• 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:
So all the "Special" Governments: English Monarchy, Prussian Monarchy, Russian Tsardom are being scrapped..........then why did we buy the DLC's.

It seems EU is going "Back to the Future" with the return of sliders............all to sell more DLC.........maybe EUIV shouldn't have been made.........just DLC's for EU3!
No, they're being transferred to the new system as unique reforms.

From the OP:

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.
 
Wow, the sliders are back (somewhat)! And did I read right that any country will be able to have special systems like militarism, provided it reach certain criterias? This system looks so wonderful and full of promises. Instabuy for me.
 
Suggestion, @DDRJake :

Could there be a reform (perhaps just a 'unique' reform, if you feel its warranted) that allows non-Republics to access the Plutocratic Ideas, and Republics to access the Aristocratic Ideas?
 
Oh God yes Thank you! I never thought I would ever see any major overhaul to the Government system for EU4! This looks great, and I only hope it gets better, and expanded! <3
 
So Tsardom and Russian Principalities are going to be deleted and Muscovy will have -1 dip point per month from the start?
Looks...interesting? I'm now worried over where my favourite Ambrosian republic and Tsardoms will go (hopefully the reforms will be able to model it).

Unique governments and their mechanics will remain by way of being a reform. For example, There will be a special starting reform for Russians which give them access to the Streltsy etc interactions. No special government mechanics are getting deleted.

Hmm...I see Iberia in the background, is that a hidden clue perhaps where the next DLC will be located? :D
BTW, there's no map change for Western Iberia in that screenshot. Either Jake cut it out specifically for this screen or it's not Iberia, as many here seem to believe.

Iberia is not the focus of 1.26 or its expansion.

Does the previous reforms bonus disappear after you select the "newer" one?

No.

Speculation of advisor rework? Maybe you can have more than one per mana type?

What are you talking about? It's clearly giving you one more [HIDDEN].

Does this mean razing will be usable by most tribal countries now?
After reading this I can´t help but to wonder what will happen to razing and the hordes...

Hordes are my favourite. Razing and other horde mechanics will remain, and will be...I've already said too much. We'll cover Hordes in a future dev diary on Governments, much like Republics, Theocracies and other tribals

Also, this almost goes without saying, but would you say the magic words “work in progress”? Some have already raised some valid points about various naming and potential overpowered reforms.

Everything we're showing for the next wee while is heavily work in progress. names and balance are all subject to change as development progresses.
 
Seems like Iberian changes are going to become a new Belgium-meme. Who is laughing now? :D
 
Is the focus going to be France? With estates general and l'etat c'est moi getting represented. I hope it is not, though.
 
Unique governments and their mechanics will remain by way of being a reform. For example, There will be a special starting reform for Russians which give them access to the Streltsy etc interactions. No special government mechanics are getting deleted.




Iberia is not the focus of 1.26 or its expansion.



No.



What are you talking about? It's clearly giving you one more [HIDDEN].




Hordes are my favourite. Razing and other horde mechanics will remain, and will be...I've already said too much. We'll cover Hordes in a future dev diary on Governments, much like Republics, Theocracies and other tribals



Everything we're showing for the next wee while is heavily work in progress. names and balance are all subject to change as development progresses.
HOW?!?!?!??!????1 Iberia is NOT DE FOCUS??????!!??!?


O mai god what are you waiting for to improve de fakin spain?



SPAIN IS SHAME RIGHT NOW
 
Looks great! But would you consider replacing the old Feudalism bonus of +25% Income from vassals with +1 Diplomatic relations or -10 Liberty desire in same continent subjects? Both options would give the player a much better tool to create a feudal rule with many vassals and also give him a bigger incentive to do so. Getting 1 or 2 ducats more every month is nice, but I guess only few players would go feudal if they can't have alliances anymore or have to deal with rebellious subject all the time.
 
So we might be able to change the Celestial Empire government into something less worthless by enacting more reforms on top of reforming the mandate?
 
l'etat c'est moi: +5 States, -15% State Autonomy

Regional Representation - 25% lower autonomy in Territories

Is autonomy in this case the same as minimum autonomy? If so, autonomy is obviously reworked and it's hard to tell whether this will be a nerf/buff to tall/wide play.

Each nation gains +10 Government Reform Progress towards reform per year, multiplied by 1-(its average autonomy across all provinces
Please tell me you are reworking trade companies as well, otherwise this will be a buff to a mechanic which is already far too powerful, and usually only used by the player.

So completely changing gameplay rules again? All personal gained experience is nullified?
Is it some kind of delayed April's full joke?
What kind of experience will be nullified? 'Upgrading' government type being worthless in many cases, or how to exploit the autonomy/unrest/state mechanics? Those won't be missed, if in fact they are being nullified.
 
So we might be able to change the Celestial Empire government into something less worthless by enacting more reforms on top of reforming the mandate?

Interesting point! I'd love to see how this meshes with China!