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Hello everyone and welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. Today we’ll be talking a little bit about how colonial nations are evolving with Leviathan.



When a colony nation is formed you can pick what kind of colony this will be. This type of colony can then be upgraded for a cost for the overlord and a change of liberty desire for the subject. You can always change a colony to become another type of colony, but that will increase their liberty desire.

eu4_27.png

Crown Colony
This type of colony is for areas you want to have most control over, where liberty desire should be lowest.
  • global_autonomy = -0.05
  • recover_army_morale_speed = 0.02
  • embracement_cost = -0.1
  • governing_capacity = 100
  • global_autonomy = -0.05
  • global_colonial_growth = 10

Increase Draft from Colony (+10 Liberty Desire)
+5 Land Forcelimit for Overlord & -5 Land Forcelimit for Subject
Enlarge the Gold Fleet (+10 Liberty Desire)
+20% Treasure Fleet Income for overlord
Increase Religious Control (+10 Liberty Desire)
+1% Missionary Strength & -1 Heathen Tolerance for Subject
Increase Integration (-10 Liberty Desire)
-10 Liberty Desire for Subject & TBD for Overlord



Private Enterprise
This is the colony type you want to have when you want to maximize profits, where you want the colony to providea strong navy and control trade.
  • global_ship_trade_power = 0.2
  • embracement_cost = -0.1
  • merchants = 1
  • production_efficiency = 0.05
  • global_ship_trade_power = 0.2
  • global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.2
  • naval_tradition_from_trade = 0.1
  • ship_power_propagation = 0.1
  • 5% less Tariffs for Overlord

Increase Trade Power Transfer (+10 Liberty Desire)
+2% Trade Power for Overlord, and -10% Trade Power for Subject
Encourage Cash Crops (+10 Liberty Desire)
Increases likelihood of cash-crop goods to appear for subjects new colonies.
Increase Navies from Colony (+10 Liberty Desire)
+5 Naval Forcelimit for Overlord & -5 Naval Forcelimit for Subject
Increase the Gold Tax (+10 Liberty Desire)
Effects TBD

Self-Governing Colony
This is the colony type that will expand and develop fastest, but they will have the highest liberty desire, and the perks you can give them are not beneficial directly to you.

  • global_ship_trade_power = 0.2
  • embracement_cost = -0.1
  • merchants = 1
  • production_efficiency = 0.05
  • colonists = 1
  • development_cost = -0.15
  • liberty_desire = 25
  • 10% less Tariffs for Overlord

Allow Autonomous Trade (-5 Liberty Desire)
+5% more trade power for subject.
Allow Autonomous Taxing (-5 Liberty Desire)
+5% more tax for subject
Allow Autonomous Militias (-5 Liberty Desire)
+5% more manpower for subject
Allow Autonomous Navy (-5 Liberty Desire)
+10% more Sailors for Subject

There are also different events happening depending on which colonial type your colony is.
eu4_28.png


We are not just adding new features and polishing them, for 1.31 there is also currently over 500 different older bugs that has been fixed so far, and we have been busy tweaking and improving the interface as well.

Some of the UI improvements include.

- Alert for Inactive Merchants
- Alert for when one of your coasts are being invaded by an army.
- When you view rebels in the stability view, the locations will revolt risk for that rebel will highlight on then map.



Now we are taking a small hiatus from development diaries, until we are back to talk about diplomacy by the end of March.
 
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Having thought about this a bit more, I think now that we have colony types, I would suggest considering adding an option for us to use in which fully colonizing a province will automatically spawn a CN and let them expand wherever they want, especially for the private enterprise colony and self-governing colony. You may not even need to actually do manual colonizing by granting a charter via an event where you are petitioned for a charter, which would then spawn a first colony province in any of the colonial region that petition concerned.

Essentially, the analogy is the armies in Imperator: Rome, which I have just started playing recently, where you can set them to allow for independent operations, essentially having AI control your selected army. You would be setting the equivalent of independent operations for colonization if you wanted. Plus, it would be much cheaper.... likely why most of the colonization by English and British were often led by private efforts since the Crown were often tight on money because of the Parliamentary control of taxation.

Ideally, if the Parliament mechanic were to draw on the Senate mechanic from I:R with particular focus on taxation as a matter of negotiations between the executive and the parliament, then it could act as an additional motivation for human players to consider using cheaper methods of colonization and then convert them to Crown colonies later after they were sufficiently developed.

Moreover, let's say that nobility is brought back as an estate but with differences due to having Parliament, you may want to grant some lands in Americas to certain families as a matter of favors, as Charles II did with grants of lands in what is now North and South Carolina.

All of this would work well, though, if we were to bring in more characters. Yes, state became more important than characters and families in transition from dynasty-centered Crusader Kings to state-centered Europa Universalis, but I think I:R showed that it is possible to have state and characters together in EU4. Moreover, you still have prominent families even in Early Modern period. In fact, a number of British aristocratic families still exerts considerable influence through controlling a number of seats in Parliament, the so-called pocket boroughs. Moreover, many families produced important statesman and military leaders, especially in the cases of Pitt and Wellesey families for Britain.

Anyway, I digress but I think it would be cool to see members of important noble (and non-noble) families holding important positions. I wouldn't mind seeing a Lord or a Duke heading a cabinet government in Britain that I am playing. And, of course, you would have aristocrats being involved in colonization AND colonial administration. For example, the 4th Earl of Dunmore was the last colonial governor (and a notorious one at that, too) of Virginia. And a number of colonial governors were also already knighted at the time they took office, such as Sir William Berkley, also a colonial governor of Virginia. Which brings me to the next point, using honors including peerages (Barons, Viscounts, Earls, Marquess, and Duke) and knighthoods to gain favors with different families.

Anyway, I'll stop here before I add too much more here but playing I:R kind of make me wish there were more characters in EU4, though maintaining balance so that state remains the primary focus of the game. Having characters and families could make the colonization a bit more interesting as well.
 
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All of this would work well, though, if we were to bring in more characters. Yes, state became more important than characters and families in transition from dynasty-centered Crusader Kings to state-centered Europa Universalis, but I think I:R showed that it is possible to have state and characters together in EU4.
I disagree strongly. Having to deal with individual characters is a frustrating and micro-heavy aspect of those games and is one of the few things they could add to eu4 that would probably have me stop playing (crappy 3D animated portraits a la CK would be another). When I stare at the list of families in I:R and the game asks me to manage all of their loyalties and take advantage of their unique strengths and weaknesses, my eyes glaze over. I'm glad that in eu4 I can infinitely cycle through advisors at a small gold cost, leaders end at their combat statistics, and I don't have to keep track of a behind-the-scenes dynastic web for my rulers.
 
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Can you set the type of non-American colonies?

E.g.: I want my American colonies to be Crown Colonies and my African and Asian ones as Private Enterprises to simulate trade companies.
 
Can you set the type of non-American colonies?

E.g.: I want my American colonies to be Crown Colonies and my African and Asian ones as Private Enterprises to simulate trade companies.
Assuming you have a mod that lets colonial nations spawn in Africa and Asia, then probably.