• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Study Technology lets you send a spy to a more technologically advanced country.
Spy still means diplomat, right? Any cost to it, other than the fact that your diplomat is tied down? Can you get caught and what happens then?

The Liberty Desire of that country will increase by +1% per month, up to a maximum of +25%. Multiple countries agitating in the same nation will not stack up beyond +25%.
Will the LD vanish when you call back the diplomat or tick down or what? Also, as above, any cost and what if caught?

For those with the expansion, this will now change to be based on war contribution
War contribution will be shown in the war screen, I hope?
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Subjects of subjects next week? will you finally give me cb for my vassals vassal's claim?
It was "Subject of subjects"
and not "Subjects of subjects".

That's ok, I also misread it :(


EDIT: Although it could just be a bad pun.
 
Last edited:
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
Espionage changes won't make it more appealing. It will be still a godawful idea. It should be reworked completely for people to at least consiering taking it.
 
  • 21
  • 2
Reactions:
Hello everyone and welcome back to yet another development diary for Europa Universalis 4. Today's topic is once again a few more new features in The Cossacks. We'll also be going over some changes coming to Claims and Zones of Control in the free 1.14 patch.


Improved Espionage (Expansion Feature)
One thing we often hear is that the Espionage idea group is too weak and not worth taking. With that in mind, we've decided to strengthen it up with a couple more espionage actions: Study Technology and Agitate for Liberty.

Study Technology
Study Technology lets you send a spy to a more technologically advanced country. For each category where they are at least 2 technologies ahead of you, you get +1 power each month. However, sending spies to multiple countries will only help if they are advanced in different categories: You are capped at +1 in each of ADM, DIP and MIL no matter how many spies you have sent out.
In4oxGS.png

JhumeCF.png


Agitate for Liberty
Agitate for Liberty lets you send a spy to the subject of another nation to raise their Liberty Desire, useful if they just got a brand new personal union over a powerful nation, or you're looking to break up their colonial empire.. The Liberty Desire of that country will increase by +1% per month, up to a maximum of +25%. Multiple countries agitating in the same nation will not stack up beyond +25%.
SALimoY.png

lmzV1tV.png
Honestly I don't think more espionage only abilities is the way to go. As long as you have those espionage will always either be worthless or a must take. You need to add the espionage mindset the the base of the game and make the espionage ideas for those who wish to specialice is manipulating events through peaceful means.

Distribute Spoils (Expansion Feature)
Another small feature coming in The Cossacks expansion is a change in the way money and prestige is given out in peace deals. Previously, all money and all prestige would go to the warleader, regardless of how much his or her allies had bled for him. For those with the expansion, this will now change to be based on war contribution, with each member of the winning alliance getting a share of the gold and prestige relative to their contribution. For example, if England and Castile go to war against France and England racks up 30% participation while Castile racks up 70%, 70% of the gold and prestige gained in the peace will go to Castile, despite the fact that England is war leader.
ENEo8Vv.png
Not a fan of how you chose to handle this, I would have liked more freedom to give people diffrent things in peacedeals. Being locked into that it's always fairly distributed after the contribution is increadibly limiting.
Also you mention gold and prestige, but what of war reparations and humiliate? If these becomes possible to give to someone else then this may be sufficient. France helps me in a war against their rivals (whom they have no claims on) and do most of the job, I reduce the favours I owe them by giving them warreparations and humiliate on the rival.

Zone of Control Changes (Free Feature)
The fort rework in 1.12 added a much more strategic element to warfare, but with it came some complicated rules and confusion over what exactly forts were and were not allowed to block. To simplify the system and make it more intuitive, we've decided to make the following changes:
- Forts that have been captured by the enemy will now have a Zone of Control and block movement for enemies of controller.
- Forts now have Zone of Control over any country's provinces (but can only flip control back over your own owned provinces) meaning they can block enemy movement through friendly & neutral land. Movement through a country's own provinces cannot be blocked if a fort from that country is protecting those provinces.
- Provinces can now be in the Zone of Control of multiple forts.
- Moving through Zones of Control should now result in fewer unnecessarily long paths.

What this means is that forts should behave more intuitively, and act the same everywhere regardless of whether they are enemy-controlled or whether you have a single neutral province next to your own fort.
w7gDK9G.png
I have no idea what you mean changed. As far as I can tell it just got even more complex. But if you say it made things simpler then I'll accept that... for now.

Permanent Claims (Free Feature)
As anyone who's ever formed Qing knows, the 25-year timer on claims can be a bit limiting: It's difficult to conquer all of China in only a quarter of a century. To address this issue, we've added a new type of claim that is gained ONLY from nation forming: Permanent Claims. As the name indicates, Permanent Claims are... permanent, and lost only if revoked through war or if the claiming nation is annexed. They also give a -25% cost reduction on core creation, instead of the -10% from normal claims.
BNYVmEZ.png



That's all for today! Next week we'll be talking about the subject of subjects.
I would have rather you made claims and cores last longer instead. Also I've been meaning to ask you about the formation claims, why does forming a cultural union give you claims on provinces that are not of any of those cultures? Why does forming russia give you a claim on Karelian provinces for an example? I get that they ende dup with those IRL but if they have been finnish for 200 before russia is formed then it makes no sense for russia to suddenly feel it has a claim to karelia, even less a permanent one..

Cultural union formation should only give you claims on land thaeither has a culture form the cultural union, or has a core on them from a tag of a culture in the union.
 
Last edited:
  • 10
  • 8
Reactions:
I'm curious about the interaction between permanent claims and cores. If I form Great Britain as England, then presumably I have a permanent claim on Cornwall (assuming I don't already own the province). But what if I core Cornwall, and then lose it later? Do I lose all claims to the province after X years, or does a permanent claim survive, like it would if I didn't own it in the first place?
Permanent Claims are... permanent, and lost only if revoked through war or if the claiming nation is annexed.
Cores will be handled the same way as before it would seem. Only nation forming claims remain permanent.
 
I find it amusing that the increased discount of Permanent Claims is pretty much the discount of regular claims back before nerfed.
Speaking of which though, while it's expected for occupied forts to block movement as well, isn't it a bit much for the forts of an enemy nation to affect neutral territory of another, independent nation? Seems like it'd make more sense to me for forts to only affect troop movement in the territories of belligerent nations.
 
  • 6
Reactions:
I have no idea what you mean changed. As far as I can tell it just got even more complex. But if you say it made things simpler then I'll accept that... for now.
At the moment, you can pass by forts through neutral territory, for example in the HRE if the emperor is involved in the war or you get military access. Now your movement is blocked anyway, as long as you can't pass the fort by at least two provinces.

Additionally, at the moment you can always go through your own provinces, even when they're occupied. So taking the screenshot, at the moment France could ignore its own occupied forts and march directly into Aragon. That won't be possible anymore and you have to siege your own forts back first. That makes forts a whole lot more useful for attackers, as you can lock an enemy army in its backland now, whereas previously they would just march through their own land while you may deal with their allies.
 
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
If an Agitate for Liberty spy is discovered, will that remove the extra liberty desire immediately or will it tick down slowly?
I hope slowly like any source of liberty desire. So what if it turns out the guy speaking of liberty in the US turned out to work for france, he had a point.

Espionage might even be viable now, at least for a weaker nation. Which is good since only weaklings resort to such unmanly tactics anyway ;)
Not really as long as they have unique abilities those need to weak enough not to break the game. Eu4 needs a dedicated subterfuge mechanic.

Finally, I won't lose all those claims as Germany or Russia.
Yay that big russia next door now gets claims on myprovinces that never goes away.

At the moment, you can pass by forts through neutral territory, for example in the HRE if the emperor is involved in the war or you get military access. Now your movement is blocked anyway, as long as you can't pass the fort by at least two provinces.

Additionally, at the moment you can always go through your own provinces, even when they're occupied. So taking the screenshot, at the moment France could ignore its own occupied forts and march directly into Aragon. That won't be possible anymore and you have to siege your own forts back first. That makes forts a whole lot more useful for attackers, as you can lock an enemy army in its backland now, whereas previously they would just march through their own land how they want, occupied or not.
Yeah I got those parts how does those make the system simpler though? It seems it got worse way way way worse. The only reason you may not get long snakey paths any more is that instead it'll tell you you can't go places at all or the dreadful "would you like to autotransport" will show up (honestly does anyone ever use that function while at war?).
Nope strike one up for war becomming ever more annoying in eu4 and if you feel like fighting wars you got to play ck2 (which is broken in other ways).
 
Last edited:
  • 5
  • 1
Reactions:
Sounds nice, but I was hoping for improvements for the espionage interface, so I can e.g. see how the progress of the rebels is, which I am supporting. Right now supporting rebels doesn't give any information about their progress (or does it?).
 
Last edited:
  • 10
Reactions:
Yeah I got those parts how does those make the system simpler though? It seems it got worse way way way worse.
Forts now block enemy movement if they belong to you (e.g. your own non-occupied forts in your own territory or occupied forts in enemy territory) whether adjacent provinces are neutral or occupied or not. You can argue if thats a good change, but it makes things clearer indeed. No more extra rules, any fort behaves exactly the same.
 
Last edited:
I find it amusing that the increased discount of Permanent Claims is pretty much the discount of regular claims back before nerfed.
I thought someone said before that it's supposed to stack differently? Claims did and do stack additively, which arguably made -25% too large. If they now stack multiplicatively, it's not such a problem. Not sure where I read that though.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Forts now do the same thing anywhere, whether in friendly or hostile territory, occupied or not, whether adjacent provinces are neutral or not. You can argue if thats a good change, but it makes things clearer indeed.
Clearer? Perhaps but it won't reult in "fewer unnecessarily long paths" it will result in more of those.
 
Espionage Ideas should radically improve espionage.

But all espionage actions should be available to anyone regardless of if they get the idea group.
 
  • 15
  • 1
Reactions:
Forts [and ZoC]
I have no idea what you mean changed. As far as I can tell it just got even more complex. But if you say it made things simpler then I'll accept that... for now.
Before forts had [I mean have now] different rules depending on who, when and where issues [leading to the famous posts of "my forts aren't working"].
Now all forts have a a single rule set, no matter who controls them and where and how they are positioned.


EDIT: It would seem this post became redundant very fast. I'll leave it here anyway.
 
Sounds nice, but I was hoping for improvements for the espionage interface, so I can e.g. see how the progress of the rebels is, which I am supporting. Right now supporting rebels doesn't give any information about their progress (or does it?).
Not directly, but you can see it via the unrest you case from the unrest map-mode [if below 0 then no progress was/is made].