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EU4 - Development Diary - 12th of January 2021

After a few weeks without Dev Diaries, I am happy to present you a new one. I hope you all had a great time during them!

When I joined Paradox in October, Polynesia was not included in this Expansion. Considering it was the last part of the Earth without representation, I thought it would be nice to have some work done on it, so I proposed some ideas that I am happy to share with you all.

But, before I start, I would like to thank @Meka66 for his help and work that has greatly inspired me for this project.

THE MAP
The map has been slightly changed, since the basic needed setup was already there. However, in order to go a bit deeper, a few provinces have been added here and there. Do note that the flags are still a placeholder and not the final result.

Starting with Fiji, the archipelago has been divided in three provinces: one for each big island (Viti Levu and Vanua Levu) and a third one for the Lau archipelago that had a great influence from Tonga. Each province has a country inhabiting it, which is an abstraction of the many clans that populated each island. Should you unite them all under your banner, you will be able to form Viti.

Fiji Archipelago.png

[Fiji Archipelago and TAGs]​

In New Zealand a new province has been added in North Island which has the most populated one by the Maori people. The number of countries, though, goes up to 7. Six of them (Mataatua, Tainui, Takitimu, Taranaki, Te Arawa and Te Tai Tokerau) are in the Northern Island and Waitaha is in the Southern One. As in the case of Fiji, a Maori country that manages to unite the area is able to form Aotearoa.

New Zealand Archipelago.png

[New Zealand Archipelago and TAGs]​

Finally, the greatest transformation has been done in the Hawaiian Archipelago, that has gone from one province to four. Each province has their own country attached (Hawai’i, Kaua’i, Maui and O’ahu). As in the other cases, there is a formable for the unifiers of the islands.

Hawaii Archipelago.png

[Hawaii Archipelago and TAGs]​

A Polynesian rework could not let the two most important countries out: Samoa and Tonga.

Samoa & Tonga Archipelago.png

[Samoan and Tongan Archipelagos and TAGs]​

THE MISSIONS
As in the case of the Americas, the mission tree consists of a general common mission tree for every country and some specific missions for each country or group of them.

Tongan Mission Tree.png

[Tonga Mission Tree]
(Notice that all icons are still placeholders)​

Tonga is probably the most important TAG during this period. Despite the fact that the Tongan Empire is no more, a skillful player could rebuild it, bringing not only the neighboring islands under the control of Tongatapu, but go even further.

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Bringing both Fiji and Samoa under your control again.
  • Recovering the Tongan Empire.
  • Expand even further.

Samoan Mission Tree.png

[Samoan Mission Tree]
(Notice that all icons are still placeholders).​

If Tonga was the political power during the period, Samoa was the cultural one. Most of the Pacific was colonized from there and from there were most of the traditions that ruled the lives of the Polynesians.

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Recover the place as the cultural center.
  • Challenge Tonga.
  • Replace Tonga as the main power in the Pacific.

In order to not spoil the surprise, I will let you discover what the missions for the Maori the Fijian and the Hawaiian countries consist of.

THE NATIONAL IDEAS
Adding new TAGs would not be the same if they were not accompanied by their National Ideas.

Starting with the Fijians TAGs, their warring nature brought them a reputation of ruthless combatants, feared by everyone. But Fijians were also deeply religious people and famous shipbuilding artisans. All these things are represented in their National Ideas, making them a rather expansionist set.

Code:
fijian_ideas = {
    start = {
        light_ship_power = 0.1
        naval_attrition = -0.1
    }
  
    bonus = {
        ae_impact = -0.2
    }
  
    trigger = {
        OR = {
            tag = LAI
            tag = VIL
            #TODO: tag = VIT
            tag = VNL
        }
    }
    free = yes
  
    fijian_crossroad = {
        num_accepted_cultures = 2
    }
    fijian_degel = {
        range = 0.1
        global_ship_trade_power = 0.1
    }
    fijian_conjoined = {
        global_missionary_strength = 0.02
    }
    fijian_waqa = {
        prestige_from_naval = 0.4
    }
    fijian_cannibal = {
        army_tradition_from_battle = 0.25
        prestige_from_land = 0.4
    }
    fijian_kai = {
        land_attrition = -0.25
    }
    fijian_confederacy = {
        global_tax_modifier = 0.05
        production_efficiency = 0.05
    }
}
[Fijian National Ideas]​

As in the case of the Fijians, the Maori are famed for their bravery and constant warfare. Their set of ideas is focused on land combat, without disregarding ways to keep the land around a strong leader.

Code:
maori_ideas = {
    start = {
        global_regiment_recruit_speed = -0.10
        harsh_treatment_cost = -0.20
    }
  
    bonus = {
        prestige = 1
    }
  
    trigger = {
        primary_culture = maori
    }
    free = yes
  
    sons_of_kupe = {
        global_sailors_modifier = 0.10
        range = 0.10
    }
    kaikiakitanga = {
        tolerance_own = 1
    }
    kaumatua = {
        stability_cost_modifier = -0.20
    }
    kapa_haka = {
        land_morale = 0.10
    }
    pa_defence = {
        fort_maintenance_modifier = -0.10
    }
    te_moko = {
        leader_land_shock = 1
    }
    maori_king = {
        core_creation = -0.10
        legitimacy = 1
    }
}
[Maori National Ideas]​

As with the missions, we’d better not spoil the surprise by showing everything, am I right? I have a challenge for those that love them: try a world conquest with a Polynesian TAG! There are a couple of things in this area that could help you in that adventure. ;)

THE EVENTS
Events are one of the parts I like the most. While not as much time as I would have liked has been available, I have added more than 40 events to the area, including general events, specific Country events and even a few Easter eggs that I hope you can find and enjoy!

Fiji Event.png

Practice is what makes you a good warrior, after all.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).

Hawaii Event.png

This event can be very nasty if you are in a very bad shape.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).

Samoan Event.png

As Samoa, you will be given the choice to reform your society a bit or go on with the traditions with every ruler.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).​

THE EXTRAS
There are a few things that have been added in order to create a bigger sense of immersion.

Maori culture has been created, separated from the main Polynesian branch. By the start of the game, the Maori were abandoning the Archaic Maori Period and entering a transformation one. The Iwi became more sedentary and their once pacific nature became more warlike as competition for resources becomes more central. New traditions had evolved by this time that justifies separating them from their islander cousins.

A new Polynesian technology group has been created. This technology group is between that of the Mesoamericans and the North Americans in penalty, but starts at tech 2.

Most Estates have been renamed to their proper versions to increase the flavor.

And some extra surprises here and there.

For now this is all. We still have lots of things to show, so just be patient and enjoy the time in between, everything will come!
 
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No, no, no!
Like i said last dev diary, stop treating dev diaries as marketing! We are here to give you feedback on your design choices. We can't do that if we can't see the stuff.

On the other hand, this was quite a meaty dev diary compared to the last few diaries teasers, so thanks for improving there

I had the same reaction when I read the line about "not spoil[ing] the surprise." I just put my phone down and sighed.

This was a good dev diary with a lot in it. But we've also found several typos and things to consider changing. Especially with a side project like these TAGs, things are going to need an additional look or three before they're ready to go, and the community here is willing to do it. Many of us will buy almost any content that you make, but when things like those typos make it into the final product it looks unprofessional. I don't see the reason not to let us at least see the mission tree screenshots, even if you don't want to reveal all of the requirements and whatnot

This isn't just on Aldaron or anyone else, but it's hard to feel respected if the most dedicated fans of the game can't be trusted to want to buy things unless there's a bunch of surprises waiting for us. We like this game, and we want to support it, so please trust us to buy content that's good and raise valid concerns about the things that aren't.
 
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Making performance worse for 99% of the players just so that 1% could play in Oceania meme tags is not fine in my book. If they improve performance, then by all means - they can even add penguin kingdom of Antarctica and I won't bother!
Poland, Byzantium and Tibet are also meme-nations, should we remove them just because they got conquered? No! Also I don't think a few nation will drastically make the performance worse.
 
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"Gain Mana"? As somebody who hates it when people refer to monarch points as "mana" all I can say is ewwww!

Other than that, when are we going to get a release date? :(
 
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What tech group will the Polynesians have?

They have a new tech group.
A new Polynesian technology group has been created. This technology group is between that of the Mesoamericans and the North Americans in penalty, but starts at tech 2.
Aldaron posted a screenshot where you can see that Polynesian tags only have vision over Polynesia at the beginning.
1610457831339.png
 
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Awesome, amazing.

First of all, happy to see you guys back!

Second, it's quite great content, but I do have a thing to say about it all. I think all these unadvanced tribes should have some special colonizing mechanic. As in both, in Americas and Old World it's too easy to just conquer and core any land, and anybody can do that, while unowned land needs to be colonized, and you need specific ideas for it. YOu never thought adding additional requirements? Like land conquered from tribes needs colonist anyways before being fully cored? All these new tags on island again gonna be easy prety to expand without colonial ideas. Kinda ruins the original feel of the game, imo.

As in, I meant for people conquering those tribes, I think when tribes conquer tribes is okay to just core. But if France, let's say, conquers some american or african land, it feels cheesy that they just need to core it, no colonization.
 
"Gain Mana"? As somebody who hates it when people refer to monarch points as "mana" all I can say is ewwww!

Other than that, when are we going to get a release date? :(
Mana is a real Polynesian word and religious term. It's use in video games as a result of US sci-fi writers doesn't change that.
 
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Poland, Byzantium and Tibet are also meme-nations, should we remove them just because they got conquered? No! Also I don't think a few nation will drastically make the performance worse.

Native tags like in Oceania and NA or Siberia were neither nations nor states. Not to say that they had no impact on history and in the hands of the AI they will just sit there doing nothing and use CPU resources.
 
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Making performance worse for 99% of the players just so that 1% could play in Oceania meme tags is not fine in my book. If they improve performance, then by all means - they can even add penguin kingdom of Antarctica and I won't bother!
In the dev diaries about north america federations one of the devs speaked that new OPM tags don't have significative impact in performance, if more tags = worse performance the lag would be bigger in early game when there exist more tags but in practice this is worse in late game when there is significantly less tags.
 
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@Aldaron
Please, if no new polynesians army models are being made consider use andean army models instead subsaharan models for Tonga, Samoa, maori tags and hawaiian tags.
Fijian tags being part of the Melanesyan region could remain using subsaharan models if no new models are being made.
 
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Ironically, in this case the name mana is immersive, the word mana have polynesian origins.

"Mana is the spiritual life force energy or healing power that permeates the universe, in the culture of the Melanesians and Polynesians. Anyone or thing can have Mana. It is a cultivation or possession of energy and power, rather than being a source of power. It is an intentional force.

I didn't know that. Thank you for sharing this info. Let's hope that that's what this mission is about.
 
In the dev diaries about north america federations one of the devs speaked that new OPM tags don't have significative impact in performance, if more tags = worse performance the lag would be bigger in early game when there exist more tags but in practice this is worse in late game when there is significantly less tags.
Main source of problems with performance are navies and armies (thats why game lags in 30 years war). More tags = more armies and more navies; early game = less armies and navies; late game - more navies and armies.
 
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