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EU4 - Development Diary - 3rd of April 2018

Good morning all. It's Tuesday and that means time for another Dev Diary. As I mentioned in the last non-alcoholic dev diary, we're going to start looking at changes and features coming with the 1.26 and its accompanying, unannounced expansion.

Before that though, we are currently looking to iron out the kinks with the open beta 1.25.1 hotfix (AI allies deciding that money is more important than friendship and nations sometimes failing to explore for a long time). These fixes will be made, applied to the open beta and rolled out in due time.

Governments

The way governments work have remained mostly unchanged for the duration of Europa Universalis IV, still being almost entirely lifted from EU3. While we have added new government types and their own mechanics such as Theocracy devotion, Steppe Nomads and American Natives, the government progression has remained quite stale, where tech sometimes unlocks a new tier within your government tier and you will switch to it at a cost of 100 ADM if you want its better effects, different election times, absolutism etc.

As a feature in 1.26's accompanying expansion this goes out the window and instead we introduce the system of Government Reforms where you will hand-craft your own government through a series of reforms as the game progresses.

The start of any great project starts with burning a few things down, so to set things straight:

All Monarchy types are merged into one
All Republic types are merged into one
All Theocracies are merged into one
All Tribals are merged into one

The differences we had between government types, for example between Administrative Republic and Oligarchic Republic, or Steppe Nomad and Tribal Despotism, will now be modeled through the reforms

Each Government has a starting reform and maximum number of reforms available. When a Reform value ticks up to a required value, a Governmental reform can be made granting a choice of modifiers and effects and advancing Government reform by 1 step. Each bonus gets incrementally more expensive to increase.

Each reform costs 100 Government Reform Progress, plus 50 for each additional reform. Each nation gains +10 Government Reform Progress towards reform per year, multiplied by 1-(its average autonomy across all provinces. As ever, the numbers we talk about today are subject to balancing and can and likely will change by release, but the net effect is that nations who crack down on autonomy are going to have a far easier time passing their government reforms.

We will cover all the different types of governments over the course of a few dev diaries, but today we will focus on the reforms for a Monarchy.

  • Feudalism vs Autocracy
    • Feudalism: +25% Income from Vassals

    • Autocracy: -10% Unjust Demands
    • [Other Special monarchies]*
  • Hereditary Nobility
    • Enforce privileges: +15% Manpower

    • Quash Noble power: +10% Tax Modifier
  • Bureaucracy
    • Centralize: -0.05 Autonomy reduction

    • Decentralize: +2 Accepted Cultures
  • Growth of Administration
    • Clergy in Administration: +1 [HIDDEN] , +5% base loyalty of Clergy

    • Of Noble Bearing: -10% hire leader cost, +5% base loyalty of Nobility

    • Meritocratic Focus: -10% Advisors Cost

    • Seizure of Power: [Early path for Government type change]
  • Deliberative assembly
    • Parliamentary: Enables Parliaments if Common Sense DLC enabled, else -1 Unrest

    • Royal Decree: +5 max absolutism

    • Aristocratic Court: -0.5 Army Tradition Decay

    • States General: +10% Production Efficiency
  • Absolute Rule v Constitutional
    • l'etat c'est moi: +5 States, -15% State Autonomy

    • Regional Representation - 25% lower autonomy in Territories
  • Separation of powers
    • Political Absolutism: +5 max absolutism, +0.1 Yearly Absolutism

    • Legislative Houses: +1 Possible [HIDDEN]

    • Become a Republic

    • Install Theocratic Government
"What about unique government types?"

The game is host to various different unique government types, with their own effects or mechanics. some examples:

  • Shogunate - +1 Diplomat, -25% Envoy Travel Time, +2 Number of states, +5 Max Absolutism. Dynasty is fixed, Enable Shogun-Daimyo mechanics
  • Daimyo - +10% Morale of Armies, 10% Infantry CA. Dynasty is fixed, enable Daimyo mechanics
  • English Monarchy - +0.5 Yearly Legitimacy, -1 National Unrest, 1 states, -30 absolutism, uses Parliaments
  • Prussian Monarchy - -2 Unrest, -0.02 War exhaustion, +3 Monarch Military skill, uses Militarism.

These special tools will now be modeled by unique reforms. In most cases, it will be a special reform on the first level (Feudalism vs Autocracy) ready-unlocked for said countries. We will also be making the system more flexible in that if you fulfill the criteria for having a certain government type, but previously had no way of switching into it, you will be able to change your reform to pick it up. Changing reforms that have already been passed comes at a cost (currently 10 corruption)

This system is still Work in Progress, so expect changes along the way. Here's a screenshot of it in-game at this current time:

government.png

Return of the pink coder-art and overflowing GUI. Games are like sausages, beware of seeing them made.

Next week we will have more information about this feature as well as looking at another reform path. Which shall we look at, Republics, Theocracies or Tribals? See you next week for it!
 
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The sad thing is that this is not true. There would be guaranteed to be some outrage from people that feel their DLC purchase is devalued by other people getting access to it now. They would rather keep a bloated game with isolated, un-integrated features that they have to themselves than a better, more streamlined game for everybody. Which I am not making up - this is basically what happened when ascension perks were integrated into the Stellaris base game.

Well, I'm based on the constant request in so many threads and on the threads where they ask the devs to integrate it. They all have a massive support when it comes to the agree disagreer button ratio. SO i don't think there would be such outrage. I think there is more outrage atm from not integrating them.

Paradox should have the courage of either integrating estates and development (and the government rework, I guess) into the base game or designating certain DLCs as true "expansions" - i.e. that anything that comes after them requires the DLCs to work. Personally, I wouldn't mind either approach.

I agree. I don't care which one as long as they keep constantly upgrading them and improving them and making them interact with all the new features they add. Integrating them into the base game seems the easiest way to me. Buy either way is fine by me.
 
You can see the names so it’s clearly Iberia, you would have doubted Jesus even when you felt his hands


Please say England will have a way to get both royal decrees and acts of Parliament, as it would not be until after the Glorious Revolution that it would be parliament alone announcing policies.
Please read all dev responses first before replying:
Iberia is not the focus of 1.26 or its expansion.
 
There will be a tons of complaints in the Steam page. Most of gamers is sitting there, not on forums.
 
This looks great! I often forget till later than I ought that reforming government would be appropriate for my nation. Accruing "Government Reform Progress" and getting a little flag letting me know it's an option will definitely enhance the playing experience. The progress and the different types of reforms looks like a great way to model this.
 
That sounds like something I wanted in game initially, but I want unique stuff for the governments I paid for though. Not just one reform or decision, I want them to actually have different mechanics or mostly different reforms tbh.

But, I do NOT wanna any sliders, like in old games. I hate them soooo much. They are such a pain in the bum to navigate. Just make 50 or 100 buttons, still better then sliders.
 
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I think putting it behind the DLC paywall is a mistake you keep making and like estates, one you will regret, because it will never be touched again, which is sad and feels kind of a waste of a good idea and effort when 3 years from now, the system is exactly the same, not integrating with all the new features, and all you can do about it is mod it...Just like estates. It's not worth your time nor is it the price we'd pay for it for something that's going to feel outdated and disconnected from other cool ideas you'll add to the game in the future.

I understand it is a lot of work and you need to charge for it, but seeing as how many people bought the Britannia DLC and how many people are willying to pay for anything regardless how bad it is (according to Jake's own words saying that he is happy with how well its doing rule britannia), I'd leave this out for the patch, introduce whatever new buttons-for-bonuses you can think of in the DLC and people buy them all the same, so no loss of money.

UNLESS; the big thing reserved for the free patch is the integration of the estates into vanilla. In which case you will win the unconditional love of the whole community :D

*Paradox releases EU4 update focussing on free content, i.e. map changes*

Community: "Wow, you've included barely any mechanics in the DLC, what's the point of buying it? The free content in the patch is better than the DLC itself!"

*Paradox releases EU4 update focussing on paid DLC mechanics*

Community: "Why do I have to pay for these exciting mechanics in a DLC? It should be free content!"
 
I disagree with your last part. You can also form Ruthenia to get out of duchy rank, which gives you the Tsardom government as of latest patch.

So if you're playing "Ruthenia risen from the ash", just form Ruthenia and get Empire rank. :)
If you're forming Ruthenia from a non-Ruthenia or Byelorussian country at game start or "release and play as vassal" country, then don't forget to take the decision https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/List_of_decision_lists#Adopt_Autocratic_Administration before forming Ruthenia, as this gives you the russian principalty government needed to become a Tsardom as Ruthenia. You need to be orthodox and culture shift to east slavic (Ruthenian or Byelorussian in this case), but this is totally in line with "Ruthenia risen from the ash".

Hmm that may have been changed. I am pretty sure there are other cases where this is still a thing.

It seems that this problem is mostly limited to Theocracy govt with a few unique cases where they can get out of it.
 
*Paradox releases EU4 update focussing on free content, i.e. map changes*

Community: "Wow, you've included barely any mechanics in the DLC, what's the point of buying it? The free content in the patch is better than the DLC itself!"

*Paradox releases EU4 update focussing on paid DLC mechanics*

Community: "Why do I have to pay for these exciting mechanics in a DLC? It should be free content!"

Nobody is saying that. They are revamping one core part of the game, so, just like with missions, which could've also been made paid and seeing at many peoples reactions, maybe it would've been the best, rework of technology with the new institution's system or the ages system. This seems to be too big a change with too much potential to be locked behind a paywall so it can never be improved or rework so in 3 yeas time in a PDXCon they are whinning that they f***ed up for putting it behind a DLC. Lets wait and see though, maybe they have something bigger waiting for the free patch. But it doesn't sound like the right move.

Or maybe you are right and its just a problem not of the feature itself but the DLC model.
 
Bit surprised to see this upvoted overwhelmingly.

I guess the fact that this system gives the player more agency in how they tailor their Government and attendant bonuses is positive

BUT it doesn't seem all that much better than the current system. Take monarchies. From the get-go for a mere 100 admin you can flick between Feudal or Despotic monarchies.
As things stand, those two Govt types grant many of the bonuses (give or take) that are proposed in the new system - highlighted pink.

The ones highlighted yellow I find fairly underwhelming.

  • Feudalism vs Autocracy
    • Feudalism: +25% Income from Vassals

    • Autocracy: -10% Unjust Demands
    • [Other Special monarchies]*
  • Hereditary Nobility
    • Enforce privileges: +15% Manpower

    • Quash Noble power: +10% Tax Modifier
  • Bureaucracy
    • Centralize: -0.05 Autonomy reduction

    • Decentralize: +2 Accepted Cultures
  • Growth of Administration
    • Clergy in Administration: +1 [HIDDEN] , +5% base loyalty of Clergy
    • Of Noble Bearing: -10% hire leader cost, +5% base loyalty of Nobility
    • Meritocratic Focus: -10% Advisors Cost

    • Seizure of Power: [Early path for Government type change
The later choices kind of pick themselves. You're probably going to choose +max absolutism if you need it to max out absolutism. I suspect a nerf of C&C is incoming...
 
Well, I'm based on the constant request in so many threads and on the threads where they ask the devs to integrate it. They all have a massive support when it comes to the agree disagreer button ratio. SO i don't think there would be such outrage. I think there is more outrage atm from not integrating them.
People content with the change are always less vocal than those who disagree with it. It's hard to say which side is the majority.
 
interesting this part:

"+5% base loyalty of Nobility" without anything like "if the Cossack DLC is enabled" unlike the following part about parliament and Common Sense.

Could this mean that Estates are made into vanilla?
No -- it [most likely] just means that it is an additional effect for those with the DLC and not an alternative effect [as in the other example].
 
I still dont think that the game is going to get any more interesting if you keep adding more "pick your buff!" buttons, ressources and progress bars.
I guess this one at least replaces something instead of adding onto the mountain of "new interface clutter buttons/bars/ressources hardly affecting the game". So I so far rate this DLC: "At least it's not army proffesionalism!"

I hope there is something in this update that actually makes the goverment forms play more different from each other than they currently do. And I hope you integrate it into a fixed and improved estate and parlament system.