EU4 - Development Diary - 10th of April 2018

[TheAtreides84]

Well the thing with military castes is that they work well for a time after being established but then over time become an entrenched elite. That's what happened to the noble caste/class who certainly started out as a military caste, and it also eventually did happen to the german officers corps, in ww1 when they refuse to accept any peace where they give up land their soldiers died to take. Eventually leading to a situation when the German leadership was in total denial about it's ability to actually win the war.

Well, the same happened to France, Italy and Russia.

 

[TheDungen]

Well, the same happened to France, Italy and Russia.

Oh certainly, the entirety of ww1 was a one massive example of sunk cost fallacy. Also any particular reason you leave Britain out because they are by far the largest offender besides Germany when it comes to this. They're still reciting Flander's fields unironically to this day.

 

[MiniaAr]

So if I understand correctly, for those who have only the patch, they will get the new mechanic of adding particularities to their governement with the "normal" reforms, but the reforms linked to a previous DLC won't be accessible except if you play the country it was intended for.

If it works like this, for me, it's a stroke of genius from our devs. That means they will be able to keep adding new type of reforms which will be linked to one particular country, but if you have the encompassing expansion they are going to sell us, you will have the possibility of using those reforms on other countries. Thus every new "Immersion pack" will be an advertisement for this expansion, which will only grow in value for the player.

I think it's DLC rightly done. The ability to apply special reforms to other country is the feature.

I have two question, thought.

1. When they say in the reform that this reform make you lose X reforms, do you have a choice or does it removes the X last reforms you made?
2. If I understand correctly, the name of the government will be dynamic, meaning that in the screenshot, Venice (?) is a Serene Republic because of its particular choices? If so, will the first reforms already differentiate the countries enough for us to have an healthy amount of different governments at the start of the game?

I agree with this.

This is also how people suggested Estates could be integrated in the main game.
Basic estates would be included for everybody (Clergy, Nobility, Burgers, Tribes, Dhimmis) but additional estates specific to a country/region would be part of an expansion/immersion pack.
Which means in the current situation:
Cossack estate -> available to owners of The Cossacks expansion

Possible future specific estates:
Janissaries - Ottomans
Qizilbash - Persia
Free peasants - Scandinavia

 

[F.A.T.H.E.R.]

Than Tribes and Dhimmis should also be locked behind Cossacks

 

[KuroS45]

Will the suggested mission trees be added in this update?

 

[cristofolmc]

I want to remind on the modifiers shown in these dev diaries. Everything is super early in production and none of these are final. People have voiced concern of nepotism, it will not necessarily look like this at release which is far far off. The modifier is a placeholder and was just me randomly writing "Here's nepotism and some modifier to associate with it". We'll probably keep the name nepotism though, but change the effect eventually.

It'd be nice if some government forms interacted more with the estates. After all, under some government forms, the estates had more power (influence).

 

[Temudhun Khan]

Than Tribes and Dhimmis should also be locked behind Cossacks

Maybe CoC should also unlock the Dhimmis. It wouldn't be the first time a mechanic can be unlocked by several different dlc.

 

[Keyboard Warrior]

dhimmi is kinda useless mechanic, it is so hard to raise their influence over 40%.

 

[Jeff S.]

What's the difference if it is a single game or multiple ones? You spend what you want in the end.

For one thing, what they have done in CKII is not only lock features behind a paywall, but actually lock parts of the game behind a paywall by giving you an entire map but only letting you play on a small part of it for the $40 you spend on the base game. Could you imagine the outrage if, for example, you bought a story-driven game, and you could only play the first half of the campaign with the base game, and then had to pay three different times to unlock the rest of the game?

I understand that Paradox fanboys will defend everything they do, but they've made a $40 game into a $200+ game with DLC.

 

[TheAtreides84]

For one thing, what they have done in CKII is not only lock features behind a paywall, but actually lock parts of the game behind a paywall by giving you an entire map but only letting you play on a small part of it for the $40 you spend on the base game. Could you imagine the outrage if, for example, you bought a story-driven game, and you could only play the first half of the campaign with the base game, and then had to pay three different times to unlock the rest of the game?

As far as I know, episodic adventure games are common. You also need to pay three times to see how the new Star Wars trilogy is going to end, you know...

I understand that Paradox fanboys will defend everything they do, but they've made a $40 game into a $200+ game with DLC.

I'm not a fanboy of anything. I'm just a rational person who thinks having the *option* of buying something is better than not having the option at all, which would be the case if no DLC was ever made.

 

[Temudhun Khan]

Could you imagine the outrage if, for example, you bought a story-driven game, and you could only play the first half of the campaign with the base game, and then had to pay three different times to unlock the rest of the game?

That's how Life is Strange works, you have to buy every chapter separately.

 

[TheDungen]

... the [Redacted] don't have to be a georgaphical location. It could be a timeframe. the midgame, the late game or so on. Heck it could be The economy.

 

[Phlopsi]

soo... we used to have DLC wth every second patch, now we have to pay with every patch?

It was the same with the last mini expansion which focused on Russia. It's major dlc, free patch, minor dlc, major dlc, free patch, ...

It's probably better to look at it in a comparison between free and payed content they release. Let's say a patch with a major dlc consists of 70% payed and 30% free content, then they release a free patch one month later which, when combined, results in a 50%-50% split of payed and free content. The next patch is accompanied with a minor DLC, but due to the size, it already consists of 50% payed and 50% free content. Now, looking at it from this angle, there is no reason for them to release a patch without accompanying DLC out, next, to change the ratio of payed and free content.

P.S.: Don't quote me on the ratio. I have no clue as to what exact ratio they aim for. It's just an example.

 

[raikaria]

Can you guys stop making DLC for the game? It is getting so prohibitively expensive that it's gatekeeping the hobby. Even when CKII was free and the DLC half off over the weekend, the DLC alone cost over $100. It's gotten out of hand, it's clear that your financial strategy is to release unfinished games with minimal content and then expect the player base to pay several times what the game is actually worth to get necessary features. It's actually really scummy.

The games are complete on release.

Have you ever heard of the term 'post-release support'? What do you think pays the dev staff for the free patch content and such?

Don't like the DLC? Vote with your wallet. I refuse to buy the Immersion packs for example; and so do not buy Music/Unit packs. I do not think they are worth it. I waited for sales for some of the weaker DLC's like Mare Nostrum.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I wonder if the new world is getting some love in the expansion.

As they will have broadly generic "tribal", "monarchy", or in one case "theocratic" government reforms per these diaries they'll look different in some capacity.

 

[Warial]

For one thing, what they have done in CKII is not only lock features behind a paywall, but actually lock parts of the game behind a paywall by giving you an entire map but only letting you play on a small part of it for the $40 you spend on the base game. Could you imagine the outrage if, for example, you bought a story-driven game, and you could only play the first half of the campaign with the base game, and then had to pay three different times to unlock the rest of the game?

I understand that Paradox fanboys will defend everything they do, but they've made a $40 game into a $200+ game with DLC.

Do you know what CK2 stands for? Crusader Kings 2. In the original game you could play only Christians because that was the focus of the game, Muslims and Pagans were there just for you to crusade them. Then CK2 came and, surprise surprise, they recreated the game on a new engine with more content for Christians to play with and Muslims as the target of crusades. Only later was the focus of the game expanded to include other religions too. Haven't you seen those topics appearing every week clamouring that devs spend too much time on non-Christians in the game about Crusader Kings?

You can argue that the content of the DLCs don't much the price tag, but both CK2 and EU4 grew beyond the original price.

 

[El_Cid_]

dhimmi is kinda useless mechanic, it is so hard to raise their influence over 40%.

That's what I used to think and it is half right.
Once you get it over 40% it's easy to keep it >40% by staggering usage of those interactions that increase influence. Ideally you do this whilst you're still relatively small.

The rewards are excellent. Tolerance of Heathens is a really great modifier. Tech cost is nice too. Also the ability to hire a Trader. Note that advisors hired using the estate interactions will always have a culture from your estate lands. Meaning that if you're careful to make sure most/all estate land is accepted culture then you'll be able to leverage the benefit of 50% cost advisor and being able to promote them.

 

[SnakeInATopHat]

OK then

 

[solidprice]

All I hope is USA special Governments will be adjusted for the new patch.

 

[Stemwinder30]

India and Southeast Asia need love BADLY. I'll just leave this here.