• 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 - 7th of February 2017

Hello everyone, and welcome to another Europa Universalis IV development diary. This time we dig into the states.

First of all, we have now improved the province interface to have a separate tab for all things related to a state, as the province interface started to become really cluttered.

This tab now gives you information of the entire state at once, making it possible to determine if the state is profitable or not, what provinces belong to it, and details about them.

In the new expansion, we are introducing a new concept to states though, something we call State Edicts. Edicts can be enacted at any time, but once set they can not be revoked until at least one year has passed, and while an Edict is active, the maintenance for that state triples.

Edicts gives bonus to all provinces you own in the state, and which edicts you have active can also be seen in the ledger and in a new mapmode.

So what edicts do we have then?

  • Enforce Religious Unity : 1% Missionary Strength
  • Protect Trade : +50% Provincial Trade Power
  • Promote Military Recruitment: +25% Manpower
  • Encourage Development: -10% Development Cost
  • Advancement Effort: +33% Institution Spread
  • Centralization Effort: -0.03 Monthly Autonomy
There are also 3 edicts you can gain from taking certain abilities in different ages.
  • Feudal De Jure Law: -5 Unrest
  • Religion Enforced: 50% resistance to Religious Conversion Centers.
  • Edict of Absolutism: -0.25 Monthly Devastation

Yes, the AI will of course also use Edicts, and edicts are 100% fully scriptable, and modders can add and remove as they feel fit.

Open Spoiler to see a script example..
edict_centralization_effort = {
potential = {
always = yes #we support "potential" if modders want to have lots and just show some.
}

allow = {
always = yes
}

modifier = {
local_autonomy = -0.03
}



color = { 220 178 155 }

ai_will_do = {
factor = 10
modifier = {
factor = 0
all_province_in_state = {
NOT = {
local_autonomy_above_min = 10
}
}
}

modifier = {
factor = 3
all_province_in_state = {
local_autonomy_above_min = 10
}
}
}
}

eu4_15.png


We have also rebalanced how Trade Companies work in 1.20, and provinces that belong to a trade company, will now be counted as full state provinces when it comes to autonomy calculations.
 
No edict for age of revolution? What about for age of discovery have cheaper unit cost and for agr of revolution have nationalism which lowers unrest?
 
This feature will be very useful for modding!
 
While that's all nice and everything, I can't help but think that you're putting new content ahead of necessary fixes - and ones that wouldn't even be that complicated to do something about, as far as I know. You still can't use diacritics for in-game names, the AI still ignores forts, the game still crashes when going back to the menu. Please guys, focus on improving what's already there before adding new stuff.

1. How terrible!
2. It doesn't ignore them, they just work weirdly sometimes. They tried to implement a simpler system but it didn't work as well as the current one.
3. It doesn't crash when going back to the menu.
 
And here's to me hoping states or state limits could possibly be removed.

At least now it isn't an overdone anti-blobbing mechanic hoping to achieve anything other than being an annoyance and is actually a source of extra strength. But honestly, the entire concept of states will keep being too arbitrary, pointless and, pardon me, stupid. I have no idea why people want to keep a mechanic that essentially forces countries to keep old provincial systems of whatever other country held the region. It seems pretty clear, at least to me, that different empires split the same region in different ways.
 
@Johan I assume there will be both negative and positive events tied to edicts? And will certain idea groups - for example Innovative - buff the effects of edicts as well?
Why would Innovative buff an edict? If anything, Administrative would do that. Highly doubt that any further 'buffs' are needed considering the long list of them that are added with 1.20.
 
Enforce Religious Unity : 1% Missionary Strength
Protect Trade : +50% Provincial Trade Power
Promote Military Recruitment: +25% Manpower
Encourage Development: -10% Development Cost
Advancement Effort: +33% Institution Spread
Centralization Effort: -0.03 Monthly Autonomy
Feudal De Jure Law: -5 Unrest
Religion Enforced: 50% resistance to Religious Conversion Centers.
Edict of Absolutism: -0.25 Monthly Devastation

Out of those edict only one I think may actually be worth it's weight in gold is trade power where there is lot of trade power. But you need lot of it to make any return on your investment. I wonder is it useful for OPM trade cities?

Manpower I supposed can be useful if you are small and need more manpower during war enough to justify the cost. But some certain countries already have too much manpower to care about a few more recruit. So I wonder if there will be a Sesame Effect (the strong get stronger and weaker become slightly stronger etc...) and become counterproductive to balance.

10% development discount that is nice to have especially if you are in RoTW but not really in Europe. It depends on what you where start and what is your goal.

33% institution spread? Really? It is frustrating to see more spread but not much else related to institution spread because often only one province of the state (especially on the border) will take forever in a wide empire and this may not help enough to justify the 3x state maintenance. Remember there is also a one-time fee for provinces that has not gotten institution. It will not help you if someone hate you enough to block institution progress where you put out the edict (Japan vs Korean comes to mind here if they are mutual rivalry). Even Russia's NI institution spread bonus is a waste when PLC/Sweden is an institution wasteland for example.

-0.03 monthly autonomy feel weird as a number. Why not .05 or something else? I digress. I have been in some cases where I had a province that would just refuse to lose the LA (royal queen from x/y giving malus -.10 LA monthly during war time? ouch). I need bit more if this is going to be any useful or at least lower the LA monthly from royal queen from x/y random province event.

1% strength? I could see myself using that to break the -2% Sunni/Muslim conversion modifier earlier. But that is a specific case rather than useful one.

-5 unrest? Why is that limited to one specific age? If anything I could use more of them in later age not earlier. Mainly I have to limit myself to conquest a small specific area because of State limit then later on that limit fall away and you take more land. So you need unrest control more later not earlier.

3x state maintenance for 50% resistance to religious conversion center? I am wondering if it is cheaper to just adopting religious idea group fully or convert over and wait Religious league out and flip back to whatever religious you want to be afterward? Without knowing exactly how it work. I can't decide if this one is a semi-good or semi-trash. Is it resistance to conversion strength only and nothing else? Then that is bad because you have to hold the edict for YEARS not just one time thing and what if you need manpower or trade power then too bad. If it is resistance to conversion AND discourage CoR from picking those provinces? That might actually make it better. Even just a tiny 10% against CoR from picking those provinces then I will be happy.
 
One example..
Base = 1
Edict = +200%

THEN cost = 3

building with -25% reduction

THEN cost = 2.25
So they're both multiplicative then. 1 * 0.75 (25% less) * 3 = 2.25.
so statemaintenance increase on edict is before all additative modifiers are done.
That is not what your math above says (that would be 1 * 3 = 3 - 0.25 = 2.75).
Your description is a little confusing, but I'll go by your math. It's simpler, and makes more sense.
Are edicts only for integrated states or also for territories?
Only states.
 
-5 unrest? Why is that limited to one specific age? If anything I could use more of them in later age not earlier. Mainly I have to limit myself to conquest a small specific area because of State limit then later on that limit fall away and you take more land. So you need unrest control more later not earlier.

Personally I feel the exact opposite. That unrest reduction is huge early in the game (well when you have collected enough Splendor to unlock it). For example as a small nation you can take some provinces from a larger nation and probably avoid a Rebellion that is larger than your FL. Later in the game you're able to stack unrest modifiers and it isn't that important anymore
 
So they're both multiplicative then. 1 * 0.75 (25% less) * 3 = 2.25.

That is not what your math above says (that would be 1 * 3 = 3 - 0.25 = 2.75).
Your description is a little confusing, but I'll go by your math. It's simpler, and makes more sense.

Only states.

Johan probably meant that edicts are additive, and then state maintenance modifier is multiplicative to the resulting sum of base + additive modifiers.
 
great new ways to administrate states