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EUIV - Development Diary - 5th of May 2020

Hello! Welcome to another dev diary for Europa Universalis IV: Emperor. Today we’ll be revealing new content for Burgundy, famous in this era for its immensely confusing succession crisis that forever altered the balance of power in Europe and laid the foundations for Dutch independence.

We’ll begin with the new Burgundian mission tree. Wedged between France and the Holy Roman Empire, Burgundy has a challenging but rewarding path to follow.

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The leftmost branch contains some familiar missions, involving the conquests of Savoy and Provence. We’ve also included a couple of additional missions in this chain: Invade Lombardy and Kingdom of Italy push you to continue your southward expansion. Completing the final Kingdom of Italy mission rewards you with the Rex Italiae modifier, granting -5% Idea Cost and +10% Institution Spread for the rest of the game.

Burgundy begins as a divided realm, with its wealthy holdings in the Low Countries owned by Personal Union subjects. Burgundy must placate these subjects to begin the next branch of the mission tree. After Burgundy finds a way to Unite the Realm, ruling over a united nation and directly owning the Lowlands, you are tasked with securing the region for the long term. You must either continue to hold the Low Countries through the Dutch Revolt or find some way to avoid it (and there will be opportunities to do so). With the Dutch provinces finally secured, you’ll be tasked with Dominating Channel Trade, which rewards you with a permanent bonus to your Trade Efficiency and Trade Steering.

EUIV begins in the midst of the Hundred Years War, with England and France constantly at each other's throats. Burgundy has played a crucial role in this conflict in the past, and can continue to do so from the start of the game. You are tasked with establishing an English Alliance, which unlocks the mission League of the Public Weal. This requires you to achieve very good relations with at least 3 of the French vassal Duchies. As a result, all of these Duchies gain +50% Liberty Desire, depriving France of their vassals support at a critical moment. This will aid you in becoming King of the Franks; owning Paris and 17 other provinces in the France region, as well as being physically and militarily greater than France, will give you permanent claims on all of France, and all of their remaining vassals will immediately be transferred to you.

After improving Papal Relations, Burgundy can organize a new Crusade against the Ottomans at the Feast of Pheasants. To achieve this you must either have 2 allies who have set the Ottomans as a rival, or else 1 ally that has the Ottomans as a rival that is also a great power. When you complete the mission, all Catholic countries with a positive opinion of Burgundy and a negative opinion of the Ottomans will gain a Holy War CB against the Ottomans for 5 years.

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You’ve likely noticed that the flag used in the mission tree screenshot above is not the Burgundian flag we know and love. That’d be because Burgundy gets an expanded mission tree upon forming Lotharingia - the medieval realm of Lothair, descendant of Charlemagne. With the Emperor expansion this is handled through completing the Crown of Lothair mission, but without Emperor there will be a decision. Besides expanding your mission tree, you’ll have the option to switch your national ideas to Lotharingian ideas.

I’ll now hand you over to @Meka66, who implemented the redesigned Burgundian Inheritance content.

The Burgundian Inheritance event chain has been completely reworked for Emperor, with the entirety of the old system gutted out and replaced with something much more dynamic and directly involving for the Emperor and France.
The previous incarnation of the Burgundian Inheritance was something that only AI Burgundy would have to contend with, and without diving into the game’s arcane scripted event files, players would be unable to be directly involved in the inheritance and would be limited in how they interact with it.


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In the new system however, the Burgundy player takes direct control of Charles’ historical successor; Marie de Bourgogne, and is able to make a direct choice as to which nation they are “inherited” by via a royal marriage with each of these choices triggering a unique Imperial Incident for the Emperor!

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Should Marie choose to marry into the HRE, the Emperor will be presented with a choice as to how he distributes his newfound lands and territories.

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The first option is to cede lands and territories to France while keeping the rest of Burgundy under personal union. This will of course make France happy, but will be of little benefit to the Emperor outside of that.

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The second option is to just keep Burgundy in its entirety which will grant France cores all over Burgundy’s territories in the French region and give France a righteous cause to declare war.

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The third option (and my personal favorite) is to integrate Burgundy into the Empire. What this means in practice is that you will “balkanize” all of Burgundy’s territory into smaller independent imperial Princes, leaving Burgundy with only its namesake while Luxembourg and the like are freed from their control.

Should Marie choose to marry outside of the HRE, however, this triggers an entirely different incident altogether. Burgundy can marry back into the French Kingdom or seek the support of a strong marriage partner, and choosing to do so will put the future of their kingdom entirely in the hands of their new overlord.

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The Emperor may demand the Low Countries from Burgundy’s new overlord, and should they accept; Flanders, Holland, etc. will be released back into the Empire as free Princes. Should Burgundy’s overlord refuse, the Emperor may go to war to press his imperial claims.

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The Emperor can also declare Marie’s marriage entirely illegitimate and attempt to force a union on the entirety of Burgundy.

A particularly cowardly Emperor may choose to just let this issue slide and allow the succession to take place without his interference.

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Whomever Burgundy marries, they shall exist under personal union until an event declares Marie’s death and Burgundy in its entirety is integrated in a manner similar to the old system; with all of Burgundy’s territories becoming a core part of one’s own nation.

For those who enjoyed gaming the old triggers in script for the old system, such a thing will still be possible with AI Burgundy; with their various options for marriage partners being decided by a number of factors by the AI. Optimize these factors, and Burgundy will very likely choose your nation to be their protector.

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However, Marie de Bourgogne is not forced to marry into any particular house in Europe at all, and may in fact choose to stand on her own against the French Kingdom and the HRE. Doing so will likely lead to war with both, so surviving this version of the crisis will be quite a challenge for the Burgundian player, but may yield some interesting rewards.

That's all for today! Next week we'll take a look at some of the mission trees we haven't yet had the opportunity to reveal. Until then, have a great week.
 
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Any chance Burgundy’s flag can be changed to their Coat of Arms? The cross flag is horrible, and it’s more fitting for them to use their coat of arms anyway!

No? That’s a shame

You are very right!
The burgundian cross flag which I can only use here in my avatar was a flag in war time.
The CoA of the house of Burgundy-Valois was this:
150px-Blason_fr_Bourgogne.svg.png
and later on when Burgundy enlarged:

800px-Arms_of_the_Duke_of_Burgundy_1430-1482_(chivalric).svg.png
sorry its little bit too small but you can enlarged it:)
 
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Kingdom of Lotharingia and kingdom of Lorraine should be the same tag, the name of the tag should be determined whether formed by a german or French culture group nation
 
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Yeah maybe but is there a need for a new tag? You could just give Lotharingia a bit different wording for the decision to form France to explain that they're reforming Francia not west Francia.

Considering that Lotharingia is essentially Middle Francia, I think them uniting all of Francia and proclaiming it makes sense, it's like if a minor nation forms Byzantium then forms Rome, they are proclaiming that next level that shows it's a fully united empire, just how I see it
 
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To weigh-in on this whole Francia debate, I don't think that Francia should be added as a separate formable nation with its own missions, ideas, etc. I propose making it a cosmetic tag, with France having a decision to change their name to this that they can take if they own certain provinces in Germany and Italy and the HRE no longer exists.
 
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To weigh-in on this whole Francia debate, I don't think that Francia should be added as a separate formable nation with its own missions, ideas, etc. I propose making it a cosmetic tag, with France having a decision to change their name to this that they can take if they own certain provinces in Germany and Italy and the HRE no longer exists.

France would have no interest in reverting back to Francia by that point though, while a country that is already embracing Frankish heritage by restoring Lotharingia would likely proclaim Francia, besides, I have a feeling if Revolutionary France went crazy we would see a Revolutionary Francia led by Emperor Napoleon or something along those lines.
 
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To weigh-in on this whole Francia debate, I don't think that Francia should be added as a separate formable nation with its own missions, ideas, etc. I propose making it a cosmetic tag, with France having a decision to change their name to this that they can take if they own certain provinces in Germany and Italy and the HRE no longer exists.


That's nearly the same as making it its own tag, similar to yuan, the mogol empire or the Romans. None of these have missions, but instead a nice idea set or in case of the mobile a unique government. In my Opinion Francia should be similar. Not having unique missions, but its own strong idea set, a new color and emblem.

I can't understand the argument why just France should be able to form it and not all nations that historically were part of it. Since it is the HRE that would be a lot so maybe require them to form another larger nation first like unified HRE/Germany or Tuscany/Italy.
 
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Eu4 as far as I know don't have dynamic country naming. Changing a name means you have to change the tag too.
 
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Kingdom of Lotharingia and kingdom of Lorraine should be the same tag, the name of the tag should be determined whether formed by a german or French culture group nation
The established pattern in EU4 is that states are, where feasible, referred to by their customary English-language name (which reminds me, I should resurrect my minimod that calls Iran Iran).

In English, the duchy uses the French name (Lorraine), but Lothair's kingdom – when not referred to as "Middle Francia" – is referred to by the Latin name, Lotharingia. (The German name is Lothringen.)
 
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I just want to know if this event is scripted to happen every game. If playing as Burgundy can you skip this problematic event chain by siring an heir? Are you weighted more towards female heirs? Dealing with a hostile France & Austria is kinda difficult.
 
France would have no interest in reverting back to Francia by that point though, while a country that is already embracing Frankish heritage by restoring Lotharingia would likely proclaim Francia, besides, I have a feeling if Revolutionary France went crazy we would see a Revolutionary Francia led by Emperor Napoleon or something along those lines.
That's nearly the same as making it its own tag, similar to yuan, the mogol empire or the Romans. None of these have missions, but instead a nice idea set or in case of the mobile a unique government. In my Opinion Francia should be similar. Not having unique missions, but its own strong idea set, a new color and emblem.

I can't understand the argument why just France should be able to form it and not all nations that historically were part of it. Since it is the HRE that would be a lot so maybe require them to form another larger nation first like unified HRE/Germany or Tuscany/Italy.
I meant more along the lines of the Titular Empires of CKII (Latin Empire, etc.). it would literally just change the name of the country, nothing else.
 
@Meka66 As someone has already asked, why the choice to have Flanders join the HRE? It was never part of it (well, parts of it were, but that's another discussion). It was a French county.

Flanders was not a French county, it was a Flemish county, but yeah they shouldn't join the HRE, maybe they should get the option to join, Hainaut as well, just in case they fear French aggression
 
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Flanders was not a French county, it was a Flemish county, but yeah they shouldn't join the HRE, maybe they should get the option to join, Hainaut as well, just in case they fear French aggression
He means French as in it was part of France, and it was actually Frankish, seeing as Flemmish and Dutch are the closest continuation of the Frankish culture there is. It's part of France because it is the region from which Francia arose.
 
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Isnt it a bit weird that we havent got a single reply from the devs yet? Not even on minor or non too "spoilery"/far/deep reaching questions?

EDIT:
Need to correct myself, they answered, just didnt see it immediately cause of the new forum layout. Read the answers now! :)

Nonetheless, Im looking forward to play Burgundy in our first MP Session with my friends on release! (Whenever that is, 202? :p) On that point, I need to say this too: Since all the dev diaries, nobody (of my boys) is motivated to play right now, with all those updates waiting.. Would be cool to know if it will release the next months, or much later in autumn/fall or winter.

Back to Topic:
Somebody asked if the english alliance mission could be fulfilled otherwise, guess its like with any similar of those missions, ally or rival and youre good.

And somehow I hope Lotharingia isnt also named Lothringen (Lorraine) in German.. It needs something a tad bit more fancy and unique. Whatever that might be. Something with the Carolingians maybe?

And as always, keep up the good work and Im looking forward to the next and hopefully finishing dev diaries. Also: Deep dive into Hannover pls! :)
 
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He means French as in it was part of France, and it was actually Frankish, seeing as Flemmish and Dutch are the closest continuation of the Frankish culture there is. It's part of France because it is the region from which Francia arose.
and until.. 1529? it was seen as a part of France , so maybe not cores , but should have at least claims on it , whether at start or in a mission chain
 
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and until.. 1529? it was seen as a part of France , so maybe not cores , but should have at least claims on it , whether at start or in a mission chain
It is part of France because it is part of Burgundy which is part of france, It doensn't need french cores because it's in a PU under a french duchy. The point of missions is to guide the developing situation, and while Flanders is part of France it is also about to drift away from France.
 
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