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EU4 - Development Diary - 20th of October 2020

Hello everyone! Today we’ll be exploring two of the smaller religions in Europa Universalis IV. Zoroastrianism and Sikhism. For the coming update we’ll be working on making these more interesting by giving them their own mechanics. Keep in mind that everything you see is very much work in progress, you’ll see a lot of my very temporary coder art.



So first let’s start with Sikhism. They already got some stuff in the game using events. Throughout the game's timeline as a Sikh you will go through the various Gurus that were a big part of shaping the faith in history. Each of these gurus would add their own modifier to the religion. We are now making this more integrated by making it a mechanic and adding some more player agency for what the player can do with this.

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UX is very much WIP, here it is showing you currently have Guru Nanak as your incumbent Guru and that Guru Angad is his future successor.

You still get gurus over the decades giving you various modifiers as you progress through the game. But I’ve also done that each Guru will provide three teachings unique to that guru that the player can pick between. In total there will be 30 teachings to pick between throughout the game, and once the guru that gives that teaching is succeeded the picked teaching becomes permanent and you can’t switch to the other two anymore. You can at max have 6 teachings, and for each teaching you take you will lose 1 missionary strength. Each teaching is associated with either Adm, Dip or Mil mana and cost 50 of their respective category of monarch power to enact.

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As Johan mentioned last dev diary I got sick so I don’t have a full list of the new guru’s values and teachings as some of these features got literally finished this morning and I haven’t had time to fix that yet. But I’ll provide a list as soon as it’s done for the people who love to crunch the numbers.



Next thing is my favorite religion of all time and why hedgehogs are holy. Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest religions still in existence and has a lot of fascinating things around it which is a shame that it has gone so long without having gotten any mechanics tied to it. If you didn’t know Hedgehogs are considered a sort of “holy dog” within Zoroastrianism, a creature of the light which is obviously why it’s the best religion.

Anyway so what are we actually doing with Zoroastrianism? Since in the start of the game they are not in any particularly strong position, a people in sort of a diaspora we’ve been focusing around that. We already have some remnants in Yazd but we are also adding the Parsi in Gujarat. At the start of the game the province Daman will start as Zoroastrians. But there is also an event that you will get if you employ a lot of Parsi Zoroastrian advisors that will let you convert the province to Parsi.

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Continuing with the diaspora theme their mechanic added to them will be based on the Coptic Blessings but instead called Rituals. The Zoroastrians have been given 5 fire temples they need to rekindle, like in their old decision, and as they do they will be rewarded.

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Keep in mind art here is WIP

The various rituals you can pick are as follows:
Yasna: -0.05 Yearly Corruption
Haoma: +5% Goods Produced Modifier
Navjote: +2% Missionary Strength
Manthras: +10% Governing Capacity
Dakhma: -5% Construction Cost

Also since we are talking about holy hedgehogs and zoroastrianism I believe it is only fair I show off my Lord Cyrus, King of Kings, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four corners of the world(also known as my bedroom). Click on them for larger pictures.

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Curious boi

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Burrito boi

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Hungry boi

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Sleepy boi

Hope you’ve enjoyed today's dev diary! Do remember that today we are celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the EU Franchise. Among the hosts of the stream will be me so be sure to drop by! Cya there!

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Stream Schedule (all times in CEST)
13-14 - Dev Stories from EU1 and the board game with special guest Philippe Thibaut
14-15 - Dev Stories from EU2
15-17 - Dev Stories from EU3
17-18 - Break
18-21 - EU4, events and the upcoming board game Europa Universalis: The Price of Power with Aegir Games
 
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Also since we are talking about holy hedgehogs and zoroastrianism I believe it is only fair I show off my Lord Cyrus, King of Kings, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four corners of the world(also known as my bedroom). Click on them for larger pictures.
Such an awesome being deserves grander titles! All Hail Lord Cyrus, King of Kings, Master of the Sky, Dominator of the Seas, Eternal Ruler of all that is touched by the Sun, Devourer of Burritos, Lord of Purity and Snow! All Hail!
 
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With these new mechanics, is there any chance of a Judaism buff?

Even just being able to form Israel by being Jewish and controlling Jerusalem would be awesome! It’s already in the game and everything
 
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I know giving them an entire province is a bit of a stretch but it is going to be quite rare I think and I just wanted them to have the ability to be on the map and not only as a culture for advisors.
This opens a precedent for a event that converts a province in Poland to jewish maybe?
And for other historically prominent cultural and religious minority cultures to pop up, under the right circumstances. Not only Jews, but also Copts, Assyrians, Romani, Lollards, Waldensians...
 
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Tbf, Persian are a bit on a bad side. The two best options to form Persia, QQ and the Timmies, both have idea sets which I rate higher, you can always just play one of the Hordes, or flip to Turkish to from Rum, or simply go into India to form the Mughals.

The ONLY country that should be forming Persia is Ardabil, or you doing it wrong.
 
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It would be really nice to see Jainism get upgraded to a full religion rather than just a CK2 converter holdover too. It kind of sucks that an effectively dead religion like Norse gets full unique mechanics whereas one that was still very much active (even if it didn't have a majority in any province during the timeframe) just gets forgotten about. An event that allows you to convert if you have a large enough Jain estate as an Indian tech nation would be great, but even if it was just there for the custom nation designer that would be enough.
 
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The ONLY country that should be forming Persia is Ardabil, or you doing it wrong.
You mean AQ right?
Indeed you could argue that the Aq Qoyunlu were doing the heavy lifting for the Safavids by taking over most of the Iranian Plateau from the collapsing Timurids, and Ardabil simply revolted against their former liege and took over the Aq Qoyunlu state once the Aq Qoyunlu started to exhaust their resources in repeated succession crises, making them unable to oppose the Safavid takeover.
 
Zoroastrian Byzantium for maximum irony anyone?
The cult of Mithra was pretty much zoroastrianism and it was a popular religion in rome prior to Constantine.
 
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@Groogy that’s a boi of bois!
 
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Looks great, looking forward to the list of the Sikhs.

Even when taking into account the Persian idea set those 5 bonuses seem quite weak. Unlike other religion bonuses you can only get them after a massive effort, for that they feel quite lackluster. The same is true for Coptic, the boni are far too weak for the effort to get them.
 
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Will there be a nerf to Orthodox and all the decisions that give Christians (especially Prod/Reformed) way too much missionary strength?
 
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We already have some remnants in Yazd but we are also adding the Parsi in Gujarat. At the start of the game the province Daman will start as Zoroastrians. But there is also an event that you will get if you employ a lot of Parsi Zoroastrian advisors that will let you convert the province to Parsi.

View attachment 643941

What culture group will Parsi be? And if they are an Indian culture will they be able to form Persia without swapping culture?

PS. Love the animal pics
 
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Sikhism looks amazing. with Zoroastrian I prefer the way missions expanded handles it with the unique government reforms but I guess you can't have everything. good job regardless.
 
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No it's Western Aryan. I was pondering back and forth on that one but the Parsi today don't consider themselves Iranian as I understood it and the Parsi at start of the game would have been long enough where they would most probably not be speaking Farsi anymore even though they would have a distinct culture separate from their neighbors around them.

For game mechanic purposes the best is to just put them in Western Aryan, if I can figure out some way to represent the Iranian heritage I will.
Well i have a suggestion regarding ''Iranian Heritage''. I chalange you to create Persian mission tree :D. Picked that line from Battle for the Bosporus
 
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Love giving attention to all the religions, so it’s nice to see Sikhs and Zoroastrians get a buff.

but I do agree that it makes Judaism, Totemism, and Animism even more sad looking. Porting over the CK2 converter mechanicsfor Judaism at least would be great, and Totemists/Animists could get some cults or something.

i also agree with the person on here that said Jain needs to be fullyintegrated into the game. It’s weird having them exist as an estate/in the converter but not being an actual religion with their own mechanics.

also i think I spied someone plugging for Assyrian Culture and Nestorian/Church of the East and YES PLEASE
 
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I wanted to mention that currently Anglophile wants you to convert to Anglican, but you CAN'T become Emperor of the HRE if you convert.
This mean that if the Peace of Westphalia isn't enforced by the conclusion of the league war, you have to convert to the dominant faith of the HRE.

(I realize that you can bypass the mission by dismantling the HRE, but I don't think that this was the intention of the developers for someone trying Rule Britannia going for both immersion & achievements).

Additionally, Anglicanism lacks good religious actions that'd make conversation worth it in the first place. I'd suggest adding more actions to make English players go Anglican in multiplayer or singleplayer games. Here are the current ones:
  • (100 CP) Divorce Consort: The current consort is removed. (This does not end any royal marriages.)
  • (100 CP) Marry Local Noblewoman: Gain a random female consort from this country.
  • (100 CP) Dissolve Monasteries: Gain ducats equal to 0.25 years of income.
  • (100 CP) Grant Monopolies: Gain 1% mercantilism.
  • (200 CP) Progress of the Supreme Governor: Gain 1 stability.

As you can see, there aren't many of them and 2 out of 5 are duds if your sucession is secure or if you're are republic. Here are some suggested religious actions that can make Anglicanism more competitive among Christian denominations:
  • (100 CP) Propagate State Religion: +1 Yearly Legitimacy/ Republican Tradition for 10 years.
  • (100 CP) Proclaim Holy War: +15% Manpower & Sailor recovery speed for 10 years. (England/GB frequently has difficulties with manpower shortages).
  • (100 CP) Enforce Resusancy Act: +15% Global tax modifier for 10 years.
  • (100 CP) Promote Religious Emigration: +10 global settler increase & +5% settler chance for 10 years.
  • (100 CP) Make Religious Concessions: +1 Diplomatic reputation to non-Anglican nations for 10 years.
  • (100 CP) Enforce Act of Uniformity: +2% Missionary strength for 10 years.
  • (200 CP) Presentation of Colours: +5% Discipline for 10 years. (Conflicts with Encourage Naval Traditions. England/GB has a weaker army than most nations).
  • (200 CP) Encourage Naval Traditions: -10% Ship cost, +10% global ship repair & -10% Sailor maintenance for 10 years. (Conflicts with Presentation of Colours).
I felt 10 years (instead of the 20 granted by Catholicism's religious actions) was better since England is able to gain church power faster with higher religious unity.
These bonuses play out nicely since you can't keep the modifiers of all of the religious actions enabled at once before they expire, this forces you to choose which ones should be prioritized the most given your current goals. Additionally, having more religious actions allows a greater degree of flexibility in how you want to expand and grow your nation.
 
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It would be really nice to see Jainism get upgraded to a full religion rather than just a CK2 converter holdover too. It kind of sucks that an effectively dead religion like Norse gets full unique mechanics whereas one that was still very much active (even if it didn't have a majority in any province during the timeframe) just gets forgotten about. An event that allows you to convert if you have a large enough Jain estate as an Indian tech nation would be great, but even if it was just there for the custom nation designer that would be enough.
Norse has copy pasted hindu mechanics
What culture group will Parsi be? And if they are an Indian culture will they be able to form Persia without swapping culture?

PS. Love the animal pics
Probably could be allowed to form it
Indeed you could argue that the Aq Qoyunlu were doing the heavy lifting for the Safavids by taking over most of the Iranian Plateau from the collapsing Timurids, and Ardabil simply revolted against their former liege and took over the Aq Qoyunlu state once the Aq Qoyunlu started to exhaust their resources in repeated succession crises, making them unable to oppose the Safavid takeover.
And the Persian empire usurped the median empire, conquering its ally Lydia and finally retaking Egypt which had been independent since the fall of assyria
 
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I wanted to mention that currently Anglophile wants you to convert to Anglican, but you CAN'T become Emperor of the HRE if you convert.This mean that if the Peace of Westphalia isn't enforced by the conclusion of the league war, you have to convert to the dominant faith of the HRE.

Additionally, Anglicanism lacks good religious actions that'd make conversation worth it in the first place. I'd suggest adding more actions to make English players go Anglican in multiplayer or singleplayer games. Here are the current ones:
  • (100 CP) Divorce Consort: The current consort is removed. (This does not end any royal marriages.)
  • (100 CP) Marry Local Noblewoman: Gain a random female consort from this country.
  • (100 CP) Dissolve Monasteries: Gain ducats equal to 0.25 years of income.
  • (100 CP) Grant Monopolies: Gain 1% mercantilism.
  • (200 CP) Progress of the Supreme Governor: Gain 1 stability.

As you can see, there aren't many of them and 2 out of 5 are duds if your sucession is secure or if you're are republic. Here are some suggested religious actions that can make Anglicanism more competitive among Christian denominations:
  • (100 CP) Propagate State Religion: +1 Yearly Legitimacy/ Republican Tradition for 10 years.
  • (100 CP) Proclaim Holy War: +15% Manpower & Sailor recovery speed for 10 years. (England/GB frequently has difficulties with manpower shortages).
  • (100 CP) Enforce Resusancy Act: +15% Global tax modifier for 10 years.
  • (100 CP) Promote Religious Emigration: +10 global settler increase & +5% settler chance for 10 years.
  • (100 CP) Make Religious Concessions: +1 Diplomatic reputation to non-Anglican nations for 10 years.
  • (100 CP) Enforce Act of Uniformity: +2% Missionary strength for 10 years.
  • (200 CP) Presentation of Colours: +5% Discipline for 10 years. (Conflicts with Encourage Naval Traditions. England/GB has a weaker army than most nations).
  • (200 CP) Encourage Naval Traditions: -10% Ship cost, +10% global ship repair & -10% Sailor maintenance for 10 years. (Conflicts with Presentation of Colours).
I felt 10 years (instead of the 20 granted by Catholicism's religious actions) was better since England is able to gain church power faster with higher religious unity.
These bonuses play out nicely since you can't keep the modifiers of all of the religious actions enabled at once before they expire, this forces you to choose which ones should be prioritized the most given your current goals. Additionally, having more religious actions allows a greater degree of flexibility in how you want to expand and grow your nation.
You don't have to go Anglican, and abolishing the hre let's you skip those missions
 
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