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

Free Cities of the Holy Roman Empire
Now the Emperor can designate up to seven free cities in the empire. A free city is a one province minor with a minimum of 10 development.

Free cities provide Imperial Authority to the emperor, as well as manpower and income. A Free City also have some rather nice bonuses to their development.

If a Free City gains another province or leave the HRE. they lose the free city status. And a Free City is always a type of Republic, so countries that aren't a Republic will become one upon accepting Free City status.

A Free City is always protected by the Emperor if attacked, so be careful when expanding in the HRE. A Free City can never be the subject of another nation.

Of course, as the ruler of a OPM, you can always refuse the offer of becoming a free city, and the emperor can spend some Imperial Authority to revoke a cities rights.

Remove Electorate
The next expansion lets you get even more control over your electors. If your religion is now official in the Empire, you can now spend IA to remove the Electorate status of your disloyal Electors.

Pause Westernisation
Sometimes while you are westernising, you end up where you need to use your power for something else, like boosting stability, but currently you can’t. Now we have added the option to pause westernisation. You’ll still get the unrest from westernising, but there will be no events spawning while westernisation is paused. Most importantly though is the fact that your power is accumulating again instead of contributing to the westernisation process.

Retire Advisor
Have you ever sat there with a lot of money, but cursing the options you for advisors. In the next expansion, you can now spend the amount of money it would cost to hire an advisor, and permanently retire him. Within a month, if there is available space in your pool of advisors, you will get a random new one in the same category. Maybe you get the +discipline one you wanted..


Next week we’ll focus on Luther and Buddha.

 

[Golladan]

Are Free Cities always Republics or do you have to be a Republic to become a Free City?

Based on what was said I took it that you can offer Free City Status to any OPM and if they are not a Republic they will become one when they accept and that they can not cease to be a Republic so long as they are a Free City

That's how I see it. It's likely a new republic government with a free city designation. Like how we have dutch republic.

 

[Promanco]

It seems like Austria is getting buffed again: extra tax and manpower, extra IA and more bonuses from the number of princes in the HRE.

It's Johan actually.

Close enough they are almost the same person lol.

 

[Me_]

Are Free Cities always Republics or do you have to be a Republic to become a Free City?

Based on what was said I took it that you can offer Free City Status to any OPM and if they are not a Republic they will become one when they accept and that they can not cease to be a Republic so long as they are a Free City

Does not seem to make any sense. The way I see it you can always give the status to any HRE republic and if it ever stops being a republic it loses the status.

Close enough they are almost the same person lol.

With the recent changes to Memel and the fact that Johan took over posting the diaries, I'd suspect that Wiz might have been removed from EU4 development team.

 

[DicRoNero]

+1 advisor is now of very little use. Innovative idea group will be rendered even more poor, since +1 advisor was one of the very few actually useful things left out there.

Hopefully this type of bonus will get overhauled as well, to reflect the changes.

 

[TheBoozehammer]

So, do all these changes to Europe mean it'll be richer BT-wise, or are you guys splitting the riches to increase the province/nation count?

I would bet the latter.

 

[TheBoozehammer]

With the recent changes to Memel and the fact that Johan took over posting the diaries, I'd suspect that Wiz might have been removed from EU4 development team.

Considering Wiz just posted the Map Teaser, seems unlikely to me. I also don't see how changing Memel has anything to do with it.

 

[Golladan]

Does not seem to make any sense. The way I see it you can always give the status to any HRE republic and if it ever stops being a republic it loses the status.

That makes less sense. How many republics are there in the HRE?

No, most likely it'll be a new republic government type with something like "imperial_city = yes" attached to it.

 

[Me_]

That makes less sense. How many republics are there in the HRE?

11 at the start. You might have missed the part where there is a limit of 7 imperial cities. They are not meant to be common.

No, most likely it'll be a new republic government type with something like "imperial_city = yes" attached to it.

That's preposterous, how would it work with nations leaving HRE?

Considering Wiz just posted the Map Teaser, seems unlikely to me. I also don't see how changing Memel has anything to do with it.

His last act of defiance.

 

[Reezy]

you can now spend the amount of money it would cost to hire an advisor, and permanently retire him.

1930s Mafia DLC confirmed.

 

[Golladan]

That's preposterous, how would it work with nations leaving HRE?

Uh... the action changes your government...?

 

[thErgonomic]

Is there a confirmation on dividing Burgundy into a lot of vassals?

 

[chrnno]

Is there a confirmation on dividing Burgundy into a lot of vassals?

No, they are PUs.

 

[Me_]

Uh... the action changes your government...?

Into?

Just for the sake of argument:

If a Free City gains another province or leave the HRE. they lose the free city status. And a Free City is always a type of Republic.

"Always a type of republic", not "a new type of republic". If it were a new type of republic then there would be no need for the word always.

 

[loup99]

More and more ameliorations in the next DLC and patch, excited for more! Hopefully the imperial cities number will be moddable in the defines.

With the recent changes to Memel and the fact that Johan took over posting the diaries, I'd suspect that Wiz might have been removed from EU4 development team.

This would make no sense, Wiz has been answering in some threads, and Johan is EVP, he posted DD for HOI4 too.

 

[blackchoas]

Into?

likely an administrative republic, or whatever it becomes if you take a 2nd province, Frankly there might not be a special government type although I feel that would be cool,

If you can only turn a Republic into a Free City and not just an OPM then I feel it was be rather easy for the Free Cities to get lost and not come back, Imagine Austria at the start of its game chooses its 7 Free Cities, then all other OPM Republics are lost, next we lose the War of Religious Leagues but are able to get the Peace of Westphalia by having 2 Free Cites annexed and some territory lost instead, then while we are allied in a war with someone else they back stab a Free City while we can't defend it, so now we are down 3 Free Cities and we can't really bring them back.

As an aside how is the government of a nation released in a peace deal determined again?

 

[Golladan]

Into?

Into the government they had before. Into a "random" government. Take your pick.

Just for the sake of argument:

"Always a type of republic", not "a new type of republic". If it were a new type of republic then there would be no need for the word always.

That doesn't mean that a nation has to be a republic to be able to become a Free City. Just that it is a republic while it is a Free City. The exact wording used in this case doesn't mean anything. Specially not when it comes from Johan, who you should have noticed by now is not very specific when it comes to diaries.

 

[spinoza013]

The little fort graphic is nice and helpful and it was my hope that we'd be able to see where the forts are from the political map. But it looks a little out of place; seeing a 2D graphic randomly around the map will take some getting use to. It would look so much better with a 3D graphic on the province instead.

May be a placeholder?

 

[Me_]

This would make no sense, Wiz has been answering in some threads, and Johan is EVP, he posted DD for HOI4 too.

A smokescreen. Seriously, though, I was just teasing in hopes of a Dev spilling the beans on the unannounced projects.

 

[jrgen3]

I hope the free city thing is moddable as I have about 11 German countries in my mod who are specifically free cites and I would like to either disable the mechanic or increase the number to something like 11-13, depending on how it works.

 

[loup99]

A smokescreen. Seriously, though, I was just teasing in hopes of a Dev spilling the beans on the unannounced projects.

We already have Doomdark and Besuchov working on two different unannounced projects, adding Wiz with a third project seems unlikely.