Talking Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations – Dev diary 2: Trade Improvements

[Ephafn]

One thing I find confusing about the current trade system is the "downstream" power, where you get trade power from downstream nodes (I may be wrong, I'm confused by it after all). Wouldn't it make more sense to get power from "upstream" nodes, linked to how much money you are transfering from it? Like +3 trade power for every ducat you bring to the node from upstream. This would represent that those goods are travelling in your own ships, although they could still be diverted by privateers from other nations.

Such a system would make the Western Europe be more sensible, since colonizers would have some advantage over non-colonizers in pushing the trade toward their home nodes.

 

[GameGabster]

Bautiful. Thequestion is, will a current savegame work with WoN?

 

[mib]

Enhanced Merchant Republics
Merchants republics are among the theoretically really strong nations in the game. They have a extra merchant (giving them not only the merchant but a higher naval force limit), that have extra trade efficiency and on top of that a bonus to trade steering. Add to that the, frankly, a little bit OP ability to elect rulers. Yet you rarely see nations like Venice or the Hansa grow to conquer the world. One reason for this is their geographical weakness, especially the Hansa lacks strategic depth. Then add that to what I mentioned earlier, the trade republics are kind of dangerous. This, first order of business for Denmark - take out the Hansa and for Austria - take out Venice. So we started thinking, what kind of extra thing can we add to an expansion that adds an extra layer to the Merchant Republics.

In Wealth of Nations, trading with a merchant republic is no longer a zero sum game. When a merchant republic trades in a region this will add value to the goods that are produced in the region (technically we are increasing the amount of goods produced) in proportion to how big a share the Merchant Republic is taking of trade in a region. This means that as the likes of Venice and The Hansa are spreading their tentacles and send their merchants to take over the trade lanes the nations they are trading with becomes richer and until the point where the other want to become traders or Venice is threatening to become a land power, its a win win situation.

Does this merchant republic mechanic also apply to Dutch Republics? (The government type, that is.)

 

[grandad1982]

From the Screen shot it looks like you've finally put the percentage of your power in a node on the map! Well done!

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

Oh wow, now you can see which provinces are centers of trade and estuaries!

 

[Opera]

You can see province modifiers in trade view now? Pretty sweet. I wonder what's the coin-like icon on each province.

I noticed the diplomacy icon at the top, with a '-1' next to it. What's that?

And also, this is the Commonwealth with republican tradition? I don't remember it being a republic in vanilla or having events to become one. Is that some kind of hint to an elective monarchy government?

*throws darts at the theory board*

 

[Chamboozer]

This means that as the likes of Venice and The Hansa are spreading their tentacles and send their merchants to take over the trade lanes the nations they are trading with becomes richer and until the point where the other want to become traders or Venice is threatening to become a land power, its a win win situation.

Great! I'd been hoping for something like this all along. Probably won't tear me away from Victoria but it's a step in the right direction.

 

[DDRJake]

Merchant Republics have been stripped bare from their EU3 mechanics. Here's hoping they become exciting choices again.

 

[Kipperian]

I'm sorry but after CoP I'm deeply sceptical about the future of EU4.

 

[dezuman]

Hey don't change things too drastically! 50 more trade power for each point of trade efficiency sounds crazy, even if it requires a merchant, and is only for inland trade nodes, in normal games there is usually a bunch of nations, all with merchants, so I fear it may get a bit chaotic.

I think by "per trade efficiency" he meant per 100%, as 100% actually is just 1. It might not be obvious unless you've been diggin in the code, where for example 15% TF is written as "trade_efficiency = 0.15".

Edit: So it would be 0.5 trade power per percentage unit of trade efficiency, which isn't too crazy

 

[bbiaso]

I noticed the diplomacy icon at the top, with a '-1' next to it. What's that?

That looks like an added tooltip for Diplomatic Relations, I think.

 

[Comes Imperii]

That looks like an added tooltip for Diplomatic Relations, I think.

Nope, if it is next to legitimacy it is the power projection value.

 

[Opera]

Nope, if it is next to legitimacy it is the power projection value.

What's the power projection value then?

 

[Olligarchy]

Looks like an interesting option which is why I will wait for Wealth of Nations to come out before booting up my Genoa game.

 

[jockedahl]

Could you also rework this "Transferred from nodes downstream" propogation mechanic you added for the latest patch?

It's a really confusing mechanic that has a huge impact in the Mediterranean for example. The rules seem weird, it's especially weird in the nodes that split up into several upstream nodes.

 

[mursolini]

I still don`t quite get the PI`s fashination with money bonuses/maluses. Money is something player cares about only first 50-100 years of the game, and than can ignore entirely, at least in SP.

 

[fangmanator]

I wonder what's the coin-like icon on each province.

I would guess it shows which provinces are getting the production bonus from merchant republics trading in their nodes. All of the Lubeck and Baltic Provinces have them, which would be where the Hanseatic League is trading. The Krakow Provinces don't appear to have the symbol (you can see most of Wizna) and it would be very unlikely for any Merchant Republics to be trading there.

 

[Golladan]

What's the power projection value then?

Look at the first 2 pages of the forums for the New Rival System thread.

I would guess it shows which provinces are getting the production bonus from merchant republics trading in their nodes. All of the Lubeck and Baltic Provinces have them, which would be where the Hanseatic League is trading. The Krakow Provinces don't appear to have the symbol (you can see most of Wizna) and it would be very unlikely for any Merchant Republics to be trading there.

I'm not so sure. Wizna has it. While Dorpat and Wenden.

Also while we can't know for sure, it's likely that the Commonwealth is a Merchant Republic in this screenshot.

 

[fangmanator]

I don't have EU4 in front of me, so I'm going off memory, but while the light ship category currently shows power from light ships, in the screenshot it looks like it's showing something else. It might be showing the number of light ships a nation has in the Baltic, but it would seem unlikely they all have either 2 ships or none.

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

I don't have EU4 in front of me, so I'm going off memory, but while the light ship category currently shows power from light ships, in the screenshot it looks like it's showing something else. It might be showing the number of light ships a nation has in the Baltic, but it would seem unlikely they all have either 2 ships or none.

Is 24 January, 1579 a bookmarked date? Because if so, maybe all the nations have 2 or 0 light ships art the very start?