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.

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.

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

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

 

[Crazyfire24]

I do hope this DLC will have a more concrete theme, i feel last few have been a bit to scatted in terms of there content.

 

[tbu]

Anybody noticed the "One true Faith™" -> could be the name of the new expansion

 

[Martin_Mortyry]

Anybody noticed the "One true Faith™" -> could be the name of the new expansion

If Orthodoxy gets a revamp and confuciansm with shinto get their well desrved mechanics, the name will be quite fitting!

 

[Grand Historian]

If Orthodoxy gets a revamp and confuciansm with shinto get their well desrved mechanics, the name will be quite fitting!

Confucianism and Shinto will probably be getting stuff in an expansion that focuses primarily on East Asia, and so far this one seems to be focusing more on promoting deeper governmental interaction.

(Still waiting for Japan to get fixed after 18 patches and 3 years.)

Still, I'm really excited for everything that will be coming up with the new expansion.

 

[pphair]

A small thing, but Armenia have monarch points, despite just being released. That's new.

 

[Wagonlitz]

Time to add kachen principality and a couple of assyrian coptic/miaphysite provinces?

WHere is Kachen principality? The only thing I could find was a village in Afghanistan.
Also was there still provinces with a majority of Assyrian Christians by 1444?

Also perhaps some events relating to the st: thomas Syriac church in Malankara?

Were there still some Thomas Christians left in India by game start? If so then perhaps add them assuming they are in majority in a province.

especially with fort changes in 1.18

What are those fort changes? I must have forgotten about them.

 

[pphair]

What are those fort changes? I must have forgotten about them.

Attacking an enemy sieging your province will give them(the sieger) the terrain malus, such as mountains -2 and river crossing -1.

 

[Shadowstrike]

Probably looking a gift horse in the mouth here, but I don't really understand how this mechanic relates to the actual history of Oriental Orthodox Churches. Catholic mechanics is based on the transnational nature of the medieval Church, Protestant ones based on the establishment of national state churches, Orthodox ones based on the relative influence of autocephalous national churches. But nothing about Church-state relations in Oriental Orthodox states were based on the idea of crusading to recover holy sites. It's like when the Buddhist karma mechanics were introduced: it wasn't clear how that actually reflected how Buddhist rulers interacted with their state religion.

 

[melkor88]

Glad to see you are all back and rested, and looking forward to having the DD's back

 

[El_Cid_]

Probably looking a gift horse in the mouth here, but I don't really understand how this mechanic relates to the actual history of Oriental Orthodox Churches. Catholic mechanics is based on the transnational nature of the medieval Church, Protestant ones based on the establishment of national state churches, Orthodox ones based on the relative influence of autocephalous national churches. But nothing about Church-state relations in Oriental Orthodox states were based on the idea of crusading to recover holy sites. It's like when the Buddhist karma mechanics were introduced: it wasn't clear how that actually reflected how Buddhist rulers interacted with their state religion.

I don't intend this to sound harsh or anything, but have you any ideas in mind for a more 'historically grounded' Coptic mechanic.

It's gotta be tough for the devs to try and come up with totally original mechanics for each and every religion.

 

[AirikrStrife]

WHere is Kachen principality? The only thing I could find was a village in Afghanistan.
Also was there still provinces with a majority of Assyrian Christians by 1444?

Were there still some Thomas Christians left in India by game start? If so then perhaps add them assuming they are in majority in a province.
What are those fort changes? I must have forgotten about them.

Khachen is in modern nagorno kachabach,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Khachen
Sorry for misspelling


It would probably be needed to form new provinces for assyrians around edessa, urmia and musul. @AndrejK has done more research and posting on assyrians than I have.

St: thomas christians had a continous presence in malankara from antiquity till today but no majority. I would rather see some even for coptic nations if they discover/conquer Malankara/india

 

[Grand Historian]

WHere is Kachen principality? The only thing I could find was a village in Afghanistan.
Also was there still provinces with a majority of Assyrian Christians by 1444?

Assyrian Christians, much like Anatolia's population of Greeks, had been mostly massacred due to Timur's conquests - I doubt any of the provinces in game can reasonably have them as a majority, but I'll go ahead and ask @dharper for his input on this.

Were there still some Thomas Christians left in India by game start? If so then perhaps add them assuming they are in majority in a province.

Same as the above, though I don't think they ever reached a majority to begin with.

 

[Suzaku]

Coptic faith will retain it's current modifiers or are they changed in 1.18?

(In addition to Patriarch Blessings)

Of course not they will nerfed because assumed you'll get the dlc like all previous religious change.

 

[Shadowstrike]

I don't intend this to sound harsh or anything, but have you any ideas in mind for a more 'historically grounded' Coptic mechanic.

It's gotta be tough for the devs to try and come up with totally original mechanics for each and every religion.

That's a fair critique, and it would take someone more learned in Ethiopian history than me to come up with such a mechanic. But I'm also not convinced that every religion necessarily needs unique mechanics. Basically everywhere, monarchs used religion to prop up their rule - both as administrators and sources of legitimacy, and then came into conflict with their religious leaders when those leaders proscribed their actions, or held too vast a proportion of feudal income. That in itself makes religion an interesting gameplay consideration - it doesn't need to be especially different for each group. The important thing for me is for the mechanics to represent unique struggles rulers had as a result of their relationship with the state church, rather than being unique for uniqueness' sake.

 

[JustMormegil]

one more different, rarely used mechanic for tiny part of the world, instead of noticable, fun, gameplay-improving changes. Perfect.

 

[hajutze]

=/ In multiplayer Ethiopia is one of the better ROTW nations given their location (apart from mamluks everything around you is less than 100% to annex) and starting ruler. Tho' I have to admit, I have the habit of swapping to muslim ASAP. Now you can stay coptic and not be gimping youtself because of that choice.

Would be nice if the Mamluks get a couple of coptic provinces. It'll add an interesting option of going coptic instead of staying muslim (for instant 2 holy sites)

It's not like 10% morale (from 100 piety which you need to actually work for) is better than 5% disc.

 

[Yugoslavs]

This makes Ethiopia one of the top 5 WC candidates.

Since their national ideas are: +1 Diplomatic reputation, +1% Missionary strength, −10% Core-creation cost and +5% Discipline. Very nice.

Unique religion and that starting god king. That man can live for at least 30 years and with gold mines in Kaffa and Mutapa, Zanzibar trade node, who can stop you? Even Ottomans don't stand a chance.

 

[Nyrael]

Probably looking a gift horse in the mouth here, but I don't really understand how this mechanic relates to the actual history of Oriental Orthodox Churches. Catholic mechanics is based on the transnational nature of the medieval Church, Protestant ones based on the establishment of national state churches, Orthodox ones based on the relative influence of autocephalous national churches. But nothing about Church-state relations in Oriental Orthodox states were based on the idea of crusading to recover holy sites. It's like when the Buddhist karma mechanics were introduced: it wasn't clear how that actually reflected how Buddhist rulers interacted with their state religion.

When you don't have anything historical to represent, you represent what it would be in an alternative history. Thus, I believe this mechanic represents the Coptic morale boost that comes with them turning from a powerless underdog to a major Christian denomination.

 

[Guthuk Gaming]

Okay talking purely from a game perspective:

That Discipline is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too powerful. It kinda works for the eastern religions because it's legitimately difficult to maintain, but a 5% discipline as Ethiopeia at game start just for existing? For all coptics? That's a bit excessive.

I do not doubt that the best strategies for countries around coptics will be to convert to Coptic. I seriously recommend you change it to at least 10% moral which would scale in to the late game less effectively.

Note that they have 10% core creation cost reduction which is already crazy strong, 10% manpower recovery. That means if Ethioepia takes one holy site they're already at Protestant levels of power, and we all know how OP protestant is if you look at any multiplayer game.

 

[Dakka]

Neat.
Can't say the DD was a bit of a bummer though, was hoping for something a bit bigger after a month long hiatus. Looking forward to next week's!