Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 18th of January 2022

[Wyatt_12]

On the subject of religion in China, I'm not so sure even having provinces be able to have Confucian as a religion is historically accurate. Historically speaking, Ming china at the time was a diverse mix of Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion. There was also a sizable amount of Muslims living in China, with some estimates of the Muslim population in the 14th century being as high as 4 million.

I dont know if paradox is interested in trying to adding new religions such as Taosim or the Chinese folk Religion, but it could be interesting . I havent played China or Korea in a long time, but if I remember right they both actually start with Mahayana harmonized. Perhaps it would be more accurate if all of China and Koreas Confucian provinces were instead Mahayana Buddhist. Something else that could do interesting is if the religion map mode showed Confucian harmonized religions differently, maybe with a white cross hatch or something.

 

[TheFinn]

I would like to see concentrate development reworked back to benefiting all stated provinces not just the capital.

 

[Mindel]

I would like to see concentrate development reworked back to benefiting all stated provinces not just the capital.

I would like to see concentrate development taken out back and shot.

 

[Raul Borges]

I think is good that Ming will have some adjustments. But I believe the top priority should be Baltic/Scandinavia Region (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Teutonic Order, Levonian Order, Riga), Colonial Nations where I have very little incentive to play as or Caucasus Region.
Ming has some flavors those other regions has almost nothing.

 

[KaiserArg]

When can we except these changes to go live?

 

[Bandua_of_Gallaecia]

@Sete At last...

Now we can rest in peace

 

[Sete]

Now I would just like Mercs numbers to be toned down late game (manpower in general maybe?).

Eager for this patch to hit to start a new run.

 

[Sete]

@Sete At last...
View attachment 795622
Now we can rest in peace

@Sete At last...
View attachment 795622
Now we can rest in peace

No, now the true conquest begins over seas sail has not spread before!
The icing on top of the cake would have been blue Portugal lol, but I'll take whatever small victories we get. It was a measured adjustment for Portugal, not over the top, but a decent buff for early mid game capabilities.

 

[Carbon-J]

The main reason China stays fractured is because the tributary state system is broken. Nations will make tributary states instead of conquering the land. How many times have you seen Japan tributary Ainu or an independent daimyo instead of uniting the archipelago?

Here is how to fix gameplay in China permanently:

1. If your capital is on the Chinese subcontinent, you cannot make another country your tributary state if their capital is also on the Chinese subcontinent.
2. Increase the number of provinces with jurchen culture so that Manchu forms more reliably.
3. AI should cancel tributary status on a country if the AI has permanent claims / cores on that nation's territory.

This will have the following results:
- The jurchen tribes will have more land giving them better armies and better economies
- The jurchen tribes will have an easier time forming Manchu
- Once Manchu forms it will conquer all the other tribes instead of making them into tributaries
- When a Mingsplosion occurs none of the new countries will be able to tributary each other
- The smaller Chinese countries will battle between themselves
- Manchu will have claims on the northern provinces and will not tributary Shun or some other country
- When Manchu forms Qing, they will be able to unite the subcontinent

This is what players want to see. They want to see Ming survive for a while, then explode, and then they want a new country (either Qing or someone else) to conquer and unite the Chinese subcontinent.

Changing tributary state mechanics will fix this issue.

 

[WindingArc]

So, we’ve come with the following changes to Ming/EoC to try to balance it a bit better:

- The Celestial Empire now has a sixth reform available which allows vassalizing your own tributaries at the cost of Mandate.

I'd suggest limiting this to tributaries that share a border with the Emperor of China.

Amazing work. Focusing on balance is what this game needs most at the moment, maybe excluding some major bugs. Love to see Persia and Mughals. As usual, I will post the balance list, with exceptional plea to fix the institution spread speed, as written in point no. 1 in major problems!

Thanks for maintaining this list. I'd add trade good spawn probabilities to it; whether you label them a major or minor problem is up to you. There's a detailed proposal in my signature to adjust the spawn probabilities of nine colonial trade goods.

 

[Skyfus]

Please consider doing something about the event where Crimea becomes an Ottoman march. Ottoman AI simply changes them to a vassal and diploannexes within a few decades. This puts them into a prime position to expand at Lithuania and Russia's expense. In two of the AI test screenshots posted, one has the Ottos blobbing hard into Central Europe, annihilating Austria and the other has them carving a path north to the Arctic Circle.

Was also a problem with Savoy and Geneva after some early game events, can't recall if that was fixed

 

[adin85]

@Sete @Sidolowka

for Portugal and Korea

 

[51states]

This is all for today. We’re open to feedback and suggestions given by you to further improve the balance for 1.33, if possible; just remember to have civil discussions about them, as there were some hot-heated ones a couple months ago (basically regarding Ming balance), and we don't want that to be repeated.

Hello! As usual my suggestion is that you please put El Morro Castle in the correct province. San Juan is having its 500 year anniversary this year and what better way to celebrate it than having its famous Castle where it belongs EU IV. Even the King of Spain is paying us a visit next week; a visit which will likely include a visit to the fortifications as part of the ceremony.

 

[Pale Blue]

With the rework to Confucianism it looks like taking the mandate will become even more undesirable.

If you are low on harmony you gain negative modifier, which amplify other negative modifier and continues to s Nd you in a death spiral if you don't take action against it asap.

On the other hand if you conquer China without taking the mandate, build a working economy for high level advisor, remove all devestation, make your land prosperous and then take the mandate you become even stronger.

I really dislike this kind of gameplay that amplifies tiny mistakes, but rewards you if you avoid the intended mechanic of taking the mandate until later, when you can handle its effects. It harshly punishes inexperienced players and the AI, while simultaneously rewarding experienced players unnecessarily.


It seems like Korea now again reliabily conquers Manchuria and kills the possibility of a Manchu tag. Qing was always rare, but at least Manchu got formed more often.

 

[Jihem]

Out of curiosity, how long do the devs take to rework an outdated mission tree? Come to think of it, all those before Emperor (for Europe) are extremely flat now, of course Sweden-Denmark, but also Poland, Lithuania, and even Russia to some extent.

 

[flatoranger]

Would it work better gameplay wise to change the monthly mandate reduction from not controlling key cities to a reduction on max mandate?

 

[DanubianCossak]

Looks promising.

 

[AFKaiser]

Another problem that the AI faces when becoming a new emperor is devastation: after a disaster, rebels and multiple wars, Ming provinces end up with close to 100 devastation, which render them useless for new emperors. A small solution to this would be to reduce devastation instantly once you take the Mandate from all your chinese provinces, and then apply a negative devastation modifier for new emperors: this way, they have a better margin to conquer stuff instead of facing an unavoidable monthly -0.5 modifier right from the start because the later emperors were incompetent.
Also, I think that there should be a special reform for chinese warring states (Yue, Wu, Shun, etc), which would make them extremely aggressive towards each other, while also preventing them from allying other nations and establishing tributaries. As other people have already said, the main issue here is the new emperors making tributaries from neighbouring chinese states, and also them allying each other, making a hugbox too scary for the AI to attack.

 

[aweaster]

To summarise my mind: interesting changes, VERY worrying screenshots.

now almost every archive can see Korea annexing Manchuria and Mongolia,Korea in history has never expanded

 

[Soselo]

I have a suggestion. The Siberian tribes still use generic ship models, maybe they should use the Asian ones.