Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 14th of March 2023 - Government Mechanics + Free Content

[PDXBigBoss]

Good afternoon and welcome to another Developer Diary! This week we will be taking a closer look at various types of new content added to the game, starting with a review of the new Government mechanics that will come with Domination, and the additions we made to previous DLCs as well as to the base game.

Before we begin, let’s take a moment to address the concern around power creeping in 1.35 that has been discussed by the community in the past weeks. The content we showcase in Developer Diaries is usually in a rough form, not just from the perspective of numbers but also even from that bonuses. QA and Beta testing, along with your feedback, shape and changes the content vastly over the coming weeks. As a result, more often than not the content of the Dev Diaries does not reflect the final iteration. We take great pride in combing through and interacting with many of the comments under the Developer Diaries. We wanted to take this opportunity and note that in the cases of the Ottomans, France, Japan, and every other Great Power we have previously showcased, we have taken great steps towards rebalancing, snipping bonuses, nerfing, and even out-right changing modifiers completely. This is at least in part attributed to your stellar feedback, which helps guide us as we move through the development process. Having said that, thank you for taking the time to comment and contribute, even if we’re not always ready to answer as much as we’d like, but we genuinely appreciate it and try to take it into account as much as possible. Now that’s out of the way, let’s move on to today’s content!

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Let’s start with an updated review of all the new Government Mechanics available with Domination. You may notice that they are using a similar box, which will now be part of the Government window (Note: the Purple box does not appear for countries who do not have mechanics). This has been done to make the expansion and maintenance of special Government mechanics easier, but also it will increase its modding possibilities (something we will talk about more in-depth next week):

New look of the Government window. When having more than one mechanic at your disposal, a lateral scrollbar inside the window will allow you to check them.

So, let’s showcase them:

Ottoman Decadence

Ottoman Devshirme

Russian Table of Ranks

Russian Rule

Spanish System of Councils

Japanese Land of the Christian Sun

The New Prussian Militarization

Following up on your feedback for Prussian Militarization, I went ahead and tweaked it a fair bit:

• Removed Land Forcelimit and replaced it with Land Maintenance Modifier
• Decay halved in tier 2 and 3
• Added a decay countermeasure to slow down the loss of militarization
• Militarization Interactions now cost 20 Militarization instead of 50

Mercenary Militarization

Note; This reform will NOT stack with other types of militarization!

Korean Perfectionism

Parliament vs Monarchy (which is used by the English Parliament)

And the Shogunate, which although not part of Domination, received a bit of a re-balance:

• Forcibly Expel Ronin
  • -1 Global Unrest for 10 years
  • 50 Admin Power
  • -5% Liberty Desire in Subjects for 10 years
• Sankin Kotai
  • +3 Diplomatic Reputation for 10 years
  • 50 Dip Power
  • +0.25 Monthly Autonomy Change in Subjects for 10 years
• Sword Hunt
  • -15% Regiments Cost
  • 50 Mil Power
  • -10% Manpower Recovery Speed in Subjects for 10 years

Starting off with non-Domination-related, let’s start with the Base Game. A while back we released a Developer Diary around the addition of new Idea Groups as well as the re-balancing of existing ones (this is also a great way to showcase the impact of your feedback by comparing the old iteration with the new one!). Since then, a lot has changed based on a multitude of factors. Here are the current iterations of the 3 new Idea Groups:

Infrastructure Ideas:

Note; Do not be alarmed by the Expand Administration Cost, granting it does not mean it’ll be free forever, read more HERE


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Court Ideas:

Note; the idea “Respected Authority” also carries a unique mechanic that reduces Absolutism loss from every Estate Privilege by -20% (which effectively translates to +1 or +2 Absolutism per Estate Privilege in most cases!)
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Mercenary Ideas:

Note; We decided to remove the ability to split Mercs because it led to the impossible situation of splitting them, then mixing their 1k stacks in the same province without being able to consolidate them between each other and then not being able to re-merge them properly. However, the modifier itself is still in the script so perhaps modders can find uses for it! But a warning ahead: it can cause some out of syncs, so use it with caution.

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Now that the new idea sets are showcased, let’s take a look at some highlighted changes:

Religious Ideas:

• Church Attendance Duty now grants +10% Manpower in True Faith Provinces

Economic Ideas:

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Administrative Ideas:

• Moved the Core Creation Cost to slot 3
• Governing Capacity Bonus nerfed to 20% (used to be 25%)

Expansion & Exploration Ideas:

• Changed the Idea Factories to - > -10% Trade Company Investment Cost & -10% Trade Company Governing Cost. It is now in the 5th slot of Exploration Ideas. Expansion now gets the Viceroys idea, which used to be in Exploration (We have also tweaked Global Tariffs, hopefully they will be a bit more worthwhile now!)
• Additional Diplomats now grants +1 Diplomat and -5% Liberty Desire of Subjects in Other Continents
• The goal of these changes is to turn Expansion into the “Americas” colonization idea whereas Exploration should now be more useful for general exploring and going into and beyond Africa!

Humanist Ideas:

Note; In the interest of time, we won’t showcase every change and instead focus on bigger and more impactful additions!

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Espionage Ideas:

Note; spy_actions_cost_modifier is new and applies to all Espionage-related actions and notice can_claim_states is now a modifier as well! There is always a cost/benefit relationship between picking idea groups, hopefully Espionage will be more competitive now!
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Aristocratic Ideas:

Note; the biggest change here is breaking down the strong cavalry idea and adding the cost to fabricate claims / reduction as well as unjustified demands
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Defensive Ideas:

Note; Defensive Ideas have received a revamp in their policies as well! Now many of them focus on more worthwhile aspects of the game! ​

Quantity Ideas:

For this group, we have elected to increase the Manpower and Forcelimit a bit, to 33% each. It’s an experimental change and we would love to hear your thoughts on it!

Let’s briefly look into some policy changes:

Defensive Policies:

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And one final look at the current version of the new Idea Group Policies (not much changed, for posterity’s sake)

Mercenary Policies:

Court Ideas:

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Infrastructure Policies:

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I should also note, that the AI is now far more proficient at not only picking but also combining Idea Groups based on a multitude of factors such as:

• How militaristic their National Ideas are
• What is their current mana generation of ruler, heir, etc. (as in, can they support the idea group AND not fall behind in the same type of tech?)
• How threatened they are by neighbors and how they stack up against them
• How defensible their terrain might be
• What other idea groups they have picked (for better Policy combos)

While on the topic, let’s take a look at some of the events associated with the new idea groups!

Infrastructure Ideas:

Court Ideas:

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Mercenary Ideas:

Note; Each Idea Group will come packing 10 new events, equally split between positive and negative!
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Another impactful change in this line we decided to go forward with, is turning the "Slacken Recruitment Standards" into a 'toggle' button. Instead of magically making 20,000 dudes appear out of thin air, your conscription centers now lower their standards in order to fundamentally increase your Manpower Recovery Speed:

Since we are catching up on previously shown content, let’s take another look at the Artillery Units, here you have them with proper names, and their final pips:

Another interesting addition to the base game is the introduction of the Tier 5 Military Government reforms, which we talked about the past week. The vast majority of these (barring some tag-specific ones) will be free:

Note; Given the scope of the reforms, spanning nearly the entire globe, you won’t see them all by picking just 1 country. This is what Switzerland sees, as an example!​

With 1.35 we introduce some new privileges for free, which add some estate-specific mechanics to estates that were lacking them:

Note; Of course there are the Indian equivalents of these privileges too.​

Moving on, we have a good deal of new traits related to generals, admirals and even rulers, all of which will be part of the base game:

New General Personalities

• Cuirassier Leader: +10% Cavalry Combat Ability
• Cruel Tactician: +10% Morale Damage
• Frontline Holder: -10% Morale Damage Received
• Strict Drillmaster: +2.5% Discipline and -50% Drill Decay

New Admiral Personalities

• Naval Strategist: +10% Disengagement Chance
• Inspirational Captain: +5% Naval Morale and +10% Navy Morale Recovery Speed
• Naval Cannoneer: +10% Number of Cannons Modifier
• Wooden Waller: +10% Hull Size Modifier
• Cunning Navigator: +1 Fleet Movement Speed

New Ruler Personality

• Peasant Revolt Leader: +10% Morale Damage and -1 Global Unrest (available to Peasant Republics)
• Patron of Arts: -5% Technology Cost and -5% Idea Cost

Now let’s move to the content that we are adding to previous DLCs!

For owners of Leviathan, we have added 7 new Great Projects (all shown at their Tier 3):

Aljaferia Palace, in Saragossa.

Note; Spelling of the province is correct, Aragon now starts with Catalan as its primary culture.

Divrigi Hospital & Mosque in Divrigi.

Edinburgh Castle in Lothian.

Grand Canals in the South Jiangsu area:

The Imperial City of Kyoto.

The Palace of the Popes in Avignon.

St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow

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Taking your feedback into account, we decided to dedicate some of our artist time into reworking the visual for the Walls of Benin, to better reflect how they looked like in real life:

Note; I left the gfx of the old Benin Walls in the files with a different name, just in case we (or the modders) use it in a more appropriate place!
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For owners of Golden Century, as pointed out in a previous Developer Diary, we added new Holy Orders:

Note; We see that 2 of the Holy Orders shown here have similar bonuses (Local Defensiveness) and we will get it fixed asap!​

For owners of Rule Britannia we went on to add or re-balance the following new Naval Doctrines:

Venetian Arsenal (re-balanced):

• Number of Cannons Modifier: +10%
• Sailors Maintenance Modifier: -10%

Korean Panokseon:

• Ship Durability: +5%
• Morale Hit from Sunken Ship: -25%

Japanese Atakebune:

• Heavy Ship Combat Ability: +5%
• Naval Morale: +5%

Hanseatic Trade Fleet:

• Global Ship Trade Power: +25%
• Naval Tradition from Protecting Trade: +100%

Ottoman Great Navy:

• Global Ship Cost: -10%
• Naval Forcelimit Modifier: +20%

Maghrebi Corsairs:

• Privateer Efficiency: +25%
• May Perform Slave Raid
• Available Province Loot: +50%

Letter of Marque:

• Disengagement Chance: +10%
• Movement Speed in Fleet: +1
• Chance to Capture Ships: +20%

Novgorodian Ushkuiniks:

• Allowed Marine Fraction: +15%
• Sailor Maintenance Modifier: -10%

Dvoryane Admiralty:

• Naval Tradition: +1
• Naval Leader Shock: +1

Malayan Seafaring:

• Disembark Speed: +50%
• Naval Attrition: -25%
• Naval Transport Attrition: -50%

Junk Fleet:

• Light Ship Cost: -50%
• Naval Forcelimit Modifier: +25%

Chinese Treasure Fleet:

• Trade Range: +25%
• Colonial Range: +25%
• Treasure Fleet Income: +25%

Maratha Naval Bombards:

• Naval Barrage Cost: -25%
• Blockade Impact on Siege: +1
• Blockade Efficiency: +25%

Polynesian Navigation Seas:

• May Recruit Explorers
• Colonial Range: +50%

Naval Tactica: (for Byzantium)

• Disengagement Chance: +15%
• Galley Combat Ability: +20%

Basque Marines:

• May Recruit Explorers
• Landing Penalty: -1

Furthermore, we have also reworked the UI for the Emperor of China that comes with Mandate of Heaven, as to accommodate the new Decrees and Reforms that were added (and which we showed a couple of months ago), and to improve the user experience associated with it:

Reminder; For Mandate of Heaven owners the Emperor of China now has over 10 New Reforms and Decrees. Reforms can largely now be completed in any order but many of them have certain requirements (have X idea group completed as an example)​

Lastly, we tweaked the Reformed religion a fair bit, in order to add a lot more versatility, as we did previously with Protestantism! Now, Aspects are activated and deactivated as toggle buttons. Each toggled aspect will drain -8 Monthly Fervor. In most of our tests, players can attain a level of monthly fervor in which they can maintain at least 1 aspect at all times. Moreover, we added a new aspect: Diplomacy while stacking your Fervor higher gives its own different benefits!

Note; Numbers are not final, we’re openincorporatingrate feedback on them.
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And now, to finish, a couple of additional cosmetic changes to the Base Game:


For those of you who love painting the map when it comes to forming Japan, I added the ability to adopt your Daimyo Color upon forming Japan, based on a selection of the top 15 most popular Daimyos. Here's how it would look for a handful of them:

Shimazu Japan

Oda Japan

Takeda Japan

So Japan

While these colors certainly look fresh, some may not like the color change and wish to play with the original Japanese color. For this purpose, I added a new decision available for 10 years that will revert your color to the original Japanese one:

Note; I added a similar decision for name-changes for peeps who want their original name!​

To make a note on a previously discussed topic, we asked you guys for feedback on the various choices regarding the English and Angevin flags:

English Flag:

Angevin Flag:

Note; the flag looks a bit off-putting on the edges due to the zooming/stretching for the purposes of the Dev Diary!

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And that’s all for this week! We hope that you like the changes and additions that we have made to the game, as we’ve put a lot of effort into adding more depth to it for 1.35, in parallel with the development of Domination. In that regard, the changelog will again be massive, with hundreds of issues fixed and tweaked.

Next week @Ogele will talk about the new Usermodding features that we’re also introducing in the next update, so make sure you read it if you’re interested in the wonderful mods available for EUIV, as they will probably come with a bunch of novelty in the following months!

Spoiler: Every Patch Protocol

 

[Pavía]

Wow, Sankin Kotai seems like quite the way to simply devastate your daimyo, with +0.25 autonomy gain per province. I like Ashikaga runs as much as anyone, but maybe this should be toned down a little? Maybe affecting just one province, or one state for huge daimyo? Similarly, maybe Kyoto could be limited to increasing Bushi/Nobility loyalty rather than massively easing all faction management?

Also, will there be Cardinal bonuses for the Papal State itself? It would be kind of odd for the Papal Palace in Avignon to give bonuses to all Catholics except the Pope who supposedly owns the place.

Some minor rephrasing suggestions:

1. The "Seas" in "Polynesian Navigation Seas" could be removed. If the sea context is necessary, maybe it could be "Polynesian Oceanic Navigation"?
2. "Clerical Inwards Focus" could be "Clerical Management of Internal Affairs".
3. "[Burghers estate] Crown Possessions" could be "Lease Crown Possessions to the [Burghers]"
4. "Autonomy for the Tribes" could be "Religious Freedom for the Tribes".

P.S. Does anyone know who "Dyovane Admiralty" benefits?

Can I ask what the Dvoyane admiralty is in reference to? The first and only english google result seems to be this dev diary

they could be useful as HRE Emperor or Emperor of China for the IA/Mandate growth

Thanks for your suggestions, we'll talk them into account.

There's certainly a typo with the Admiralty naval doctrine, it should be 'Dvoryane/Dvoriane Admiralty'; it's specific for the Russian culture, and it's related to the Nobility that was employed as military officers in 18th c. Russia. It would be pretty welcomed if native Russian speakers could tell us which form is better, so we have it properly fixed.

I have 0 idea but why is Zaragoza going back to Catalan culture? I think this was a change from Golden Century

Amazing to see the Aljaferia

Zaragoza is still of Aragonese culture, but we changed Aragon's primary culture to Catalan. This might be debatable; it's difficult to think about what's the primary culture when Afons/Alfonso V had his court at that given moment in Naples while having lots of Catalan, Aragonese, and Italian nobles in it, while the Trastámara dynasty was Castilian and the Infantes had close relations with both Castile and Navarra. Anyway, as the main seat of the monarchy was still Barcelona, and Catalonia was still the most developed/populated region of the country, we decided upon this change.

Hello, @PDX Big Boss! Sorry to bother You, but could You please say, if there would be any changes related to what I posted under previous dev diary (wrong Teutons disaster event date)?
None of the developers responded, so I don't know if it has been noticed.

We are taking a look at this, indeed, and I think that we fixed the dates, and is working as intended, although I'll give a second check to it.

Eeeeey!!!

Really great!

Have you any plans to add 1 more idea group slot?

Not at this moment, as first we have to evaluate and further balance the new idea slots after we release 1.35.

I really don't like the fact that most of the content being introduced nowadays is tied to a specific country. Instead of introducing more generic, in-depth, flavorful mechanics for all, what we get is basically even more flavorless bonuses for the biggest tags, randomly split into paid and free parts.

We've been trying to introduce more generic, in-depth mechanics for the game for a while. We implemented a bunch of generic Government Reforms in 1.34, we also expanded the allowed Estate Privileges to 6/7 while adding some generic ones, we're adding new Idea Groups, etc.

We have a clear development vision of trying to increase the depth of the game, then.

 

[Pavía]

Have you already fix the stack wipe bug?

Yes.

wait, did you guys made a dynamic color system for countries? or is it multiple tags?

It's a tailored system for Japan, as a test run because of the starting Daimyos situation.

Shame that nothing for Portugal was changed/added.

Hopefully Avis won't lose the defensiveness.

Liking the new idea sets tho.

We're polishing and fixing Portuguese content, although was not covered in the DD.

I think Mechanics should be something generic but in the inside of them, they should have flavor for specific countries. The clearest example of this for me is de national ideas, every country has access to the mechanic but every country has their own.

We like that, too, and because of that, we're adding more flavor to general mechanics. We've also created some unique mechanics for specific countries under Domination, correct, but it's part of a wider Government system, that was already present in the game (and because of that we have gone for a common UI design, as we specify in the DD). Let's see how this works after the release, and we'll adjust things following the community feedback.

 

[Pavía]

What will happen with Aragonese culture? Will they still have Aragon as their primary nation (non-expiring cores and all that)?

Aragonese culture is now an accepted culture, and Aragon will still be its main nation, correct.

Back in the Spanish Dev Diary, you mentioned there would be some Navarra content. Was that referring to the unique naval doctrine or are there some changes to their missions as well?

It looks super useful and will help a LOT with an exodus strategy, I'm just curious. Great work as always guys <3

Navarra starts with a unique Government Reform, the 'Courts of Navarra':

And we've also reworked its National Ideas (so, no more the shame of having a navy-related starting tradition for a land-locked country ):