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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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Yeah, idk... Prussia has the best military ideas by far. Even if you cannot expand as fast, you are able to take on much larger opponents and come out on top.
 
The problem is that military ideas are just extremely underwhelming in general compared to anything that provides ccr/adm eff, it´s not even remotely close in terms of value. Not that there is anything wrong with that, there should be role play in national ideas, and Prussia is good at what it should be. If anything there should be less ccr and admin eff national ideas, they´ve been giving them to everyone lately.
 
Are these part of the Disasters mechanic? I really like the Disasters mechanic but it hasn't gotten much love since release in my opinion. I think it's a very fun mechanic and there should be MANY more disasters available to trigger. Also, I don't think the game should show you how far along you are to triggering a disaster. That makes them way too easy to avoid. Originally I don't think the game did show you your progress to triggering them. Maybe it should be a game rule option.
 
Can the HRE-philes tell me what new countries are there in the screenshot?
There seems to be: new countries in Bavaria, a new country between the Palatinate and Ansbach, a new country between Brunswick and Magdeburg, and more?
 
(Bavaria-)Munich, (Bavaria-)Ingolstadt and (Bavaria-)Landshut



Rothenburg, a new Free City



belongs to Cleve

Thanks, but was Clève flag changed? Seems different.
 
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).

Please do revisit. Burgundy is my favourite European major, so I always squee when I see something new about it. Such as Mission Tree. Please share the Mission Tree? I will give you cookies?
A Burgundy playthrough is usually my default first playthrough for a new patch.
 
So what we're looking at, with Peasant Republics, is sort of like early socialist revolutions? Could be interesting...
 
I'm sorry, but these Prussian events are, after all, historically unreasonable.
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.
This is a misconception. Prussia wasn't an Imperial Kingdom in the fashion of Bohemia. The King of Bohemia was the one and only crowned Imperial prince. His Kingdom was a concession by the Holy Roman Emperor that made the King of Bohemia the most dignified lay prince of the Empire. The Prussian Kingdom had no legal and legitimistic connection to the Holy Roman Empire. The Emperor didn't grant it as the Prince Elector's suzerain - he acknowledged the Prussian very own elevation as the super power whose word had the highest value - and that was legitimistically because of the idea of universal Emperorship, but also pragmatically because the alliance with Austria in the Spanish War of Succession made it possible to easily get the allies naturally and France and other important monarchs at least in the peace treaties to acknowledge the Prussian Kingdom, too. It also helped because the Pope's and the Teutonic Order's protest against the elevation were blighted by the fact that the Catholic Emperor supported Prussia. Prussia's elevation was not an Imperial matter, but an Imperatorial, an affair between Berlin and Vienna.

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.
The compromise wasn't made to please the Emperor or Imperial princes but the King of Poland. No Elector would have given a damn about this if it wasn't for August of Saxony being an Elector and the King of Poland at the same time.

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.
This doesn't make sense at all. A Kingdom is about prestige, about the acknowledgement of the European world. If the Emperor had refused to acknowledge the Prussian elevation (and with him the rest of the world), it would have been null and void; more embarrassing than prestigious.
 
Then you kill the rebels and anybody who comes after you. You’re freaking Prussia, nobody's going to be able to hold a candle to you if you’ve taken the right ideas.
Sounds really cool, isn't really cool in practice. I have a game going at the 1600 mark where literally every single country in the world outside of Western Africa and the New World has 600+ AE on me. I can beat all of them (with no military ideas), the problem is that the wars are a pain. I want to kill Yarkand, but they're in a coalition with Denmark and some other random Euro + the Mamluks. I'll have to truce break everyone just to avoid having to constantly fight coalition wars.

But yeah, you're Prussia, have fun with that.
 
Sounds really cool, isn't really cool in practice. I have a game going at the 1600 mark where literally every single country in the world outside of Western Africa and the New World has 600+ AE on me. I can beat all of them (with no military ideas), the problem is that the wars are a pain. I want to kill Yarkand, but they're in a coalition with Denmark and some other random Euro + the Mamluks. I'll have to truce break everyone just to avoid having to constantly fight coalition wars.

But yeah, you're Prussia, have fun with that.

I never claimed it was fun, I was responding to someone claiming that Prussian ideas were bad due to a lack of administrative ideas. I pointed out that Prussia can shoot its way out of diplomatic problems. If that’s not your style, good for you, it’s irrelevant here.
 
I never claimed it was fun, I was responding to someone claiming that Prussian ideas were bad due to a lack of administrative ideas. I pointed out that Prussia can shoot its way out of diplomatic problems. If that’s not your style, good for you, it’s irrelevant here.
I wouldn't say they're bad, but certainly not very good. Military ideas only get you so far.
 
Also, will Bohemia be fixed to switch to some reformation faith since hussites were a thing? In a huge number of games I just see Bohemia remain Catholic, which shouldnt really happen...

Bohemia already has an event "Hussite Traditions" that repeatedly flips Bohemian provinces to protestantism. The AI is thus more often than not railroaded into protestantism and commonly even becomes the leader of the protestant league. There is no need for more railroading, not every game should play out the same. If the AI manages to stay catholic as Bohemia, then so be it, it's not some crazy scenario. Anyway, I expect the new mission tree will push it into protestantism even more.
 
Sounds really cool, isn't really cool in practice. I have a game going at the 1600 mark where literally every single country in the world outside of Western Africa and the New World has 600+ AE on me. I can beat all of them (with no military ideas), the problem is that the wars are a pain. I want to kill Yarkand, but they're in a coalition with Denmark and some other random Euro + the Mamluks. I'll have to truce break everyone just to avoid having to constantly fight coalition wars.

But yeah, you're Prussia, have fun with that.
Your fault for not juggling AE properly and improving relations, as well as not attacking coalitions before they get too big.
 
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Bohemia already has an event "Hussite Traditions" that repeatedly flips Bohemian provinces to protestantism. The AI is thus more often than not railroaded into protestantism and commonly even becomes the leader of the protestant league. There is no need for more railroading, not every game should play out the same. If the AI manages to stay catholic as Bohemia, then so be it, it's not some crazy scenario. Anyway, I expect the new mission tree will push it into protestantism even more.
True enough, I guess I got influenced too much by my games and game screenshots around the internet to look at it from other perspective, it just bugs me when I see screenshot of Europe where half of it fllipped protestant including Austria and Bohemia remains catholic, its things like these that made me call out despite the fact all these nudging events etc are already in the game. They could work on Bohemian succession system a little bit, while the heir of ruler was usually the one to inherit, Bohemia was still technicaly elective since the nobles had the power to decide if he should be the king, but when they tried to use this "right" they got suppresed hard by the habsburgs later on which basicaly started 30yo war (althoughh its more for religious reasons than nobles using their "ancient" rights)