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Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 20th of June 2023 - 1.35.4 release & History Lessons DLC

Greetings, and welcome to another Europa Universalis IV Dev Diary!

Today patch 1.35.4 was released, and with it we’re fixing most of the issues reported by the community after the launch of EUIV: Domination, including the most pressing ones that were already covered in the Roadmap DD, making more than 170 fixes. We hope that it improves the overall state of the game as per the feedback that we’ve received during the past week. For any further issues that are found while playing, please use the Bug Reports subforum to report bugs and the Changelog post for any questions or comments regarding the patch.

Along with the 1.35.4 patch we’re also releasing a new type of DLC, Europa Universalis IV: History Lessons, covering two countries for this release, China and Japan. Let me explain a bit about what this is about, and why we are releasing this DLC now.

This project started around one year ago, its objective being to add some more immersion to EUIV while playing it, in the format of a podcast. After some design discussions and planning, the Team decided to create a new type of Music DLC - but instead of listening to new songs in the in-game audio player, the tracks will be composed of lessons about the history of a certain country, similar to podcasts’ episodes. To prepare for this release, we made changes in the Audio player that were already released with the 1.35 update - so, these new DLCs work pretty much the same as any other Music Pack, so they shouldn’t impact the stability of the 1.35.4 patch. And why did we decide to release the DLCs now, and not with 1.35? Basically, to dedicate most of our resources to the release of 1.35 and Domination, and to make sure that the release of the History Lessons was also done with the quality we wanted for them, so problems in one of the releases wouldn’t impact much on the other.

Taking into account the new content that we were aiming to create for EUIV: Domination, we decided to start with two of the countries in East Asia most attractive for our players, China and Japan, which also have a rich and engaging History in the time frame of 1444-1820. We were lucky enough to count for the project with two experienced podcasters, Laszlo Montgomery from ‘The China History Podcast’, and Isaac Meyer from ‘The History of Japan Podcast’. Along with the Team, they prepared and recorded the episodes, 26 for Europa Universalis IV: History Lessons - China, and 35 for Europa Universalis IV: History Lessons - Japan.

In the case of China, you will find out a lot of interesting contextual information about the Ming and Qing dynasties, how the Mandate of Heaven was handled, and the relationships between China and its neighbors. Meanwhile, the context for Japan is more focused on the different Daimyos that are present in EUIV in 1444, and the start, development and ending of the Sengoku Jidai, the civil wars that spread out in the country during the 15th and 16th centuries, and that finished with the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

We hope that you enjoy this new type of content as much as we’ve done while preparing it, specifically, those who love History as much as the members of the Team and I do. And speaking of me, I was also invited to record two special episodes of Laszlo’s and Isaac’s podcasts which will go live this week, in which we discuss how we worked on the project, and why is so interesting for us the historical context of Europa Universalis IV, and thus this project itself!

I also hope that you all have fun with the 1.35.4 patch of EUIV as well! Next week we will have the last DD before the summer break, in which I’ll make a retrospective of Domination, and talk a bit about the roadmap for the following months. Cheers, bye!
 
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jbw83 said:
Oh, is this it from the changelog? "- Fixed Expand Empire Casus Belli not showing up." ... because that's not exactly specific, lol. What empire we talkin bout here? haha
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That's the line in the changelog. I think it is very specific, because there is only one CB in the game which is called "Expand Empire". And rather than relying on the changelog, I also tested that the CB actually works. This can be done with console commands in less time than it took me to write this comment.
 
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grotaclas said:
That's the line in the changelog. I think it is very specific, because there is only one CB in the game which is called "Expand Empire". And rather than relying on the changelog, I also tested that the CB actually works. This can be done with console commands in less time than it took me to write this comment.
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I do not know how to do console commands. But I appreciate all the downvotes I'm getting for being lost and confused about the game.
 
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Mindel said:
Really? We're even going to get a podcast explaining to us how Ming was completely destroyed by flooding and earthquakes in 1445?
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"In January 1445, the Ming Collapse started after massive floodings caused the population to drown, the few survivors scattered towards the high ground, however, just as they were settling into their new homelands, a large amount of earthquakes hit all of China, when the Manchu invaded next year, there were only a handful of peasants to stop Nurhaci from conquering the entire nation."
 
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Quick update: the DD is not coming this week, but the next one, as we just released the 1.35.5 hotfix, and we're monitoring for further critical bugs. Thanks in advance for your understanding!
 
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I know I'm ghosting this thread, but I think doing a podcast is a great idea.

On the subject of music I did want to make a recommendation for a music DLC that would fit absolutely perfectly with the game, yet might be difficult to acquire the rights for or make similarly inspired tracks.

Currently the soundtrack in the game called "Off to War" already takes some inspiration from the main theme of the popular, yet dated, 18th century total war game Empire: Total War.

Everytime I listen to the track "Off to War" I'm disappointed the crescendo doesn't stay there or reach any higher. Furthermore the flourish of the snare drums in the ETW theme is beautifully atmospheric.

Even the loading screen in Empire Total War would audibly depict the mundane and grim reality of battle and sounded masterfully.

All of this, reinforces my wish that there's some way to incorporate the soundtracks from Empire & Napoleon: Total War into Europa Europa Universalis IV seamlessly.

I don't know if this would involve Paradox Interactive negotiating with SEGA or another strategy. However any attempt to make new soundtrack more "guttural" from sounds of muskets, fifes, mortars or snare drums in the background to dramatic music with soaring crescendos and lengthy staccatos would be cherished by the community.

Thank you for your time.
 
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Another quick update: another week without DD, as we have something in the oven for the coming days.
 
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Pavía said:
Another quick update: another week without DD, as we have something in the oven for the coming days.
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Can the developers give consideration to reworking the colonial system?

I think the biggest grievance is how colonial nations intertwine and create enclaves as they expand causing unrealistic border gore from a "realistic" colonial administration perspective.

Maybe colonial nations could just be limited to expanding inside of their own colonial region and any land that is annex outside of it becomes a new colony.

Additionally, the New World gets colonized too fast. Maybe slow down and increase the cost and speed of colonization by 50% and have it decrease in cost at certain diplomatic tech levels so the colonizing game picks up towards the 1600s. That way there will be more to do in the early-mid game and it would allow people to play longer as opposed to starting a new game right when the 1700s hit.

Finally, could Holland/Netherlands get a commercial enterprise like the British? Call it Dutch East Indies and give it claims over Indonesia just like the East India Company gets claims over India.
 
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This caught my attention very late, but how does this differ from players making community made podcast content in the same format over workshop? Im skeptical that it has much monetary worth other than covering the production costs for quantity of content.
 
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