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EU4 - Development Diary - 6th of December 2016

Hi everyone and welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. We’ve been working on the 1.20 patch and its accompanying unannounced expansion for a while now.

We’ve reworked some internal mechanics so looted and scorched earth are no longer just binary-statuses, but instead they affect something we call devastation.

A provinces’ devastation ranges from 0 to 100%, and it affects local autonomy, supply limits and how much goods are produced in the province. It also reduces the spread of institutions into that province, and increases the development cost of the province.

Each time a province is looted, its devastation is increased by 5%, and a scorched earth increased it by 25%.

Each year devastation is reduced by 1%, and within the zone of control of a fortification, it is reduced by 2% for each fort level each year.

Unrest is also increasing the devastation of a province by the amount of unrest each year.

devastation.png


What does this give you? Well, loot is is no longer just a strong penalty for a short period of time, but continuous conflict zones will grow far worse.


A cool feature for the expansion though is the concept of Prosperity, which is a state-level bonus. Any state that has 0 devastation in all its provinces and the country is at positive stability will have a small counter tick up each month, depending on the abilities of its government. It is a random chance, but when the counter reached 100%, then the state has reached Prosperity.

A state with prosperity gives -10% to development cost, and +25% to goods produced.

prosperity.png


Stay tuned, next week we’ll talk about something that will probably be the biggest feature added to the game since we started EU4.
 
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Stay tuned, next week we’ll talk about something that will probably be the biggest feature added to the game since we started EU4.

I am exited! This must be bigger than institutions and that was huge!
 
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Devastation mechanic makes sense, better late than never i suppose.

Prosperity? Like Ck2? First we had a Victoria 2-like mechanic (Great Powers), now it's a CK2-like one? Interesting...
 
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I like it, but what is the real life rationale behind forts helping to reduce devastation faster?

Forcing the player to use them i guess?
 
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Will you revamp the development mechanic and its interplay with developing institutions as well? For example putting a cooldown on development or a mechanic where prosperity/dev is the result of continued monetary/other investments into a state/area over time instead of just sinking lots of monarch points into it in quick succession?
 
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I like it, but what is the real life rationale behind forts helping to reduce devastation faster?
The garrison pitches in to coordinate rebuilding/restore order? That would be my thinking.
 
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With unrest increasing devastation... Doesn't that mean that rebels taking lands and then gaining independence will usually rule over some devastated states? Will it weaken them significantly compared to 1.19?
 
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I like it, but what is the real life rationale behind forts helping to reduce devastation faster?
Well, castles were not only defensive buildings, but also centers of organization and government, which helps in rebuilding destroyed regions.
Forcing the player to use them i guess?
And also probably this, yes :D

Edit: I think courthouses should reduce devastation, too.
 
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I like the Prosperity aspect.
But i see a devastated Europe after every bigger war, newly conquered provinces are even less useful and way more rebels...
Conquered province has high autonomy -> more devastation -> higher autonomy AND more unrest?
 
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Stay tuned, next week we’ll talk about something that will probably be the biggest feature added to the game since we started EU4.

1. My guess is Culture. (As in works of art, practices of the people living in your nation's land, and science)

2. Free or paid? (I'd guess paid, because generally BIG features are free, like institutions and map expansions, but a few have been paid, like the RNW or the nation designer).
 
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Sounds neat.

I foresee it screwing the AI, but what's new?
 
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