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EU4 - Development Diary - 11th of August 2020

Good morning! In today’s dev diary we’ll be taking a look at three nations in Maritime South-East Asia: the Sultanates of Brunei, Malacca, and Aceh. Each of these nations founded successful empires during our period, and each has a unique set of national ideas and missions.

dd_sultanates.png


malacca_missions.png


Mission trees for Malay nations other than Majapahit are split into 4 sections. In red are missions unique to that country, in this case Malacca. In green and blue are missions available to all Malay nations, and in purple are missions available only after forming Malaya.
The Malacca Sultanate is a descendent of the Srivijaya Kingdom which dominated Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula prior to the rise of Majapahit. Malacca won the favor of Ming China during the period of Zheng He’s voyages, which set the rising city-state up to be a serious contender to Majapahit’s hegemony. By 1444 Malacca is the richest city-state in the Malay world due to its maritime control over the straits. Malacca would go on expand further on the Malay Peninsula and even onto Sumatra, before ultimately succumbing to Portuguese invasion in 1511.

Malaccan missions reflect their expansion path and diplomatic ties. Some highlights:
  • Wherever appropriate, Subjugation CB’s are awarded instead of permanent claims
  • If you complete the Subjugate Pahang mission by vassalizing Pahang, they will get a ruler of your dynasty, reduced liberty desire, and their religion will be changed from Mahayana to your religion.
  • Malacca is no longer a Ming tributary in 1444. Though in theory they maintained their relations, in reality Ming had largely abandoned its interests in the region. The Emissary to the Emperor mission allows you to restore your special relationship with Ming China.
  • Befriend Champa ties in with one of Champa’s missions - Champa needs to make a Sunni friend in Maritime SEA which gives them the option to convert to Sunni. Completing this mission grants a Subjugation CB against Champa’s greatest enemy: Dai Viet.
  • The mission Make a Show of Force requires having a superior army to both Majaphit and Siak. By demonstrating your superiority over their old overlords, Siak will willingly become your vassal.
  • The Develop Malacca mission can upgrade Malacca’s Center of Trade to level 3 after you improve its development and construct buildings in the province - including a Fort to repel the pesky Portuguese.
  • Loyal subjects grants -10 Liberty Desire in all your subjects until the end of the game.
  • Destroy Majapahit, as you might imagine, requires Majapahit to entirely cease to exist as well as for Malacca to gain a foothold on Java. Completing this mission awards a version of Majapahit’s unlimited subjugation CB: the Malacca Campaigns CB can be used against any country in the Malay culture group and the warscore cost for vassalization is reduced by 25%.

Malaccan national ideas allow them to truly dominate the spice trade and get the most out of their vassals.

Code:
MLC_ideas = {
    start = {
        global_trade_power = 0.1
        naval_forcelimit_modifier = 0.33
    }
    bonus = {
        merchants = 1
    }
    trigger = {
        tag = MLC
    }
    free = yes
    mlc_vassal_princes = {
        reduced_liberty_desire = 10
        vassal_income = 0.25
    }
    mlc_maritime_laws = {
        global_ship_trade_power = 0.2
    }
    mlc_new_hegemony = {
        diplomatic_reputation = 1
    }
    mlc_islamic_sultanate = {
        tolerance_own = 1
    }
    mlc_habor_masters = {
        trade_steering = 0.2
        num_accepted_cultures = 1
    }
    mlc_daulat = {
        legitimacy = 1
    }
    mlc_jawi_script = {
        idea_cost = -0.1
    }
}


dd_aceh.png


The Aceh Sultanate wouldn’t reach its apex until the reign of Iskandar Muda in 1583, but it’s available to play from 1444. Aceh’s missions and national ideas are also available to neighboring Pasai, which was richer and more dominant in our start date. Iskandar Muda’s conquests would gain Aceh an empire spanning most of the Sumatran coast as well as parts of the Malay Peninsula. Perhaps the most important contribution of the Aceh region to history is its status as the Porch of Mecca, the most prominent hub of Islam in Maritime SEA.

Aceh’s mission tree follows their historical conquests of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, but more interestingly it also encourages the player to spread Islam across the region. Some highlights:
  • Completing the Porch of Mecca mission allows you to use the Propagate religion trade policy with only 35% trade power in a node (down from 50%), and also unlocks the Sword of Islam CB, which allows the Force Religion peace treaty against nations with Sumatran primary culture. This CB evolves as you continue to spread your faith across the islands, gaining the ability to target Javanese, Sundanese, Moluccan, and Sulawesi cultures. Completing this branch of the mission tree allows you to use the Sword of Islam CB against any neighboring heathen country.
  • Hindus and Buddhists in the Malay culture group now have a decision to convert to Sunni Islam if it becomes their dominant religion. This gives Aceh the option to spread their faith through peaceful trade or by military force; the choice is yours.

Acehnese national ideas reflect the focus on trade, navy-driven conquest, and religious conversion:
Code:
ATJ_ideas = {
    start = {
        global_ship_cost = -0.1
        global_missionary_strength = 0.02
    }
    bonus = {
        production_efficiency = 0.1
    }
    trigger = {
        OR = {
            tag = PSA
            tag = ATJ
        }
    }
    free = yes
    export_economy = {
        global_trade_power = 0.1
    }
    islamise_sumatra = {
        missionary_maintenance_cost = -0.25
    }
    rise_of_aceh = {
        province_warscore_cost = -0.1
    }
    military_adventures = {
        naval_morale = 0.15
    }
    porch_of_mecca = {
        technology_cost = -0.10
    }
    acehnese_moneylending = {
        interest = -1
    }
    settle_the_islands = { # same as malay ideas
        global_colonial_growth = 20
    }
}


dd_bei.png


Brunei is a renegade Sultanate, breaking away from Majapahit rule while also avoiding an uncomfortably close relationship with Ming China. The Bruneian Empire would grow to encompass the entire coast of Borneo as well as parts of the Philippines, and was able to resist repeated attempts at European domination long after many of its peers had fallen.

Brunei’s missions lead them to unite Borneo under their rule, and also on a campaign of conquest in the Philippines. The missions Impress Manilla and Impress Sulu vassalize those nations if you can maintain good relations with them, regardless of whether they’d normally accept vassalization. Many of Brunei’s missions also add a province modifier to uncolonized provinces that make them much faster to colonize, hastening their unification of the islands.

Brunei’s national ideas emphasize their dominant navy and diplomatic prowess:
Code:
BEI_ideas = {
    start = {
        land_morale = 0.1
        global_ship_cost = -0.1
    }
    bonus = {
        ship_durability = 0.1
    }
    trigger = {
        tag = BEI
    }
    free = yes
    bei_galleys = {
        galley_power = 0.2
    }
    bei_sea_nomads = {
        global_sailors_modifier = 0.2
    }
    bei_diplomacy = {
        diplomatic_reputation = 1
    }
    bei_vassals = {
        reduced_liberty_desire = 10
    }
    settle_the_islands = { # same as malay ideas
        global_colonial_growth = 20
    }
    bei_naval_prowess = {
        naval_morale = 0.15
    }
    bei_trade = {
        trade_efficiency = 0.1
    }
}


dd_orang_laut.png


One last thing for today - last week I showed off some new Estate Privileges, but there is one I didn’t show that is exclusive to countries with their capital in the Malaya region. The Orang Laut were (and still are) groups of maritime nomads who extensively engaged in trade with the Malay kingdoms. They were often employed to divert trade to certain ports and to deter pirates, and would grant their allies lands and titles on the islands within their domain. This is in fact how the Malacca Sultanate got its start - Seri Teri Buana, a Srivijayan prince, was granted the small Kingdom of Singapura (modern Singapore) by the Orang Laut, a polity which would eventually become the Malacca Sultanate. Malacca begins with the Orang Laut Alliances estate privilege.

And that’s all for this week! Next week’s dev diary will be a focus on Vietnam, including the new mission trees for Dai Viet and Champa.
 
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Maintenant we see that in this region Islam will be spreaded, But that about another possibility - another wave of hindu? Will you add some way to again spread Hindu here?
One of the rewards from Majapahit's mission tree allows you to spread Hindu faith through "Propagate Religion" trade policy. I'm not sure if other Hindu tags will have access to a similar mechanic, but it's a possibility.
 
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Sadly there is no mission which targets Austrilia. Could get interesting if another power sets there a colonial state and then suddenly Australia might get more interesting for a rising asian power :/
 
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Can you explain what you mean with 'peaceful trade'? Do relations influence the neighbors' willingness to flip to Sunni?
Propagate Religion works like a center of reformation. If the majority of provinces of a specified nation is Sunni, they can decide to have Sunni as their state religion. Since Aceh can propagate at 35%, it's really easy to have them convert others early. Relations are not relevant for this.
 
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The new NIs are both weak and forgettable.
 
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damn, brunei idea is water prussia

No that's still GB. They have 20% morale, 15% HCCA and +1 maneuver.

Brunei had 10% morale, 10% durability and +20% GCA.

Morale is the most important thing in sea battles and combat ability for Heavies is both more important and grants a higher bonus.
 
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Great Post as always!
I have few suggestions, my suggestions may not be totally compatible with the game but according to historical narrative:

Malacca:
1) Malacca, as far as I understand, was still on the rise in 1444. They recently vassalized Sultanate of Aru (in Deli Area) but they still wrestling against Majapahit trade dominance in the area. Majapahit still directly control Indragiri and Tamiang in Sumatra and Kelantan as Chermin. Therefore, I think it would be appropriate for Melacca to have "historical rival" modifier to Majapahit. I think it would be better if "Get Rid of Majapahit" mission appears as a starting Melacca mission alongside "Subjugate Pahang" missions.
2) Subjugation of Pahang mission (which is still an Hindu-Buddhist kingdom) should be followed by Islamization and vassalization of the area.
3) Both of Brunei and Malacca should have "Emissary to the Emperor" mission - to Ming (or whoever the Emperor is) and keep the relationship high as a mission. In history, this resulted in trade insentive and encouragement of Islam by Ming.
4) Possibility of "Succession Crisis" disaster to Malacca - which would divide the nation into four Sultanates - Perak, Johor, Singapura and Riau-Lingga. (Singapura was predecessor of Melacca, but well..)

Brunei:
1) Historically I think Brunei couldn't care less with Southern Borneoan Kingdoms. Brunei was, more interested in Philippines, going as far as vassalizing Sultanate of Maynila, Lanao and Sulu. Maybe this could be incorporated into the missions.
2) Similarly, they still wrestling against Majapahit trade dominance in the area. Majapahit still owned Mempawah and Siantan in Borneo and they want to get rid of them as fast as possible.

Aceh:
1) Aceh, in modern times, was known as the porch of Mecca. As Islam in Indonesia began with Aceh, Aceh also historically spreaded Islam to Buddhist Pagaruyung Kingdom. Maybe an mission to defeat Pagaruyung should be the first.
2) Aceh, along with Brunei, and Ternate in history created Islamic Sultanate alliance against colonization. Even dispatching diplomat to Ottoman Empire and France to fight the Portuguese and Dutch.

I think you should do Ternate and Tidore Next! Uli Siwa and Uli Lima alliance (similar to The Hansa League) was super underrated and had a big role in fighting against the Dutch. They also embraced foreign trade policy which made them really rich historically.

Shameless promotion, but I wrote on Sumatra, Malaysia and Java on my thread. Kindly check it out https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-sumatra-java-and-more.1406143/#post-26783045
 
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korea buff plz
inwards perfection trash buff plz
korea 130-> 160~200 buff plz
yi hyang buff plz
As much as Korea needs to be buffed in development and other stuff maybe,

This dev diary is about south east asia.

Though if the devs want a discussion about content that the community wants to see fixed without too much effort, id be happy to show them some simple suggestions.
Agree with Pbhuh on this one, Korea is in a awful state right now, but it really isn't in the scope of this update. And it's barely been 2 updates since Korea got nerfed into the ground, so hopefully they get touched over some time in the future.

Many of Brunei’s missions also add a province modifier to uncolonized provinces that make them much faster to colonize, hastening their unification of the islands.

Question, does this province modifier apply to only Brunei, or can it be 'stolen' by someone else? Let's say Brunei completes a mission and the province of Taytay gets the faster colonisation modifier, but the Brunei player is currently busy colonising some other province. Could some nation like Castille swoop in and colonise the province and still get the modifier? (Such as the case with the CoT added to Zagreb in the Croatian tree not disappearing when Croatia is annexed by Hungary) Or will it only apply if the owner of the mission tree that provides it colonises it? (The Serbian Belgrade fort defence modifier disappears if the province changes hands)
 
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The missions and bonuses are quite focused on forcing others to become Sunni, but there really isn't much point in that. The moment they convert, they'll grant full tolerance to dhimmi and all that ever changes is that they are more likely to be friends with you in the future. I don't really see a point in force converting someone, they'll hate me anyway, because we were at war and they won't convert provinces.
 
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A lot of these missions seem quite inflexible regarding religion. What if I want to do a Hindu Malacca playthrough, how does this impact the way mission rewards (particularly the CB) work?
 
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A lot of these missions seem quite inflexible regarding religion. What if I want to do a Hindu Malacca playthrough, how does this impact the way mission rewards (particularly the CB) work?
There are always fallbacks but they're a lot less interesting. It's pretty much impossible to make content that is both interesting and generic to every possible situation, so if you're interested in playing through a mission tree to experience the content it's really better to do that by following the "expected" path - in this case not going to great lengths to flip your religion to Hindu as Malacca.
 
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Will there be changes to the "Death of shah Ibrahim" event? Right now it is extraordinarily punishing giving an extra -1 stab on top of the stab hit for ruler death and Shah Ibrahim isn't exactly lighting it up in terms of stats.
 
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The missions and bonuses are quite focused on forcing others to become Sunni, but there really isn't much point in that. The moment they convert, they'll grant full tolerance to dhimmi and all that ever changes is that they are more likely to be friends with you in the future. I don't really see a point in force converting someone, they'll hate me anyway, because we were at war and they won't convert provinces.
Stronger DoF bonus.
 
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There are always fallbacks but they're a lot less interesting. It's pretty much impossible to make content that is both interesting and generic to every possible situation, so if you're interested in playing through a mission tree to experience the content it's really better to do that by following the "expected" path - in this case not going to great lengths to flip your religion to Hindu as Malacca.
Would opting to go Hindu instead of the expected Sunni as Ternate or Tidore trip up the expected path of progression in any way?
 
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Very engaging!

@neondt
You didn't replied two dev diaries earlier about Cirebon and Banten. Will Sunda Kingdom, like Majapahit, get events to broke the country and release these two nations?
Has Sunda straits gone? I can't see it anymore on the map.
 
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