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EU4 - Development Diary - 1st of October 2019

Good day and welcome to this week's Dev Diary for EU4. While we're still ironing out a few remaining issues with the 1.29 Manchu release, it's time to set our sights back on the upcoming European Update and accompanying DLC.

Today let's talk about the HRE. Earlier in the year, I touched on the Empire, and want to expand a bit more on what you can expect to see and do with Germany and friends in 1.30. As we've said before, much of the HRE mechanically exists in the game, and has continued to exist in its current form, as it does a great job of bringing relative rigidity to central Europe, and a good bulwark to an otherwise overly formidable French or Scandinavian threat, or more terrifying indeed, Ottoman invasion.

To that end, 1.30 will still have the Holy Roman Empire's base mechanics in their glory, save some smaller Quality of Life changes (such as no longer adding provinces to the Empire individually). The meat and potatoes of what you can expect in Early Modern Germany come by way of HRE Reforms and Imperial Incidents

Firstly, the reforms available for the Holy Roman Empire have been split into general reforms, Decentralisation reforms and Centralisation reforms. Some will look familiar to a seasoned HRE player. Others, less so.

General Reforms:
  • Call for Reichsreform
    • Empire Provinces: -5% Local Construction Cost
    • Emperor: Imperial Ban CB
  • Institute Reichsregiment
    • Emperor: +1 Diplomats, +1 Diplomatic reputation
    • Empire Provinces: -2 Local Unrest
  • Absolute Reichsstabilität
    • Emperor: gets a [REDACTED] that will [VERY REDACTED]
    • Empire Provinces: -25% Local State Maintenance
  • Enact Gemeiner Pfennig
    • Emperor per Prince: +0.5 Yearly Tax income
    • Princes: +1 Diplomatic reputation
  • Perpetual Diet
    • Needed to take one of the specific paths
    • Event that puts the location down for the “Permanent Diet” in an Imperial Free City
    • Permanent Diet is a triggered province modifier with some nice boons for the province. Is only valid if province is part of the Empire. If not a triggered modifier is enabled that gives -50% IA Gain.
    • Double Imperial Authority from Free Cities
  • Create the Landsknechtswesen
    • All Princes: Mercenary Companies who have their home in an Imperial Province are 50% cheaper.
  • Ewiger Landfriede
    • Emperor: +0.5 Yearly Prestige
    • Princes: -5% Tech cost
    • Empire Provinces: +10% Institution Spread
    • Emperor gets call to Arms for any war within the Empire as if it was done without CB.


Once the Emperor Passes the Perpetual Diet, they will be able to pass further reforms to either strengthen the decentralised Empire, or seek to centralise all power for themselves. Players have long wondered if they should stop short of completing the existing HRE reform path in order to preserve their Vassal Swarm, a highly enjoyable way of playing, or to unite the HRE under one flag. Now they will be able to choose between this decentralised power or centralising uniting under nation, with about 5 reforms each that play into either playstyle.

HRE.jpg

And maybe a player will have to weigh up ?missions? against vassal swarm tactics


The other thing for us to look into today are Imperial Incidents. One thing we wanted to do was to make the Empire feel alive and rife with bickering princes. To that end, we have rolled some existing occurrences throughout EU4 and History, as well as many others, into a system that has the HRE both create and react to issues in Central Europe and the immediate vicinity.

When the conditions are ripe, an Imperial Incident can trigger for the Empire. All member states will be informed of the incident, and it will prominently be displayed in the HRE interface. The Emperor will then have 6 months to make a decision on the incident, with wide-ranging knock-on effects.

To take a familiar example, the fate of Burgundy will be more fluid, with the circling vultures being more involved. Burgundy may seek support from the HRE as they see the writing on the wall, starting an Imperial Incident where the Emperor will have to choose between:
  • Negotiate with France
    • France gains the parts of Burgundy that are in the French Region.
  • Integrate Burgundy into the Empire
    • Burgundy becomes an Imperial Prince
    • Gives an event to France that gives them an option to start a Succession War on Burgundy(and thus by extension the Emperor) with French land occupied.
    • Princes around Burgundy becomes irritated with Emperor.
  • Just keep the PU with Burgundy
    • Nevers becomes vassal of France, France gets an option to start a Restoration of Union War on Burgundy(and thus by extension the Emperor) with French land occupied.
All incidents, and the path that the Emperor pursued will be visible in the HRE interface, so curious players can see what choices the Emperor has made before, and use their involvement in incidents as a chance to seize an advantage.

There are many other plans for Incidents, ranging from my beloved Hanseatic League, to my less beloved Dutch revolters, and the interactions between Pope and Empire beyond the shadow kingdom. We'll look towards these in future Dev Diaries.

Cheers for joining. Next week we'll keep going with our look at 1.30.
 
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Wouldn't it be more interesting if the HRE had an army of it's own instead of increasing the force limit of the Emperor. It could be spawned at the capital of the Emperor with him controlling the troops, while the electors get the option to offer generals to it's general pool. The army wouldn't be available for offensive action within the HRE but spawns when defending and during some offensive wars (against large threats/enemies that own imperial provinces). Additionally the Emperor has the option to spawn the army at the cost of imperial authority while on the offensive outside of the HRE.

This way it will be less problematic when Austria doesn't have an heir and the Electors decide that "Anhalt" or "Nassau" will protect them.
 
There are a lot of new event chains for EU4 that seem to have conditions but take place randomly. I think I would prefer the system where the event pops up after completing a mission like the Castillian one where you get the first expulsion event once you have completed the mission unlocking it. Either that, or a "disaster"or "reversed disaster" that visibly ticks up.

For example, if you're eligible to get the Burgundian Inheritance, there is a mission with the usual requirements that requires you to have xx warscore on Burgundy. Once you have your warscore, you complete the mission and the event triggers. You could make it a requirement to be the warleader to avoid conflicting priorities.

That way, you take the randomness of it firing out of it and another big frustration; whom will get it. This way, the nation that deserves it, aka fought for it, will get it.

The complete randomness of that event is one of my biggest reasons to save scum.


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Actually programming wise it might be easier to make it a "disaster" for AI Burgundy.

For it to activate, an HRE nation with at least 4 provinces and with a royal marriage with Burgundy, Castille, or the HRE emperor would have to declare the war/be the warleader.

At xx warscore, the disaster activates and starts ticking up really quick or activates immediately. I imagine it could be done instantly by making it "100 progress a month", but you could do it slightly slower depending on what would be more balanced.
 
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You said we'd no longer be individually adding provinces to the empire. Does this mean that you are adding a way of adding provinces in bulk (along the lines of trade companies) or does it mean that you are removing adding provinces altogether (and as such, whether or not a province is in the empire would be determined entirely by whether or not its owner is in the empire)
 
Shouldn't the Burgundian inheritance be a Austria focused event instead of an event for the Emperor?
It was Austria's house of Habsburg that had the rights for the inheritance not whoever the Emperor in the game will be.
 
There should be an incident for the fate of the Teutonic State. Technically the knights were a member of the HRE, which was the main reason Poland left them what would become Ducal Prussia to govern.
Teutonic Knights weren't part of HRE but they had the same dynasty as Brandenburg. The second duke of Prussia was mentally ill and rulers of Brandenburg became regents and after that duke dies formed the PU. It's similar to Austria and Hungary - Hungarian part also wasn't part of the HRE even in medieval times when the Sigismund of Luxembourg king of Hungary became an emperor.


@DDRJake Are there any plans to change how liberty desire is calculated after revoking the privilegia? Currently HRE vassals have their liberty desire calculated individually but to vassals outside HRE strength of all vassals in the HRE is added making their liberty desire very high.

Can protestant victory also allow reformed or anglican emperors? It's strange when in some games 90% of HRE becomes reformed and they can't have their own emperor. In my previous game Cyprus after the war was the only eligible country to become emperor. In my current game in 1548 there are only 2 eligible catholic countries left - OPM Bosnia and Bohemia and 100% of Bohemia is protestant so HRE can dismantle automatically when Bohemia converts and anyone decides to conquer Bosnia (or just force religion).
 
Shouldn't the Burgundian inheritance be a Austria focused event instead of an event for the Emperor?
It was Austria's house of Habsburg that had the rights for the inheritance not whoever the Emperor in the game will be.

If Austria manage to screw its diplomatic network and loose the emperorship, I doubt they'll be able to secure what they have secured historically.
 
These changes sound really great! What about the pragmatic sanction? As I remember my history courses, Emperor Charles VI had to make many concessions to major European powers (e.g. the cessation of operations of the Ostend Company, the Duchy of Lorraine) to get the formal approval. This could more dynamically lead to the War of the Austrian Succession, depending on how the powers finally decide when the female Austrian ruler inherits the throne. Of course, only her consort could become the ruler of the HRE.
 
Will there be any changes to the HRE and colonization? There could be decisions that the Emperor could make (or has to make) regarding his vassals and their colonial states.
 
I hope the HRE will get an Imperial Diet that gives member states, not just the emperor, enough benefits and things to do to make people playing them actually feel invested in being part of and defending the HRE. For example, it should have at least as much interactivity as the estates window. At least.

It feels disappointing that the current game gives member states so little reason to even care about being in the HRE.
 
Didn't the Russian Tree get updated as part of Dharma? In what ways does it underwhelm?
I believe the Russian tree was done in RB. They got a bunch of unique missions in Third Rome that’s were later converted to a mission tree. Same reason Byzantine got one from unique missions in Purple Phoenix.

It is very disappointing because, for the most part, it is just a bunch of claims. Look at the Mongol tree, it has a ton of claims, but most missions also have some other special item.
 
Unless the HRE idea set is brokenly overpowered, like 30% ccr+ 20% goods produced+ 15% disciplne and maybe 30 or more extra states, there is no reason to press that reform button unitl you are done with your current campaign. A balanced idea set is not incentive enough to press it during normal play.
 
Unless the HRE idea set is brokenly overpowered, like 30% ccr+ 20% goods produced+ 15% disciplne and maybe 30 or more extra states, there is no reason to press that reform button unitl you are done with your current campaign. A balanced idea set is not incentive enough to press it during normal play.

I suspect it is less that than the decentralized vs centralized reform trees that will be supposed to push it.
 
I suspect it is less that than the decentralized vs centralized reform trees that will be supposed to push it.
What I'm suspecting after seeing the reform nerfs they've showed us already, is we will get to choose between an annoying stop all the princes from infighting to unite the HRE, or allowing them to fight each other like the current daimyo system but gain some unknown to us benefit to keep the empire decentralized.
 
Teutonic Knights weren't part of HRE but they had the same dynasty as Brandenburg. The second duke of Prussia was mentally ill and rulers of Brandenburg became regents and after that duke dies formed the PU.

That's so wrong it hurts.

The Teutonic Order was subjugated by the Kingdom of Poland with the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466, the Hochmeister at that time was Ludwig von Erlichshausen who hailed from Hohenlohe, which is the westernmost part of Franconia.

The first Hochmeister from House Hohenzollern was Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach from the Franconian Hohenzollern line, who assumed the position in 1511 and held it until 1525 when he secularized the Ordensstaat into the Duchy of Prussia, which he would rule for another 43 years until 1568. It was his son - Albrecht Friedrich of Prussia that was mentally ill. The Ordensstaat and later Duchy of Prussia had been a Polish fief for a century by then.
 
So, will the Burgundian inheritance be more like a PU for whoever gets it? Also, what plans for Spain and HRE interactions over the event and control over the region? It can get kind of annoying when Spain inherits the Netherlands and expels all the Dutch, meaning there's never an uprising in my games, and the balance of power heavily favors Iberia. And of course, since Spain/Castile is friendly with Austria, there's practically no objection to them holding these lands, which kind of feels weird unless Charles V is at the helm. Either way, can't wait to here more, especially about the Hanseatic League, since Hamburg's my favorite republics to play.