For people who haven't noticed yet, the 1.30 update gave Korea an estate privilege that makes them take a stab hit every time they declare war. The justification for doing so was that 'Korea did not expand much historically due to its Confucian values.' (Ming, the only other Confucian country in the game, did not receive such a nerf)
Korea is now the only country in the game that can take stability hits upon declaring normal, non-no-CB wars. Sure, you can revoke the privilege on 1444, but what's the point in having added the 'privilege' then?
'Oh you can either not declare wars (in a game of wars and conquest), or you get -20% clergy loyalty out the gate cause why not.'
The last update buffed Manchuria immensely, while also making Korea start off with a 5 year truce with it's only non-Ming neighbour Jianzhou (with no historical basis). This means that Korea can no longer utilise military tech 4 to challenge the far more militarily powerful Manchus (who can also ally each other, compared to the religiously isolated Korea).
Korea's only other starting expansion directions are Ming and Japan, the former which requires another stability hit to cancel tributary status with, while the latter is far more powerful due to its vassal swarm and better ideas/religion. On top of that Korea received a whole tonne of negative events ranging from peasant revolts to estate disasters, and of course who can forget, the So clan raiding their entire coastline every few years.
And this isn't even adressing how much of a joke Korea's development is. Korea starts off with 130 development in 1444. Historically Korea was in its golden age during this era, with a population of around 8,000,000. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by comparison had a population of around 7,500,000, yet Lithuania alone starts with more than twice the dev Korea has, and Lithuania is one of the worst represented regions in Europe. To make an even more extreme example, Korea's development is 2 higher than Denmark's 128, when in reality the entire Kalmar union had a smaller population than just the city of Hanseong alone.
This figure turns out even worse when compared to its neighbours. Korea is the only region in East Asia with such low dev, rubbish land bar Siberia. Korea's capital of Hanseong, a major city of the era with almost half of the Korean population in it starts with 10 development, compared to the Siberian tribe of Nivkh having 11 dev in its capital Deren. Korea's immediate northern neighbour of Jianzhou, a barely sedentary horde, starts off with two 15 dev provinces. The rest of Korea is pitifully low dev land, with Gyeongseong, Yukjin and Gangneung being the only 3 dev provinces in East Asia along with the island of Hokkaido.
An argument could be made about everywhere outside of Europe having relatively low dev, but a look at Japan right next door says otherwise. The population of the Ashikaga Shogunate and Korea during 1444 are estimated to be similar, with some scholars even stating that Korea had more subjects due to its peaceful reign, yet the Japanese archipelago starts with almost 400 dev, more than thrice the size of Korea. Combine this with their far superior ideas, and its easy to see why Korea gets annihilated by Japan every single game where they haven't been erased by the Manchus beforehand.
Speaking of ideas, it took Paradox years to fix Korea's naval idea. The Korean navy's sole legacy being their efficiency against the Japanese navy during the Imjin wars, you'd expect Korea to at least have better naval ideas than Japan, however for the entirety of EU4's lifetime up until just two days ago, the Korean idea set provided 5% ship durability compared to the Japanese 10%. Imagine the outrage if the Ottomans had twice the Cavalry combat ability Poland has. While the 1.30 patch has brought this number up to 10%, this still means that the Japanese has superior naval strength due to their far higher development and province density allowing for a much larger navy.
Historically the Japanese did have a much larger navy, yet lost to the Koreans with a navy a mere fraction of their size due to the quality of the Korean ships and their naval doctrine. The Korean community has asked multiple times for some sort of representation of such (most often through the way of naval morale or galley combat ability), but this seems to have fallen on dead ears.
Obviously Korea does not look to be a regional powerhouse, yet Paradox keeps hitting Korea with nerf after nerf. The 1.29 patch being especially critical to Korea, due to it completely blocking its one path of expansion. Calls for buffing Korea's development, giving Korea actually decent ideas or even an explanation on why Korea's starting heir is a 2/1/1 have gone ignored, and now with the 1.30 patch Korea has the honour of being the only country in EU4 history to take stability hits simply by declaring war.
As expected, Korea post-1.30 disappears off the map even faster than during the 1.29 patch. Paradox, please, at the very least, revoke the last patch for Korea. It's a miracle to see AI Korea surviving past even 1550, they do not deserve a further nerf.
I've seen the myriad of please buff Portugal posts have an effect (Congrats on Ribatejo), hopefully the next wave will be buff Korea.
