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EU4 - Development Diary - 1st of September 2020

Good morning! This will be the last in my series of dev diaries about new content coming to South-East Asia. This week we’ll be covering another assortment of countries, with a focus on Lan Xang and Sunda.

dd_lxa.png


Above is the mission tree for Lan Xang, the Land of a Million Elephants. Lan Xang was founded in 1353, in the midst of the collapse of the Khmer Empire. A Lao prince, Fa Ngum, was given an army by the Khmer king and as well as authority to establish a friendly buffer state in modern Laos. Laos was once ruled directly by the Khmer, but the empire was no longer capable of exerting any control over the region. Fa Ngum was successful in his campaigns and carved out the Kingdom of Lan Xang, ultimately becoming even more powerful than the crumbling Khmer empire.

Some highlights for this mission tree:
  • Much like in the Vietnamese mission tree, one part of the tree kicks off with the conflict over the one-province nation of Muang Phuan. Owning the province or having it owned by your subject will grant a Subjugation CB against Dai Viet.
  • The Raid on Cambodia mission grants a Subjugation CB against Khmer.
  • You’ll have to Subjugate Lan Na using your own means, but once you do you’ll get a Subjugation CB against Ayutthaya.
  • Last week we talked about the Emerald Buddha mini-mechanic, and Lan Xang is one of the nations that must acquire the Buddha as part of their mission tree. I’ll get into the subsequent mission in just a bit.
  • I’ll also talk about the Avoid Fragmentation mission below, but essentially it requires surviving intact until 1700.

Lan Xang has also received a couple of tweaks to their national ideas:
  • 10% cavalry power increased to 15%
  • 1% Missionary Strength replaced with 15% Cavalry/Infantry Ratio

LXA can form Siam to get their more extensive mission tree as well as a new set of National Ideas.

dd_lxa_animists.png


I mentioned that I’d talk more about Lan Xang’s religious missions. Above is a new Estate Privilege for the Monastic Orders, available to Lao countries in the Eastern religion group. Lan Xang begins with this privilege in 1444. It greatly increases your Tolerance of Heathens and negates the religious unity penalty of your Animist provinces, but it also significantly increases the Influence of the Monastic Orders and entirely negates the +2 Tolerance of the True Faith from your National Ideas. The Convert the Polytheists mission requires that you revoke this privilege, convert all the Animists in your country, and achieve at least 90% Religious Unity. To help with revoking the privilege, completing the Steal the Emerald Buddha mission grants +20 Monastic Orders Loyalty.

dd_religion.png


On the topic of religion, here’s the religion mapmode in 1444. Of particular note are all the Animist provinces owned by Lan Xang, the bastion of Mahayana Buddhism in inland Pahang, and the fact that Ligor is now a Siamese Buddhist nation.

I also mentioned Lan Xang’s Avoid Fragmentation mission. Unlike several other countries in the South-East Asia update, this doesn’t refer to a full-fledged Disaster, but instead it’s a series of additional events added to the existing Civil War Disaster if you are playing as Lan Xang.

dd_lxa_civil_war.png


If during this Disaster pretender rebels occupy either Vientiane, Champassak, or Luang Prabang an event will fire that releases the respective country from their home state as well as the Khorat state for Vientiane and Champassak if you own any of it. If when one of these events fires you do not own the other two cities, instead your tag will change to either Vientiane, Champassak, or Luang Prabang depending on the circumstance. Players will be warned about these events when the Civil War Disaster begins for Lan Xang. You can prevent this from happening by either avoiding the Civil War Disaster, completing the Prevent Fragmentation mission, or forming a different nation (such as Siam).

Now on to a very different nation:

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Shown above is the mission tree for Sunda, with unique missions highlighted in red and the rest being the Malay mission tree. The Sunda Kingdom is an ancient realm, surviving through the rise and fall of great empires without ever establishing a hegemony of their own. For nearly all of their shared history, Sunda and Majapahit had excellent relations and recognized each other as equals despite the disparity in strength. This changed when the Majapahit leader Gajah Mada - having vowed to bring all of Nusantara under Majapahit rule - used a royal wedding to declare Majapahit’s supremacy over Sunda. This resulted in the Battle of Bubat in 1357, which Sunda decisively lost. Despite this, Majapahit did not go on to conquer Sunda. Instead, the Majapahit court punished Gajah Mada for his dishonorable actions and stripped him of his power. Sunda survived, but relations between the two states would never recover.

Some highlights from the Sunda mission tree::
  • The Consider Islam mission requires owning 4 Sunni provinces and fires an event giving you the opportunity to convert your nation to Sunni Islam, immediately converting several of your provinces. Alternatively you can gain 1% Missionary Strength and +1 Tolerance of the True Faith for the rest of the game while remaining Hindu.
  • The next mission, Develop New Cities, requires increasing the development of Cirebon, Kalapa, and Banten to 20. This will then fire an event prompting you to relocate your capital: picking Banten or Cirebon will immediately cause you change your nation to Banten or Cirebon. Whichever capital you pick, it will gain +2 additional development in each category and Kalapa will be renamed to Jayakarta.
  • The Rebuild Candi Temples mission requires owning at least 15 Temple buildings and finding an ally that follows any Buddhist faith. Completing this mission unlocks the Buddha Personal Deity discussed previously.
  • The Improve Rice Production mission unlocks the Improved Irrigation privilege discussed previously that reduced the development cost of your grain-producing provinces by 10%.
  • The Legacy of Bubat mission can be completed in two very different ways. One method requires that you become strong enough to guarantee Majapahit - this fires an event that describes a royal wedding between Sundanese and Majapahit royalty, and in a reversal of the betrayal preceding Bubat Sunda will take the opportunity to make Majapahit into a vassal state.
  • The subsequent Rule Java mission requires directly owning all of Java, and rewards a free Administrative Policy for the rest of the game.
  • The Conquer Lampung mission rewards Subjugation CB’s against every country with its capital on Sumatra.

dd_spice.png


Shown above are the missions unique to the Spice Islands of Ternate and Tidore - they’ll also get the Malay mission tree. These nations have the potential to become very rich through a monopoly on the trade in Cloves, a new trade good discussed in a previous dev diary.

Some highlights for Tidore and Ternate:
  • The missions begin by tasking you with removing your rival spice traders from the map. Once you accomplish this, an event will fire asking you to select a location for your first colony. This will naturally great a colony in the selected location. Subsequent missions in the leftmost branch require the completion of these colonies and reward additional colonies on completion.
  • Completing this branch of missions rewards you with +1 Colonist and -50% Native uprising Chance for the rest of the game.
  • Export Cloves requires being the strongest trade power in the Moluccas node, as well as building to your naval forcelimit. It awards permanent claims on Sulawesi, which you pursue in the Conquer Sulawesi mission.

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One last set of missions: Bali! Once again, Bali also receives the Malay mission tree.

  • Bali begins as a tributary state of Majapahit, and its first mission requires ending that relationship while not having a truce with Majapahit. Completing this mission rewards you with a free colony on the neighboring island of Lombok. Completing this colony allows you to complete the Expand Eastwards mission, which then rewards an additional colony on Sumbawa and +25 Global Settler Increase for the rest of the game.
  • The Majapahit Refugees requires that Majapahit either does not exist or is a subject nation. This grants you a massive -80% advisor cost for 20 years, representing the flight of many former Majapahit nobles to Bali. It also awards permanent claims on eastern Java.

Last thing for today: national ideas for the formable nations of Siam and Malaya.

Code:
MSA_ideas = {
    start = {
        global_trade_power = 0.15
        land_morale = 0.1
    }
    bonus = {
        ship_durability = 0.1
    }
    trigger = {
        tag = MSA
    }
    free = yes
    settle_the_islands = { # same as malay ideas
        global_colonial_growth = 20
    }
    msa_advanced_galley_warfare = {
        galley_power = 0.25
    }
    msa_expert_haggling = {
        trade_efficiency = 0.15
    }
    msa_chart_the_seas = {
        own_coast_naval_combat_bonus = 1
        naval_morale = 0.15
    }
    msa_in_every_port = {
        merchants = 1
        ship_power_propagation = 0.2
    }
    msa_sea_nomads_steering = {
        trade_steering = 0.25
    }
    msa_spice_kings = {
        global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.1
    }
}

Code:
SIA_ideas = {
    start = {
        land_morale = 0.1
        global_manpower_modifier = 0.3
    }
    bonus = {
        discipline = 0.05
    }
    trigger = {
        tag = SIA
    }
    free = yes
    sia_royal_poets = {
        prestige = 1
        idea_cost = -0.1
    }
    sia_advanced_elephant_warfare = {
        cavalry_power = 0.15
        cavalry_fire = 1
    }
    sia_experienced_ambassadors = {
        diplomatic_reputation = 2
    }
    sia_encourage_immigration = {
        development_cost = -0.1
    }
    sia_integrating_the_realm = {
        diplomatic_annexation_cost = -0.2
    }
    sia_education_reform = {
        technology_cost = -0.1
    }
    sia_royal_absolutism = {
        yearly_absolutism = 1
        legitimacy = 1
    }
}

That’s all for today! This concludes the 8-part series of development diaries on content for South-East Asia. There are a few things I've done that haven't been featured in dev diaries and there's a possibility of more content for the region being added before release, so don't take these dev diaries as a completely exhaustive list of all SEA content. This content update for South-East Asis is something I’ve wanted to work on for a few years now and I’m very happy that I was able to see my vision realized before the end of my time on the project. I hope you enjoyed reading. Thank you and goodbye!
 

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"Whoever is Lord of Malacca has his hands on the throat of Venice."

- Tome Pires

Also, Malaya is a formable while Venice exist from 1444. Also also, Venitian ideas have always been considered borderline bad.

That wasn't related to Malay states galley warfare or trade efficiency but rather because the trade Venice profited from had its goods from Southeast Asia. I am not even sure why you thought that quote was relevant here but no that aphorism doesn't explain this situation at all. Venice benefited from existence of independent Malay states, not harmed by it since they relied on independent Indian and Southeast Asian traders sending goods to Red Sea and Persian gulf. Not only that, even for the context of Portugal and Venice, it wasn't true, considering that after initial blockade of Red Sea and Persian gulf trade routes which choked Venetian profits coupled with their war with Ottomans in 1499, they managed to recoup their loses and had a government revenue that far exceeded Portugal's in rest of 16th century. I suppose since if you blockade red sea trade route, Venice is hurt by lack of supply it would be sensible that we should also give Mamlukes 25% galley warfare, 10% ship durability and 15% naval morale because Tome Pires said some cool sounding phrase 500 years ago.

Yes, Venetian ideas are terrible (hence my suggestion thread) but they had an unique situation of having best galley combat ability, now they lost even that flavour. However even if they were not, this ideaset is way better than what the ideal Venice could have been, considering their unique focus on galley warfare and doing trade efficiently.
 
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but they had an unique situation of having best galley combat ability, now they lost even that flavour.

Well, but that doesn't really affect Venice, does it? Knowing that some country on the other side of the globe might have better galleys does not make Venice's galleys worse. If played right, they will still be the ruler of the Mediterranean Waves.
 
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Well, but that doesn't really affect Venice, does it? Knowing that some country on the other side of the globe might have better galleys does not make Venice's galleys worse. If played right, they will still be the ruler of the Mediterranean Waves.
Not to mention Malaya is only the ruler of the waves in a region it's pretty much guaranteed to rule the waves of by the time it forms anyway...
 
Well, but that doesn't really affect Venice, does it? Knowing that some country on the other side of the globe might have better galleys does not make Venice's galleys worse. If played right, they will still be the ruler of the Mediterranean Waves.

It does effect Venice, because there are certain flavours in the game. This is not some sort of pure mechanical experience in interactions of game fundamentals. There is a theme of historical context here, while it isn't and shouldn't attempt to be realistic, it should try to keep its theme and flavour.

This same case why Prussia has extremely strong set of military ideas, or why Poland has best cavalry combat idea, or why Ottomans get siege bonuses, why Portugal and Spain have bonuses to colonisation. By its sheer position, Portugal needs no bonuses to colonisation at all because it's the one best suited to colonise right from start yet gets them anyway. Because there is a certain flavour and image to these states that is fit within the general theme of the game.

Venice having a weak idea set for galley warfare or trade is same as Ottomans having bad siege, Poland having bad cavalry, Portugal and Spain being bad at colonisation, Great Britain being bad at heavy ship warfare. Whether galley warfare or trade bonuses are relevant to world conquest or not isn't even part of the discussion, cavalry is not particularly useful in this game either but a lot of states get passing bonuses to cavalry because of their flavour. Moreover, this is about direct, relative comparison of what two states both by flavour focused on galley warfare and trade should have. By same consideration of themes and flavour that has Poland have strongest cavalry in the game (which is not even historically accurate, but concerns image rather), Venice should have strongest galley warfare.

This type of argument you make can be literally made by any idea in the game, and by same token extended to thought process that why should ideas represent any type of historical flavour at all, if you are to only consider starting positions and gameplay fundamentals, you should redo all idea sets in the game.
 
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Thanks for your hard work @neondt, we appreciate it.
Although I'm a bit disappointed that there is no event or mission tree for Demak or Makassar despite they have larger territory and influence than Sunda or Bali.

Also, please change the religion of Pagarruyung from Therevada into Mahayana. Historically, Old Malay Kingdoms from Srivijaya, Dharmasraya, to Pagarruyung are adherent of Mahayana Buddhism.
 
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It's formable now! You have to play as Sambas and Ming must not own that one coastal Hakka province. Lanfang has a unique government reform and national ideas.
Cool!
I have no idea what you're talking about ;)
Animism divided after all? :eek:
 
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Let me once again talk about national ideas, since NIs are a big part of whether you see nations in multiplayer:

Malaya:

Similar to Brunei, the 10% Land Morale has literally no reason to be there. Other than that it's fine, although a dev cost modifier would have been nice.

Siam:

This is now arguably the best land national idea set in the entire Oriental. If you're playing anyone in Indochina or near it (Burma, Bengal), then there's literally no reason to swap to Siamese culture and grab these national ideas. I think it's hilarious how the manpower creep in national ideas has finally hit the 30s now.

10% Morale and 5% Discipline is great, but the craziest part is the +1 Cavalry Fire AND +15% CCA. Mind you, Cavalry Fire only goes up to 1 in vanilla: +0.5 at tech 11 and +0.5 at tech 22. This makes Cavalry worth using and means that ~20% of Siam's armies will be slamming you during the shock phase, since their Cavalry will literally be 200% better for most of the mid-late game during the fire phase and actually survive it. -10% Development Cost is god as well.

Hell, even faraway nations like Korea, Malayans not going Naval, probably Manchu as well will want to form Siam now, since East Asia is somewhat lacking in such easy to access good NIs.
 
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