EU4: El Dorado - Development Diary 2: The Nation Designer | Page 14

Jonathon R · Jan 30, 2015

Wait, does this mean we can customize imported nations from the CK2 > EU4 converter?

Oh Paradox, it's like you've made my dreams come true.

BritNavFan · Jan 30, 2015

A nice feature would be the ability to have different tech_group and unit_type.

Is it possible to save a setup, say in a mod format

, or do you have to recreate custom nations from step 1 every time you want to start a new game with one?

Lys91 · Jan 30, 2015

Flag maker for colonies? It would be a great improvement over the current ugly one (maybe historical flags for some of them?)

panther29 · Jan 30, 2015

This might be already mentioned, but can you specify if you want a cultural union, for like a lot of points of course?

Osman Pasha · Jan 30, 2015

Atheism in the game?

Comradebot · Jan 30, 2015

Osman Pasha said:
Atheism in the game?

*tips fedora* M'Osman

But seriously, Atheism was incredibly insignificant during this time period. Sure, you've got a few philosophers and proto-neckbeards, but nothing to warrant its inclusion (other than the possible lulz of creating the custom nation of Euphoria reigning from their capital city of Dawkins.) Not that I would throw a fit if they did put it in, but there's so much more that's more important to squeeze into EU.

panther29 · Jan 30, 2015

Comradebot said:
*tips fedora* M'Osman

But seriously, Atheism was incredibly insignificant during this time period. Sure, you've got a few philosophers and proto-neckbeards, but nothing to warrant its inclusion (other than the possible lulz of creating the custom nation of Euphoria reigning from their capital city of Dawkins.) Not that I would throw a fit if they did put it in, but there's so much more that's more important to squeeze into EU.

After the French revolution?

Steph · Jan 30, 2015

Wiz said:
Pretty sure there is a horizontal tricolor and yes, you can just have a tricolor with no emblem.

No risk of getting a tricolor like white - white -white?

gwachnitz · Jan 30, 2015

Small question: Why can't we do general achievements or new custom nation achievements with a standard 200 point based custom nation?:sad:

pablomakaveli · Jan 30, 2015

Lemont Elwood said:
Why would you put a points limit on a feature that is unrelated to the main game? Why restrict our creativity?

I agree with you as well. Maybe a sandbox type mode should be introduced where you can create any nation you want without restrictions. That way it wont affect multiplayer or achievements but still allow people the freedom to create what they want.

demoix · Jan 30, 2015

It will be possible to make more than 1 custom nation? For example one for me and other of AI and other countries be historical

Zwirbaum · Jan 30, 2015

demoix said:
It will be possible to make more than 1 custom nation? For example one for me and other of AI and other countries be historical

Yes you can. There can be at the time up to 32 custom nations.

Eh up me duck · Jan 30, 2015

Wiz said:
Do note that you can mod away pretty much every restriction in the Nation Designer if you want to create a Western Tech Shogunate with +50% discipline in Mesoamerica, and even without modding you can set yourself a pretty damn generous point limit (800 points is something in the order of 2-3 Frances).

That...is so awesome. So many possibilities with this.

A Norse Iceland conquering Western Europe and forging an Empire fit for Thor. A pagan Nova Romani Imperium beating back the Ottomans and converting the Holy Land in Jupiter's name. A Buddhist Chinese sub-state that vies for control of East Asia with the Ming for centuries. So much fun to be had with this, I am very pleased.

Eh up me duck · Jan 30, 2015

panther29 said:
After the French revolution?

Atheism, such as it is, existed only as a philosophical concept. It wasn't important enough to be worth mentioning.

codeGnave · Jan 30, 2015

Is the 75% local autonomy for non-colonial nations' colonial provinces still a thing in this dlc? It would make the one game-mode where its just a few countries with colonists rather less-fun.

Delta107 · Jan 30, 2015

Wiz said:
Welcome to the second development diary for Europa Universalis 4: El Dorado. Today we’ll only be talking about a single feature, but it’s probably the single biggest feature we’ve added to EU4 since launch: The Nation Designer.

As the name implies, the Nation Designer allows players with the El Dorado expansion to create their own, custom-designed nation to play instead of picking one of the historical nations. The Nation Designer is available for both Single-Player and Multi-Player, and can be used at any start date as long as you are starting a new game.

To make a custom nation, you simply click the new ‘Custom Nation’ button during country selection. This will prompt you to pick a capital province for your custom nation: Choose carefully, as the capital province cannot be changed without cancelling your custom nation entirely! You can start anywhere on the map that isn’t water or wasteland.

Once you have chosen your capital, you will be taken to the Nation Designer interface. From here you can freely add or remove provinces from your new nation, though each point of base tax and base manpower deducts from your 200 point allowance. What does 200 points buy you? A country somewhere between Hungary and Austria in strength in 1444 - a low-end major power. You can’t build France with 200 points, but how many big blue blobs do we need?

This allowance can be changed in the settings (more on that later). If you exceed your points allowance, you will be unable to finalize your custom nation (and thus start the game).

But if EU4 has emphasized anything it’s that there is more to a nation than the land it occupies. You can further customize your nation’s Appearance, Government and Ideas. This is done through the menu on the left-hand side of the screen.

Appearance
The appearance tab is where you configure the name, map color and flag of your nation. A variety of patterns and emblems are available, with the colors taken from the flags of historical nations in the game to keep them stylistically similar. The name and flag are purely aesthetic and do not cost any points from your allowance.

Government
The government tab is where you configure your rulers and how your state is governed. Here you can set the name, dynasty, gender, age and skills of your ruler (and heir if you’re a monarchy), with point costs depending on age and skill so that a 20-year old 6/6/6 will be more expensive than a 60-year old with the same skills, but a 20-year old 0/0/0 actually gives you a decent chunk points back to spend on other things. (Then you can send him off to die in a war or something, I guess.)

In addition to tweaking your rulers you can also set your culture, religion, government, graphical style and technology group. These are taken by default from your starting position, so that if you start your custom nation in England you will start English Catholic with Western tech and graphics. Culture, Religion and graphical style are free of points costs, while certain, more advanced Governments will have a cost. The cost for Technology Group depends on your location - picking Western tech in England costs you nothing, while doing the same in North America is very expensive.

Ideas
The ideas tab is where you configure your custom idea set by picking from over 90 different Administrative, Diplomatic and Military modifiers and setting the level of each. Modifier levels range from 1 to 4, with some modifiers being limited to level 1 or 2 - you can’t start with 4 colonists, for example. Your custom ideas set always consists of two tradition modifiers, seven idea modifiers, and one ambitions modifier.

The first level of most modifiers is free, with an exponentially increasing cost for higher levels, and steep penalties for having more than 50% of your total modifier levels come from a single type - you can’t be all Military unless you’re willing to give up the higher level bonuses. Overall, a strong set of ideas will be quite costly and will likely mean you have to start with a small nation.

Finalizing your Custom Nation
When you’re done setting up the nation of your dreams, you simply hit the green checkmark to finalize your nation and exit the Nation Designer interface. At this point you will be back in the lobby and can start the game if you’re ready to play.

If you realize you forgot something, you can also go back and edit your nation, or create another custom nation somewhere else on the map up to a limit of 32 custom nations in the same game. Just because you created a nation doesn’t mean you have to play it - you can set yourself up with a whole bunch of custom AI rivals if you so desire.

Settings
In addition to the nation designer itself, El Dorado also comes with a bunch of new settings for those who want an even more customized start:

Custom Setup Difficulty
This setting allows you to set the number of points available to all players when making a Custom Nation, ranging from 50 (Very Hard) to 800 (Very Easy). The numbers can also be changed through modding.

Custom Setup Nations
This allows you to change the overall setup of the map in the following ways:
Normal Setup: The map is populated by historical nations, and Custom Nations are available.
Historical Setup: The map is populated by historical nations, and Custom Nations are disabled.
Custom Setup: The map is empty asides from player-designed Custom Nations, and all nations start with a colonist.
Random Setup: The map is empty asides from player-designed Custom Nations in the lobby, but once play is started it is populated with randomly generated states that use the historical tags and names.

Custom Setup Provinces
This allows you to change the base tax and manpower of all provinces in the following ways:
Normal Values: All provinces have their historical tax and manpower values.
Random Values: All provinces have randomized tax and manpower values, weighted by factors such as terrain and climate. Total tax and manpower in the entire world will be the same as the historical provinces.
Flat Values: All provinces have the exact same tax and manpower (4 and 3 respectively).

Client States & Revolutions
As a free bonus, we’ve tweaked the Client State interface to use the new flags from the Nation Designer, replacing the single-color single-icon flags from Art of War.

We’ve also made use of this system in the Revolution mechanics by having each nation generate a dynamic tricolor based on their national colors that will be used as their flag if they become the Revolutionary Target. No more French tricolor for everyone!

That's all for today - join us next Thursday for yet another development diary that will be all about the Americas and Liberty.

No.

No. I'm not going to buy fairy tales. If the new fans want it, good job Paradox you found a new niche. In your place I'd release fairy tales DLC too if that would make greenies appear on my bank account. But I am skipping this nonsense.

GRFenrir · Jan 30, 2015

JoeIsGreat said:
Atheism, such as it is, existed only as a philosophical concept. It wasn't important enough to be worth mentioning.

I beg to differ. While atheism per say never was close to a mainstream movement within EU4's timeframe, the 1755 Lisbon earthquake certainly gave way for the early beginnings of modern atheism.

I'm very curious as how the custom nations' AI will differ, especially concerning choice of idea groups. Will a nation stuck on Hawaii follow the same path as a landlocked nation in central Asia?

Also, will there be new unique events for the Norse and the Jews? Are there any unique mechanics, or do the new religions only give you some stat bonus?

snakebite528 · Jan 30, 2015

Delta107 said:
No.

No. I'm not going to buy fairy tales. If the new fans want it, good job Paradox you found a new niche. In your place I'd release fairy tales DLC too if that would make greenies appear on my bank account. But I am skipping this nonsense.

The nation designer is just part of the DLC, there will be a whole lot more to El Dorado than just this.

sr999 · Jan 30, 2015

Xinkc said:
I'm looking forward to my Occitan or English cultured, Western, Hindu nation lead by the Mourningway dynasty. Core creation reduction, colonist increase, manpower increase, discipline increase, religious conversion cost reduction, conversion strength boost, cultural conversion cost reduction, minus unrest, increase in siege ability, and (if possible) an increase of siege pip for generals would make me a happy man if I could get them all at decent levels.

Great idea! But to balance all those "decent" levels (maybe level 2?) you'll have to get zero provinces and a core. Or maybe just a claim...

JacobMunro · Jan 30, 2015

I want to ask you a couple of questions...

...and I want them to be answered immediately!

Firstly. I see Norse faith symbol. I assume the religions from imported CKII games are therefore available. Does this mean, for a hefty price in points, we can make a nation in Meso-America with the High American tech group? I dream of Cuzco with High American tech!

Now here is the sixty-four-thousand dollar question. That national idea picking menu shows no signs of being able to name our national ideas like the national ideas of any other nation. I think half the fun of national ideas is reading the historical references or jokes in the names. Is there any chance we will be able to name our national ideas?

Attachments

Private

Lt. General

Dandy penguin

First Lieutenant

Major

On Double Secret Probation

First Lieutenant

Colonel

Sergeant

Árd Rí

Major

Game Designer HoI IV

Lt. General

Lt. General

First Lieutenant

Imperial Guard Conscript

Reigning in Jomsborg

Second Lieutenant

Colonel

Corporal