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Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 12th of July 2022

Hyvää päivää! Welcome to this week’s developer diary where I will be revealing two new mission trees: Finland and Lübeck! As a note ahead of time, the new Finland mission tree will be part of the upcoming DLC, while we decided to grant Emperor’s Lübeck tree to Hamburg and Bremen (with the appropriate tweaks, available for Emperor owners) and give Lübeck a brand new, expansive set of missions for the base game. However, more on that further down!

Please keep in mind that the numbers showcased here are NOT FINAL and are very much subject to change based on your feedback!

During the timeline of the game, Finland rested under the crown of Sweden and had some regional development in terms of its farming population. The Finnish cavalry known as the Hakkapeliita were famed for their ability to provide valuable skirmishers, reconnaissance, and devastating charges in campaigns against both Russia and Poland. However, as with the Teutonic Order, Gotland and Livonia, this set of missions revolves around a scenario in which Finland fought (and won) their independence, making them a valid contender for the Scandinavian crown and expanding their domain across several shores and regions.

Despite Finland’s status as a releasable tag, we felt it was appropriate to satisfy the demands for a proper and interesting Finnish mission tree:

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Finland will receive 15 new missions, each one carefully crafted to offer new and unique rewards, leading into the formation of Scandinavia and the domination of the Baltic shores. Please note that the art of the icons is placeholder and is not final!

Raise Our Army will give a short yet tactically crucial bonus to your forces, allowing you the ability to outmaneuver the numerically superior Swedes and their wartime allies:

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What’s more, you will gain access to a unique version of the Hakkapeliitta Cavalry which costs no Army Professionalism to recruit:

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The mission Defend Independence will require you to make allies, raise your stability and bring balance to your financial affairs by having no loans. As a reward, you will be able to write your own story, your saga, which will grant you a scaling reward based on your ruler’s achievements during his lifetime at the time of completing the mission. The factors for the reward are:
  • Stability (Administrative Accomplishment)
  • Number of Allies (Diplomatic Accomplishment)
  • The amount of development you’ve grown by (Military Accomplishment)

Each of these will grant our ruler between 1 and 3 monarch stats (or monarch points if already at 6), along with this powerful ruler-tied modifier as well as permanent claims on the Baltic Trade Node (that’s a surprise tool that we will use later):

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Completing the aforementioned mission will open the way for 3 new missions. First off, conquering Stockholm from your former overlords will change the name of Stockholm (if your culture is Finnish), grant it some development and give you access to a discounted advisor:
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Seize the Means will task you with seizing the means of production behind Europe’s prime source of copper and will grant you a good bit of ducats from your copper and iron production, the ‘Industrious’ trait (if your ruler has enough available slots) as well as the following reward:

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Expanding St. Olav’s Tower will yield quite an interesting and powerful local reward:

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Keep in mind that if for whatever reason an enemy force (another nation or rebels) takes control of the province, you will lose the above modifier!

Declaring a Baltic Empire will give you a new name and if you have Mandate of Heaven the following reward along with granting you the rank of Empire:

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On the right side of the tree you will see missions relating to the development of the countryside and the founding of new cities:

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Founding Turku, an important city for Finland guarding the way to and from Stockholm:

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Founding Helsinki will grant a level 2 Center of Trade as well as a few buildings for your newly developed province. Note that if you complete the mission with a Shipyard and a Dockyard, you will instead gain their upgraded versions:

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Finetuning the Finances of the realm will require you to increase your income, employ a level 2 Administrative Advisor, run a positive monthly balance and have no loans:

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The Turku Academy, your domain’s first university and institution of higher education, will yield the Scholar trait for your ruler, Innovativeness and more:

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The culmination of the Finnish tree ends with unleashing the White Death upon Europe and a powerful permanent country modifier to go with it:

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Of course, you are welcome to form Scandinavia and gain the Scandinavian mission tree, however Finland will not have a unique Scandinavian tree, as its senior siblings in the region do.



Now, 1.34 will also hone and improve as well as add new content for the base game. One such addition is an expanded mission tree for Lübeck. Before we delve into it, I would like to repeat that the Emperor DLC Lübeck tree will be available for Hamburg and Bremen (if you have the Emperor DLC) with a good number of tweaks and new rewards as well as localisation.
Moreover, the Hanseatic League will now be a formable nation with its own set of national ideas (essentially Lübeck with a different name and better ideas). Since that’s out of the way, let’s go, Lübeck!

From a historical perspective, Lübeck (and the Hansa as a whole) has seen better days. The 15th century brought a lot of decline for their merchants, with business shifting westwards towards the English channel. You are tasked with reviving the mercantilist grip of the League, expanding it and creating a trade Empire the likes of which the world has never seen. To assist you in your endeavors, the various missions of your tree also benefit the members of your trade league, giving you a reason to care for them and if possible, expand their ranks:

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The top half of the tree will focus on expanding the League outwards. However, many of these missions will not require direct conquest. You will be able to complete many of these via diplomacy as well! The goal is to give the player the freedom to choose how they want to approach the tree.

The conquest branch will start with requiring you to raise an army which will seamlessly grant claims for and flow into missions about Visby, Mecklenburg, Riga and more.

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Gateway to the East will require you to have Riga be part of the trade league and have high opinion of you or control the similarly named province as well as having a certain amount of troops.

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Restore Visby will lead you to restoring a historical stronghold for the League:

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visby event.png
Gaining ports in Danzig, cooperating with the Traders and developing the city of Danzig will grant the following benefits:


danzig event.png

The conquest path ends with the appointment of an official War Minister. Every different military advisor will grant a different, dynamic reward:


Screenshot_5.png

The second part of the tree is wholly dedicated to the internal affairs of both Lübeck itself and the Hansa as a general league of trade nations. Initially, you will have to expand the Old City of Lübeck and its market, yielding powerful Trade Efficiency and Institution Spread modifiers for a few years followed by the Peace of Vordingborg, imitating the styles of Italian Bookkeeping and Financing the Guilds of Lübeck:

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Of course, no Hansa playthrough would be complete without a mission to address and expand the Hansehalle, the legendary administrative center and the heart of the entire Hansa:

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hansehalle.png
Funding the shipbuilders’ Guild will grant a flavor event about the legendary Hanseatic Cog which will grant Light Ship Cost as well as Sailors and increased Naval Leader Maneuver. Elsewhere, Organize Hanseatic Diets will require you to bring peace within the Trade League and develop Diplomatic channels between yourself and potential members or subjects:

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Impose Lübeck Law will grant another dynamic reward, based on which faction is in power at the time of completion:

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Presenting a grown and powerful economy as well as increasing your total development in the Tend to the Towns mission will yield a positive bonus for you and your Trade League members:

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Developing the Mineral Trade in Europe has quite a spicy reward that will, just like its predecessors, change depending on the circumstances of its completion, here’s the direct and less likely outcome of importing large amounts of precious metals in your ports:

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To wrap up the flavor part of the tree, declaring the Queen of the Hansa mission will turn all members of your trade League into subjects and grant a diplomatic relations modifier to cover part of the upkeep costs for 30 years. Furthermore, you will gain monarch power scaled to the Development of your capital, 10 points per development to be precise:

Screenshot_16.png

The event Crowning of a New Queen grants 2 different bonuses. Either you change your country’s name to The Hanseatic League and gain a new idea set or keep your current ideas while your ruler gains +1 adm/dip/mil and you gain 3 Mercantilism:

queen event.png

The new Hanseatic League national ideas:

FU2_ideas = { start = { trade_efficiency = 0.2 merchants = 1 } bonus = { trade_steering = 0.2 } trigger = { tag = HSA has_country_flag = hsa_proclaimed_queen_of_the_hansa_flag } free = yes FU2_foreign_kontors = { global_trade_power = 0.15 } FU2_the_handelsmarine = { global_ship_trade_power = 0.25 global_ship_cost = -0.05 } FU2_reform_queens_army = { discipline = 0.05 } FU2_adler_von_lubeck_legacy = { heavy_ship_power = 0.1 } FU2_merchants_with_state = { global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.1 development_cost = -0.05 } FU2_spread_the_northern_style = { idea_cost = -0.1 } regularised_contribution = { global_prov_trade_power_modifier = 0.20 } }


Earlier in this Developer Diary, I mentioned that the Emperor DLC Lübeck tree will be playable for Hamburg and Bremen, since Lübeck got a shiny new tree. To add to that, the Hanseatic League, which is the reward for the final flavor mission for Lübeck, is now available as a formable nation and will come outfitted with the Lübeck tree and the evolved idea set I showcased just above.

In the interest of time, this Developer Diary cannot be too large. Thus, we have intentionally omitted showcasing the rest of the flavor coming for Lübeck. This Diary barely covers 40% of the new content! As mentioned above, this Lübeck mission tree will be part of the **base game** and will come fitted with 36 new missions and 20 new events!

Lastly, I would like to bring another small change to your attention: the UI for Estates has been reworked and I would like to give special thanks to Artemis, whose UI work served as the basis for our own:
estate ui.png


Now passing the mic over to my dear friend and colleague @Ogele to talk about new shiny Theocratic Reforms!

Hello there!

In the last development diaries we have shown new government reforms for monarchies, republics and even pirate republics which will all be part of the 1.34 update. Today I want to finish this topic for good as I will present to you what we have in store for theocracies!
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Theocracies were the last on our list for new government reforms and had already a bunch of interesting and fun choices to pick from. As such, they don’t receive as many new reforms as for example monarchies and republics do. With that being said, we still think they deserve some love nonetheless and because of that we have decided to add 2 new theocracy specific tiers.

Tier 2:

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Note: Internal Mission, External Mission and Mission to Civilize are unchanged while Mission on the High Sea only requires one owned port instead of a capital port.

Tier 3:

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Education of the Theocrat will immediately trigger an event for you when picked which allows you to choose what stat bonus your next heir shall receive:

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This event will always trigger when you get a new ruler and fires before you can select an heir so your heir will benefit from the bonus you choose.

While we are at it: the Kingdom of God reform for the Papal State is still in the 3rd tier, but has received some buffs to make it more on par with theocracies which have access to the Papal Influence and Education of the Theocrat:

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Tier 5:

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Note: Only Subservient Bureaucrats and Zealous Administrators received changes

Tier 6:

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Note: Magister Militum Dei and Embrace Conciliarism are Papal State only

Tier 8:

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Note: only “Pursuit of Knowledge” is new here, the other reforms are former Tier 2 reforms which have been moved to Tier 8.

Tier 9:

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Governments which have the “Is a Monastic Order” government trait gain access to four additional reforms which are already part of the game right now.

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Tier 10:

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Tier 11:

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Tier 12:

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That was it for this week! Next week @Gnivom will talk about the AI changes and adjustments for 1.34. Until then, we wish you all a great week!
 
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By the way, what are the deadlines to submit indepth suggestions about the next immersion packs? I know that when the DD starts, we are already in a point where their is not enough time to integrate expanded feedback.
afaik, the last few patches have been following fan demand. Though I don't know how far ahead of time they are set. SEA, Africa, the Baltic, (South America and to a lesser extent the Caucasus) were all widely requested and they gradually came in that order. So it feels like all of this might have been planned as long as 2 years ago.
 
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That's why new mission trees should not raise the standards that much, it makes the older stuff looking outdated. At the end of the day, this is less work for you guys, not more... Even if not everything you create is immediately integrated into the game, you know that job isn't lost because there is probably something else comming after EU4.
i Mean then new stuff will never be added and everything would be the same quality as British mission tree
 
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i Mean then new stuff will never be added and everything would be the same quality as British mission tree
Yeah I think 'the standard should never improve if everything can't be at the same level' is going too far. It's clear the game's development has already built itself into a corner in this regard. I just wish it were different.
 
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Despite Finland’s status as a releasable tag?
Then what about Sami... well just kidding.
 
The Papal States needs a bit of a rework.

When a pope is elected, the Papal States should get the ability to reset their allies/rivals without any penalties to reflect the pope's home country's alliances/rivals.

Also, if your nation manages to get a pope, you should have the ability to change nation's mid-game to the Papal States for the term of your nation's control of the curia. Or, better yet, the Papal States should become a special vassal of the nation which controls the curia (something like a march, i guess).

This would better reflect history, especially when it came to the French pontiffs. And cause all new gameplay scenarios and tensions.
You are not playing as the pope himself like a Crusader Kings character. If the curia controller would had that much power over the papal state it would make it really boring to play as The Papal State if you get locked in as a vassal to France for 50 years if they got a young king. Its not in the game set up to play mainly as a subject nation. Sounds really railroady. :oops:

I can see an opinion bonus, but the pope is no longer a French or Castilian subject when he is pontiff.
 
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You are not playing as the pope himself like a Crusader Kings character. If the curia controller would had that much power over the papal state it would make it really boring to play as The Papal State if you get locked in as a vassal to France for 50 years if they got a young king. Its not in the game set up to play mainly as a subject nation. Sounds really railroady. :oops:

I can see an opinion bonus, but the pope is no longer a French or Castilian subject when he is pontiff.
Perhaps there is a middle-path, then? One based on events for specific nations if they become curia controller within a certain timeframe? Add in excommunication releases the Papal States from its vassal status and grants the curia controller a CB against the Papal States.

In history, certain pontiffs were pretty subserviant to the French Kings, for example, so I think some sort of mechanic/event would be a fun idea if it had enough conditions.
 
Perhaps there is a middle-path, then? One based on events for specific nations if they become curia controller within a certain timeframe? Add in excommunication releases the Papal States from its vassal status and grants the curia controller a CB against the Papal States.

In history, certain pontiffs were pretty subserviant to the French Kings, for example, so I think some sort of mechanic/event would be a fun idea if it had enough conditions.
The avignon papacy was before EU4's timeframe and you got all of the curias powers while you are the controller. Having him as a subject just sounds a bit pointless.

The Papal States still had its own affairs under the avignon and wasn't controlled by France. Which was one the reasons the pope got out of Rome.
 
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The avignon papacy was before EU4's timeframe and you got all of the curias powers while you are the controller. Having him as a subject just sounds a bit pointless.

The Papal States still had its own affairs under the avignon and wasn't controlled by France. Which was one the reasons the pope got out of Rome.
Fair. Your thoughts on the other changes I proposed in my post with exception to the vassal idea?
 
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Good suggestions! Despite being late into development, let me see what I can squeeze in!
Yes please! There are so many good suggestion threads for these countries, especially the Silesian minors! (TBH that part of the world really could use some love, as neither the tags nor the provinces do it justice... Glogow and Opole aren't among the Silesian duchies which had the greatest importance or survived the longest, and the 1444 setup should already show Wroclaw as part of Bohemia.)

Yes! We replaced the tax modifier from high crownland with (a lot of) reform progress growth!
Such a good, intuitive incentive to play tall!
 
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afaik, the last few patches have been following fan demand. Though I don't know how far ahead of time they are set. SEA, Africa, the Baltic, (South America and to a lesser extent the Caucasus) were all widely requested and they gradually came in that order. So it feels like all of this might have been planned as long as 2 years ago.
Paradox there is a very high demand from the silent majority for Balkan minor mission trees.
 
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Radical Idea for @PDX Big Boss / @Pavía
- Develop a new "dynamically generated" Releasable Nation start point for any/all releasable Nations, not just Finland.

What I mean by this - for a normal Ironman game, instead of a typical "Rise of Ottomans 1444" game start, offer a new way to generate an immediate game start into any Releasable Nation on the map - give each their "Starting Year" in your code, and have an AI generated "Fast Forward" game factoring occur as part of the game start process, so that a player doesn't enter the map until AI in the background has randomly factored everything around that releasable nation, and then the Releasable Nation is handed to the player for a fresh start at that Starting Year point, and gameplay commences.

This offers a new "Quick Start" methodology for any gamer to quickly "get in" and playing a releasable nation, but with a penalty that your Starting Year is AI randomed to that point. I think it would be preferred to not allow the player to see the fast forwarded game to that point - should be imperceptible to the gamer that the AI crunched out some game time until that Starting Year.
 
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I like this new Finnish tree, but... Maybe it could get some territorial claims in the East? Karelia in particular, then Ingria (with a mission to build a Finnish Saint Petersburg) and Estonia.
I'm also a little bit sad that Holstein, Silesia and Polish minors have been ignored, though obviously I understand that they wouldn't be a priority but it was probably their last chance.
Right
Silesia need a new mission tress and new provinces. Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia TAG'S will be wonderful.
 
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Hello dear Paradox
I am a modder and I had a few requests to improve the quality of the game and modding
Thank you for following my words because they really help
1- Please, now that you are working hard, spend a lot of time on the multiplayer game, this really attractive game, its network part works very poorly, in my opinion, change it and make it similar to multiplayer Hearts of Iron 4 or even Crusader King 3
2- Multiplayer has become very fragile and sync error a lot. Please spend time on this part as well. It is very, very important.
3- Allow modders to be able to increase transportation with transporters, that is, we can move 2k or 5k soldiers with one transporter, leave it up to the modders to set this up.
4- Allow the modders to reduce or increase the price of ship upgrades, this is very important
5- Allow the modders to benefit from federations without wanting to use native mechanics. This attractive mechanic is very useful in the game, please take the trouble to do this, thank you dears, we really need this, because when the mechanics Natives use buildings and everything changes for normal countries and this is very bad
6- Now the limit of production and trade for countries is 200%, or increase it to 1000% or make it unlimited, for many mods this limit is painful.
7- Allow the modders to personalize the federations more, this helps the game a lot and the modders can use these attractive federations in all parts of the game.
8- Allow the modders to change and personalize the basic diplomatic options of the game, with your work, this game will be eternal forever because you leave the hands of the modders free, and the players will experience more creativity every day, and the modders can be more creative. to spend
 
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Sapmi isn't a releasable tags, it's one of those tags arbitrarily trapped behind the unbreachable hell void that is "revolter tags".
1.34 will fix that for poor ol' Sapmi!

Radical Idea for @PDX Big Boss / @Pavía
- Develop a new "dynamically generated" Releasable Nation start point for any/all releasable Nations, not just Finland.

What I mean by this - for a normal Ironman game, instead of a typical "Rise of Ottomans 1444" game start, offer a new way to generate an immediate game start into any Releasable Nation on the map - give each their "Starting Year" in your code, and have an AI generated "Fast Forward" game factoring occur as part of the game start process, so that a player doesn't enter the map until AI in the background has randomly factored everything around that releasable nation, and then the Releasable Nation is handed to the player for a fresh start at that Starting Year point, and gameplay commences.

This offers a new "Quick Start" methodology for any gamer to quickly "get in" and playing a releasable nation, but with a penalty that your Starting Year is AI randomed to that point. I think it would be preferred to not allow the player to see the fast forwarded game to that point - should be imperceptible to the gamer that the AI crunched out some game time until that Starting Year.
In theory that's a wonderful idea, and personally I think it'd be very interesting to play in such a scenario.
However, the engine is far too old and stuffed to even remotely attempt something like that :(
 
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1.34 will fix that for poor ol' Sapmi!
Karelia and Sapmi down.

Would you say it's too much hoping to wish for all of the other revolter tags to actually get cores so that it's physically possible to see them outside of a blue moon eclipse?

I know getting rid of the "cores belonging to a tag that isn't the primary tag for the culture of the province disappear after 50 years" mechanic so I can release Aquilea or w/e whenever I want instead of it being 100% pointless for it to exist because it vanishes very shortly into the game is asking too much at this point though. What does cores disappearing after 50 years add to the game?

Also, colonies made in trade regions used to keep the local culture and religion, but an update made in Emperor or Leviathan changed that, so I would like to see it reverted to the old system. At the time the justification was that it was inconsistent with pre-existing tooltips and was therefore a bug, but other users found tooltips that confirmed the old way was how it was supposed to work.
 
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Karelia and Sapmi down.

Would you say it's too much hoping to wish for all of the other revolter tags to actually get cores so that it's physically possible to see them outside of a blue moon eclipse?

I know getting rid of the "cores belonging to a tag that isn't the primary tag for the culture of the province disappear after 50 years" mechanic so I can release Aquilea or w/e whenever I want instead of it being 100% pointless for it to exist because it vanishes very shortly into the game is asking too much at this point though. What does cores disappearing after 50 years add to the game?

Also, colonies made in trade regions used to keep the local culture and religion, but an update made in Emperor or Leviathan changed that, so I would like to see it reverted to the old system. At the time the justification was that it was inconsistent with pre-existing tooltips and was therefore a bug, but other users found tooltips that confirmed the old way was how it was supposed to work.
I doubt we can give the same treatment to every single nation due to that time being spent elsewhere (bugfixing mostly these days). Not really sure about the 50 years numbers, seems a bit arbitrary but that was a decision made years years ago. We could look into it but for the most part it functions just fine.

As for the second paragraph, I looked into it personally; Apparently the way it works is if the natives present in the province (the ones you fight) are outnumbered by your colonists (so <1000 or however many settlers you have at any point) then the culture / religion changes to your own.
 
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