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EU4 Development Diary - 2nd of February 2021

Welcome everyone to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. This time it's yet another short one, written by me, talking about some new mechanics.

First of all, we are changing the Plutocratic Government Reform. For those that do not recall what it is, it's a reform available to countries in either of the indian, muslim, chinese or east-african technology groups. Previously it gave a merchant and affected the influence of some estates.

In 1.31 it will become far more powerful, as it will also get all the benefits and drawbacks of a merchant republic, including trade posts & trade leagues. This will make it possible to create a powerfully focused trading nation in the east.
eu4_19.png

Secondly, as you may have noticed in the previous screenshot, this reform also unlocks something called “draft transports”. This is an ability that comes with the next expansion, and allows you to quickly get transports at a cost that may be beneficial to you if you are a smaller nation.

Drafted Transports will begin construction in as many ports as needed, just like building a template, and the amount of transports you get depends on your naval force limits.

Drafted Transports take half the time of a normal transport to build.

Drafted Transports cost a fraction of your income instead of a fixed amount, so it is not really beneficial to large empires, but it is a great way to quickly and cheaply get a new transport fleet when playing a lesser naval power that can not afford keeping it around all the time.

eu4_20.png

Next week, we’ll be back, talking about a new feature that may either be unprecedented or something really really lasting.
 
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Johan, I really love that your DDs are filled with actual content, but they are so short it breaks my heart :(
 
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Also, are you planing to make it possible to draft other types of ships?
 
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Well I saw "enable merchant republic mechanic", but there is no button and estates are active, so will MR have some changes now?
 
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Did you look into the AI sometimes not using its transport fleets to land troops? Often they do, sometimes they don't. It seems to be a gamble to ally Great Britain. Sometimes the won me the war. Other times they siped tea in London while i thought "please use your 40 transport ships pls.
 
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Well I saw "enable merchant respublic mechanic", but there is no button and estatetes are acctive, so will MR have some changes now?
well, they are lucky to avoid the merchant republic factions.
 
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Since you say the drawbacks as well, I recon you mean the hit to Absolutism as well as no estates? Because those are quite the drawbacks.

Then again, maybe the reform is easier to switch out of when the age of absolutism hits, so it's not all that bad.

I'm curious about next week. Something unprecedented?
 
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Nice changes, although it feels like the DDs are getting smaller and smaller. Will "cheap drafting of transport ships" be available to ordinary Merchant Republics and Veche Republics too?
Next week, we’ll be back, talking about a new feature that may either be unprecedented or something really really lasting.
Army drafting and / or levies?
 
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well, they are lucky to avoid the merchant republic factions.
This is kinda dishonest. You are making European trade republics like Venice, Genoa, Lubeck and Novgorod worse in comparison with those who can get Plutocracy. And I think at this point, European trade republics have enough of suffering.
 
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Drafted Transports cost a fraction of your income instead of a fixed amount, so it is not really beneficial to large empires, but it is a great way to quickly and cheaply get a new transport fleet when playing a lesser naval power that can not afford keeping it around all the time.
That tooltip says savings of -49% for a price of 231 over normal price of 156. It's a very confusing way to put it, can it please be cleared up better? Maybe say that the savings are 0% and put a red or yellow tooltip line in there saying that the cost of drafting the transports will be more than building them normally?
 
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Given that the primary problem with factions is that they are sorta lesser estates.

Woudln't it be better if the factions were turned into estates?

Some changes could obviously be made, but the primary benefit of the estates is the objectives they grant and the privileges you give them.

This seemingly would apply for the merchant factions too right? Give the aristocrats benefits etc.
 
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Why then can't we get rid of the factions for merchant republics altogether and just replace them with regular estates?

Johan said in his last DD already that he would do this if it would be possible, but it isn't.
 
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First of all, we are changing the Plutocratic Government Reform. For those that do not recall what it is, it's a reform available to countries in either of the indian, muslim, chinese or east-african technology groups. Previously it gave a merchant and affected the influence of some estates.

In 1.31 it will become far more powerful, as it will also get all the benefits and drawbacks of a merchant republic, including trade posts & trade leagues. This will make it possible to create a powerfully focused trading nation in the east.
Will the nation lose access to the estates and get the factions systems? If so its actually a nerf, if not, then yes this is awesome.
 
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Can we get a chance to mercantilism so that it's actually a useful stat? It's really not worth investing in at all + prevents the only people that care about it (Merchant republics) from having any colonies. (I care less about this second point than the first). I feel like mercantilism should be much stronger, but in return should mean that more negative relations modifiers for trade you are stealing away from the dominant nation in the node?
 
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