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.

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.

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.

 

[EarlKonrad]

... 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.

I was thinking this too. So now when we form a CN we can go to a sub-menu to chose between one of three specialisations for the CN which will give it buffs, and after that we can periodically click buttons to get buffs.

This doesn't change anything CN related in any meaningful way. The only change here is that overlords will get more money out of CNs and they will run an even worse deficit because now they can have 1 extra colonist.

Another addition to EU IV that I could live without.

 

[EarlKonrad]

While it’s nice to have some “immersion” for CNs, the bigger question will be, “Will CNs be made worthwhile?” As it stands CNs are definitively less useful than Trade Company land. Yes, they give a merchant after ten provinces and yes, Treasure Fleets are nice. Other than those two pieces they are inherently worse than Trade Company land, over which the player has more control.

Did I miss something on tariffs? Are they being de-nerfed? Because if not these changes are nothing more than mildly useful. I’m surprised at the joy expressed here - do these posters use CNs as part of a strategy? Otherwise I’d say focus on the cosmetics and give us a way to maintain proper borders, since CNs as they stand are primarily a cosmetic exercise.

I like how one of the interactions that we will get will give you -5% tarrifs. As if that mattered. Or the -5% tax.

 

[IndigoRage]

While it’s nice to have some “immersion” for CNs, the bigger question will be, “Will CNs be made worthwhile?” As it stands CNs are definitively less useful than Trade Company land. Yes, they give a merchant after ten provinces and yes, Treasure Fleets are nice. Other than those two pieces they are inherently worse than Trade Company land, over which the player has more control.

Did I miss something on tariffs? Are they being de-nerfed? Because if not these changes are nothing more than mildly useful. I’m surprised at the joy expressed here - do these posters use CNs as part of a strategy? Otherwise I’d say focus on the cosmetics and give us a way to maintain proper borders, since CNs as they stand are primarily a cosmetic exercise.

Any use is still better than little to no use aside from 300 gold every once in a while and siphoning my trade flow from the spice islands route. And hey, I can kind of do that with Private Enterprise.

 

[ImperatorRoman]

I wonder if "Increase Integration" for Crown Colonies will allow the Overlord to actually integrate the colonial territories into the homeland

 

[Eruth]

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.

Another thing related to colonies: Can we please please PLEASE get the option to play as our colony without releasing it? I really want to do an ironman run where I play as a colonial nation and have to win my freedom, and there's absolutely no reason not to allow such a thing (especially considering we can already play as vassals when we create them).

 

[holyvigil]

Good meaningful changes. I like how we can focus on one type of colony and I like how we can interact with the colonies in more ways.

 

[firespark 84]

Some of these numbers seem off. 5 force limit for 10 liberty desire? That is almost never worth it for both armies and navies. The cash crop one should not only make new colonies have more cash crops but also change other low cost crops like grain to cash crops over time. Religious control has no downside when colonial nations have legit no negative modifiers from heathens already iirc. Trade power transfer needs to be at least 10% to even be somewhat viable. Other than that most of the numbers seem pretty good. Can’t wait for this update!

 

[Cosmonaut15]

The review for this DD is Overwhelmingly Positive (392,021)

 

[nogluten]

Have any changes been made to the colonial nations of Canada? As having just one nation representing most of Canada is terribly ahistorical. The region would be better represented with 3 (or 4) CN's: 1 for Ontario and Quebec (Upper and Lower Canada), 1 for the Maritimes (Acadia - New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia, Maine), and 1 for everything west of James Bay (Hudson's Bay Company), a possible fourth could be for Newfoundland (and Labrador) as that province was an independent colony up through World War II. Further, I think it would better reflect the historical development of the region if you adjusted the way colonizing the land west of James Bay worked, as in most of western Canada, aside from the Red River Colony (Winnipeg and area), there were very few permanent settlements. Instead the HBC had seasonal (and permanent) fur trading forts spread throughout the area. Almost no permanent settlements (other than Winnipeg) would occur until the late 1800's. The Indigenous tribes of the area also maintained most control over this land through until the mid-late 1800's as well, with their decline being the Numbered Treaties which began shortly after Confederation.

The Private Enterprises colony type looks like it might be a good way to represent the HBC, though it's difficult to say for sure without trying it out. If not, then adding another colony type that would better reflect the unique politics and situation of the HBC would be quite beneficial.

Having an event (or something) to represent the emergence of the Metis people is also important to add, as the Metis played an important role within the HBC, as well as in Canadian history, having fought two rebellions against the Canadian government in the late 1800's.

 

[Dsingis]

What the hell is TBD? Why do you use abbreviations without explaining what they are first?

 

[stormeagle449]

No penal colony type?

 

[PrussicAcid]

What the hell is TBD? Why do you use abbreviations without explaining what they are first?

To be determined.

 

[Alyosha]

Any use is still better than little to no use aside from 300 gold every once in a while and siphoning my trade flow from the spice islands route. And hey, I can kind of do that with Private Enterprise.

But is it worth $15.99-$19.99 to do so?

I’m still waiting for the content that will get me to fork over real money for this DLC. This improvement to CNs is not it.

 

[MW4Merc]

Is one of the bug fixes making the tarriff tooltip not lie to you?
Also please make Tarriffs an actually useful amount again.

That being said I do really like the changes. How much liberty desire is it to change between types, because like a lot of people have pointed out starting with the self governed then later switching to crown colony would seem to be the best way to snatch as much land as possible.

I'm wondering with all the native changes how aggressive will the colonies be to grab the now already native colonized land?

 

[holyvigil]

Some of these numbers seem off. 5 force limit for 10 liberty desire? That is almost never worth it for both armies and navies. The cash crop one should not only make new colonies have more cash crops but also change other low cost crops like grain to cash crops over time. Religious control has no downside when colonial nations have legit no negative modifiers from heathens already iirc. Trade power transfer needs to be at least 10% to even be somewhat viable. Other than that most of the numbers seem pretty good. Can’t wait for this update!

I definitely agree with you. Some of these options will not see use because the numbers are off not because the thing it modifies is worthless.

 

[DeXXter]

Still no way of preventing colonial nations colonising outside of their own colonial regions? What a shame.

 

[IndigoRage]

But is it worth $15.99-$19.99 to do so?

I’m still waiting for the content that will get me to fork over real money for this DLC. This improvement to CNs is not it.

Well, I'm here for the SEA/NA/Oceania missions, so this doesn't have as much weight for me. I just wish it were more substantial.

 

[EUnderhill]

Not the worst kind of filler, but I doubt that this will have much effect on the game. Who cares about tiny details of their colonial nation and how much tarifs you get from them?

People who wish there was a "print" button that would spit out annual and quarterly reports of profit and loss on each and every province, maybe even with some spiffy graphs to go with the tables?

 

[EUnderhill]

This.
With every small colonial boost here and there increasing the speed of colonization it is starting to become powercreeped a bit.
Simply changing the required settlers to finish a province from 1000 to 2000 would probably fix all of this with minimum effort and record time.

I also believe Colonization speed should be dependent on the total amount of Core Provinces of your primary culture.

We have all been through this, you conquer all of the British Islands or Iberia, but England/Portugal remain as an opm in Bermuda/Cape Verde and from their tiny 5 development island they go on to colonize the entirety of Canada/Argentina.
Where are they finding all of those settlers? Breeding them from the ground like orcs?

Since you colonize with settlers of your primary culture, the speed should definitely depend on the the amount of provinces (or development) of that culture.

This would indirectly add another value to the underused expelling minorities mechanic, which would not depend in province number since it would draw all settlers from a single province (hence the dev cost in that province).

Scaling required settlers to province size would seem the way to go to me.

 

[IndigoRage]

People who wish there was a "print" button that would spit out annual and quarterly reports of profit and loss on each and every province, maybe even with some spiffy graphs to go with the tables?

Can I have this please.