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EU4 - Development Diary - 12th of January 2021

After a few weeks without Dev Diaries, I am happy to present you a new one. I hope you all had a great time during them!

When I joined Paradox in October, Polynesia was not included in this Expansion. Considering it was the last part of the Earth without representation, I thought it would be nice to have some work done on it, so I proposed some ideas that I am happy to share with you all.

But, before I start, I would like to thank @Meka66 for his help and work that has greatly inspired me for this project.

THE MAP
The map has been slightly changed, since the basic needed setup was already there. However, in order to go a bit deeper, a few provinces have been added here and there. Do note that the flags are still a placeholder and not the final result.

Starting with Fiji, the archipelago has been divided in three provinces: one for each big island (Viti Levu and Vanua Levu) and a third one for the Lau archipelago that had a great influence from Tonga. Each province has a country inhabiting it, which is an abstraction of the many clans that populated each island. Should you unite them all under your banner, you will be able to form Viti.

Fiji Archipelago.png

[Fiji Archipelago and TAGs]​

In New Zealand a new province has been added in North Island which has the most populated one by the Maori people. The number of countries, though, goes up to 7. Six of them (Mataatua, Tainui, Takitimu, Taranaki, Te Arawa and Te Tai Tokerau) are in the Northern Island and Waitaha is in the Southern One. As in the case of Fiji, a Maori country that manages to unite the area is able to form Aotearoa.

New Zealand Archipelago.png

[New Zealand Archipelago and TAGs]​

Finally, the greatest transformation has been done in the Hawaiian Archipelago, that has gone from one province to four. Each province has their own country attached (Hawai’i, Kaua’i, Maui and O’ahu). As in the other cases, there is a formable for the unifiers of the islands.

Hawaii Archipelago.png

[Hawaii Archipelago and TAGs]​

A Polynesian rework could not let the two most important countries out: Samoa and Tonga.

Samoa & Tonga Archipelago.png

[Samoan and Tongan Archipelagos and TAGs]​

THE MISSIONS
As in the case of the Americas, the mission tree consists of a general common mission tree for every country and some specific missions for each country or group of them.

Tongan Mission Tree.png

[Tonga Mission Tree]
(Notice that all icons are still placeholders)​

Tonga is probably the most important TAG during this period. Despite the fact that the Tongan Empire is no more, a skillful player could rebuild it, bringing not only the neighboring islands under the control of Tongatapu, but go even further.

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Bringing both Fiji and Samoa under your control again.
  • Recovering the Tongan Empire.
  • Expand even further.

Samoan Mission Tree.png

[Samoan Mission Tree]
(Notice that all icons are still placeholders).​

If Tonga was the political power during the period, Samoa was the cultural one. Most of the Pacific was colonized from there and from there were most of the traditions that ruled the lives of the Polynesians.

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Recover the place as the cultural center.
  • Challenge Tonga.
  • Replace Tonga as the main power in the Pacific.

In order to not spoil the surprise, I will let you discover what the missions for the Maori the Fijian and the Hawaiian countries consist of.

THE NATIONAL IDEAS
Adding new TAGs would not be the same if they were not accompanied by their National Ideas.

Starting with the Fijians TAGs, their warring nature brought them a reputation of ruthless combatants, feared by everyone. But Fijians were also deeply religious people and famous shipbuilding artisans. All these things are represented in their National Ideas, making them a rather expansionist set.

Code:
fijian_ideas = {
    start = {
        light_ship_power = 0.1
        naval_attrition = -0.1
    }
  
    bonus = {
        ae_impact = -0.2
    }
  
    trigger = {
        OR = {
            tag = LAI
            tag = VIL
            #TODO: tag = VIT
            tag = VNL
        }
    }
    free = yes
  
    fijian_crossroad = {
        num_accepted_cultures = 2
    }
    fijian_degel = {
        range = 0.1
        global_ship_trade_power = 0.1
    }
    fijian_conjoined = {
        global_missionary_strength = 0.02
    }
    fijian_waqa = {
        prestige_from_naval = 0.4
    }
    fijian_cannibal = {
        army_tradition_from_battle = 0.25
        prestige_from_land = 0.4
    }
    fijian_kai = {
        land_attrition = -0.25
    }
    fijian_confederacy = {
        global_tax_modifier = 0.05
        production_efficiency = 0.05
    }
}
[Fijian National Ideas]​

As in the case of the Fijians, the Maori are famed for their bravery and constant warfare. Their set of ideas is focused on land combat, without disregarding ways to keep the land around a strong leader.

Code:
maori_ideas = {
    start = {
        global_regiment_recruit_speed = -0.10
        harsh_treatment_cost = -0.20
    }
  
    bonus = {
        prestige = 1
    }
  
    trigger = {
        primary_culture = maori
    }
    free = yes
  
    sons_of_kupe = {
        global_sailors_modifier = 0.10
        range = 0.10
    }
    kaikiakitanga = {
        tolerance_own = 1
    }
    kaumatua = {
        stability_cost_modifier = -0.20
    }
    kapa_haka = {
        land_morale = 0.10
    }
    pa_defence = {
        fort_maintenance_modifier = -0.10
    }
    te_moko = {
        leader_land_shock = 1
    }
    maori_king = {
        core_creation = -0.10
        legitimacy = 1
    }
}
[Maori National Ideas]​

As with the missions, we’d better not spoil the surprise by showing everything, am I right? I have a challenge for those that love them: try a world conquest with a Polynesian TAG! There are a couple of things in this area that could help you in that adventure. ;)

THE EVENTS
Events are one of the parts I like the most. While not as much time as I would have liked has been available, I have added more than 40 events to the area, including general events, specific Country events and even a few Easter eggs that I hope you can find and enjoy!

Fiji Event.png

Practice is what makes you a good warrior, after all.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).

Hawaii Event.png

This event can be very nasty if you are in a very bad shape.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).

Samoan Event.png

As Samoa, you will be given the choice to reform your society a bit or go on with the traditions with every ruler.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).​

THE EXTRAS
There are a few things that have been added in order to create a bigger sense of immersion.

Maori culture has been created, separated from the main Polynesian branch. By the start of the game, the Maori were abandoning the Archaic Maori Period and entering a transformation one. The Iwi became more sedentary and their once pacific nature became more warlike as competition for resources becomes more central. New traditions had evolved by this time that justifies separating them from their islander cousins.

A new Polynesian technology group has been created. This technology group is between that of the Mesoamericans and the North Americans in penalty, but starts at tech 2.

Most Estates have been renamed to their proper versions to increase the flavor.

And some extra surprises here and there.

For now this is all. We still have lots of things to show, so just be patient and enjoy the time in between, everything will come!
 
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Iam just unsure with the timeline, if we EU4 should allow this countries at the other end of the world to be able to "conquer" the world, or even see more than america and SEA AT the END of the timeline. But I guess the this new technology group represents that in a bit.
Do you think all Polynesian peoples were still totally unaware and out of contact with any other part of the world at late as 1812? Of course these nations get visibility within the EU4 timeline; not only does it make sense historically, but EU4 is not a precise historical simulation game, it's a game which allows you to play with and change history. You don't complain about Byzantium being able to ally with major European powers in 1444 and defeat the Ottomans, which is incredibly deeply ahistorical, do you?
 
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Paradox hires content designers because without them it doesn't actually have a game, just an engine without any actual countries, events, or any of the other essentials that make the game Europa Universalis rather than a piece of software.

Given that learning to content design for those games is actually a pretty massive learning curve, one might presume that they'd rather have content designers working on side projects during lulls rather than firing-and-hiring as needed and praying the new people catch up quickly to the skills of the one you just let go.

And that's not even considering the fact that it's been explicitly said that a good part of the new content in past DDs wasn't done on paid hours - it was pet projects that various people worked on in their free time. Which paradox has precisely zero say in how they use - they either take the content created that way, or they don't. I'm not saying this particular addition was done on free time (I have no idea whether or not it was), but the fact remains relevant in general.

Finally, if they were to wait until everyone was satisfied with Europe before touching anywhere else, they'd never do anything else. There will always be more to add in Europe - I mean, CK kinda proves that - and always people to ask for that to be added.
 
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Paradox hires content designers because without them it doesn't actually have a game, just an engine without any actual countries, events, or any of the other essentials that make the game Europa Universalis rather than a piece of software.

Given that learning to content design for those games is actually a pretty massive learning curve, one might presume that they'd rather have content designers working on side projects during lulls rather than firing-and-hiring as needed and praying the new people catch up quickly to the skills of the one you just let go.

And that's not even considering the fact that it's been explicitly said that a good part of the new content in past DDs wasn't done on paid hours - it was pet projects that various people worked on in their free time. Which paradox has precisely zero say in how they use - they either take the content created that way, or they don't. I'm not saying this particular addition was done on free time (I have no idea whether or not it was), but the fact remains relevant in general.

Finally, if they were to wait until everyone was satisfied with Europe before touching anywhere else, they'd never do anything else. There will always be more to add in Europe - I mean, CK kinda proves that - and always people to ask for that to be added.
Specifically for CK2, the free Iron Century start date aside from the art was made as a content designer's pet project if I recall.
 
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Just look at how the US keeps perpetuating that dated stereotype of vikings having horned helmets, which at best only applied to a few ceremonial helmets.
Who even still does that outside of obviously parodic or comical portrayals? If anything the criticism of horned helmets has outnumbered their representation in fiction years ago. I'd like to see them making a comeback in works that don't aim to be accurate or realistic, they're funny.

Modern misrepresentation of Vikings is all about portraying them as wild bikers who use boats instead of bikes, clothes made of leather randomly patched with fur and half-shaved haircuts that look very trendy but are of suspect historicity.

So... The Vikings TV show and Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
 
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Wait until americans decide to make a TV show about them.
They already did a movie about black vikings.
So who knows.
You don't complain about Byzantium being able to ally with major European powers in 1444 and defeat the Ottomans, which is incredibly deeply ahistorical, do you?
Defeating the Ottos defintely unrealistic.
But allying major, European powers? Not really. We're starting just after the defeat of the crusade for Varna where major, European powers came to the aid of the Byzzies. It's not deeply ahistorical to think of other powers wanting antoher try. Unlikely, yes, quite unlikely probably, but not deeply ahistorical.
Another attempt probably would have just ended the same, though.

Far more often that i should have lmao
What do you mean?
A proper representation would have lots of nudity, and the berserkers basically would just be naked men high on mushrooms screaming and yelling as they ran towards you with a huge battle axe, possibly wearing a bear hide or something.
It was part of the intimidation tactics.

Who even still does that outside of obviously parodic or comical portrayals? If anything the criticism of horned helmets has outnumbered their representation in fiction years ago. I'd like to see them making a comeback in works that don't aim to be accurate or realistic, they're funny.

Modern misrepresentation of Vikings is all about portraying them as wild bikers who use boats instead of bikes, clothes made of leather randomly patched with fur and half-shaved haircuts that look very trendy but are of suspect historicity.

So... The Vikings TV show and Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Here's one recent example of horns still being used.
While horns aren't as omnipresent as they used to be, they still are used a lot.
086fc2cbf7a4c30bb2d5efd4b234c1d1.jpg





Btw, speaking of horns, then they might actually have been used in ceremonial helmets, espceally for berserkers. But before somebody mentioned that perhaps Heimdal is meant to portray that then that knowledge is extremely recent. Only a few years old and stems from some archeological finds of small figurines with what appears to potentially being horns in a ceremonial helmed.

For actual helmets used for fighting, thugh, then that is a myth that they had horns.


With regards to haircuts then I've not seen the vikings show or played Valhalla, so no idea how exactly hair is done there.
But proper haircuts were important to vikings and combs were a super important accessory. They wren't dirty, smelly peple like they often have been portrayed as. They took a pride in their hair.

Here's some examples of how people could have looked like back then from the national museum. Note that we don't know for certain, but this is a good guess based on available, historical and archeological records.
lyngvild3.jpg

lyngvild.jpg




E.g. the forkbeard was used, that much we know, as one of our viking kings literally has forkbeard as his nickname.
 
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In fairness, that's not actually a Viking (or, more accurately, a Norseman) . That's a member of an alien species who (in the context of the film) inspired the Norse gods. Lots of discrepancies there - a famously redhead god even turns out to actually be based on a blond alien, can you imagine?

It wasn't going to be historically accurate any which way is what I'm saying :p
 
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A proper representation would have lots of nudity, and the berserkers basically would just be naked men high on mushrooms screaming and yelling as they ran towards you with a huge battle axe, possibly wearing a bear hide or something.
Am I being meme'd?

My condolences for what Marvel did to your gods though.
The good part of having relatively obscure pantheon is that mass media won't be dragging my their names through the mud anytime soon.
 
I hope that these new nations will have some specific way of getting Marines; if anyone should have a way to use sailors as island-hopping soldiers, this area should.
 
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The good part of having relatively obscure pantheon is that mass media won't be dragging my their names through the mud anytime soon.
Are you sure they haven't featured in a Shin Megami Tensei game? :)
 
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I don't think people are expecting a content designer to fix bugs. But Paradox choses what kind of people they hire and put in their teams. The question that can be asked: why is Paradox's focus on content?
I am also curios as to why content designers cannot be used to take a stab at fixing some of the worst problems in the game. After all, suppose you have a great power in heavy debt, could we not have a triggered event to give them some penalty, but pay off their loans? Could we look at having some sequence of dynamic events that causes relationship improvements to Russia, Poland, and Austria should a non-Christian have Ottoman-level expansion into SE Europe? Or perhaps we might have some content events to delay the Reformation (e.g. some pan-European events that reduce Reform Desire and give a bonus that the AI will love clicking)?


Maybe there is something about the process involved for content design, but I could easily see a half dozen options to work on some events (if nothing else) to help with core game issues (e.g. early Reformations, perpetual AI bankruptcy, lack of meaningful coalition behavior, weird AI build priorities). Certainly I have seen odd mods here and there that make some progress on this stuff without needing to actually recode anything in the engine itself.


And some more meaningful dynamic historical event chains for places like the Papacy, the HRE, the OE, Spain, etc. would provide me with a lot more fun in the overwhelming majority of my games when I am not playing whichever countries get the new content. As is some new states in the Pacific will not have significant interactions with me for the majority of my games and even the AIs they interact with outside the region are not going to have a whole lot going on (e.g. some Maori tribe will unify New Zealand and ... invade Borneo, make it harder for the AI to get trade out of Australia, make it harder for trans-Pacific colonization?

I could be completely wrong, but I think we could get more bang for our buck by throwing some more event chains, triggers, etc. into China, India, Persia, Mexico, Mali, or Brazil than in fleshing out more microstates.
 
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Yes.
[GigaChad reaction picture]

Memes aside, this isn't about wanting the glorification of any particular nation's past.
This is about giving an obvious example of two European civilizations with a surprisingly similar historical modus operandi, and yet one is incredibly glorified in all media while the other doesn't even make it to footnotes.
The overarching point is how "Eurocentrism" doesn't apply to all Europeans equally.


You made a good point, but you didn't look exactly what was beyond Portugal/Spanish/France/UK ,they were Christian Nations, and the native which they conquered and invaded were viewed as Pagans and by that again why they got displeasure and could not believe that native nation from stone age could sail to island on the mid of pacific.

The Viking on the other side conquered and invaded Christian Kingdoms because that same Christian Kingdoms were invading Pagan territory and destroying their culture.
So the media glorify the Viking because they much did the impossible, fight a well established Christian Kingdoms . But there is more about why Viking raided Europe. And as some said not all Scandinavian guys were Vikings, Vikings were a group of them.
 
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You made a good point, but you didn't look exactly what was beyond Portugal/Spanish/France/UK ,they were Christian Nations, and the native which they conquered and invaded were viewed as Pagans and by that again that was they got a displeasure and could not believe that native nation from stone age could sail to island on the mid of pacific.

The Viking on the other side conquered and invaded Christian Kingdoms because that same Christian Kingdoms were invading Pagan territory and destroying their culture.
So the media glorify the Viking because they much did the impossible, fight a well established Christian Kingdoms . But is more depth problems.

"Did the impossible"
Lmao
Let me have a quick look here at the "stone age" natives:

Imagine if they had established kingdoms there. /s

Imagine spending one year in the sea, crossing 24000 miles of ocean, facing one of the most powerfull empires of the age, and the best achievement you have is facing natives... It proves spot on Bandua's argument.
And I'm not even including Portuguese Mamluk War, which you can read a bit here on how the Portuguese contributed to the ottoman takeover:

And yet again I'm not mentioning the conflicts with the already established kingdoms in India like for example, my favourite:
 
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D

"Did the impossible"
Lmao
Let me have a quick look here at the "stone age" natives:

Imagine if they had established kingdoms there.
Again you did the same mistake as the other guy:

Viking time:
Vikings[a] were the seafaring Norse people from southern Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden)[3][4][5] who from the late 8th to late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe, and explored westward to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings
Viking religion: Norse Paganism
Since the fall of Roman Empire and when Romans declared Christian as main religion, they fought against paganism.

Ottoman Empire time:
It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt (modern-day Bilecik Province) by the Turkoman[16][17] tribal leader Osman I.[18] After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire


Ottoman Religion: Islam that is branch of Abraham faith.

The Christian Kingdoms were fight Islam since the Crusaders ages.

There is enumerous documents from Europe Nations Rejecting Native culture and religion... and they could not believe in any of their history.
 
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When I joined Paradox in October, Polynesia was not included in this Expansion. Considering it was the last part of the Earth without representation

There are MANY, MANY parts of the game map without representation. If Europa Universalis IV is based on colonialism, absolutism and early imperialism from 1444-1821. Then there are several areas that should be developed.

220px-america_1794-png.671439


  • Alaska and Russia around the Bering Strait should be developed to reflect Russian colonial interests.
  • Rupert's Land and Lower Canada desperate need to be flush out to reflect the history fur trade and the importance of the Hudson Bay Company (there are no events in game for this). In fact, the map should probably be extended laterally to reflect British exploration around Canada in an attempt to find a route to Asia.
  • Given Portugese, Spanish, English, French, Dutch (and American interests as a newly found nation). The Carribean is woefully barred of colonializable islands and territories that hold strategic and resource valuable points. Where is Trinidad? Tobago? Isla de la Juventud? The Florida Keys? Cayman Islands? Curaçao? Santa Catalina? Grenada? Montserrat? US Virgin Islands? British Virgin Islands? Nassau? Andros Island? Abaco? Grand Bahama? Long Island? Crooked Island? Inagua Islands? Sid Meier's Pirates! Has more island/province development in the Carribean. How can you roleplay as a pirate nation? Are these in many cases small slivers of land? Yes. However, unlike the channel islands, its colonialization was a point of contention between Global Empires. Adding them does due diligence to the people who live there as well as being historically accurate.

31537.jpg


The Pacific Northwest should reflect the tribes that lived there as well as British, Russian, French and Spanish Exploration. I'm disappointed that Vancouver Island isn't separate from the Continent. Honestly, there should be a "Lewis and Clark" expansion that focuses on the region of the Louisiana Purchase, the Pacific Northwest and the Pacific Coast. This makes it late into the game, but Europeans and Americans were disputing nearly every part of North America. If EU4 is about making your own history, it's hard to feel I'm rewriting history when Colonization seems to happen so rapidly and with so little effort.

Finally, I believe that doing research on Colonies or Feitorias established by Portugal and all other major powers (along old trade lanes to Asia or parts of the New World). Would give you a list of provinces that would be great to implement and help players reach Asia with the current punitive naval attrition. This was In both multiplayer and singleplayer the race to South East Asia is more than just the first one to the Cape of Good Hope and a paucity number of islands in between.

This is purely some constructive criticism, I appreciate the changes you've made so far, but for the sake of the community, and balancing players wants and historical accuracy. Players like small islands. I would assume historically that colonial powers also liked small islands since they are able to be easily defendable positions if you control the entirety of it. After all, the British still hold Gibraltar which is a small heavily fortified position.
 

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Portugal had its glory and fought with Spain all the way down, but in my play games they live in peaceful harmony, don't know why or is just with me.

@Sete I know the history of Portugal Empire, theirs war against Dutchs, they were the firsts to found a route to India....
For me this changes on Native will give more depth to the game and more realism.
 
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Yes! Finally we can simulate the history of the Pacific better. This is great! I've been waiting for some Polynesian love since picking up the game in 2014 while living in Hawaii. And I think you nailed it for Hawaii, with the historic four main chiefdoms/petty kingdoms fighting each other until someone manages what Kamahameha I historically did and unites the island chain. Can't wait to see their missions (I'm guessing uniting the islands and maybe some interactions with European powers?) and ideas. :D
 
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