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EU4 - Development Diary - 25th of June 2019

Hello again! We have another fragmented dev diary today as each of us will talk about content that we’ve designed and implemented. Our focus this time will be on mission trees in the Balkans region.

To begin, I’ll hand you over to @Caligula Caesar for a look at the Austrian mission tree.

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Austria already had quite a few missions, largely focusing on them acquiring their historical territories and solidifying their position as Emperor. However, we felt that there was plenty of room for new missions going in various directions. Some explore “what if” expansion opportunities, but we tried not to go overboard there and explicitly avoided giving PU CBs on the likes of France and Spain, as this would make Austria’s potential too OP. Instead, many new missions focus on internal affairs, governance of subject peoples, being a good Emperor and generally achieving diplomatic predominance. The result was a mission tree as extensive as any in the game at the moment.

One of the first missions in the old mission tree was to form a personal union with Hungary. As we know, the history of Austria’s rule of Hungary was an uneasy one, littered with attempted revolts and difficult compromises. We therefore added a few missions to reflect this. The mission “The Hungarian Question” requires you to not just own Hungary but also have no unrest, separatism or autonomy (taking into account estates). If you do this, you will gain Hungarian and Slovakian as accepted cultures, or if you have accepted them already, you gain +3 development in Pest and Bratislava. “Multicultural Empire”, the next mission, has similar conditions, but requires you to achieve them in a multitude of non-German provinces. Your reward is to gain the option of adopting a new base government reform called Imperial Austrian Monarchy.

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Saying "no" will give you lesser bonuses but let you keep your current reforms.

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Further down on the Balkan conquests branch, new missions were added to push further south into Serbia and Bulgaria, and ultimately drive the Ottomans from the Balkans, if you are up to the task. As currently, this branch splits to include the mission “Italian Ambition” (focusing on Venice), but now that mission is only the start of Austria’s ambitions in Italy, and Austria now has missions to take over Milan and Naples too.

The old mission to Secure Electors is now the start of a larger HRE-themed tree, which has you complete tasks such as ensuring that no HRE provinces are owned by non-HRE members, that there are no countries strong enough to challenge you in it (i.e. own 10 provinces and are not your subject), and that it is Holy (i.e. religious turmoil has been weathered), Roman (Rome and its owner are in the Empire) and truly an Empire (pass most of the reforms and have every member state have a positive opinion of you). The last three missions grant you, respectively, +1 Papal Authority (with some fallbacks if you are not Catholic), +0.1 Imperial Authority and +0.5 yearly Absolutism; however, you will lose these bonuses should you no longer be Emperor.

A pair of branches for limited expansion into Germany and the West have been added. One focuses on making the Austrian territories contiguous (i.e. there must be a land connection between Breisgau and Tirol), taking revenge for the exploits of a certain William Tell in Switzerland, and weakening France – the last not requiring outright conquest, but merely a higher monthly income and an army double the size of France’s, giving you an enviable +10% land morale and +25% improve relations for the next 20 years. The second branch starts with the old classic first targets of Salzburg and Augsburg (plus Trent now) before allowing you the opportunity to fulfill Austria’s long-time ambition of integrating Bavaria into their state. After that, you must choose how to deal with Brandenburg: Either crush them or make them very firm allies. Either way, you will be rewarded with a highly skilled Prussian army advisor at 25% the cost.

We also added a new colonial branch, starting from the Netherlands if you can acquire them. It provides some targets and bonuses for those who wish the Habsburgs to colonise the world, and also provides a much-needed nod to centuries of confusion between two countries with horribly similar names (I feel sorry for our translators…). There is also a new economic/administrative branch, which starts with ensuring the estates are fully behind you and then requires you to develop your Austrian provinces in various ways, concluding with making Vienna the fitting stage for the Viennese Waltz by giving it at least 50 development and 6 buildings, and demonstrating your care for culture by employing three level 3 advisors.

Finally, the new diplomatic branch starts with the fairly achievable task of being a Great Power, having a Great Power ally and a Great Power rival. However, it quickly becomes more challenging: “Spread the Habsburgs” requires you to have either 5 nations ruled by your dynasty or have your dynasty present on 5 continents. You then need to shift the balance of power in your favour by having at least 500 European province (out of 800-odd) be ruled by you, your allies/subjects, or members of the HRE (with you as Emperor); achieving this will give your ruler and future rulers for the next 30 years +2 dip skill. After crushing the Revolution, you then must assert your supremacy over Europe – all Great Powers in Europe must either be allied to you or have been defeated by you in the last 100 years. If you can manage all this, you will be in a truly dominant position and will be duly rewarded with +5% administrative efficiency.

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Aside from missions, there is another change to Austria that we can present at this stage. At present, Austria's heir is Ladislaus Postumus. Hungary usually soon acquires the same Ladislaus Postumus as an heir, but should both come to inherit their countries, they will continue to be treated as separate rulers and the countries will not form a union; even worse, the two Ladislauses have different stats! All this will now change. Firstly, they now have the same stats. Secondly, if either of them dies before both become king, the other will also die, so that one doesn't end up wondering why hunting accidents don't cross borders. Thirdly, if Ladislaus survives to become Archduke and King, Austria will become the senior PU partner of Hungary.

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As a further change, Hungary and Croatia have merged as the PU is formed. Given the historical particularities of the Croatian situation, we felt it more appropriate that they should be treated as part of Hungary if Hungary falls under a PU.

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Hey again folks, I'm @Ofaloaf and it's time to talk about Serbian missions.

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The Serbian Despotate in the middle of the 15th century was in a precarious state. The despotate was the descendant of the 14th century Serbian Empire, a realm which dramatically rose and fell over two generations, and which at its height had included much of Albania, Montenegro, and northern Greece. This empire disintegrated into bickering principalities in the later 14th century, all of which either ended up conquered by the advancing Ottomans or consolidated under the rule of a northern Serbian principality which is now often referred to as Moravian Serbia. The Serbian Despotate seen in 1444 is the result of Moravian Serbia's efforts to consolidate and rebuild the old empire, although it should be said that historically this did not end well for them and the Despotate was fully conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1459.

So! Serbia has a recent legacy which serves as an excellent framework for many of its early missions. Serbian expansion focuses initially on the domains of the former Serbian Empire, encouraging the country to reincorporate the wayward provinces of Albania, Macedonia and northern Greece back into the realm. If that's pulled off (and taking on the Ottomans is no small matter!), then Serbian expansion generally tracks in two directions: East, towards Constantinople, and north, towards Austria. Along the way, Serbia will have to find ways to deal with the myriad cultures of the Balkans (including Bosnians, a new addition reflective of pre-Ottoman Medieval Bosnian culture) and use their faith to solidify their rule in their new domains.

If Serbia is willing to play a diplomatic game, there are some opportunities for peaceful gains. Hungary and Serbia had a very close relationship in the fifteenth century; Despot Stefan, father of the Serbian ruler in charge at the start of the Grand Campaign, agreed to become a nominal vassal of Hungary during his reign, and in return received the city of Belgrade, now modern-day Serbia's capital. Belgrade was returned to Hungary upon Stefan's death, but if Serbia is willing to rebuild relations with Hungary (without becoming a real vassal), the Hungarian crown just might be willing to repeat the deal it made with Stefan and cede Belgrade once more. If Serbia is not interested in diplomacy, of course, Belgrade can be regained by guile and force of arms too.

Serbia's missions are focused on survival and reclaiming territories which it had only recently lost. If it can weather the initial storm and make some tentative gains, Serbia has plenty of opportunities to expand and reclaim its place as a true empire once more.

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And now back to me, @neondt.

We have on the map several tiny Catholic nations in Greece that I’ll collectively refer to as the Crusader States. These are The Knights, Cyprus, Epirus, Athens, and Naxos. The Crusader States have some of the most challenging starting positions in the game, being at the mercy of the Ottomans as well as the wealthy Italians republics of Venice and Genoa. I decided to add a little flavor to these countries by way of a mission tree:

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As fantastical as some of these missions are, we remain committed to some degree of plausibility. There are no explicitly supernatural events in EU4, except for Hunting Accident which will always kill your 6/6/6 heirs.
Crusader missions are also available if you form Jerusalem


The first thing any aspiring crusader needs is a Crusader Fleet, for the journey to the Holy Land would surely be a disastrous undertaking on foot. 25% Galley Combat Ability might just give you the edge you need assault the shores of Syria. With your righteous army on terra firma, you should consider whether to head straight for Jerusalem or whether it would be wiser to first establish a base of operations at Antioch. A successful crusade for Antioch will give you the chance to restore the Hospitaller Order to their former glory, granting the city to the Knights and making them your vassals. If you are already playing as the Knights, you’ll permanently gain 10% Land Morale and 10% total Manpower. Of course you could simply keep the city for yourself and receive some Prestige, Army Tradition, and Papal Influence. Jerusalem however is the ultimate goal for any true crusader. This would be a good time to reveal that we have a new government reform for players that form Jerusalem:

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Tooltip is still WIP as is currently doesn't show that it grants religious CBs.

The Crusader State government reform (and legacy government) is exclusive to a Catholic Jerusalem and enables the Crusade and Cleansing of Heresy CBs, as well as giving a bonus to manpower recovery speed. It is available to both monarchies and theocracies. You can also create Custom Nations with the government type, though it comes at a point cost of 50 to offset how powerful these CBs can be given your choice of starting positions.

Extending the crusade to encompass all of the Kingdom of Heaven will aid you in your mission to Convert the Holy Land. You’ll also be tasked with a new target for your crusade: Egypt, the Land of Moses, with the goal of establishing a Catholic Archbishopric at Alexandria. In Egypt you’ll hear of rumors of a certain long-lost relic thought to reside in far Abyssinia...

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What revelations await those who would dare to open the Ark?

The quest for the Holy Land is not the only goal for the Crusader States. Greece must also be liberated from the heathen, and you must convince the Pope to sponsor a new crusade against the Turks. With a Foothold in Greece, you must restore the Latin Empire of Constantinople. The so-called Latin Empire was a product of the 4th Crusade, in which crusading armies decided to sack Constantinople and depose the Byzantines rather than reclaiming the Holy Land as they were tasked to do. We decided against adding a new formable nation for this purpose, but nonetheless you are charged with taking up its mantle.

There is one more grave danger facing Christendom: the menace of the Barbary Pirates operating from the coast of North Africa. Greece is not the most convenient base of operations for a crusade against the pirates, so you must negotiate with the rulers of Malta for ownership of the island. Malta must be equipped to deal with the pirate onslaught; construct a suitable defense and marvel as your enemies break upon its shores with a 50% local defensiveness modifier. With Malta armed and ready, it’s time to take the fight to the pirates. A Base in Africa must be established along the Tunisian or Libyan coast, and from there you’ll launch a grand Crusade Against Piracy, dominating the North African coast and making the seas safe for Christian travelers. Your own nation will be rewarded with a permanent boost to Naval Morale and Light Ship Trade Power. The seas offer opportunity for more than just pirates. This is the age of discovery, and there will surely be a need for Knights of the New World! Colonize any province in North or South America, and prepare to embark on a perilous journey to discover the legendary Fountain of Youth with the aid of a highly skilled Scottish conquistador. What wonders you’ll find on your quest I cannot say, but if the Fountain truly does exist it must be kept out of the wrong hands by any means necessary.

And that’s a wrap for today. We’re now entering the period of summer holidays at Paradox, but that won’t mean the end of dev diaries. I’ll still be around for the summer (compensating with a long winter vacation), and during that time we’ll be writing smaller dev diaries with a focus on a single country - like a mission tree plus some relevant content for that nation. Our first candidate will most likely be Naples. After the summer however we plan to start revealing some of the major reworks and features coming up in the European update, so stay tuned for more.
 
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Happy to see the crusader states getting some love - finished games as the Knights and Cyprus so far with a few failed Athens attempts under my belt, heaps of fun doing so. I imagine there's some degree of hesitance to give too much attention to OPMs that should really be wiped out as the game / history progresses, especially when there are so many big players who could use some polish, but I'm glad these have been given something.

I look forward to having an excuse to go back and play with them some more, their unit models are to die for.
 
perhaps King of Spain was the more prestigious title, and perhaps it came first in his list of titles, but it was clearly not Spain enforcing hegemony over Austria. nor would anyone at the time have talked about the Spanish Empire including Austria, it's nonsense.

Obviously the situation is more complex than it appears on the surface, with the Habsburg lines splitting between Spain and Austria, which can't be represented through in-game mechanics. But it just further illustrates the inadequacy of the Personal Union system in EU4.

It's even more interesting:

A burgundian guy who was brought up in Flanders becoming Lord of the Netherlands after his father's early demise because of his inheritance from his grandmother Mary.

Then his mom who was claimed to be insane was heir to the throne of Aragon and Castille. His grandfather ruling those still as a regent.

His other Grandfather is the Holy Roman Emperor outliving his son, but also getting old.

And that's Charles V.

Then of course he would become king of Spain in 1516 I believe and later on would inherit his grandfather's realm.

Now he would quickly give the archduchy to his brother to rule, but remained emperor himself. Though ruling such a huge empire was impossible so he split his realm in 2.

I think if Eu4 can somehow simulate a reason why a ruler with such territory would rather split his realm than keep it as one then it would be perfect. But perhaps it's more of a thing for Crusader Kings.

Now what I am thinking is, if only, if only Charles had split his realm in 3. The burgundian part, the german part, the Spanish part.

Imagine William of Orange who was quite liked by Charles married a Habsburg daughter to ensure that a Habsburg descendant would rule the Burgundian inheritance. Mhhh. Now that is spicy alt history.
 
Hi

I have now just over a 1000 hours of gameplay on this and one thing that really needs a potential looking into will be the Albanian mission tree updated. The Albanians have a rich history and i feel it is under represented in this game.

One other thing also. Albanian is listed as a south slavic culture group however multiple researchers have found it is an entirely independent culture and language and doesnt specifically fall under any Slavic language tree. Can this be represented/updated in the game at all?

Thanks
It would be better to put Albania into the Byzantine culture group since both Greek and albanian have no languages like it and both are the only non slavic countrys in the balkans. But if what they showed is all the balkans get then all balkan countrys got screwed over with Serbia being the only one to get a tree.
 
It would be better to put Albania into the Byzantine culture group since both Greek and albanian have no languages like it and both are the only non slavic countrys in the balkans. But if what they showed is all the balkans get then all balkan countrys got screwed over with Serbia being the only one to get a tree.

I agree with moving Albanian to the Byzantine group but the devs did state that at least Croatia is getting a mission tree. It's small apparently which is a shame and I hope it's at least of similar size or a little bit smaller than Serbia.
 
I think instead of updating the Byzantine Mission tree, you build a Roman Empire tree that expands on it and gives more internal buffs, not that the Theme System and the Pentarchy aren't really nice. And maybe tweak some temporary buffs into permanent ones.
 
I think instead of updating the Byzantine Mission tree, you build a Roman Empire tree that expands on it and gives more internal buffs, not that the Theme System and the Pentarchy aren't really nice. And maybe tweak some temporary buffs into permanent ones.

I'd rather they fix American missions before giving the Roman Empire some.
 
I'd rather they fix American missions before giving the Roman Empire some.

I would rather they made the roman Empire easier to form. Like just requiring all of Italy, Rome, Constantinople and Tunis, and then either Iberia and France or Greece and Anatolia.

Because as it stands, forming the Roman Empire is too time consuming, and by the time you achieve it, you are pretty much undoubtedly the most powerful nation in the world and already defeated all your main rivals. And the game just becomes boring.

The road towards forming the empire is challenging and fun, but once you do form it, its no longer fun, so i'm not really enjoying conquering Europe and the near east as XVIII century Romans, but as just XVIII century France which switched color before the end.
 
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We'll see what we can do, but it's hardly at the top of my priority list :D
On the subject of Australia and colonies, any nation outside of Europe that colonizes Australia or the new world and releases that nation the country will use European sprites.. it just looks off if playing as an African nation that suddenly turns white can you please address this somehow in the upcoming patch thank you
 
The road towards forming the empire is challenging and fun, but once you do form it, its no longer fun, so i'm not really enjoying conquering Europe and the near east as XVIII century Romans, but as just XVIII century France which switched color before the end.

That's what you are doing.
 
"Serbia will have to find ways to deal with the myriad cultures of the Balkans (including Bosnians, a new addition reflective of pre-Ottoman Medieval Bosnian culture)"

For the love of God i hope we don't get another ahistorical culture in EUIV timeframe like we got the Bosnians in CK2. They quite literally held a council in September of 1993 and decided to call themselvs Bosnians, prior to that they were simply called Muslims. If a nation had to officially decide on how it is going to be called at the very end of the 20th century then there is no point in discussing it's existance 600 year prior to that event. Bosnians have their place in (hopefully) future Victoria III, because that is the timeframe when their nationality started to take shape (and only after the occupation of Bosnia by AH).

I understand why Bosnian muslims insist on being represented, since their sense of national consciousness and belonging is still an ongoing process, but it really has no place in EUIV (nor CK2 for that matter). Please pdox, modern day politics don't belong in EUIV.

-edit-
Also from simple game play perspective, i don't need to comment on braking up the already small South Slavic culture into more cultures that will hold one province.

I tend to avoid commenting these threads, but i like my country, however conflicted it is, and really don't like lots of these inaccurate comments i see around. If you don't like including Bosnian culture then good argument is that its relatively small culture in Bosnia, nowadays not even in all provinces represented in EU4 and it would make sense to add some bigger cultures that are maybe missing.

Small history lesson incoming:

Bosnian culture did not start to exist in 1990s, but much earlier during EU4 era as Paradox team researched - and thats correct. Obviously native religion and geography started its thing as Bosnia was own country/kingdom for awhile, then things changed heavily with new Otto's religion and rest came over few few recent centuries and strong otto's influence. Actually Bosnian culture must have become majority in Bosnia __at some point during Otto's rule__, as it is majority today. Thats common sense, so Bosnian lovely neighbors didn't like that hence we got ugly history of Balkan as it is. Current pop ratio is roughly like 50(muslims)/35(orthodox)/15(catholics) after wars where lots of muslim population fled to western europe. Population is around 3.5 million and decreasing, country actually had more people in 1990 than at the moment.

Namewise its heavily manipulated nationalism and tough compromises all the way and better not to open that can of worms. Most moderate folk in Bosnia like to call themselves Bosnians as they live in Bosnia and Herzegowina and don't want religion to determine their name. Simple as that.. recent event didn't help to keep moderate people in country, lots of smart people left. Neighbors don't like Bosnian name since it represents Bosnia as country that they tried to divide many times - actually its still ongoing process politically. I'll just leave it at that.

tldr. nice to see Bosnian culture even if its small one and when reading history on internet its good to check multiple sources
 
I tend to avoid commenting these threads, but i like my country, however conflicted it is, and really don't like lots of these inaccurate comments i see around. If you don't like including Bosnian culture then good argument is that its relatively small culture in Bosnia, nowadays not even in all provinces represented in EU4 and it would make sense to add some bigger cultures that are maybe missing.

Small history lesson incoming:

Bosnian culture did not start to exist in 1990s, but much earlier during EU4 era as Paradox team researched - and thats correct. Obviously native religion and geography started its thing as Bosnia was own country/kingdom for awhile, then things changed heavily with new Otto's religion and rest came over few few recent centuries and strong otto's influence. Actually Bosnian culture must have become majority in Bosnia __at some point during Otto's rule__, as it is majority today. Thats common sense, so Bosnian lovely neighbors didn't like that hence we got ugly history of Balkan as it is. Current pop ratio is roughly like 50(muslims)/35(orthodox)/15(catholics) after wars where lots of muslim population fled to western europe. Population is around 3.5 million and decreasing, country actually had more people in 1990 than at the moment.

Namewise its heavily manipulated nationalism and tough compromises all the way and better not to open that can of worms. Most moderate folk in Bosnia like to call themselves Bosnians as they live in Bosnia and Herzegowina and don't want religion to determine their name. Simple as that.. recent event didn't help to keep moderate people in country, lots of smart people left. Neighbors don't like Bosnian name since it represents Bosnia as country that they tried to divide many times - actually its still ongoing process politically. I'll just leave it at that.

tldr. nice to see Bosnian culture even if its small one and when reading history on internet its good to check multiple sources

Only thing that defines Bosniacs today as seperate from the wider Serbocroatian national corpus is Islam. Muslims in Bosnia didn't even have a majority before 1971 census. In 1910 muslims made up only 32.5% of the population, 44% was orthodox and they strictly saw themselves as Serbs, while 23.5% were catholics and they overwhelmingly considered themselves as Croats (rest were Hungarians etc but they made up only a small %) . No mention of Bosniacs as a nation. In fact, once AH instituted a parliament in Bosnia there were only three parties that participated: Serbian national organisation, Croatian national union and lastly - Muslim people's party. As you can see, there were no Bosnians.
There is also nothing unique about culture in medieval Bosnia that would seperate it as it's own entity other than the already mentioned islamic influence that came much later. Furthermore i don't consider "facts" from quasi historians with dubious educational backgrounds as reliable information, especially when those "facts" are made up for the purpose of daily politics. Also stop playing the victim card because it goes both ways and it has nothing to do with this topic.
If we talked about having Bosniac as an emerging culture via an event for Ottomans then maybe i can see it happening, but even that would be a stretch considering that the Bosniac sense of identity began to form only at the end of 19th century. Also, if there was a Bosnian culture prior to islamification, doesn't it stand to reason that there would be Bosniacs that weren't muslims? Yet that isnt the case. Why? Simply because the term Bosnian denominated someone who geographically comes from Bosnia regardless of ethicity, and not as someone who belogns to a Bosnian nation. For example, it would be like calling someone from Anatolia an Anatolian rather than Turkish. That is why muslims simply refered to themselves as Muslims and not Bosniacs.
As i said before, if this was a topic for Victoria III i would have no issues with a Muslim Bosniac seperate culture, it would even make a very interesting event chain. But EUIV in 1444? No way, Bosniacs simply didn't exist as a seperate culture in a country that had less than 250.000 inhabitants.
 
“Colonize any province in North or South America, and prepare to embark on a perilous journey to discover the legendary Fountain of Youth with the aid of a highly skilled Scottish conquistador. What wonders you’ll find on your quest I cannot say, but if the Fountain truly does exist it must be kept out of the wrong hands by any means necessary.” This feels like a strong Age of Empires 3 campaign reference
 
@staycool.

Lots of your post is crap honestly - what constitues a culture at all? Whats the difference betweem croats and serbs? Only thing i agree with is that it should probably appear sometimes after sunni comes to region because culture is heavily connected with religion. Not sure why they wouldn't go with that implementation.. maybe its more complicated.

People that *lived* - ie. existed - in Bosnia started to differ at some point - especially with new religion. Thats a fact. Give them a name you want, should probably have Bosnia in name. Paradox wanted to represented that and here we are. You can't invent a culture overnight. Now you can make the argument its a small culture thats ok. Everything you wrote there is nonsense after. Jeez american native tribes are culture and some were very small.

Those AH numbers are crap.. and political parties are political. AH was huge catholic power and muslim had little space in it - its surprising they had a party at all... is not real representation of population as far as i understand it. Victors right the history.. Looking at those numbers its impossible that muslim population is majority in country. I guess they procreated like zerg then and others left so we have situation we have today.

Thats enough from me on topic.. we can agree to disagree.