EU4 Development Diary - 2nd of February 2021

[Vlad123]

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.
View attachment 676982
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.

View attachment 676984
Next week, we’ll be back, talking about a new feature that may either be unprecedented or something really really lasting.

Wait it's not innovative ... it reminds me of something like an old game that was something like "summon transports with mana" or something like that ... it was very useful ... in any case I also think of nations " disgustingly rich "would be fine

 

[RayStorm]

I'm not sure I fully understand of Drafted Transports. It does not appear that useful, given that the construction time is only halved. Why can't there be mercenary navies? Wouldn't that be a better system, much more useful to players and with my complete lack of historical context also seemingly more realistic than whatever drafted transports would be?

 

[Kravt]

Since there is a discussion about transports why won't we completely abolish separate class of ships called 'transport' which puts a heavy pressure on fl, limits naval game and usually sits and does nothing most of time. Why not let all ships carry a regiment instead? From my point of view it would be a very effective and elegant solution.

 

[LSF]

... you know a government is bad when absolutely no one plays it in mp...

Yeah, because MP and SP play the same... right...

 

[LSF]

You do realise that New Zealand and Australia are two different regions right? As in the Aboriginals are not the same people as the Maori.

From Merriam:

Definition of aboriginal​

(Entry 1 of 2)
1: being the first or earliest known of its kind present in a region
aboriginal forests, aboriginal rocks
2: of or relating to the people who have been in a region from the earliest time : of or relating to aborigines
aboriginal languages, aboriginal tribes/customs/art
specifically, often capitalized : of or relating to the indigenous peoples of Australia


When the poster originally wrote about "abos in NZ", or something like that, I fully understood what he/she meant. Why do people pretend they didnt?

 

[LSF]

I'm not sure I fully understand of Drafted Transports. It does not appear that useful, given that the construction time is only halved. Why can't there be mercenary navies? Wouldn't that be a better system, much more useful to players and with my complete lack of historical context also seemingly more realistic than whatever drafted transports would be?

It is useful to small and poor tags. The true advantage is being cheaper in terms of money and sailors, since the cost is not constant, but variable according to the monthly income. In the example of Ming it was more expensive in money just because Ming is rich, but Ming still saved sailors.

 

[Wendigo514]

Novgorod in Lubeck's coalition would significantly screw AI Moscow; and it is already brain damaged by the Streltsy.

I wasn't suggesting at the game start, since historically was no longer the case, and probably not a thing AI would do easily but something for a player Lubeck/Novgorod.

 

[Nikolai II]

It would seem to make sense to have drafted ships also cost some trade efficiency (since you're stealing your merchants boats to wage war from). A way to encourage only using the feature during wartime, and to keep it cheap cash-wise.

 

[Styria]

One more suggestion: Culture accept & conversion cost for 'same group'

I think the culture accept, and conversion cost for 'same culture group' must be cheaper.

Ooh, and maybe there could be a cheaper cost to accept other cultures from an already accepted culture group. Or maybe making it so that, for example, if we make Greek an accepted culture, the rest of the Byzantine culture group is automatically bumped up to "tolerated culture".

 

[Battlex]

Since there is a discussion about transports why won't we completely abolish separate class of ships called 'transport' which puts a heavy pressure on fl, limits naval game and usually sits and does nothing most of time. Why not let all ships carry a regiment instead? From my point of view it would be a very effective and elegant solution.

Because then you need to specialise your navy and so the tactics are further added to, this is especially true where this patch will make the Ottomans beat the Spanish until lepanto due to galleys beating heavies until mid game

 

[Battlex]

Ooh, and maybe there could be a cheaper cost to accept other cultures from an already accepted culture group. Or maybe making it so that, for example, if we make Greek an accepted culture, the rest of the Byzantine culture group is automatically bumped up to "tolerated culture".

Byz is an empire so auto accepts the others, hellenic Greeks being accepted by the Ottomans whilst pontic Greeks are left by the way side I'd prefer

 

[Lord Hoosier]

Interesting, but so painfully short. I think this will really spice up the Indian Ocean. Will Hormuz or Oman have access to these plutocratic mechanics?

 

[Styria]

Byz is an empire so auto accepts the others, hellenic Greeks being accepted by the Ottomans whilst pontic Greeks are left by the way side I'd prefer

Yeah, but as Venice if I nab some Pontic provinces, they're normally non-accepted cultures, even though they're just a weird offshoot of an already accepted culture. I feel like there could/should be a higher tolerance for them than the Serbian and Albanian minorities, who don't have any similar accepted cultures in my country.

 

[Lord Hoosier]

Two more things, is Bali using Afghanistan's flag and how is Central America explored all on its own in the mini map? I have a feeling we might have some more NA mechanics next week.

 

[Pale Blue]

Yes please give us mercenary navies.
They can have special modifiers similar to their land counterpart.
Some of them could be able to raid, be better at privateering, adding a bonus to coastal sieges, come with embarked marines and more.

 

[Arizal]

Next week, we’ll be back, talking about a new feature that may either be unprecedented or something really really lasting.

Anyone deciphered what this is about?

First it's a feature. Yeah!

Then... Are they going to fix the "continue to play" button for ironman campaign? That's not really new, but it would be fun.

 

[PiterCoffer]

So now countries that were historically very powerful merchant republics still suck, but if you want to play outside of Europe and do something decidedly non historical you can become a merchant republic which has estates, no absolutism malus, no governing capacity limitations (not sure about this one, but the point still stands), rulers and heirs as generals and PUs if they become christian? It seems pretty unbalanced.

I understand that it's good to give alternative paths, but aren't the countries that actually made such things supposed to be better at it (or at least equally as good)? Also why can't european countries not become plutocracies?

What's the next thing? European mandate of heaven but without the maluses for low mandate? African shogunate with only peaceful vassals?

Please, please, please if you really want to make plutocracies so powerful change merchant republics as well I don't think adding estates would really be enough considering how much more plutocracies get, but it would be the bare minimum.

 

[DerGroseKA]

Why dont you remove transports with the upcoming patch and change it so any type of ship can transport units? That would be more realtistic and better for the gameplay. I mean now you have to maintain a tranport fleet that occupies forcelimit and cant even fight. And back in this time there were no "transports", units were transported on normal ships.

 

[TheDungen]

Feels like they'd be most similar to Jains

Yeah the guilds could be pretty much a clone of the jains, and the merchant families estate could be a clone of the Vaishyas estate. Essentially those two are the merchant guilds estate everyone else gets but split into two.

If Paradox is worried about offending the three people who would actually mind if Merchant Republics lost factions and gained (essentially baseline) estates, then they could make it a government reform:
---

Broaden Power Base (Requires: Has merchant-republic style factions and no estates)

"As our republic grows from a single city to a mighty realm, we must now take into account the desires of entrenched powers outside mother [capital name]."

Gain Estates.

---

Done.



EDIT: I would put it under the "Frequency of Elections" tier, so it competes with "Consolidate Power in the Doge " and "Disperse Power Across the Cities" for consideration of what sort of merchant republic you are.

That's a really good idea. The Venice and Genoa specific ones should probably disable trade leagues too. Because they really didn't have those. Venice and Genoa had more of an overlord relation to those in their trade networks.

Novgorod in Lubeck's coalition would significantly screw AI Moscow; and it is already brain damaged by the Streltsy.

It would slow down moscow which is good since moscow conquerts Novogorod 70 years ealier in game than they did in reality. In my personal mod I have made moscow garantee noviogord at the start of the game (i'm thinking of making them a tributary) and also made Novgorod historical friends with Lithuania, to slow down moscuvy a bit.

Yeah, because MP and SP play the same... right...

No one plays MR in SP either it's just not very much fun. You end up babysitting your factions a lot and if you don't they give you fairly bad maluses.

Interesting, but so painfully short. I think this will really spice up the Indian Ocean. Will Hormuz or Oman have access to these plutocratic mechanics?

I think Hormuz already had something like this. Oman however is an ibadi feudal theocracy.
I would however like to either give Hormuz the Omani missions or make Oman a formable country by those of Omani primary culture.

 

[Battlex]

Why dont you remove transports with the upcoming patch and change it so any type of ship can transport units? That would be more realtistic and better for the gameplay. I mean now you have to maintain a tranport fleet that occupies forcelimit and cant even fight. And back in this time there were no "transports", units were transported on normal ships.

It's a game from 1444 to 1821, late game Man o' Wars are full of cannons and sailors, not soldiers