Welcome to the first of several dev diaries of the next EU4 expansion Wealth of Nations.
By now you have probably heard a bit about the upcoming expansion, there have been some press about it, but in particular you have been able to follow some of the new features in our Developer MP stream (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqRhPbyFDQWir8LwA0ZXMdqg5ADde-G2o) Still, I will take this opportunity to just quickly go through what you can expect from it.
More gameplay, less fluff
The previous expansion had a few really visible game altering things such as a completely randomized new world, a new type of dynamic nations which changed how you controlled your American colonies and completely new mechanics for the native americans, perhaps a bit disrespectful to call it ‘fluff’, but bear with me. These features required quite a big investment in development time and made a big impact on how you play EU4. For Wealth of Nations you can look forward to towards more features but perhaps less headline grabbing features, in other words more interesting gameplay changes but perhaps not so many features that force you to completely rethink your priorities.
A focus on trade
The main focus of this expansion is going to be trade, as the name suggests. We are not, however going to change the the base concept but instead we are going to look into what we can do to strengthen the strategic choices and sharpen the conflicts that come from trade. We are going to add Trading Companies that allow for more specialized trading empires, we are going to add new diplomatic actions and types of peace treaties, privateers and things like that.
Not Just Trade
Just as with the previous expansion, Conquest of Paradise, not all features we add are going to fit the chosen focus. When we design features for our expansion we they usually fit the bill of either the what the expansion is about or what we really want to see in the game sooner rather than later. Like the Fervor features specially for the Reformed religion or a brand new mechanic dealing with competition among nations that we have not told you about yet, more on that in a later dev diary (or in the MP stream in a couple of weeks).
Some Free thing, some Not Free thing
As always some new features are going to be in the expansion and some in the major patch released at the same time. We want to be able to add radical changes, but we don't want to add features to expansions that are vital for the game balance or require us to remove old mechanics, so you get them for free. This is a living game that will hopefully continue to evolve for many expansions to come.
By now you have probably heard a bit about the upcoming expansion, there have been some press about it, but in particular you have been able to follow some of the new features in our Developer MP stream (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqRhPbyFDQWir8LwA0ZXMdqg5ADde-G2o) Still, I will take this opportunity to just quickly go through what you can expect from it.
More gameplay, less fluff
The previous expansion had a few really visible game altering things such as a completely randomized new world, a new type of dynamic nations which changed how you controlled your American colonies and completely new mechanics for the native americans, perhaps a bit disrespectful to call it ‘fluff’, but bear with me. These features required quite a big investment in development time and made a big impact on how you play EU4. For Wealth of Nations you can look forward to towards more features but perhaps less headline grabbing features, in other words more interesting gameplay changes but perhaps not so many features that force you to completely rethink your priorities.
A focus on trade
The main focus of this expansion is going to be trade, as the name suggests. We are not, however going to change the the base concept but instead we are going to look into what we can do to strengthen the strategic choices and sharpen the conflicts that come from trade. We are going to add Trading Companies that allow for more specialized trading empires, we are going to add new diplomatic actions and types of peace treaties, privateers and things like that.
Not Just Trade
Just as with the previous expansion, Conquest of Paradise, not all features we add are going to fit the chosen focus. When we design features for our expansion we they usually fit the bill of either the what the expansion is about or what we really want to see in the game sooner rather than later. Like the Fervor features specially for the Reformed religion or a brand new mechanic dealing with competition among nations that we have not told you about yet, more on that in a later dev diary (or in the MP stream in a couple of weeks).
Some Free thing, some Not Free thing
As always some new features are going to be in the expansion and some in the major patch released at the same time. We want to be able to add radical changes, but we don't want to add features to expansions that are vital for the game balance or require us to remove old mechanics, so you get them for free. This is a living game that will hopefully continue to evolve for many expansions to come.
