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EU4 - Development Diary - 18th of April 2017

Hello everyone and welcome to this Development Diary! For those that don’t know me, I am Trin Tragula, Content Designer of Europa Universalis, and today I will be the one writing the Tuesday Development Diary. As a Content Designer I am the one who plans and writes the events, decisions, maps, and similar things for the game. The subject of this diary will be the added content in the 1.21 “Hungary” Patch.

load_19.jpg


Background:

Hungary is in many ways a vital country to the period the game depicts. It is at the center of many events that came right before our start date, and these events are also the reason we start the game on the 11th of November in 1444.

As the only remaining major kingdom between the Ottomans and the larger Christian world Hungary nonetheless thrived in the 15th century, only to be reduced to a battleground for stronger powers after the defeat at Mohacs and up to the end of the era our game covers.

As you know, in the years leading up to 1444 Hungary has just emerged from a civil war between the supporters of the posthumous son of their last king, Ladislaus von Habsburg, and the dynamic young king of Poland, Wladyslaw Jagiellon. Wladyslaw’s supporters won this conflict and it is under Jagiellon leadership that Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Lithuania and many others invaded the Ottoman Empire in 1443. This invasion was abruptly ended at Varna on the 10th of November in 1444 with the death of Wladyslaw and many others.

When the game opens Europe is recovering from the shocking defeat at Varna. Hungary is once again without king and powerful forces are aligning for or against the boy King, Ladislaus the Posthumous.

In Hungary patch we’ve tried to better capture the quite complicated situation of 1444 in Central and Southeastern Europe (one I have just barely touched in the short lines above). In order to do this we have both added new content and reworked some the old content related to Hungary, Austria and Bohemia.


Hungary:

Hungary has been the main focus of this patch and has received about 20 new events as well as a rework of a number of their old existing events.

eu4_292.jpg


Map Changes:

Hoping to both make Hungary more influential in the early game and to make the region more realistic and interesting to wage war in we have added a small number of provinces to Hungary in the 1.21 patch.
  1. Slovakia/Upper Hungary has been redrawn and the new province of Trencin now guards the northern border of the Kingdom. Development and trade goods of the area in general has been revised a bit to better reflect reality.

  2. The province of Fejér has been added between Sopron and Pest. The Hungarian capital in Pest is also now an inland center of trade, which both allows Hungary itself better control over the flow of trade, and makes the conquest of Pest more important for any invader.

  3. In the southern part of the kingdom we have added what was perhaps the most important of all Hungarian fortresses in 1444, Belgrade. The Hungarian kingdom had spent no small amount of energy acquiring the banate of Belgrade prior to our start date and its position at the confluence of the Sava and the Danube will make it a key province to control in the region from now on.

Events:

Hungary has received new events as well as reworks of their existing events. This is a broad (but not quite complete) overview of what we have added and why:

  • Early events will focus on recreating the rise of the Hunyadi family, allowing the player to partake in the Corvinian renaissance, with good advisors, opportunities to increase the wealth of the country and kick-starting institution spread in Budapest.
  • One of the more unique things about Hungary in this period was the so called ‘Black Army’, a very expensive, permanent, mercenary force that on numerous occasions was able to beat numerically superior armies. In the game you will be able to create the Black Army, allowing you to hire much stronger mercenaries at the cost of reducing your force limit and higher maintenance costs. Your nobility will remain skeptical of this mercenary force and will ask new kings to abolish it. The mercenaries may also mutiny if they don’t feel they are paid enough. If you are willing to pay the price however, you can enjoy mercenaries at +10% discipline up to the age of Reformation.
  • If Hussites are in power in Bohemia the Catholic estates can now turn to Hungary for protection. Should you help your brothers of faith they may offer you to be their king, giving you permanent claims on parts of their country.
  • There are a number of events dealing with the advance of the Turks, the establishment of a fortified frontier and the resettling of fleeing Balkan Christians within these lands.
  • The old “Advance of the Turks” event has been expanded upon and given follow-up events relating to the election of two different Hungarian monarchs, one with Austrian, western Hungarian and Croatian support and one with the support of Eastern Hungary. This could happen in a situation when the kingdom has been soundly defeated by the Ottomans.
  • There are now events dealing with the other peoples in the Hungarian realm such as Slovaks, Croats and Vlachs/Romanians and the development of their respective national movements as the game progresses.
  • The spread of the Protestant and Reformed faiths in the Hungarian realm now has dedicated events allowing the Hungarian player to encourage the reformation or invite the jesuits to help them work against it.
  • While the Hungarian Kingdom in our timeline was divided between Turks, Austrians and the Principality of Transylvania from the mid 16th century, we have added events based on the fate of the Hungarian people during these years to provide a continued interesting experience throughout the timeline.
Bohemia:

eu4_291.jpg


Map Changes:

In order to add more depth of maneuver and historical detail we have now split the province of Moravia into Brno and Olomouc and added a Moravia as a revolter country.

In Silesia we have added the province of Leignitz/Legnica and revised starting development values and trade goods a bit to better represent the importance of this area.


Events:
While the Hussite wars are a thing of the past in 1444, the Bohemian people are still largely heretics to Catholic Europe. Ladislaus the Posthumous is the presumed King of Bohemia as well as Hungary but the de facto government of Bohemia lies with the Hussite factions under George of Poděbrady.

Even prior to Hungary patch you could choose to support the Catholic or Hussite party but now this choice has a bigger impact than it used to:

With the Hussites in power you will now be less liked in Europe but enjoy stronger support internally. You will benefit from the tactical experience of the Hussite soldiers but the Catholic estates may offer the Bohemian crown to a foreign monarch willing to defend them.

Unless the pope acts against the continued heresy in Bohemia a strong Hussite movement could also make the Reformation trigger earlier than it otherwise would.

Minor Additions:

The Vistula Spit:

Prior to 1.21 Königsberg and Danzig have been connected by a strait at the end of the Vistula lagoon. This had the unfortunate side effect that the fort in Königsberg could prevent movement between Danzig and Marienburg. Something that was impossible to get around without a fleet. The strait was also unhistorical as by 1444 the Vistula spit was no longer open and the ports inside the Vistula lagoon did not have access to the Baltic sea.

In 1.21 the Vistula spit has been extended all the way to Königsberg, this means that you can now get to the fort there (though it will count as crossing a river) and that Marienburg and Ermland now start without ports.


Austria:

Austria has had a number of their existing events modified and can now also get new events relating to Hungary if they should come to control the country. Most importantly the advance of the Turks event now gives Austria permanent claims on Royal Hungary and Hungary itself is more likely to elect Hunyadi candidates to their throne, severely hurting relations with the Austrian monarchy.


Serbia:

Serbia was not the main focus of this patch but together with the addition of the province of Belgrade we have added a decision for the Serbian state to make Belgrade their capital if they are able to retake it from the Hungarians.

Moddability:
That is not all that is new in the Hungary patch however. I will now leave the word to @Gnivom who, aside from programming the AI, has also been working on improving the moddability:

variable_arithmetic_trigger

Ever wished you could add or multiply values in triggers? You now can! Sort of, at least. The variable_arithmetic_trigger (VAT) allows you to use export_to_variable to a local variable, that only exists within the current trigger and its children. The following effects have been modified to be usable within the VAT (as well as, as mentioned, export_to_variable):
  • set_variable

  • change_variable

  • subtract_variable

  • multiply_variable

  • divide_variable
When used within a VAT, they can only modify variables created in a VAT, as triggers are not allowed to modify the game state. The triggers that evaluate variables can also evaluate local variables.

A VAT has the following members:
  • 1 custom_tooltip: It would be too complicated to generate a tooltip automatically, so all VATs need a custom tooltip.

  • Any number of export_to_variable

  • Any number of other effects, among the ones listed above

  • Any number of triggers
When the VAT is evaluated, it will first execute the export_to_variable effects, then go through the other effects and triggers in the order they are listed. Whenever it comes to an effect, it executes that effect. Whenever it comes to a trigger, if that trigger evaluates false so does the VAT, otherwise it continues. If it gets past all the triggers, it evaluates true. In that sense it is like the AND trigger. When the trigger is done with its evaluation it destroys all variables created in its export_to_variable effects.

A simple example:
Code:
variable_arithmetic_trigger = {

custom_tooltip = HAS_HALF_THEIR_MANPOWER

    export_to_variable = {

        variable_name = my_manpower

        value = manpower

    }

    export_to_variable = {

        variable_name = their_manpower

        value = manpower

        who = FROM

    }

    multiply_variable = {

        which = my_manpower

        value = 2

    }

    check_variable = {

        which = my_manpower

        value = their_manpower

    }

}

One of the smart things with this design is that you can create conditional statements by utilizing the fact that AND and OR triggers stop evaluation when one child returns false and true, respectively. Check the following, more advanced, example:

Code:
variable_arithmetic_trigger = {

custom_tooltip = HAS_MORE_MANPOWER_OR_HALF_IF_CATHOLIC

    export_to_variable = {

        variable_name = my_manpower

        value = manpower

    }

    export_to_variable = {

        variable_name = their_manpower

        value = manpower

        who = FROM

    }

    OR =

    {

        NOT =  { religion = catholic }

        variable_arithmetic_trigger =

        {

            multiply_variable = {

                which = my_manpower

                value = 2

            }

            always = yes # This line is superfluous

        }

    }

    check_variable = {

        which = my_manpower

        value = their_manpower

    }

}


In pseudo code, this is equivalent to:

float my_manpower = GetManpower(THIS)

float their_manpower = GetManpower(FROM)

if religion == catholic

    My_manpower *= 2

Return my_manpower >= their_manpower

Although the syntax is horrible, this can be nested as much as you want to create really complicated logical conditions. It should be noted that variables are performance heavy, especially the export_to_variable, although that has been significantly improved in 1.20 and 1.21.

Scriptable Subject Types

Some modders may have noticed in 1.20 that we moved most of the differences between subject types to a script file. As of 1.21, entirely new subject types can be added just by adding entries in common/subject_types. The old subject types are still referred to in the code however, and can’t be removed. Just adding them there won’t make them visible in the game however. For that I added scriptable diplomatic actions.

Scriptable Diplomatic Action

In 1.21 you will be able to see a new folder in common called new_diplomatic_actions. This system is currently independent of what happens in diplomatic_actions, and they can’t be combined. One diplomatic action has been added there, and it might be easiest to learn how it works by checking that example, which asks someone to become your Dummy. Two things should be noted though. First, the AI will as it is never send these actions. I’m thinking of a way to make that work for a future patch. Second there is an entry called ai_acceptance. This is how it works:
  • It only accepts one type of entry, called add_entry

  • Each add_entry is a simplified/modified version of the variable_arithmetic_trigger. Namely, it doesn’t accept triggers, instead it has a “limit” entry that gets evaluated before even the export_to_variables are executed; and it has a “name” instead of “custom_tooltip”.

  • Each add_entry must define one local variable called “ai_value”. That variable will be evaluated after all effects have been executed.

As 1.21 is not yet available to you, I’ll paste the relevant script here for reference:

In subject_types I added this:
Code:
dummy =
{

    copy_from = default

}

In new_diplomatic_actions, this:

demand_dummy = {

    category = influence

 

    alert_index = 40

    alert_tooltip = demand_dummy_alert_tooltip

 

    require_acceptance = yes # Whether the recipient gets an option to decline

 

    is_visible = {

        religion_group = christian

        is_subject = no

        FROM = {

            is_subject = no

        }

    }

    is_allowed = {

        variable_arithmetic_trigger = {

            custom_tooltip = HAS_MORE_MANPOWER

            export_to_variable = {

                variable_name = my_manpower

                value = manpower

            }

            export_to_variable = {

                variable_name = their_manpower

                value = manpower

                who = FROM

            }

            subtract_variable = {

                which = my_manpower

                which = their_manpower

            }

            check_variable = {

                which = my_manpower

                value = 0

            }

        }

        religion = catholic

    }

    on_accept = {

        add_trust = {

            who = FROM

            value = 20

            mutual = yes

        }

        create_subject = {

            subject_type = dummy

            subject = FROM

        }

    }

    on_decline =

    {

        add_trust = {

            who = FROM

            value = -100

            mutual = no

        }

    }

 

    ai_acceptance = {

        add_entry = {

            name = ALWAYS_TEN

            export_to_variable = {

                variable_name = ai_value # Mandatory to use this name

                value = 10

            }

        }

        add_entry = {

            name = OPINION

            export_to_variable = {

                variable_name = ai_value

                #value = opinion who = FROM with = THIS # This is supposed to work in the future

                value = 10 # Temporary value until then

            }

            divide_variable = {

                which = ai_value

                value = 4

            }

        }

    }

}

The result looks like this (I didn’t bother localizing ALWAYS_TEN):

Capture.jpg


Scriptable diplomatic actions will be in the 1.21 patch when it releases, but it is a feature we plan to improve and expand upon in the future.

Last but not least our Mod Coordinator @Divine has also been working on a couple of additions to the 1.21 patch. This is a small list of those from the changelog.

Code:
- Added defines BANKRUPTCY_BUILDING_DESTRUCTION_THRESHOLD, BANKRUPTCY_PROVINCE_DEVASTATION_GAIN.
- Added the attribute "indestructible" to buildings, setting it to yes will exempt that type of building from being destroyed by bankruptcy.
- Added add_adm_tech, add_dip_tech, add_mil_tech effects.
- Added revanchism trigger.
- Added log effect and trigger.
- Added add_active_policy and had_active_policy effect and trigger.
- Added scripted function can_declare_bankruptcy.
- Added scripted function can_colonize_province.
- Added add_next_institution_embracement = <int> province effect.

Have fun!

That was all for today about the Hungary patch and the content related to to Hungary and its European surroundings. Next Tuesday we will be sharing the complete changelist for the upcoming patch, which will be released in late april.
 
I generally don't want more provinces in areas with high province saturation relative to population density (so, most of Europe) when there are other places to make relevant province changes (most of India, most of Africa; I think Ethiopia and Nubia are in a good spot gameplay-wise, but I'm oblivious as to the history of the area); Paradox keeps saying adding stuff eats up processing power, but they add more stuff every single patch without removing old, obsolete stuff. I'm happy with the Moravia split because old Moravia was ugly and awkward and completely blocked access to the HRE via Bohemia.

As for when to fix Romania, I think Balkanite Whining Patch XXIII would be a good time (the Balkans keep getting province changes all the time, they even got one this patch!), and agree with Paradox's decision to focus on Bohemia more, for reasons described above. Romania just doesn't have much interesting history. I didn't know about Bucovina and the Bender split, though.

Apologies for my aggressive tone earlier. I try not to let my... irritation with Balkanite complaints slip through too often, but it happens.
 
I generally don't want more provinces in areas with high province saturation relative to population density (so, most of Europe)
Let's be honest, this game is pretty Eurocentric - not that there aren't reasons for that. European history is very well documented, we can trace political situation of some cities clearly even from times Before Christ. That's not really possible with pre-colonial America, most of Africa and even some chunks of Asia. Additionally, a huge part of playerbase is either European or of Euro descent. The amount of information + overall interest makes "European" updates a pretty safe bet. Let's hope that unpolished nature of the Mandate won't discourage the fans, let alone the devs, from RotW - it's still a fun patch! Just don't play in East Asia.
when there are other places to make relevant province changes (most of India, most of Africa)
Thankfully Paradox has @Trin Tragula on board, to check every inconsistency in the Indian subcontinent. :)
About Africa - really? I admit, I'm not too knowledgable of the topic, but Western, Northern Africa and the Horn look really good to me at the moment(excluding the ICC in Maghreb). I could go as far as to say that enhancement of the Central Africa was an overstretch - but I guess Congo had to have someone to play with... I have nothing against this addition(I've had campaigns as Betsimisaraka and Rwanda, both were quite fun) as long as it doesn't negatively affect the game's performance.

As for when to fix Romania, I think Balkanite Whining Patch XXIII would be a good time (the Balkans keep getting province changes all the time, they even got one this patch!)(...) I didn't know about Bucovina and the Bender split, though.
Actually... The Balkans Patch sounds like a very good idea! There are still many things to change in there - ask any Serb, Greek, Romanian, Bosnian or whomever else from the area on this forum. Alternatively, PDX could just continue their policy of minor changes to Balkans with every patch - it's already become a sort of meme.

And don't worry about Moldavia - I guess it's a pretty obscure topic in most of countries: talking about national education, even here in Poland I could get it only from like 2 or 3 sentences and a single picture of Austrian expansion in the entire highschool history book, and I doubt anything has changed since then. :p

Apologies for my aggressive tone earlier. I try not to let my... irritation with Balkanite complaints slip through too often, but it happens.
Oh, trust me, I understand you really well, everyone has something that (un)justifiably annoys them. :rolleyes: There's nothing left for me but to wish you as few encounters with the Balkanites as possible and a good night! And oh boy should I be asleep already.
 
because that the Pope ordered from that time to ring the bells in every day in the hour of 12.
Really? Was that applied to all of Catholicism? (If so then I guess that explains why bells ring at noon here in Denmark; yes we went protestant in 1536, but some of the many bell ringing traditions stem from the Catholic times. Would have thought the noon ringing more was to mark the midpoint of the day.)
 
The exploration of the Pacific Ocean should be way more difficult and have more events. Urdaneta, Loisa, Torres, Legaspi, Magallanes, Tasman, Cook... the search for Tierra Australis and the "Tornaviaje" (the way to go back from the Moluccas to Mexico)... chartering the Pacific waters was an amazing adventure! Some love for the Pacific, please! It took Urdeneta just 11 years to complete his first expedition while in this game exploration missions cannot fail! They should be way more expensive... you should need both much more gold accumulated and exploration should take more time! even years! and it should end in disaster ore often, especially in early ages.
 
In 1804 Francis II declared himself Emperor of Austria, while beeing Emperor of HRE aswell, so again there is no historical reason for it.
That was the emperor holding two empire titles though---and even that was only done due to the anticipation of the dissolvement of the HRE.

I really don't see how the HRE would be able to have an emperor under him, so empires probably should be bumped down to kingdoms if they enter. Though kingdoms probably should be allowed to exist. After all you did have some; aside from Bohemia then Burgundy (Arles) and Italy were kingdoms under the HRE too, albeit the emperor always held the titles.

Thankfully Paradox has @Trin Tragula on board, to check every inconsistency in the Indian subcontinent. :)
About Africa - really? I admit, I'm not too knowledgable of the topic, but Western, Northern Africa and the Horn look really good to me at the moment(excluding the ICC in Maghreb). I could go as far as to say that enhancement of the Central Africa was an overstretch - but I guess Congo had to have someone to play with... I have nothing against this addition(I've had campaigns as Betsimisaraka and Rwanda, both were quite fun) as long as it doesn't negatively affect the game's performance.
ICC?
Also I think that adding the Congo basin in itself was good, since there were states there in reality and states like Congo did interact with them, so adding them does make for a more immersive game for everybody.. The big problem is how the game isn't properly simulating diseases and logistics. It was utterly impossible to the Europeans to conquer/colonise the interior of Central Africa during this time frame both due to logistical reasons, but also because of diseases. The natives had over many generations learned many techniques to avoid getting hit by the diseases, like for instance always building settlements on top of hills. When the Europeans eventually did arrive those old techniques were disregarded and people, including natives who were forced to live down from the hills, died off in droves.
Though there's other areas which are problematic to have open for Europeans too. E.g. the interior of West Africa. Some parts of North America probably also weren't really feasible to have colonised (at least until the late game) despite them often getting colonised quite early. And areas up around the polar area are sketchy too, since while they did have trading posts that wasn't really colonies. Actual colonies weren't possible to be established there, yet in game you can raise a doomstack from the most barren ice province.

So as mentioned it comes down to the game not taking things like logistics, diseases, and harsh climates into account well enough.
 
That was the emperor holding two empire titles though---and even that was only done due to the anticipation of the dissolvement of the HRE.

I really don't see how the HRE would be able to have an emperor under him, so empires probably should be bumped down to kingdoms if they enter. Though kingdoms probably should be allowed to exist. After all you did have some; aside from Bohemia then Burgundy (Arles) and Italy were kingdoms under the HRE too, albeit the emperor always held the titles.
Francis actually declared himself emperor of Austria in response to Napoleon crowning himself Emperor of the French. He certainly didnt expect the HRE to be dissolved just 2 years later, that was a coincidence. However yes you are right, it would be pretty weird if the emperor of HRE had another emperor as a vassal under him. I was mainly reffering to the possibility that, like in case of Francis II, there could be a "double emperor".
 
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Francis actually declared himself emperor of Austria in response to Napoleon crowning himself Emperor of the French. He certainly didnt expect the HRE to be dissolved just 2 years later, that was a coincidence. However yes you are right, it would be pretty weird if the emperor of HRE had another emperor as a vassal under him. I was mainly reffering to the possibility that, like in case of Joseph II, there could be a "double emperor".

Once the empire is hereditary the emperor could have lvl up his nation to empire level. Maybe even by decesion (without 1000 development). That would be a perfect solution!
 
I'd like Moldavia to have more provinces for historical reasons mainly. Bukovina was conquered by Austria in the XVIII century, and Ottomans split what's now Bender province when they vassalised Moldavia. Not a request of instant need, but you have to agree that Hungary patch would be a pretty good moment to add them, as we're probably not going to see Romania/Wallachia update.

Oh yeah, I certainly agree there's still a lot of work with Ruthenia and the Baltics. The region was touched on some time ago, so I don't see any major changes in frequent future. Hopefully I'm wrong.

That's... not much, is it? How many provinces do we get? 7? Why make any changes at all then, we could've got these in some bigger map overhaul, and now all the saves are going to be obsolete not even a month from release of MoH!

And don't get me wrong, I actually like the changes, especially Silesia(Vratislav could start in Bohemian hands now, though)! It's just that it... looks a bit lackluster if it's really all we get. And the release feels extremely rushed.
Um. Did they already announce the patch date? Don't patches usually take more than a month...
 
The Balkans can be a whole playground on its own. Wallachia, Moldovia, Bulgaria, Greece can do with a few more provinces. That way the OE and neighbors grow proportionally stronger. It will also be interested to unite Romania with either Wallachia or Moldovia. The Despotate of Epirus can be added by splitting the province of Epirus into Ionnina and Arta and making the Cephalonia island a province connected via strait crossing. Eastern Anatolia by proxy can also see a stronger and larger Trebizond and several Georgian realms who are vying to unify Georgia.
 
Um. Did they already announce the patch date? Don't patches usually take more than a month...

Not a fixed date, but from the last DD:
We just released a hotfix to address some urgent issues, but we’re also working on a new patch called 1.21 ‘Hungary’, which will be released in late April, if all goes well.
 
The best patch that has been released for the last time.

I have one question:
Will the Slovak culture be transferred to the West Slavic culture group? - because Slovakians are Slavs

I also have some suggestions for this patch:
  • Adding the province Vajdaság
  • Divide the province Krain into two - Krain and Ljubljana
  • Divide the Skopje province into two - Skopje and Prilep
  • Adding in Bulgaria, Walchalia and Greece some new provinces
  • Creation of the Slovenian culture in the provinces of Kärnten, Krain and Görz (and in the province of Ljubljana - if it was created)

Previously I was advocating the addition of Lusatian culture, if it were not created, the Lusatian provinces could be added to Czech culture - because the Sorbs were and are the Slavs.
I also postulated the addition of pomeranian to the group of Western Slavs. Most of it does not fit. I therefore consider adding Kashubian culture (a group of Western Slavs)
In the provinces of Tuchola, Gdańsk, Stolp and Kolberg.
 
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Hello, please add Vorarlberg (A state of austria) to Tirol or as own province to Austria and not to ravensburg it doesent belong to them

At game start Vorarlberg, back then the County of Montfort, wasn't in the possession of the Habsburgs. In 1451, the first part was bought and then later the second part in 1523.