• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

EU4 - Development Diary - 23rd of January 2018

Good morning all. Tuesday has arrived and as usual delivers double excitement: the next episode in the EU4 Dev Clash, and a new development diary. Last week @Trin Tragula took the wheel and showed off the map changes which will roll out with the upcoming 1.25 update. Before we start talking about the features that come with its accompanying yet currently unannounced Immersion Pack, today I will be showing off another free change with 1.25, which is the Mission System.

Missions in EU3 were a real gamble. You hoped for a good or even possible mission and without hitting up the wiki or trawling through the game files had no idea what you could even be tasked with. You got said mission without choice and would either cancel or try to complete it. EU4 improved on this by always offering you up to 3 missions, one of which you would select and either complete or cancel before getting a new batch of missions. While it was an improvement, it still had the shortcomings of you not being quite sure what all missions you would be able to get for your nations, how to unlock them and even getting missions which would be detrimental for you to do. The missions system is something new players often look to for guidance and when it tells them to simply get 50 prestige or to improve relations with their rival, well, you can see why advice for new players can often counter intuitively be to ignore missions.

All this changes in 1.25 with the new Mission System. rather than picking from a short list of missions, all missions for your nation will be available from the very start, and as you fulfill the criteria for them, you will be alerted as such and can go to the newly segregated Missions tab to claim your reward. Rewards have been accordingly made more relevant, longer lasting and often grant claims towards more missions down the line. Let's take a look at the mission chain from one of my favourite nations, Byzantium, with their Purple Phoenix missions.

byz PP.jpg

humble expansion from my casual Byzantium campaign. Art/layout not final

All Byzantine missions are visible from the start and the progression through them is shown. When the budding Byzantine player reconquers Greece, they will be given a timed reward as well as the claims to help fulfilling the next missions: Recover Albania and Conquer Bulgaria. Once these are completed, they will again be able to claim their reward and work down the mission chain. The mission paths are also split for their different directions to go in, catering towards Western expansion, Anatolian recovery and reclaiming the islands. Mission rewards must be claimed in order, although all missions can be completed throughout a campaign.

byz no pp.jpg

End of the Byzantium mission chain without Purple Phoenix


All nations with specific missions are having those transferred over to this new system. Additionally we have added generic missions for all nations as well as region specific missions so that Europeans can have different missions available to them than, say, Africans or New World Natives. We have also taken the opportunity to clean up older missions while we adapt old ones to work with this new system.

France loveley art.jpg

French Missions, complete with lovely coder art. Something seems odd about the Hebrides though...

This mission change is a free part of the 1.25 Update and our aim is to have the missions feel more relevant for nations, as well as serving as a guiding light for newer players.

I'll try to pre-emptively answer some questions:

  • How do I select a mission?
    • Unlike the previous mission system, you do not select your missions, they are all visible from the game start. All missions at the top of the mission trees will be "active" and when you fulfill an active mission you can go to claim its reward, making any missions below it connected by arrows in its chain active,
  • In the old system selecting a mission would give you the claim/CB you need for the mission, how is that handled now?
    • In most cases, preceding missions will give claims/CBs as a reward which can be used to fulfill the following missions.
  • How does mission gating work?
    • A mission can both be a prerequisite for multiple missions a well as require multiple missions to be completed before it becomes active
  • How moddable is this?
    • Extensively.

Next week we'll start talking about what's coming with the yet unannounced Immersion Pack, due to release alongside 1.25. until then, we shall admire the Ottoman missions in the new system, in all their behemothic glory.

Ottomissions.jpg
 
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
1) What is treasury? A new building?

2) Is it possible to fulfill all the missions? If it is possible, what happens next?
 
Even in the old system national AIs prioritized their tag specific missions :)
But yes the idea is that they will try to fulfill those missions it makes sense for them to fulfill.
Speaking of missions, have you worked on the likes of, say, Poland's mission to vassalize the Teutonic Order? Because missions like those, even when taken, aren't actually done correctly - TO being vassalized pretty much never happens right now, for instance, even with Poland having the CB and even if, by some miracle, Poland and Lithuania aren't actually destabilized by the war.
 
It would be really cool if you guys changed the missions to conquer wallachia and transylvania to give you a subjugation CB instead. Wallachia was never fully under the control of the Ottomans and they always get annexed too early anyway..
 
@DDRJake What is happening with the existing idea related missions (like the exploration/conquer a trade company region province ones)

It would be really cool if the system was expanded (not necessarily immediately) to have chains specific to each idea group (and even some that are specific to having combinations of idea groups).
 
It would be really cool if you guys changed the missions to conquer wallachia and transylvania to give you a subjugation CB instead. Wallachia was never fully under the control of the Ottomans and they always get annexed too early anyway..
Thing is, Wallachia does get vassalized a lot right now, but it looks like that might change next patch as the mission says "Conquer Wallachia", which is indeed unrealistic.

Speaking of that, Transylvania needs to be released (and eventually vassalized) more, and the same goes for Poland losing Moldavia. The obvious danger of railroading nations too much cannot be ignored, but it literally never happens right now.
 
Looks alright, but would it be possible to have an option to use the old system, like with idea group 'balance', where either option was iron man compatible.
Also looking forward to the unique images each nation gets for 'assemble an army', and for it to be modified by Age, as british line infantry in the Ottoman Empire seems abit odd for 1444.
Last thing of note is how 'Conquer the Last Crusader bastion' is so low down, so Byzantines are almost guaranteed to have war declared on them first.
 
Speaking of missions, have you worked on the likes of, say, Poland's mission to vassalize the Teutonic Order? Because missions like those, even when taken, aren't actually done correctly - TO being vassalized pretty much never happens right now, for instance, even with Poland having the CB and even if, by some miracle, Poland and Lithuania aren't actually destabilized by the war.

The rework has meant that many missions now require owning or having a vassal own areas in cases like these :)
All old missions had to be adapted to the new system. This has also meant sometimes dropping a few (like the one for native americans to migrate one province) or adding some missions as padding to make a tree work elsewhere.
 
what about recove manpower, rival of our rival, lose inflation collect moneys, i used some of those to gain free birdmana and so on

also, the byz missions currently give you a claim on the provinces, hence i can save the spynetwork, then choose whatever i wana take, abandon mission after im done and choose another, will those be permanent claims? byz is a weak nation so its not issue if you give permanent claims but others like ottos and french will make some plays impossible
 
Looks really nice. Will you still be able to do certain generic missions multiple times over a campaign? Will minors run out of usable missions waiting for manufactories to be enabled?
 
what about recove manpower, rival of our rival, lose inflation collect moneys, i used some of those to gain free birdmana and so on

also, the byz missions currently give you a claim on the provinces, hence i can save the spynetwork, then choose whatever i wana take, abandon mission after im done and choose another, will those be permanent claims? byz is a weak nation so its not issue if you give permanent claims but others like ottos and french will make some plays impossible

All claims needed to complete future missions are now permanent claims. Normal claims are also sometimes given as a bonus on things however.