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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.

Qvpb8Sf.jpg


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.

wuoomf6.jpg


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?


Since this DLC seems to have a naval focus, I wonder about slaves and the triangle trade in general. I know it is a very delicate subject, but slaves imho need some mechanics. Maybe there should be a disaster "slave revolt" that starts ticking up the moment you own a certain amount of provinces producing slaves as a (Non-African) nation? Once these rebels enforce their demands they create an ex-slave state with randomized ideasets, very similar to the states that can be created via estate rebellions. And there are other possibilities as well, like flavour events for the African states who traded slaves with the Europeans or a bigger impact of the economy when the triangle trade comes to a halt via abolishment of slavery. It def. should not be just a simple checkbox you toggle like it is atm.
 
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Wiz isn't working on the HoI AI now by any chance, is he? ;).

Stellaris AI for a while, after that secret assignment (still at PDS tho).
 
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Rome II confirmed.
 
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omg they fixed the butt ugly Dalarna poking into Norway, now if only they could rename the provinces from Swedish too, stop spitting in the eyes of the Norwegians for five minutes :)
 
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So, how critical will sailors be? It seems to me after I've build my fleet as Morocco, why do I bother raiding if all I'm getting is sailors? I don't need anymore do I? Do I get ducats for selling off bonus slaves I don't need or anything? It feels a little like a feature that won't really be used much at all.

edit: okay looking at the screenshot again there is obviously some gold that raiding gives. I guess we'll see if it is ever actually worth it.
 
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So, how critical will sailors be? It seems to me after I've build my fleet as Morocco, why do I bother raiding if all I'm getting is sailors? I don't need anymore do I? Do I get ducats for selling off bonus slaves I don't need or anything? It feels a little like a feature that won't really be used much at all.
Maybe you lose sailors when you lose ships, or just fight and your ships need sailors to "resplenish" to full strength.
 
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.


Qvpb8Sf.jpg


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.

wuoomf6.jpg


Next week, we’ll take a deep look at how we have redesigned the espionage system.
Interesting. I hope you update the national ideas for other nations with naval tradition, such as Korea, when you add the new system. It's easy to change things in Europe and forget about everyone else :)

Irish minors should get 50% coring cost instead, to represent the fact that no one wants to take land infested by potato famine.
That's pretty rude. It's even more rude if you're English.
 
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So, how critical will sailors be? It seems to me after I've build my fleet as Morocco, why do I bother raiding if all I'm getting is sailors? I don't need anymore do I? Do I get ducats for selling off bonus slaves I don't need or anything? It feels a little like a feature that won't really be used much at all.

Sailors are required when constructing new ships, and when ships are “repaired”.
 
No more gigantic Ottoman navy that's way over the limit, yay.
Don't be silly. Ottomans get a decision that gives +20% sailors and enables raiding.
 
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Nice changes!

I do hope that Atlantic Slavery gets some focus too. I know it is a delicate matter, but slavery should be an important part of the game to make the players more conscious about it.
 
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I'm voting for "Navigare Necesse Est" as a name for the DLC.
I think Mare Nostrum would be much more appropriate. :^)
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.... =(
Weird, me and my friends don't have such problems anymore... we're organising really minor sessions though, from 2 to 6 players, I don't know how is it with bigger games.