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Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 10th of October 2023 - Yemen and Arabia

Greetings everyone! Today we will take a look into Yemen and the Arabic states, coming back to a more regular type of DD.

Let us start with the content for the Yemeni countries:
rassid missions.png

yemen missions.png

Note: Mission icons are still WIP.

As you might notice, the first mission tree is for the Rassids while the second one is for all Yemeni countries. The reason for this is that they are one of the two unique tags that follow the Zaidi school of Islam (the other one is Gilan on that note) and even are a Feudal Theocracy, so figured they deserve a bit more attention.

In general, though, the Yemeni tags are relatively similar with a similar focus which is the unification of southern Arabia, expansion into the Horn of Africa, and, of course, trade.

The Yemeni tags won’t have any big gimmicks to play with as you will probably either form the Mamluks / Egypt or Arabia later on. With that being said, they still have some interesting additions and small design experiments. An example is the addition of more age-lasting rewards like in the “Unite Yemen” mission:
age rewards.png

Note: Completing missions with age-limited modifiers after the age has passed will just give some small monarch power instead.

These kinds of rewards should incentivize you to focus on certain missions and allow us to give impactful rewards without having to worry about them stacking too much indefinitely as this was the case with permanent rewards.

A bit of a theme for the Yemeni mission rewards is to strengthen the Propagate Religion Trade Policy as you can see in the following missions:
propagate religion.png

And as a trade-focused nation, you will gain the ‘Thalassocracy’ reward when you manage to make the Gulf of Aden the highest-valued trade node and make a monthly income of 300 ducats.
thalassocracy.png

What is a Yemeni country without its focus on coffee?
coffee.png

The “Port of Mukha” requires you to have a workshop, shipyard, and 20 development in the coffee province. The resulting plantation will then pretty much carry your economy while you can focus on “Qahwah Monopoly”.

Now a short insight in the Rassids-specific missions:
rassids missions 1.png

rassids missions 2.png

And when you are done with the Yemen mission tree then you can form into Arabia to continue your campaign. With “Unite Arabia” you will be able to form Arabia a lot earlier too:
unite arabia.png

With that being said, let’s take a look at the Arabic content. Before I go into the Arabic mission trees, I should mention that Arabia has received new ideas so they are no longer a drawback to form:

Code:
ARB_ideas = {
    start = {
        tolerance_own = 2
        years_of_nationalism = -10
    }

    bonus = {
        siege_ability = 0.15
    }

    trigger = {
        tag = ARB
    }
    free = yes

    ARB_arabian_pincers = {
        cav_to_inf_ratio = 0.25
        cavalry_power = 0.25
    }
    ARB_pact_of_umar = {
        dhimmi_loyalty_modifier = 0.1
        global_tax_modifier = 0.2
    }
    ARB_engage_in_indian_ocean_trade = {
        trade_steering = 0.2
    }
    ARB_conversion = {
        global_missionary_strength = 0.03
    }
    ARB_jihad = {
        warscore_cost_vs_other_religion = -0.1
    }
    ARB_new_caliphate_rising = {
        missionaries = 1
        missionary_maintenance_cost = -0.25
    }
    ARB_mubarizun = {
        army_tradition_decay = -0.01
    }
}

Also forming Arabia will now fire the following flavor event, allowing you to change your capital to one of the important provinces from the Caliphate states:
arabia_capital_event.png

Now to the mission tree for the Arabic countries and Arabia as a whole:
arabia_missions.png

These missions are available to all Bedouin and Hejazi countries. The mission tree is split into 5 parts, 2 of them are inspired by Hejaz while the other 2 smaller parts are inspired by Najd. The last and biggest part is telling the narrative of the formation of a new Arabic Caliphate, and as such possesses a large number of conquest missions.

Starting with the Hejaz-flavored mission parts which branch from the missions “Promote Shura” and “Protectors of the Two Cities”. Here are some highlights of these missions:
wahabism.png

protectors_of_the_cities.png

expand_jeddah_port.png

Note: Jeddah is a Coastal Desert province. So in total, the province will have a -5% Local Development Cost from mission rewards after completing these missions.

As for the Najd-flavored part, here are the following highlights:
befriend_local_amirs.png

Note: Countries which do not have the government mechanic gain +15% Permanent Reinforce Speed instead.
the_harsh_desert.png


found_riyadh.png

Before moving on to the last part of the mission tree, I should mention a special decision available to Bedouin and Hejazi countries. Near the city of Medina used to be an old gold mine which was virtually exhausted in EU4’s timeframe. However, as your early economy in Arabia is barely sufficient enough to cover your state maintenance, we have added a decision that allows the Medina province to help boost your economy for the early years:
restore_cradle_of_gold.png

And once gold runs out of its usefulness to you, you can restore Cloth production once more.
close_cradle_of_gold.png

At last, we now take a look at the core of the mission tree which is heavily dedicated to expansion to mirror the past achievements of the Islamic conquests. As these missions are quite self-explanatory, I will focus on the big highlights of this part:
topple_mamluks.png

abbasid_legacy.png

unite_the_homeland.png

caliphal_ambitions.png

Note: The mission is significantly easier to complete than the Unify Islam decision.

rightly_guided.png

That was it for this week. Next week @Pavía will present you a feature breakdown of 1.36 as well as new and exciting QoL and modding additions. Until then, I wish you all a great week!
 
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Howdy!
I've got some suggestions for ya:
Commands:
- Command to see/edit global flags
- Command to change a country's culture
QoL:
- Previews of branching missions like Persia, AQ, QQ to all nations with branching missions (preferably in a free patch, pretty please)
- Ability to see debug names of religions and cultures when hovering over them in debug mode (I don't want to go to the wiki everytime)
- Ability to edit army & navy templates
- A "half-ironman" mode, with achievements available and no cheats, but with the ability to load saves (like Vic 3)
- Make the goods price changes last till the end of the game, not till 1821
 
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What if they are excluding the Timurids from this DLC and are planning an extra DLC focusing on Central Asia and will include them there?
It would make a sense if they are going to do DLC/update for post Mongolian world ( Timurids, Ilkhanate, Tatar minors and Golden Horde, Chagatai, Mongol minors, Yuan and old Mongol empire, perhaps some other tags as well ) but i doubt it. It doesn't make much of a sense to do it from my perspective at least. Based on that logic than they should have included Nubian minors and Nubia into Origins.
 
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Bit of a filler dev diary, not even a accompanying comic (could have fit a wonderwall reference somewhere just to add to my growing list of ear-worm songs, about those estate priviliges)

Im not a hundred percent sure, but does this mean that from a non-yemeni start, the Araby coffee focus for achievements is scrapped? It seems to be sort of railroading optimal play a sort of like Georgia into Byzantium. I don't know if im just looking at it from the wrong angle though, as it would certainly be easier to do it that way.
 
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No Oman is the most shocking news from this DLC.

I wanted Marib Dam but that's mostly because I'm a total war fan.
Just wait, we have seen 5 dev diaries so far on this immersion pack. I guess they just want to mix the diaries a bit. In the Lion of the North immersion pack missions for Finland e.g. were only presented in the 12th diary out of 17 before release.
 
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What if they are excluding the Timurids from this DLC and are planning an extra DLC focusing on Central Asia and will include them there?
I doubt it considering we have a Persian mission tree and the dlc's name is referencing Persia, which is the center of the Timurid Empire's power at the start of the game. Plus, the absence of Oman, Nubia and to a lesser extent Hisn Kayfa is sus. I'm pretty sure we will get more mission trees after the next DD, but I'm still worried.
 
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The caliphate mission should produce an event that allows the player to choose between existing Quraysh dynasties, or keep their current dynasty. It is enshrined in Islamic law, that only a member of the Quraysh tribe may be caliph; as has been the case for all legitimate universally recognized ecumenical caliphates : The Rashidun Caliphate, the Umayyad Caliphate, and the Abbasid Caliphate; although there are cases of non-Quraysh claimants to the title of caliph, most notably the Ottoman Empire.

The following are all authentic hadiths, confirming that in traditional Islamic law, only a member of the Quraysh tribe may be caliph.
  1. وَحَدَّثَنَا أَحْمَدُ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ يُونُسَ، حَدَّثَنَا عَاصِمُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ زَيْدٍ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ، قَالَ قَالَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏ "‏ لاَ يَزَالُ هَذَا الأَمْرُ فِي قُرَيْشٍ مَا بَقِيَ مِنَ النَّاسِ اثْنَانِ ‏"‏ ‏.‏

    It has been narrated on the authority of 'Abdullah that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: The Caliphate will remain among the Quraish even if only two persons are left (on the earth),

    Sahih Muslim 1820
    Chapter 1: The people follow the Quraish and the Caliphate belongs to the Quraish, Book 33: The Book on Government

  2. حَدَّثَنَا أَحْمَدُ بْنُ يُونُسَ، حَدَّثَنَا عَاصِمُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ، سَمِعْتُ أَبِي يَقُولُ، قَالَ ابْنُ عُمَرَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏ "‏ لاَ يَزَالُ الأَمْرُ فِي قُرَيْشٍ مَا بَقِيَ مِنْهُمُ اثْنَانِ ‏"‏‏.‏

    Narrated Ibn `Umar: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "This matter (caliphate) will remain with the Quraish even if only two of them were still existing."

    Sahih al-Bukhari 7140
    Chapter 2: The rulers from the Quraish, Book 93: Judgments (Ahkaam)

  3. حَدَّثَنَا مُوسَى بْنُ إِسْمَاعِيلَ، حَدَّثَنَا وُهَيْبٌ، حَدَّثَنَا دَاوُدُ، عَنْ عَامِرٍ، عَنْ جَابِرِ بْنِ سَمُرَةَ، قَالَ سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَقُولُ ‏"‏ لاَ يَزَالُ هَذَا الدِّينُ عَزِيزًا إِلَى اثْنَىْ عَشَرَ خَلِيفَةً ‏"‏ ‏.‏ قَالَ فَكَبَّرَ النَّاسُ وَضَجُّوا ثُمَّ قَالَ كَلِمَةً خَفِيَّةً قُلْتُ لأَبِي يَا أَبَةِ مَا قَالَ قَالَ ‏"‏ كُلُّهُمْ مِنْ قُرَيْشٍ ‏"‏ ‏.‏

    Narrated Jabir b. Samurah: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: This religion will continue to be strong till the time of twelve caliphs. The people then uttered: Allah is more great and uproared. He then silently a word which I could not understand. So I said to my father: What did he say, father ? He said: All of them will belong to Quraish.

    Sunan Abi Dawud 4280
    Chapter 1: Chapter:, Book 38: The Promised Deliverer (Kitab Al-Mahdi)
In regards to non-Quraysh dynasties claiming the caliphate, such as the Ottomans, the Yogyakarta Caliphate, the Caliphate of Sokoto, the Almohad Caliphate, etc.; most of these are non-Arab caliphates, and all Arab caliphates have stuck with the rule of Quraysh dynasties. Even Amir Timur, the most feared Turco-Mongol conqueror by the Islamic World after Genghis Khan and Hulagu Khan refused to adopt the title of caliph knowing the ruling. Even the Mughal emperors refused to recognize the Ottomans as caliphs, knowing that they were not of the Quraysh.

With that, I believe that there should be an event allowing the player to change or keep the nation's dynasty; and I suggest providing something along the line of the following choices:
  1. The Abbasid Dynasty
    • Background : The Abbasid Caliphate was a heavily decentralized caliphate, only ruling directly or not even ruling at all over Baghdad, with the rest of the Islamic World claiming to be subjects of the Abbasids but being virtually independent of them. Some rulers did act with the favor of the Abbasid Caliphate, such as the Ayyubid sultan Saladin and the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan despite being overwhelmingly more powerful than the caliph, although this was rare. For the greater part of Abbasid history, the Abbasid caliphs were puppets and religious figureheads of whichever power reigned over them. In fact, the Abbasids do exist at the start of EU4 as puppets of the Mamluk Sultanate.
    • Gain Permanent Modifier : "The Abbasid Caliphate"
      • + 1 Diplomatic Relation
      • + 4 vassal limit
      • +10% vassal force contributor
      • - 40% Liberty Desire
      • + 400% Annexation Cost
      • + 30% Minimum Autonomy
      • + 30% Governing Cost
  2. The Umayyad Dynasty
    • Background : The Umayyad Caliphate was the largest caliphate in history, known for its rapid and massive conquests stretching from Spain and Southern France to India and the Great Steppe. Established and ruled by brilliant military commanders and fueled by a drive for conquest, with their ultimate target having always been Constantinople, the Umayyads spread out in all directions in attempts to find an alternate campaign path to Constantinople. However, the Umayyads' refusal to lift the jizyah tax from Non-Arab Muslims and their general prejudice against non-Arabs would eventually lead to their downfall as minorities banded together in a revolution supporting a Hashemite dynasty, the Abbasids.
    • Gain Permanent Modifier : "The Umayyad Caliphate"
      • +15 Absolutism
      • -15% Aggressive Expansion
      • -15% War cost against other religions
      • - 15% Core Creation Cost
      • +20% National Tax Modifier
      • + 100% Promote Non-Accepted Culture Cost
      • + 20 unrest in provinces of non-accepted culture
      • - 20% Tolerance of True Faith
  3. The Hashemite Dynasty
    • Background : The Hashemites, or the "أهل البيت" (Ahlul Bayt : People of the House), are the family of the Prophet Muhammad SAAWS, and consist of the Hassanids, the Hussaynids, the Abbasids, the Fatimids, and several other dynasties; most of which claiming descent from either Muhammad SAAWS or a member of his close family. Only twice has a Hashemite dynasty ever ruled- Once, through Ali bin Abi Talib RA and his son Hassan RA; and then through the Fatimids. The Hashemite Dynasty of Jordan has also claimed the caliphate in the 20th Century, but abandoned the claim some time after. It is thus difficult to say for certain what a non-Abbasid Hashemite dynasty could bring as modifiers, though I will try my best to represent them as such.
    • Gain Permanent Modifier : "Ahlul Bayt"
      • + 5 Yearly Legitimacy
      • + 15% Tolerance of the True Faith
      • + 15% Tolerance of Heretics
  4. Our Own Dynasty
    • Background : Despite the clear ruling that the caliphate remain with the Quraysh, some dynasties nevertheless attempted to claim the caliphate, although most of them are non-Arab dynasties. The closest I could find to an Arab dynasty claiming the caliphate was when Sanchol of Andalusia convinced the young Umayyad Caliph Hisham II to name him heir to the caliphate, which ended with a bloody coup that was followed by a devastating civil war. Nevertheless, there are an abundance of non-Quraysh caliphates- Such as the famous Ottoman Empire, as well as the Sokoto and Yogyakarta caliphates, indicative of the large amount of prestige and legitimacy that comes with the title.
    • Gain Permanent Modifier : "Caliphal Usurper"
      • + 3 Yearly Legitimacy
      • + 5 Yearly Prestige

These are all suggestions. The numbering may be somewhat unbalanced, but I suppose that could be figured out.
 
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With all the hype built from the early hints of a Middle Eastern-DLC and the two first DD's, I'm disappointed. If this is it, there's still plenty of places with zero to no flavour in the greater MENA-region.

Good on the tags that got content. I'm personally glad that Persian region and Caucasus did. But why not make some more general content for the muslim world? North Africa in particular but also Central Asia is dry as a bone to play in, despite being interesting historically - and as fringe regions to with lots of space to play with.

On the other hand, the content described for the past month or so is really experimental and dynamic (and a big kudos to that), so hopefully we're seeing EU5 soon!

Oh and also good job with this new type of content. I'm solely disappointed with the amount of tags receiving content. The style of the content is very promising and appreciated :)
 
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I see a clear strategy, Rashids to Yemen, cultural conversion to Arab or Hedjazi, I don't remember exactly what the culture was called, and Arabia forms.

I always liked playing with Rashid but now they are going to be much more fun, good bonuses.

As for the rest, I reiterate what everyone else is asking for: Trebizonda, Hsin Kaifa, Teodoro, Oman (let's see if in some game I see an IA Ibadí empire, because Mzab never survives), then the Timurids are not so necessary, but a little inspiration from Europa Expanded would be good, I'm not saying that you can choose 3 different paths, but a Timurid Horde style (Aka: IllKaGanate) would be good, although if I misunderstood you can play Timurid Persia.
 
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How is there nothing for Oman? They were probably the most powerful state in the Arab Peninsula during the game's timeline, certainly much more relevant then Najd which didn't do anything significant than Najd which didn't do anything until the mid 1700's.
 
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Off the top of my head, we got content for Persia, Mamluks, Byzantium, Aq and Qara Qoyunlu, Georgia, Armenia, Yemen, and Arabia. That's great, but if your intent is to cover the Middle East, what about (in order of importance to the theme of the expansion imo):
1) Oman, Hormuz, and Mushasha? Oman is especially egregious, given its importance to the period, and the fact that it's among the only Ibadi tags in the game. Also, we just got Yemen...
2) Hisn Kayfa and Trebizond? These guys are about as irrelevant/doomed as Byzantium in 1444, so why not give the Ayyubids and Komnenos a path to restoration, too?
3) Timurids, their successors, and the Persian minors in general? We got Persia, so why not give these guys something to do besides/before forming Persia.
4) The other Caucasian and Turkish minors? A small tree would be nice. I've got a fondness for Circassia in particular, the only Christian tribe in the game.
5) Iraq and Syria? Releasables, but Finland got a tree, so why not these guys?
6) Nubia? You mentioned that you might do this one justice in the Middle Eastern expansion back during Origins.
7) Maghreb? They're a little dull right now and could use some more content.

Anyway, justice for Oman. :(
 
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Since this is an immersion package, we will see development diaries for a maximum of 3 or 4 more countries. maybe not at all. In my opinion, it did not fall below expectations, but it is not good either.

The entire Caucasus and the Crimean Khanate could also have been indirectly included in this update, but it was not. The Timurids and Anatolian beyliks appear to have been left out. When I saw the Turkish-Iranian Cultural group, I thought we would see the great Seljuks, but I was wrong. In my opinion, the Rum tag is extremely contrived and it is unclear what it represents. It is not a completely different country from the Ottoman Empire.

Nestorianism could have existed as a new belief in this current situation, but it did not. In my opinion, many issues are left hanging in the air.
 
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It would make a sense if they are going to do DLC/update for post Mongolian world ( Timurids, Ilkhanate, Tatar minors and Golden Horde, Chagatai, Mongol minors, Yuan and old Mongol empire, perhaps some other tags as well ) but i doubt it. It doesn't make much of a sense to do it from my perspective at least. Based on that logic than they should have included Nubian minors and Nubia into Origins.
The Hordes, especially the Crimean Khanate and Uzbeks -> Bukhara, really need an update. While it's not that likely, I would love to have an Immersion Pack that focuses on Central Asia (+Tibet). We just have to wait and see, if it's really it for the mission trees. It would be really sad, if there's nothing for Nubia, Hisn Kayfa, Oman and Hormuz, too.

I doubt it considering we have a Persian mission tree and the dlc's name is referencing Persia, which is the center of the Timurid Empire's power at the start of the game. Plus, the absence of Oman, Nubia and to a lesser extent Hisn Kayfa is sus. I'm pretty sure we will get more mission trees after the next DD, but I'm still worried.
I hope you're right, but if not, that's our last chance to get some content for them.

From the bright side, I hope that they'll showcase the new monuments next week.
 
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Near the city of Medina used to be an old gold mine which was virtually exhausted in EU4’s timeframe. However, as your early economy in Arabia is barely sufficient enough to cover your state maintenance, we have added a decision that allows the Medina province to help boost your economy for the early years:

And once gold runs out of its usefulness to you, you can restore Cloth production once more.

This seems a bit weird. Why would anyone want to revoke that decision?
 
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no oman? its weird to not include the most impactful arab country (in eu4 time frame) in the middle east dlc, and it hurts more when their neighbor got content and they didn't
 
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