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Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 21st of June 2022

Welcome to our next Development Diary for Europa Universalis IV! For today we take a look at a fan favorite™ of the Scandinavian region: Scandinavia itself.

Unlike our other Scandinavian kingdoms, the unified country of Scandinavia was never a real country. Yet it is undeniable that Denmark and Sweden tried to unite Scandinavia under their own banner during the history of this region. The Kalmar Union was the closest to a unification of these countries.

As Scandinavia is a formable with little historical ties we decided to make its mission tree into an extension of pre-existing mission trees of Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The newly gained missions are either an expansion on the current playstyle, or are mirroring key missions from the other Scandinavian Kingdoms. So let us go through the different tags and how forming Scandinavia impacts them.

As Sweden already has a very extensive mission tree the formation of Scandinavia expands the mission tree by 13 new missions:
swedish_scandinavian_mission_tree.png
Sweden receives three new branches of their mission tree and two additional missions expanding the Caroleans and Hakkapeliitta even further.

Starting from the left, the missions “Invest in the Workforce”, “Scandes Infrastructure” and “Intensify Metal Production” are newly acquired missions which are available to both Denmark and Sweden when forming Scandinavia. They give you access to the Mountain Expansion privilege as well as the event chains to discover new sources of copper, iron and even silver in Scandinavia. So in other words: they are the development missions of Norway.

The missions started with “Handle the Empire” are Swedish specific as they are a continuation of Gustavus Adolphus’ ambitions in Germany. Either through conquest or diplomacy, the goal of these missions is to dominate the Holy Roman Empire. The great payoff of uniting Germany is the following reward:
hegemon_of_germany.png

Note: keep in mind that at this point you already are the strongest nation anyway, so the payoff is one final “get richer” reward.

The final branch on the right covers the construction of a flagship which should be the pride of Swedish Scandinavia. Of course this whole branch is a reference to the Vasa.
the_first_vasa.png
However, if you had the event “The Sinking of Vasa” before then this event changes slightly:
vasa_ii.png
The missions “Refine the Caroleans” and “Incorporate the Cavalry” revolve around the Carolean and the Hakkapeliitta. With the former mission you need to specialize even further into your military by reaching 20% Discipline OR gain 14 Military Power per month, have 25 Swedish or Finnish provinces with a barracks and at least 75% Army Professionalism. As a reward you get the following effect:
carolean_mission_reward.png

Note: This image of the Carolean buff has been done before we got to rebalance it. Right now, the reward is not set in stone.

Meanwhile, the cavalry requires you to have the Hakkapeliitta in action for 5 years as well as either having 20% Cavalry Combat Ability OR 50 cavalry in total, and having at least 10 Finnish provinces with 10 development and a barracks.
hakkapeliitta_reward.png

hakkapeliitta_mercs.png
You might notice that their names are in green. The reason for that is to showcase that these mercenaries cost no Army Professionalism to hire. They also possess a special tooltip when you hover over them to showcase their special feat:
free_merc.png

These were the Scandinavian missions for Sweden. Two to go!
Next we move on to the Danish version of the Scandinavian missions:
danish_scandinavian_mission_tree.png
As Denmark your missions for the Indian subcontinent get expanded even further. “Rule over West India” and “Dominate North India” give you claims on the vast Indian regions while the “Crown of India” finishes this path of the mission tree with a permanent modifier which increases Trade Steering by 20% and Trade Company Governing Cost by 25%.

Note: We did and still do consider adding the Indian estates as a reward too for the “Crown of India” mission. Due to problems with the UI (the estate window would require a rework to be able to show more than 5 estates + crownland at the same time) as well as the issues of immersion (all the Dharma estate events will assume you are an Indian nation, not a Scandinavian foreign power which happens to own India) we are hesitant to add this reward though.

Additionally to the development missions of Norway, you also get the ones of Sweden, which are about the Sami and the Forest Expansion. These two missions are shared with Norway. You also gain the Swedish missions about dominating the Baltic Sea and conquering the entire coastline of said sea.

Finally, the mission “The Military Question” is the finisher for the mercenaries of Denmark. By having a completed Military idea group, 30% Army Professionalism, 40% Army Tradition and a level 3 Military Advisor you can fulfill this mission and trigger the following event:
merc_event.png

merc_event_second_option.png

That was the Danish Scandinavian missions. Last but not least, let’s see what Norway gets from forming Scandinavia.

Norway gets the biggest addition to its mission tree with 17 new missions from forming Scandinavia.
norwegian_scandinavian_mission_tree.png
As Norwegian Scandiavia your New World ambition gets expanded way beyond North America. Do note that the “Dominate North America” and “Control South America” are not only about colonizing these continents, but also about keeping your rivals and enemies away from there. “Settle in Rio Grande” will give a permanent claim on every province owned by your rival/enemy or by their subjects in North America while “Expand the Frontier” does the same for South American provinces.

The final mission rewards of dominating the entirety of the New World are two permanent modifiers:
new_world_perma_modifiers.png

You will also gain some old world related missions such as new goals in Africa and the Baltic Sea.

The more exciting missions are, however, in the middle. With “Expand the Leidang” you unlock two new estate privileges for the Nobility which mirror the customizability of the Swedish Caroleans - but not it affects your marines.
leidang_privileges.png

Finally the mission “Kingdom of the Sea” gives a permanent 20% Good Produced and the bonus of getting 0.5% Army Professionalism whenever you hire an admiral.

Those were the Scandinavian mission trees for the three kingdoms. Of course you know that Scandinavia is not a formable exclusive to Sweden, Denmark and Norway, so the question arises: what happens if somebody else forms Scandinavia? Don’t worry, we got this case covered!
scandinavian_mission_tree.png
The Scandinavian mission tree was mostly inspired by the Germany mission tree as both formables are late game “what if” nations in EU4. Because of that the mission tree is split into 4 branches:
  • A conquest branch, which is about the conquest of North Germany, the British Isles, the Baltics and Russia. The big reward is a permanent +100 Power Projection.
  • A colonial branch which revolves around the New and the Old World colonialism. The highlight of these missions is a permanent Trade Company Investment cost reduction of 20% and Build Cost reduction of 10%.
  • A branch about absolutism and revolution - Scandinavia is a tag you form with admin tech 20 after all unless you are either Sweden, Denmark or Norway. +20% Max Absolutism, +1 Diplomat and -3 Global Unrest are the rewards for sticking to the late game.
  • A branch about the internal development of your country. Unlike the other branches, this one has the more interesting rewards and requirements. Through “Let the Ducat Roll” you unlock the Mountain and Forest Expansion privileges. “Invest in Finland” unlocks the Hakkapeliitta mercenaries for your country, “Develop the Scandes” fires the Norwegian event chain for the copper and iron in Scandinavia. And “Empire of the North” gives permanently +5% Development Efficiency.

That was it for the Scandinavian content for the DLC. However, I am not done yet with them as there are other changes related to this tag. First thing (and I know this one might not be very popular): Scandinavia is an Endgame Tag, which means you cannot form any other country other than the Roman Empire and the unified HRE.

To compensate this, however, Scandinavia receives its own unique set of ideas which reflects the different aspects of the Northern kingdoms:

Code:
SCA_ideas = {
    start = {
        discipline = 0.05
        ship_durability = 0.1
    }
 
    bonus = {
        manpower_recovery_speed = 0.33
    }
 
    trigger = {
        tag = SCA
    }
    free = yes
 
    sca_connecting_history = {
        stability_cost_modifier = -0.2
    }
    sca_unified_scandinavian = {
        possible_policy = 1
    }
    sca_danish_baltic_fleet = {
        naval_morale = 0.2
    }
    sca_norwegian_marines = {
        allowed_marine_fraction = 0.25
        sailors_recovery_speed = 0.25
    }
    sca_finnish_hakkapeliita = {
        cavalry_fire = 1
        cavalry_power = 0.1
    }
    sca_swedish_carolean = {
        infantry_power = 0.15
    }
    sca_empire_of_the_north = {
        legitimacy = 1
        devotion = 1
        republican_tradition = 0.3
        yearly_absolutism = 0.5
    }
}

Next I want to close the Carolean topic. Our newest unit had a little bit of an identity crisis as their first iteration was one of a special elite unit and the second iteration was the result of a too harsh nerf hammer.

Now we have the third and final iteration of them:
carolean_final_version.png

Note: These three manpower modifiers do NOT stack with each other. So in Sweden’s case it would work like this: Swedish provinces give +33% more Manpower, Finnish provinces (which are accepted by Sweden) give +20% more Manpower, Danish provinces (which are not accepted but are in the same culture group) give +10% more Manpower.
carolean_privileges.png
Additionally, we reduced the number of development required to recruit a Carolean unit. Now you can recruit one regiment of Caroleans for every 10 development of Swedish or Finnish provinces.

The goal is to make the Caroleans more into the standard army of Sweden than a special elite force, but they should still have a significant punch. Maybe this version might be a bit too strong, but that is the one we will stick to until the release of the DLC.

Last week’s development diary showcased the monarchy government reforms and today I want to give an update in that regard.

Many of the new reforms and changes to old reforms adjusted absolutism for monarchies which was not a very popular approach whatsoever. Because of that we have decided to drop this idea entirely. We also did some rebalancing of the tiers. Here is the new update of the monarchy reforms:

Tier 2:
monarchy_reforms_2.png

Tier 3:
monarchy_reforms_3.png

Note: The requirements of the Centralized Bureaucracy reforms scales with the ages. With every age the range of the requirements increases by 10 (for example: Centralized Imperial Bureaucracy would require 35 provinces in the Age of Absolutism to be visible while during the Age of Discovery it would be only 15 provinces).

Tier 5:
monarchy_reforms_5.png

Note: Only the “Dynastic Administration” is new here. The other three reforms are untouched from the current version.

Tier 6:
monarchy_reforms_6.png

Note: Parliamentarism and States General are unchanged.

Tier 8:
monarchy_reforms_8.png


Tier 9:
monarchy_reforms_9.png

Note: L’Etat c’est moi is also part of this tier, but unchanged.

Tier 10:
monarchy_reforms_10.png

Note: Not in picture, “Become a Republic” and “Install Theocratic Government” are also part of this tier, but unchanged.

We also overhauled the republican reforms too. See for yourself!
republican_reforms.png

Tier 2:
republic_reforms_2.png

Tier 3:
republic_reforms_3.png

Note: Merchant republic related reforms will not be touched and are not shown here.

Tier 5:
republic_reforms_5.png

Tier 6:
republic_reforms_6.png

Tier 8:
republic_reforms_8.png

Tier 9:
republic_reforms_9.png

Tier 10:
republic_reforms_10.png

Tier 11 and 12 are currently WIP.

Here is also an update for the shared Tier 4 and 7.

Tier 4:
generic_religious_reforms_4.png

Note: All the different reforms for the religions will be revealed in a later Development Diary.

Tier 7:
generic_economical_reforms_7.png

This was it for this week! Next week we will take a look into a region on the other side of the Baltic Sea. I won’t say which region, but expect for next week to learn to hate your nobles when you play the star of next week’s Development Diary.

Until then I wish you all a nice week!

EDIT: I just noticed that the numbers for the army tradition decay modifiers are off. Of course we mean -0.3% and -0.1% Army Tradition Decay, not -3.0% and -1.0%. This has been fixed internally already.
 
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Weak might be abit much. If i play as Sweden and wants spacemarines ill likely stick to swedish ideas but i can see both Norway and Denmark switching to Scandinavian ideas since 5% disc, 15% infantry combat ability, 10% cav combat ability, +1 cav fire,+ 33% manpower recovery all are pretty top notch military bonuses. The naval bonuses are also big but yeah i'd prefer economic bonuses or something to naval buffs.
Fair point but they’re competing with other end game tags as the “final formed” country in a player’s run. Denmark and Norway could go form something better like Germany or Italy. Other end game tags have things like ccr, admin efficiency, governing capacity, -years of separatism. Again, the unique thing about this idea set is the +1 cav fire as something that promotes a unique play style.
 
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The flag isn't beautiful but the closest we have to a flag for the Kalmar Union. But the name Scandinavia more refers to the 19th century idea of uniting the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish kingdoms.
Latter half of 19th century to be even more precise, if I remember correctly. The first decade or two with ideas of linking the nordic countries closer didn't mention scandinavianism or Scandinavia as such. But it would be really cool if the player could chose name upon forming, like with Malaya. Scandinavia/Kalmarunionen/Empire of the Three Crowns or what ever could be ideas for the names.
 
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Scandinavia's flag'd look better with white lines as in Norwegian flag. It'd make it look much better even with the current colors.

So if Poland is next week's topic then can there be a new formable of "Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth" (long name isn't it, maybe Republic/Commonwealth of Three Nations (or just) Three Nations is better)? It was a proposed (but never actually formed) European state in the 17th century that would have replaced the existing PLC.

Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth's flag & Coat of arms
 
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So if Poland is next week's topic then can there be a new formable of "Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth" (long name isn't it, maybe Republic/Commonwealth of Three Nations (or just) Three Nations is better)? It was a proposed (but never actually formed) European state in the 17th century that would have replaced the existing PLC.

Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth's flag & Coat of arms

Firstly there was never such thing as "Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth". It was just "Commonwealth" or "Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania" (Regnum Poloniae Magnusque Ducatus Lithuaniae). Calling it "Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth" or "Commonwealth of Three Nations" are modern invention. So the name should stay Commonwealth. And the flag and coat of arms you are talking about are from January Uprising (1863) not from era where there was real consideration to make Ruthenia a full member of Commonwealth (1658).

That said Commonwealth should have option to adopt new members of Commonwealth: Ruthenia, Muscovy and maybe even Bohemia and Hungary. Commonwealth at it peak could have all West Slavic, East Slavic, Baltic and Carpathian culture groups as accepted (quadruple empire xD) but maybe Commonwealth should be limited with number of other cultures that can be accepted.

If we want go ahistorical I would love to see possibility to create Sarmatia (it would require uniting everything between Vistula River, Danube River, Black Sea, Caucasus, Caspian Sea, Volga River and Baltic Sea before enlightenment with low absolutism, high nobility loyalty and off-course being Catholic). And slapping name "Sarmatia" instead of calling it "Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian-Muscovian-Bohemian-Hungarian Commonwealth" would be just more convenient. :p
 
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Having Carolean troops just makes me wish EU4's combat was more developed and interactive like in the Field of Glory series for example. Battles could be much more interesting.
 
Good job on the development diary!
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Scandinavia looks awesome!


I wonder if the balance in the North is working out well during playtesting between Sweden, the Commonwealth and Russia?
72.png
That's pretty hard to amount for three historical great powers all sharing a border.


I will say that the art you guys make for the mission trees are always fun to watch. If it's easy-ish, I wonder if the art for all the existing mission and in-game mechanics can be updated with with the latest versions of the art so each mission tree can look as vibrant as they do now? Although that might be too arduous and painstaking of something to update for several countries.


Overall, I wanted to say that I really appreciate the changes coming so far in the Scandinavian update. I think that it will add a lot of new value and flavor to the region. I also appreciate making changes to the current government reforms. The current choices are pretty obvious and linear in terms of what’s better. I wouldn’t rule out decreasing absolutism entirely in government reform, but the point is that anything above -5.00 max absolutism will be seen as too harsh to players.
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I wanted to put together a small list of things I felt were still unbalanced ingame. I don't know how much final game balancing you'll do after you finish with the Scandinavian update, so here's a small list of proposed changes and balancing issues I've encountered when playing over the last few weeks:

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I’ve listed them in decreasing order of importance to gameplay or what I believe would be easier to implement ( I'm not familiar with the code so some may actually be harder).

  • Catholicism Balance Changes to Golden Bulls especially the spread institutions which gives an OP flat +1.66 growth modifier. This should be reduced to +1.00 growth (AT MINIMUM)! This reduces the modifier from taking 100/1.66 = 60.24 months (5.02 years) to 100 months or (10 years). I believe that this change is essential since currently, it nullifies the advantage of being first in embracing institutions or technology. Furthermore, this doesn’t account for the cumulative modifiers that both the player and the AI have on institution spread. Usually, if this is chosen during the Renaissance spawning I often see it growing between 1.66 - 4.0 in provinces all around Europe. This is way too fast from previous patches and it makes institutions fairly pointless if it becomes a game of hoping the old pope will die and go to someone who hasn’t embraced the institution or back to the papacy which might not have embraced it yet.

  • Institute Reichsregiment from the holy roman emperor screen which gives an HRE-wide −2 National unrest in every Empire province. I think that this should be reduced to -1 National unrest in every Empire province. This way rebels' spawning can still be fairly frequent, reflecting the power and risk that peasant revolts had against the European nobility. (This depends on how often rebels spawning is acceptable)


  • Reduction in innovativeness gain of western nations by reducing the gain for each tech research slightly. Such as 4 to 2 for each tech research as well as from 2 to 1 for ideas. I think passive growth is alright, however, growth through research is excessive.

  • Extending Regencies since a queen/king consort has better stats, i.e. (5/4/6) vs (2/0/1) is too easy.
  • First extension should be -10 Legitimacy & -10 Prestige.
  • Second extension should be -20 Legitimacy & -20 Prestige.
  • Third extension: -30 Legitimacy & -30 Prestige etc.
  • This makes players have to face a tougher decision about extending a regency for extra points. However, this doesn't change the fact that if you could guarantee your next leader's succession, a (6/6/6) regent will always be better than a (0/0/0) heir at 360 Admin/Diplo/Mil in each category for 5 years. (There is also a bug related to this, but I haven't personally seen it yet of the AI extending a regency when an heir has better stats). www.reddit.com/r/eu4/comments/oeg9tl/ai_extended_regency_despite_its_heir_being_much/


  • Adding a Center of Trade to the Valencia trade node for France for more competition in the node.

  • (Minor) Idea changes:

  • Since Religious ideas give +10% Clergy loyalty equilibrium as part of its bonus idea for completing the idea set. I thought that this should be applied to the two other estates in two different idea categories so players can pick certain ideas as a way to increase most/all estate loyalty. Trade-Ideas should give +10% Burghers loyalty equilibrium. Finally, Aristocratic Ideas should give +10% Nobility loyalty equilibrium. (This also has the added effect of letting people roleplay interest groups in their government as well).

  • ^^^^ My bad this already occurs, however, I do think that if there's some way to move the burghers' bonus to trade so even a monarchy can have +10% to all estates would be interesting. Otherwise, it's fine. It reduces clutter when the tooltips don't show the bonuses to each estate when you don't have them or you play as a specific government. However, I was able to see that these events already occur in-game. I try to double-check my suggestions, but this one got past me.
  • World Ports should give a minor +0.25 to +0.50 prestige gain, or a -0.5% prestige decay modifier.

  • Regimental camps give a +2.00 Land Force Limit (rather than 1.00)
  • Conscription centers give a +3.00 Land Force Limit (rather than 2.00)
  • (reasons provided in my aside below, mercenaries make more sense than an expensive barely larger standing army).


  • Improving Docks as well to be less situationally restrictive.

NEW EDIT ( I know people may have moved on, but I wanted to justify why I don't think increasing the land limit is that bad of an idea).
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I feel that while players can have a number of provinces, nothing about receiving a +1.00 land force limit for a building that cost 200 ducats is enticing to me. For instance, one of the countries that I like to play in is England it starts with 41 provinces, Scotland is 9, and the isles are 3. The Irish minors make 13 for a total of 66 provinces.

The Ottomans start with 42 provinces, the Mamluks (if completely annexed) have 44, Crimea has 7, Byzantium 4, Epirus 3, Cyprus 1, Candar 2, Ramazan 1, Karaman 5, Venice (in the area ~7) Genoa (in the area ~5), Albania 2, Serbia 7, Dulkadir 4, Wallachia 5 for a grand total of 139 provinces if the Ottomans took this all.

Given how big the Ottomans can get I would expect their force limit to hover around ~120 Regiments from here. Now if they built regiment camps in all their provinces it would set them back. 27.800 ducats. I don't expect the AI to pay forward all this money nor do I expect them to build in >50% of their provinces. With 50% built in their provinces, it would still cost ~13.900 for 69.5 troops.

Not to mention the rising maintenance cost, slowing monthly income
each time they recruit a new regiment to be around their force limit. Also, The AI will prioritize other buildings taking up building slots, and great projects or world ports before it starts trying to double its force limit.

This same analysis can be done with a greatly expanded Russia in-game, but economically it doesn't make much sense.

Furthermore, if this change occurs for every AI ingame, the minor AI provinces possibly have the same or a greater likelihood to build regiment camps, nullifying any long-term gains by building regiment camps, same with the Great Powers fighting each other.

Finally, I feel that during war mercenaries are still overwhelming favored when anyone needs a larger army to fight someone.

When building, The problem is that I consider regiment camps and conscription centers as "third-tier buildings", especially for their cost which doesn't pay off.

  • Forts, barracks, churches, workshops, marketplaces, and manufacturies make up 1st tier (including upgrades) First Tier
  • Ramparts, universities, coastal batteries, shipyards, and courthouses make up the second tier (for their occasional utility) Second Tier
  • Finally, 3rd tier docks give +50% sailors (100 ducats, only situationally useful) and Regimental camps give +1.00 Land force limit (200 ducats, barely situationally helpful? Why not recruit mercenaries?) Third Tier

At its current cost for what it is. I don't feel it's worth it, hardly ever. Both these "third-tier" buildings could be improved. Even if I'm a minor in the HRE I would hire mercenaries or rent condottieri first.

TL;DR: Both Docks and Regiments Camps are tier three buildings and need more bonuses to be worth it.

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  • Being Able to See the Loan Screen again as a player to see how much interest has increased.

  • Changes to Legitimacy/Republican Tradition. Legitimacy/RT at max should give all estates loyalty. I think this is important since estates are getting harder and harder to manage overall. Currently, it’s based on prestige which fluctuates far more than legitimacy/RT does. It also makes less sense based on prestige rather than Legitimacy/RT realistically since it should represent how much authority a nation commands.
  • For Example:
  • +5.0% Estate loyalty at 100 legitimacy/RT
  • 0.0% loyalty at 50 legitimacy/RT
  • -5.0% loyalty at 0 legitimacy/RT

  • Buff to Naval and Maritime ideas, likely by using/replacing bonuses from flagships such as +1 trade power per light ship or +1 blockade impact on a siege. Having the ability to stack blockade impact on siege would make for an interesting strategy which should be rewarded by choosing both ideas, (especially in combined policies). A blockade runner idea either giving prosperity gain or war exhaustion reduction would be a good idea to implement. However, the flagship bonuses should make up a good chunk of the idea group.

  • Like above ^^^^ I think this should tie into a rework of flagships. Possibly some nations should have the ability to have more than one flagship, or flagships should be reworked to make the naval gameplay aspect more viable.

  • Making France more willing to expand in Europe taking Brittany, Provence, Burgundy, and Savoy and attempting to expand/exert influence over southern Italy. For some reason, the French AI seems still too passive, although it's refreshing to see the AI generally be more aggressive.

  • 10-20% Reduction in Colonization Speed either through ideas or tech gains each time. It should reflect the historical boom in interest in the colonies coming around the 1530s. Maybe 1.3x Exploration ideas for the Netherlands, Great Britain, and France from this time onwards?
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(NEW, NEW EDIT for my feelings on colonization speed and what could be done better)
  • To elaborate on what I mean by this, it would definitely be welcome to see more non-Iberians colonize America with the interests they had historically. For instance:

  • The Voyage of John Cabot in 1497 under Henry VII of England.

  • In 1534 Jacques Cartier claimed northern North America for France.

  • Sir Walter Raleigh attempting to establish a colony at Roanoke in 1584

  • Samuel de Champlain founding Quebec in 1608

  • The Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) employing The English sea captain, Henry Hudson, in 1609 to find a passage to India.

  • The founding of the New Netherland by the Dutch in 1614


  • This leaves a number of important dates or possibilities for when colonial interest should really start in earnest. I think around the time a nation has the option to select their idea groups is best:

  • 1. National Ideas: 1466 (Administrative technology 5)
  • 2. Renaissance Thought: 1492 (Administrative technology 7)
  • 3. Modern Theocracy: 1531 (Administrative technology 10)
  • 4. Scientific Experimentation: 1583 (Administrative technology 14)
  • 5. National Sovereignty: 1635 (Administrative technology 18)

  • This is why I felt that around the 1530s would be the best time to ramp up bonuses to colonization further. I will say that I have seen France choose exploration ideas more which makes for more interesting gameplay. However, with how fast colonization occurs this feels like it hinders my enjoyment of the colonial game more than it helps it.

  • With it being the second idea group, around the time of Columbus and John Cabot's Voyage, a timing of 1530 would correspond to the selection of a third idea group (around Jacques Cartier's voyage). The rate of colonialization in 1583 (the time that the fourth idea group is available) could be too late before most, if not all of the Americas are settled. The colonization rate would have to be seriously nerfed before this makes any sense.

  • However, if other nations choose Exploration Ideas too early, this only hurts Castille and Portugal which are forced the code to pick exploration and expansion ideas as their first and second idea groups.

  • While punitive and more railroaded, I think that an
  • AI preference for Exploration ideas If not Castile or Portugal before 1530 should be x 0.7 for Exploration Ideas

  • I think that beyond this, it's an effort in tedium fiddling with AI preferences further. This is because this would leave open the possibilities of further European colonialization, while not significantly decreasing the chance of it occurring earlier or altogether.

  • This ties into another issue in-game which is the Treaty of Tordesillas.

  • The Treaty of Tordesillas in-game is in URGENT need of a rework in some way. I think that it should require you to pay 100 papal influence to declare a region as your sole domain, at least as a Band-Aid until something further can be done.

  • There are several ways to correct this by possibly taking inspiration from Europa Universalis II or some ideas from the community already. I honestly don't know what the best approach is.

www.reddit.com/r/eu4/comments/8lpxmg/treaty_of_tordesillas_system_needs_fixing/



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  • Changes in AI decision-making about idea groups. I feel like this can override a campaign if an AI picks a horrible idea group for a region that’s heavily dependent on them. https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Idea_groups#AI_preference I believe tags also independently influence idea picks so this may be a factor as well.

  • Ottomans & Russia (when formed) should have 1.3x for choosing Administrative Ideas.
  • Theocracies & Papal States should have 1.5x for Religious/Divine Ideas.
  • The Lowlands should have 1.3x for Trade-Ideas.
  • Defender of the Faith 1.3x to Religious Ideas.
  • Muscovy, Russia, Castile, Aragon, Spain. 1.3x to Religious Ideas.
  • Ottomans, Russia, France 1.3x to Offensive Ideas. (Possibly too railroaded)
  • (These are all changes I would think about adding to the AI Preference modifiers already existing on the wiki).
( know that in some cases idea choice can be modified by tags. Hopefully, this could possibly be altered for them to pick ideas more relevant as well).
  • Finally, I would strongly suggest adding one more monument to Austria to give the region a bit of standing power if Austria were to ever lose the Emperorship:
  • Hofburg Palace
  • Noteworthy: + 0.50 diplomatic reputation, + 5% improved relations
  • Significant: +1 diplomatic relations slot, + 0.75 diplomatic reputation, + 10% improved relations
  • Magnificent: +1 diplomatic relations slot, + 1 diplomatic reputation, + 15% improved relations
I also agree that there should be at least 1 monument in Stockholm as well, as the royal palace of the Swedish monarchy.

  • Hofburg palace is only valid if you're in the HRE (as a possible requirement)
It may be worthwhile to include other modifiers instead, or more of them at the magnificent level such as:
liberty desire, income from vassals, aggressive expansion, diplomatic annexation cost, envoy travel time, unjustified demands, some HRE modifier, etc..

eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Modifier_list#Diplomacy


I also sincerely hope that there is at least 1 monument added to Stockholm such as the Stockholms Slott or the Konglig Museum. (Especially as plans for this Update!)
It would also be awesome to see Amalienborg being added as a monument in Copenhagen!

Last but definitely, not least.

Adding the British Museum eventually as a monument giving cultural conversion or reducing the cost of moving monuments would be the greatest meme in a videogame to date.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall these are just a few of the minor, but impactful changes I would really love to see before/after the final dlc drops. I understand that not all of these proposed changes may not actually be as popular as I might believe. However, I really hope that some of the issues that the rest of the community brings up from time to time get addressed first and foremost.

Thanks!
 
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On second though Commonwealth could have variations of Mughal Diwan system, but I would limit it to following culture groups (otherwise it does not have historical sense):
  • West Slavic,
  • Baltic,
  • East Slavic,
  • Carpatian,
  • South Slavic,
  • Caucasian,
  • Tatar,
  • Iranian (BIG ASTERISK HERE - this may be to much),
but with a plot twist - each culture (group) accepted means penalty to absolutism (let say 5 per culture or 20 per culture group). Big Commonwealth (Sarmatia) should mean 0 absolutism even without any privilege. :p Accepting culture should be performed via decision so player can decide if he want accept culture (group) in exchange for the penalty.
 
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Very nice changes, the government reforms are well balanced. As always Sweden (and now Scandinavia) will remain overpowered, as is tradition, but the most glaring is the permanent 100 Power Projection. Is it not excessive? Power projection should be something to work towards and be very hard to maintain. Also if Scandinavia suffers back to back defeats and reduced to a few provinces, how is it explainable that they still have 100 power projection and the nation that defeated them doesn't. Maybe make it 25 permanent PP or 100 PP which decays normally?
 
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The Caroleans are still very strong. Sweden will have one of the most powerful armies in the game. Are the devs ok with this? Next patch forward the supreme majority of players will pick Sweden to play (from that region).

Also, the ramifications in multiplayer.

I urge for a rethink.
They look quite balanced for mp to me. Noble estate privileges are very valuable in MP, if you want to activate priviliges for caroleans it will cost you on the long run. Second you only get a fraction of your troops based on swedish dev. If you culture convert everything (which will put you behind in dev in MP) you can still field about 20% of your inf as caroleans. So you will have the best single stack in the game, but your neighbours in poland and prussia will still have a better army as whole.
 
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Very nice changes, the government reforms are well balanced. As always Sweden (and now Scandinavia) will remain overpowered, as is tradition, but the most glaring is the permanent 100 Power Projection. Is it not excessive? Power projection should be something to work towards and be very hard to maintain. Also if Scandinavia suffers back to back defeats and reduced to a few provinces, how is it explainable that they still have 100 power projection and the nation that defeated them doesn't. Maybe make it 25 permanent PP or 100 PP which decays normally?
Think the PP is actually quite nice, by the time you get that you will probably have eclipsed everything. I find it personally very frustrating to own all of europe but have no power projection because there are no valid rivals left.
 
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Think the PP is actually quite nice, by the time you get that you will probably have eclipsed everything. I find it personally very frustrating to own all of europe but have no power projection because there are no valid rivals left.
That's the same for every other tag, and to help keep PP over 50 there are Hegemonies. Also I think Great Powers without rivals lacking in PP is a representation of complacency setting in the nation and its people. I still think 25 PP would be better balanced.
 
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Yeah, basically hegemony + 25PP bonus would give you constant 100PP, so I think that permanent 25-30 PP makes more sense.

I have two another propositions:
  1. Getting full core on a province should also give permanent claims, core decays, permanent claims are permanent and it is just stupid to see Muscovy or Ottomans having permanent claims for lands thousand kilometres from their borders but no claims on provinces directly adjacent to them. In my last game as Provence I have early conquered Ireland, Scotland and Northern England but I waited with rest of England into 1790s... It have no sense that England had claims on Ireland and Scotland but not on Northern England.
  2. In most of my games Muscovy has problems to created Russia and there is nobody to colonise Siberia which also does not make any sense. This have two solutions:
    1. Give Muscovy the Cossack frontier ability but as the last of their national ideas.
    2. Or the last independent tag with East Slavic culture can proclaim Russia after 1550 even if other other conditions are not met.
 
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This all sounds great, but a lot of these missions would make more sense if the west african node fed into lübeck as well.

Not only would this give a lot more reasons for the Scandinavian kingdoms to colonise, but it would also give players with the ambition to form Germany more reason to establish colonies. The trade in the English chanel would still be strictly controlled on the account of Scotland being in the North Sea node, but it would still afford for more interesting playstyles without creating trade “death loops”.
 
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I am very happy about the additional tier 9 option. It was a dead reform level before. I can't imagine anyone taking +1 possible policies on purpose. Not even +1 to all possible policies.
 
What unit sprites Will Scandinavia use? Not Generic Western i hope. If you have some time over Swedish Tier2 looks goofy, Maybe an uppgrade would be in order.
 
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Nice that skandinavia gets some missions as now forming them feels more "rewarding" - I know that skandinavian countries already have unique events outside of missions, just keep adding them. I really hope for some events for releasing the tags of gotland, finnland and island (maybe sami?) over the the time of the game with different options.

As there are hopefully some plans for finnland, gotland and island: Please don't let this be just a mission for the player or even worse, an active "release a vasall" decicion, as we would hardly see this country spawn, and never if we don't play as the overlord.

Similar to existing events I suggest history events over the game with 4 options that will pop up once (or give a little event chain)

1. Option: Supress the national movement (get unrest or spawn rebells) (AI pick this 80%)
2. Option: Release as a vasall (AI pick this 15%)
3. Option: Release as a free country (AI pick this 5%)
4. Option: Release and play as (player only)

if any of the 1-3 is picked it would be great to have an optional information event/popup for other interested nations. There are more then enough good historic pre-conditions to fire one of the events.

With this you would add (without an even better eventchain) 3 simple events that would add a lot of dynamic map changes. They will be not that common, so the map and the game feels "fresh" also if you're not playing any of this countries. As a player its always most fun to see the world "develop" around yourself different so its not feeling like the player is the only one doing decisions.

The only small downside in the missiontree of skandinavia imo. is, that I can't really see missions regarding the last age of the game. There would have been more possiblities.
Maybe something like Mughals gets for Deccan. Release Finland as a march, and get a permanent bonus, or don't release them, but don't get the bonus. Essentially, convince min-maxers to roleplay by making the roleplaying decision the min-maxed one.
 
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Good job on the development diary!
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Scandinavia looks awesome!


I wonder if the balance in the North is working out well during playtesting between Sweden, the Commonwealth and Russia?
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That's pretty hard to amount for three historical great powers all sharing a border.


I will say that the art you guys make for the mission trees are always fun to watch. If it's easy-ish, I wonder if the art for all the existing mission and in-game mechanics can be updated with with the latest versions of the art so each mission tree can look as vibrant as they do now? Although that might be too arduous and painstaking of something to update for several countries.


Overall, I wanted to say that I really appreciate the changes coming so far in the Scandinavian update. I think that it will add a lot of new value and flavor to the region. I also appreciate making changes to the current government reforms. The current choices are pretty obvious and linear in terms of what’s better. I wouldn’t rule out decreasing absolutism entirely in government reform, but the point is that anything above -5.00 max absolutism will be seen as too harsh to players.
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I wanted to put together a small list of things I felt were still unbalanced ingame. I don't know how much final game balancing you'll do after you finish with the Scandinavian update, so here's a small list of proposed changes and balancing issues I've encountered when playing over the last few weeks:

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I’ve listed them in decreasing order of importance to gameplay or what I believe would be easier to implement ( I'm not familiar with the code so some may actually be harder).

  • Catholicism Balance Changes to Golden Bulls especially the spread institutions which gives an OP flat +1.66 growth modifier. This should be reduced to +1.00 growth (AT MINIMUM)! This reduces the modifier from taking 100/1.66 = 60.24 months (5.02 years) to 100 months or (10 years). I believe that this change is essential since currently, it nullifies the advantage of being first in embracing institutions or technology. Furthermore, this doesn’t account for the cumulative modifiers that both the player and the AI have on institution spread. Usually, if this is chosen during the Renaissance spawning I often see it growing between 1.66 - 4.0 in provinces all around Europe. This is way too fast from previous patches and it makes institutions fairly pointless if it becomes a game of hoping the old pope will die and go to someone who hasn’t embraced the institution or back to the papacy which might not have embraced it yet.

  • Reduction in innovativeness gain of western nations by reducing the gain for each tech research slightly. Such as 4 to 2 for each tech research as well as from 2 to 1 for ideas. I think passive growth is alright, however, growth through research is excessive.

  • Extending Regencies since a queen/king consort has better stats, i.e. (5/4/6) vs (2/0/1) is too easy.
  • First extension should be -10 Legitimacy & -10 Prestige.
  • Second extension should be -20 Legitimacy & -20 Prestige.
  • Third extension: -30 Legitimacy & -30 Prestige etc.
  • This makes players have to face a tougher decision about extending a regency for extra points. However, this doesn't change the fact that if you could guarantee your next leader's succession, a (6/6/6) regent will always be better than a (0/0/0) heir at 360 Admin/Diplo/Mil in each category for 5 years. (There is also a bug related to this, but I haven't personally seen it yet of the AI extending a regency when an heir has better stats). www.reddit.com/r/eu4/comments/oeg9tl/ai_extended_regency_despite_its_heir_being_much/


  • Adding a Center of Trade to the Valencia trade node for France for more competition in the node.

  • (Minor) Idea changes:

  • Since Religious ideas give +10% Clergy loyalty equilibrium as part of its bonus idea for completing the idea set. I thought that this should be applied to the two other estates in two different idea categories so players can pick certain ideas as a way to increase most/all estate loyalty. Trade-Ideas should give +10% Burghers loyalty equilibrium. Finally, Aristocratic Ideas should give +10% Nobility loyalty equilibrium. (This also has the added effect of letting people roleplay interest groups in their government as well).

  • World Ports should give a minor +0.25 to +0.50 prestige gain, or a -0.5% prestige decay modifier.

  • Regimental camps giving +2.00 Land Force Limit (rather than 1.00)
  • Conscription centers giving +3.00 Land Force Limit (rather than 2.00)

  • Being Able to See the Loan Screen again as a player to see how much interest has increased.

  • Changes to Legitimacy/Republican Tradition. Legitimacy/RT at max should give all estates loyalty. I think this is important since estates are getting harder and harder to manage overall. Currently, it’s based on prestige which fluctuates far more than legitimacy/RT does. It also makes less sense based on prestige rather than Legitimacy/RT realistically since it should represent how much authority a nation commands.
  • For Example:
  • +5.0% Estate loyalty at 100 legitimacy/RT
  • 0.0% loyalty at 50 legitimacy/RT
  • -5.0% loyalty at 0 legitimacy/RT

  • Buff to Naval and Maritime ideas, likely by using/replacing bonuses from flagships such as +1 trade power per light ship or +1 blockade impact on a siege. Having the ability to stack blockade impact on siege would make for an interesting strategy which should be rewarded by choosing both ideas, (especially in combined policies). A blockade runner idea either giving prosperity gain or war exhaustion reduction would be a good idea to implement. However, the flagship bonuses should make up a good chunk of the idea group.

  • Like above ^^^^ I think this should tie into a rework of flagships. Possibly some nations should have the ability to have more than one flagship, or flagships should be reworked to make the naval gameplay aspect more viable.

  • Making France more willing to expand in Europe taking Brittany, Provence, Burgundy, and Savoy and attempting to expand/exert influence over southern Italy. For some reason, the French AI seems still too passive, although it's refreshing to see the AI generally be more aggressive.

  • 10-20% Reduction in Colonization Speed either through ideas or tech gains each time. It should reflect the historical boom in interest in the colonies coming around the 1530s. Maybe 1.3x Exploration ideas for the Netherlands, Great Britain, and France from this time onwards?

  • Changes in AI decision-making about idea groups. I feel like this can override a campaign if an AI picks a horrible idea group for a region that’s heavily dependent on them. https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Idea_groups#AI_preference I believe tags also independently influence idea picks so this may be a factor as well.

  • Ottomans & Russia (when formed) should have 1.3x for choosing Administrative Ideas.
  • Theocracies & Papal States should have 1.5x for Religious/Divine Ideas.
  • The Lowlands should have 1.3x for Trade-Ideas.
  • Defender of the Faith 1.3x to Religious Ideas.
  • Muscovy, Russia, Castile, Aragon, Spain. 1.3x to Religious Ideas.
  • Ottomans, Russia, France 1.3x to Offensive Ideas. (Possibly too railroaded)
  • (These are all changes I would think about adding to the AI Preference modifiers already existing on the wiki).
( know that in some cases idea choice can be modified by tags. Hopefully, this could possibly be altered for them to pick ideas more relevant as well).
  • Finally, I would strongly suggest adding one more monument to Austria to give the region a bit of standing power if Austria were to ever lose the Emperorship:
  • Hofburg Palace
  • Noteworthy: + 0.50 diplomatic reputation, + 5% improved relations
  • Significant: +1 diplomatic relations slot, + 0.75 diplomatic reputation, + 10% improved relations
  • Magnificent: +1 diplomatic relations slot, + 1 diplomatic reputation, + 15% improved relations
I also agree that there should be at least 1 monument in Stockholm as well, as the royal palace of the Swedish monarchy.

  • Hofburg palace is only valid if you're in the HRE (as a possible requirement)
It may be worthwhile to include other modifiers instead, or more of them at the magnificent level such as:
liberty desire, income from vassals, aggressive expansion, diplomatic annexation cost, envoy travel time, unjustified demands, some HRE modifier, etc..

eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Modifier_list#Diplomacy


I also sincerely hope that there is at least 1 monument added to Stockholm such as the Stockholms Slott or the Konglig Museum. (Especially as plans for this Update!)
It would also be awesome to see Amalienborg being added as a monument in Copenhagen!

Last but definitely, not least.

Adding the British Museum eventually as a monument giving cultural conversion or reducing the cost of moving monuments would be the greatest meme in a videogame to date.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall these are just a few of the minor, but impactful changes I would really love to see before/after the final dlc drops. I understand that not all of these proposed changes may not actually be as popular as I might believe. However, I really hope that some of the issues that the rest of the community brings up from time to time get addressed first and foremost.

Thanks!
Plutocratic and Aristocratic Ideas do give loyalty equilibrium for their respective estates currently
 
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