Hello everyone and welcome back to yet another development diary for Europa Universalis 4. Today we'll be talking about a few more free goodies that will be coming in the 1.14 patch.
Ironman and Achievements Rework
A much requested feature since the release of EU4 has been the ability to use Ironman along with mods, which hasn't been generally possible due to the fact that Ironman acted as a test for whether you were playing an unmodified game, and thus whether you could get achievements. In 1.14 we've reworked this so that achievements and ironman have been decoupled, and playing ironman is always possible regardless of what mods you might be running. Ironman will still be required for achievements, and you'll still only get achievements if you are playing an unmodified game. To make the way ironman works a bit clearer, we've also reworked the interface so that instead of checking an 'Ironman' box before starting your game, you are now presented with the choice of playing Ironman when you click the 'Play' button for a new game. Clicking 'Play' will pop up a window that asks you whether you want to play Ironman or not, and explains the difference between Ironman and not-Ironman. It will also show you whether your game qualifies for achievements, and if not, why not. We're also planning to add an achievements browser in-game that lets you see which achievements you qualify for in the particular game you are playing, and what trigger conditions you need to satisfy to unlock them. No more wiki-browsing and guesswork required!
Capital Development Discount
A criticism of the new Development system we've heard quite often from players is that development ends up unrealistic, with the richest provinces in the world being wherever a one-province state happens to reside, as said state can spend a great number of points improving its one province, while the capitals of great empires end up as backwaters due to their need to spread out their points over said empire. We do not entirely consider this to be a problem, as the very purpose of the development feature is to let states grow in power, but agree that the importance of cities such as Paris and Constantinople should be recognized. As such, we've reworked the development cost reduction for your capital province. Instead of being a flat -10%, it is now based on your country's total development, reducing costs by 5% per 100 total development down to a max of -50%. To prevent this from resulting in players moving their capital around to each province they're developing in turn, we've also made it so that the cost for moving your capital increases the more total development your country has, up to a maximum cost of 700 admin points. We're also looking at ways to address the situation where for example, Scotland ends up exiled on the Shetland Isles and turns them into an implausible sprawling metropolis, so stay tuned.
Revanchism
In EU4, a common problem for countries is ending up in a negative cycle, or 'death spiral'. What we mean by this is that a country gets attacked, has its armies wiped out and loses territory. Afterwards, it takes them a long time to regaintheir manpower and armies, during which neighbours will pounce or rebels rise up, and they never quite recover. As a way to try and address this and give countries a chance to rebound, we've introduced a mechanic we call 'Revanchism'. Revanchism goes from 0-100%, and is gained when a country is defeated in war and stripped of territory, with the amount of revanchism depending on how much was lost. Revanchism increases tax income, fort defense, manpower recovery speed and morale substantially, and lowers unrest and loan interest rates. It ticks down over time, with 100% revanchism (gained from a 100% warscore peace) taking 20 years to be fully lost.
That's all for today. Next week we'll be talking about the Steppes and the Nomads that inhabit them.
Ugh. France can be s strong already, I don't want it to get boosted every time i defeat it.
