• 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.

EU4 - Development Diary - 6th of October 2020

Welcome to another Europa Universalis IV development diary. Today we’ll talk about some major game-balance changes that we are doing regarding the naval game in 1.31.

I’m not really all that great at writing long detailed development diaries, but as this one is filled with gamebalance changes, I hope you can bear with me.

First of all, we have changed the amount of Sailors you get from each development from 30 sailors to 60. This will make the amount of sailors you get scale better through the ages.

Secondly we also change the amount of sailors each ship requires, and to make them require more sailors for more advanced models. Galleys now go from 60 sailors to 180 sailors for an Archipelago Frigate, while a Three Decker will require 900 sailors.

We also made galleys more powerful in combat, by reducing their default engagement width to 0.5 instead of 1.

Speaking of naval engagement width, it now starts at 5-25 depending on tech at start, and goes all the way up to 75 at the end of the game, scaling more like land combat does. At the same time, we reduced the naval engagement width by 20% in coastal sea zones.

Two other aspects that changes by technology as well for the naval game is maintenance, which will increase over time just like it does for amies as you advance through technology, and most importantly that more advanced ships will become far faster, with the most advanced ships being 50% faster than the earliest model of the same type. Galleys however, only increase speed by 25%.

All of these fixes are there to make the naval game have more of a natural progress in quality and cost that is not just more guns on a new ship.


One other thing that will make you happy is that we changed the support mechanics for leaders, so now there is one pool for naval leaders and one for land leaders. If you have more than you can support in naval leaders it will now cost you diplomatic power and if you have more than you can support in land leaders, then it will cost you military power as all leaders did before. This will give you more leaders overall, and make it possible for you to have naval leaders as well.

eu4_12.png


Another change we are doing is making your naval power matter as much as your army power when it comes to the Liberty Desire of your overseas subjects. So if you don’t have a strong fleet your colonial nations will definitely start considering independence.

We introduced marines with 1.30, but they were a bit too weak and situational, so they are getting one major change in that their penalty has been changed from +25% shock damage taken to only +10% shock damage taken. We also increased the amount you get from naval ideas from +5% to 10%.

Finally, we also made it impossible for nations to slave raid on any territory that they have a truce with, so now you can actually protect yourself efficiently against the raiders.


Next week Groogy will take you through why hedgehogs are holy.
 
  • 230Like
  • 45Love
  • 16
  • 11
  • 5
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
Last edited:
Could you make the "The Organized Marines Act" policy available with Quality and Exploration instead of Quality and Maritime, or give Maritime Colonist and Allows recruitment of explorers & conquistadors? So that non-maritime countries (France, the Netherlands, etc.) could colonize without fear of losing their entire fleet in the battle with Great Britain.
Or you could make it impossible to take an extra adm / dip / mil idea before taking one idea from the other two groups.
Because now, if you haven't taken Exploration, Naval, Maritime, Quality, you normally don't have a fleet. But if you take them, you will not have a normal army.
Or just remove Naval Idea groups by connecting it to Maritime.
 
Last edited:
  • 1
Reactions:
Could you make the "The Organized Marines Act" policy available with Quality and Exploration instead of Quality and Maritime, or give Maritime Colonist and Allows recruitment of explorers & conquistadors? So that non-maritime countries (France, the Netherlands, etc.) could colonize without fear of losing their entire fleet in the battle with Great Britain.
Or you could make it impossible to take an extra adm / dip / mil idea before taking one idea from the other two groups.
Because now, if you haven't taken Exploration, Naval, Maritime, Quality, you normally don't have a fleet. But if you take them, you will not have a normal army.
Or just remove Naval Idea groups by connecting it to Maritime.
Dutch did explore and colonise, French lost colonies due to their poor navy, turn history by getting a better fleet
 
Dutch did explore and colonise, French lost colonies due to their poor navy, turn history by getting a better fleet
I agree that a continental country will never have a fleet like Great Britain, but now you either take Exploration, Naval, Maritime, Quality and you have the best fleet and a terrible army, or Quantity, Economic, Quality, Religious and you have a great army. but the navy is terrible and you forget about the colonies. I think such a rigid division into continental and maritime countries is wrong. I think more balanced ideas are needed so that a continental country can also normally fight at sea (with proper skill and training) without severe damage to the army.
 
I agree that a continental country will never have a fleet like Great Britain, but now you either take Exploration, Naval, Maritime, Quality and you have the best fleet and a terrible army, or Quantity, Economic, Quality, Religious and you have a great army. but the navy is terrible and you forget about the colonies. I think such a rigid division into continental and maritime countries is wrong. I think more balanced ideas are needed so that a continental country can also normally fight at sea (with proper skill and training) without severe damage to the army.
Then get high naval tradition to have good admirals
 
Then get high naval tradition to have good admirals
Tradition and admiral ANY normal maritime country always has high. Let me explain: for example, if you play in Spain and want to colonize the Caribbean, Mexico, etc., and at the same time do not drown from the British who took Exploration, Naval, Maritime, Quality, as well as not lose on the content to the French who took Quantity, Economic, Quality, Religious, you have to take Quality, Exploration, Quantity, Maritime (and Calvinism for the sake of morality) and even then you will lose at sea even with a double superiority, you will need to apply a lot of strength to win. And the absence of Economic and Religious will weaken your army too much. I think that by strengthening the Exploration, policy on the morale of the fleet, it will be possible to give at least a hypothetical chance to countries such as France, Spain, the Netherlands, etc. to go to the colonies and trading companies without being killed at the same time both at sea and on the continent.
Well, or give some Western European countries in national ideas Explorers and Conquistadors and Colonist, like Norway.
P.S.
I'm mainly talking about playing in multiplayer
 
Last edited:
Tradition and admiral ANY normal maritime country always has high. Let me explain: for example, if you play in Spain and want to colonize the Caribbean, Mexico, etc., and at the same time do not drown from the British who took Exploration, Naval, Maritime, Quality, as well as not lose on the content to the French who took Quantity, Economic, Quality, Religious, you have to take Quality, Exploration, Quantity, Maritime (and Calvinism for the sake of morality) and even then you will lose at sea even with a double superiority, you will need to apply a lot of strength to win. And the absence of Economic and Religious will weaken your army too much. I think that by strengthening the Exploration, policy on the morale of the fleet, it will be possible to give at least a hypothetical chance to countries such as France, Spain, the Netherlands, etc. to go to the colonies and trading companies without being killed at the same time both at sea and on the continent.
P.S.
I'm mainly talking about playing in multiplayer
Then you've failed by letting the British and French ally. Use an MP idea group balance mod if you want, don't come over here trying to screw over SP when we're forced to go non mod for cheevos
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Then you've failed by letting the British and French ally. Use an MP idea group balance mod if you want, don't come over here trying to screw over SP when we're forced to go non mod for cheevos
Of course you are right. This imbalance in MP is easy to fix even without mods, using simple rules. And if you conduct the right diplomacy, then you can simply kill the sea country at the start. However, this does not mean that the current mechanics of the game are free from flaws, and, in my opinion, they can be balanced without changing the atmosphere and historicity of the game.
 
@Johan can you do sth about for upgrading fleet feature? now it is simply not different than building new one. upgrading should be cheaper right?
Not really, quite frankly the idea that you can turn one ship into another more advanced one is kind of ridiculous. Upgrading ships shouldn't even be a thing. But since having to disband them and build new ones is a hassle they do it with upgrades but the idea is you are scuttling the old ships and building new ones upgrading is just getting rid of the micro.
 
  • 2Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Not really, quite frankly the idea that you can turn one ship into another more advanced one is kind of ridiculous. Upgrading ships shouldn't even be a thing. But since having to disband them and build new ones is a hassle they do it with upgrades but the idea is you are scuttling the old ships and building new ones upgrading is just getting rid of the micro.
Would you scuttle it with all the cannons still on it?
 
Glad to see this community lowkey walking into a "Ship of Thesus" philosophy study!
Herakleitos would like to know your location
"Though you may step into the same river twice different waters wash over you"

Would you scuttle it with all the cannons still on it?
No but those should also need updating from time to time. Again representing this would mean more micro. Though actually the cannons may wear out faster than they need to be replaced due to advancements.
 
Last edited: