EU4 - Development Diary - 27th of September 2016

[Incompetent]

• Ships now engage in a priority order from heavy, galley, light to transport, up to a maximum of the engagement width (for which heavies count as 3 rather than 1).

New ship meta incoming! Definitely sounds like a good change to me. Hopefully the total engagement width will increase somewhat to account for the increased width of heavies, otherwise anyone with 10 heavies and a good admiral will be able to defeat the full Spanish Armada.

Espionage

• Reworked foreign spy detection & counter espionage. Counter espionage have less impact on discovery, but both now impact the spy network buildup of the target in your nation.

Basically, being able to defend against spy activities is now possible, even if stopping them entirely might be impossible.

• Reduced unrest and Republican Tradition impact from Sowing discontent spy action

And many tears have been shed over this ….

• Spy network bonuses will now apply to the target's subjects.

No more micromanagement and extra hassle! Rejoice!

As far as I can see, this doesn't stop the absurdity of an OPM inflicting a full-strength Sow Discontent or Corrupt Officials on a great power, dealing just as much damage as if a fellow great power had comprehensively infiltrated your country. Trying to protect yourself with Counterespionage is like trying to protect yourself from insect bites by swatting them with your hands - it can work if the insects are few and large, but not against a swarm of midges...

If some of these 'global effect' spy powers retained their severe impacts (or even more severe than they are now), but only GPs could use them, it would make for more engaging power politics and make Counterespionage against specific countries more relevant.

• Colonial nations only lose half the money the overlord is getting in tariffs.

But this makes it so you can’t cripple your colonial nations..

You can't really cripple them anyway, given that they stop paying once they go disloyal.

Forts

• If you are enter battle while in an enemy province with a fort, you will be treated as the attacker in battle and incur that province's terrain penalties.

Building forts is now a strategic decision. Where can you stop your enemies the best?

Does this include river/strait crossing penalties, and if so, how?

• Trade Companies is now open to all technology groups.

With the new technology changes, this just makes sense. However, you can not have trade-companies on the same continent as your capital.

Removing the tech group restriction is indeed logical. But aside from Westernisation, it sounds like we're back to how things were pre-1.16: if you're building a global trade empire, being Asian is a clear disadvantage. Actually, as an Asian you've got even more incentive to leave Asia than you did pre-1.16, because once you do, you can optimise the mix of trade companies and states in Asia to get the best of both worlds. So for instance, when playing as an Indonesian state, it's highly advantageous to engineer an early capital move to New Guinea...

Seriously though, the continental restriction seems unnecessary to me now that we have the states/territories system.

• You can no longer move capital to a continent that has less than a third of your total provinces, unless your capital is the last province you own on its continent.

A third as in number of provinces, or a third by development? This could make a big difference for situations where players want to move capital between Eurasia and the other continents (since Europe and Asia have much higher development per province than the other continents).

 

[Number 7]

YES!!!

NOOOOOOOOO

Please reconsider, I have never seen the AI form Prussia
Also I think Sweden should stay lucky too

Have you guys thought of removing lucky status part way through, like at 1700?

DDRyake said Prussia forms in more than 50% of his observer games these days. also i believe some nations DO lose lucky status as the game goes on, but its tag specific.

 

[Agnitio Ex Mach]

• Lots of National Ideas have been changed, but most importantly Knights lost their tolerance for heretics, but can instead do slave raids.

This is weird. I can't find instances of the Knights taking slaves.

 

[Chipchat2]

If you are going to give Prussia It's own widgets then Brandenburg should stay lucky.

 

[ecrurudesby]

It always take longer then 5 years. Poland can't take all of TO in one war.... so more like 20 years from game start.

Alot can happen during that time. Not being a lucky nation will mean PLC will have a harder time vs Moscovy /golden horde/Ottoman. So its a small nerf that should mean that TO will be a little bit stronger.

In my current game TO is one of the major players in europe around 1650.
Only reason Prussia has not formed is that I sniped Danzig to get control of trade.

I meant the first war in five years. Poland usually takes half of the Teutons and in the second war they take the rest. Poland being unlucky only slightly improves the chance of Prussia appearing and barely improves the Teutons early chances because Poland's other enemies you mentioned are busy elsewhere.

These Luck changes are a bigger Brandenburg nerf than they are a Poland nerf.

also i believe some nations DO lose lucky status as the game goes on, but its tag specific.

I thought this too, judging by the Wiki, but actually those nations only 'lose' Lucky status in games started after 1700. In normal starts all Lucky nations stay that way until 1821.

 

[Quaade]

NOOOOOOOOO

Please reconsider, I have never seen the AI form Prussia
Also I think Sweden should stay lucky too

Judging from the dev game, it seems like Prussia is well on it´s way to being formed... But it might be changed later if it doesn´t fit PDX

Have you guys thought of removing lucky status part way through, like at 1700?

Or they could simply grant event-modifiers of sorts, that last for say... 50 years to give boost to some nations that had such positions

 

[DominusNovus]

This DD could be titled 'See? We DO read the suggestions subforum!'

 

[123e55]

Pdx suddenly changed their all devolopment diaries' date, do you know why? Not just only for merging streams and diaries together in same day but they also budged up in friday for their new game's development diaries.

Monday: CKII (announcement date: 2010)
Tuesday: EUIV (ad: 2012)
Wednesday: HOI4 (ad: 2014)
Thorsday: Stellaris (ad: 2015)
Freyasday: VICIII (ad: 2017)

Personally i prefer Rome II but folks wanted it to be Victoria III then so be it !

I personally believe that Vicky3 would be their best-selling game ever.
Just look at how the community begs for it! Paradox , make it happen

 

[dayalu]

-This is weird. I can't find instances of the Knights taking slaves. "It is important to note that the Maltese authorities would neglect to mention the fact that they were making a substantial profit policing the seas and seizing "infidel" ships and cargoes. The authorities on Malta immediately recognised the importance of corsairing to their economy and set about encouraging it, as despite their vows of poverty, the Knights were granted the ability to keep a portion of the spoglio, which was the prize money and cargo gained from a captured ship, along with the ability to fit out their own galleys with their new wealth.[31]

The great controversy that surrounded the knights' corso was their insistence on their policy of 'vista'. This enabled the Order to stop and board all shipping suspected of carrying Turkish goods and confiscate the cargo to be re-sold at Valletta, along with the ship's crew, who were by far the most valuable commodity on the ship." - wikipedia

 

[Mortheim]

-This is weird. I can't find instances of the Knights taking slaves.
"This enabled the Order to stop and board all shipping suspected of carrying Turkish goods and confiscate the cargo to be re-sold at Valletta, along with the ship's crew, who were by far the most valuable commodity on the ship."

Wikipedia states, that they sell ship's crew alongside goods. So, you practically contradicted yourself ;D

 

[ecrurudesby]

Judging from the dev game, it seems like Prussia is well on it´s way to being formed...

Are you expecting the Poland player to gift Konigsberg to AI Brandenburg?

Or they could simply grant event-modifiers of sorts, that last for say... 50 years to give boost to some nations that had such positions

They would have to be very large modifiers to be a substitute for Lucky status, but I like the idea of long term, temporary modifiers replacing Lucky status.

 

[Captain_WTF]

So I know it's a bit off topic but any info on the content pack?

 

[Drachenfels]

The balance of having 10 lucky nations made the likelihood of a strong Russia too uncommon for us, and especially having those 3 as likely lucky nations was too much for Muscowy.

Did you consider to make it more dynamic? Let say 8 lucky nations out of predefined pool of 12-14? It would be interesting to see a slightly different outcome of virtually same game setup because of you know, luck. :-D

 

[Quaade]

Are you expecting the Poland player to gift Konigsberg to AI Brandenburg?

No, but if Poland hadn´t been a player and it was a SP game, it would be very likely that Brandenburg could attain it somehow anyway... However, just because it´s a player, they could very well just sell it to Brandenburg for amusement... There is no way to tell what players will do

They would have to be very large modifiers to be a substitute for Lucky status, but I like the idea of long term, temporary modifiers replacing Lucky status.

They don´t have to be that large, or equal to lucky status... Just enough to make it happen 80% of the time

 

[Number 7]

I personally believe that Vicky3 would be their best-selling game ever.
Just look at how the community begs for it! Paradox , make it happen

my body is ready

 

[Mortheim]

• Lots of National Ideas have been changed.

As usual, we keep changing the ideas as we add new functionality, and giving people new abilities. There was a rather large following for giving the Knights access to Slave Raiding, as they were rather fearsome pirates, so they gained that ability.

Really HYPED about this. Want to see, what ideas were changed and what new ideas were added (like movement speed bonus as tradition).

 

[Homusubi]

• Vassals fighting each others (i.e. in Japan) now always accept Enforce Peace requests of overlord, but all vassals except the defending peace target get +10 Liberty Desire.

More power to the Emperor! or.. The Shogun!

Horrendously ahistorical Ashikaga power ahoy! You do realise this is pretty much the opposite of what the Japan lobby (I say "the Japan lobby"... it's pretty much
@Grand Historian and myself, or so it seems...) has been campaigning for, right?

 

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, Ship combat, eh.

Sounds rather good.

 

[svennnnnnnnnnnn]

Since Sweden got unlucky again perhaps their ideas should be un-nerfed. Totally unbiased by the way. *hums Carolus Rex*

 

[spinoza013]

Looking forward to it