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EU4 - Development Diary - 9th of October 2018

Welcome all to today’s dev diary, where I’ll be covering the long-awaited Iberian and North African map update coming in the 1.28 ‘Spain’ update.

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Nations released for the sake of example


As things currently stand, though as always things are subject to change before release, Iberia consists of 571 development over 63 provinces. This includes the Macaronesia area but now excludes Labourd, which has been returned to the French region.

In Aragon, the distinction between the Kingdom of Aragon, the Kingdom of Valencia, and the Principality of Catalonia has become more pronounced. Tarragona is now rightly in the Catalonia area, and the province of Valencia has been split so that Castello and Xativa have become separate provinces. Valencia itself has the potential to be a very rich city indeed, as the player’s actions can lead to it becoming a major producer of silk. The three major Balearic Islands have become provinces in and of themselves, linked together by a strait and comprising their own Area.

Likewise, Galicia has seen itself grow from 1 province to 4, and now has an Area all to itself.

Portugal and Granada have been gifted one additional province each: Aveiro and Malaga respectively.

Last but not least, many citizens of Navarra are looking a little confused as they wonder where their coastline has gone. Wedged between major powers and with no immediate means of escape over the ocean, Navarra will be a very challenging nation in 1.28.

New releasable nations:

Valencia: The Kingdom of Valencia was a major constituent part of the Crown of Aragon in 1444. In 1.28 the former kingdom of El Cid will be a releasable nation.

Asturias: The Kingdom of Asturias ceased to exist long before our start date, but it nicely fills the absence of releasable nations in the region.

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I’ve also taken another look at North Africa. Here we can see several new provinces along the coast, including those belonging to new nations that can emerge during the game.

The province of Demnate allows a route through the Atlas mountains; a convenient shortcut and potentially a deadly choke-point.

The Canary Islands have been split between Gran Canaria and Tenerife to represent the somewhat incomplete Castilian conquest and colonization of the islands.

For the masochists among you who play as Granada, they now have a core on the province on Ceuta.

New releasable nations:

Salé and Tétouan: Home to some of the most infamous Barbary Pirates, these nations will be releasable in 1444, and may emerge dynamically in the course of the game in the style of Habsan.

fezzan_map.png


Finally, I’ve made some minor changes to the eastern Maghreb. The province of Kairwan has been added for Tunis, and the addition of Sabha has allowed a more aesthetic redrawing of Fezzan’s borders.

That’s all for today. Next week, @Groogy will reveal some of the new features coming in the as yet unnamed Immersion pack to be released alongside 1.28.
 
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Yeah, I know, it's the dev's decision. But I understand that if you ask anybody about a place in Spain they're going to say Ibiza, not Segovia or Talavera. Perhaps that explains how the new map looks.
Nope, I'm afraid it has more to do with the amount of research. I know some things have been fixed, but parts Poland and Romania were mishandled last patch, the dev diary last week also had Lleida in a VERY wrong place, Aveiro is still a thing and don't get me started on the Maghreb. It really has to do with research. You can clearly see that neondt's heart lies with south-east Asia, not with Europe.

The islands were clearly a personal touch of a dev who really wanted to see tag-names spread more properly across the Mediterannean Sea. I can live with that as it has no effect on the province-density on the mainland. Unrelated to the rest of the changes, I think.

I don't see how expanding the Extremadura and Central Castille region even a LITTLE bit (like, one or two provinces extra) would hurt balance if development gets divided. So, I agree with you on most points, navaluiki.
 
Nope, I'm afraid it has more to do with the amount of research. I know some things have been fixed, but parts Poland and Romania were mishandled, the dev diary last week also had Lleida in a VERY wrong place, Aveiro is still a thing... It really has to do with research.

The islands were clearly a personal touch of a dev who really wanted to see tag-names spread more properly across the Mediterannean Sea. I can live with that as it has no effect on the province-density on the mainland.

Perhaps you are right too (ahh, that Lleida really hurt my eyes). It could be a mixture of both things. Well,anyway, if they want historical data for Spain it will remain posted on my thread. Hopefully, one day, my suggestions will be implemented into the game.
 
Perhaps you are right too (ahh, that Lleida really hurt my eyes). It could be a mixture of both things. Well,anyway, if they want historical data for Spain it will remain posted on my thread. Hopefully, one day, my suggestions will be implemented into the game.
I disagree. Now is the time for Spain, now is the time for an Iberian DLC, and the developers should make sure that they put as much attention into this region as they did with all of the other ones as well (I'm looking at you, India and the Middle East; lookin' gorgeous and all that).

The moment is now, not later.

It's not as if Iberia is such a hard region (like tribal Arabia) to research; there are plenty of correct historical maps and threads out there that go really deep into research and come up with great maps and discussions themselves.
 
I disagree. Now is the time for Spain, now is the time for an Iberian DLC, and the developers should make sure that they put as much attention into this region as they did with all of the other ones as well (I'm looking at you, India and the Middle East; lookin' gorgeous and all that).

The moment is now, not later.
Feel like we always come back to this. The different of attention in previous map changes and this one.
 
I disagree. Now is the time for Spain, now is the time for an Iberian DLC, and the developers should make sure that they put as much attention into this region as they did with all of the other ones as well (I'm looking at you, India and the Middle East; lookin' gorgeous and all that).

The moment is now, not later.

I agree, if the region doesn't get the revamp and fixes it needs now, it will never get them later, lol.
 
I disagree. Now is the time for Spain, now is the time for an Iberian DLC, and the developers should make sure that they put as much attention into this region as they did with all of the other ones as well (I'm looking at you, India and the Middle East; lookin' gorgeous and all that).

The moment is now, not later.
I agree, they should rework Iberia NOW (it's the Iberian pack). But, I don't think it will happen. I'm afraid it's a bit late now:(. I hope I'm wrong
 
Feel like we always come back to this. The different of attention in previous map changes and this one.
Yes, it's glaring.

And that's kind of odd. Why? Well, I understand mistakes in heavily contested and/or rough tribal areas, as sources may be very conflicting or sparse. But with Iberia? Really? European feudalism has one big plus-side for this game; the big amount of maps and administrative divisions it created.

I don't think it matters if Castille has 32 instead of 30 provinces. /thread

I'm also really proud how the community came up with a large amount of suggestion-threads within one week. The sooner the devs see it, the better.

@RodDel tagging you not because I like to bother you, but I kind of want to say that it would be good if the devs actually challenged some of the suggestions around here more. You guys have said some things about balance, but it's really vague and the region still looks disproportionate. If you challenge ideas, you actually contribute to the discussion more instead of only absorbing the information. To be more concrete; some threads and posts around here have a good point about the province density of Portugal, the Extremadura-region and of central Castille. What's the opinion of the devs about those regions?
 
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Exactly. And if they don't want to add development, they can just split it.
 
Exactly. And if they don't want to add development, they can just split it.
And it's not as if we want 10 more provinces or something, 2-4 in total would already change very much.

Aragon looks perfect right now, well except for the name and shape of Urgell, but that can be easily fixed. Castille and Portugal look unfinished.
 
It didn't seem to matter when they increased the amount of provinces in the British Isles from 33 to 54 (nearly doubled the number).
Exactly. Iberia has 59 provinces now, including the 3 Balearic islands. England has 30 provinces alone (excluding its Irish and French holdings, which would add another 9 provinces). Castille has 29 without its islands (which would make for 30 provinces in total). It's only a little bit more than Hungary or France (who both have 27 provinces), of which France starts relatively decentralized.

Why would 2 or 3 more (very important) provinces hurt? As well as 1 or 2 for Portugal besides the name- and location-changes there? I just can't grasp it.
 
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Exactly. Iberia has 59 provinces now, including the 3 Balearic islands. England has 30 provinces alone (excluding its Irish and French holdings, which would add another 9 provinces). Castille has 29 without its islands.

Why would 2 or 3 more (very important) provinces hurt? As well as 1 or 2 for Portugal besides the name- and location-changes there? I just can't grasp it.

I don't understand it either. Iberia could perfectly have more than 10 additional provinces IMO. And if they think this is too ambitious, they can just remove several provinces like Ibiza that were not that important at the time or add more provinces in nearby regions like Italy or Southern France
 
I don't understand it either. Iberia could perfectly have more than 10 additional provinces IMO. And if they think this is too ambitious, they can just remove several provinces like Ibiza that were not that important at the time or add more provinces in nearby regions like Italy or Southern France
I'm rather conservative in that regard; I'd stick to a maximum of 3, maybe 4, extra provinces for Iberia (2 or 3 for Castille and 1 for Portugal).

So, it's still not in conflict with the rest of updated-Europe in terms of quantity and it might be likelier for the devs to take serious.
 
I'm rather conservative in that regard; I'd stick to a maximum of 3, maybe 4, extra provinces for Iberia (2 or 3 for Castille and 1 or 2 for Portugal).

So, it's still not in conflict with the rest of updated-Europe in terms of quantity and it might be likelier for the devs to take serious.

When looking at Poland and the British Isles I don't think 10 additional provinces in Iberia would be disproportionate. But I get it, they might think it's too much. Let's see if they end up adding more provinces
 
I don't think there's anything wrong with going back to the topic considering how underwhelming and riddled with mistakes the changes to Iberia in this DLC looked when it was first posted, lol. I think it's perfectly fair and bringing up the English Canal changes in Brittania Rules just serves to make them even more glaring. It also makes it less strange how many ideas have been thrown around.

I mean, if these DLCs are meant to be love letters to the regions.... this one looked pretty disinterested at first glance. I will not live down how dumb it is for the Gulf of Cadiz to still be in Portugal and how there's no salt production in it :confused: I'm also really not shocked how interested everyone is in suggesting corrections, especially looking at the great Maghreb correction maps that have been posted; they really make it look like no particular care was taken in being a bit more accurate before showing the first DD. Same thing for all the grievances other forum posters have about how Aragon and Castille are being so underwhelmingly revamped. This is the one chance we get to correct things that have been bothering us about Iberia in EU4 for like 4-5 years, so I hope this thread goes up to 50 or 60 pages, if needed.

I mean, just imagine, if there was so much wrong with this map post alone, what awaits us when they start talking about mechanics, trade changes, missions, etc? Get your fangs ready, everyone. Amicably, of course.
 
Suffice it to say, more attention was payed in turning The Baleares into 3 provinces and adding a colonizable province to the Canaries (nothing against it) than in adding more to Portugal. At least that is how it feels when I look at the map changes. Also no salt and the Gulf of Cadiz bathing the Alentejo makes me laugh.
 
Suffice it to say, more attention was payed in turning The Baleares into 3 provinces and adding a colonizable province to the Canaries (nothing against it) than in adding more to Portugal. At least that is how it feels when I look at the map changes. Also no salt and the Gulf of Cadiz bathing the Alentejo makes me laugh.

And they STILL have Sevilla's river estuary named "Guadiana" instead of "Guadalquivir", this not to mention the root of the Tagus and (Asturias root) the Douro were drawn incorrectly because of completely separate rivers being nearby.

#neverliveitdown

I mean, the have the freaking Douro go UPSTREAM an Asturian mountain range. Think about it for a second XD
 
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