• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

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!
 
Last edited:
For the majority of the EU4 timeframe; Spain was a secondary power. Hell; for a large section of the EU4 timeframe [The first 1/4]; Spain dosen't even exist. The only time that Spain could be even said to be 'the world power' in the EU4 timeframe was ~1521 - 1588 [The sinking of the Armada; which eventually was a large contributor to bankruptcy in 1596. And then 1607.]. Which HAPPENS to be where Spain gets it's unique Age Bonus.
The Armada was a setback but I would remind you that war ended with a white peace not with an English victory. Spain was certianly a great power for at least the first half of the era. They're so powerful machiavelli does not dare to give Ferdinands name but consistently refers to him as that Spanish prince (and this from the man who pretty much invented sarcasm just so he could speak his mind on the papacy), and that's before the Spanish conquest of mexico.
As for it not existing Castille and Aragon were great powers in their own right. Aragon defeated France to get the Kingdom of Naples.

And even in that tmeframe; The Ottomans and England/GB were still as powerful; if not moreso. Same with the Ming. The Spanish Empire was he 3rd~4th most powerful nation; even at it's height.
Eh no perhaps the Ottomans but England/GB is at best a regional power until after the defeat of Napoleon (If I am to be really generous I may give them great power after the war of spanish sucession, but before that it's mere farce to consider them as such). France was way more powerful and you fail to mention them. It is France who eclipses Spain as the most powerful christian country not England.
And I should perhaps also add that before Elizabeth I England isn't even a regional power it is essentially a forgotten backwater. And no they did not almost defeat France the HYW was a civil war in France where one of the contenders happened to be King of England.

For most of the 1600's Spain was a declining power; and by the 1700's it was hardly even a major power at all. There's a reason why Spain is only just a Great Power at the start of Vicky 2; and almost immediately loses it beyond the starting bookmark.
Egypt took millennia to crumble Spain took centuries, declining does not mean weak. They are unchallenged as the paramount power of Europe for a thrd of the game, and second only to France and the holy roman empire for the rest of the first half.
The only power in the region which plays in the same field as them are the ottoman empire.

From the late 1500's onwards the Spanish Empire was in decline; between bankruptcies; the Dutch revolts; losing wars and their colonies becoming Independent.
yes and though they went through centuries of decline they were still a great power for a long time what does that tell you of how powerful they were at their peak?
And the colonies becoming independent happened post napoleon which places it outside the game's timeframe. You seem a bit to focused on events that take place right at the end or right after the games period.
 
Last edited:
Go easy on them. Paradox isn't very strong in Political Theory. They are the company that insists that "Authoritarianism" is the opposition to "egalitarianism." Two words that in no world go on the same axis.

Egalitarianism can and does refer to things like equality of political enfranchisement. It doesn't have to refer to equality of outcomes or equality of income. That the egalitarianism in Stellaris is opposed to authoritarianism should make it pretty clear what it represents.

But none of this is very relevant to EU4. There's actually a thread about this on the first page of the Stellaris forum right now.
 
the sliders are back!

wait...
 
Sliders Reloaded :cool:
 
Eh no perhaps the Ottomans but England/GB is at best a regional power until after the defeat of Napoleon (If I am to be really generous I may give them great power after the war of spanish sucession, but before that it's mere farce to consider them as such). France was way more powerful and you fail to mention them. It is France who eclipses Spain as the most powerful christian country not England.
And I should perhaps also add that before Elizabeth I England isn't even a regional power it is essentially a forgotten backwater. And no they did not almost defeat France the HYW was a civil war in France where one of the contenders happened to be King of England.

Hu... At the very least, GB is a major power after the Seven Years' War.
 
Egalitarianism can and does refer to things like equality of political enfranchisement. It doesn't have to refer to equality of outcomes or equality of income. That the egalitarianism in Stellaris is opposed to authoritarianism should make it pretty clear what it represents.
The point is that that stuff is already represented by the authorities, and with greater granularity.

Hu... At the very least, GB is a major power after the Seven Years' War.
Is it? Is that why they get their asses handed to them by one of their own colonies?
Jokes aside yes you are correct a great power after the seven years war (arguable after the war of spanish sucession), the great power after the Napoleonic wars.
 
I suggest taking inspiration from CK2 Conclave.
- Centralization (min autonomy) could have several steps, i.e every 10% from 0% to 100% centralization (100% min autonomy to 10% min autonomy)
- special governments like parliaments, elective monarchy etc could be modelled with a transition from full hereditary to semi-elective (like scandinavian, bohemian-hungarian and early polish elections, inside the royal family) and full-elective (like in the PLC after the reform)
- estates could be tied to centralization like in CK2, with several degrees of automony for each estate, which can be removed from or granted back to the estates when granting privileges (in exchange for money or ADM/DIP/MIL points)

And I think ADM should be used for reforms instead of freely giving away reforms every few years, so that ADM expanses remain a choice between expansion and centralization, and thus re establish some balance between building tall (small highly centralized states) and blobbing (large but low centralized empires)
 
Is this a progress bar or mana?


I assume they'll keep their magic charging buttons?


Eh... that's not constitutionalism that's federalism. Constitutionalism is about the law being above even the head of state. It's nice that you have federalism but it should be opposed by Unitarianism.
Perhaps that could finally be used to model the true federal government of Switzerland, which remains one of the most enduring states of the era
 
Perhaps that could finally be used to model the true federal government of Switzerland, which remains one of the most enduring states of the era
If my prediction is correct that this a HRE focused dlc, government changes could change succession laws, we might see the Swiss confederacy peacefully expand after a defensive war.
 
Not sure if this has been answered yet, but is there a cap on how many reforms you can have? And if there is, is there a way to remove a reform in favour of another like with church power, if you've for instance picked +10% tax early game to fuel your expansion, but now your empire is so big you would rather have the -25% autonomy?
 
Hu... At the very least, GB is a major power after the Seven Years' War.
Agreed. England (and later Britain) was only really a regional power until the Spanish Succession, and after that still wouldn’t really be considered a “great power”. It wasn’t really until the Seven Years War that they really took the forefront of the world powers in competition with France, and they didn’t hit their romanticized height of their power until after the Napoleonic Wars when Spain was in disarray from the French invasion and France was in tatters from fighting the entirety of Europe for nearly two decades.

Putting England on the same level as Spain and the Ottomans in terms of global power in the 16 and 17th Century is, frankly, ridiculous.
 
Hoping this expansion will focus on the HRE/Italy, seeing as the huge diversity of government types in this region would fit the new government features quite well. This looks like it'll be a worthwhile expansion, reguardless of the region chosen to overhaul.

Speaking of the HRE, how will government forms like the Free Cities be handled under these changes? Will the respective reforms be automatically passed upon the respective nation being granted free city status?
 
Speaking of the HRE, how will government forms like the Free Cities be handled under these changes? Will the respective reforms be automatically passed upon the respective nation being granted free city status?
I would imagine it will be the same as he other unique governments. It will probably take up the “special government” reform slot and will provide all the same rules as they do currently.
 
These two are very good questions that have not been explained by the devdiary.

And that's what I dont like about being behind a paywall. I'm guessing all the reforms are going to be the same for all the world, which completely destroys immersion, from my point of view, since 3/4 of the world never even heard about those institutions during EU4 timeline. So it would be wise to have every part of the world have its own reforms different to those of europe. But that would require the system to be in the core game so they can keep expanding on it in future patches to give the sam flavour for TROTW's goverment reforms. Because they are in no way going to put that amount of work into one DLC's feature.

And the second one would need answering as well. I don't know how this new system will affect the government changes via events and rebels etc...They havent talked about that. Hopefully they will clear that up in future expansions.

I had to re-read the dev diary and now I'm appalled that this feature is DLC-only. How do you introduce such a big revamp and paywall it???
 
I hope its not because its the biggest thing this DLC is going to include, but because they are saving the Estates for the free patch :p

I don't think its such a core thing to the game like development or estates, since gameplay wont change much, its only a new way to further customize your kingdom.

What I'm more concerned about its the goddamn DLC policy of never touching DLC content ever again so we wont see new government forms and reforms added or changed and improved because its DLC content...But hey, they've said they will change Parliaments, so maybe they have now decided to change that bit of their DLC policy and will start improving DLCs...
 
Last edited:
Hoping this expansion will focus on the HRE/Italy, seeing as the huge diversity of government types in this region would fit the new government features quite well. This looks like it'll be a worthwhile expansion, reguardless of the region chosen to overhaul.

Speaking of the HRE, how will government forms like the Free Cities be handled under these changes? Will the respective reforms be automatically passed upon the respective nation being granted free city status?
I'm guessing the bonuses of free cities simply get baked into a triggered modifier.
 
I suggest taking inspiration from CK2 Conclave.
- Centralization (min autonomy) could have several steps, i.e every 10% from 0% to 100% centralization (100% min autonomy to 10% min autonomy)
- special governments like parliaments, elective monarchy etc could be modelled with a transition from full hereditary to semi-elective (like scandinavian, bohemian-hungarian and early polish elections, inside the royal family) and full-elective (like in the PLC after the reform)
- estates could be tied to centralization like in CK2, with several degrees of automony for each estate, which can be removed from or granted back to the estates when granting privileges (in exchange for money or ADM/DIP/MIL points)

And I think ADM should be used for reforms instead of freely giving away reforms every few years, so that ADM expanses remain a choice between expansion and centralization, and thus re establish some balance between building tall (small highly centralized states) and blobbing (large but low centralized empires)
While I am always pro nerfing blobbing, mana is a terrible mechanics to begin with.