EU4 - Development Diary - 4th of December 2018

[WarriorofLusos]

Does the immersion pack update comes with a free patch aswell or will it be just bugfixing?

 

[Hojsimpson]

In paper the ND is fine but in practice...
Boarding speed? Useless.
No landing penalty is good but extremely circumstancial, it will never be of any help if you know how to properly naval invade and it would get you any advantage, only prevent you from getting in a disadvantage.
Its only a "loose less" not a win bonus.

Boarding speed is useful, since a coast covers several provinces you can catch armies faster than they move between provinces

 

[Lusitania]

Wait it's a naval doctrine???
So a DLC that requires more DLCs???

Spoiler: Portuguese ND

Yeah, it's a Naval Doctrine, and a pretty powerful one at that.

Like I said, I just wish it had been accompanied by a much better map and a revamp of Portuguese NI's to reflect its military state upbringing and Reconquista.

 

[theBoheme]

Where are the Golden Century unit renders? Granada's tier 1 looked so good, I need to see more!

 

[navaluiki]

This. Pdx should feel free to ignore our suggestions if there are better ideas developed internally, but at least explain to us, convince us, why you think they are better. Don't just drop them in and give an occasional one-liner in response to criticism. Explain to me why the Jesuits have to be around in 1444 and should be locked to Iberians. Otherwise I will remain convinced that the what is being sold really is subpar. Anyway, I hope that the dev diary of the 18th will start to go in that direction.

Yeah. They never say what their arguments are, why they choose to add one mechanic, one province...
It feels kinda arbitrary

 

[Bandua_of_Gallaecia]

You're thinking of the flagship mod, I think? The ND given to Portugal reduces bombardment cost further and increases the Blockade Siege impact by 1.

And this is a very powerful boost. It should have just been accompanied by Mil Traditions like Infantry Combat Ability and Heavy Ship CA

I guess i was confused.
Still, 25% bombard reduction is almost nothing since bombarding is very cheap anyway. But it fits Portugal so i wont complain.
The +1 blockade impact on siege is indeed useful and a very suitable for Portugal.

Overall ill agree this doctrine is not bad, it fits Portugal, but i wouldn't call it particularly powerful.

 

[Manuel6494]

i understand. so Spain has been the laboratory. very weel. now, spain to the trash no? very wel paradox, playing this game since day one, waiting this dlc yeras, promovoting this dlc since last year, and i and all the hispanic players recibe a insult. Very well. i only play this for mp, nothing more.

 

[rho]

But there are tons of good suggestions in the subforum. Not to mention that Paradox vision of the game and their approaches to reach it seem somewhat disconnected with what the playerbase (at least the part represented by this forums) actually wants.

The parenthetical is the important part there. I can think of no compelling reason to believe that the forums are actually representative of the playerbase as a whole, and several reasons to believe otherwise.

By all accounts, EU4 is still doing extremely well in terms of sales and concurrent players. To me, this suggests that the bigger disconnect isn't between PDS and the players, but between the forums and the larger playerbase, who seem to be enjoying the direction the game is going.

 

[kgmi]

Actually, if this DLC was called "the Golden Age of Piracy", people would be raging that the raiding mechanic is just a copy-paste of the existing mechanic for barbary pirates (which it is), and that it doesn't fit the pirates of the Caribbean at all, since they preyed mostly on merchant ships and not on coasts. The truth is, this DLC is just too light on meaningful features to justify its price, no matter what you name it.

Good point, I didn't wan't to go too harsh on it because I was afraid the thread will get "closed for now" as well, when "for now" basically means "forever".

 

[Aponez]

Actually, Asturias is a small region in northern Spain, east of Leon (not to be confused with the larger "Kingdom of Asturias" from medieval times). Just like Aragon is a small region, yet the "Kingdom of Aragon" is large.

Asturias is north of Leon, not east

 

[Shoo]

The parenthetical is the important part there. I can think of no compelling reason to believe that the forums are actually representative of the playerbase as a whole, and several reasons to believe otherwise.

By all accounts, EU4 is still doing extremely well in terms of sales and concurrent players. To me, this suggests that the bigger disconnect isn't between PDS and the players, but between the forums and the larger playerbase, who seem to be enjoying the direction the game is going.

"muh silent majority fallacy"

 

[Lusitania]

I guess i was confused.
Still, 25% bombard reduction is almost nothing since bombarding is very cheap anyway.
The +1 blockade impact on siege is indeed a very suitable for Portugal.

as it stands, if you combine it with the Bombardiers Flagship mod, you can get up to 90% discount on naval bombardment, but still, NIs are very unsuitable, and this is exactly where the most important corrections to POR could be made.

The parenthetical is the important part there. I can think of no compelling reason to believe that the forums are actually representative of the playerbase as a whole, and several reasons to believe otherwise.

By all accounts, EU4 is still doing extremely well in terms of sales and concurrent players. To me, this suggests that the bigger disconnect isn't between PDS and the players, but between the forums and the larger playerbase, who seem to be enjoying the direction the game is going.

The forum posters are the ones trying to communicate with the developers, though. Sales are not a good gauge of how well a game is received compared to commentary, reviewing and the feedback and contribution it inspires in players.

One thing is how well the game sells, the other is how well the game is received. Otherwise you can just lower the price of this DLC to just 1 dollar, it would sell a whole lot more and it would be considered an even better DLC with no intrinsic changes.

 

[regne_valencia]

i understand. so Spain has been the laboratory. very weel. now, spain to the trash no? very wel paradox, playing this game since day one, waiting this dlc yeras, promovoting this dlc since last year, and i and all the hispanic players recibe a insult. Very well. i only play this for mp, nothing more.

Spanish comunity has the "Hispania Universalis" mod,if people want send their suggesttions to the developers,they will be happy to read it and change all things that they can,we will get in the mod the lovely that we didn,t get in the dlc

 

[BurningEGO]

Good day all and welcome to another EUIV Dev diary. We're wrapping up with Golden Century ready for it's launch next week, so there's not much meat to today's diary, but we are going to reveal the 10 new achievements, which will bring the total number to a staggering 295. I've heard that anyone who completes all of them gets their wishes granted, but I cannot comment to its authenticity.

I got more achievements than you (you got 168 and I got 237) and thus I am actually closer to 100%, but i doubt I would get my wish granted even if I reached 100% achievements.

I really wished that you guys actually cared about Iberian Nations, specially Portugal. In an Iberian Immersion Pack, Portugal barely received any attention... and since we are speaking about achievements... you didn't even bother giving ONE SINGLE ACHIEVEMENT to Portugal. Which sounds to me like the final insult, after all the criticism you guys have been receiving on other DDs. With Texas being stronger than Portugal, and Pirates receiving far more attention than Portugal, you shouldn't even name this an Iberian Immersion Pack like someone else said already.

Even Navarra (an almost irrelevant nation to this game period) got one achievement, but I guess you had your finger on that one. I remember seeing a screenshot of yours of a game as Navarra and "Basque in Glory" written on it. Guess it was a cool thing to add, too bad you don't consider achievements for Portugal cool, too.

 

[Arbus]

By all accounts, EU4 is still doing extremely well in terms of sales and concurrent players. To me, this suggests that the bigger disconnect isn't between PDS and the players, but between the forums and the larger playerbase, who seem to be enjoying the direction the game is going.

The vocal players in the forum are the canary in the coal mine. Because they know the game well enough, and because they care enough, they will voice their opinion when the game is going in the wrong direction. Most players just stop buying and playing when they feel cheated by a DLC or frustrated by patch changes and by then it's much harder to win them back.

 

[Nocchi575]

Honestly, my biggest complaint is simply that Spain and Portugal were already some of the strongest nations in the game, and they just flat out did not need buffs. Now they are going to dominate every single game instead of just most of them like they already do. The development system is a problem because it encourages a rich get richer system of power creep through updates and ensures the game will never be balanced. I know it is a herculean task, and it might see a lot of backlash, but I sincerely think the development system needs to be entirely scrapped and replaced with a more sophisticated population system just to finally add some semblance of balance to the game.

Ultimately, the only real way to enjoy EUIV is to not care about it's mechanical ineptitude and focus on the flavor, but that's a bandage over a wound that hasn't been healed. The game is just not balanced, and updates like this are short-sighted because of that. Instead of taking things away, like the religious conversion system, look at your system at it's core. The problem isn't the players, it's the design choices you've made along the way that make mods like M&T and VeF a superior experience because they feel more mechanically sound and well thought out.

You can't please all of the people all of the time, but you can make a good choice that the people you displease will eventually come to terms with if it means the game is more balanced in the long run.

 

[Vohen]

Good day all and welcome to another EUIV Dev diary. We're wrapping up with Golden Century ready for it's launch next week, so there's not much meat to today's diary, but we are going to reveal the 10 new achievements, which will bring the total number to a staggering 295. I've heard that anyone who completes all of them gets their wishes granted, but I cannot comment to its authenticity.


View attachment 423866
Trophy Hunter - Capture an enemy flagship

View attachment 423867
You get a new home, and you get a new home - Expel 5 different minorities to your colonies

View attachment 423868
Why is the Rûm gone!? - As Asturias, establish an Order in Rum

View attachment 423869
The League of Mayapan - Starting as Huastec, form Maya

View attachment 423870
Yarr Harr a Pirate’s life for me - Choose to play as New Providence and conquer all of Caribbeans.

View attachment 423871
Forever Golden - Complete the Spanish Mission Tree

View attachment 423864
Spanish Fly - Starting as Offaly, secure a Personal Union over an Iberian nation.

View attachment 423865
Where Am I? - As a New World native with Random New World active, explore the entire New World.

View attachment 423872
Basque in Glory - Starting as Navarra, ensure that most of Iberia is Basque culture before the Age of Absolutism

View attachment 423873
An Unlikely Candidate - Starting as Mzab, Touggourt or Djerid, reform Al-Andalus


These Achievements will be available for hunters from Golden Century's release on 11th December. While some shouldn't cause sleepless nights for most players, best of luck to those who try their hand at Basque in Glory. Navarra's start is full of danger, but also massive opportunity.


Now, stepping aside from today's topic of Achievements, I'd like to take a moment to address some of the feedback we've been getting during the dev diaries for Golden Century. There have been plenty of concerns raised, indeed very fair ones, regarding Golden Century and the 1.28 Spain Update not matching up with expectations, not having community input taken into account and development generally not being in line with what the community is wanting. There are many other points that have been raised, but I want to draw light to these.

These are very fair points to bring up, and one comment in particular resonated with me, and that is that our plans and what we are developing are often shared so late in development with the community that feedback and suggestions they want to give can't or won't be able to be integrated. This has lead to a lot of people voicing suggestions for features or changes and getting very understandably frustrated when what is delivered does not take it into account.

So after Golden Century launches, we're going to talk a lot more about future plans and what we have in store for EU4 in 2019, sharing our vision of what we want to do with the game and what we want to bring to you, the player. I'll be talking about this at length in the Development Diary following Golden Century, so on the 18th December. Fittingly, it will be the last Dev Diary of 2018, before we take off for Christmas Break. Our ambition is to get our community a lot more linked in with what we are planning, and can give their feedback and suggestions accordingly and within plenty of time to implement. We have also been asked for how exactly we use suggestions from the forums and how to write a good suggestion thread, which is a great idea, and will be part of said 18th Dec Dev diary.

So while the feedback especially last week makes for some humbling reading for us, it's still important, and this is one of the things we're doing about it. There are far more plans in the pipeline, but, well, for that tune in on the 18th.

As for next week, we'll be having an early DD on the 10th, with Patchnotes. See you then!

That is going to be very helpful, here's hoping for a great 2019 for EU4.

The one thing I have to say is: don't be afraid to take your time.
Take Holy Fury as an example, I've seen many people saying how it ended up being the best expansion in CK2 history and how the one year wait was far more than worth it.
I can't say I'm not disappointed by GC unfortunetaly, and seeing how it was released so shortly after Dharma, I can say that it could definitely have used a couple more months of development for a more robust DLC.
I know GC is an immersion pack, it's supposed to be more limited in scope, but RB had a major change in the free patch (mission trees) and TR still managed to be more focused.

For the next mainline expansion, I'd hope for quality and scope on par with Holy Fury, and if it has to take one year (or more) to happen, so be it, I'll use the hype of more and more amazing features being announced to cope with it.

 

[Bandua_of_Gallaecia]

Honestly, my biggest complaint is simply that Spain and Portugal were already some of the strongest nations in the game,

They really aren't.
But they should.

 

[GurenGaaze]

Paradox / @DDRJake , will you please please have another look at the Spanish (EUROPEAN REGION)? With this I mean, have another look at provinces, but most importantly - the events. The Iberian Wedding, the Dutch Revolt, Bunrgundian Inheritence etc etc. I don't think this would take too much time, and they are all been outdated a long time now.

 

[Lusitania]

The vocal players in the forum are the canary in the coal mine. Because they know the game well enough, and because they care enough, they will voice their opinion when the game is going in the wrong direction. Most players just stop buying and playing when they feel cheated by a DLC or frustrated by patch changes and by then it's much harder to win them back.

Also, without forum feedback on the first Development Diary, the Lleida province would still be in Aragon. I love Paradox, but they've acted far from not-reprehensibly in this DLC's construction and divulging.

But this really isn't connected to this development diary, only to that earlier point about the Dev's sales being a metric of quality.