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EU4 - Development Diary - 23rd of January 2018

Good morning all. Tuesday has arrived and as usual delivers double excitement: the next episode in the EU4 Dev Clash, and a new development diary. Last week @Trin Tragula took the wheel and showed off the map changes which will roll out with the upcoming 1.25 update. Before we start talking about the features that come with its accompanying yet currently unannounced Immersion Pack, today I will be showing off another free change with 1.25, which is the Mission System.

Missions in EU3 were a real gamble. You hoped for a good or even possible mission and without hitting up the wiki or trawling through the game files had no idea what you could even be tasked with. You got said mission without choice and would either cancel or try to complete it. EU4 improved on this by always offering you up to 3 missions, one of which you would select and either complete or cancel before getting a new batch of missions. While it was an improvement, it still had the shortcomings of you not being quite sure what all missions you would be able to get for your nations, how to unlock them and even getting missions which would be detrimental for you to do. The missions system is something new players often look to for guidance and when it tells them to simply get 50 prestige or to improve relations with their rival, well, you can see why advice for new players can often counter intuitively be to ignore missions.

All this changes in 1.25 with the new Mission System. rather than picking from a short list of missions, all missions for your nation will be available from the very start, and as you fulfill the criteria for them, you will be alerted as such and can go to the newly segregated Missions tab to claim your reward. Rewards have been accordingly made more relevant, longer lasting and often grant claims towards more missions down the line. Let's take a look at the mission chain from one of my favourite nations, Byzantium, with their Purple Phoenix missions.

byz PP.jpg

humble expansion from my casual Byzantium campaign. Art/layout not final

All Byzantine missions are visible from the start and the progression through them is shown. When the budding Byzantine player reconquers Greece, they will be given a timed reward as well as the claims to help fulfilling the next missions: Recover Albania and Conquer Bulgaria. Once these are completed, they will again be able to claim their reward and work down the mission chain. The mission paths are also split for their different directions to go in, catering towards Western expansion, Anatolian recovery and reclaiming the islands. Mission rewards must be claimed in order, although all missions can be completed throughout a campaign.

byz no pp.jpg

End of the Byzantium mission chain without Purple Phoenix


All nations with specific missions are having those transferred over to this new system. Additionally we have added generic missions for all nations as well as region specific missions so that Europeans can have different missions available to them than, say, Africans or New World Natives. We have also taken the opportunity to clean up older missions while we adapt old ones to work with this new system.

France loveley art.jpg

French Missions, complete with lovely coder art. Something seems odd about the Hebrides though...

This mission change is a free part of the 1.25 Update and our aim is to have the missions feel more relevant for nations, as well as serving as a guiding light for newer players.

I'll try to pre-emptively answer some questions:

  • How do I select a mission?
    • Unlike the previous mission system, you do not select your missions, they are all visible from the game start. All missions at the top of the mission trees will be "active" and when you fulfill an active mission you can go to claim its reward, making any missions below it connected by arrows in its chain active,
  • In the old system selecting a mission would give you the claim/CB you need for the mission, how is that handled now?
    • In most cases, preceding missions will give claims/CBs as a reward which can be used to fulfill the following missions.
  • How does mission gating work?
    • A mission can both be a prerequisite for multiple missions a well as require multiple missions to be completed before it becomes active
  • How moddable is this?
    • Extensively.

Next week we'll start talking about what's coming with the yet unannounced Immersion Pack, due to release alongside 1.25. until then, we shall admire the Ottoman missions in the new system, in all their behemothic glory.

Ottomissions.jpg
 
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Quick question, will some nations have procedurally generated missions? In particular, German minors and Custom Nations come to mind, as well as anyone who uses the default national ideas, all seem like candidates for such a system. I know its been asked already, but, if I were to tag-switch, from Poland -> Commonwealth, how would that work out for missions? If from Commonwealth -> Prussia? (I'd personally advocate for a way to mix missions for certain tag-switches, like if Brandenburg -> Prussia, there would be certain missions already completed. Unless some nation's missions are "Mid/Late Game". It would be nice to have a Prussian tree, Malaya tree, Japan tree, and other formable trees which are based on the idea that you got the new tag post 1550 or so.)

Also, will this be replacing certain semi-random event chains? e.g. Hapsburg PU's, Burgundian Succession, and Abolishing the Sjem? How will they interact with the new missions?

One last bit, with the CKII converter. How will that work? Will my Shu Empire in Norway have to compete with the Ming/Yuan in the east?
 
Hmm, seems a bit restrictive, for example Ottomans having to conquer Serbia before getting the rewards for conquering Wallachia. Will Ottomans just bypass Serbia, or? If it restricts the order of your expansion I seriously hate this update. I'd prefer it to be a sandbox where you aren't rewarded for making one move before making another.
As I understand it, completing the Serbia mission is required to get the claims for the Wallachia mission, but if you fulfil the objectives for the Wallachia mission before the Serbia mission, as soon as you complete Serbia and unlock Wallachia, you can claim the reward for Wallachia.

It's not restricting the order of expansion, instead I think it is rewarding a particular order (by giving claims).
 
Hmm, seems a bit restrictive, for example Ottomans having to conquer Serbia before getting the rewards for conquering Wallachia. Will Ottomans just bypass Serbia, or? If it restricts the order of your expansion I seriously hate this update. I'd prefer it to be a sandbox where you aren't rewarded for making one move before making another.
I don't see why there is restriction. You can play as before. The new mission system is not a new mechanic. Missions existed before, and was random. Not getting the mission you would want in the RNG pool with Ottos is exactly the same as in the new system actually.
 
This is truly a good idea. it now gives us a set of objective to fulfill based on context.
I think we can extend the missions to much broader, more engaging setup, by adding dynamism to it.
lets suppose I am Switzerland and just got some port provinces, we can add "create a navy for nation", while in normal setup Switzerland does not have it.
or Brandenburg just became emperor, we can add "ally with emperor", or after conquering some provinces of Milan, system can give "integrate Lombard Culture" mission, or adding reconquest mission/conquest missions dynamically (if Switzerland conquer Augsburg and/or memingen, "conquer Swabia" mission). the possibilities are endless.
we have a limited form of it now, it's a great improvement path, now that missions are more appealing.
 
I think it would be a lot more immersive if the nation specific missions (like conquer greece as byzantium) had their own accompanying artwork, like for example a roman triumph next to the Acropolis.
 
Will any of these reward permanent buffs? Or is it just permanent claims to reduce the monarch point cost of doing them? It'd be nice if the Ottomans took the entire path down to Algiers if they were rewarded for it, especially in multiplayer.
 
As a player I'm looking forward to the changes. :D

And I bet EU4 content designers rejoice, as their jobs are secured for years to come with focus-tree like missions, right @Trin Tragula? ;)

What does your project lead think about all the effort for those shiny art assets and ensuring different national mission trees are compatible for all future expansions? :eek:
 
I'm kinda confused about the fact that some trees only make sense if you pick up Exploration/Expansion or get a colonist some other way.

Are all nations going to get their own colonial missions?

Colonial nations get a lot of colonial missions, conquering hordes like Ottomans get a lot of warfare missions, trade nations like Venice will likely get missions that strengthen their trade. In other words, there is nothing surprising in nations like Spain and France getting missions to colonize when their positions are such that colonization is a natural choice of action, and when they historically did it.
 
The modding potential for this is going to be huge, and add a whole new dimension for players to explore.

My concern is that while some future DLC can certainly incorporate some new mission trees, I hope it doesn't become like HOI4 and simply add content which is simply a blessed mod.
 
Well, these are diaries about things that are in development, and all things are subject to change during the development process...
If thats true then can i recomend a new one provenice minor tag in the provenice of groningen at the start date. Named Groningen and based on the fact it was a free state intill 1498.
 
Yes, Please. Is this good? No, it's awesome.
Basically, DDRJake took over as a Pretender and made EU4 better, with his 5/6/5 stats it was to be expected. Eu4 goin Revolutionary.
 
Colonial nations get a lot of colonial missions, conquering hordes like Ottomans get a lot of warfare missions, trade nations like Venice will likely get missions that strengthen their trade. In other words, there is nothing surprising in nations like Spain and France getting missions to colonize when their positions are such that colonization is a natural choice of action, and when they historically did it.

The historical colonizers getting missions doesn't bother me. My issue is with ahistorical countries colonizing. What about colonial Ireland or colonial Japan? Hell, Norway and Leon get colonists in their ideas. Should they get their own colonial tree? Why should countries lose out on the missions they have access to now?

That's not even mentioning stuff further afield. What about missions to improve relations with electors to help you become Emperor? Will those only be locked to Prussia/Bohemia/Austria?
 
This is SO much better than the old way! I HATED having to constantly choose and cancel India/Spice Island missions when those were all the game would give me but I had zero interest in doing them.
 
LOVE IT! :rolleyes:
Btw why Otto and Byzantium have a hussars on the missions like: "Conquer new states"??
This pictures is an early concept?
 
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