Hello everyone and welcome back to yet another development diary for Europa Universalis 4. This marks the first of the dev diaries that will be discussing features from the upcoming but unannounced expansion. This diary in particular will focus on the Steppe Nomads, who are getting a whole host of new features as part of the paid expansion. There is currently no announced release or announcement date for 1.14 and its accompanying expansion.
Horde Unity (Expansion Feature)
First out of the new mechanics is Horde Unity. Horde Unity is unique to countries with the Steppe Nomads government form and replaces Legitimacy. It represents the amount of control the Khan has over the tribes, and decreases slowly over time. To maintain control over your Horde, you will need to placate them with the opportunity for plunder by invading other countries and looting their provinces. A high level of Horde Unity will increase Discipline and lower Unrest, while letting it drop will have the opposite effect and can also result in tribal rebels rising up to challenge the Khan. For those with the expansion, this mechanic also replaces the old Horde events that create Pretender rebels when you are at peace for too long. To prevent defeated hordes from falling into a death spiral and represent the tribes coming together in face of an external threat, Revanchism (a mechanic discussed in last week's dev diary) also increases Horde Unity.
Razing (Expansion Feature)
What would a Khan be without his pyramid of skulls? No kind of Khan at all! The Raze feature lets you bring out your inner Timur by razing conquered provinces to the ground. Razing can be done in any non-core province you own, and will lower that province's development by about 30%, down to a minimum of 1 in each development type. Each point of development razed gives you Monarch Power, with Base Tax giving Administrative Power, Production giving Diplomatic Power and Manpower giving Military Power, and also raises your Horde Unity significantly. Additionally, if there is loot left in the province, your razing troops will automatically grab it. The ability to accumulate Monarch Power by waging war allows Nomads a way to try and keep up in technology - or rush towards reform. Provinces can only be razed once every 30 years, as takes some time for a province to recover and build up a surplus of skulls for your next pyramid.
Tengri (Expansion Feature)
The Tengri faith added in 1.12 also gets some new mechanics in the expansion, with a focus on Syncretism. The Tengri nomads of the EU4 era lived alongside and frequently mixed their beliefs with Muslims, Buddhists and other religions. Our inspiration for this feature was Esen Taishi of the Oirats, who habitually changed his stated faith according to what was most diplomatically convenient at the time. Tengri countries have the ability to choose a Syncretic Faith, which can be any religion that they either own or border provinces following that religion. Having a Syncretic Faith changes which bonus you get from your religion, replacing the default Regiment Cost and Unrest reduction with something befitting your new Syncretic Faith. It also lets you treat all provinces you own of that faith as if they were Tengri for the purpose of tolerance and religious unity, but you will also be unable to convert those provinces to Tengri. Additionally, other countries following that faith will treat you as one of their own, meaning that an Oirat Horde that adopts Confucianism as their Syncretic Faith will find their Chinese neighbours to the south a good deal friendlier than they might otherwise be.
As there were not very many Tengri countries to choose from in 1.12 and 1.13, and Buddhist mechanics turned out to mesh poorly with always needing to be at war, we've changed the East Asian hordes to all be Tengri, with their previous religion set as their Syncretic Faith at the start of the game. Changing your Syncretic Faith costs 50 prestige.
In addition to the paid features, there is also a couple of free goodies that will be available to all aspiring Khans with the 1.14 patch.
Horde Units (Free Feature)
Part of the old philosophy for Hordes was 'adapt or die', meaning that a Horde that did not reform its government in time would fall hopelessly behind and be unable to defend itself against more modern states. For this reason, the Nomadic Technology Group were stuck with their starting units in 1444, and would not get new units no matter how far they progressed in technology. This has now been changed, with a whole new set of units created for nomads going all the way up the technology tree.
Returning and Selling Provinces (Free Feature)
As Nomads have no great attachment to land, we felt that it did not make sense for them to suffer a loss of face for giving it up. As such, Steppe Nomads will no longer take a prestige hit for selling and returning provinces.
That's all for today! Check in next week for a dev diary about Estates - and I'm not talking about the kind you build manors on.
Horde Unity (Expansion Feature)
First out of the new mechanics is Horde Unity. Horde Unity is unique to countries with the Steppe Nomads government form and replaces Legitimacy. It represents the amount of control the Khan has over the tribes, and decreases slowly over time. To maintain control over your Horde, you will need to placate them with the opportunity for plunder by invading other countries and looting their provinces. A high level of Horde Unity will increase Discipline and lower Unrest, while letting it drop will have the opposite effect and can also result in tribal rebels rising up to challenge the Khan. For those with the expansion, this mechanic also replaces the old Horde events that create Pretender rebels when you are at peace for too long. To prevent defeated hordes from falling into a death spiral and represent the tribes coming together in face of an external threat, Revanchism (a mechanic discussed in last week's dev diary) also increases Horde Unity.
Razing (Expansion Feature)
What would a Khan be without his pyramid of skulls? No kind of Khan at all! The Raze feature lets you bring out your inner Timur by razing conquered provinces to the ground. Razing can be done in any non-core province you own, and will lower that province's development by about 30%, down to a minimum of 1 in each development type. Each point of development razed gives you Monarch Power, with Base Tax giving Administrative Power, Production giving Diplomatic Power and Manpower giving Military Power, and also raises your Horde Unity significantly. Additionally, if there is loot left in the province, your razing troops will automatically grab it. The ability to accumulate Monarch Power by waging war allows Nomads a way to try and keep up in technology - or rush towards reform. Provinces can only be razed once every 30 years, as takes some time for a province to recover and build up a surplus of skulls for your next pyramid.
Tengri (Expansion Feature)
The Tengri faith added in 1.12 also gets some new mechanics in the expansion, with a focus on Syncretism. The Tengri nomads of the EU4 era lived alongside and frequently mixed their beliefs with Muslims, Buddhists and other religions. Our inspiration for this feature was Esen Taishi of the Oirats, who habitually changed his stated faith according to what was most diplomatically convenient at the time. Tengri countries have the ability to choose a Syncretic Faith, which can be any religion that they either own or border provinces following that religion. Having a Syncretic Faith changes which bonus you get from your religion, replacing the default Regiment Cost and Unrest reduction with something befitting your new Syncretic Faith. It also lets you treat all provinces you own of that faith as if they were Tengri for the purpose of tolerance and religious unity, but you will also be unable to convert those provinces to Tengri. Additionally, other countries following that faith will treat you as one of their own, meaning that an Oirat Horde that adopts Confucianism as their Syncretic Faith will find their Chinese neighbours to the south a good deal friendlier than they might otherwise be.
As there were not very many Tengri countries to choose from in 1.12 and 1.13, and Buddhist mechanics turned out to mesh poorly with always needing to be at war, we've changed the East Asian hordes to all be Tengri, with their previous religion set as their Syncretic Faith at the start of the game. Changing your Syncretic Faith costs 50 prestige.
In addition to the paid features, there is also a couple of free goodies that will be available to all aspiring Khans with the 1.14 patch.
Horde Units (Free Feature)
Part of the old philosophy for Hordes was 'adapt or die', meaning that a Horde that did not reform its government in time would fall hopelessly behind and be unable to defend itself against more modern states. For this reason, the Nomadic Technology Group were stuck with their starting units in 1444, and would not get new units no matter how far they progressed in technology. This has now been changed, with a whole new set of units created for nomads going all the way up the technology tree.
Returning and Selling Provinces (Free Feature)
As Nomads have no great attachment to land, we felt that it did not make sense for them to suffer a loss of face for giving it up. As such, Steppe Nomads will no longer take a prestige hit for selling and returning provinces.
That's all for today! Check in next week for a dev diary about Estates - and I'm not talking about the kind you build manors on.
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