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EU4 - Development Diary - 8th of October 2019

Good morning, and welcome to today’s dev diary! As Jake foretold last week, today I’ll be talking about some of the Imperial Incidents coming in next year’s big expansion.

For those of you who have forgotten or for some reason do not read our dev diaries with fervent religiosity, this is what an Imperial Incident is:

“The other thing for us to look into today are Imperial Incidents. One thing we wanted to do was to make the Empire feel alive and rife with bickering princes. To that end, we have rolled some existing occurrences throughout EU4 and History, as well as many others, into a system that has the HRE both create and react to issues in Central Europe and the immediate vicinity.

When the conditions are ripe, an Imperial Incident can trigger for the Empire. All member states will be informed of the incident, and it will prominently be displayed in the HRE interface. The Emperor will then have 6 months to make a decision on the incident, with wide-ranging knock-on effects.”

These Incidents give us the opportunity to both revisit old content and to design something new. Last week Jake gave a description of the reworked Burgundian Inheritance (which we might revisit in more detail in the future). Today I’ll show off two new event chains and their associated Incidents: The King in Prussia, and The Great Peasants’ War.

dd_prussia.png


Prussia is no longer awarded a shiny Kingdom-rank crown simply for existing. An independent Prussia must establish itself as a relevant power before it has the opportunity to claim its crown. After this event fires, the Imperial Incident begins and the Emperor must decide on how to proceed.

  • If the Emperor decides to elevate Prussia to an Imperial Kingdom in the fashion of Bohemia, they will lose 10 Imperial Authority but greatly improve their relations with Prussia. This will also anger any electors that have rivalled Prussia.

  • If the Emperor decides to accept the historical compromise - that the monarch may call himself “King in Prussia” but not “King of Prussia” - the effect is similar but reduced. The Electors will not be angered but Prussia will be only mildly grateful to the Emperor.

  • If the Emperor refuses to acknowledge any Prussian monarch bearing the title of “King”, Prussia must make a decision between their Kingly crown or their status as an Imperial Prince, potentially being ejected from the Empire. This will greatly anger both Prussia and its Elector allies.
dd_peasants.png


The Great Peasants’ War was a time of great upheaval in the Holy Roman Empire. Driven by religious, economic, and social woes the oppressed masses rose up across Germany against their feudal masters. This event can happen prior to the League War, which is delayed until this conflict is resolved. National unrest is increased throughout the Empire, peasant rebels are more likely to spawn, and countries that break to peasant rebels may become a Peasant Republic. While the Great Peasants’ War rages on, the game will track the success of the rebels throughout the Empire. After several years have passed and the dust has settled, the Emperor must make a resolution:

  • [Available only if the rebels are not highly successful] If the Emperor chooses to crush the rights of peasants, the Noble estates across the Empire will become more loyal and more powerful. This effect is reduced if the rebels are moderately successful.

  • If the Emperor chooses to grant concessions to the peasantry and enforce their rights, the Noble estates across the Empire will not only lose Influence but also some of their Land Share. The strength of this effect depends on the success of the rebels. This will mean that Princes of the Empire have more Crown Land, but they will also collect less taxes due to their concessions to the peasantry. If the rebels are highly successful, nations in the Empire will continue to become Peasant Republics when breaking to peasant rebels even after the Great Peasants’ War ends.

We have a lot more Incidents left to talk about: in the unspecified future I’ll talk about such Incidents as the Dutch Revolt and the Shadow Kingdom. For now though that’s all I have to say, I hope you all have a great day and that you return for next week’s dev diary!
 
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Danzig being a Polish vassal would actually make some sense when it comes to late 15th century, early 16th century situation. Royal Prussia had its own General Estates, coin etc. though was under PU with Poland. What does not make sense though is that Danzig, Poland and Lithuania have no incentive not to annex all of the TO straight away. In reality there was some considerable pressure from both the emperor and the pope not to do so, but rather just to take back the lands previously being part of the Kingdom of Poland i.e. Royal Prussia with the bishopric of Warmia/Ermland thrown in as Polish vassal.
Unless Paradox wants to completely rework how AE works, then the only solution is some sort of event or mission to release Teutonic order and then become a PU with brandenburg to help get a semi historical HRE which is clearly what paradox is aiming towards rather than just 5 blobs that sit there.
 
Confederation of the Rhine Incident?
 
About the Prussia one: What if Prussia manually becomes a Kingdom (300 dev)? And what if they are the HREmperor?

i assume they wouldn't add an incident about an elector becoming a king if you could just do it manually

edit: i know that right now you can, but i guess you won't be able to anymore
 
This looks really cool! It’s also making me think about the possibility of other places incidents could work, specifically for The Papacy. Kinda seems like something perfect to tie into Reform Desire.
 
A client state created after the HRE had been formally dissolved? What would the point be?
The Napoleonic era is not well represented in game. Also, It could be more specifically if the Emperor loses a war to a Revolutionary state.
 
The incidents and all new content is looking great but i have to wonder. Will Poland get a overhaul at some point in time? In the end it controls a gigantic region from game earliest dates and have been the powerhouse of the area. Most importantly many events like Habsburg inheritence of Bohemia and Hungary or the creation of Prussian Monarchy or even Time of Troubles tie prominently into Poland. Currently Poland lacks representation of its Sejm, the early period of Jagiellon rule ( Eg no real elections untill Jagielons die out ), and finally getting people elected doesnt make as much fuss as it did IRL ( Several Inheritence wars few civil wars a capture of certain bold heir to the Empire etc etc ). It would be great to finally revist the region and give it much needed mechanics.
 
i expected more than 3 incidents , two of which were already discussed ... well , we'll see that next week so!
 
The incidents and all new content is looking great but i have to wonder. Will Poland get a overhaul at some point in time? In the end it controls a gigantic region from game earliest dates and have been the powerhouse of the area. Most importantly many events like Habsburg inheritence of Bohemia and Hungary or the creation of Prussian Monarchy or even Time of Troubles tie prominently into Poland. Currently Poland lacks representation of its Sejm, the early period of Jagiellon rule ( Eg no real elections untill Jagielons die out ), and finally getting people elected doesnt make as much fuss as it did IRL ( Several Inheritence wars few civil wars a capture of certain bold heir to the Empire etc etc ). It would be great to finally revist the region and give it much needed mechanics.
In my opinion, I could honestly see them leave Poland for a general Baltic rework, which would include the Teutons and Livonians, as well as the Scandinavians; just because those regions are apparently out of the DLCs scope and are going to be the last in Europe to need work (although Iberia definitely should be revisited). Perhaps it would be the subject of the next immersion pack, if they are still doing those after the backlash (deservedly so imo) from Golden Century.
 
Ehmm, nice, now we get anoter cosmetic type of "content", which will fill DDs and DLCs like missions before.

But when can we expect DDs about real mechanics, 4 weeks before release when code is already frozen and any complains and pointing out nonsense can be ignored?
What about conversions, catholic religion, ... ?
 
In my opinion, I could honestly see them leave Poland for a general Baltic rework, which would include the Teutons and Livonians, as well as the Scandinavians; just because those regions are apparently out of the DLCs scope and are going to be the last in Europe to need work (although Iberia definitely should be revisited). Perhaps it would be the subject of the next immersion pack, if they are still doing those after the backlash (deservedly so imo) from Golden Century.
I am really hoping that SE Asia gets an update before the Baltics. Poland at least got a bit of love in the so called "Poland Update" but SE Asia has seen no love (except Palembang in the "Spain Update" and the Philippines in the "Japan Update") since Art of War. Such an important part of the world in this era for its role in the Indian Ocean trsde networks, and on its own merits as a densely populated and religiously and culturally diverse region. I would love to see Malacca, Majapahit, Khmer, Lan Xang and Dai Viet, among others get new provinces, missions, and general attention.

The Baltics and Scandinavia are in much less of a need than SE Asia.
 
If the Emperor decides to accept the historical compromise - that the monarch may call himself “King in Prussia” but not “King of Prussia” - the effect is similar but reduced. The Electors will not be angered but Prussia will be only mildly grateful to the Emperor.

Why propagate this piece of commonly stated wrong history?

The title King in Prussia was chosen not to placate the Habsburgs, but to placate the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who (still) controlled Western Prussia, which during the period was usually called Royal PrussiaI in contrast to Ducal Prussia. As the Hohenzollerns had absolutely and totally no ambitions to annex Royal Prussia from Poland, they chose the in. Once the Hohenzollerns chanced themselves upon most of Royal Prussia in 1772, they adopted the title King of Prussia. Which as any avid student of history would note preceded the end of the Holy Roman Empire and the rise of German Kingdoms by more than three decades.

What was chosen to placate the Habsburgs was the center of the new kingdom being in Prussia. Because while de facto the feudal system in Germany worked like this:

Emperor
^
|
Duke

De jure it looked like this:

Emperor
^
|
King
^
|
Duke

Now who was this seldomly referred to German King? Well, the Emperor.

And as Brandenburg was a part of Germany, the Emperor would not have accepted some upstart Duke (or, well, Margrave) to proclaim himself king and split of part of the Emperor's territory. What was fine though was that same Margrave being king somewhere else (also see: Hanover, Savoy), for then he would under Holy Roman Law still be nothing but a Margrave while residing in Berlin.

Also, why is Prussia still grey?

Alexa, this so so sad, play Flute Concerto No. 4 in D major
 
king *in* Prussia as opposed to King *of* Prussia was more a compromise between the Hohenzollerns and the PLC than it was with the HRE. I'm not against it being an imperial incident, but I think it could be made better and more historical adding relation modifiers between Prussia, the Emperor, and Poland/PLC. I also think if Prussia is made King *of* Prussia, the lands they hold in east and west Prussia should be added to the empire and maybe give Poland/PLC claims on the land. this would add a little more depth and thought into the decision, allowing a weaker emperor to weigh a friendlier Prussia over peaceful relations with Poland.