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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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This is already in the game. What do you think is happening when you raze provinces and get monarch points? This represents abducting the people and selling them in in the slave markets of Constantinople in exchange for weapons. The only ahistorical bit is that this isn't happening in West Africa, or Mesoamerica, and colonial provinces in the Americas come out lily-white with European culture and no revolt risk.

I would completely disagree with you there. Looting represents mass thievery and pillaging of the kind inflicted by the Timurids and by the Tatars on Muscovy and the PLC. Not necessarily slavery. It only occurs in province the hordes own, too. Hordes should be able to assign armies to 'raiding parties' that wander enemy territory and provide income based on the size of the army and the basetax of the provinces.

I mean, 3 million people were kidnapped by the Tatars and sold to the Ottoman slave markets. There were many more people affected by this than the Barbary raids. It would synergise well with the hordes having very little income, because they could then gain income by fanning out their armies on raiding missions.

It would also give the eastern factions incentive to invade the horde territories, as it did historically.
 
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Looking really nice, and I've always wanted to see Barbary piracy reflected in-game :) A few questions, all related to slave-raiding:

1) What impact, if any, does slave-raiding have in the provinces that are being raided?
2) Does slave-raiding provoke any CBs for the nation that's being raided?
3) Can countries besides the Barbary states go raiding for slaves? European slavers on the west coast of Africa spring to mind; a lot of their slaves were kidnappees. And you mentioned Black Sea slavery, so I assume that some nations in that area can get it as well.

Thanks! :)
 
Looking really nice, and I've always wanted to see Barbary piracy reflected in-game :) A few questions, all related to slave-raiding:

1) What impact, if any, does slave-raiding have in the provinces that are being raided?
2) Does slave-raiding provoke any CBs for the nation that's being raided?
3) Can countries besides the Barbary states go raiding for slaves? European slavers on the west coast of Africa spring to mind; a lot of their slaves were kidnappees. And you mentioned Black Sea slavery, so I assume that some nations in that area can get it as well.

Thanks! :)

Weren't most of the slaves from West Africa bought from the locals? It may just be a misconception on my part.
 
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What happens when you don't have enough sailors to repair a ship. Does the ship still repair to 100% and gets an effieceny decrease since it is understaffed or does the ship just not finish repairing. The first way seems to make more since, a ship can still be repaired and built but won't be as efficient on the sea.
 
What happens when you don't have enough sailors to repair a ship. Does the ship still repair to 100% and gets an effieceny decrease since it is understaffed or does the ship just not finish repairing. The first way seems to make more since, a ship can still be repaired and built but won't be as efficient on the sea.

It is probably the latter because, from a gameplay perspective, what exactly is the difference between "damaged ship" and "not damaged ship but with a penalty that makes it perform like it was damaged" anyway?
 
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You are probably right but why damage the ship why not make it like a combat ability modifier. Instead of making your troops fight better and harder have them fight less.
 
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