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EU4 - Development Diary - 31st of March 2020

Hello everyone! Today’s Development Diary will be focusing on features part of the Emperor expansion. These features aim to enrich the gameplay surrounding the Holy Roman Empire, both for Emperor and Princes part of the Empire.

You might have noticed that there’s been some quite heavy changes to a very old interface in our Developer Clash.

upload_2020-3-31_11-57-4.png


So now let’s go through these changes today. First up is the new reforms. We wanted to accomodate more playstyles than simply always uniting the Empire under the Emperor. So the Reforms have been divided up to three types, Common, Decentralized and Centralized. In order to access either the Decentralized or Centralized path you need to first get some of the Common reforms. Specifically you need to establish a permanent diet for the Empire.

The common reforms are

Call for Reichsreform
  • -5% Construction and Development cost in Imperial Provinces.
  • Enables Imperial Ban
Institute Reichsregiment
  • Emperor gets +1 Diplomat, +1 Diplomatic Reputation
  • Imperial Provinces gets -2 Unrest
Absolute Reichsstabilität
  • Imperial Provinces gets -25% State Maintenance
Enact Gemeiner Pfennig
  • The Emperor gets 0.5 Tax Income per Prince.
  • All Princes gets +1 Diplomatic Reputation.
Perpetual Diet
  • +50% Imperial Authority Gain
  • Establishes the Perpetual Diet in a Free City.
Create the Landsknechtwesen
  • Mercenaries with home in HRE are cheaper for HRE Members by 25%.
Ewiger Landfriede
  • Emperor gets 0.5 Monthly Prestige
  • All members gets -5% Tech cost
  • Imperial Provinces gets +10% Institutional Spread.
  • Disables internal HRE Wars
After you’ve taken the 5th reform, Perpetual Diet, you can go into one of the specialized paths. However these are mutually exclusive and you can’t go into both.

upload_2020-3-31_11-57-25.png


Following is the Decentralized Reforms

Establish the Reichstag Collegia
  • +3 Free Cities
Expand the Gemeiner Pfennig
  • Emperor gets +100 Manpower per Prince
  • Electors gets 200 Manpower per Prince
  • Imperial Princes gets 10% Friendly Movement speed.
Embrace Rechenschaft Measures
  • +1% Imperial Authority per Prince.
  • +1 Max Electors
Geteilte Macht
  • Electors get +0.5 Tax Income per Prince.
  • -5% Development cost in Imperial Provinces
Reichskrieg
  • Emperor & Electors get +500 Manpower Per Prince when at war against Imperial Enemies
  • Enables Reichskrieg Diplomatic Interaction.


Following is the Centralized Reforms

Reform the Hofgericht
  • Emperor gets -10% Core Construction cost
Curtail the Imperial Estates
  • +25% Imperial Authority
Proclaim Erbkaisertum
  • +25% Imperial Authority
  • HRE becomes hereditary
Revoke the Privilegia
  • +25% Imperial Authority
  • Princes & Free Cities gets -10% Stability Cost
  • Members are given a choice to stay within the empire and become a vassal under the Emperor or to leave the empire.
Renovatio Imperii
  • The Emperor unites the empire under the Holy Roman Empire tag.

The centralized reforms are based on the old vanilla reforms to unite the empire with some slight changes. The idea is still that you are uniting the empire under one monarch. The Decentralized path has more of a focus on a strong united empire by devolving some of the responsibilities and powers to the Electors.

upload_2020-3-31_11-57-49.png


The last reform on the Decentralized path might not unite the entire Empire in one tag under the Emperor, but it does give the Emperor a powerful tool to call upon the entire empire in a war against the empire’s enemies. This costs 25 Imperial Authority.

If you become Emperor and the previous Emperor has gone into a path you didn’t want, you can now also revoke reforms once per Emperor. This act costs 50 Imperial Authorities just like adding a reform.



To give the Empire a bit of life we’ve implemented something we call the Imperial Incidents. These are big dynamic historical events that affect huge swaths of Europe. From the Burgundian Inheritance, the German Peasant War, the Question of the Swiss to the Dutch Revolt. In total we’ve made 13 of these.

upload_2020-3-31_11-58-3.png


Every single prince will be allowed to weigh in on the issues at hand. For instance, in a case where Burgundy is properly invited to join the Empire, Princes at the border worried about the duke’s ambitions might not want to permit that.

However the Emperor still gets to pick what option he wants to happen, but if it goes against the diet it will hurt the unity of the empire considerably. The Emperor will either gain or lose imperial authority depending on how the diet positions itself in the incident. It calculates this relative between your pick and the option with most support (besides your pick so if you picked the most supported one it takes the second most picked). Princes are worth 0.2 Imperial Authority each and Electors are worth 1 Imperial Authority. Besides the Imperial Authority there’s also opinion changes with members of the empire depending on what you pick.



Together with these new features we’ve done quite a few balance changes. First let’s cover how things are added to the empire. We don’t want you to keep a “reserve of provinces to add” in order to burst through the reforms of the HRE. We want a “healthy” empire is what leads to progress within it. So when you join all legible provinces gets added at once and a lump sum of 10 IA is given. You can add more provinces as you conquer but this is also done with all provinces all at once in the HRE screen instead for one by one. This does also mean that when the Reformation hits and if left unchecked, it becomes a serious blow to the authority of the emperor.

Of course we’re giving the Emperor some more ways to garden his Empire though, for starters there are now 12 Free Cities at start which gives a good baseline of Imperial Authority generation. Overall there’s a lot more princes & fabricating claims within the empire is 50% more expensive. This together means it’s easier to keep the empire above the 25 princes limit for a lot longer. We’ve also made it easier for the Emperor to enforce peace within the Empire by being able to ignore the opinion requirement so you no longer only have the Imperial Ban as an option.

We’ve also added a Force into HRE CB that the Emperor can use. Nations that have their capital in the same continent and that borders the Empire can be forced in through this treaty.



That’s it for today! Next development diary will be two things you’ve seen hinted here and there from time to time in various screenshots from previous development diaries and in the dev clash.


Edit: Since I keep getting asked this no matter how many times I try to clarify....
You do not get 10 IA for adding provinces to the empire, that's only for when a new prince joins the empire. You do not get IA for adding provinces to the Empire.
 
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MateuszS said:
Reichskrieg interaction is for emperor only, most member state buffs comes from common reforms and manpower buff for electors isn't that much. Still, being HREmperor following centralization path is way more profitable than not (or not being HREmperor at all). Decentralization path should offer more for individual members, a lot more for electors and a bit more for the HREmperor to follow that path.
For now, if empire is decentralized:
- individual members gain next to nothing beyond common reforms buffs
- electors gain manpower that may or may not handle (too weak economy to build/sustain regiments)
- HREmperor gets CB but needs IA to use it (is it really good equivalent of vassal swarm/united HRE?)
I was hoping that decentralization would cause being within HRE a lot better than being fully independent even for stronger nations, while HREmperor wouldn't loose that much (he sacrifices very profitable centralization route, after all).
Click to expand...
Decentralised gives an extra elector and free City, which would be a nice offer for some within it
 
Braan said:
Are there any special mechanics in the Reichskrieg when a Decentralised Emperor calls it?

The wording in the Diary makes me assume that all the Princes get an unrefusable offensive Call to Arms when it is used. If that's the case and it's like a regular war with allies, that would make it worse than the wars that the Centralised Emperor wages for free with their vassal swarm in the following ways:

1) Any princes that are allied with your enemy would end up fighting against you instead (unless this takes priority, then it would be a nice way of breaking annoying alliances)
2) Some Princes might be prevented from joining the war if they are involved in another war on the same side as the target (for example a war called by a third country that is allied with both the Prince and your enemy).
3) Unlike vassals, the Princes called to war may end up taking separate peace out when occupied, in the worst case giving away some HRE land in the process.
4) Last and definitely not least: Princes who desire land from your target may refuse to transfer occupation to you if they are the first to siege a province you also want.

The actual CB from the ability would need to be insanely good to justify taking the Decentralised path for a non RP-reason.
Click to expand...
One advantage is that vassals are usually less powerfull, so Reichskrieg allow you tu exploit (if everybody joins) full potential of the princes. However you raise valid concern, and there is also the fact that they might be separate peace (maybe?)
 
Is there going to be a way for the emperor to release nations as their preferred religion rather than dividing, for example, protestants into more protestants?
The way it works rn actively hurts the imperial authority when you break apart heretic nations and release princes, even though you're doing your job as emperor, the game punishes you for it IA wise.

Just doesn't make sense to me.
 
Hi

I think that another thing that has to be indroduced in the game will be a bonification in the superpower ranking for the emperor. I think that the emperor is alway underated there.

Sorry for my english
 
Cancerofthehead said:
I don’t get the people arguing that the vassal swarm should be on the decentralized side from a flavour perspective. Logically it is a stage of centralization: you go from having no effective control (start), to following your rules (no internal wars), to doing your bidding (vassal), to betting yours (for the HRE tag).

Decentralization should reduce your control over the Empire. What I would have liked to see is much larger bonuses to the Emperor based on the number of members and a massive defensive pact.
Click to expand...
Thing is, there is no reason for reforms initiated by the emperor to reduce your control over the empire, gameplay or theming wise. Number one priority for an emperor is to stay emperor, and keep his power. For that to make sense, the electors would have to play an active role reforming the empire.

And I admit that there would have to be some convoluted logic to make decentralized into the vassal swarm, but imo that is a lot better than having it go completely wasted because there is no reason to ever take it. Why call on the empire for a united war, when every war can be a united war?

And it would solve the issue that staying at revoke is better than finshing the reforms, which is one of my biggest issues with the whole system.
 
Dralurio said:
Thing is, there is no reason for reforms initiated by the emperor to reduce your control over the empire, gameplay or theming wise. Number one priority for an emperor is to stay emperor, and keep his power. For that to make sense, the electors would have to play an active role reforming the empire.

And I admit that there would have to be some convoluted logic to make decentralized into the vassal swarm, but imo that is a lot better than having it go completely wasted because there is no reason to ever take it. Why call on the empire for a united war, when every war can be a united war?

And it would solve the issue that staying at revoke is better than finshing the reforms, which is one of my biggest issues with the whole system.
Click to expand...
From all this we assume that AI has an equal chance of backing either, when the AI may back decentralised more, and likely even more if heretic religion, as happened historically
 
Battlex said:
From all this we assume that AI has an equal chance of backing either, when the AI may back decentralised more, and likely even more if heretic religion, as happened historically
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm with you there, decentralized will probably be easier to achieve. And that is exactly what I don't like about it.

I was expecting the two paths would be balanced options, with reasons to go down both, and trade offs either way.
Instead the options are an easy to achieve one with underwhelming features, and the one every player will want to go down.
 
I have been giving this some thought and the idea which occurs to me is give the decentralised path the current HRE Erbkaisertum vassals, but don’t give them the swarm, make them build it. At the same time, remove the HRE vassals don’t count the combined vassal strength from the centralised path. Trying to keep a revoke swarm in line without the special status is likely to be painful.
 
Parmelion said:
Love the new HRE interface, looks great!

and... I apologize for off topic but could you please fix the borders of Moldavia? You dont have to move anything or add any new provinces, just change a few pixels on the map. The border between Moldavia and Bessarabia should follow Prut river.
0ELnGpX.png
Click to expand...
This lovely Dobruja is a treat for my eyes. This Bukovina border, too. I love this so much. Kudos to whomever did it!
 
If you become Emperor, can you choose centralization after somebody else had chosen decentralisation, and if you, Do you simple loose all progress in decentralisation and can start with centralisation?
 
Dralurio said:
Yes, I'm with you there, decentralized will probably be easier to achieve. And that is exactly what I don't like about it.

I was expecting the two paths would be balanced options, with reasons to go down both, and trade offs either way.
Instead the options are an easy to achieve one with underwhelming features, and the one every player will want to go down.
Click to expand...
Passing a reform when prince's are against it means more IA, if you back the wrong side in an imperial incident, you lose more IA, events like the peasants war are likely to increase the number of protestant states if Luther makes his historical decision, which means more drain to IA, and longer to turn the empire back to one faith.

Also thing to consider for centralised having vassals, its still more centralised than autonomous provinces AND by inheriting all vassals, you'd go over goring capacity quite quickly, especially if you've fed them alot and lots of nations have joined the HRE, as its no longer number of states, but also total development
 
Why do i need the imperial casus belli which needs 25 imperial authority, when i can have the vassal swarm and need no imperial authority at all? I can then unleash the swarm on anyone. Who would ever choose the decentralised path?
 
Groogy said:
We’ve also added a Force into HRE CB that the Emperor can use. Nations that have their capital in the same continent and that borders the Empire can be forced in through this treaty.


You do not get 10 IA for adding provinces to the empire, that's only for when a new prince joins the empire. You do not get IA for adding provinces to the Empire.
Click to expand...
...so if I force someone into the HRE, I get 10 IA because a new prince just joined the empire?
 
RobbieAB said:
So conquer Ireland, add it to the HRE, and release all the OPMs for loads of IA?
Click to expand...
They're all inside the HRE if you release, but yeh balkanise castile and add them to the empire, and it might also be more profitable to let shadow Kingdom happen, then add a balkanised Italy back to the HRE, especially now the papal states are a vassal swarm
 
A few dev diaries ago you talked about marines and which nations will get easy access... i just thik you forgot about japan, i mean castile is far less of a sea power at the start of the 15th century than japan, historically at least
 
Avacyn6 said:
A few dev diaries ago you talked about marines and which nations will get easy access... i just thik you forgot about japan, i mean castile is far less of a sea power at the start of the 15th century than japan, historically at least
Click to expand...

I personally wouldn't know much about Japan, but I wouldn't expect them to have a marine force (I might be wrong though) specialized at taking territory from the coast.
 
Are any of the incidents repeatable?

I outlined a possible incident in my suggestion here for the "Downfall of an Elector" - basically an incident that would happen every time an elector is eliminated and make choosing the new one more dynamic
 
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