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EU4 - Development Diary - 9th of June 2016

Hello and welcome to today's development diary for Europa Universalis IV. After much plotting and espionage, I have assumed direct control over these diaries, at least for the upcoming months while Johan enjoys some paternity leave.

The feeling of power this gives is immense. EU4 will allow you a similar feeling with a new feature in the upcoming expansion: Great Powers

In 1.18's accompanying expansion, which has yet to be name-dropped, we will grant the 8 most powerful countries in the world a "Great Power" status, granting them bonuses, new diplomatic options and, perhaps most importantly, a glow around your shield to show that you are the superior nation.

Before we address the shiny options and bonuses available to you, let's tackle the question of how to become a Great Power. As we had mentioned in a previous diary, the technology system is getting an overhaul and the Great Power mechanic will make use of this too. Your ranking as a Great Power depends on your Total Development plus half of your Subject Development, then divided by your tech cost. This ensures that early game, large powers such as Ming and Timurids will enjoy Great Power status but as Other powers rise and they lag behind with embracing new institutions, this status will be lost. Of course, If Ming, for example, stays united and forward thinking, they may not lose this status at all. Subject Nations cannot be Great Powers

As a great power you will enjoy a Power Projection bonus. One commonly raised issue is that if you are a huge power without equal your Power Projection is oddly low, since you cannot have any meaningful rivals. The greatest of the Great Powers will enjoy a +25 Power Projection bonus, with the other 7 gaining an increasingly smaller amount with rank 8 getting +10PP. Additionally, great powers will receive a prestige decay reduction. Other modifiers will likely be added before release as we continue to balance the system.

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Bonuses are all very well and good, but where's the fun in being great if you can't enforce your will on lesser beings? Four new diplomatic options are opened up uniquely for Great Powers:

Take on Foreign Debt – Pay off all the loans of the target independent non-GP country. Gives +10 relations bonus for every standard size loan of the target you clear, capped at +200, decaying 2/year Also grants +1 trust for every loan cleared, or +2 favours if you have The Cossacks. Requires enough money to pay off target’s loans.

Influence Nation – Pay 1 year of target income to increase relations and grant +1 monarch points in their weakest category for 10 years in a target independent non-GP nation. This raises their opinion of you by 25 for the 10 years, also gives +5 trust. Going to war with them cancels this bonus.

Intervene in War– If there is an ongoing war between great powers but an imbalance in the number of GPs involved, you can make it your business to intervene. For example, if GP Britain is singlehandedly fighting GP France and GP Spain, you as a Great Power Commonwealth can intervene on Great Britain's side to balance out the number of great powers involved.

Break Alliance – This will force a nation to break its alliance with another. They will accept if the target nation is sufficiently afraid of you and you will gain a truce with the nation you force this upon. Useful for stripping your war target of pesky roadblocks.

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Finally, you will want to hold on to your status as a great power. If you are pushed out of the top 8 nations, you will be given a 5 year grace period to regain your Great Power Score. During this time you will still have access to Great Power options but if you cannot regain your standing then you will lose them until you rise again or topple those who would claim to be greater than you.

Current 1444 Great Powers:

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As usual, the nitty-gritty numbers are very much subject to change as we refine the features.

Great Powers will be available as a paid feature in the upcoming expansion, which will be released alongside the 1.18 patch.

Next week we'll be in the presence of our King/Khan/Chief/Sultan/Emperor/Malik, so I hope you're on your best behavior.
 
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I really hope this gets coupled with ways for smaller nations to band together against great powers. In rl, if someone got to strong, everyone else tried to push them down again to avoid getting overwhelmed - after all, even if they're not attacked NOW, they're somewhere else on the list. I'd really like something like that in this game to make the lategame more interesting. Being a great power, especialy being the greatest great power, should be hard, but rewarding.
 
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Because currently OP nations aren't OP enough.

To be honest, this game already boosts minor nations too much. Overextension, monarch points, states, independent nation boni, all things to boost small nations while big nations only have their provinces to counter that. I think this is a well-needed boost to nations too big to be treated like your average minor.
 
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Great powers could be really cool with the bonuses if you got to have some agency in what kind of policies you would have towards your subjects, for example tolerance vs. subjugation either giving you accepted culture or convert culture bonus.
 
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Break Alliance – This will force a nation to break its alliance with another. They will accept if the target nation is sufficiently afraid of you and you will gain a truce with the nation you force this upon. Useful for stripping your war target of pesky roadblocks.

Can you do this to allies of Great Powers?

Will the ally of the target experience any relations drop with you or its former ally?
 
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Europa Universalis IV is becoming Victoria 3

PDS games always borrow from one another. With that said, EU borrows its features to other games more often than from them.
 
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I love everything except for the exclusion of the HRE. You need to address and integrate it into the system because a good portion of fun play revolves around the HRE and being part of the HRE should not disqualify you from being a GP. Princes should give you some sort of bonus and being an elector as well as the emperor should give you a bonus towards being a GP.
 
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I'm very interested in the new diplomatic actions, but I think, new boosts like the Prestige Decay are unnecessary - Great Powers are powerful enough without these. But let's see what'll happen. Till now, most "bad" features introduced turned out to be great, or at least tolerable.
 
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To be honest, this game already boosts minor nations too much. Overextension, monarch points, states, independent nation boni, all things to boost small nations while big nations only have their provinces to counter that. I think this is a well-needed boost to nations too big to be treated like your average minor.
Just the ahistorical stability blobs have is more than every boost small nations have.
And let's not forget that this GP boosts will stack on the lucky nations boosts.
It won't be in this expansion that i'll update the game from 1.15.
 
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