Imperator - Development Diary - 11th of March 2019

[Te. Kenzo]

When a country expand quickly, the pragmatic truth it's that many things change also for the winners and not everytime for good. Sometimes kingdoms and empires fall because they win too much enemies too quickly.

 

[Reman]

No, it can be gamed by:

• Truce juggling
• Being too powerful to attack

That's all there is to it.

Those only work when you're a megablob (>5k dev) yourself, which takes much of the game's timeline to get to under normal circumstances. And from a gameplay/tedium perspective it's actually a good thing AE stops mattering at that point.

Your advice doesn't work for a non-GP start in 1444.

 

[durbal]

Those only work when you're a megablob (>5k dev) yourself, which takes much of the game's timeline to get to under normal circumstances. And from a gameplay/tedium perspective it's actually a good thing AE stops mattering at that point.

Your advice doesn't work for a non-GP start in 1444.

Thanks for your gameplay hints, but I'm pretty good at EU4 and have a clue what I'm talking about. And no, you don't need to be a megablob to ally France/Ottos or to truce juggle. You're just being disingenuous here.

You're also demonstrating my point: why would you want a system that allows snowballing out of control and the eventual tedium of the game past a certain point? The lack of any internal pressures in EU4 is one of its main faults, and that's presumably why mana costs (direct and required pop conversions) were added in Imperator.

 

[Admiral Boysen]

What's the culture/religion situation in Punt at game start?

 

[Everybody in Uganda]

Does anyone else think the kingdom of Yeha will probably get an achievement dealing with their name? Speaking of achievements, is that going to be the very last dev diary or something? With how much time on EU4 I have just getting achievements, I would like to know what they will be for Imperator.

 

[kalauer]

So when buying off mercenaries, is there a premium on top of the original price, modeling a kind of (even so little) loyalty towards the first employer? Or will it be like Mikado, where the first one to buy the mercenaries effectively loses his money when the enemy also has the money?
Or is there some other malus? Like a certain period in which the bought-off mercenaries do not interfere?

I am thinking about sieges, where one may be busy some years and the besieged side just waits it out and buys the besieging mercs at the last moment to reset the progress.

 

[Oswald the Odd]

Will the Isle of Man be appearing as a province?

(Yes, I just want to play as Manannan Mac Lir. Fight me.)

 

[szmik]

How far does AE reach? Neighbours are obvious, but other countries?
News about some aggressive tribe in Brittania wouldn't arrive to Rome soon, if ever. Also how would anyone assess threat of some tribe far away from your borders? There was only word of mouth back then. Surely more news could arrive with active trade.

Also how does military access work? Does it put invisible wall or are there just diplomatic consequences when crossing? Could one attack neutral army moving through without military access leading to war maybe?

 

[Nostalgium]

Those only work when you're a megablob (>5k dev) yourself, which takes much of the game's timeline to get to under normal circumstances. And from a gameplay/tedium perspective it's actually a good thing AE stops mattering at that point.

Your advice doesn't work for a non-GP start in 1444.

The easiest way to get from a non-GP start to GP rank through rapid expansion is truce juggling. GP 1444 starts is where you start looking at being too powerful for coalitions anyway, if you cripple your rivals before AE becomes an issue.

 

[Will Steel]

More character interactions? This is awesome. I hope you guys keep adding even more of them.

There is also a lot of modding potential here. "Hold Games" could be modded to be interactive event chains, allowing your ruler/family to actually participate in them sometimes. CK2-style tournaments for some nations could also be made.

Granting stipends should also allow you to grant estates ("holdings") owned by your own family members to a character, I think. Even better if granting estates/holdings is a new and separate action entirely.

Also, I can finally play as this guy:

Spoiler

 

[Reman]

The easiest way to get from a non-GP start to GP rank through rapid expansion is truce juggling. GP 1444 starts is where you start looking at being too powerful for coalitions anyway, if you cripple your rivals before AE becomes an issue.

Truce juggling is a powerful tool in your toolbelt, but it's hardly the best option in every situation. Your ability to truce juggle is largely predicated on your military might and the size of the region you need to juggle. A nation like Milan trying to juggle the entire HRE is infeasible at the start of the game. The best option for it is to take Exploration ideas and expand more quickly in areas where AE is less of a problem, like East Africa and Indonesia.

Truce juggling is a high-risk, high-reward strategy that certainly requires a fair amount of strategizing. It'd be to Imperator's benefit to also have strategies like this.

 

[Rhapture]

Tyranny also discounts the price for using tyrannical actions such as imprisonment or executions, and it increases the output of Slave Pops.

Shouldn't tyranny also decrease the Slave Pop? You might increase their output, but you also increase the likelihood they are gonna die early

 

[Katsue]

Shouldn't tyranny also decrease the Slave Pop? You might increase their output, but you also increase the likelihood they are gonna die early

To be honest, I don't get why Tyranny increases slave production. Since Tyranny is incurred by curbing the power of the aristocracy, you would expect, all things being equal, that slaves would be exploited more intensively in non-tyrannical states.

 

[DerRitter]

With such internal penalties it should really be named Overextension rather than AE.

 

[Admiralen1728]

Wow great dev d today! Ty

 

[Pirisinian]

Not sure how much sense it makes that going out and showing your might by conquering large swaths of territory will somehow make your own culture less loyal to you.

 

[EpicProGamer76]

Power costs seems a little high. Also I think they should balance the primary culture pop happiness with pop conversion rate being slower at high AE. Otherwise You May Lose a lot of home province production rate simply by expanding.

 

[Denkt]

Not sure how much sense it makes that going out and showing your might by conquering large swaths of territory will somehow make your own culture less loyal to you.

You need to have more than 50 aggressive expansion for your Culture to start get unhappy which is about 50 or so cities Worth of expansion without any AE reduction.

Power costs seems a little high. Also I think they should balance the primary culture pop happiness with pop conversion rate being slower at high AE. Otherwise You May Lose a lot of home province production rate simply by expanding.

As long as you keep yourself under the 50 limit you will not get the Power Point cost increase.

 

[riadach]

If a clan separates what does the new country get called?

 

[blakh]

The worst part about it is that it really only matters when you're going for a WC or speedrun, which means you expect to win anyway. I don't think a system that a) players interact with only when they just wanna see how hard they can roflstomp, and b) allows players to expect to win in the first place can be considered as a good system full of 'strategic choices'. There's no strategy, it's just gameyness to game the game which unfortunately a lot of EU4 players mistake for strategy in games because that's all that's left in EU4.

What does that even mean? You want players that go for WC not to play in a way that will only make sense if they are going to get into a situation where they can get a WC?