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EU4 - Development Diary - 12th of January 2021

After a few weeks without Dev Diaries, I am happy to present you a new one. I hope you all had a great time during them!

When I joined Paradox in October, Polynesia was not included in this Expansion. Considering it was the last part of the Earth without representation, I thought it would be nice to have some work done on it, so I proposed some ideas that I am happy to share with you all.

But, before I start, I would like to thank @Meka66 for his help and work that has greatly inspired me for this project.

THE MAP
The map has been slightly changed, since the basic needed setup was already there. However, in order to go a bit deeper, a few provinces have been added here and there. Do note that the flags are still a placeholder and not the final result.

Starting with Fiji, the archipelago has been divided in three provinces: one for each big island (Viti Levu and Vanua Levu) and a third one for the Lau archipelago that had a great influence from Tonga. Each province has a country inhabiting it, which is an abstraction of the many clans that populated each island. Should you unite them all under your banner, you will be able to form Viti.

Fiji Archipelago.png

[Fiji Archipelago and TAGs]​

In New Zealand a new province has been added in North Island which has the most populated one by the Maori people. The number of countries, though, goes up to 7. Six of them (Mataatua, Tainui, Takitimu, Taranaki, Te Arawa and Te Tai Tokerau) are in the Northern Island and Waitaha is in the Southern One. As in the case of Fiji, a Maori country that manages to unite the area is able to form Aotearoa.

New Zealand Archipelago.png

[New Zealand Archipelago and TAGs]​

Finally, the greatest transformation has been done in the Hawaiian Archipelago, that has gone from one province to four. Each province has their own country attached (Hawai’i, Kaua’i, Maui and O’ahu). As in the other cases, there is a formable for the unifiers of the islands.

Hawaii Archipelago.png

[Hawaii Archipelago and TAGs]​

A Polynesian rework could not let the two most important countries out: Samoa and Tonga.

Samoa & Tonga Archipelago.png

[Samoan and Tongan Archipelagos and TAGs]​

THE MISSIONS
As in the case of the Americas, the mission tree consists of a general common mission tree for every country and some specific missions for each country or group of them.

Tongan Mission Tree.png

[Tonga Mission Tree]
(Notice that all icons are still placeholders)​

Tonga is probably the most important TAG during this period. Despite the fact that the Tongan Empire is no more, a skillful player could rebuild it, bringing not only the neighboring islands under the control of Tongatapu, but go even further.

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Bringing both Fiji and Samoa under your control again.
  • Recovering the Tongan Empire.
  • Expand even further.

Samoan Mission Tree.png

[Samoan Mission Tree]
(Notice that all icons are still placeholders).​

If Tonga was the political power during the period, Samoa was the cultural one. Most of the Pacific was colonized from there and from there were most of the traditions that ruled the lives of the Polynesians.

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Recover the place as the cultural center.
  • Challenge Tonga.
  • Replace Tonga as the main power in the Pacific.

In order to not spoil the surprise, I will let you discover what the missions for the Maori the Fijian and the Hawaiian countries consist of.

THE NATIONAL IDEAS
Adding new TAGs would not be the same if they were not accompanied by their National Ideas.

Starting with the Fijians TAGs, their warring nature brought them a reputation of ruthless combatants, feared by everyone. But Fijians were also deeply religious people and famous shipbuilding artisans. All these things are represented in their National Ideas, making them a rather expansionist set.

Code:
fijian_ideas = {
    start = {
        light_ship_power = 0.1
        naval_attrition = -0.1
    }
  
    bonus = {
        ae_impact = -0.2
    }
  
    trigger = {
        OR = {
            tag = LAI
            tag = VIL
            #TODO: tag = VIT
            tag = VNL
        }
    }
    free = yes
  
    fijian_crossroad = {
        num_accepted_cultures = 2
    }
    fijian_degel = {
        range = 0.1
        global_ship_trade_power = 0.1
    }
    fijian_conjoined = {
        global_missionary_strength = 0.02
    }
    fijian_waqa = {
        prestige_from_naval = 0.4
    }
    fijian_cannibal = {
        army_tradition_from_battle = 0.25
        prestige_from_land = 0.4
    }
    fijian_kai = {
        land_attrition = -0.25
    }
    fijian_confederacy = {
        global_tax_modifier = 0.05
        production_efficiency = 0.05
    }
}
[Fijian National Ideas]​

As in the case of the Fijians, the Maori are famed for their bravery and constant warfare. Their set of ideas is focused on land combat, without disregarding ways to keep the land around a strong leader.

Code:
maori_ideas = {
    start = {
        global_regiment_recruit_speed = -0.10
        harsh_treatment_cost = -0.20
    }
  
    bonus = {
        prestige = 1
    }
  
    trigger = {
        primary_culture = maori
    }
    free = yes
  
    sons_of_kupe = {
        global_sailors_modifier = 0.10
        range = 0.10
    }
    kaikiakitanga = {
        tolerance_own = 1
    }
    kaumatua = {
        stability_cost_modifier = -0.20
    }
    kapa_haka = {
        land_morale = 0.10
    }
    pa_defence = {
        fort_maintenance_modifier = -0.10
    }
    te_moko = {
        leader_land_shock = 1
    }
    maori_king = {
        core_creation = -0.10
        legitimacy = 1
    }
}
[Maori National Ideas]​

As with the missions, we’d better not spoil the surprise by showing everything, am I right? I have a challenge for those that love them: try a world conquest with a Polynesian TAG! There are a couple of things in this area that could help you in that adventure. ;)

THE EVENTS
Events are one of the parts I like the most. While not as much time as I would have liked has been available, I have added more than 40 events to the area, including general events, specific Country events and even a few Easter eggs that I hope you can find and enjoy!

Fiji Event.png

Practice is what makes you a good warrior, after all.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).

Hawaii Event.png

This event can be very nasty if you are in a very bad shape.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).

Samoan Event.png

As Samoa, you will be given the choice to reform your society a bit or go on with the traditions with every ruler.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).​

THE EXTRAS
There are a few things that have been added in order to create a bigger sense of immersion.

Maori culture has been created, separated from the main Polynesian branch. By the start of the game, the Maori were abandoning the Archaic Maori Period and entering a transformation one. The Iwi became more sedentary and their once pacific nature became more warlike as competition for resources becomes more central. New traditions had evolved by this time that justifies separating them from their islander cousins.

A new Polynesian technology group has been created. This technology group is between that of the Mesoamericans and the North Americans in penalty, but starts at tech 2.

Most Estates have been renamed to their proper versions to increase the flavor.

And some extra surprises here and there.

For now this is all. We still have lots of things to show, so just be patient and enjoy the time in between, everything will come!
 
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Definitely, PDX has a lot of problems with these kinds of people and honestly, they need to treat them accordingly. I'm not telling you to report people that don't like things like this, but sometimes they say stuff that should get them banned.

But oftentimes they are just speaking the truth (or at least their opinion) in a reasonably polite manner. Just because you disagree with someone else's view doesn't make them wrong, a troll, etc..

Personally, I don't feel anything of value will be gained in adding these nations and provinces while 20ish more tags will have a negative performance impact. The nations won't be particularly fun to play (win 1-3 wars then speed 5 for a good 30 years or more until they have enough exploration ideas and dip tech to do anything). If someone really wants to experience that they can always make a custom nation in the area and see just how boring that game is...
 
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But oftentimes they are just speaking the truth (or at least their opinion) in a reasonably polite manner. Just because you disagree with someone else's view doesn't make them wrong, a troll, etc..

Personally, I don't feel anything of value will be gained in adding these nations and provinces while 20ish more tags will have a negative performance impact. The nations won't be particularly fun to play (win 1-3 wars then speed 5 for a good 30 years or more until they have enough exploration ideas and dip tech to do anything). If someone really wants to experience that they can always make a custom nation in the area and see just how boring that game is...

I can't say I really understand your first two sentences here seeing as everyone talking about this topic has already clarified that they aren't talking about everyone who just likes Europe or thinks it needs more focus, but people who go out of the way to belittle the significance of RTW and act like the game should focus exclusively on Europe and that everything in RTW should revolve around how Europe can take advantage of and exploit it. Not seeing things as "what does this add to the game" but as "what does this add to Europe" or "how is this important for Europe".

The performance impact will be minimal. I saw the hits from Dharma and Emperor, and not only is this smaller in scope, but these tags will likely consolidate quite quickly and it's totally insignificant when compared to the post-1600s lag problem.

Also goes without saying: A custom nation won't have missions or events. I know the response to this is "mod it in then", but I'm simply trying to demonstrate that a CN out here would not be the same experience as this in practice.
 
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The mod it in is annoying because you dont get achievements :/
I'm not a 100% completionist, but I like seeing the random achievement.
It gives me a sense of pride and accomplishment ;)
 
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"But the game is named Europa Universalis" Yes but in the first place you need something that is not Europe to put Europe there. The greatness of Europe in this time period is their expansion over the rest of the world, how is that going to be interesting with the lack of provinces, tags, mechanics and regional flavor for the RTW.

Each region of the RTW have way more dissimilar technologies, cultures, religions, ways of administrations, production, warfare, etc. Therefore those regions are better justification to add new and heterodox ways to play.

What is the contribution of polynesian tags to the game? COULD be things like specific ship kind for each tech group and a rework of the colonial AI, migration and colonial range mechanics. Design a way to allow PLAYERS to make an oceanic empire without turn every AI tribal tag on a colonial empire should not be that hard if devs try it.

The problem on game mechanics or performance are not related only to RTW, or are everybody going to ignore the many issues that people complain about european exclusive mechanics like the ones just from EMPEROR.

If RTW should allways be secondary to Europe when is RTW going to get some content? From the 16 DLCs just 5 are focused on RTW.
Also did people noticed that like there are many european mechanics that need to be fixed there are way older problems of "power creep" like the one about Conquest of Paradise that devs are finally trying fix with the next update/DLC?
 
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As someone who plays on the PC equivalent of a potato, I can't say I'm excited by the idea of random tags in the pacific that will have zero impact on anything ever in gameplay. Until you go to conquer Hawaii in 1700 and it has like 200 total development across those four provinces, anyway.
 
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Hi this looks awesome.
I would just like to ask that Waitaha be extended to the southern province as Ruapuke Island was the most populated place in the south island precolonisation, due to the high fish populations and it's where hapu who were nomadic wintered so the southland region should be a nation to represent this, either in waitaha or it's own.
Thank you.
 
Anyway, why does playing a nation from a region that didn't have a large impact on world history in this time period make it a meme? I promise I'm not being coy it's just that, in my opinion, alternate history is a major selling point of this game and taking a minor nation and turning them into a world power is part of that. Like, is it a meme to play as any of the non-major nations?
I am only offering you an explanation of what this person was talking about, I do not agree with their position.

The colloquial definition of a meme game is a silly non-serious game. Here are 2 examples of possible meme games:

1) Playing as one of the few OPMs in India that can reform into hordes while also having elephant unit types as cavalry. The so called "elephant horde."

2) Making some historically religious tag take an opposing religion; e.g. the Papal States Sunni.


Some people like to play silly games (I don't happen to be one of them, but I respect any play style). So the guy suggesting it's a meme tag is saying most players would only play these tags to mess around and/or do silly things.
 
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I think it's important to keep in mind that aside from Spain, the Europeans mostly didn't get to Asia from America, and also aside from Guam, most of the Pacific islands weren't really conquered by European powers in the EU4 period...
True but that is assuming Portugal starts going the right way any time soon. Instead of creating Portuguese mexico.


Making some historically religious tag take an opposing religion; e.g. the Papal States Sunni.
Or government, say making feudal theocracy Poland or something.
 
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Or government, say making feudal theocracy Poland or something.
Yep. Making stupid government types was fun for a while in 1.28 for me. When you could buffer all these government decisions to create like a Shogunate Theocracy or whatever. That was more like an exploit, but for the purpose of memeing.
 
I am sorry to use such strong language, and I sincerely do not mean to insult anyone. This is not a blanket statement about everyone but a commentary on a disturbing trend. If you feel like I am unfairly representing you, please just assume that you are not one of the people I am talking about. However, especially in light of recent events at the US Capitol, I find some of these comments regarding Polynesia to be rude, ignorant, and insulting. And I feel the need to write what many of us are undoubtedly thinking.

Every single time PDX expands gameplay outside of Europe in this game or any other we see a ridiculous string of comments criticizing the decision as a waste of time, as a lack of depth, as lazy DLC, or as a meme. Many of these comments are simply the logical consequences of thinly veiled xenophobia and racism against non-Europeans. Most of us, I hope and assume, are tired of it. You may only want to play as a European, but don't force other people into accepting your single-minded cultural biases, and maybe just maybe you should consider playing as one of these new tags. Maybe it will open your eyes to the value in other cultures.

If you truly are not a racist and not a xenophobe, and you disagree with this map expansion, then as I said, please assume I am not talking about you; maybe just be more careful with your language in the future so as to distance yourself from these people. But if you are using this game to advance such a heinous mindset, then shame on you; don't try to bully others into your ignorant positions and ideologies. I am always embarrassed and saddened that this forum needs to pin a reminder against racial/ethnic slurs to the top (but heartened that most people take these things as seriously as they are).

Again sorry to be polemical, there is probably a better way to say this, but I cannot get it off my mind. I do not want an internet fight, so I will not be engaging in any arguments that may or may not follow this post.
This from a game that has slaves as a TRADE GOOD, not as people (a la Vic2).

Get over yourself.
 
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It seems interesting, even though I never read the part about the missions, but to be honest, I fear a bit what it could mean for the game. A new TAG means at least 14 000 monarch points laying around, so those polynesians would almost necessarily develop their islands, breaking completely balance of the region. Those islands would be ridiculously inflated.

Also, as some people say, it's a bit of a stretch to pretend that those natives could work on the same model as other civilizations.

The AI has a limit of developing provinces. It will either develop up to 10 or twice the starting development, whichever is higher. I don't know if the AI breaks that rule for developing institutions though.
 
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The AI has a limit of developing provinces. It will either develop up to 10 or twice the starting development, whichever is higher. I don't know if the AI breaks that rule for developing institutions though.

Even the most cursory glance at the current state of the game would reveal that the AI completely ignores this rule.
 
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Even the most cursory glance at the current state of the game would reveal that the AI completely ignores this rule.
I don’t know if you’re right or wrong but besides manual development there are also lots of events that add tax/production/manpower in a province. This could be the case here.
 
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But oftentimes they are just speaking the truth (or at least their opinion) in a reasonably polite manner. Just because you disagree with someone else's view doesn't make them wrong, a troll, etc..

Personally, I don't feel anything of value will be gained in adding these nations and provinces while 20ish more tags will have a negative performance impact. The nations won't be particularly fun to play (win 1-3 wars then speed 5 for a good 30 years or more until they have enough exploration ideas and dip tech to do anything). If someone really wants to experience that they can always make a custom nation in the area and see just how boring that game is...
I guess if one does not shout hooray, hooray! whenever 20 new tags are added, they are a white supremacist bigot.

To those who do not share that perception, I would like to point to the difference between the rework of NA natives and Polynesia.

NA Natives - tons of new tags and missions, a major redesign of a weak mechanic including a new system that opens up tons of future possibilities, a whole new system for the Totemic religion. An overall rebalancing.

Polynesia - tons of new tags and missions.

I am excited and happy for the former and can't wait to check it out. And I am lukewarm of the latter, but I guess that's because of Europe bias and racism and xenophobia and whatever.

Or maybe just because the NA Natives rework is awesome and the Polynesian tags are meh?

Nah, it's the Eurocentrism, and racism and xenophobia.
 
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I come here to occasionally look what's been done. I own every single EU4 dlc, as well as CK2 DLC, HOI4 dlc, and so on... I've been playing these games since EU1. I'm always happy for more depth and fluff, but I can't feel but bitterness when optimisation problems are so apparent, yet overlooked, but time is given to adding in even more stuff.

Honestly, I stopped playing EU4 after Emperor came out. I just couldn't. It was no longer enjoyable, despite me clocking up 1672 hours.
 
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NA Natives - tons of new tags and missions, a major redesign of a weak mechanic including a new system that opens up tons of future possibilities, a whole new system for the Totemic religion. An overall rebalancing.

This exactly.

I'm disappointed with this DD simply because the time and effort could be better used in other areas.

The mechanics and scope of the game make it very difficult to make any Polynesian tags interesting. Some of the new provinces you can barely find on the map, you have to fully zoom in to see them and armies walk over water because the land is too tiny for the unit models. Maybe this is an hint that the province doesn't fit the scale of the game? Lichtenstein DLC when? San Marino World Conquest now! (please don't, I'm kidding) And because these tags are so isolated from the rest of the world, I don't see how this is exciting apart from the early game.
 
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This from a game that has slaves as a TRADE GOOD, not as people (a la Vic2).

Get over yourself.
I don't understand why anyone thought this was a good or convincing argument. Feudalism, serfdom and absolutist monarchies are also extremely un-woke but that's not remotely within the ballpark of what Arthrodira's post was about about and that should be blatant in their first post with no clarification whatsoever if you were trying to be genuine in your interpretation. It's about MODERN people making assumptions about what matters and what doesn't based on their biases from a Eurocentric perspective, not about how woke the pre-industrial societies represented in the game are. In fact, there was never a statement about how societal practices in the game weren't fine by modern perspectives in that post or in any of the discussion following it at all. That is until you showed up with your square peg for the topic's round hole.
 
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I guess if one does not shout hooray, hooray! whenever 20 new tags are added, they are a white supremacist bigot.

To those who do not share that perception, I would like to point to the difference between the rework of NA natives and Polynesia.

NA Natives - tons of new tags and missions, a major redesign of a weak mechanic including a new system that opens up tons of future possibilities, a whole new system for the Totemic religion. An overall rebalancing.

Polynesia - tons of new tags and missions.

I am excited and happy for the former and can't wait to check it out. And I am lukewarm of the latter, but I guess that's because of Europe bias and racism and xenophobia and whatever.

Or maybe just because the NA Natives rework is awesome and the Polynesian tags are meh?

Nah, it's the Eurocentrism, and racism and xenophobia.
Why are you so defensive about it?

His extrapolations really aren't that much out of the window, you know?
Alot of comments here are of extremely bad taste and show a clear contempt about other parts of the world they don't care about recieving flavour, simply because they don't care about it.

It is undeniable that some parts of the globe always get a disproportinal amount of attention in relation to others in every media portrayal, for no reasonable motive other than personal bias.
Your idea of who deserves attention and who doesn't is always due to personal bias.
And that is fine, personal biases are simply unavoidable.

But it really is not unreasonable for someone who gets their history and homeland consistently neglected, misrepresented and branded as insignificant to extrapolate that maybe there is some sort of subconscious cultural bias (which some might word as racism) at play here.

Sure i wouldn't say there is some nefarious racist agenda going on here, the reason is far more simple, Anglo-saxon media currently overwhelmingly dominates all other media (this isn't even a controversial statement) and has been doing so for a while now. Naturally we are used to look at the world centered on the Anglo-Saxon experience and from the Anglo-Saxon prespective. And it is really hard to dissociate from it, it doesn't mean we are racist, but we clearly are biased.
And it's perfectly understandable when those who get consistently neglected feel like they are being wronged on the basis of ethnicity.

There is no need to act so sarcastic and offended about it.
 
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Why are you so defensive about it?

His extrapolations really aren't that much out of the window, you know?
Alot of comments here are of extremely bad taste and show a clear contempt about other parts of the world they don't care about recieving flavour, simply because they don't care about it.

It is undeniable that some parts of the globe always get a disproportinal amount of attention in relation to others in every media portrayal, for no reasonable motive other than personal bias.
Your idea of who deserves attention and who doesn't is always due to personal bias.
And that is fine, personal biases are simply unavoidable.

But it really is not unreasonable for someone who gets their history and homeland consistently neglected, misrepresented and branded as insignificant to extrapolate that maybe there is some sort of subconscious cultural bias (which some might word as racism) at play here.
Also as I think it's been explained in the Arthrodira's post and afterwards about 5 times, this was never just about any person who doesn't like this DD. People just get extremely touchy and defensive when the question of biases is brought up even when it's about as explicitly not directed at them as possible. Would amend to Eurocentrism rather than Anglo-centrism though as I believe that's more accurate, and you also have to remember Paradox has a large fanbase in Europe itself and not just the Anglosphere.
 
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