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EU4 - Development Diary - 30th of June 2016

The skies are blue, the sun is shining and Sweden is very nearly shut down for Summer. I'm not kidding, this whole country just turns off in July like you pulled out its batteries. None the less, before the great productivity purge we're here for one more development diary for Europa Universalis IV.

A fair few forumites were clairvoyant enough to predict this after we added Ruler Personalities. Indeed, as part of the upcoming expansion we will have Leader Traits

Gainint trait.jpg


At the conclusion of any battle the leader involved has a chance to gain a trait. This trait will, unlike Ruler Personalities, always be a bonus. Current chance of gaining a trait is set to 2% multiplied by the Army Tradition gain from a battle (this, like most numbers during development, is subject to balance changes) which can be set in the defines.

Leaders are limited to one trait each and that trait will affect all units under their command. In battle, the trait of the commanding general (the one whose shock/fire pips are used) will affect all units on their side.

Some of the traits:
Goal Orientated:+10% Movement Speed
Hardy Warrior: -20% Attrition
Siege Specialist: +15% Siege Ability
Born to the Saddle: +50% Cavalry Flanking Range

leader trait battle.jpg


Of course, Admirals can gain traits too. Same rules as generals except the chance is based on naval tradition from battles.

Buccaneer: +25% Privateering Efficiency
Prize hunter: +5% chance of capturing enemy ships
Ironside: +5% Ship Durability
Extortioner: + 15% Light Ship Trade Power

naval trait.jpg


There are 22 traits in total, many with combat modifiers which have been added to the game for use in modding (and in National Idea changes which we will show later). It's worth noting that Heirs, Monarchs, Conquistadors and Explorers can also gain traits from combat.

Leader Traits are a paid feature in the upcoming [name removed] expansion. There are many more features and changes to come but you're going to have to hold out for 5 weeks on more news since as I mentioned, this country is going to shut down for a month. I'll be back with the next dev diary in the first week of August.

Leader death.jpg


Great generals are like Swedish Summer, never lasting quite as long as you want.
 
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Will historical generals and admirals have corresponding traits as well when you get them through an event or at a certain historical starting point? For example, I'd expect Napoleon to have a fitting trait when I play the 1793 starting date.

perhaps for 1444 but they have said they do not want to have dozens and dozens of bookmarks in future games, because they are not frequently played and don't get dev attention in updates, and end up looking like half arsed additions next to the base game at the main start date.

Aside from that looks nice, hopefully there is a bit of control around what traits are gained. Some traits are just going to be flat out better than others (siege ability dreams), maybe an option to spend military points to "retrain" a general? Something like 100+ since you know what pips your dude will have.
 
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perhaps for 1444 but they have said they do not want to have dozens and dozens of bookmarks in future games, because they are not frequently played and don't get dev attention in updates, and end up looking like half arsed additions next to the base game at the main start date.


Yeah, the lack of attention/support for later startdates is rather tragic in my opinion. I remember making a thread on it a while back and suggesting that the best way to handle them in the future would be to take a leaf from CKII's book, and then take it one step further; have only four/five relatively early startdates playable but allow you to earn achievements on all of them. That way it would be pretty easy to support them since it would require significantly less work on the history files and would hopefully draw more attention for them since it wouldd better display what bookmark offers what.
 
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Wait

Did I miss it somehow or are the diaries stopping for an entire month without addressing the extra banner that exists under the Heir in the screenshots

Is this really happening

Because that is hilarious
 
Wait

Did I miss it somehow or are the diaries stopping for an entire month without addressing the extra banner that exists under the Heir in the screenshots

I can't seem to find it. Which picture is it in?
 
Hopefully you will add in generals age in, it´s a small thing to ask... But it´s really great to have :)
 
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I can't seem to find it. Which picture is it in?
It was in previous diaries. I saw it in the Ottoman one, as well as the first one about the new expansion.
 
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@DDRJake Want to drop a hint about what the next dev diary after the Swedish summer will be about? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 
Wait

Did I miss it somehow or are the diaries stopping for an entire month without addressing the extra banner that exists under the Heir in the screenshots

Is this really happening

Because that is hilarious


They should use it to show 2nd heirs so we know what's coming.
 
Have been asking for this for a very long time. More roleplay is always welcomed!
 
They should use it to show 2nd heirs so we know what's coming.

You'd need a mechanic that keeps multiple heirs before the first one dies before you could show 2nd heirs :p.

If you save scum at certain moments it's pretty obvious when in some cases you get heirs of-age and in others you get no heir whatsoever, in the same situation. That's kind of ridiculous, as if something happened to the guy in that less-than-one day each reload time to kill him, re-name him, or age/de-age him...
 
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I spent some time dealing with the classic Bourbon-Habsburg wars today, and I have to say that combat remains one of the more irritating aspects of gameplay for me. The two main reasons are, I guess, because of how gamey it is, as opposed to being in line with history, and because of how easily it turns into a grind activity.

First off, the whole concept of manpower is inappropriate for a large part of the game's timeline. Conscripted armies, as well as large standing armies were virtually unknown. I could go into a lot of detail on how actually army recruitment was preformed in France or in the Empire in the 16th century, but I'll spare you that. The quickest and closest to reality way to depict the recruitment of early modern armies is to implement the mechanics for recruiting mercenary companies as in CKII. It would also be more realistic if the army would appear only around a month or two after being summoned. In my mod that I was working on (around version 1.8-1.10, so a couple of years ago) I had simulated this kind of recruitment by disabling manpower altogether and using a decision for recruiting armies.

Second, armies in the tens of thousands are crazy numbers for this period. When Charles VIII marched on Naples in 1495, he was leading an army of around 30 000, which was the largest army seen by anyone in recent memory.

Third, sieges lasted about a few months on average, you would be hard pressed to find sieges that lasted around a year, which is the usual practice in EUIV.

Fourth, a single battle could very easily decide the whole war. EUIV is way too forgiving in that regard. The wars of attrition where you take Quantity ideas and then win wars by grinding down the AI's manpower pool seriously detract from the historical simulation aspect of gameplay. Fighting "total war" against the AI where it ends with carpet sieging after you've depleted the AI's manpower pool is both un-fun and completely contrary to the strategic thought from that period.

Those are the biggest problems I can see on first glance - first if you don't count a few months of modding. I still have most changes needed in my head and in my mod's repo archive. I have more combat-related stuff I can suggest tomorrow, as it's pretty late in the night now.

Fifth, it would be great if a future DLC makes it possible for countries to have access to specific unit types, unique only for them. I had tried to simulate that by increasing the number of tech groups, so French could get their own French-named units, Spain would get its Hermandades infantry, etc. Separating the Western Tech groups into French/Italian/Spanish/German/English/Scandinavian/Swiss groups allowed me to add unit types for flavor and with small differences in stats.
 
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Cheers for the DD DDRJake :D. I hope you and the team have a great break :). Am a fan of more personality for generals and admirals, a nice feature, looking forward to it :).
 
I spent some time dealing with the classic Bourbon-Habsburg wars today, and I have to say that combat remains one of the more irritating aspects of gameplay for me. The two main reasons are, I guess, because of how gamey it is, as opposed to being in line with history, and because of how easily it turns into a grind activity.

First off, the whole concept of manpower is inappropriate for a large part of the game's timeline. Conscripted armies, as well as large standing armies were virtually unknown. I could go into a lot of detail on how actually army recruitment was preformed in France or in the Empire in the 16th century, but I'll spare you that. The quickest and closest to reality way to depict the recruitment of early modern armies is to implement the mechanics for recruiting mercenary companies as in CKII. It would also be more realistic if the army would appear only around a month or two after being summoned. In my mod that I was working on (around version 1.8-1.10, so a couple of years ago) I had simulated this kind of recruitment by disabling manpower altogether and using a decision for recruiting armies.

Second, armies in the tens of thousands are crazy numbers for this period. When Charles VIII marched on Naples in 1495, he was leading an army of around 30 000, which was the largest army seen by anyone in recent memory.

Third, sieges lasted about a few months on average, you would be hard pressed to find sieges that lasted around a year, which is the usual practice in EUIV.

Fourth, a single battle could very easily decide the whole war. EUIV is way too forgiving in that regard. The wars of attrition where you take Quantity ideas and then win wars by grinding down the AI's manpower pool seriously detract from the historical simulation aspect of gameplay. Fighting "total war" against the AI where it ends with carpet sieging after you've depleted the AI's manpower pool is both un-fun and completely contrary to the strategic thought from that period.

Those are the biggest problems I can see on first glance - first if you don't count a few months of modding. I still have most changes needed in my head and in my mod's repo archive. I have more combat-related stuff I can suggest tomorrow, as it's pretty late in the night now.

Fifth, it would be great if a future DLC makes it possible for countries to have access to specific unit types, unique only for them. I had tried to simulate that by increasing the number of tech groups, so French could get their own French-named units, Spain would get its Hermandades infantry, etc. Separating the Western Tech groups into French/Italian/Spanish/German/English/Scandinavian/Swiss groups allowed me to add unit types for flavor and with small differences in stats.

Gameplay > Realism
 
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