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EU4 - Development Diary - 16th of February 2021

Hello everybody and welcome back to another EUIV dev diary and it has been a while for me!

Shortly before EUIV moved over to sunny Barcelona, I devoted some of my time to reworking Australia as I felt the current map of the continent was a bit lacking and very annoying to own what with all these little unconnected islands amidst the wasteland. On top of that, the continent being an entirely uncolonized block of nothing before colonialism seems a little inaccurate, given how lively the continent actually was before the Europeans arrived.

So, first thing to note is that Australia is now entirely connected through colonisable provinces, with the great Pilbara now connecting the north and west of Australia.
20210215172646_1.jpg

Another important rework comes in the form of the new states Australia now enjoys. What I wanted out of this is I wanted Australia to be on par with the other colonial regions in the game in terms of province count and strategic importance.
20210215170805_1.jpg

When shaping the states and provinces, I wanted to hit a nice balance between pre and post colonial Australian borders, so state borders are largely determined by colonial Australian state boundaries, while provinces are more determined by the distribution of Aboriginal peoples. All provinces also have both their Aboriginal and colonial names depending on who owns the province.
1613408346626.png

The Australian Gold Rush can now be yours, with Australian provinces enjoying a high chance of gold and some provinces in the south having a chance for gems, and a few key provinces able to produce coal.
20210215172855_1.jpg

Next, I’ll highlight some of the playable nations down under. Up north we have the Larrakia Federation composed of all of the top-end nations you see here, with Larrakia and Tiwi enjoying a unique set of national ideas. The Larrakia federation was responsible for much of pre-colonial Australia’s wealth through trade with the Makassarians. This trade also brought with it some Islamic influences, though the Aboriginal people of Australia never fully converted.
20210215170717_1.jpg

LAR_ideas = {
start = {
global_trade_power = 0.1
trade_efficiency = 0.1
}

bonus = {
global_ship_trade_power = 0.2
}

trigger = {
tag = LAR
}
free = yes #will be added at load.

LAR_makassar_trade = {
merchants = 1
global_foreign_trade_power = 0.1
}
LAR_federation = {
diplomatic_upkeep = 2
}
LAR_dreaming = {
global_autonomy = -0.05
}
LAR_dowed = {
legitimacy = 1
republican_tradition = 0.2
global_unrest = -1
}
LAR_ceremonial_scarring = {
shock_damage = 0.1
}
LAR_hospitality = {
diplomatic_reputation = 2
}
LAR_kenbi_land_claim = {
core_creation = -0.15
}
}

TIW_ideas = {
start = {
female_advisor_chance = 0.75
shock_damage_received = -0.2
}

bonus = {
leader_land_shock = 1
}

trigger = {
tag = TIW
}
free = yes

TIW_yiminga = {
may_recruit_female_generals = yes
global_manpower_modifier = 0.2
}
TIW_dreaming_totem = {
tolerance_own = 2
}
TIW_kulama = {
production_efficiency = 0.1
}
TIW_purrukapali = {
naval_tradition_from_battle = 0.5
}
TIW_marriage = {
heir_chance = 0.5
global_unrest = -1
}
TIW_isolationism = {
land_morale = 0.1
}
TIW_one_people = {
culture_conversion_cost = -0.25
}
}

Moving along down south we have the Eora people, the original inhabitants of the Sydney area.
EOR_ideas = {
start = {
diplomatic_reputation = 1
light_ship_power = 0.15
}

bonus = {
num_accepted_cultures = 2
}

trigger = {
tag = EOR
}
free = yes

EOR_lifestyle = {
naval_morale = 0.15
}
EOR_bands = {
state_maintenance_modifier = -0.25
}
EOR_enduring = {
religious_unity = 0.25
tolerance_heathen = 1
}
EOR_protect = {
manpower_recovery_speed = 0.1
global_sailors_modifier = 0.1
}
EOR_sacred = {
own_coast_naval_combat_bonus = 1
}
EOR_pemulwuy = {
land_morale = 0.15
}
EOR_berewaldal = {
merchants = 1
global_foreign_trade_power = 0.1
}
}

The Kaurna people, first inhabitants of Adelaide.
KAU_ideas = {
start = {
female_advisor_chance = 0.75
global_tax_modifier = 0.3
}

bonus = {
development_cost = -0.1
}

trigger = {
tag = KAU
}
free = yes

KAU_totemic_matriarchy = {
may_recruit_female_generals = yes
tolerance_own = 2
}
KAU_pangkarra = {
governing_capacity_modifier = 0.1
}
KAU_coastal_pangkarra = {
global_ship_trade_power = 0.2
}
KAU_redgum_shelters = {
build_cost = -0.15
}
KAU_communal_ownership = {
global_unrest = -2
}
KAU_old_tjilbruke = {
stability_cost_modifier = -0.1
reform_progress_growth = 0.15
}
KAU_south_australia_act = {
core_creation = -0.2
}
}

Palawa, first people of Tasmania.
PLW_ideas = {
start = {
stability_cost_modifier = -0.1
land_morale = 0.1
}

bonus = {
monarch_military_power = 1
}

trigger = {
tag = PLW
}
free = yes #will be added at load.

PLW_oyster = {
production_efficiency = 0.1
}
PLW_dual_identity = {
legitimacy = 1
num_accepted_cultures = 1
}
PLW_darwin = {
shock_damage = 0.2
}
PLW_parlevar = {
ae_impact = -0.15
}
PLW_writers = {
technology_cost = -0.1
}
PLW_survivors = {
fire_damage = 0.1
}
PLW_enduring = {
manpower_recovery_speed = 0.25
}
}

Kamilaroi, one of the most populated collective of Australian nations.
GMI_ideas = {
start = {
land_morale = 0.1
shock_damage = 0.1
}

bonus = {
land_forcelimit_modifier = 0.33
}

trigger = {
tag = GMI
}
free = yes #will be added at load.

GMI_sacred_caves = {
core_creation = -0.15
}
GMI_land_of_languages = {
num_accepted_cultures = 2
}
GMI_fertile_soils = {
development_cost = -0.1
}
GMI_dhulu = {
diplomats = 1
envoy_travel_time = -0.25
}
GMI_matrilineal_lineage = {
legitimacy = 1
republican_tradition = 0.2
female_advisor_chance = 0.5
}
GMI_familial_law = {
global_autonomy = -0.05
}
GMI_red_kangaroo = {
global_unrest = -2
}
}

I would have loved to have made ideas for all nations in Australia, but alas time was not on my side there so if you do not have unique ideas, you will get the shared Aboriginal Ideas.
generic_aboriginal_ideas = {
start = {
tolerance_own = 1
stability_cost_modifier = -0.1
}

bonus = {
shock_damage = 0.1
}

trigger = {
culture_group = aboriginal_australian
}
free = yes

aborig_art = {
prestige = 1
}
aborig_fire_stick_farming = {
development_cost = -0.1
}
aborig_walkabout = {
movement_speed = 0.1
}
aborig_outback = {
land_attrition = -0.1
}
aborig_sacred = {
global_tax_modifier = 0.1
}
aborig_dreamtime = {
religious_unity = 0.2
}
aborig_music = {
improve_relation_modifier = 0.2
}
}

But Aboriginal culture is not a single monolithic entity, so it has been divided into its own group. If we were being entirely accurate about this, almost all provinces in Australia would be their own culture, so some generalization has been done for gameplay purposes.
20210215173636_1.jpg

On top of all these new nations, the Aboriginal Australians also have access to the new Alcheringa religion! Most commonly known to colonizers as “Dreamtime”, Alcheringa refers to the vast distinct religions found among the Australian population. Though each people usually have their own distinct faith, most Australian faiths have a concept of “Dreamtime” or “The Dreaming”, a time of myth and legend that simultaneously occurred in the distant past and continues to occur around us every day.
20210215173412_1.jpg

Every Aboriginal people has their own pantheon of gods and “Dreaming Stories”. Alcheringa uses a system similar to the Fetishist cult system, with new stories becoming unlocked via missions.

These missions vary in what you must do, from defeating enemies in battle, to building an oceangoing vessel for the first time, to turning the Makassar trade on its head and dominating trade in the Moluccas.

The Aboriginals also enjoy all new unit models.
image (21).png


That’s all for this week, hope you all enjoy my last hurrah of EUIV content.
 
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Discussion on genocide/ethnocide is a little heated up. Let's agree to disagree and let that discussion drop before things go wrong.
 
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Not to mention that there was a war (multiple, actually) between the Plymouth colonists and the natives, King Philip's War & the Pequot War, which makes the point of a peaceful colonization of Plymouth a myth.
The Pequot War was a struggle between tribes (perhaps a coalition war from Pequot AE) that colonists got dragged into...King Phillips's War was at a time long past Plymouth taking city status.
 
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The Pequot War was a struggle between tribes (perhaps a coalition war from Pequot AE) that colonists got dragged into...King Phillips's War was at a time long past Plymouth taking city status.
I forgot to reply to that point but yes, this is what I was going to say. They did not fight upon landing nor in establishing the colony, but rather fought after when things were more stable (and survived)
 
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what about southern australia?
I don't think poor South Australia is going to get the love, sadly.

Also, Uluru/Ayer's Rock being in a wasteland is a missed opportunity. That could have interesting interactions with Alcheringa/Dreamtime? Maybe a holy site that they need to maintain control of similar to the "Coptic" holy sites.
 
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The western, northern, southern coasts of Australia were explored by the mid 17th century and not settled because nothing worth settling was encountered.

Now we're gonna have the Portugese settling the Kimberley by that time.

Honestly I can only guess that you're not Australian because the problem with the Australian map was definitely not that it contained too much wasteland. Come out here and have a look some time.

My other issue is adding tags for bands of paleolithic hunter gatherers. If these warrant tags then every province in the game bar a handful of genuinely uninhabited islands should have starting tags. It's just wildly inconsistent.
 
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The western, northern, southern coasts of Australia were explored by the mid 17th century and not settled because nothing worth settling was encountered.

Now we're gonna have the Portugese settling the Kimberley by that time.

Honestly I can only guess that you're not Australian because the problem with the Australian map was definitely not that it contained too much wasteland. Come out here and have a look some time.

My other issue is adding tags for bands of paleolithic hunter gatherers. If these warrant tags then every province in the game bar a handful of genuinely uninhabited islands should have starting tags. It's just wildly inconsistent.
Perhaps the colonization rework will require conquest first, then colonization, of any province with a tag of a nation in specified tech groups, or something along those lines.
 
I would definitely concur that the use of Meanjin is very strange (I’m a Brisbane local that works in the cultural heritage sector here). Meanjin really specifically refers to a strip of land where the Brisbane cbd sits. Jagera would be much more suitable. Also the choice to seperate Brisbane as a seperate colony to Queensland is also a bit of a strange choice, there was never any real question of it being a seperate colony. It would be like creating an Ottawa colony seperate to Canada.
 
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My other issue is adding tags for bands of paleolithic hunter gatherers. If these warrant tags then every province in the game bar a handful of genuinely uninhabited islands should have starting tags. It's just wildly inconsistent.
You will note that with the North America rework, this is pretty much what's happening everywhere on the EUIV map, not just Aussie.
Giving tags to stone-age peoples is now the consistent course.
 
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You will note that with the North America rework, this is pretty much what's happening everywhere on the EUIV map, not just Aussie.
Giving tags to stone-age peoples is now the consistent course.
Well outside of the Andean civilizations hot smelting for copper didn't exist at all in the New World. To imply having 'stone age' tags represented is bad out of hand would be to say the new world should have no tags at all.

I'll also add the North American rework doesn't even come close to representing all of these peoples, so you're fine as far as the 'fill up the whole map aside from some islands in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean' line of thought is concerned.
 
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You will note that with the North America rework, this is pretty much what's happening everywhere on the EUIV map, not just Aussie.
Giving tags to stone-age peoples is now the consistent course.
The point is not "stone age" or any other arbitrary technological qualifier, the point is whether there was organised provincial government and whether the area interacted with the wider/global trading network. In every case that I have looked at so far, this was true. In many areas - West Africa, for example - it was actually more developed in 1440 than is currently represented in the game.
 
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Mmmh, I love that everyone forgets that "Stone Age" is not a technological quantifier, but a periodic convention, same way as "Bronze Age" or "Iron Age", those last 2 used exclusively in the Mediterranean ancient world and don't really apply to the rest of the world, I guess at this point I shouldn't actually point out that history doesn't have tech trees and most historians don't really measure tech development or indeed social development using forging as an indicator, but rather using social complexity, which both the aboriginals and North American natives don't fall behind at from their European counterparts, ESPECIALLY considering that the starting date of EU4 is centuries before conventional nation states rather than feudal holdings begin appearing in Europe.
 
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Mmmh, I love that everyone forgets that "Stone Age" is not a technological quantifier, but a periodic convention, same way as "Bronze Age" or "Iron Age", the last 2 used exclusively in the Mediterranean world and don't really apply to the rest of the world, I guess at this point I shouldn't actually point out that history doesn't have tech trees and most historians don't really measure tech development or indeed social development using forging as an indicator, but rather using social complexity, which both the aboriginals and North American natives don't fall behind at from their European counterparts, ESPECIALLY considering that the starting date of EU4 is centuries before conventional nation states rather than feudal holdings begin appearing in Europe.
Beside that, even if we accepted these tech tree groupings globally, we'd be cutting whole regions off the map all over the place if we decided to draw a hard and consistent line on it. Do non-sedentary civilizations also get considered too primitive to be represented? Where's the line? It's been established for ages that anyone organized enough to be called a polity was open to becoming a tag in EU4. It's just a matter of what Paradox wants to fill in and what they don't.
 
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Mmmh, I love that everyone forgets that "Stone Age" is not a technological quantifier, but a periodic convention, same way as "Bronze Age" or "Iron Age", those last 2 used exclusively in the Mediterranean ancient world and don't really apply to the rest of the world.
I mostly agree with you, but the terms 'paleolithic', 'mesolithic', 'neolithic' (old-, middle- and new-stone ages, respectively), bronze age and iron age are definitely used elsewhere - in Northern Europe and Scandinavia, for a start. They do have specific technological qualifiers, but it's generally understood that these don't map well (or even at all) to political and social complexity or forms. Places such as Catal Huyuk (can't get the correct 'c' on this keyboard, dammit!) show that societal development and narrow, material technological capability don't correspond at all.
 
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I mostly agree with you, but the terms 'paleolithic', 'mesolithic', 'neolithic' (old-, middle- and new-stone ages, respectively), bronze age and iron age are definitely used elsewhere - in Northern Europe and Scandinavia, for a start. They do have specific technological qualifiers, but it's generally understood that these don't map well (or even at all) to political and social complexity or forms. Places such as Catal Huyuk (can't get the correct 'c' on this keyboard, dammit!) show that societal development and narrow, material technological capability don't correspond at all.
Those are also periodic signers as well (unless we are talking about the neolithic revolution which was kind of world-wide either way), but yeah, in Europe they are very used because in there historical study is irrevocably tied to the Mediterranean world, its like trying to study East Asia without the Yangtze River or Mesoamerica without the Valley of Mexico.
 
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All this talk about stateless societies is a really incredibly outdated view on how Indigenous society functioned. I can drive down the road from my house in Queensland and literally show you remnants of fish traps and other permanent agricultural systems that were used all throughout the year by a single clan in perpetuity. There are countless bora rings throughout Australia that were used to engage in diplomacy between different clans who had complex hierarchies of governance. The idea that they were in some way nomadic is also discounted by nearly every academic working in the field here too. Yes they moved around but within ‘country,’ a static place with clear borders for each clan that were (in most cases) a distance of about three days walk in width. Settlements were in the same places all year round. The idea of ‘country’ and ‘connection to country’ literally proves that Indigenous people were relatively static within their clans. Medieval European peasants moving between towns for work would be considered nomadic hunter gatherers by this definition. The idea of Indigenous people living in simple societies without any particular country designated to them was a lie used by the British government to justify outright annexation of the whole continent (I.e terra nullius)
 
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