Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations – Dev diary 6: Improved Diplomacy

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There was a mixup about which features would be discussed when, so I'm afraid details won't be until later. Although we can confirm now (as most of you probably suspected) that there will be Sikhism.

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I really like the possibility of trade wars with massive TP as the reward but I feel I have to bring up that wars in EU4 are kinda.. annoying. I believe that trade wars should be more 'local' otherwise no one would realistically declare them. The web of alliances can easily create an ugly and unfun situation and if the 2-3PM whose TP you want is to rally half of Europe for its trade interests and you have to fight that, why not conquer/vassalize them at first place instead of just getting TP? After all, given that the game scales well only with province count you are indeed being too generous for wanting only their TP. Also will we be able to easily request TP (talking about 50% at least) from larger nations if say we have a PU or they're our vassal, or will large nations be coded to never accept that, no matter their relationship with the country that asks for it?
 
There is more Gunboat diplomacy in this expansion than in all Victoria II, and I like it.
Now I can do an unequal treaty. We have canals, maybe now extend the timeline ,in a future expansion to 1840, or 1848, is no more so strange.
 
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I really like the possibility of trade wars with massive TP as the reward but I feel I have to bring up that wars in EU4 are kinda.. annoying. I believe that trade wars should be more 'local' otherwise no one would realistically declare them. The web of alliances can easily create an ugly and unfun situation and if the 2-3PM whose TP you want is to rally half of Europe for its trade interests and you have to fight that, why not conquer/vassalize them at first place instead of just getting TP? After all, given that the game scales well only with province count you are indeed being too generous for wanting only their TP. Also will we be able to easily request TP (talking about 50% at least) from larger nations if say we have a PU or they're our vassal, or will large nations be coded to never accept that, no matter their relationship with the country that asks for it?

Yep i can't see that working too well in multiplayer where wars are either involving half the player in a bloody and long war across europe, or a one-sided gangbang against one infortunate country. In both case i doubt going for 50-100% tradepower for 5 years is really worth it.

I think something like this would work well :

If you enforce any "diplomatic action" Tradepower, basing rights, military access etc. through a war, you get to keep them until the losing side manage to rescind them in another war.

For instance, if i'm Portugal and i force Kongo to give me basing rights and their tradepower, Kongo would only be able to cut the tradepower deal if they went at war with me to rescind it.

That way it makes such a wargoal much more valuable and permanent, enabling long term strategies rather than a temporary boost.
 
We're gonna have sikhism.
With the last CK2 DLC we have jainism importable in EU4, along with zoroastrism that did exist before.
So if we import a CK2 game and that sikhism appear into it in EU4 (as it did during the 16° century), we're gonna have big religious mess in north India, with shiism, sunnism, zoroastrism, jainism, buddhism, hinduism, sikhism and christianism (in cases of colonization) in a single region of the world.
That's gonna be a really funny mess.
 
This diary has completely sold me the expansion. I'll be preordering.

As a current player of Victoria 2 I really really like the changes on diplomacy in order to get into the the game trade and balance of power as important game features.
 
I have to say, this is the most exciting Dev Diary so far. I loved literally every ounce of what it contained, great stuff!

My only question is that with all of the new actions revolving around rivals, will there be any improvements in the UI made to monitor rivals more easily? For example, will I get an alert whenever my rivals go to war, so I can decide if I want to financially support their opposition? Alternatively will Rebel Groups/Revolt Chance be exposed without having to have a diplomat free, so I can easily tell if recalling a diplomat to support them is worthwhile? Things along those lines, etc etc.
 
Nice silkhism is being added. Now, they're giving reformed fervor...what is Protestantism getting. Catholics have the curia, reformed have fervor, hindus have their gods.
 
But you only look strong vis-a-vis them if you fight wars against them.

While I do really like this new system, shouldn't the power projection replace prestige? Not only does the name fit better, it would also be weird if your power projection is really low (aka: you look weak in eyes of your peers), but your prestige would be high (aka: people are in awe of you).

Well soft and hard power hardly ever always coïncided so I don't think this would have to be considered weird at all :)
 
Please make the new power pojection core to gameplay. Don't just make it 10% modifiers to not so important values. Make it imperative for human players to keep it up. Really push humans to strive for it and force them into power wars vs AI France and Spain instead of stomping OPM neighbours.