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EU4 - Development Diary - 27th of September 2016

Hello everyone and welcome to another Europa Universalis development diary. This time we’ll take a look at the most important balance changes for 1.18, with a quick explanation on why we did them..

Setup
  • Lucky nations are now down to 8, sorry Poland, Brandenburg & Sweden.
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.

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


Navies
  • If you have a port, now you get at least 5 sailors per month.
This was also requested, as some nations with 1 port just could never get any sailors at all.

  • 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).
This creates a more interesting naval combat experience, as you’ll all notice on October 11th.


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!


Subjects
  • Breaking vassalage with a vassal that has over 50% in liberty desire no longer gives a relation penalty.
In the “duh?” category right?

  • Increased Liberty Desire from tariffs, up to 50% LD at 100% tariffs
Tariffs are no longer no-brainers to increase..

  • 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..

  • Large colonial nations now gives you +5 land force limit each
And now you also want LARGE colonial nations :) ie, buffing Portugal..

  • There is now a scaled penalty to Liberty Desire up to +25% at max Mercantilism.
Aka, the longer the game goes, the more likely subjects get rebellious.

  • 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!

  • All subjects now get reduced AE from your actions, not just vassals & marches.
No longer will your union-partners hate you for conquering their cores!

  • Subjects now have land and naval access to other subjects of the same overlord.
No longer will your subjects units get stuck!


Religion
  • Patriarch Authority no longer reduces tax income.
It all belongs to Mother Russia!. Sorry, I meant all orthodox nations..

  • Sanction Commercial Monopoly now costs 50 PI, instead of 100.
And we boost Catholics!

  • Defender of Faith now gives you +10 opinion of all with that religion.
Clearly this was our most important tweak in 1.18.

  • Theocracies, especially the Papal State, have an increased alliance acceptance penalty towards different religions now.
  • When you change religion as a Monastic order, Devotion is now decreased to the resulting Religious unity
These above are in the “this will improve immersion while improving the balance”-category.



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?

  • Penalty for not occupying forts in an area will no longer apply if the enemy does not control any forts in the area.
This will make it possible to sign a peace that you as a player likes far easier.


Misc
  • There is now an increase in efficiency of embargoes for a nation scaled by its Mercantilism up to +50%.
This is also another change that makes Mercantilism more powerful, while at the same time improving immersion.

  • 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.

  • All countries should now have access to at least one skill 2 advisor at start.
Just for you to have a choice!

  • 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.
There were a few exploits where you could swap continents back and forth a few times, that this solves.


Technology

We already talked about the changes to technology in a previous development diary, but here is a quick recap!

  • In 1444, all non-tribal nations start without tech penalties.
  • Primitive Status is now tied to starting techgroups.
  • Institutions will appear in certain provinces at key dates and spread from province to province.
  • Once 10% of your development has this Institution present, you can embrace that Institution for a monetary cost scaled on how much that institution has spread throughout your nation
  • If you have not embraced an Institution, you will have a tech penalty. This penalty grows by 1% each year up to a maximum of 50% penalty per non-embraced institution.
  • American Natives reforming their religion gain all the institutions from their advanced neighbour
  • Many existing ideas have been altered to give faster Institution spread and cheaper embracement costs.
  • Increasing development in provinces will also boost institution presence in that province

Culture

Cultures were also mentioned in a previous development diary, but here is a quick recap.
  • Cultures are now promoted manually, and any culture of at least 20 development can be promoted for 100 DIP.
  • All nations can promote 2 cultures in addition to their primary culture, and additional cultures can be promoted from ideas and Diplomatic technology
  • Old modifiers to Accepted culture Threshold now affect number of promoted cultures
  • Promoted cultures can be Demoted. This will give +5 unrest in all provinces of that culture

Stay tuned, next week we’ll show off new achievements and national ideas..
 
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raikaria said:
Wow; this is an absolutely massive buff to Orthodox. As it was before; to get PA you'd have to forego positive events [Or take a negative] to increase PA... which rewduced your tax as well. A double negative. 9 times out of ten staying at 0 PA was a no-brainer. The 1 time being that one time you're playing Muscovy and going for the 100% PA achievement because no other Orthodox country will likely survive long enough to reach that.
Click to expand...

Novgorod. Novgorod benefits quite nicely from 100% PA. You can't get much tax with the limits on Merchant Republics and states anyway, so aren't giving up much and in return get a nice unrest bonus.
 
Johan said:
Setup
  • Lucky nations are now down to 8, sorry Poland, Brandenburg & Sweden.
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.
Click to expand...
Maybe I'm having trouble counting. In a typical 1444 Start, you get POR CAS FRA ENG TUR HAB MOS POL BRA and SWE. Removing the last three, from these ten, leaves you with seven. Who are we counting as the eighth? NED? Or have we added someone, like one the manchurians? Or a dutch state that could form NED?

'Cause I thought NED wouldn't become lucky unless you started a game where that tag was active?

I also register my disappointment that BRA isn't lucky, anymore. I rarely see the AI form PRU, as things currently play out, certainly nothing approaching 50%. If you're trying to buff MOS/RUS, nerfing SWE and POL should be sufficient. In fact, keeping BRA strong (i.e., lucky) should make it a tougher opponent for POL and maybe SWE, helping MOS/RUS.
 
Lovely update everywhere, specially the Orthodox/Mercatilism buffs.

The one thing I didn't like was the change to Lucky Nations. Great concept to keep the storyline all tidy, and Sweden kind of needs it or it gets pretty nerfed. Maybe a reduced buff instead would be better. I can see Denmark annexing them a lot next patch.

Poland kinda deserved it. Early on, Poland is an unstoppable force that will not fall without player help or very specific rivalries. Their crazy powerful early game literally locked Prusia from ever forming naturally, and limited the Muscovite expansion west almost every time.

Now the major problem with this patch for me is the removal of Brandenburg's lucky nation. I get it, you're buffing Russia, but really I don't see Brandenburg posing a threat to them in any game unless it's a player. Rather, Poland imposed a threat to both of them, and despite the nerf, Brandenburg isn't getting much. Just another HRE nation, now; slightly bigger, but far more prone to being completely annexed than any other historically succesful nation.

EDIT: Maybe a good small fix would be changing the provincial interests of Poland/PLC and Bburg. Brandenburg NEVER goes for Königsberg, except when it's a player. And often it rivals/gets rivaled by the teutes, so the PU doesn't happen. Meanwhile. Poland, historically interested only in Western Prussia, always ends up fully-annexing the Teutes by the second war, exception being when Hungary allies them (in which case they do in 3~4 wars :p). So basically making Poland value getting Danzig a LOT more, while not wanting to go for Neumark/Lubusz.
 
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If you stick to your decision to make Bradenburg unlucky, perhaps you could consider removing the requirement of having Königsberg to form Prussia so it makes it a bit easier? Historically not correct but, after all, for gameplay purposes you did the same thing with Russia when you replaced the requirement to own Chernigov or Smolensk (in EUIII) with owning Smolensk or Ryazan (EUIV).
 
On the subject of Brandenburg and Poland etc, in a couple of observer games in recent days, I noted that the only chance the Teutons have is if they ally Hungary (which I would gamble is less than 50% of the time). This time Poland and Lithuania lost the initial war (something I don't ever recall seeing) and the Teutons ended up growing considerably into PLC and northeast HRE after a couple more wars. The problem came when the Reformation hit; one Protestant centre was in Bohemia bordering multiple Teuton provinces, another was in Skane sharing a sea tile with the Teutons. Then a Reformed centre rose up also bordering them to the West. Certainly some Teuton provinces were converted but they never changed state religion. I think the Teutons decision to form Prussia should not require Protestant or Reformed, but a certain percentage of provinces of those religions and the decision itself then converts state religion. This of course left Brandenburg out in the cold. I dread to think how they fare if they lose lucky status and all these fancy new events don't even have anything to do with forming Prussia.
 
Johan said:
  • Cultures are now promoted manually, and any culture of at least 20 development can be promoted for 100 DIP
Can give the rival mechanic the old system of cultures - like a country has to be 10% more/less powerful than the sum of you and your subjects in order to be a rival?

And can Prussia be given their vic 2 colour?
Click to expand...
 
Is Multiplayer getting some love? pls kill the "different version of the game" bug
 
Sexual Velociraptor said:
I mean, theoretically the +5 force limit should give portugal the ability to keep her subjects in line.

Also I've found many ways to beat the Ottomans without allying Poland as tiny Balkan Countries. Get creative. Besides, Othodoxy got buffed, which helps Byz and Wallacia more.
Click to expand...

There really isn't any other way. Hungary is weak, Mamaluks wont until later, Austria is expensive to ally early and won't join an offensive war. Patriarch authority wont help you 1v1 an early ottomans. Poland is your only reliable ally against the Ottomans early. A weaker Poland is a weaker Byzantium (at least at it's most important part.) That is unarguable. The fact you have to be creative to get around the nerf doesn't change that. And pretending that it isn't a nerf doesn't make you smarter. The most annoying person is the one who is contrarian for the sake of being contrarian.

Also a +5 force limit doesn't reduce liberty desire as much as the changes increase it. At most, in might encourage Portugal get colonial nations of exactly 10 provinces and hope that they don't colonize quickly on their own. But more likely they will just colonize Africa instead. Most importantly for Portugal, is that you will no longer be able to easily switch your capital to the new world.
 
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