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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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Reading all the negative comments about this diary (and the content of the dlc as a whole), I can't help but feel I must have missed something :
Everyone complains that such or such country that should be getting an update in a Middle East dlc does not get it. However, I don't remember reading anywhere that the countries that have not yet received a dev diary will not do so in the coming weeks/months.

So far, we have only seen a small fraction of the countries that will be updated so there is no reason to complain yet.

If I missed some information, please point it out to me. Thanks in advance. :)
 
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Reading all the negative comments about this diary (and the content of the dlc as a whole), I can't help but feel I must have missed something :
Everyone complains that such or such country that should be getting an update in a Middle East dlc does not get it. However, I don't remember reading anywhere that the countries that have not yet received a dev diary will not do so in the coming weeks/months.

So far, we have only seen a small fraction of the countries that will be updated so there is no reason to complain yet.

If I missed some information, please point it out to me. Thanks in advance. :)
Here you go:
Hi there! We understand that there might be some disappointment with the countries not getting content in the DLC (all in honesty, I had a list of like 20 interesting countries when we started planning it, so some would always be out of the final list).

However, we'd like this DD to be more focused on receiving and gathering valuable feedback about Yemen and Arabia; for instance, I like the suggestions of making Mecca and Medina possible capitals of the Caliphate, let's see if we can get it into the release version of the DLC.

I'll talk next week of the main features of the DLC as a whole, what was our design focus, and also about the 1.36 free patch, and how both are set together. I think that it will be a more appropiate moment and place to discuss about the final content list. ;)
 
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Thank you. :)
However, this does not state which countries will get an update or not. So I don't understand the complains about specific countries being left out.
Well, we can clearly see from the answer that all mission trees were revealed. Sure, there might be some new formables (like Kurdistan) and government reforms for some other countries, but not proper mission trees. There's a very small chance that there could be some mission trees that are part of the free update, but it's not that likely.
 
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My feedback is that you remove Byzantium from the DLC scope. Create a new DLC with 200 missions for Byzantium, charge 100 euros for it and make the byzantophiles pay for the content of the rest of world. Lmao

Now seriously.

Middle eastern focused DLC. Forgets about half of the middle east, add content to nations not even in the middle east. Just say that it's a Byzantium flavor pack with addons. That would've tempered expectations.
 
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Middle eastern focused DLC. Forgets about half of the middle east, add content to nations not even in the middle east. Just say that it's a Byzantium flavor pack with addons. That would've tempered expectations.
Exactly. What with the complaints of Trebizond not getting content, when Timurids (literal dominator of Middle East) doesn't have any. They should have made Timurids missions instead of Byzantium.
 
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Hi there! We understand that there might be some disappointment with the countries not getting content in the DLC (all in honesty, I had a list of like 20 interesting countries when we started planning it, so some would always be out of the final list).

However, we'd like this DD to be more focused on receiving and gathering valuable feedback about Yemen and Arabia; for instance, I like the suggestions of making Mecca and Medina possible capitals of the Caliphate, let's see if we can get it into the release version of the DLC.

I'll talk next week of the main features of the DLC as a whole, what was our design focus, and also about the 1.36 free patch, and how both are set together. I think that it will be a more appropiate moment and place to discuss about the final content list. ;)
Since you're not working on the new mission for Oman, does his old mission still work, and is it compatible with the one for Arabia?
 
I hope the free features of this DLC include free missions for Oman, Hormuz, Mushasha and Hisn Kayfa.
After all, no new provinces of new playable countries have been added to the game, so all the effort should be put into free missions for several countries
I also hope that there will be a new religion and maybe some new mechanics for the Coptic religion because currently it is a really weak religion.
 
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How about we will all be a little more calm and patient? Let's read this one more time, with a feeling:
Hi there! We understand that there might be some disappointment with the countries not getting content in the DLC (all in honesty, I had a list of like 20 interesting countries when we started planning it, so some would always be out of the final list).

However, we'd like this DD to be more focused on receiving and gathering valuable feedback about Yemen and Arabia; for instance, I like the suggestions of making Mecca and Medina possible capitals of the Caliphate, let's see if we can get it into the release version of the DLC.

I'll talk next week of the main features of the DLC as a whole, what was our design focus, and also about the 1.36 free patch, and how both are set together. I think that it will be a more appropiate moment and place to discuss about the final content list. ;)
There's no clear message like "next is QoL stuff, that's all folks" - instead Pavía says that here and now is not the best place and time to talk about that. And although not every desired country will get an update, there will be "a more appropiate moment and place to discuss about the final content list". So we can clearly see something before the end. I won't be too pleased if countries like Oman and Bukhara will be left at the sidelines too, but can we at least save our judgment for later? After all, hope is the last one to die, or so they say.
 
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I'm detecting a significant amount of discontent about this dlc. I MIGHT not actually buy it if this is all that comes out. I'm happy with Yemen, Najd and Mamlukes, but leaving out Oman, who DIDNT GET CONQUERED, Haasa, Hormuz and other nations that have been mentioned is a really bad decision.
Hopefully this changes. Another thing I don't wanna hear is oh, well just form Arabia as Oman. Nope. They are a maritime empire, and hopefully paradox has at least some creativity to give them, Hormuz and maybe haasa some content.
 
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How about we will all be a little more calm and patient? Let's read this one more time, with a feeling:

There's no clear message like "next is QoL stuff, that's all folks" - instead @Pavia says that here and now is not the best place in time to talk about that. And although not every desired country will get an update, there will be "a more appropiate moment and place to discuss about the final content list". So we can clearly see something before the end. I won't be too pleased if countries like Oman and Bukhara will be left at the sidelines too, but can we at least save our judgment for later? At least, hope is the last one to die, or so they say.

I would like to agree with that. But I think it's fair to express disappointment that a middle east themed DLC ignores half the countries and adds content for countries not even in the middle east. and also (Nubia? since it was supposed to be the DLC that would update Nubia if it would be updated).
 
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I would like to agree with that. But I think it's fair to express disappointment that a middle east themed DLC ignores half the countries and adds content for countries not even in the middle east. and also (Nubia? since it was supposed to be the DLC that would update Nubia if it would be updated).
That's understandable, again - I won't be too pleased myself. But maybe we will see Nubia among small additions for Hisn Kayfa, Oman and other generic mission trees for Arabian tags - time will tell. Don't forget how everyone got upset before time that Finland won't get anything, but it was delivered in the end.
 
How about we will all be a little more calm and patient? Let's read this one more time, with a feeling:

There's no clear message like "next is QoL stuff, that's all folks" - instead @Pavia says that here and now is not the best place in time to talk about that. And although not every desired country will get an update, there will be "a more appropiate moment and place to discuss about the final content list". So we can clearly see something before the end. I won't be too pleased if countries like Oman and Bukhara will be left at the sidelines too, but can we at least save our judgment for later? After all, hope is the last one to die, or so they say.
Considering the massive negative reaction this has gotten, if there are other mission trees planned they would’ve said something by now to calm people down. The fact that they haven’t said anything to reassure all the outrage shows me that they don’t have any good news for us.
 
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How anyone can believe that the few dev diaries we have seen so far cover all the countries updated by the new DLC is surprising to me. There are lots of dev diaries to come and I am convinced that many people misunderstand @Pavia 's message to mean that no more middle eastern countries will get new stuff. They will, we just have not seen them yet.

If I end up being wrong and no more middle eastern countries are updated, then I will second everyone's disappointment. But I am shocked that so many people believe that after only 5 dev diaries they are even remotely close to knowing what is going on in the new expansion when in the last 2 years, all expansions have had at least 10 dev diaries (Origins) and up to 43 (Leviathan). So I say it again, I believe that all the complains are premature and we should at least wait and see if they end up being justified.

Let's try to be positive. :)
 
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It gives you a path into forming the Mughals, ie the Kings of Permabonuses.
Yeah but with how interesting the Timurids’ history is, a short tree that’s entirely about becoming Mughals is underwhelming. Imagine a branching mission between Mughal Timmy, Persian Timmy, and Horde Timmy. Something with similar levels of flavor to Byzantium’s new tree. [profanity moderated out]
 
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Considering the massive negative reaction this has gotten, if there are other mission trees planned they would’ve said something by now to calm people down. The fact that they haven’t said anything to reassure all the outrage shows me that they don’t have any good news for us.
You can't know that for sure. And they didn't calm people down in case of Finland. All we can do now is wait and see.
 
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This should just have been a Caucasus/Mesopotamia/Iran immersion pack, and left the rest of the Middle East to a proper dlc. They tried to cover too much ground from what I can tell.
Eh not really, the ground they covered is less than what they covered for the Baltic. LotN added over 10 mission trees (more if you count each individual branching tree). Meanwhile KoK has like, maybe 8 (AQ and QQ are practically the exact same). A much smaller region got so much more detail, it’s kind of mind boggling