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EU4 - Development Diary - 28th of February 2017

Good day everyone, Tuesday spells for us a new EU4 Development Diary and while certain members are away enjoying the high life at GDC, it falls to me to bring you today's juicy serving of new mechanics.

As teased last week, we shall look closer at the Empire of China, a new concept in the upcoming expansion. In 1444, Ming is busy being the top dog in Asia and indeed the world, but they were not the first to claim Mandate over China and certainly not the last. We are not even one hundred years from the total collapse of the Yuan domination of china and only two hundred years shy of the successor nation Qing.

An important goal for us is to bring new play experiences across the world. Previously as a nation in East Asia, one would generally wait for Ming to crumble to rebellions, usually from loss of the Mandate of Heaven modifier (or a lot of horses and a good shock phase), and then pick up the pieces from this "Mingsplosion" or playing as Ming, simply do everything in your power to avoid falling into aforementioned deadly Spiral. This isn't quite how we would like East Asia to play out. We wish to bring the whole experience to life In the upcoming expansion, as the Empire of China is now a title that is fought for!

eu4_123.png


Where to begin? Our glorious Ming Starts in 1444 with the Celestial throne with a moderate Mandate value. Mandate will grow over time supposing stability is high, States are prosperous and you have an extensive collection of Tributaries. Protect it well, since it will have a large effect on how well your nation will function: Provincial devastation and bordering nations who are not your Tributary or otherwise bending their knee to you will cause Mandate to suffer. At Maximum mandate, The emperor of China will enjoy unrest reduction and cheaper stability cost. Conversely, as Mandate goes down below 50, you will find your troops performing worse and your provinces producing fewer goods, as the people you supposedly rule over with Divine grace back you less and less.

Mandate can be used to pass Celestial Reforms. Not unlike the Holy roman Empire, The Emperor of China must foster the growth of their mandate and spend it to gain some fantastic bonuses. Each Reform can be taken at 80+ Mandate, each will reduce Mandate by 50 and Stability by 1.
  • Introduce Gaituguiliu
    • +0.5 Meritocracy
  • Reform Seaban
    • +1 Diplomats
    • +5% trade Efficiency
  • Delegate Zongdu
    • -0.05 Monthly autonomy
  • Establish Lifan Yuan
    • -10% Core creation Cost
  • Reshape Beurocratic Ranks
    • +1 Monarch Admin Power
Additionally, hawk-eyed readers will have spotted a new Hat in the top bar. Celestial Emperors do not use the Legitimacy values since they are all obviously legit. The Emperor instead has unique access to Meritocracy. This will naturally degrade every year but increases by having skilled advisors in your court. It is then spent on the 6 Decrees, also uniquely available to the Emperor of China.

  • Expand Palace Bureaucracy
    • -10% Development cost
    • -10% core Creation Cost
  • Conduct Population Census
    • +25% National Tax
  • Promote Naval Officers
    • +20% ship durability
  • Increase Tariff Control
    • +25% Provincial trade Power
  • Improve Defense Effort
    • +25% Fort Defense
  • Boost the Officer Corps
    • +10% Infantry Combat Ability
Each Decree lasts for 10 years, costs 20 Meritocracy and, of course, all values are subject to balance up until release, but that's par for the course.

So life is good for the Ming the Celestial Emperor. China is theirs, their tribute flows in regularly and they pass reforms and decrees as they see fit. Well, no single Empire lasts forever.

eu4_126.png


The Celestial throne is there for any Pagan or Eastern Religion nation to secure for themselves. In practice, The Northern Hordes, the Japanese, the Koreans and the Buddhists are all in with a fair shot at securing the title for themselves and have access to a new Casus Belli: Take Mandate of Heaven. Land is cheaper to take in this war. Far cheaper, and it will allow the attacker to secure the Throne for themselves. When this happens, all previous reforms are wiped and the new ruler will start with moderate Mandate themselves. After all, there is only one China and all history from before did not exist. The new Emperor of China will have to quickly establish themselves with their own tributaries and bring Prosperity to the people of China to avoid the fate of their disposed Predecessor. The failed old Emperor of China shall be subjected to the Lost Mandate of Heaven modifier in addition to losing their Empire of China modifiers. Better take care of them, before they collect themselves and put their mind to reclaiming their old throne.

The successful claimant will also enjoy permanent claim on all of China to help consolidate their new power, as our Dai Viet player @Ihki was putting to great effect.

eu4_124.png


Best of luck with your fight to secure the Mandate for yourself. We'll be back next week to talk about another new feature which has our team lamenting any moment that they have to play without it. See you then!
 
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So how exactly does the Take Mandate CB work? You just win one war and then you're the emperor? Is taking the mandate an actual war goal? If so, how much does it cost?

Claiming the Mandate for yourself costs 50% Warscore and is a new peace treaty available with the CB.

@DDRJake
Manchu is a horde. Does Horde Unity change to meritocracy as legitimacy? And what about republics?

Claiming the Mandate will change government type to Celestial Empire

And if ex-horde lose throne? Will it become horde or something else? Feudal Monarchy for example.

Failing to defend your position on the Celestial Throne will boot your nation back down to a Despotism. the accompanying Loss of Mandate modifier lasts 10 years.
 
Jake, this isn't really related to China, but do you guys look at the suggestions page? Cause it often seems like you don't.
 
Jake, this isn't really related to China, but do you guys look at the suggestions page? Cause it often seems like you don't.

Trust me, the EU4 sub has no idea how good they have it in terms of the devs listening to their ideas. They're definitely much better at it than the CK2 team. At least the last suggestion in the EU4 suggestions sub with a dev response is on the 1st page instead of the 7th.
 
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As far as I know, EU IV dev team does read suggestion pages.
 
Jake, this isn't really related to China, but do you guys look at the suggestions page? Cause it often seems like you don't.

I read it every day and I know Jake does it often too. :) It moves very quickly though so often replies can fall off the first page within a day or so.
We also use the "vote helpful" function to show the OP that we've read his/her suggestions.
 
Really cool! Between manchu, ming and japan, I think east Asia will get really interesting to play (after playing one billion hours of this game in Europe, I was finally getting bored with it...). I wonder, though: removing the 50% autonomy, and with no malus that I can see in the celestial empire government, won't ming be almost impossible to beat? I know manchu is also getting stronger, but without the autonomy limit i would expect ming to be able to field something like 100k soldiers - am I missing something?
 
The new dynamics around China and the Mandate of Heaven will add a lot to the game. I like how you managed to make a feature which is relatively dynamic and allows for more flexibility.
 
Can you have multiple Decrees active at the same time or only one? And if only one, looking at the current numbers I would probably use Expand Palace Bureaucracy all the time. I mean 20% ship durability is huge but navies are mostly useless, 10% infantry CA is not really worth it to forgo 10% RCC and cheaper development for institutions, and the rest only gives more money, which Ming shouldn't have a problem with anyway now that the autonomy floor is gone.
Also not sure if I like reduced advisor cost at high Meritocracy, as they increase Meritocracy gain and it seems really easy to keep Decrees active all the time. But enough nagging, overall I really like all the new stuff coming up with this expansion :)
 
I read it every day and I know Jake does it often too. :) It moves very quickly though so often replies can fall off the first page within a day or so.
We also use the "vote helpful" function to show the OP that we've read his/her suggestions.

We can still see who votes on our posts? I thought that went away like a month after implementing the feature?

Also, what happens if you change to a Republic/theocracy? Bye bye mandate?

Second question: What keeps whomever is China from expanding too much? With the autonomy nerf and all these potential bonuses available, China could be far more assertive.
 
What a nation loses the mandate, does it become a tributary or is it fully independent? Also, is the empire limited to territory? Or if I'm playing custom nations, (and nations have the correct religion) is it possible to have China in Europe?
 
How the AI handles this? Will we see China reunited by new AI Emperor or just a patchwork of states like we do today whenever Ming implodes?
 
Mandate can be used to pass Celestial Reforms

Awesome new mechanics! So this completely replaces government reform by westernization?
P.S. Can there be more than 2 claimants of the Mandate? (i.e. Manchu declares on Ming, before Dai Viet decides to get a slice of the pie too) Theoretically, both nations can get 50% and enforce the mandate, so is it a question of who's faster? And will the victor inherit the war for the mandate (Dai Viet wins, does Manchu declare war on DV immediately?)
 
The Celestial Empire cannot change government :)
If you stop being the emperor of China however you also lose the government form.

So everyone who is Emperor of China gets the Celestial Empire government now? Good, kinda makes more sense than Qing becoming a despotic monarchy even though they incorporated the Ming administration basically unchanged.

Would you guys make it so the Celestial Empire gives you guaranteed heirs, just like the Ottoman Sultanate? The emperors had loads of concubines and their dynasty was never in any danger of extinction, so it makes sense. It also prevents the weirdness of seeing the Ashikaga inheriting the Great Ming (yes, I've seen this happen before).
 
The Celestial Reforms themselves are standalone, there is no unite the HRE style Finale

It seems like the completion of the reforms should do something, at the very least. Perhaps just make it so that each reform lowers the autonomy limit of the Celestial Empire government or something.
 
Would you guys make it so the Celestial Empire gives you guaranteed heirs, just like the Ottoman Sultanate? The emperors had loads of concubines and their dynasty was never in any danger of extinction, so it makes sense. It also prevents the weirdness of seeing the Ashikaga inheriting the Great Ming (yes, I've seen this happen before).

Celestial governments get maintain dynasty too now but they don't get the Ottoman system of heirs as those events are built very specifically around the Ottoman harem politics :)