• 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.
The holy Swedish month of July is over and our workforce has been steadily trickling back into the office, resigned to the fact that sunlight is a luxury we won't be seeing for another 11 months. With that lovely thought in mind, let's return to our weekly dev diaries and talk about a new feature for our upcoming yet unrevealed expansion for Europa Universalis IV: Coptic Holy Sites.

Copts have had a rough time. Way back in EU's history they were simply represented as the Orthodox faith before getting their own religion within the Christian group, but even then they lacked their own flavour, destined to be left in the Horn of Africa and Armenia with hungry neighbours and their Patriarch being locked up and bullied in Mamluk-held Alexandria.

Well no longer! A feature in the upcoming DLC is a Holy Sites system unique for Coptic nations. Any nation which follows the Coptic faith will have access to a screen showing their Holy Sites. There are 5 in total, detailed with who is currently controlling them and the faith followed by the province. It is the Copts' holy mission to see these restored to Coptic control.

Armenia.jpg

As shown above, Armenia (Who I released&played as from QQ) can open their Coptic menu and see the state of their Holy Sites. If a Holy Site is held by any Coptic nation and the province itself follows the One True Faith™ then all Coptic nations will be granted a blessing from the Patriarch. You are able to pick from the 5 available blessings but be sure that you or your Coptic friends hold onto your possessions tightly, as losing ownership of a Holy Site to a nation of another faith will lose you the blessing until it is returned to Coptic hands.

Ethiopia blessings.jpg


In 1444 the only Holy site in control of the Copts is Aksum, in the far north of Ethiopia. This will allow all existing Coptic nations to pick one blessing of their choice from the above list.

Legitimize Government: +0.5 Legitimacy
Encourage Wariors of the Faith: +10% manpower recovery
Send Monks to Establish Monasteries: +1.5% missionary strength
Promote Territorial Rights: -10% Core creation Cost
Will of the Martyrs: +5% discipline

Unlike other religious mechanics, the Coptic Holy Sites will collectively make all followers of that religion stronger. It makes no difference in the available Blessings if your nation or another Coptic nation holds the Holy Sites. Should the Copts fight back from their perilous position in 1444 and secure their Holy Sites, they will be that much stronger. Co-operate with other Coptic nations and share the Patriarch's blessings

Coptic Playground.jpg


Alongside the Holy sites and Patriarch Blessings, Copts will have a healthy dose of unique flavour events and missions to drive their liberation of the Holy Sites. Coptic Holy Sites will be a paid feature in the upcoming DLC, which will be released alongside the free 1.18 patch.

Next week I'll pass the reins back to Johan, as we return to see what changes have been going on in the Throne Room
 
Because it's going to fix most of the complaints with vanilla. Casual players will still likely prefer a map painter, but others will prefer one that is more immerse and realistic

But is the Dev Diary really the place to do it? M&T already has it's own corner on the forums, and is one of the best known mods on steam. I don't think there's anyone who's clocked over 100 hours on EU4 that isn't at least aware of M&T.
 
  • 3
Reactions:
But is the Dev Diary really the place to do it? M&T already has it's own corner on the forums, and is one of the best known mods on steam. I don't think there's anyone who's clocked over 100 hours on EU4 that isn't at least aware of M&T.
They generally aren't aware of what it does now, that it has become faster or that it has a new version arriving in the nearish future that completely reworks the game with a POP system introduced.
 
  • 3
  • 2
Reactions:
They generally aren't aware of what it does now, that it has become faster or that it has a new version arriving in the nearish future that completely reworks the game with a POP system introduced.

So wouldn't it make more sense to put it on the M&T page where people are more likely to look for M&T updates and features?
 
  • 2
Reactions:
M&T 2.0 is going to have a POP system and a religious minority system

Cool, more clunky, unclear and confusing mechanics! And nice touch with looking down on "casuals". 5/5.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
So wouldn't it make more sense to put it on the M&T page where people are more likely to look for M&T updates and features?
It is there, I am posting for the edification of others.
Cool, more clunky, unclear and confusing mechanics! And nice touch with looking down on "casuals". 5/5.
Actually the POP mechanics aren't clunky, they just aren't everyone's cup of tea.

Some people will appreciate Scotland having historic amounts of troops, others will be irked that in game it starts as a poor backwater capable of fielding less than six thousand troops despite that being entirely historically correct because it makes it more difficult to blob aggressively. Some may appreciate merchant republics having factions that are representative of the country's situation and others get frustrated when the aristocrats grow too powerful forcing them out of merchant republic after they acquire vast amounts of feudal land.

Casual refers to how often they play, not some self righteous characterization of others to stroke my ego.
 
Last edited:
  • 4
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
It is there, I am posting for the edification of others.

All right, perhaps I can try to put it in perspective for you; imagine this: you write up a Dev Diary talking about upcoming features for M&T which have been long requested by people and you're excited about adding in. Then someone decides that M&T isn't good enough and they start advertising their own mod that 'fixes' your game in your own dev diary, saying already that what you're doing isn't enough. All discussions about whether or not it actually does aside, wouldn't you feel rather upset?

Cool, more clunky, unclear and confusing mechanics!

Actually the POP mechanics aren't clunky, they just aren't everyone's cup of tea.

In fairness to both sides M&T has yet to actually implement them; whether or not they are clunky remains to be seen.

Casual refers to how often they play, not some self righteous characterization of others to stroke my ego.

But you did characterize them as people who

will still likely prefer a map painter

and I believe that we can both acknowledge you didn't use the term map painter with an entirely positive connotation in mind.
 
  • 3
Reactions:
All right, perhaps I can try to put it in perspective for you; imagine this: you write up a Dev Diary talking about upcoming features for M&T which have been long requested by people and you're excited about adding in. Then someone decides that M&T isn't good enough and they start advertising their own mod that 'fixes' your game in your own dev diary, saying already that what you're doing isn't enough. All discussions about whether or not it actually does aside, wouldn't you feel rather upset?





In fairness to both sides M&T has yet to actually implement them; whether or not they are clunky remains to be seen.



But you did characterize them as people who



and I believe that we can both acknowledge you didn't use the term map painter with an entirely positive connotation in mind.
There are substantial differences between the situation
1) Paradox encourages mods
2) Paradox hasn't complained about it
3) Paradox due to market segmentation is rather hesitant to give EU4 features from the Victoria or Crusader Kings line of games though this resolve seems to be fading.

Yes, it is true it has not yet been publicly released yet.

Vanilla is mostly about painting the map your colour, not things like turning Scotland from a backwater into the heart of the Enlightenment and the birthplace of Industrialization.
 
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
There are substantial differences between the situation
1) Paradox encourages mods
2) Paradox hasn't complained about it
3) Paradox due to market segmentation is rather hesitant to give EU4 features from the Victoria or Crusader Kings line of games though this resolve seems to be fading.

Yes, it is true it has not yet been publicly released yet.

Vanilla is mostly about painting the map your colour, not things like turning Scotland from a backwater into the heart of the Enlightenment and the birthplace of Industrialization.
Yes we get it, you think your mod is great and vanilla is for casual map-painters. With all due respect however, you shamelessly advertising your mod in a thread that is supposed to be about the discussion of the dev diary, makes you come across like some sort of door to door salesman/saleswoman: uncalled for and not doing your product (or in this case mod) any favours, especially considering it's not exactly an obscure mod.
 
  • 6
Reactions:
But is the Dev Diary really the place to do it? M&T already has it's own corner on the forums, and is one of the best known mods on steam. I don't think there's anyone who's clocked over 100 hours on EU4 that isn't at least aware of M&T.
I have 704 hours in Europa Universalis IV. I have never heard of this mod, nor do I care in the least about it. No offense to the creators.
 
  • 3
Reactions:
I have 704 hours in Europa Universalis IV. I have never heard of this mod, nor do I care in the least about it. No offense to the creators.

There's always an anecdotal exception that proves the rule.
 
You mean disproves? I don't ever want to try the mod because of the proselytizing of this person.
Not that I would have anyway.

No, I'm pretty sure the phrase is 'the exception that proves the rule'. But yes; my and @GeneralPetrov 's sentiments exactly - it does more harm than good acting like a door-to-door salesman.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Even copts got good religious bonuses...Still, nothing for orthodox.
Go Coptic Russia!

Orthodox provides decent bonuses and even gives you some good ones for not making use of them - it's just mind-numbingly boring, lacks flavor and is completely forgettable.
 
  • 4
Reactions:
The bonuses you get at 100% Patriarch Authority are amazing, it's like having +4 Tolerance of the True Faith

You can also trade in Patriarch Authority for stability and other useful bonuses - of course this aspect is random but I do not think Orthoox is underpowered
 
  • 3
Reactions:
Hmm, I suppose this means religious ideas isn't a "must-take" group for Ethiopia from now on (1.5% missionary strength is probably more useful from the get go, considering you can grab the second holy site within a decade and you need to convert each province to get the next bonus). Combined with the inquisitor adviser, early Advance of Religion Act, loyal clergy, and some stab, that makes for about 14 months to convert a ~10 dev province under ideal situations (7% missionary strength), which makes Ethiopia's starting position quite nicer (61% religious unity is rather awful, all things considered, what with corruption).

Religious actually might be overkill, since 2% (base missionary strength) + 1.5% (Coptic holy site) + 2% (inquisitor) + 1% (Ethiopian ideas) + 1.5% (+3 stab, which is quite common due to the abundance of Ethiopian stab events) + 2% (loyal clergy) + 3% (religious ideas) = 13% missionary strength before any of the missionary strength decisions (like the Advancement of Religion Act, which is a 1% bonus as soon as you get a theologian, Act of Uniformity, etc. which, all together, is 5% for Copts) . Which is excessive for anything short of 40 dev Mecca. Then add the 10% RCC and Zara Jakob's brilliance and the stab events and maybe early admin due to all of the savings which is another 25% RCC...

Oh god, Coptic Ottomans
 
Orthodox provides decent bonuses and even gives you some good ones for not making use of them - it's just mind-numbingly boring, lacks flavor and is completely forgettable.

Yap. I totally agree with this. And I can't understand, why it is so. Maybe changes to Coptic Orthodox Church will lead to changes to Eastern Orthodox Church.