree is aimed at regaining these titles and cementing a dominant position in Central Europe and the Empire, and rewards include powerful Restoration of Union CB’son Poland and Hungary. With Hungary under the Bohemian heel, they must contend with the greatest threat to Christendom: the Ottoman Turks. Bohemia is able to subjugate both Brandenburg and Saxony, keeping them as subjects without the usual penalties for subjugating electors if they are able to first Humiliate Austria. The Reformatio Sigismundi mission requires Bohemia to become the Emperor and pass the Perpetual Diet reform, which then rewards you with a 20% bonus to Imperial Authority Growth. The final mission in the Imperial branch, Peace in Europe, requires you to expand the borders of the HRE to 250 provinces while being at peace, and rewards +1 Monarch Diplomatic Skill as well as -5 Years of Separatism for the rest of the game.

That’s all for this week! The dev diary schedule for the next few weeks is content-focused, with next week’s dev diary being about the Burgundian Inheritance and their shiny new mission tree. So stay tuned for more mission trees and other associated content. And remember to catch the weekly Dev Clash every Wednesday at 15:00 CEST at https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive. If you can’t watch the stream, the vods are posted on youtube later. Go Milan!
 
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We've changed the hostile core creation cost idea to "same_culture_advisor_cost = -0.25"
Has hostile core creation cost finally been removed from all the other nations that have it? It's a non-bonus and everyone hates it.
 
Since this dev diary was mostly about religion, are there any plans to either halve or negate the opinion penalties between Protestants and Anglicans? I don't know as much about the Hussites (they strike me as more similar to Reformed than Protestant), but my understanding is that the Anglican Church was treated largely as another, non-radical denomination of Protestantism by Protestant foreign governments.
 
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I have one question: Will the different factions within the hussite faith play an important role? Bc the hussite faith was never really united and it had widely different factions. One might see the reaproachment to catholicism or protestantism as the moderate factions and the independent one as the radical one, but Id hope that there were more flavor events and decisions in regard to the different factions, maybe even an civil war event between them?
Yeah, it is kinda odd seeing the Adamites as part of the religion when the Hussites had a predilection for killing them.
 
Good to hear that the overwhelmingly non-Catholic Europe in the Dev Clash for an expansion that claims to fix Catholicism is being taken into consideration. However, I am still a bit worried that most all players chose Hussite or Protestant over Catholic. Is Catholic still significantly less viable a choice mechanically?

More the subject of the Hussites and Bohemia, can the top left Hussite mission branch be completed if you chose to suppress them or go become Protestant?

Will their resurgence increase Reform Desire?

How hard will it be to convert provinces to or away from Hussite?

Finally, will the Hussites have a different set of choices than Vanilla protestants when it comes to modifying their Church? Can they instead simply establish a state church like the Anglicans without a CoR?
 
Is Catholic still significantly less viable a choice mechanically?

Staying Catholic will still be superior in some regards. By keeping Catholic ruler you can basically pick any European dynasty that you want at the start of the game, which is very useful for getting PUs over major countries. If you want to unify HRE fast and perhaps even prevent Shadow Kingdom, which will now be somewhat easier for non-Austrians, staying Catholic is also vital. One of the Bohemian traditions is increased imperial authority, which will now be more valuable since adding provinces is nerfed, so Catholic Bohemia will be second only to Austria when it comes to the speed at which you can form HRE.
 
Will their resurgence increase Reform Desire?

How hard will it be to convert provinces to or away from Hussite?

Finally, will the Hussites have a different set of choices than Vanilla protestants when it comes to modifying their Church? Can they instead simply establish a state church like the Anglicans without a CoR?
These questions make it seem like you didn't read the diary: The option to go Hussite increases reform desire, Hussites get +3% missionary strength against heretics, and yes, Hussites get a unique set of church aspects to choose from.
 
Reducing the CoR for Hussite faith to 100 years is better, but honestly I think that's still kind of strong, I mean, that's about 26.5% of the game. Maybe it should be reduced to 50 years, max 75 years? I understand the idea that if Hussite rises up before any other movement then yes perhaps nearby people would be converted, but I'm worried about the constant growing and how strong CoR are at the moment at just demolishing Catholicism in Europe at the moment.

It was mentioned earlier by someone, that the Hussites should have the option to join the Reformed too, perhaps if Bohemia refuses to join the Protestant movement an event fires later asking if they want to join the Reformed movement? Also I really wish Protestant was renamed to Lutheran and Reformed was renamed to Calvinist, since effectively the current religions of Protestant, Reformed and Anglican, and in some ways Hussite, are all Protestant branches. Coptic being renamed to Miaphysite would be a nice change too.

The Hussite bonuses seem fine to me, nothing too weak, except maybe Adamite Services, but that depends on the playstyle of the player. But the standard bonuses and the Church Aspects bonuses makes me wonder what is the point in staying Catholic still? This is yet another religion that seems to be on paper better then Catholicism. Lutherans can get +2.5% Discipline, +5% Morale and +10% Manpower Recovery, Calvinists get +10% Morale, Miaphysites get +2.5% Discipline and +10% Manpower Recovery, Orthodox gets +5% Discipline and +10% Manpower Recovery and every single province of Orthodox faith gets +33% Manpower. I didn't list Anglican because I'd argue it needs a buff more then the Catholic faith just because at least the Catholics can get SOME modifiers, Anglican buttons are just a boost in Stability, Mercantilism or free ducats whenever you want or if you can even get it. So again, Hussite faith seems fine on its own, but it makes me wonder why yet another religion seems to be better then the Catholic faith when this was, at least it seemed to be, an update to make Catholicism relevant in EU IV.

Hussite also not causing an Imperial Incident is a bit disappointing, you'd think in 14XX, whenever the event fires, and an elector telling the Pope to screw off and switching away from Catholicism in the Holy Roman Empire would cause quite some discussion and most likely military intervention. Obviously it shouldn't be punishing to to switch to Hussite faith so don't make it fight all of the HRE and nearby Catholic majors, but the Emperor and the Pope should probably do something about a renegade king elector.

The Bohemian mission tree, looks alright I guess, seems kind of generic "Go conquer all of this region", though I'll admit not as bad as the new Italian mission tree since it seems to have at least some domestic missions.

The small tweak to Bohemian ideas is nice, not the biggest fan of the idea but anything is better then the Hostile Core Creation Cost on Us "bonus". Personally I think Bohemian ideas could be tweaked a little more, while many, myself included, fear making them stronger would throw the balance off even more then it already is for them. Bohemia strikes me as one of the countries that starts off weakened from pre-game stuff and continues to push through their issues and if successful in stabilizing the Kingdom, integrating the subjects and plays her diplomatic cards right, should be a regional major that nearby countries, bar the actual major, should be scared of. Maybe that's just my own view on them, I don't know. The two ideas that strike me as not entirely useful, I'm not denying their usefulness but these modifiers can easily be unlocked elsewhere, is the +1 Legitimacy and the -1 Unrest. I'd like to see the Bohemian Elective Monarchy be a unique government reform to them, and the Legitimacy could be gained from it, maybe even the Unrest modifier. I don't know which modifiers would work best, perhaps one more military boost, you could do Morale as a sort of new Czech Nationalism idea, just an idea, and one diplomatic idea would be nice seem Bohemia doesn't really have any except the Imperial Modifier which is useless when you don't go for HRE unification.
 
When you declare wars, you lose 1 stability. Intention is that you spend your church power to switch into this Aspect when you need to burn your AE, then switch to something else when you're ready to go conquering again.
That kind of gamey things are really annoying, like "Hey! People are wary of us, let's make pacifism part of our religion! Hey! People aren't wary of us anymore, let's not be pacifist anymore!"
 
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Is there any chance of ck2 converter religions being added to custom nations?
Thank would be great, there are some weird ones. I second this. (To bad last I heard they have exactly 1 person who handles the converter, and with CKII being done with development, who knows if they even care at this point.)
 
Can a Hussite Brandenburg form Prussia?

Because Brandenburg really needs the additional +10% ICA? :rolleyes:

But seriously though, Prussia should probably be formable to any Christian country, while true that the Teutonic Order switched from Catholic to Lutheran and became Prussia, I don't see why it has to be an integral part of forming Prussia. Couldn't even a Catholic Teuton Grandmaster realize that he might not be in the best state as a monastic order and reform into the Duchy of Prussia? Even if you argue "Prussia should at least have to join the Reformation", that would mean Anglican and Hussite should be added since they would fall under a Protestant religion, since it's formable even for a Calvinist Teutonic Order.

Edit: When I say any Christian country, I meant remove the religion requirement, obviously not every country should be able to form Prussia as long as they are Christian
 
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Reducing the CoR for Hussite faith to 100 years is better, but honestly I think that's still kind of strong, I mean, that's about 26.5% of the game. Maybe it should be reduced to 50 years, max 75 years? I understand the idea that if Hussite rises up before any other movement then yes perhaps nearby people would be converted, but I'm worried about the constant growing and how strong CoR are at the moment at just demolishing Catholicism in Europe at the moment.
Perhaps scale the strength of Centers of Reformation based on Catholicism’s reform desire? This would weaken the Hussite CoR without affecting the later Protestant and Reformed CoR’s very much, especially if the scaling effect is capped at 100% reform desire.
 
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Perhaps scale the strength of Centers of Reformation based on Catholicism’s reform desire? This would weaken the Hussite CoR without affecting the later Protestant and Reformed CoR’s very much, especially if the scaling effect is capped at 100% reform desire.

That could work too, I was just thinking if the CoR was even at an average level that 100 years of it is quite a bit and could easily make a red central Europe before the Reformation even starts
 
I really wish I could see how Catholicism will get better in the game. In real life, the Catholic Church was and is an incredibly powerful institution. It should have abilities to fight against Protestants, and the game doesn't reflect that well at all.
 
That could work too, I was just thinking if the CoR was even at an average level that 100 years of it is quite a bit and could easily make a red central Europe before the Reformation even starts
I tend to agree that Centers of Reformation are too strong as it is, especially the Hussite one if the dev clash is still representative of the final state of the patch, even after the changes they mentioned.

I hope they eventually revisit how the Reformation is represented, particularly within individual countries. One of the reasons why Protestantism is ahistorically attractive is that it's relatively quick and painless to convert an entire country - store up some admin points to deal with the stability hit and use the +10% bonus to missionary strength to convert most of your provinces within a decade - which fails to simulate the decades of social and religious strife that even the populations most disenchanted with the Catholic Church experienced. For now, though, I'd be happy if they weakened Centers of Reformation a bit and gave modders the tools to tinker with them further.