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EUIV - Development Diary - 28th of April 2020

Good morning! Those of you who have been watching the dev clash with a keen eye will have noticed that a new religion has appeared on the map, emanating from the Kingdom of Bohemia. Today I’ll talk about the Hussite faith and its associated content, as well as the new mission tree for Bohemia coming with the Emperor expansion.

hussite_1.png

The Hussite faith may now experience a resurgence.

The Hussites were in many ways a precursor to the Protestant Reformation. It was a very broad movement encompassing both moderates who merely wished to reform the Catholic Church and radicals who denounced the Church entirely in favour of strictly Biblical authority. Jan Hus, the leader of the movement and its namesake, was executed as a heretic in 1415, sparking a series of conflicts known as the Hussite Wars which lasted until 1434. This was not the end of the Hussites however, as the wars ended in an uneasy agreement between the Church and the moderate Hussite faction, and many people in Bohemia still believed that Jan Hus knew the truth.

In our 1444 start date, Bohemia begins with several Hussite provinces, but retains its Catholic state religion. Early in the game the Return of the Hussites event will fire, which gives Bohemia the opportunity to elect Jiri z Podebrad, a Hussite noble, as King. This event chain has been reworked to allow for three outcomes:
  • Bohemia adopts a Hussite state church and permanently breaks with Rome
  • The Hussites and Catholics reconcile, causing the remaining Hussites in Bohemia to revert to Catholicism. This is the path the AI will usually pursue.
  • Bohemia pursues an aggressive policy of Catholic orthodoxy and strives to convert the remaining Hussites to win the favour of the Pope.
When the Protestant Reformation begins, Hussite nations will be given the choice of whether to retain their unique Hussite faith or convert the nation and all Hussite provinces to Protestant instead. Hussites are only eligible to become Emperor under the Religious Peace.

hussite_2.png

The Adamites were a curious sect that believed that church services should be held entirely in the nude. Note: numbers are not final

The Hussite faith uses the Church Aspects mechanic, much like Protestant nations. Hussites get an entirely unique list of Church Aspects to distinguish them from Protestants. We’ve aimed to make these Aspects, as well as the base bonuses of the religion, relatively powerful to offset their diplomatic isolation. And of course no rework of Bohemian content would be complete without a button to enact Regular Defenestrations. Here’s the full list in script for those curious:

Code:
clerical_poverty_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        church_influence_modifier = -0.1
        stability_cost_modifier = -0.15
    }
}

punishment_of_sins_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        nobles_influence_modifier = -0.1
        yearly_corruption = -0.05
    }
}

orphan_hetmans_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        shock_damage_received = -0.1
    }
}

bread_and_wine_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        tolerance_own = 1
        global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.05
    }
}

sola_scriptura_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        warscore_cost_vs_other_religion = -0.1
    }
}


adamite_services_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        culture_conversion_cost = -0.2
    }
}


pacifism_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        stability_cost_to_declare_war = 1
        improve_relation_modifier = 0.3
    }

    ai_will_do = {
        factor = 0
    }
}

regular_defenestrations_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        harsh_treatment_cost = -0.33
    }
}

taborite_resurgence_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        global_manpower_modifier = 0.2
    }
}


freedom_to_preach_aspect = {
    cost = 100
    modifier = {
        religious_unity = 0.1
        tolerance_heretic = 1
    }
}

hussite_3.png


This is the new Bohemia mission tree, available to owners of the Emperor expansion after the release of 1.30. The upper left branch concerns the matter of the Hussites in Bohemia. The requirements and rewards change depending on which path the nation takes through the event chain. One notable reward is that if Bohemia becomes Hussite and breaks with Rome, a Hussite Center of Reformation will spawn in Prague upon completion of the Hussite Resurgence mission. To avoid an overwhelmingly non-Catholic Europe (as we’ve seen in dev clash), we’ve decided to make this CoR last only 100 years rather than until the end of the Age of Reformation.

At various points in the not-so-distant past, the Kings of Bohemia held prestigious titles such as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Poland, and King of Hungary. The majority of the Bohemian mission tree is aimed at regaining these titles and cementing a dominant position in Central Europe and the Empire, and rewards include powerful Restoration of Union CB’son Poland and Hungary. With Hungary under the Bohemian heel, they must contend with the greatest threat to Christendom: the Ottoman Turks. Bohemia is able to subjugate both Brandenburg and Saxony, keeping them as subjects without the usual penalties for subjugating electors if they are able to first Humiliate Austria. The Reformatio Sigismundi mission requires Bohemia to become the Emperor and pass the Perpetual Diet reform, which then rewards you with a 20% bonus to Imperial Authority Growth. The final mission in the Imperial branch, Peace in Europe, requires you to expand the borders of the HRE to 250 provinces while being at peace, and rewards +1 Monarch Diplomatic Skill as well as -5 Years of Separatism for the rest of the game.

That’s all for this week! The dev diary schedule for the next few weeks is content-focused, with next week’s dev diary being about the Burgundian Inheritance and their shiny new mission tree. So stay tuned for more mission trees and other associated content. And remember to catch the weekly Dev Clash every Wednesday at 15:00 CEST at https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive. If you can’t watch the stream, the vods are posted on youtube later. Go Milan!
 
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To avoid an overwhelmingly non-Catholic Europe (as we’ve seen in dev clash), we’ve decided to make this CoR last only 100 years rather than until the end of the Age of Reformation.

Maybe you could also reconsider the ongoing lack of any military bonuses for catholic nations even in the next patch?
Sure, that's not a factor for AIs, but it would result in not every single player in MP switching to orthodox, protestant or hussite as soon as possible.
 
Now, what would also be cool is once the Reformation starts, you get the option to become one with Protestant and be one of many state churches, classified as Protestantism. If you take this option by event, everything Hussite releated would switch to Protestant (your provinces, state religion, advisors etc). Ofc there would also be the option to keep doing do your own thing, much like Anglican.

You might have missed this :)

When the Protestant Reformation begins, Hussite nations will be given the choice of whether to retain their unique Hussite faith or convert the nation and all Hussite provinces to Protestant instead.
 
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I like that the pacifist modifier also has a nalus together with it's bonus. It would be interesting if other modifiers in the game also had maluses, for example the well connected ruler traits reducing republican tradition (if you're a republic). This would also help deal with some of the power creep that the game inevitably gets after so long in development.
 
Would have loved some reference to the great bohemian King known as Přemysl Otakar II. Could be used for a mission towards Austrian claims/claims to the baltic crusaders.
 
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I'm hoping that Bohemia being under the rule of the fellow Habsburgs very shortly after the start of the game will prevent the Hussite event from firing and Bohemia getting a new king, thus breaking the Personal Union?
 
Hussite seems a nice idea, I like the concept.
@neondt could you tell us when will be the dev diary about the mysterious mechanism for french vassal ? => your DD of 4th June 2019

@Johan I Hope the core development part is done and EU4 content part to be in tuning phase and you will announce the release date soon.
 
Ive been waiting for this DD since the expansion was announced! Looks wonderful! But...

Could you please change the province of Ostrava? It makes no sense. It was a town of zero importance for the most of EU IV's timeline. It became an important industrial center once the coal deposits were discovered somewhen in the 18th century afaik. Hradiště/Hradišťsko would make much more sense in the time frame of EU IV.
 
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Continental Europe was and is mainly Catholic.

Why in EU4 Reformation ends winning everywhere? Two years and they can't fix and balance this?

Europe_religion_map_situation_1950_en.png
That was adressed before and should be better in 1.30

Also remember that dev clash doesn't represent AI matches, since many players switched intentionally
 
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I'd LOVE to see more modifiers like this!

upload_2020-4-28_11-4-13.png


Like perks in RPGs - would be a whole new challenge to balance the perks keeping in mind their negative modifiers. Right now it's just stacking more nad more positive modifiers, some less relevant than others but positive nevertheless...

Like, you get +5% discipline but -10% improve relations because no one is going to believe you want all that oomph only for marching up and down the square.
Or Humanism - sure, we all live happily under one roof but culture conversion is more expensive and same goes for missionaries.
 
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How many aspects can you have active at the same time? 3 like Protestant?
TotF & Goods Produced + warscore score cost reduction vs other faiths + 20% manpower or tolerance heretics with religious unity all together seems too strong for me.

T we’ve decided to make this CoR last only 100 years rather than until the end of the Age of Reformation.
I think 100 years are still too long, considering the postion of Bohemia. The center can convert a decent amount of HRE minors in the west of Bohemia with ease. 50 years seems more fitting for me, enough time to convert Bohemia and its surroundings.
 
Maybe you could also reconsider the ongoing lack of any military bonuses for catholic nations even in the next patch?
Sure, that's not a factor for AIs, but it would result in not every single player in MP switching to orthodox, protestant or hussite as soon as possible.
This.

And I mean, what's the logic behind that? Why are Catholic armies supposed to be weaker?
Looking at the 30 years war as the logical comparison between the two, the Catholic side had 470k soldeirs and suffered about 320k losses and the Protestant side had 550k soldiers and suffered 430k losses.
By using objective numbers alone it would seem that in fact, the Catholic league was on the quality side and the Protestant league was on the quantity side, not the other way around.

As it stands catholics get two manpower bonuses, the Holy War papal power (+15% recovery speed) and the Council of Trent (+10% manpower). And no combat ones.

There is actually a third, very strong military quantity and quality bonus, the crusade, but it is so rare, so circumstancial and so out of your control, that is basically meaningless.

Couldn't the papal power "Holy War" instead give them something like (+5% Morale +5% Recovery Speed)?
And the new Bull Illius Qui Se Pro Divini ( which granted plenary indulgence to the knights of the Order of Christ and all other Christians, who fought in the crusade against the Saracens under the leadership of Henry the Navigator, even if Henry was not present in the crusade) could also give +5% Naval Morale as well as enableing crusades after the Reformation.

Its not only that Catholicism is generally, weaker but its also overall harder to benefit from, more foreign dependent and requires more strategic thinking.

Papal powers require investing papal points, which are reliant on Cardinals which is outside your control and relations with the pope (which can get destroyed on a whim if he rivals you) and last for only 15 years, so you need to time them right.
The bulls are completely reliant on the pope and outside your control.
If you are the pope, that means you had to invest your points and couldn't use the points for power (also, RNG involved).
The crusade bonus is an extremely circumstancial and rare bonus.

Protestantism just requires you to press three buttons for the bonuses you want for as long as you want. Church power is much easier to gain than papal influence and can stockpile to the point that you can switch two bonus immediately, so you can pretty much change your bonuses according to your needs whenever you want. And the church power can't be used in anything else, so its just used in bonuses.

Reformation is even more simple, you just activate a button for permanent bonuses, and its pretty easy to afford two permanently activated.

Not to mention the passive bonuses, where Catholicism is the only religion with awkward penalties.
 
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Ive been waiting for this DD since the expansion was announced! Looks wonderful! But...

Could you please change the province of Ostrava? It makes no sense. It was a town of zero importance for the most of EU IV's timeline. It became an important industrial center once the coal deposits were discovered somewhen in the 18th century afaik. Hradiště/Hradišťsko would make much more sense in the time frame of EU IV.
Totally agree. Map looks... Strange.