EU4 - Development Diary - 26th of October 2021

[Pavía]

Hello everyone, and be welcome! In today’s DD we are going to take a look at different topics of the Origins Immersion Pack, and 1.32 patch: the new Judaism mechanics, more new mission trees all along Africa, and the setup changes we’ve done to the region. So, it will be content-heavy, then.

Let’s start with the new Judaism mechanics. It was one major religion lacking mechanics at this point of the game, so we thought that now it would be a good moment to handle it. Semien is the only country that can spawn with Judaism early game, while it can also be adopted by one of the most important countries in Origins, Ethiopia. And on a side note, as it was HEAVILY requested by you in the previous DD, we were reassured that the work would be appreciated!

How we have designed it, Judaism works very similar to Protestantism, as it has 3 slots for Torah Aspects, each one costing 100 points of Faith Power. Those points are gained at a rate of 10% of your monarch points per month, minus a modifier depending on your religious unity.

Torah Aspects are split into three categories (Administrative, Diplomatic, and Military), and each category has 3 slots to choose from, giving your country some benefits and modifiers, that are fully shown in a tooltip if you hover over them:

ADM Aspects unlock the use of the ‘Celebrate Festival’ button, which has different effects depending on the ADM Aspect you have chosen. The ‘Celebrate Festival’ action costs 200 Faith Power. The three aspects give you following modifiers:

• -2 National Unrest modifier, and using ‘Celebrate Festival’ gives +1 Stability.
• -5% Technology Cost modifier, and using ‘Celebrate Festival’ gives +20 Reform Progress, +5 Legitimacy (or equivalent), and +5 Claim Strength of Heir.
• -0.5 Interest Per Annum modifier, and using ‘Celebrate Festival’ gives 0.3 Years of Income, and reduces Inflation by 1.

DIP Aspects manipulate the relations your people have with the Abrahamic religions and vice versa. Each aspect gives a passive bonus as well as their modifiers:

• +2 Tolerance of the True Faith, all Jewish Provinces have no culture penalties.
• +2 Tolerance of Heathens, all Christian and Muslim provinces have no effect on the Religious Unity of your country.
• -10% Development Cost, all Non-Theocratic Christian and Muslim countries gain +35 Opinion of you.

MIL Aspects modify the military strength of the country and affect the generation of Faith Power. The modifiers are the following:

• -15% Land Attrition, during war you get +10% (20% in defensive wars) Manpower Recovery Speed and +5% (10% in defensive wars) Faith Power
• +25% Fort Defense, gain +2 Siege Progress if you siege your own fallen forts, gain +15 Faith Power for every occupied enemy fort
• +5% Land and Navy Morale, winning battles decreases War Exhaustion by 0.05, winning wars gives +50 Faith Power

On top of that, we have created a set of new flavor events for Jewish countries. Some of their topics are the reconstruction of the Third Temple, making the ruler choose some things during Sabbath, Abrahamic religions converting to Judaism, and about the figure of the Messiah as their topics. Others are centered around the celebrations, so you can have a proper Bar Mitzvah for your heir, and 3 celebrations around the year: Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot.

Now let’s take a look at the setup changes we’ve done for 1.32, along with some more new mission trees. Here we’ve got 4 new regional mission trees (West Africa, Central Africa, Horn of Africa, and East Africa), so every country in Sub-Saharan Africa will have either a mission tree specific to them, or one of the new regional trees, and we’ve also added 5 more ‘minor’ mission trees (Jolof, Mossi, Hausa, Oyo and Adal), as we had some extra development time, and we decided that more content would be best. So, let’s go region by region, then.

In West Africa we’ve made a few changes. From west to east, Macina is no longer a starting country. However, it can spawn as a revolter after Fulani culture expands to the provinces of Termes, Wagadu and Baghena (at game start, in northern Mali and SW Timbuktu), and it can also be formed by a country with Fulani culture (Great Fulo, for instance). Then we have divided the former Mossi tag into three new ones: Yatenga, Wagadugu and Fada N’Gourma. We could have created more, but we decided to use the same criteria as for Hausan countries, to not have too many OPM’s in the region. Finally, we have created the Wadai Emirate at the east of Lake Chad and Yao. Our intention here is to have a continuum of inhabited provinces from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans, after both Great Fulo and Funj spawn by event, portraying the traditional trade route of Darfur corridor.

All countries in this region without a specific mission tree will have a new, generic one. It has 3 different paths, a military one, other economic, and the third one religious. The first two are linked so you have to complete missions in both branches to advance to the final missions on the tree, having as their main objective to assert your country as the powerhouse in West Africa. Meanwhile, the third mission set is in reality two, as Islamic and Fetishist countries will have different paths; Muslims will aim to impose their faith as the only one in the region, while Fetishists will aim to establish a syncretic traditional religion in their country.

Now let’s take a look at the minor mission trees we added in this region. The first one is for Jolof. The first two columns are about pushing Mali out of West Africa, replacing them and establishing an empire there. Additionally, you also aim to contact the Europeans and make a deal with them. Apart from that, we wanted to portray their specific government form, with Jolof being ‘primus inter pares’ of some smaller kingdoms. Because of that, they now have a unique government reform to represent the kingdom confederacy Jolof used to be, so now these ‘petty kingdoms’ are three ‘estate privileges', which represent the decentralization of Jolof. The third column in the mission tree requests you to centralize by taking certain privileges. Centralizing the state requires you to have at least 2 stability and a lot of estate loyalty with the chieftains. If you centralize you will automatically lose one stab and a good chunk of estates loyalty.

For the Mossi states, we have a common mission tree for the three countries, but also for the Mossi tag if you are able to form it by decision. Their mission focus is pretty straight forward: Conquer West Africa! The "Invade" missions will immediately loot important cities and give you all of its gold.

Forming Mossi will trigger one event later on and add two missions to your tree about their government form. Unlike Jolof's Confederacy, the Mossi Confederal Kingdom is more beneficial. It gives you access to the Tribal Federation mechanic if you have Cradle of Civilization and unlocks a bunch of new decisions for you too. The effects of the decisions are not instant however, as they will always take about 6 months before being in effect. In addition, you have to ‘pay’ in legitimacy and local autonomy. Finally, completing the ‘Centralize the Confederacy’ mission allows you to break out of this government reform or reinforce it even more through an event choice.

Hausan missions have the same scope as the Mossi ones, so you can have them as one of their starting countries, or if you form the Hausa tag. They are about the conquest of the other Hausa states. ‘Unite the Cities’ requires you to be either Hausa or Sokoto. To get help with the early phase you can request militaristic aid from allies through the mission ‘Form Alliances"’. Hausa's mission ‘Develop the Cities’ revolves around the 7 cities which were founded by the 7 different Hausa rulers. Completing this mission will give every one of these 7 cities a unique province modifier for 10 years, reflecting the history and role of these cities. ‘Resolve Internal Issues’ will enable a decision for you, which allows you to get these bonuses for these 7 cities every 20 years again. ‘Contact with the Fulani’ triggers an event for you, which makes Fulani into an accepted culture. Through this you are allowed to form Sokoto, and then it will replace the fourth column with three missions, which are about the Jihad in West Africa. The last reward for converting all the provinces to Islam is a permanent +2 Tolerance of True Faith and -0.5% Prestige Decay.

Finally we have the Oyo mission tree. First column is about their historical usage of cavalry. As such you are encouraged to trade with the Muslims. After that you unlock a special mercenary company for them. The mission ‘Chaaaarge!!’ will disable the Army Professionalism cost from this cavalry merc company. The remaining columns are about pushing the Muslims out of West Africa and becoming the dominant power of there. Oyo is also the defender of the Fetishistic faith (though not really a defender, but you get the idea). As such, the province Ife has gained a specific bonus. Oyo's missions are also special in their requirements, as they allow progress through tributaries too! It’s done through a special government reform which allows you to do that. Then, the mission ‘Reform the Government’ will unlock an estate privilege which allows tributaries even if they are no longer a tribal country. It should be noted that if you revoke the privilege at any time your tributaries will break free, so use this one with caution.

Now let’s move to Congo and Central Africa. Here we felt comfortable with the setup, as it allows a diverse gameplay with different countries, with Kongo as the main powerhouse, as you already know. What we’ve done is adding a new mission tree for the other countries in both regions. They are mainly in three branches. In the war/economic branch, you start preparing for war, and the idea is that at first it’s used to boost your economy, through raiding. This is represented with a mission requiring you to have multiple war reparations. Once you are able to maintain and train a proper army you start expanding to the point of becoming the military power of the region (with a mission requiring you to have the biggest army around), and then you can progress to become an empire. The second branch is diplomatic. It starts by getting strong allies to secure your position (the mission actually requires for them to be strong, or being either Kongo, Kilwa or Mutapa), then gaining the trust of the allies, then once your position is secure you turn to aggressive diplomacy with the missions requiring you to have vassals and then (tied to the war path too) going to a point of inflicting a crushing blow to a rival to humiliate them (which is in itself a requirement for becoming an empire). The third branch is the religious one. You first start as a fetishist gathering pokem... I mean, cults, and then the idea is that you get in contact with the Muslim countries (tied to the alliances missions of the diplomacy branch) from whom you can get valuable info. Then, it's just expanding your religion, first by going to war against any country that borders you but is not your religion, and then by having to convert provinces.

Then we have the Horn of Africa. Here we have added another new tag, Ogadeen, portraying the Somali clans that inhabit that space. This regional mission tree revolves around religious clashes. Your aim is to conquer and convert the heathens, uniting the tags of your faith, and become the main power of the region. After completing the final mission of those branches, ‘Save the Horn’, you will get the permanent modifier ‘The Holy Horn’, giving you +50% Religious Unity in reward for your efforts. In parallel to that, you’ve got some missions with an economic scope, that aims at your country being the main trade power in the Indian Ocean.

In the same region we have the last ‘minor’ mission tree, that of Adal. Their missions are mostly focused on giving Ethiopia a real fight to deal with. This is especially emphasized by a mission reward early on, ‘Restore the Old Mosque’, that is about the mosque Masjid al-Qiblatayn in Zeila, one of the oldest mosques in Africa; so, developing Zeila will give you a great Mosque there. ‘Reach the Turks’ is about establishing relations with the Ottomans. This mission can be completed by having any kind of regiment at the coast of the Mediterranean or in a province held by a Turkish country. It will trigger an event chain, not limited to the Ottomans, as it will seek out for the strongest Turkish power in Anatolia, that will eventually give some Janissary mercenaries; should there be no Turkish power at all in Anatolia in the rare occasion that the wet dream of a Byzantophile comes true, then Adal will ask Mamluks for help instead, unlocking the Mamluks mercs instead of the Janissaries. The rest of the mission tree is pretty straight-forward: unite the Somali clans, eliminate Ethiopia, convert the Horn of Africa, and get a connection to West Africa.

Let’s finish with the East Africa mission tree. Here we have focused on trade, regional expansion and strategic one in trade ports as main focuses. The objective is, obviously, becoming a great power (who would have noticed that regarding EU4!). However, one of the last missions of the tree is a funny one, as you’ll be aiming at reversing the trade visit that Zheng He made to the region a few decades ago, establishing a strong trade presence in the Chinese region trade ports.

So that’s all for today, which I think is a lot, as we covered a bunch of very different content all across the continent. Actually, this is the last DD delivered from CD Team, as the next DD’s before release will be focusing on the new Art in Origins Immersion Pack, the new Achievements we’ve created, and the changelog (be prepared for it, as it will have hundreds of fixes that will go live with 1.32 patch, literally!). As always, your feedback will be appreciated; just be civil, and take into account that some numbers may be tweaked before release. See you!

 

[Pavía]

Images reuploaded. Sorry for the inconveniences, people.

 

[Ogele]

Besides the broken pictures this looks very nice!

Just one question, how moddable is the new jewish religion system?
Can I make a new religion with this new system with different modifiers so both Judaism and the new religion work? (for example Reformed does not work, but Protestantism does)

The aspects can all be modified. The Celebrate button can also be modified as the trigger to use it and the effects are all scripted.

@Pavía will there be any development changes as right now adal starts of at 38 dev in its entire nation with ethiopia having nearly triple so does ajuuran , there are provinces in austrailia congo and america with double the dev of one of the wealthiest cities in adal (zeilia: 8 dev)

I am not Pavia, but I think I should answer this one nonetheless. Right now we added +20 development for Adal, with Zeila having 13 development. This decision was made more with balance in this region in mind, though we are still observing the new change of power in the Horn.

 

[Aldaron]

Sounds cool as heck mechanically!
But you should probably get a Hebrew speaker to double check some of those spelling - Instead of Simechat Torah (Joy of the Torah) you wrote Sichachat Torah (Forgetting the Torah) - Which seems like a pretty major difference

Also, I feel like "Hashem" would be a better choice of word to god then Lord

Actually the first version of the events I wrote did use Jewish terms but they were renamed for consistency. In general there is a non written rule to avoid using native words to avoid confusion for the players. The two of us that wrote the Jewish events hope you people understand it and that they were written with deep respect.

I don't want to get into any of the stuff surrounding the correctness of the bonuses themselves surrounding Judaism and only want to go into some of the grammar and holiday choice type stuff so quick list (some of which has been said already):

So to agree with what someone said previously the symbol in game currently is indeed a Chanukkiah and not a Menorah and should probably be changed for all the reasons mentioned (for reference the emblem of Israel has a menorah on it not a chanukkiah).

Secondly, with what people have already mentioned it would be Simchat Torah not Sinchat Torah.

Thirdly, it would probably read better if you changed the word order to the festival of XYZ instead of XYZ festival since that's generally just how people refer to the holidays in my experience.

Fourthly, I understand the inclusion of Chanukah instead of another one when it comes to "festival" because it is commonly a big hullaballoo, especially in the West, but it is, religiously, a pretty minor holiday and has only really gained prominence in consumerist relation to Christmas as a sort of Jewish counterpoint where kids can get presents. The inclusion of it and not Yom Kippur is especially jarring considering one has extremely little religious significance and the other is by far the most important Jewish holiday and so in an effort to keep this on track of being helpful and not complaining I would switch Rosh haShanah to where Chanukah is now because it is a bit of a celebration and could definitely count as a "festival" and would put Yom Kippur in where Rosh haShanah is currently. I would swap the ideas that Chanukah has to Rosh haShanah and if the ideas currently are what makes the most sense then, to continue my far out there suggestion that wont happen (unlike spelling, grammar, and graphical stuff which I hope will) I would give Yom Kippur Purim's ideas because it is much harder fast since it's rules on what you should and should not do are far stricter and it is (about) 25 hours not Purim's dawn till dusk. I would then give Purim the bottom of the three since its much more of a happy than solemn holiday and if one would give grit it would be Yom Kippur while Purim would be much more about one wherein its about keeping hopes up in bad situations (ie - moral). Lastly I would move Pesach up one so it has the fort defense one because that is ultimately about the Jewish people being delivered from Egypt by the hand of God so it would make more sense on two fronts (especially when compared to Rosh haShanah which really has nothing to do with fort defense so far as I know); on the one hand it it would make more sense for fort defense because the story is one of deliverance and it's not like most sieges in this time period could break their besiegers on their own and instead required deliverance..., while on the other hand the story ends with the Jews returning to the land of Israel which would make sense for the last part of the middle thing on two counts. The first count is that for the +2 on siege it is reclaiming what's yours in the same way the Jews returning to the holy land they left to go to Egypt and reconquering it with the help of god (siege of Jericho anybody) which included sieges in it. The second count would be that if you have a modifier essentially saying the belief in the faith is growing stronger as they successfully siege forts it would make sense for it to go with Pesach because that is a holiday ultimately about deliverance and aside from the obvious parallels there, assuming any Jewish nation (I don't know how one would get one other than Semian or Ethiopia in game currently but assuming it is or becomes possible) is presumably making a push back from wherever they are to the holy land successfully sieging forts in a push to reconquer the land of Israel has some really strong parallels there to me. Lastly I know Pesach, when typically celebrated, covers pretty much just the exodus and ends in the desert (most Haggadahs end before really reconquering Israel let alone getting there) the story itself does not end in the desert and in your standard celebration a typical refrain is "next year in Jerusalem" (not always said in English lol) so I do think this makes sense there.

Fifthly, Remember the Passover just sounds strange and I would delete the the (on the subject of the the reason I have been writing Rosh haShanah instead of Rosh Hashanah is simply because the Hebrew letter he, which in English is usually transliterated ha, is simply a prefix that means "the" [its a bit more complicated than that but only just] and that is simply the convention I use but it isn't necessary better than capitalizing the H at the beginning of the word as is standard for proper nouns).

Sixthly, I would change the third temple event to add a fourth option with something along the lines of it not being the right time in a religious sense. A large part of why the modern state of Israel does not build the third temple is the overwhelming prevailing view that the time for the construction of the third temple will come before, after, or in tandem with the coming of Mashiach (in general most religious Jews don't use the word messiah and use the Hebrew word which does have a slightly different meaning but does translate relatively cleanly in this context so that might also be worth changing is Messiah is used in an event text somewhere) so I think there should be an option to not build the temple on religious grounds that is separate from lets do it and piss of the Muslims, lets do it and piss off the Rabbis, or lets reset the MTTH on this event.
6.5 - might consider using the Beit ha Mikdash to refer to the temple and Yerushalayim to refer to Jerusalem in event text and stuff (I don't know if there is a province name change if a Jewish nation holds Jerusalem or various provinces but if not I feel like that should be included for at least that one in the same way al-Quds is there).

Lastly, I would agree with a previous comment suggesting a change from the Lord in event text to haShem or simply God, using the Lord reads very Christian and it isn't super commonly used (especially amongst Jews who speak or can read if not understand Hebrew).

Anyways that's all I've got, great dev diary, I'm super excited for the expansion, I know all of that is already a huge ask so I'm not going to start some imaginative wish list of a mission tree for Semien or Israel, really looking forward to getting some good games in!

edit - forgot to add that shalosh means three in Hebrew and that saying one of the three Shalosh Regalim doesn't make sense for the obvious reason of in translation that says one of the three three which doesn't make much sense (regalim being translated as pilgrimage works fine I think). Additionally I would stick in bread after the word leaven because what it is referring to is leaven bread although it would probably make more sense to use the word chametz because while anything that is leavened is banned (ie - more than just bread) leavening agents themselves aren't what is being banned (ie - yeast itself, for instance, is fine). I know that's a bit wordy but so far as I know leaven as a noun refers to leavening agents, which themselves are not chametz, while anything that is leavened is banned as chametz so as it stands right now it is incorrect halachically.

Thanks for the long explanation. We will reread this post carefully and see what we can improve, but I cannot make any promises. Just be aware of that.

Also, as I said in the previous quote, we do not usually write native terms because they can be confusing. I hope this is just an inconvenience but not a deal breaker.

So, I might have missed it in the dev diaries but there are two minor regions of Africa that feel kinda forgotten to me. Those being the Great Lakes and Madagascar. The cape region not recieving anything is obvious as it's unsettled but both those other regions could at least have had a small generic mission tree. At least you now have a formable for the Great Lake area, that's great, but a formable Madagascar would have been neat as well.

But well, it's sad but that's how it is. I'm looking forward to this update and I will have some fun Africa campaigns either way.

Great Lakes Nations use Kongo Basin General Missions and Madagascar East African so they are not stuck without missions.

Do we have to release the Jewish tag? or is it a scripted or highly likely revolt tag? Or do we have to force Ethiopia to release semian in a war? I did not see it in the Ogaadeen screenshot. pardon my spelling.

edit: maybe the semian tag is not at 1444 as i was asking or maybe it was conquered in the ogadeen screenshot, idk.

If you are not very attached to Ironman, while testing the mechanics I started as Ethiopia, accepted the rebellious Semien demands and TAG changed. One of the best campaigns I ever had (had to savescum five times because being a landlocked TPM, only Jewish nation in the world, surrounded by enemies and with all your three provinces being cores of Ethiopia is quite challenging), but before I abandoned the campaign I owned almost all of the Horn of Africa and started to expand into Yemen. This is a pic a few years before I abandoned the game:

Alternatively, although in my opinion a bit less fun, you can start as Ethiopia, release Semien as a vassal and play it. You can still have an Ironman game.

 

[Pavía]

First is first, thank of all you for the great reception of this DD, for your kind comments, and for the useful feedback received!

Hello and thanks for this big DD - Before the DD i feared, that the last dd wouldn't have special missiontrees/events - but I really like the different goverment reforms and estates - the nations are feeling quite unique with them! Does Benin get any love or the same Mission tree as Oyo?

The only downside I see is with Judaism - finally we get some love (I cant really tell yet. but events are very welcoming!) - I just hoped that there would be more possibilites besides the semien tag to get a jewish state by event. I hoped for a vasall/march event for israel for mamluks/ottomans or an eventchain for converting a province in poland and later the king-heir and then the country possiblity. If there is just one country with jewish possibility its so sad. (as well as ethiophia is one of the few coptic nations...)
Are there any new possibilites to get jewish?
(how to form the israel tag?)

Do the jewish get monuments or different effects for specific monuments besides the one in jerusalem?

What missiontrees get the small ethiopian minors? the same as Ethiopia?
Thanks for the big DD - i just really hoped for some love for the great lakes (are they forgotten?) and madagascar - they surley need something, as this is the last chance for them.

The cultures around the great lakes have been abandoned..

...it's fine, I've accepted it.

I like this take on Judaism. It's executed fairly simply, but there's interesting versatility.

I have one question however: At present, Jerusalem at tier three gives +1 Missionary, +0.5 prestige and +3% Missionary Strength vs Heretics. However Judaism has no heretics, being in a religious group of its own, which means a Jewish country will have to invest the whole 8500 gold to gain a benefit out of it (which is also odd, as other missionary-granting monuments give theirs at tier 2). Has there been some consideration to altering Jerusalem so Jewish players can get a little more benefit from it?

So, I might have missed it in the dev diaries but there are two minor regions of Africa that feel kinda forgotten to me. Those being the Great Lakes and Madagascar. The cape region not recieving anything is obvious as it's unsettled but both those other regions could at least have had a small generic mission tree. At least you now have a formable for the Great Lake area, that's great, but a formable Madagascar would have been neat as well.

But well, it's sad but that's how it is. I'm looking forward to this update and I will have some fun Africa campaigns either way.

As we said in other thread, there's lot of countries that would have deserved more content in this Immersion Pack, as Sub-Saharan Africa is so wide and diverse... But we had a calendar for developing it, so we also had to be selective with the content to be included. Because of that, we designed the regional mission trees, so at least the countries lacking specific content will have some interest and engaging flavor (hopefully, you'll be the ones judging it!).

Regarding Judaism, we've setup the religion mechanics, and it's working more or less as we wanted; that was our main focus. From here, perhaps we can think on expand Jewish content on the next patches.

We will rework Jerusalem monument to fit better with the new Judaism features, although I'm not completely sure if it will be included in the release of 1.32, or in one of the following patches, TBH - our priority was to have Judaism mechanics fully functional and more or less balanced, on the one hand, and have a good balance of the new monuments, on the other. I'll do my best to include that rework ASAP, trust me.

Regarding Ethiopian minors, they will get the regional missions for the countries in the Horn of Africa. As Ethiopia is now a reformable tag, they can access its mission tree that way.

The basic estates of the game have reached quite advanced levels thanks to their privileges. Some estate groups are rather weak in this respect. ( exp tribes ) Will there be any work on this ? As far as I can see, a new special unit will be accessible with this dlc. In terms of usage, rajputs and cossacks are in a very difficult situation. They can hardly be called numerically at the desired level. I think it would be better to remove some restrictions, especially rajput is extremely difficult to recruit.

Well, we also think that we've done quite an advance regarding estates mechanics in this patch. Perhaps we could continue working on them this way for the next version of the game, and rebalance a bit the existing estates; however, we've not taken yet a decision about the specific next steps to be followed, as we're really focusing on this release, and 1.32, as we wanted to fix a lot of issues, and raise our quality standard again.

The content keeps getting better! One thing I was wondering is, as a modder, it's kind of disappointing that country-wide modifiers don't work on mercenary units. The Buryat Band is one of the vanilla mercenary units which has a razing power gain increase as a modifier but it doesn't actually work. It would be neat if this was fixed, and maybe the Oyo Cavalry mercenary company could give +50% cavalry-infantry ratio to itself so that they don't have a penalty when used on their own since they seem 100% cavalry? Nonetheless, thank you again so much for doing the research and bringing the content in Africa up to the level of much of the rest of the world!

P.S. Love the new event art too. Content devs ought to give themselves a pat on the back after this update.

@Pavia the modifier given to the Oyo mercenary company is +33% flanking range I think? Flanking range only has an effect from +50% jump-points because Cavalry maneuver base is 2.

There are some scenarios where +25% is useful as well, but it is borderline irrelevant.

Edit: also the Kongo minor mission tree is a bit scuffed. Going to war three times so you can get war reps, then vassalise, then annex, is weird. Who wouldn't just annex in the first war?

Thanks a lot for your comments! We'll take a look on your suggestions, specifically those for the Oyo Cavalry mercenary company, as it's a really good one.

I don't understand Internal Tribes and Confederated Kingdoms - are these actual separate mechanics, or just a name for a collection of privileges, decisions and events?

No, they aren't separate, new mechanics. What we've done is to create them using the Estates system, and creating interactions with missions, decisions and events to model it more dynamically. So, adding new content, without adding new mechanics, but using the already existing ones.

Do you mean Haman rather than Hama or is it a varient spelling?

The events looks good and I like the Jewish mechanics but the theme looks a bit papered on for the admin and diplomatic. Primary focus for festivals is an interesting idea but historically that was very much Sukkot Vs Pesach and the 3rd should either be Shavout (would also fit the tech cost one as the giving of Torah so a learning festival) or Yom Kippur. Chunuchah was very much about military victory so would be more thematic there (would fit the moral of armies well).

At some point in the future a couple of events (or an estate) to represent Jewish communities in Europe and central Asia would be nice.

First, it should be "Simchat Torah" and not "Sichchat Torah"

Second, the new Jewish religion looks great! Already waiting to start a Jewish Ethiopia -> Israel run. Hope there will ve fun achievements for this!

I have to say, I really like the Judaism stuff. I do want to point out though, I spotted an art error in the screenshots: the symbol for Judaism is wrong. Specifically, the menorah has too many branches. The nine lamp menorah, properly called a chanukiyah, is used for the celebration of the holiday Chanukah. The Menorah that was in the Temple, and is a symbol of Judaism, has seven branches (well, six branches and one center stem, technically. ) I’m guessing that someone on the art team just got the wrong reference image. It is an easy mistake to make, as both are commonly called “menorah”.

Judaism seems weird and frankly a little disappointing. The fact that Shavuot and Sukkot are considered event-worthy but not Yom Kippur, the most important festival in Judaism, is a bit strange and I you've misspelt Simchat Torah. Also the lack of any Jewish prescence/estates/events in other countries, especially Europe and MENA feels odd. Whilst I understand you can't put in tons and tons of effort for a religion that has two provinces at game start and little poltical significance at the time it just feels underwhelming and a cheap attempt at any sort of mechanic.

Sounds cool as heck mechanically!
But you should probably get a Hebrew speaker to double check some of those spelling - Instead of Simechat Torah (Joy of the Torah) you wrote Sichachat Torah (Forgetting the Torah) - Which seems like a pretty major difference

Also, I feel like "Hashem" would be a better choice of word to god then Lord

Any plans for a unique symbol for Judaism on the menu tab? Instead of the crucifix, similar to how Islam has one.

Other than that, looks really good. I've been wanting better Judaism mechanics for ages.

I don't want to get into any of the stuff surrounding the correctness of the bonuses themselves surrounding Judaism and only want to go into some of the grammar and holiday choice type stuff so quick list (some of which has been said already):

So to agree with what someone said previously the symbol in game currently is indeed a Chanukkiah and not a Menorah and should probably be changed for all the reasons mentioned (for reference the emblem of Israel has a menorah on it not a chanukkiah).

Secondly, with what people have already mentioned it would be Simchat Torah not Sinchat Torah.

Thirdly, it would probably read better if you changed the word order to the festival of XYZ instead of XYZ festival since that's generally just how people refer to the holidays in my experience.

Fourthly, I understand the inclusion of Chanukah instead of another one when it comes to "festival" because it is commonly a big hullaballoo, especially in the West, but it is, religiously, a pretty minor holiday and has only really gained prominence in consumerist relation to Christmas as a sort of Jewish counterpoint where kids can get presents. The inclusion of it and not Yom Kippur is especially jarring considering one has extremely little religious significance and the other is by far the most important Jewish holiday and so in an effort to keep this on track of being helpful and not complaining I would switch Rosh haShanah to where Chanukah is now because it is a bit of a celebration and could definitely count as a "festival" and would put Yom Kippur in where Rosh haShanah is currently. I would swap the ideas that Chanukah has to Rosh haShanah and if the ideas currently are what makes the most sense then, to continue my far out there suggestion that wont happen (unlike spelling, grammar, and graphical stuff which I hope will) I would give Yom Kippur Purim's ideas because it is much harder fast since it's rules on what you should and should not do are far stricter and it is (about) 25 hours not Purim's dawn till dusk. I would then give Purim the bottom of the three since its much more of a happy than solemn holiday and if one would give grit it would be Yom Kippur while Purim would be much more about one wherein its about keeping hopes up in bad situations (ie - moral). Lastly I would move Pesach up one so it has the fort defense one because that is ultimately about the Jewish people being delivered from Egypt by the hand of God so it would make more sense on two fronts (especially when compared to Rosh haShanah which really has nothing to do with fort defense so far as I know); on the one hand it it would make more sense for fort defense because the story is one of deliverance and it's not like most sieges in this time period could break their besiegers on their own and instead required deliverance..., while on the other hand the story ends with the Jews returning to the land of Israel which would make sense for the last part of the middle thing on two counts. The first count is that for the +2 on siege it is reclaiming what's yours in the same way the Jews returning to the holy land they left to go to Egypt and reconquering it with the help of god (siege of Jericho anybody) which included sieges in it. The second count would be that if you have a modifier essentially saying the belief in the faith is growing stronger as they successfully siege forts it would make sense for it to go with Pesach because that is a holiday ultimately about deliverance and aside from the obvious parallels there, assuming any Jewish nation (I don't know how one would get one other than Semian or Ethiopia in game currently but assuming it is or becomes possible) is presumably making a push back from wherever they are to the holy land successfully sieging forts in a push to reconquer the land of Israel has some really strong parallels there to me. Lastly I know Pesach, when typically celebrated, covers pretty much just the exodus and ends in the desert (most Haggadahs end before really reconquering Israel let alone getting there) the story itself does not end in the desert and in your standard celebration a typical refrain is "next year in Jerusalem" (not always said in English lol) so I do think this makes sense there.

Fifthly, Remember the Passover just sounds strange and I would delete the the (on the subject of the the reason I have been writing Rosh haShanah instead of Rosh Hashanah is simply because the Hebrew letter he, which in English is usually transliterated ha, is simply a prefix that means "the" [its a bit more complicated than that but only just] and that is simply the convention I use but it isn't necessary better than capitalizing the H at the beginning of the word as is standard for proper nouns).

Sixthly, I would change the third temple event to add a fourth option with something along the lines of it not being the right time in a religious sense. A large part of why the modern state of Israel does not build the third temple is the overwhelming prevailing view that the time for the construction of the third temple will come before, after, or in tandem with the coming of Mashiach (in general most religious Jews don't use the word messiah and use the Hebrew word which does have a slightly different meaning but does translate relatively cleanly in this context so that might also be worth changing is Messiah is used in an event text somewhere) so I think there should be an option to not build the temple on religious grounds that is separate from lets do it and piss of the Muslims, lets do it and piss off the Rabbis, or lets reset the MTTH on this event.
6.5 - might consider using the Beit ha Mikdash to refer to the temple and Yerushalayim to refer to Jerusalem in event text and stuff (I don't know if there is a province name change if a Jewish nation holds Jerusalem or various provinces but if not I feel like that should be included for at least that one in the same way al-Quds is there).

Lastly, I would agree with a previous comment suggesting a change from the Lord in event text to haShem or simply God, using the Lord reads very Christian and it isn't super commonly used (especially amongst Jews who speak or can read if not understand Hebrew).

Anyways that's all I've got, great dev diary, I'm super excited for the expansion, I know all of that is already a huge ask so I'm not going to start some imaginative wish list of a mission tree for Semien or Israel, really looking forward to getting some good games in!

edit - forgot to add that shalosh means three in Hebrew and that saying one of the three Shalosh Regalim doesn't make sense for the obvious reason of in translation that says one of the three three which doesn't make much sense (regalim being translated as pilgrimage works fine I think). Additionally I would stick in bread after the word leaven because what it is referring to is leaven bread although it would probably make more sense to use the word chametz because while anything that is leavened is banned (ie - more than just bread) leavening agents themselves aren't what is being banned (ie - yeast itself, for instance, is fine). I know that's a bit wordy but so far as I know leaven as a noun refers to leavening agents, which themselves are not chametz, while anything that is leavened is banned as chametz so as it stands right now it is incorrect halachically.

What if no jewish country survives? Will there be an event similar to "Byzantine Refugees"?

Additionally it could maybe even create a center of (jewish) reformation

(silly or not?) in a country that 'd accept them coming (with a price - opinion of other catholics &/or static local autonomy modif.) or simply convert some random provinces to judaism - event similar to "Church of England" event but not allowing to convert directly to judaism. Or there could rather appear "jewish estate"

that'd convert one random prov. to judaism for every new/renewed privilege. In PLC at least they were then perceived as the fifth state - alongside the clergy, nobility, bourgeoisie and peasants[1]. There were many of them in Turkey as well. Possible privileges (based on wikipedia, web, ck2):

a.Privilegium de non tolerandis Judaeis (the privilege of not accepting Jews) - privilege for clergy - when active no province can be converted to judaism
b.Privilegium de non tolerandis Christianis (the privilege of not accepting Christians) - when active no province can be converted from judaism to country's religion
c.Jewish advisors - adds an advisor (random or of each category?) of judaism faith to the pool that is cheaper to hire
d.Monopoly on gold - no income from gold in exchange of 1 mercantilism
e.Jewish land rights - +100 governing capacity
f.Special faith tax - a tax income modifier (similar to dhimmi privilege)
g.Religious minority right - +X religious unity based on judaism provinces & -5% clergy loyalty equlibrum (similar to dhimmi privilege)
h.Free trade - allow jewish merchants to trade during Sundays and church holidays - every jewish prov. 'd give +15%production eficiency & -5% clergy loyalty equlibrum
i.Prosecute illegal rituals - abrdds clergy loyality equlium, lowers "jewish estate" loyality equlibrum
j.Conscript Jews - every jewish prov. 'd give +20% local manpower (similar to dhimmi privilege)
k.Equal rights - lowers modifier (local autonomy in jewish provinces) & -5% nobility loyalty equlibrum

The "jewish estate" disaster could convert country to judaism and remove "jewish estate" estate. This way some fun scenarious could happen.

Either this estate or an event similar to "Byzantine Refugees" would somehow force countries to take humanist/religious ideas more often and would give papal influence when reconverted these provinces to catholicism - one more reason to not become protestant/reformed.

Additional questions:

1. DEBATE: Please add alert icon that shows that the debate is still taking place in the parliament or make parliament button shine as I often forget it when I close the tab when a debate still takes place and waits until I fulfill the requirements but then I find out "the debate has failed".
2. COALITION: When I use "threathen war" button please add info about the coalition that'd form because of taking that land. Many times I fought huge coalitions because of it.
3. PROVINCES: I get that there won't be new prov. because of lag. Then how about creating one single province for wastelands and 1 single prov. for lakes? I guess most people won't care anyway and this way we'd recycle many needed provinces as now there are 87 wastelands and 183 lakes. That'd mean 268 new provinces carefully placed where needed.
4. UNITS: Oh and maybe don't tie special units to % of owned land by that estate - instead give that estate 1% of land (or % of total army force limit) when a special unit is created

First of all, thanks to all of you for your suggestions, again (and specifically to @WhoBob3000 , your feedback was really good and detailed). As my colleague @Aldaron just said, we want to treat Judaism religion with as much respect and correctness as possible. So, we will take into account your very detailed feedback to change a lot of these things ASAP.

Now, commenting some specific issues:
- We're changing 'Hama' for 'Haman'.
- We will include Yom Kippur in the feature, you're completely right about the importance of that feast.
- We're changing 'Sichchat Torah' for 'Simchat Torah'.
- We're changing the chanukiyah for a menorah as the symbol of the religion, and will try to change the icon too.
- We're changing the spelling of the festivals to 'festival of XYZ'.
- We're changing 'Hanukkah Festival' for 'Festival of Rosh haShanah', and 'Rosh Hashanah' for 'Yom Kippur'.
- We're renaming 'Remember the Passover' to 'Remember Passover'.
- Order of Military aspects will be 'Yom Kippur', 'Remember Passover', and 'Purim teachings'.

Regarding other wording issues in the events suggested by WhoBob3000, we will take that into account, although probably not for the release of Origins, as our localization workflow takes some time.

It might be better to change Build Navy to Naval Buildup here.

Good suggestion.

The work you guys have put in seems impressive. Well done.

A question regarding Judaism: Can you change aspects as soon as you have the church power to do so? Because if so, this means you'll be at +3 stab always, as well as raking up government progress at an impressive pace along with all the other goodies you'll be getting.

Say an average country with a 3/4/3 ruler and +1 advisors and maybe 50 power projection gets ((9 (base) + 10 (monarch) + 3 (advisors) + 3 (PP)) * 0,1 = 2,5 power per month. Or in other words one free stability every 3,33 years.

Maybe tone that down a bit? Once per ruler. Or only the stats of your ruler get accounted, not all monarch points of the country?

It works for protestant because they don't get a bonus upon choosing their focus. Here it's different.

This is just spitballing numbers though. I obviously didn't test this, but it seems a bit over the top on paper.

I invoke now my colleague @Ogele , as he's the one behind the numbers of the Judaism mechanic.

Will Oyo and Jolof be getting unique ideas to go with their mission trees? Currently they only use West African ideas. Maybe 'Oyo Cavalry', while not inaccurate, could be renamed something more distinctive like Eso Cavalry, after their aristocratic leaders?

Yes, they will be getting their own set of ideas. And thanks for your suggestion for the naming, we'll take that into account.

 

[Ogele]

I invoke now my colleague @Ogele , as he's the one behind the numbers of the Judaism mechanic.

Hello there!

The work you guys have put in seems impressive. Well done.

A question regarding Judaism: Can you change aspects as soon as you have the church power to do so? Because if so, this means you'll be at +3 stab always, as well as raking up government progress at an impressive pace along with all the other goodies you'll be getting.

Say an average country with a 3/4/3 ruler and +1 advisors and maybe 50 power projection gets ((9 (base) + 10 (monarch) + 3 (advisors) + 3 (PP)) * 0,1 = 2,5 power per month. Or in other words one free stability every 3,33 years.

Maybe tone that down a bit? Once per ruler. Or only the stats of your ruler get accounted, not all monarch points of the country?

It works for protestant because they don't get a bonus upon choosing their focus. Here it's different.

This is just spitballing numbers though. I obviously didn't test this, but it seems a bit over the top on paper.

You can change the aspects as soon you have the faith power to do so, yes. However, it costs 100 faith power to change it and the celebration of a festival costs entire 200 points.
So with that in mind it would be every 6.66 years that you gain a free stability - well, that is if you don't utilize any of the military aspects.

Right now, I am taking a closer look at how powerful the faith power generation is from military aspects. So expect to see some changes in that regard.

I will keep your proposal into account though when the QA team reveals some overpowered way to abuse the mechanics though.

@Pavia the modifier given to the Oyo mercenary company is +33% flanking range I think? Flanking range only has an effect from +50% jump-points because Cavalry maneuver base is 2.

There are some scenarios where +25% is useful as well, but it is borderline irrelevant.

Edit: also the Kongo minor mission tree is a bit scuffed. Going to war three times so you can get war reps, then vassalise, then annex, is weird. Who wouldn't just annex in the first war?

My bad, should have been 50%.
Speaking of Oyo's cavalry merc:

 

[Pavía]

Nice! Tough start with unique OP religion? Now that's a good balance.

What would you say for some kind mechanism representing Jewish minorities and their migrations in Europe? E.g. random events to gain development in province with "drawback" of a small % change (depending on dev) of province changing religion to Judaism.

There are already some events in the game that portray Jewish communities across Europe. However, given that it looks as both we and the community are happy with the new Judaism mechanics, we'll probably take a look on expanding that flavor, as there have been a lot of good suggestions in this thread in that sense.

Is Adal War Preparations supposed to give only +0.01 piety? That would be much smaller than the usual 0.1.

Number to be fixed.

The update is looking good, great job! Also, could you add a few achievements relating to the new stuff? Thank you!

Yes! We'll talk about the new Achievements in a DD before release.

Thats great!
If we're working on naming something i think should be worked on is the renaming of jewish estates and buildings. They don't need to change the mechanics at all, but calling the Jewish religious estate "clergy" just doesn't feel right. I propose "Beit Din" or "Rabbinical Councel". Also the term temple for Jewish holy building seems bland and generic, maybe "synagogue" or "Beit Knesset" is more fitting.

Thank you

We'll take a look about this, although probably it wouldn't be included in the release version, but in a future patch.

@Pavía @Ogele - and other Dev's involved with this update,
Up front, know that this comment is ultimately about Ethiopia primarily, and the current default starting Religion for that nation, which is paramount to discuss considering your rework of Africa.

While you Paradox Dev's have received mostly positive comments and praise for the Judaism religion build, I want to offer you a Divergent view in perspective of this update to the game:

- Your work on Judaism and the resultant flexibility to make use of the perks/buffs from that religion, combined with the way all other religions mostly work in terms of gameplay, have all collectively revealed just how limiting a Coptic religion game start is within EU4.

Bear with me, this is about PROCESS or Systems Engineering of the religion's benefits, the perks or buffs and "how to get them."

If you have never thought of this before, your portrayal of the Coptic religion amounts to: A Mission Tree.
Coptic Faith is a Provincial-conquering system, much like a Mission Tree. And only a Mission Tree without flexibility as to how/where/why you get perks and buffs.
Whereas, most all other faiths simply require the game to progress and build up power in multiple, diverse ways that has no requirement to gain Provinces (especially not Key Provinces).
Examples:
- Catholic: improve relations with Papal State = higher rate to get buffs, pay into system for favor, do events for Cardinal (even if nefarious), gain more provinces (an option as contrast, not mandatory) and then more provinces w/more total Development in cumulative total gets better odds for Cardinals and buffing pace. Point is, multiple options/paths to gain buffs, and I didn't even mention all for this religion. And several other religions also have this multi-pronged approach.

But the Coptic faith? Is this the right way to present a religion in EU4, and is this the best way to play-through as that religion? Coptic faith results in a very limited approach, with the hope that one conquers on just the right pathway (just like working a Mission Tree). You don't need to do that with most any other faith - you simply need to survive and grow your stats in various ways (depending on your strengths at the time) to mature your religion's buffs.

My opinion, this upcoming game release has totally forgotten about the default Ethiopia Coptic faith, and you totally missed an opportunity to overhaul the Coptic Religion into a more universally useful religion in line with the other religions that don't need Mission Tree type progress to "grow the faith."

To be clear (and fair), it was for us a more important priority to give mechanics to a religion yet lacking it, than to rework how an already existing one works. However, we didn't want to forget about the Coptic faith, and because of that we introduced 2 monuments that require that religion to be used. In future patches, perhaps we can rework a bit how it works (as we're already doing with other religions), because one of our long-term objectives is to try to rebalance under-performing religions; but I can't promise when are we going to take a detailed look over it.

Mali in game is today WAY weaker than it was in reality. Making them stronger doesn't break the game, it brings it closer to reality.

Talking a bit about this. Mali in 1444 was a power in decline, its golden age being one century ago. They struggled to regain some of their former status for a century after game's starting date, but they didn't succeeded in that. Instead, the rising power and top dog of the region in that century was Songhai, until their complete defeat against the Moroccans in 1591.

We wanted to portray those historical processes, so that's the reasoning behind the rework we've done to Songhai and Mali for Origins-1.32 patch. I know it's and impactful change from the previous setup, but this way we think that region will be funnier, and will stick a bit better to its historical development.

 

[Aldaron]

Right now its pretty hard to get a jewish province in ironman. There are the 2 provinces in ethiopia and 1 event that almost never fires. So its a pretty hard religion to get unless you go custom nation. When leviathan came out they gave zoroastrianism another province in India making it easier to access. Will there be any new jewish provinces?

If you want an Ironman run, you can start with Ethiopia, release Semien as vassal and play as them.

 

[Aldaron]

It would be awesome if you add some jewish events for europe for example an event which converts a province to judaist religion in europe and the ottomans has unique
event which converts south makedonia to judaist you can increase the chance of that event

We might review them in the future now that we have more Jewish stuff. No promises, though.

@Aldaron and other Dev's on this DLC,
A totally off-the-wall suggestion based on this custom-game-vs-Ethiopia>Semien-vassal release option --

- What if Paradox did a sort-of "mod" like change to add numerous game-start options that are pre-built/pre-packaged/selected inside the Custom game area of EU4? What I mean by this, when you select the "Custom" game button and move into that area, to then have a list of pre-built options that are Custom-game builds. Could even be "custom game of the month" along with other prior custom games of the month or something. I realize that players have a wide-ranging option of how-to-start-a-custom-game, but you may find even more initial customer satisfaction internationally among new-to-EU4 players by coming up with something like this, where instead of the standard menu of "Rise of the Ottomans - 1444" at normal game start page, in the Custom Game area you start to make it a blend of what it is now, with community-wide suggested Custom build starts to the game, with maybe a short backstory of "why it matters" - such as how to build a good Judaism nation start in a region that historically had that community (such as starting in a Province in modern-Northern Iraq/Kurdish area). Or maybe it's a custom all-Hawaii merged start (instead of waiting for King Kamehameha to do it later) to see how you fare with an early 1444 start as consolidated Hawaii, and same for many other would-be nations that consolidate in the future -- to instead play them as a formed-up nation earlier in timeline with 1444 start instead. Such as - how does a consolidated France fare if you start in 1444 with such, instead of delaying it. Early Prussia. Maybe early "13 Colonies" in 1444 - how much more dominant does a formed up USA become in contrast to Europe if accelerated in timeline. This gets into combinations of niche history options (such as Judaism starts in select pockets of the world where the population could arguably have been large enough to "proclaim independence" and operate an Israeli state early), or it could be a riff on alternate-history events, but I think you Dev's could start to make the Custom Game page into a much broader series of pre-built options that also generates an EU4 fanbase on recurring additions to what comes in as "Custom Game of the Month" (or even Custom Game of the Week if popular enough).

For that we have mods and it is something for the community to do. Sorry to disappoint you.

 

[Pavía]

Just wanted to make sure, you know that Yom Kippur is a fast day, right? Most other Jewish holidays involve feasts or special foods, but not Yom Kippur.

These Judaism ideas could be more thought out really.

Hanukkah should be swapped with Rosh Hashanah for Military-Admin. The story of Hanukkah is one of jewish uprising against the Seleucids, it being "- National Unrest"

Rosh Hashanah on the other hand is joy for the stuff god has given, and is in many ways also a harvest festival, making - unrest more reasonable here. Or heck, if we're talking about people being calmed down from Angryness into less unrest. Yom Kippur would fit from a religious point of view, it being very much about forgiveness.

Next up it's called "Simchat Torah" (but that's probably a spelling error)

And why does Sukkot, the festival where you live/eat in self-built thingies outside your house - interest. Perhaps move Sukkot to be - dev cost, for constructing the sukkahs or settling new lands after the exodus? Or - build cost? And then do Yom Kippur as forgivness i.e. Improve Relation or less AE or something?

Plus calling the Idea "remember the passover" whilst calling the even "pessach" is a bit odd - they're the same thing ater all.

I get having to keep things balanced and not make a Religion OP, but paradox games can also be great vessels for learning, if the buttons kinda fit the religious ideas behind these festivals.

The Judaism religion looks great! ))
But in the religious tree of the ADM Aspects is written "Sichchat tora" it should be "Simchat tora"

Hannukah would make much more sense than Rosh HaShana or Passover as a military aspect considering it is literally celebrating a successful rebellion. Tisha B'Av, which is about remembering the destruction of the Temple, might too (at least until the temple is restored).

Most of the issues and concerns regarding Judaism wording has already been fixed for release version, thanks to the feedback of this thread, and pretty much because of the very detailed and kind post of @WhoBob3000 .

If after the release there are still some of the features or the wording that you might think that can be improved, please use the Bugs or Suggestions subforums to let us know, we'll be reading it.

@Pavía @Ogele - and other Dev's involved with this update,
Up front, know that this comment is ultimately about Ethiopia primarily, and the current default starting Religion for that nation, which is paramount to discuss considering your rework of Africa.

While you Paradox Dev's have received mostly positive comments and praise for the Judaism religion build, I want to offer you a Divergent view in perspective of this update to the game:

- Your work on Judaism and the resultant flexibility to make use of the perks/buffs from that religion, combined with the way all other religions mostly work in terms of gameplay, have all collectively revealed just how limiting a Coptic religion game start is within EU4.

Bear with me, this is about PROCESS or Systems Engineering of the religion's benefits, the perks or buffs and "how to get them."

If you have never thought of this before, your portrayal of the Coptic religion amounts to: A Mission Tree.
Coptic Faith is a Provincial-conquering system, much like a Mission Tree. And only a Mission Tree without flexibility as to how/where/why you get perks and buffs.
Whereas, most all other faiths simply require the game to progress and build up power in multiple, diverse ways that has no requirement to gain Provinces (especially not Key Provinces).
Examples:
- Catholic: improve relations with Papal State = higher rate to get buffs, pay into system for favor, do events for Cardinal (even if nefarious), gain more provinces (an option as contrast, not mandatory) and then more provinces w/more total Development in cumulative total gets better odds for Cardinals and buffing pace. Point is, multiple options/paths to gain buffs, and I didn't even mention all for this religion. And several other religions also have this multi-pronged approach.

But the Coptic faith? Is this the right way to present a religion in EU4, and is this the best way to play-through as that religion? Coptic faith results in a very limited approach, with the hope that one conquers on just the right pathway (just like working a Mission Tree). You don't need to do that with most any other faith - you simply need to survive and grow your stats in various ways (depending on your strengths at the time) to mature your religion's buffs.

My opinion, this upcoming game release has totally forgotten about the default Ethiopia Coptic faith, and you totally missed an opportunity to overhaul the Coptic Religion into a more universally useful religion in line with the other religions that don't need Mission Tree type progress to "grow the faith."

Well, we've not totally forgotten about the Coptic faith. Reworking/rebalancing religions is always a sensitive issue, and it takes time. In this update we've prioritized to add Judaism mechanics, as they were lacking, and to rebalance a bit Catholicism and Reformation, while we've also added 2 monuments that add specific modifiers to Coptic religion, Lalibela Churches, and Etchmiadzin Cathedral.

Will we be reworking it a bit in later patches? Maybe. We've got some ideas about using state privileges for it, as we've done with other religions in this update (mainly with Fetishists Cults), but we also have in mind some pending rebalance for other religions (as Confucianism), so we'll see how the release goes, and how much time do we have for introducing new changes.

I wish there were more changes around "Kanem Bornu". It really should just be Bornu, Kanem Bornu ceased to exist after the Yao was established... in Kanem, which lies outside Bornu's borders. Also, Kawar and Damagaram should belong to Bornu at the start, not Air. I would like to see Kanem Bornu as a formable for Bornu/Yao/Wadai, would be interesting to see.

Absolutely. I might add that the neglect for the Lake Chad area is really conspicuous in this DLC. The oldest center of Islamic civilization in West/Central Africa, an actual organized state with a large urban population... certainly deserving of a mission tree and some more attention from the developers for accuracy.

The Wadai Empire (or Wadai Sultanate) would be an appropriate way to present a good portion of modern-day Chad's origins.

Well, as I said in other thread, there were some countries/regions that we'd want to rework as well, and one of those is Kanem-Bornu. But TBH, we thought that it was a decent state for 1444, and I think that the new regional mission tree of West Africa fits very well for a game with this country.

Wadai Sultanate was actually added to starting setup in 1444, so c. 1500 we'll have countries covering all the way from Atlantic to Indian Oceans (after Fulo and Funj spawn by events).

@Pavía @Ogele Still hoping against hope for a reply here. Anbennar already uses migration to represent non-native countries. Would be fantastic if we could do the same with reformable religions.

About your questions:

- There won't be an on_action when you choose a torah aspect, but you can add effects in the definition of the torah aspects themselves, which are called when you use the aspect.
- About the native reformable religions issue, that's a question for our programmers, so we'll talk about them to try to have that split in the code.