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EU4 Development Diary - 4th February 2016

Hello everyone, and welcome to another Europa Universalis development diary. We are now working fully towards 1.16 and our next big expansion. While I’ve always been the lead designer for EU4, I’m now the project lead for this expansion, as Wiz has moved to another project.

One of the biggest changes in concept is the introduction of sailors. Sailors represent the trained seamen of a nation. Sailors differ from manpower both in what they are used for, and in how you get them. Only coastal provinces provide sailors, and the amount of sailors depend on total development in that province. Sailors are required when constructing new ships, and when ships are “repaired”. Of course not all ships require the same amount of sailors, with heavy ships needing the most and transports the least.

Docks and Drydocks now provide 50% and 100% more sailors from their provinces instead of increasing forcelimits, while Shipyards and Grand Shipyards have been redesigned to increase naval forcelimits & decrease shipbuilding times in those provinces.

Natural Harbours and Coastal Trade Centers increase the amount of sailors you get from a province, while Merchant marine now gives +50% Sailors & Press Gangs now give +20% Sailor Recovery. Some nations also have ideas giving them more Sailors from their provinces with Netherlands and Norway having the biggest boosts at +25%. There are also policies, parliament issues & norse gods boosting your sailor pool as well.

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If you have the expansion, you also gain sailors from occupying another nation’s coastal provinces, even if your maximum possible pool is not increased.

One of the most feared things in europe in this time-period was the arrival of slave raiders from the north african coast. Countless villages were razed and millions of europeans were sold in slavery in Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli & Istanbul until the European nations were finally able to stop it at the middle of the 19th century by simply conquering the North African coast.

Now Barbary Nations lose their 10% cheaper ship tradition, and they gained the ability to raid for slaves. Raiding for Slaves is now something fleets can do at sea, where they gain money and sailors from coastal provinces that are not their allies or subjects. To raid a coastal province, you need be able to blockade it with that fleet, and you can only raid a province once every ten years. The efficiency of raiding is reduced by fleets on pirate hunting patrol. Raiding of course hurts your relation with the owner of provinces you raid.

The reason for why you get sailors from raids, is that plenty of them historically ended up chained to an oar at a galley.

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Next week, we’ll take a deep look at how we have redesigned the espionage system.
 
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Will the raiding for slaves mechanic interact at all with the Slaves trade good, or imply that that is being changed as well?

Will taking the decision to make trading in slaves illegal disable use of this mechanic?
 
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What about raiding African coast for slaves?
 
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Welcome additions! The next expansion accompanied by this free patch 1.16 already sounds very interesting.

Would be great if the espionnage changes included a spy functionality instead of using diplomats. Or perhaps that new icon next to the monarch points is related to it?
 
Intresting! Awsome! Cool!

P.S [2nd screen]

The bloody money bag next to Monarch points have to do something with sailors? Or I'll have to wait for it to be covered by you?
 
While I’ve always been the lead designer for EU4, I’m now the project lead for this expansion, as Wiz has moved to another project.
@Johan @Wiz

Great DD, though I'm surprised you didn't keep this one closer to the announcement date [makes one wonder what the other features may be].

Can you tell us at this point if Wiz is working on a known title or is it an unannounced one? Pretty please :oops:?
 
Does this mean the game is getting some much needed naval reworks at last? Some properly provided naval changes are something we have needed for a long time! They look so dated compared to the other mechanics
I sure hope so, they have add a bit of functionality especially with how ships can effect trade, but other than that the main naval systems in regard to military and transport seem to be pretty much the same thing they use in EU3 and Vicky 2.
 
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Wonder if there are any other changes to Navies. Currently they still often feel not worth it, especially after they can't block straits as effectively. Now it'd be harder to maintain fleets and most nations won't get new ability to use navies for raids.

Honestly I can't remember even using navies against comparable enemy. It was always either go home at war or full unopposed blockade of a minor country.
 
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MP? You mean multiplayer or monarch points?
If the former, then I have to say that multiplayer works much better than it used to, before they introduced restart at going back to menu(no matter how annoying this is, and I hope they'll eventually find a way to fix it). No need to wait 30 seconds before and after starting a session anymore!
If the latter, then I'm afraid mana is integral part of the game and Paradox is unable to remove it without changing almost everything in the game.
Dessincronisations =/ from the MP!! we are playing 2 games, and every 10 minutes of game.... a dessincro it's done, we play 10 minutes of every 40.... and that's more annoying than the going back to menu.... =(
 
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