Europa Universalis 4 - Leviathan - Development Diary 9th of March 2021 | Page 4

Kaampper · Mar 9, 2021

@Johan , With these updates tot colonial nations which look really awesome, i was hoping that we could finally get colonial nations in Indonesia? Ik would love to get the Dutch Indies in here, i never understood why there are no colonial nations there since in HOI4 They are a colonial nations.

Also, understand if This is too spoilery but will we get a release date coming Saturday during the mini PDXCon?
Thanks in advance.

Edit: typos.

Kugsen · Mar 9, 2021

Now there are more provinces in Australia and New Zealand, will they be separate colonial areas?

Chief of Staff · Mar 9, 2021

The "private enterprise" colony, or more appropriately called proprietary colony, could open up interesting possibilities for scenarios where it now become viable to create a Colonial Nation (CN) centered around an East India Trade Company that ruled the lands in India. Essentially a single company that ruled the Indian subcontinent rather than having multiple trade companies across the split trade regions there as it historically had been in the case of British East India Company.

However, CNs were probably designed more for settler colonies so that might not work too well for East India company colony and probably would require a separate form of government and possibly a new type of nations alongside that of the existing types like CN.

Moreover, simulating a corporate state probably would require a new type of colony if using CN, for things like making religious conversion of provinces impossible except maybe via occasional events (with very low probability) since it would seem highly implausible that a trade company would be interested in religious activities (though they would certainly permit missionaries in their territories, hence the events mentioned above) at expense of their money-making trading activities that are potentially very lucrative in this region (not to mention that state-enforced conversions could potentially upset their subjects which can mean money losses). Additionally, an East Indian corporate colony cannot have liberty desire at all and it can only exist or be broken apart by separatist rebels.

There may come the point where trade company faces possible bankruptcy, at the point which you could have 3 options: bail them out with no strings (too big to fail? ;P), bailout with strings (increased control over the colony, representing a sort of the historical Board of Control), and take-over thereby converting it to royal colony (historical examples being such as Virginia, a charter colony, becoming a royal province and the British company rule in India transitioning to British Raj).

The conversion to Crown Colony in East India Company's case may increase the revolt risk in East Indian colonies for separatists. Take-over may come with a downside in that it meant additional responsibilities and therefore greater costs for the colonial overlord; it may or may not also entail an assumption of the company's debt.

Titanius Puffin · Mar 9, 2021

This is an interesting developer diary. I like the idea of having different colonies with different characters, beyond the colonial policy.
I have one quibble[or conclusion]: I think I'll prefer 'Crown Lands' colonies to 'Private Enterprise' - particularly for trade.

If my colonial subject in a main 'feeder node' (e.g. Caribbean or Chesapeake Bay) has large trade fleets, then buffing their fleet trade power prevents me from getting 70-75% trade power. This is very desirable because this node steers trade coming from further away - I don't want the colonials benefiting from my trading empire! That's absurd!

Getting to 70% trade power usually requires sending a large and well-buffed trade fleet there. A strong buffed colonial trade fleet (in terms of trade power) - which give 50% of their trade power back to the colonial nation - can be a nasty impediment.

This is my response to how I often play... which may be an expected reaction to these design choices.
Others may have different perspectives, and so I'd be keen to hear them.

Bandua_of_Gallaecia · Mar 9, 2021

Me_ said:
There's some very wrong and very backwards logic here - giving the colony the least control makes them the least unruly and giving them all control makes them the most unruly.

I think the logic here is that a Crown colony is directly administered by the Home crown, they see themselves first and foremost as citizens of the the Home country (and are considered as such by the Home country as well) and reliant on the crown to a big extent, thus have no desire to break free and form their own gig.

The Self-Governed ones have their own goverments and are basically completely self-reliant. They eventually develop their own identity and stop seeing themselves (and being considered) citizens of the Crown. Thus this leads to them increasingly feeling like subjects of a foreing power, instead of its direct extention.
The interactions still follow the logic your present, with giving them more autonomy lowering their Liberty Desire, but the core factor of national identity would ultimately be the decisive factor.

It's a bit hard to draw historical paralels, since even if we consider this mechanic to be based on the Crown Colonies, Proprietary Colony and Charter Colonies of the Thirteen Colonies (which in itself would already be problematic, since they are considered a single colonial nation in game, despite having different relationships depending on which specific colony we are talking about) then these can also be futher subdivided into other subclasses (such as proprietary, royal, joint stock, or covenant) and Crown colonies enjoyed different levels of Autonomy (Representative, Nominate, or direct rule) themselves. But maybe someone who has actually studied the intricacies of these systems can give a more clear and accurate explanation.

So as all things in videogames, I belive this system is simply an abstracted and generalised way of representing the different degrees of autonomy and colonial practices within any given colony.

FuriousFox77 · Mar 9, 2021

Will there be a way for the player to influence the culture of a colony? In other words, is the player being given options to help its colonies converting their culture? Currently I can only help my colonies convert their provinces religion but not culture :/

leefnmajors · Mar 9, 2021

Mmm, this is the good stuff.

How mod friendly will this be? Like, changing the list of cash crops (to include current or custom trade goods) or bonus chance to spawn? Also, modifying existing colony types or potentially creating new types?

Also, any plans (now or in the future) for nation specific colonies or will all colonies default to the template shown here (subject to change, of course)?

TolHydra · Mar 9, 2021

Colonial nations were in need of a serious buff. These look quite nice.

Borgratz · Mar 9, 2021

This sounds like it actually makes a lacking part of the game better. I like it.

(also yay, bug fixes and WoL)
Great content this week.

TheCrookedYoung · Mar 9, 2021

Two things that have frequently requested, including by yours truly, are the colonies converting cultures (or at least there being some kind of toggle or player input), and the ability to limit colonial nation expansion to their colonial region. Any updates about these two features?

FuriousFox77 · Mar 9, 2021

TheCrookedYoung said:
Two things that have frequently requested, including by yours truly, are the colonies converting cultures (or at least there being some kind of toggle or player input), and the ability to limit colonial nation expansion to their colonial region. Any updates about these two features?

This , how many time I have heard players request those two features, fully agree on that

samin · Mar 9, 2021

I know numbers are subject to balancing but maybe

Crown Colony
This type of colony is for areas you want to have most control over, where liberty desire should be lowest.

global_autonomy = -0.05

recover_army_morale_speed = 0.02

embracement_cost = -0.1

governing_capacity = 100

global_autonomy = -0.05

global_colonial_growth = 10

Could use something like global_autonomy = -0.05

AvatarThomas69 · Mar 9, 2021

Skagzill said:
Can someone who is better than me at this game, explain what's the point of self-governing colony?

they can expand faster

cton · Mar 9, 2021

Will we be able to limit their expansion into another CN's territory?

Piotrzeci · Mar 9, 2021

Increasing religious control reduces heathen tolerance, does that however mean anything? Colonial nations have tradition of complete tolerance, is it finally being changed?

Jujus Potacke · Mar 9, 2021

Any chance we might be able to choose our CN's capital?

Skyfus · Mar 9, 2021

Johan said:
Hello everyone and welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. Today we’ll be talking a little bit about how colonial nations are evolving with Leviathan.

When a colony nation is formed you can pick what kind of colony this will be. This type of colony can then be upgraded for a cost for the overlord and a change of liberty desire for the subject. You can always change a colony to become another type of colony, but that will increase their liberty desire.

View attachment 690253
Crown Colony
This type of colony is for areas you want to have most control over, where liberty desire should be lowest.

global_autonomy = -0.05

recover_army_morale_speed = 0.02

embracement_cost = -0.1

governing_capacity = 100

global_autonomy = -0.05

global_colonial_growth = 10

Increase Draft from Colony (+10 Liberty Desire)
+5 Land Forcelimit for Overlord & -5 Land Forcelimit for Subject
Enlarge the Gold Fleet (+10 Liberty Desire)
+20% Treasure Fleet Income for overlord
Increase Religious Control (+10 Liberty Desire)
+1% Missionary Strength & -1 Heathen Tolerance for Subject
Increase Integration (-10 Liberty Desire)
-10 Liberty Desire for Subject & TBD for Overlord

Private Enterprise
This is the colony type you want to have when you want to maximize profits, where you want the colony to providea strong navy and control trade.

global_ship_trade_power = 0.2

embracement_cost = -0.1

merchants = 1

production_efficiency = 0.05

global_ship_trade_power = 0.2

global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.2

naval_tradition_from_trade = 0.1

ship_power_propagation = 0.1

5% less Tariffs for Overlord

Increase Trade Power Transfer (+10 Liberty Desire)
+2% Trade Power for Overlord, and -10% Trade Power for Subject
Encourage Cash Crops (+10 Liberty Desire)
Increases likelihood of cash-crop goods to appear for subjects new colonies.
Increase Navies from Colony (+10 Liberty Desire)
+5 Naval Forcelimit for Overlord & -5 Naval Forcelimit for Subject
Increase the Gold Tax (+10 Liberty Desire)
Effects TBD

Self-Governing Colony
This is the colony type that will expand and develop fastest, but they will have the highest liberty desire, and the perks you can give them are not beneficial directly to you.

global_ship_trade_power = 0.2

embracement_cost = -0.1

merchants = 1

production_efficiency = 0.05

colonists = 1

development_cost = -0.15

liberty_desire = 25

10% less Tariffs for Overlord

Allow Autonomous Trade (-5 Liberty Desire)
+5% more trade power for subject.
Allow Autonomous Taxing (-5 Liberty Desire)
+5% more tax for subject
Allow Autonomous Militias (-5 Liberty Desire)
+5% more manpower for subject
Allow Autonomous Navy (-5 Liberty Desire)
+10% more Sailors for Subject

There are also different events happening depending on which colonial type your colony is.
View attachment 690254

We are not just adding new features and polishing them, for 1.31 there is also currently over 500 different older bugs that has been fixed so far, and we have been busy tweaking and improving the interface as well.

Some of the UI improvements include.

- Alert for Inactive Merchants
- Alert for when one of your coasts are being invaded by an army.
- When you view rebels in the stability view, the locations will revolt risk for that rebel will highlight on then map.

Now we are taking a small hiatus from development diaries, until we are back to talk about diplomacy by the end of March.

This is nice but will my colonial subject notify me/ask me to join when it's losing a war I didn't even know it started

El_Cid_ · Mar 9, 2021

There are so many alerts now that we could really use an 'alert manager' where we can customize what displays and in which colour (green/red/yellow)

Zaldun · Mar 9, 2021

Johan said:
its a +100% chance to the chance of high value trade goods where they are applicable.

Does it affect the chance of gold? If not, I probably wouldn't take it and mess up a Portugal game with their increased goldmine chance.

pizzapicante27 · Mar 9, 2021

... ok, I feel nothing for this, this doesnt help the many complaints players have on colonial nations, make them more historically accurate, make their gameplay nmore interesting, balance the power of colonial vs. non-colonial, make for an interesting choice, or spice up the continent, or even the region for play.

DerKeijzer

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Thank you for making GSG Immersive Again!

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