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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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Please never, ever, ever update Iberia in any way ever, just for the sake of annoying people. It would be hilarious. Wait until EU6 before even splitting a single Iberian province.
Trust me you don't even have to say it, I already found out that pdx hates Spain (they probably had a horrible vacation experience in Ibiza) I can confirm since they removed 1 carrack from the starting date from Castile, I can see the overboarding hate coming out.... Kappa
 
Really looking forward to this. Finally, something is done to overhaul/redo/change government systems. I'd really love for some form of "administration" mechanic where you expand upon estates/factions and players have to keep them happy, similar to how you have to keep your vassals happy in CK2.
 
Iberia is not the focus of 1.26 or its expansion.
I can't believe this. How can you guys treat Spain so badly? Spain was the world power for most of the EU4 frame time. Currently Spain is so underpowered.

Spain should be in EU4 what the UK is in Victoria II: a very powerful enemy that makes the player to have a real opponent.

I'm starting to think you are avoiding giving some love to Spain on purpose.

117a59w.png
 
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I can't believe this. How can you guys treat Spain so badly? Spain was the world power for most of the EU4 frame time. Currently Spain is so underpowered.

Spain should be in EU4 what the UK is in Victoria II: a very powerful enemy that makes the player to have a real opponent.

I'm starting to think you are avoiding giving some love to Spain on purpose.

117a59w.png

While the Iberian provinces do need a good redrawing, the problem with Spain's representation and shortcomings is more directly that achieving the historical colonial Spanish Empire in the same time frame is impossible with the way the game currently works.
 
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While the Iberian provinces do need a good redrawing, the problem with Spain's representation and shortcomings is more directly that achieving the historical colonial Spanish Empire in the same time frame is impossible with the way the game currently works.
Spain dominated militarily Europe during the 16th century and half of the 17th century. The colonies weren't that important until the 17th century.

The Spanish Empire's strength was in Europe. When Europe was lost (Netherlands independence, Spanish Succession War, etc) the colonial empire became Spain's strength.

Most of you guys think that Spain was only powerful because it colonized America. You are wrong. Spain started to be a superpower because its military strength in Europe (Tercios). France was beaten by Spain in almost every war (Italian Wars, Burgundy, etc). A French-English-Dutch coalition was needed to defeat Spain. At that time, the colonies in America were irrelevant because they were just starting to be formed. Also remembered it was mainly Spain who kept the Ottomans away from Italy and the Mediterranean coasts (Battle of Lepanto).

slide_5.jpg
 
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I strongly disagree with those thinking this should be part of the free patch. This is a perfect example of something that should be locked behind a paid expansion. It is replacing/improving an existing feature which works fairly well (despite being pretty dull in most cases). If the new government system turns out to be a great success the DLC will have a good selling point, if it turns out to be a half finished, broken feature, we'll all be able to pass/disable it and still be able to enjoy any future content. Want to play without institutions for a change? Though luck, you'll then also have to play without all the improvements and features added in the 1.5 years after its release.

If it was added as a free feature it would most likely be a half finished/nerfed version, implemented to sell future/previous DLCs, like the new mission system.
 
Will there be flavor names for your country's government based on what reforms you have? Doubly nice if these are fully scriptable, though I'd be extremely surprised if that wasn't the case if such a feature was added.
 
can we have a "spain" quarantine threat like we got with Stellaris Sectors? I dont mind people discussing the subject, but it is starting to make a lot of the dev diary threats pretty unreadable. And I think it's getting worse. This one didnt even mention provinces^^
 
Spain dominated militarily Europe during the 16th century and half of the 17th century. The colonies weren't that important until the 17th century.

The Spanish Empire's strength was in Europe. When Europe was lost (Netherlands independence, Spanish Succession War, etc) the colonial empire became Spain's strength.

Most of you guys think that Spain was only powerful because it colonized America. You are wrong. Spain started to be a superpower because its military strength in Europe (Tercios). France was beaten by Spain in almost every war (Italian Wars, Burgundy, etc). A French-English-Dutch coalition was needed to defeat Spain. At that time, the colonies in America were irrelevant because they were just starting to be formed. Also remembered it was mainly Spain who kept the Ottomans away from Italy and the Mediterranean coasts (Battle of Lepanto).

slide_5.jpg
well when you play spain you can do that pretty much, sometimes even the ai pulls it off
 
well when you play spain you can do that pretty much, sometimes even the ai pulls it off
Spain AI never get's in 1st position.

I'm not saying this as a nationalist fanboy. I just want the game to be historically accurate. Just as a I want to the UK to be powerful in Vic2, or Germany in HOI4.

But nevermind guys. If you want to see a crippled Spain conquered by Morocco and France in most games and without colonizing America, enjoy it then.

Let Spain be a meme.
 
I strongly disagree with those thinking this should be part of the free patch. This is a perfect example of something that should be locked behind a paid expansion. It is replacing/improving an existing feature which works fairly well (despite being pretty dull in most cases). If the new government system turns out to be a great success the DLC will have a good selling point, if it turns out to be a half finished, broken feature, we'll all be able to pass/disable it and still be able to enjoy any future content. Want to play without institutions for a change? Though luck, you'll then also have to play without all the improvements and features added in the 1.5 years after its release.

If it was added as a free feature it would most likely be a half finished/nerfed version, implemented to sell future/previous DLCs, like the new mission system.
Wonderful, now we'll have a half finished/nerfed version which will never be touched again! (Estates? Development ?)
 
Spain AI never get's in 1st position.

I'm not saying this as a nationalist fanboy.

That pisses me off as well..and I'm not even Spanish (Austrian, the Habsburg connection made me interested in Spanish history)

Fun fact: in the late 16th century the Spanish army in the netherlands, the ejército de flandes, was 80k strong. The total Spanish army was almost 300k strong.
Meanwhile France before Louis XIV had between 100k and 150k soldiers

In the game France has a higher base force limit and better national ideas. And they pick military ideas, while Spain picks Expansion. I get Exploration, but Expansion is trash. Picking Exploration+Offensive or Quantity would help Spain a lot

Then there's the fact that the Spanish tercios, the most feared infantry of it's timeframe is only a DLC feature. And even then, it only exists for half of the timeframe of it's historical dominance (from adm tech 10 @1530 till the and of the Age of Reformation @1610, while in history the tercios were founded in the 1490s and remained dominant until Rocroi in 1643)