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EU4 - Development Diary - 21st of July 2020

Hello again! Last week I asked you all what nation you’d like me to focus on today, and the two most popular answers were Ayutthaya and Majapahit. Today I’ll focus on Ayutthaya, with Majapahit coming up next week.

dd_ayu.png


Ayutthaya is the nation that would eventually become known to the West as Siam. It is named after its massive capital city, so large and so bustling with activity that even its canals were filled with floating markets. By 1700 it may have had 1 million inhabitants, making it one of the largest cities on the planet. In 1444 Ayutthaya is a nation on the rise. In 1378 it subjugated Sukhothai, taking its place as the dominant Thai kingdom. In 1431, Ayutthaya sacked the great city of Angkor, capital of the Khmer Empire. The devastation wrought by the Thai armies was so great that the following centuries are known as the Dark Age of Cambodia - more on that in a later dev diary. Ayutthaya also rules the vassal kingdom of Ligor on the Malay Peninsula, and would go on to launch a narrowly unsuccessful invasion of Malacca and a more successful subjugation of its smaller kingdoms like Pattani.

dd_trailok.png


By 1444 Sukhothai is barely even a subject kingdom. Taking advantage of the political situation, Ayutthaya appointed Prince Trailok as King of Sukhothai. Upon the death of his father, Trailok would inherit both kingdoms and rule from Ayutthaya. This will now happen in EU4.

In 1.30 Ayutthaya’s national ideas are both a little on the weak side and not especially supportive of a South-East Asian playstyle. I’ve made some changes to their national ideas to better reflect the flavor of the nation, focusing on vassal-play and diplomacy:

Code:
AYU_ideas = {
    start = {
        cavalry_power = 0.15
        liberty_desire_from_subject_development = -0.2
    }
 
    bonus = {
        diplomatic_annexation_cost = -0.15
    }
 
    trigger = {
        tag = AYU
    }
    free = yes
 
    white_elephant = {
        vassal_income = 0.2
    }
    corvee_system = {
        global_manpower_modifier = 0.25
    }
    trading_links = {
        diplomatic_reputation = 1
    }
    ayu_foreign_mercenaries = {
        merc_maintenance_modifier = -0.15
    }
    ayu_embassies = {
        improve_relation_modifier = 0.3
    }
    phrai_luang = {
        development_cost = -0.1
    }
    personal_executions = {
        harsh_treatment_cost = -0.2
    }
}

Of course it wouldn't be a South-East Asia update without new mission trees. Below is the new mission tree for Ayutthaya, which it shares with the formable nation of Siam:


dd_missions.png


Ayutthaya’s mission tree rewards very few permanent claims. Instead, many missions award Subjugation CB’s, allowing Ayutthaya to vassalize large nations in a single war. Originally it was enough to simply have the required states owned by you or your subjects, but after some playtesting in both single player and multiplayer I judged these missions a little too powerful. So most subjugation missions additionally require reducing the liberty desire of relevant subjects. It’s not enough to have vassals in name, your subjects must be truly loyal to your will. Your National Ideas have an opportunity to shine here, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to complement them with Influence Ideas.

Some other interesting highlights:
  • Completing the Embassy to Japan mission rewards you with the renowned Japanese adventurer Yamada Nagamasa as a general, as well as access to the Japanese Volunteers mercenary company (highly disciplined soldiers) based in Ayutthaya itself.
  • Completing the Devaraja mission grants a new estate privilege that causes Dharmic faith provinces to have no Religious Unity penalty. We’ll talk about Estate Privileges in more depth in a later dev diary, probably one focussing on the Khmer Empire.
  • Completing the Royal Absolutism mission awards the Chakravarti tier 1 government reform, which will have the (as yet unrevealed) new features of the Mandala reform without the penalties, as well as +10 Maximum Absolutism and +1 Monarch Administrative Power. It also raises your government rank to Empire. If you are playing as Ayutthaya, completing this mission is the only way to form Siam.
  • There are several elements of the leftmost branch of the mission tree that I can’t talk about yet, but the general idea is that you’re using various means to develop your nation, especially your capital, and ultimately making your capital into the most glorious city on earth.
  • The rightmost branch deals with Ayutthaya’s ambitions in Maritime SEA. Preparing an invasion of Malacca can severely harm Malacca’s relationship with the Ming, resulting in the loss of their tributary status. Further missions grant claims only on Centers of Trade in the region and require establishing trade power in the node.
  • The final missions of the central branch (not pictured) have you taking on East Asia’s only superpower - the mighty Ming dynasty - and claiming the Mandate of Heaven.


dd_revolution.png


Ayutthaya can now experience a new Disaster, the Siamese Revolution. In 1688 a rebellion broke out in reaction to the increased European (especially French) imperial presence in Siam and the King’s perceived complicity in the influence these powers were exerting over the country. The stage is set for this Disaster when Ayutthaya has decent (~50) relations with a European power active in South-East Asia. When the Disaster begins, a series of events lead you towards either Openness or Reactionary options each with their own benefits and drawbacks. These events deal with the military, religious, commercial, and diplomatic power that Europeans attempted to impose on Ayutthaya. The disaster can end once you pursue one path to its conclusion.

dd_coup.png


There are two possible endings to the Siamese Revolution, depending on whether you choose the Openness or Reactionary paths. The historical Reactionary path ends with the Siamese noble Phetracha launching a palace coup and seizing the throne, which historically led to an isolationist period for Ayutthaya - and was perhaps also a factor in Siam becoming the only power in SEA to avoid becoming part of a European colonial empire. This grants a permanent Foreign Spy Detection and Tolerance of the True Faith bonus, but will also destroy your relations with all European powers active in SEA. Following the alt history Openness path results in Phetracha’s arrest and execution, and instead instantly adds a large amount of institution progress in the capital for any institution that is not fully present in your capital but which have been embraced by any European power active in SEA. You’ll also get a permanent bonus to Institution Spread, but a permanent penalty to Foreign Spy Detection.

That’s all for today! Next week by popular demand we’ll focus on Majapahit and the disastrous situation they’ve found themselves in by 1444. Until then, have a good week!

edit: I just noticed the typo in the title. Well, too late. It's the twenty-firth now. :D

Moderator note:

As a reminder, @neondt is a content designer, not a programmer, therefore cannot reply on the programming side of the patch.


This development diary is about content design. Remain on topic.
 

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Completing the Royal Absolutism mission awards the Chakravarti tier 1 government reform, which will have the (as yet unrevealed) new features of the Mandala reform without the penalties, as well as +10 Maximum Absolutism and +1 Monarch Administrative Power. It also raises your government rank to Empire. If you are playing as Ayutthaya, completing this mission is the only way to form Siam.


The final missions of the central branch (not pictured) have you taking on East Asia’s only superpower - the mighty Ming dynasty - and claiming the Mandate of Heaven.

Just a second...
But the mandate of heaven is also a first-level government reform. It will replace the unique Ayutthaya reform from another mission :confused:
 
Just a second...
But the mandate of heaven is also a first-level government reform. It will replace the unique Ayutthaya reform from another mission :confused:
Austria's arch duchy and Austrian empire are both tier 1 reforms I'm pretty sure, so happened before. Ayuttha swapping from having lots of vassals to lots of tributes justifies this reform change I think.

They've also said why they won't add a Ming tree already, it wouldnt be based on expansion, and they want Ming to fall more often to create more dynamic Asia, as its not just China but also its tributaries that matter
 
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Thank you @neondt for the DD.

I really prefer the change that SEA nations now interacting more with other regions. Based on this, there would be room for you to improve the game and add more flavor to this region.

For China, it could be extensive Chinese emigration during Late Ming and Early Qing, which brought manpower and technology to SEA nations like Ayutthaya, Khmer, Dai Viet, and help them with colonizing sparsely-populated land. In history, Chinese leaders like Mo Jiu (Mạc Cửu - 鄚玖 ) established a mostly independent nation in southern part of Mekong Delta now. Therefore, it would be nice if there are events for China to choose how to handle a disastrous event: if he doesn't pay money or MP or just let the people die, some dev points of target provinces will go away, depicting the fact that people will abandon Mainland China for another promised land. Then, the destination province will get such dev points. Mo Jiu's colonization of south Mekong Delta could be of the same mechanics with Koxinga settling in Taiwan and forming Tungning.

For Europe, you can think about the Jesuit missions and the propagation of Catholics in SEA (now only China has similar events, pls correct me if i'm wrong) . During EU4 game period, many countries in SEA were willing to trade religious tolerance for Western firepower, including Annam, Tonkin and Siam. This could be described by events that one province converted into Catholic and that nation can get MPs in the opposite site. Of course, there's no such thing as a free lunch and these nations may suffer disaster or negative event on Catholic zealot uprising as well as Europeans invasions.

For Muslim world, I think it has been already reflected by the propagation of Islam in SEA trade nodes. I also heard that Ottomans expedition to Aceh will be added soon. However, game would be bored if it just repeated history. You can think about converting to Islam as a solution to revive declining countries like Khmer and Champa. Actually, it happened in history that most Chams converted to Islam in the 17th century and a Khmer muslim King (Sultan Ibrahim) ruled Cambodia for a short time before being dethroned by Vietnamese intervention.

Anyway, it is just my suggestion. I understand your to-do list is long now.
 
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Without player interference, sure. But if the player is Ayutthaya or even in the region it becomes much less likely that the disaster fires.
Doesn't France already have an event chain to get involved in Indochina? They'll probably revise that and possibly prescripted charter event to get it but how I read the OP, it'll probably just be Europeans having trade power in the Siam node rather than explicitly provinces
 
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Despite what some people claim, the EU4 devs have never and will never balance the game around multiplayer, as far as they’re concerned when designing, the game is purely single player, so stop asking for things that would only matter for MP, it’s never going to happen.

There are certainly some concepts intended to be used for MP. Drilling, certain idea sets, victory cards, etc, are designed for MP with niche uses in solo campaigns. The single player experience is a priority but there are many examples of balances around MP.
 
There are certainly some concepts intended to be used for MP. Drilling, certain idea sets, victory cards, etc, are designed for MP with niche uses in solo campaigns. The single player experience is a priority but there are many examples of balances around MP.
Endgame tags is obvious MP balancing
They also have shit NI so it's not surprising. (Bit better now).
Ayy welcome back dude, I missed seeing you in threads
Thats the thing how many games does Portugal survive?

Most of my games the colonial powers dont survive or get stuck invading Mali.
Most of my games they survive, carribean is various extent, Spain never gets all their American colonies tho. Maybe 1/20 games on previous patch I'd see Morocco conquer southern Portugal but never full annex, haven't played enough games this patch to see if Morocco can win or not, at least their vassals have their independence supported less
 
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Endgame tags is obvious MP balancing

Ayy welcome back dude, I missed seeing you in threads

Most of my games they survive, carribean is various extent, Spain never gets all their American colonies tho. Maybe 1/20 games on previous patch I'd see Morocco conquer southern Portugal but never full annex, haven't played enough games this patch to see if Morocco can win or not, at least their vassals have their independence supported less

A lot of games they get dragged into the 100 years war, get beat up badly by France and lose their allaince with Castille.

Either Castile or Morroco finishes them off from there.
 
yes, AI in this game is so stupid, that you can defend your countries against Britain, France and Japan at the same time, but if they were able to use their army correctly - usual France will easily conquere this country. Okay,most of countries will be helpless against conscientious enemy, but adding some country (it easily can be some small country) with comparable military ideas (almost like japan or manchu, for example ) - will be good for everyone, non? mp-players/hardcore-players finally get their country for playing in Indo-China, everyone will get what they want.
Everyone except people interested in historical accuracy, people interested in having varied game experiences, people who roleplay, people who like playing without OP military ideas in SP ...
 
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You can complete the whole Ayutthaya mission tree without losing your special tier 1 government reform.
You don't have to take the Mandate, it's just one of the ways you can complete that mission.


But without knowing the nuances, it will look something like this:
The player completes the tasks of ayutya, then goes on the task to take the heavenly mandate and loses his unique form of government, feeling cheated =)
And what happens if you take the heavenly mandate not for a task, but just like that, and then complete the task for a unique form of government? The mandate to collapse? The form of government will not be received? Will the mandate be broken? (as in the situation when you scroll the time in the game's start window to 1654 and back to 1444, then the Ming Empire will have a celestial mandate menu with mechanics, but the form of government will be an autocracy).
Why not instead make a unique form of government in Ayutthaya the second or third stage of government reforms? Missions already initially create the ground for contradictions in the game mechanics
 
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Austria's arch duchy and Austrian empire are both tier 1 reforms I'm pretty sure, so happened before. Ayuttha swapping from having lots of vassals to lots of tributes justifies this reform change I think.

They've also said why they won't add a Ming tree already, it wouldnt be based on expansion, and they want Ming to fall more often to create more dynamic Asia, as its not just China but also its tributaries that matter

In our game, Jerusalem creates a Latin Empire, Venice gets claims to India, and Korea captures Asia on a mission. And giving a mission to the Ming Empire is not historical, Ahahah
In addition, it is not necessary to give the Ming Empire a mission to expand - to restore the Siyu protectorate, build fortresses, protect themselves from nomads, break the pirates of Japan, impress India, develop revenue, build buildings... there would be a desire.

They've also said why they won't add a Ming tree already, it wouldnt be based on expansion, and they want Ming to fall more often to create more dynamic Asia, as its not just China but also its tributaries that matter
But it is possible to give common missions to Chinese minor countries. And they were wondering whether to give the mission to the Ming Empire, or Korea. And they decided to give it to Korea. What really prevented both Korea and China from giving is unclear
 
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