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EUIV - Development Diary - 12th of May 2020

Good afternoon! I’m back again with another content-driven dev diary. Today we’ll be taking a look at two of the new mission trees coming with the Emperor expansion: Germany and Lübeck.

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The German mission tree takes a lot of inspiration, as you might expect, from Imperial Germany and the accomplishments of Bismarck. Although very much outside of the period, we felt that it was an appropriate way to go given the ahistorical nature of a united Germany within our timeframe.

The conquest branch of the mission tree begins with Blood and Iron, which requires you to own at least 50 provinces across the North Germany or South Germany regions, essentially completing your early German unification. This mission rewards perhaps the most extensive set of permanent claims of any single mission in the game: the Low Countries, Italy, France, and Poland will all simultaneously become your next targets. This is pretty extreme for a single mission, but given the requirements not only of the mission but also of forming Germany in the first place, the player is likely already in a very dominant position by the time that they unlock this mission tree. Completing the Annex Poland mission gives even further permanent claims, this time on the Baltic, Scandinavia, and Carpathia regions.

Next we have an economic branch of the mission tree. You are charged with building manufactories to Industrialize the Rhineland, permanently improving local goods produced in applicable provinces by 15%. You must also Promote Urbanization by reaching at least 30 development in 10 German provinces, and achieve Protected Markets by reaching 75% trade share in all German trade nodes. Completing these missions unlocks the Dominant Economy mission, which requires you to have the highest income of any European nation as well as 10,000 ducats with no loans.

Next up, Germany has a branch of its mission tree dedicated to overseas expansion, beginning of course with the construction of an Imperial Navy. After building 30 heavy ships, you must Burn the Wooden Wall by ensuring that no British country has more than 5 heavy ships. Achieving this will grant you +10% naval morale for the rest of the game, as well as a permanent claim on London. Scramble for Africa and Overseas Empire see you building an empire in Africa and Asia respectively.

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire share a large portion of their missions trees, but each of them have a unique branch available only to them. The German unique branch focuses on state-building, for instance hiring skilled advisors, gaining Crown Land, constructing universities, and gaining absolutism.

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This is the Holy Roman Empire’s unique branch of the mission tree. It has been said that the HRE was neither Holy, Roman, nor an empire, but you have the chance to change that. You must become Defender of the Faith (giving you an opportunity to launch a final crusade for Jerusalem), become Papal Controller (if Catholic), and finally centralize the disparate states of Germany into a single nation. Completing the Roman Resolution mission as a Catholic nation fires the following event, representing victory of the Emperor in the dispute between Church and Emperor:

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Hi I’m @Alfray Stryke , a new addition on the EUIV team. Currently working as QA, although I have assisted with the design and implementation of Lübeck’s mission tree in the Emperor DLC.

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The four paths for their missions are:
  • End the Sound Toll, By forcing or convincing Denmark to end the toll and increasing your trade in the Lübeck trade node, you continue to increase your trade in the Baltic. This leads to gaining claims on the Jutland peninsula and then Norway (subjugation if Norway is independent, permanent claims if they are not).
  • Ties with England requires either strengthening relations with England or Lübeckian merchants or privateers having at least 25% of the trade power in the English Channel. Completing this will strengthen Lübeckian traders in the British Isles, granting claims in order to form trading cities in London, Edinburgh and Ayr. Setting up trade cities in Edinburgh and Ayr will lead to dominating the North Sea trade and recruiting an explorer to settle Newfoundland (giving a Center of Trade there) and founding the American colony of Neulübeck.
    • The London Steelyard was historically the main trading base of the Hanseatic League during the 15th and 16th centuries, thus either owning London directly or indirectly via a member of your trade league will grant you a substantial boost to trade.
  • Defend the City, although Lübeck starts as a relatively wealthy but militarily lacking nation, their first goal should be to ensure they have a standing army capable of holding their own against any neighbours inside the HRE. Complete this via your own soldier or recruiting mercenary companies and you will gain claims on the rest of the Mecklenburg area. After building up your own strength, it is time to return the cities of Visby and Novgorod to the Hanseatic League by either owning them directly or indirectly.
  • The Merchant Navy, by building up your merchant navy and increasing your coffers, you are then led to formalising bookkeeping and building the Lübeck Krantor (replacing the old decision). After increasing your ship building industry, commissioning the Adler von Lübeck (for owners of Golden Century, the decision now requires a flagship), and asserting naval dominance over the North and Baltic Seas Lübeck can be declared the Queen of the Hanseatic League. This rewards you with increased diplomatic reputation and decreased advisor cost.


The culmination of their mission tree after increasing the reach of the Hanseatic League is to unite the league into a solidified political entity - making any members of the trade league that own historically important trade cities into vassals, with a boost to their diplomatic relations in order to compensate for this. Then using the same system for the Kingdom of God and the Caliphate renaming you are rightfully termed the Hanseatic League!

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And that’s all for today! Join us next week for the last in our series of content-focused dev diaries.
 
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Yes but what if Hamburg ends up the defacto leader?

Creating Germany is not exactly quick though. It's a very late game tag.

Yeah I feel that perhaps the Lübeck mission tree is a bit to landgrabby. Taking all of Norway seems a bit to much.

The core Haneatic cities are already historical friends unless I am mistaken.

I would like if the Norway subjugation was more of a, first get Bergen and then if you have trade dominance in norway, you could perhaps offer to buy norway off of denmark. Its the hansa, they should all be about money, blockading and rivalry with other trade nations, like the dutch.
 
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Pls add mission tree and unique national ideas for Celje :c (that yellowish new country in austria). They had an amazing story of a sudden rise to power, only a few years before the start date, they came from nothing to become a prince of the holy roman empire ( a county ). A member of the Celje dynasty saved the life of holy roman emperor Sigismund von Luxembourg at the crusade of Nikopolis (against the Ottomans). Then the emperor as a sign of gratitude made them counts, and he married a member of the Celje family. So a woman from the Celje dynasty was queen of Bohemia, Hungary and empress of the Holy roman empire. The Celje dynasty had close relations with the bohemian dynasty. Also lands throughout the balkans, ties to the Hungarians and an eternal rivalry with the Habsburgs (they even fought for who would take care of Ladislav Posthumus while he was a child). Celje may seem small on the map but don't underastimate their compatibilities. They made a pact with the Habsburgs that whichever male line would die out, would inherit the lands of the other. This was the great demise of the dynasty as they all died (some under misterious sircumstances in Hungary while they were preparing to go on a new crusade).
 
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I would like if the Norway subjugation was more of a, first get Bergen and then if you have trade dominance in norway, you could perhaps offer to buy norway off of denmark. Its the hansa, they should all be about money, blockading and rivalry with other trade nations, like the dutch.
Yeah that makes a lot more sense.
 
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No; because the Pope is inherently the Catholic religious head. If he were to be the head of Orthodoxy he would no longer be the Pope; he'd be the Ecumenical Patriarch.



In this dev diary they specifically said that, when the pope ends the schism, the Orthodox nations have the possibilibty, via event, to convert to catholicism, each one of them. So, if the pope can do this by ending the schism, why can't byzantium, that with its missions, can also end the schism but in the other way. I'm not saying that the Pope is going to be the head of the Orthodox church, in fact, if you complete the missions to restore the pentarchy, is probably that the Papal States don't exist anymore

I'm just asking for justice for the byzantine missions, that were the "first" that could end the schism
 
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In my honest opionion, using Bismarck's German Empire and its militarism as prototype of Germany and HRE's mission tree in EU4 is very boring, unsuitable and lack of imagination.

Germany and HRE's mission tree in EU4 could focus more on how would Germany unified and what would Germany be during the period of EU4. It could includes elements such as the Rheinbund, the plan of Greater Germany, the nation of poetry and philosophy (the nation of Goethe, Schiller and Kant rather than Bismarck and Moltke), the nationalism and liberalism movement in late 18 - early 19th century, etc.

Yea, this feels like a continued departure from the history of the period and doesn't square with the way the game is handling a more complicated HRE.
 
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I know this request is a small one but will we see the German flag change to a more Imperial inspired one rather than a HRE inspired one (since the mission is Imperial inspired). Otherwise I guess mods would do.
 
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I dont think black white red is the right choice. The BWR flag was chosen to symbolize Prussia (Black&White) and the Hansa or Brandenburg (White&Red). Its not fitting for all the other German states. The flag of the German Confederation or one with the Eagle is more fitting, because its represents all German states.

I disagree, because the Germany that the developers want with these missions is indeed the German Empire formed by Prussia. While the "Reichsadler" flag is suitable for a generic Germany, the BWR flag should be used in combination with these missions.


And then I realized that I could change the flag using a mod and even play with it in Ironman mode.
 
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I disagree, because the Germany that the developers want with these missions is indeed the German Empire formed by Prussia. While the "Reichsadler" flag is suitable for a generic Germany, the BWR flag should be used in combination with these missions.

Can only Prussia form Germany? Why does Saxony choose Prussian colors?

There was a German flag during this period!
 
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In my honest opionion, using Bismarck's German Empire and its militarism as prototype of Germany and HRE's mission tree in EU4 is very boring, unsuitable and lack of imagination.

Germany and HRE's mission tree in EU4 could focus more on how would Germany unified and what would Germany be during the period of EU4. It could includes elements such as the Rheinbund, the plan of Greater Germany, the nation of poetry and philosophy (the nation of Goethe, Schiller and Kant rather than Bismarck and Moltke), the nationalism and liberalism movement in late 18 - early 19th century, etc.

The 19th, 20th century type missions feel so out of place they will probably dissuade me from buying that DLC.
 
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“Content”-driven diaries.

What about an Early Belgium.
I don’t even mind anymore, considering that we’re full memes with Bismarck and Moltke in the 17th century. They can very well go ahead and add Belgium, Austria-Hungary, and Mars.
 
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The more I see the new mission trees, the more I am fond of the old missions. Non-linear, always some to choose from, and most of all, without all those crazy permanent claims dished out so easily. Getting a claim legitimate enough to prevent the stability loss should be a thing hard to come by. Maybe even the claims should have strength, so the really strong ones and by definition difficult to come by, would e.g. make the defender's allies less likely to join, while weaker ones would still enable war, but give You some more AE.
Maybe AI should be taught to understand what's needed for a mission and act accordingly rather than just: bang, You control Germany, so it follows You have legitimate claim on all countries around You. How is that considered anyhow reasonable? "Finally I have become a King of Germany, by extension all of Europe recognises my rights to half of Poland, all of Pruthenia, and a half of France for good measure. Oh, these are not anyhow expirable. They shall remain in force for all eternity" How? How did that work in the content designer's mind? How is that supposed to work in our games?
 
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