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Welcome back to our weekly series of development diaries about Europa Universalis. This time we’ll talk about two features that will be part of the next expansion.

Theocracies
This is based on something we read in the suggestions forum. Monarchies and Republics have had their Legitimacy and Republican Tradition, but Theocracies haven’t had a unique mechanic yet. The next expansion will add a concept we call Devotion. Devotion ranges for 0 to 100, and impacts several thing.

Devotion impacts your religious abilities, your prestige gain and your tax-income.

You primarily gain devotion from high religious unity and the devoutness idea. Low stability will decrease it, while being Defender of the Faith will increase it.

There are also a lot of events that impact your devotion.

Another unique mechanic for theocracies is the fact that they always have an heir, and they have somewhat of control of it.

If you do not have an heir, you get a chance to select one heir. Heirs are age 40+ with random stats. You can then pick one of the following.

  • A Local Noble – Loses 5 devotion, but gains +10 Prestige
  • A Foreign Noble - Gains +100 relation with a random nation.
  • A Merchant's Son - +25% yearly income, lost 10 devotion
  • A Papal Protege – Catholic only. Gains +10 Papal Influence
  • A Talented Theologian: +10 Devotion
  • A local preacher – +5 Devotion & -10 Prestige


Government Ranks
A new feature in the next expansion is the introduction of proper Government Ranks. In previous versions, most countries would either be simply a Kingdom or a Republic, with a few special cases like Byzantium's Imperial Government and vassalized Kings becoming Dukes. If you don't get the expansion, this changes little, but for those with it most government types will come in three ranks: Duchy, Kingdom and Empire. While these are the names of the ranks, it doesn't mean there aren't any ranks for Republics - Venice's Serene Republic is on the same level as a Kingdom, for example.

Countries will start with whatever is closest to the rank they had historically, so the King of Burgundy becomes the Duke of Burgundy, while Byzantium is very much an Empire despite no longer having a special government form. Vassals, Marches and non-Elector members of the HRE are always Duchy rank, and certain government types only come in a single rank (such as Ming's Celestial Empire, which is always an Empire). Countries that are not locked to a particular rank can raise their rank through the Government screen by fulfilling certain requirements such as a certain level of prestige and total development level of your nation.

So what benefit do you get from a higher government rank, besides a new title and fancier headgear? Well, for one, higher government ranks are able to change their National Focus more often, with the default 25 year cooldown being 20 years for Kingdoms, and a mere 15 years for Empires. The bonuses granted from each government are now also set per rank, with government types getting more autonomy reduction from the higher ranks, while others such as Steppe Hordes have their base government bonuses to force limits, manpower and looting speed increased by higher government ranks.

Finally, this system also comes with a complete and mod-friendly overhaul of how government names and titles are handled. Under the old system, if you wanted to for example call your Greek Emperor a Basileus, you would have to create a particular localisation string that might get overwritten by other localisation strings, and there was no ability to differentiate between the titles of say, a Greek Western Technology Group Emperor and a Greek Eastern Technology Group Emperor. Under the new system, you script specific government name/title entries that might look something like this:


Code:
byzantine_monarchy = {
rank_1 = PRINCIPALITY
rank_2 = KINGDOM
rank_3 = EMPIRE


ruler_1 = AUTOKRATOR
ruler_1_female = AUTOKRATEIRA
ruler_2 = DESPOT
ruler_2_female = DESPOTISSA
ruler_3 = BASILEUS
ruler_3_female = BASILISSA

trigger = {
   government = monarchy
   tag = BYZ
}
}


The game goes through the government entries, picks the first one it finds where the trigger evaluates true, and applies those government titles to that nation. This means that if you so desire, you could create a complete unique set of government names for each and every country in the game!


AQP3Ng9.jpg
 
I had suggested "Divine Authority" a long time ago. If I may make a suggestion, I think it would be good to have low Devotion theocracies run the risk of becoming secular, much as how nations with low Republican Tradition can become dictatorships and, eventually, monarchies. In particular, it could work in such a way that theocracies run by priests may become republics, while ones run by nobles may become monarchies. A theocracy should have to actively work to maintain its religious nature, or it will not be a theocracy for long.

Also, it would be great if we could see a stat added to Native Councils and other Tribal governments that currently lack a mechanic. I think "Tribal Unity" is a concept that could be expanded on and implemented, with it maybe affecting things like how much territory you can hold, how quickly you can migrate, and general strength.
 
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Anyways, exciting changes even if the fact that the gameplay is being radically changed so late after release bugs me a little.

I have mixed feelings on this. One on hand, it's frustrating to have to relearn the game every time a major patch comes out. On the other hand, it keeps the game interesting and boosts replayability of nations.
 
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But Spain and Britain never actually increased the rank of their governments. As far as they and everybody else were concerned, they were "just" very large and powerful kingdoms.

Well, Victoria became Empress of India. But that's outside the EU era, and it was a Prussia-style move to give the British sovereign the de jure rank that her realm had already achieved de facto. (It was a bit ridiculous for the head of state of the world's most powerful polity to be 'outranked' by various other rulers.) There was also the official use of 'Imperial' to designate various things to do with the 'British Empire' in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But there was never an 'Emperor of the British Isles' or anything like that (although it was suggested in 1801 apparently). I suppose you could regard 'United Kingdom' as empire-tier, as it represents the merger of multiple kingdoms and isn't just called 'Kingdom'.
 
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Yes. Religious Orders are all Duchy rank though.
What more can you tell us about them? I suspect that the new government is for Teutonic order, Livonian Order, The Knights and orders imported from CK2. What are the base bonuses for it?
 
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How do you think the next Pope will be decided upon? If Theocracies can at some stage pick a ruler and enhance/reduce Devoutness, then could there be some event relating to which Cardinal as the next Pope on the death of the previous Pope? Again, if the next Pope has some sort of Noble/Mercantile background (like the Borgia and Medici) then Devoutness could be lost but different modifiers could be enhanced, like 'pick Mercantile Pope, get X% of annual income as gift, lose X Devoutness).
 
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How do you think the next Pope will be decided upon? If Theocracies can at some stage pick a ruler and enhance/reduce Devoutness, then could there be some event relating to which Cardinal as the next Pope on the death of the previous Pope? Again, if the next Pope has some sort of Noble/Mercantile background (like the Borgia and Medici) then Devoutness could be lost but different modifiers could be enhanced, like 'pick Mercantile Pope, get X% of annual income as gift, lose X Devoutness).

Whatever the mechanism, it needs to be integrated with the papal controller system somehow. When great powers are vying to put 'their' man in the chair, it's clearly not just a matter of domestic Papal States politics.
 
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So my Found an Empire mod is now pretty obsolete...
Diud you have a such mod? Never heard of it. Where is it posted? Anyway, this system seems a lot more consistant.
 
I understand that bonuses are tied to higher government levels, but wouldn't it make more sense that a smaller nation has an easier time switching focus than a large empire?
It would also be an interesting choice between the flexibility of a "small" nation, or the autonomy reduction of a "large" nation.

That could be a very interesting mechanic for a mod to work with. Lots of empires have risen and fallen, while in EU4 there is generally just snowballing (not that that doesn't really fit the era, of course). Give large empires inherently more inflexible and maybe some other negatives, throw it into an Extended Timeline mod and see empires rise and fall over the centuries.
 
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So the PUs for Burgundy are (in order) Picardy, Brabant, Flanders, Hainaut, Holland, and Luxembourg?

I posted this in the previous DD:


I reluctantly concede that one could make 2 - 4 in the first section PU's for Burgundy, even if technically historically incorrect. We don't have a Namur tag though, do we, so I'm not sure quite what to do with it (part of Brabant I guess). Hainaut and Holland shouldn't be separated as two different PUs, as the two had been combined since 1299 (that PU had long since been integrated!) - Hainaut was the senior title, so if they must be part of a PU with Burgundy, it should be united and under the title of Hainaut. As for Picardy, it really wasn't a single feudal entity at the time - it was a combination of French crown territrories and minor vassals that were ceded en masse to Burgundy under the Treaty of Arras. I just can't see it as a PU, but outright conquered territory held directly by Burgundy. At worst, if it has to be part of a PU, combine it along with Artois as part of Flanders (which needs to include Franche-Comte!).
I agree with you. Flanders and Brabant (with Antwerpen) as PUs are correct. Hainaut (with Holland) is also acceptable.
Picardy never was an independent duchy, whereas Artois was. Artois can either be under Flanders, directly owned by Burgundy or a vassal of Burgundy like Nevers. (Picardy should be directly owned by Burgundy)
Finally, as Brabant should get Antwerpen and Limburg, Flanders should indeed get Franche-Comté.
Luxembourg, I don't really know about this, but this can either be a vassal instead of a PU, or directly owned by Burgundy.
 
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All this debate about empires is a bit silly. All this is really doing is reflecting how bigger and more powerful nations like to get fancier titles and have subjects with less fancy titles. There should be a relations hit with the HRE if you're Christian and reqirements should be tough to meet, but there shouldn't be any hard caps on the number of empires or anything.
 
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Yes, I expected more a count, Duke, King with emperor as special title, than starting directly with the duke.
Any Province in the game is big enough to be considered a duchy i guess. So even 1 province minors would be considered dukes.
 
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I like a lot the content of this DD but i've to say that it's weird to see another cross-dlc mechanic. What i mean is that the feature that will enhance National Focus on MP (given by res publica) is behind the next dlc. I own res publica and i'll buy the next dlc but please don't do these things. I always thought that dlcs are good as long as you don't feel that they're putting content that should have been there since the beginning, and also content that doesn't require you to have other content (except the base game ofc). So I know i'm just a fan and i know nothing about the balance of free features/paid on the next dlc but i would suggest to put the government ranks in the patch for free, so that you both give this game a feature that - at least in a very basilar way - should have been here, and also you don't create another dlc loop for the customer, keeping features and their enhancements separate between expansions.

I'll (somewhat-) agree with you on the point that expansions shouldn't be depended on each other if possible, but not one your first point.

I always believed that products should be judged on what was promised and not on what you think it should be. I feel this is especially true in the case of Paradox. Since a couple of years ago they decided to make more information available to future customers in the form of dev-diaries.

While you are right when you say it *feels* as though it should have been in from the start, it was never promised or talked about which nullifies your 1st point in my opinion (EU4 = EU3 + dev-diaries).
 
About the matter of trade-offs in decisions, I personally dislike the choice to make higher government forms purely beneficial. Common sense and history shows that older, larger polities get more unwieldy and decadent, while being more prestigious and respected. But from a gamer point of view, I see where EU is heading: Civ series got rid of trade-offs with their Virtue system as well. It's a way to streamline the decision process, but it's not really dumbing down: you still have to take into account the opportunity cost of not selecting another bonus, but the sense of progress is stronger.

And while we are talking about government forms... please, add an option for a republican Italy and some form of new hybrid government for native tribes reforming. It doesn't really makes sense for them to abandon a tradition of tribal councils, dual chiefs and federations and go full feudal istantly. At least a choice beetween monarchy and republic would be good (say, option A "a strong chief emerges to unite the tribe behind a crown", option B "we integrate whiteskin methods in our tribal administration") - and would resolve the gamey habit of taking plutocracy before it's locked for good.
 
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Personally, I do believe that having higher ranked governments as a purely positive thing is fine - while there certainly were issue involved with large nations, they weren't down to the title their leader claimed - but the benefits should limited to factors like prestige, relations etc. Claiming the title of Emperor isn't going to help centralise your nation in of itself, but it will make you look more impressive.
 
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