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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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Can you add the 1472 event where Burgundy purchased Gelre?

Also if you add the Arpitan culture, you could make Arles as its formable.
 
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It seems to me to be a big huge nerf of France. Not only will it inherit rarely of Burgundian lands (its De Jure vassal, not only in name), but BUR will ally with ENG, and easily get the Empire protection.

Whats more, already weakened by its Vassal, France will now be able to lose loyalty from its Vassal (!!!) thanks to Burgundian missions.

I hope that France will also have the mission to unite Charlemagne Empire too, and maybe that some Eastern German (+/-) tags can form it too. Whats more, up till François Ier it was a goal for French kings.

I really appreciate those missions and the work behind it, it will add much depth into the game and i love that. It will definitely change the game we play and provide not only fun, but good "stories". I Always consider the game i play to be alternate History.

I will for sure play Bur and Lotharingia (can Lorraine form it? :) ), but balance wize, I hope French tree will have strong missions, over Provence and Provence's claims (as IRL, which would lead to claims on Jérusalem, Naples, Aragon), over Britanny (to unite it without war, on a similar way to the Iberian Wedding)…. And on Burgundy, to get it, in game, as it was IRL, vassal. Of course that would be a Treason of Arras Treaty of 1435, but that could be a early game big goal (get Burgundy back as a bowing Vassal )

It would lead Western Europe to big early wars and would avoid to depend too much on a few event (Fate of Burgundy and Iberian Wedding).
Brittanny Wedding could occur once the English are driven out of France (Primauguet, avenged),
Provence Inheritance (except Lorraine) could happen on death of King René the good if good relation + high trust (which would force France to keep alliance with Provence, and, limit its alliance of other foreign powers)
Burgundy bowing again should be hard to get though, but around 1480

@neondt I never really understood how could France not have missions of Provence (get its land after King René dies) and on Britanny
 
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It seems to me to be a big huge nerf of France. Not only will it inherit rarely of Burgundian lands (its De Jure vassal, not only in name), but BUR will ally with ENG, and easily get the Empire protection.

Well Burgundy acted totally independent at that time so while it was De Jure a vassal it was not De Facto = it was a vassal only in name, also the Duke was only a vassal of France for its French territories while it was a vassal of the HRE for the others

I think the idea is to make the whole situation in the area more dynamic: France has a lot of potential in early with its vassal swarm, but it is also more instable and can disintegrate.

Recently most dev diaries where published later than they used to
 
Once again, a DD thread is about the DD in the first post, not about the timing of the following DD.

The DD will come when it's ready.
 
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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

Lotharingia is not Middle Francia. Big difference.

Middle Francia was the previous state and was the one that held the emperor title, which was passed to the other state formed from Middle Francia. Italy.

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.

Francia and France are not equal. France is the successor state to non karling West Francia. Similar to Middle and East Francia, they all were breakups of Francia.

They should not be confused and they are not the same.

If it helps the tag can be named Frankish Empire.

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.
Not really

Flanders is by feudal rules dejure part of France as the border of the Holy Roman Empire is roughly the Scheldt river.

It was still claimed by france, but with the war of the burgundian succession, france wasnt able to take back all the lands in its grasp and the peace treaty ceded it to the HRE. Without war it should also go to France, while Franche Comte should not
 
Lotharingia is not Middle Francia. Big difference.

Middle Francia was the previous state and was the one that held the emperor title, which was passed to the other state formed from Middle Francia. Italy.



Francia and France are not equal. France is the successor state to non karling West Francia. Similar to Middle and East Francia, they all were breakups of Francia.

They should not be confused and they are not the same.

If it helps the tag can be named Frankish Empire.


Not really

Flanders is by feudal rules dejure part of France as the border of the Holy Roman Empire is roughly the Scheldt river.

It was still claimed by france, but with the war of the burgundian succession, france wasnt able to take back all the lands in its grasp and the peace treaty ceded it to the HRE. Without war it should also go to France, while Franche Comte should not
It's indeed important not to mix Francia (as Frankish Kingdom), and France. The Frankish kingdom was created by a king considered French (by French people), in Noyons, France, but it's definitely different. In France we use to call it "Charlemagne Empire" even if it's not correct neither.

@Manwe_Sulimo i spoke about Burgundy being "de jure French" not just in name, cause just in Name you could almost go up to the Rhine river. But no one took it seriously. While Burgundy in 1435 (which is close enough to 1444) Burgundy admit again to be a vassal of France. The only difference - which is important--is that the Duke won't bow to its King.

Of course, in means that in reality he is not paying him hommages. But you could definitely have a mission where the King make the Duke bow again, and Burgundy is now not only a vassal among other, but a subdued one.

Of course the main problem is that France having as vassal burgundy (except Franche comte and Flanders vassals) is a very big powerhouse.
But we could imagine that all of western Europe would feel a lot of agressive expansion from France, or that the mission have to conclude around 1500 and not 1480. Of course Austria would have to use all its might to avoid such a thing by proposing to, share Burgundy, whatever.

But France shouldn't be just considered a potential victim of Burgundian mission and not the other way around. It's not logical, game play wise or historically wise
 
I meant that the meaning of your statement is contradictory: if he is a de jure vassal, but he acts de facto as an independent country, then that means he is a vassal only in name, but no in reality, EU4 normally implements the reality not the legal techniqualty (the latter is often represented by DHE, subjugation casus bellis, claims or cores), "de jure" and "just in name" mean roughly the same thing in this context imo.

History is complex but the situation at the game start was that Burgundy acted de facto independent at the time of the game start and French only got those lands under control through the Burgundian Succession Wars which ended with partioning the country largely along the de jure situation, although the end of the HYW changed the situation and might indeed have allowed the French to regain control of the Burgundy, but its very plausible if Burgundy continued to succeed in wars and producing male heirs that they remained out of reach for the French

The French mission tree has missions to conquer Burgundy, the British have missions to force France in a PU, ... everybody is a potential victim for everybody, its not a one-way thing, I dont expect Burgundy to replace the French King like that mission applies in many games, but if it is an option that can happen in player hands or sometimes the AI, why not? its not like that mission can be fullfilled easily
 
It was still claimed by france, but with the war of the burgundian succession, france wasnt able to take back all the lands in its grasp and the peace treaty ceded it to the HRE. Without war it should also go to France, while Franche Comte should not
the problem with this is it places provinces that's needed for the Netherlands to form in France which severely decreases the odds of there being a Netherlands.