Europa Universalis IV Developer diary 8 - With God on Your Side?

[brifbates]

Actually the US historically didn't have that high a tolerance towards Catholics.

Certain groups and areas more than others, also, most of that intolerance was not by the government itself. However heretics also includes the other protestant religions and in that regard I'd say my statement is pretty accurate. Given the way EU 3 groups religions that would be the most accurate representation of colonial era USA.

 

[Don_Quigleone]

I'd instead make "Liberalism" or "Secularism" a "religion". I know they technically aren't religions, but in terms of game effects they functioned similarly. A Liberal regime (think Revolutionary France) will have just as much trouble tolerating Catholics as anything else. I'd make "Liberalism" a religion that pops up in the really late game. A country that derives it's legitimacy from religion will have a lot of difficulty governing over a population that no longer considers religion a matter of state ideology.

 

[Atlanteax]

I know I'm way late to the party here, but I was wondering if you were going to make it possible for countries with different religions to form alliances (putting aside their differences for practical reasons). This did happen sometimes such as when France forged an alliance with the Ottomans during the reign of Louis XIV. It seemed to me that this was impossible in EU3 (or diplomatic relations with peoples of a different faith were pretty limited).

My understanding is that this is intended to be possible in EU4, especially if you share a common rival (which would be HRE / Hapsburgs in this scenario).

 

[...............]

I'd instead make "Liberalism" or "Secularism" a "religion". I know they technically aren't religions, but in terms of game effects they functioned similarly. A Liberal regime (think Revolutionary France) will have just as much trouble tolerating Catholics as anything else. I'd make "Liberalism" a religion that pops up in the really late game. A country that derives it's legitimacy from religion will have a lot of difficulty governing over a population that no longer considers religion a matter of state ideology.

Liberalism isn't in the timeline of this game.Not more than Age of Enlightenment.

 

[Norkey]

There are so many pages, so it may be probably mentioned here, but anyway:

Will Bohemia start Utraquist? After granted authonomy by Emperor Sigismund and the pope (later the popes took their approval back, but no one cared anymore anyway), majority of Bohemian population become utraquist, which later coexisted and merged with protestantism. Almost 100% Bohemian and Silesian population were protestants, with Moravia having slightly less number, so please, don't even try to apply any form of catholicism or catholic system mentioned in the first post on Bohemian lands. (for example, last archbishop left Prague in 1419 or maybe 1420, as Jan Rokycana - the hussite archbishop - was never confirmed in his office by the pope) Thanx.
(tip for reading: Hugh LeCaine Agnew - History of the Czechs in Bohemia).

I see lot of was wrote about the secularism, yet I think it is quite difficult to decide whether to put it in the game as a religion, or not.. Secularism in medieval times was a form of a vacuum, just look how islam spread in bogomilist Bosnia, or how protestantism overcame utraquism in Bohemia itself.

 

[Baldwin XI]

It may have been already touched on here, but it's still a question that I've had since EU3:

One of the hallmarks of the Reformation period in the game was the spread of Protestantism on its own. That seems to make sense in the historical context, what with the printing press and itinerant preachers and all that. But one thing that always bugged me was that it was only a one-way street for Protestantism to spread, while Catholic nations looking to take back provinces religiously ALWAYS had to use missionaries. Sure, the Counter-Reformation allowed missionaries a better chance to convert provinces, but wouldn't it follow logically that the Counter-Reformation would allow Catholicism to potentially spread on its own to Protestant spaces, like Protestantism does to Catholic ones all the way through the Reformation?

Such a thing historically happened in Poland, which had many Protestant congregations (mainly Calvinist) in the early years of the Reformation. The Counter-Reformation's correction of Renaissance clerical abuses essentially caused Protestantism to "die on the vine" in Poland in less than a century with little action taken from the nobles and kings of that country.

 

[Evie HJ]

Game balance. The Reformation needs this otherwise it won't spread at all (because no nation will convert if they don't have a significant converted base, in the game), but the Catholics would probably be able to drown out the protestants easily if they got that event.

 

[Baldwin XI]

Game balance. The Reformation needs this otherwise it won't spread at all (because no nation will convert if they don't have a significant converted base, in the game), but the Catholics would probably be able to drown out the protestants easily if they got that event.

I've played plenty of games where states converted even though they had no Protestant provinces. And I'm not saying that the Protestant auto-converting event needs to stop with the Counter-Reformation. I'm just saying that it would be more historically accurate to introduce the Catholic auto-convert alongside it after the Counter-Reformation begins. In EU3 the auto-convert event happens much more rapidly in states that went Protestant, so they should need to work on keeping their own population in line with missionaries if the peasants of that region decide to go back to "Popery", to say nothing of the enhanced probability of the auto-convert event happening again in the province that converted back to Catholicism. Also, the Catholic auto-conversion event should fire more rapidly in Catholic states that have fully embraced the Counter-Reformation (or the EU4 equivalent of the EU3 decision to do so). It really wouldn't effect game balance at all.

 

[unmerged(80402)]

Well it could be made that the event needs counter reformation, and that the counter reformation have certain requirements, that make it not appear immediately after reformation(IE, number of protestant & reformed provinces is over 50 or something like that). This would not make it abuseable.

 

[BenediktGer]

I think the counter reformation should be started by the Papacy. After the Papacy calls a council (huge cost and risk of losing relations with Catholic rulers) counter reformation is in place. Once it has been adopted by the pope, Catholic nations can decide to follow suit. It should cost some yearly money to have it active, but there is a good chance that your provinces will auto-convert. (Historically, the council was in Trient ~1550)

Another thing that should be implemented: When you go Protestant as a nation, you should get some one-time money per Catholic province in your realm. This would represent confiscated church property. But there is a chance that the Catholic population revolts, meaning that some provinces get an increase in revolt risk. (Historically, this happened in Sweden, Iceland, Norway to some degree, Scotland and England)

Third, how do Papal elections work? Are they still being random like in EU III? Or is there a way to influence elections. Historically, papal elections were influenced quite heavily. The Austrian Habsburgs even managed to get veto power in the 18th century.