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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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Glad to see this mechanic added. Will Greece get a sailors idea (since they have one of the biggest coastlines in Europe and always relied on navy more than the army)?

Also, could we get more privateering options, like choosing which flags our pirates go after instead of indiscriminate hunting?
 
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..

Ships of different types (and levels) have the same speed, except galleys. If not changing the actual speed, it would be possible to implement a sort of "pursue/evasion chance" when two fleets are in the same sea zones? A Carrack should not be able to engage a Frigate, if the latter is actually just trying to evade (except for a lot of Admiral skill and/or naval tradition )

Fleets can be ugraded. Could them be somehow "autoupgraded" (in a way similar to troops upgrade) if enough money is available?
 
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I wounder if they'll ever add Mourning Wars where you replace lost manpower via kidnapping other tribes.
 
I'm voting for "Navigare Necesse Est" as a name for the DLC.

Name was already leaked on a Paradox stream to be Mare Nostrum.

Which; for that matter is a term stated in the 'Confirm Thalissocracy' decision; which heavily; heavily suggests this expansion's primary focus is naval.
 
I will be happy if in this or another upcoming DLC, you guys will introduce naval mercenaries. For a nations with poor coastline, a few hired transport ships can be essential sometimes.
 
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Name was already leaked on a Paradox stream to be Mare Nostrum.
This.

@Johan why not just start calling it Mare Nostrum now that the name is known? Or was it actually a troll you did and you "accidentally" mentioned a phony name?
 
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+25% is not that much, a big nation will easily have twice or thrice as many coastal provinces as you. And a big enough blob with high income can just as easily build twice as many drydocks as you. And there is nothing odd about a 'big enough blob' being able to compete with small trading nations. The difference is that before the limit to your navy was decided by something that is a direct measure to your level of success as a trading power, your income. I'm worried that with this change, it'll now become limited by your number of provinces, which for trading powers has absolutely nothing to do with your success. 'Blobbing' for a trading power was getting a ridiculously high income, equal to nations a dozen times your province size. And that's how you competed with nations blobbing the traditional way.
I don't see it as a problem trading-wise, nothing will stop them to building to their full force-limits. Out of sailors? wait a year and then build.
There may be however a problem with naval warfare.
 
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Given how the Barbary pirates were suppressed, maybe raiding for slaves should make a CB available for the nation being raided, and a new peace condition should be added to prevent the losing nation from raiding for a period of time (either against the winners, or in general, either way would work).
 
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Ships of different types (and levels) have the same speed, except galleys. If not changing the actual speed, it would be possible to implement a sort of "pursue/evasion chance" when two fleets are in the same sea zones? A Carrack should not be able to engage a Frigate, if the latter is actually just trying to evade (except for a lot of Admiral skill and/or naval tradition )

Fleets can be ugraded. Could them be somehow "autoupgraded" (in a way similar to troops upgrade) if enough money is available?
There are 4 ship types and 3 ship speeds. How did you get to "same speed"?
 
Am I the only one who thinks the Expansion Idea set should give you this ability to raid for slaves in Africa?
I mean this is not something nice to think about but it would be realistic.
 
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Am I the only one who thinks the Expansion Idea set should give you this ability to raid for slaves in Africa?
I mean this is not something nice to think about but it would be realistic.

What would this add beyond what the current trade good + triangle trade event + abolition decisions represent already?
 
Wow, that are some very nice changes. Good work!
 
nice! If the navy gets the DLC can you guys also do something with pirating and pirate hunting? I find it rather weird that pirates and pirate hunters never engage in combat. I would recommend that there should be a chance that parts of the fleets and not necessarily all end up engaging sometimes with depending on admirals, ship amount and type on how much on both sides. This means sometimes maybe 2 pirate hunter heavy ship manages to catch up to a light ship and sink it but the pirates could do the same and fleet sizes as well as admirals could influence of how many ships engaging at both sides. Also the pirated nation should not know at the beginning who pirating them (they attacking using pirate flags after all) and there could be a chance in the engagements that a captured pirate tells who they working for or with events you hear that lets say the British doing it which may not necessarily be true.

This of course could give the nice option to spread rumors via spies to blame another nation for being the pirate while in reality you doing it which could potentially break out a conflict between two nations using your spies. when the pirated country hears one of these rumors they should get a CB.

what do you guys think?
 
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