Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 26th of September 2023 - Byzantium

[Ogele]

Oh, and some extra things which didn't make it into the DD post:
Byzantium has also some extra government reforms to play with.
At Tier 3:

At Tier 6:

At Tier 8:

And something for all monarchies at tier 7 when they take Court ideas. Kinda figured I could add it to here while I am at it.

Keep in mind: the art and the numbers are still very much work in progress. Nothing here is final.

 

[Ogele]

While we are on the topic of the Roman empire (and a Middle East DLC), could we please fix the formation requirements to be more accurate?

As I have explained here, Mesopotamia should be removed and replaced with Northern Africa, especially Egypt. Egypt was the breadbasket for the entire empire, whereas Rome never held any part of Mesopotamia for more than a short period of time.

I advise you to read through the dev diary first

 

[Pavía]

Nice, but I am confused about the names - when do I get to call it the Eastern Roman Empire, as in the first picture? Would be nice to get to decide the name ourselves. Did I miss something?

There's a screenshot in the DD which shows this:

As it's a decision, you can decide whether to change the country's name or not.

 

[Ogele]

I don't like ideas that have only patriarch authority, papal influence etc. - changing religion in such country makes it empty idea

Can you form Roman empire when new subject own land or you need to own it by yourself?

You must own it yourself.

That's interesting, I have to ask though:

1. Why not make Morea exist as a vassal/appanage at the start of the game? You can make it a "historical friend" of Byz to ensure it won't rebel.

2. I take it that you get a second chance as Morea should Constantinople fall? If so, how about Achaea (a Crusader State with Genoese as a primary culture) making a reappearance? After all, the illegitimate son of Achaea's last ruler led a rebellion against despots of Morea.

3. Won't Bulgarian separatists spawn and wreck Byz even more, considering it's very fragile internal state and lack of acceptance for mentioned culture?

4. Will you add further debuffs for "Byzantine Autocracy" reform such as +10% Stability Cost, -10% Nobility Loyalty Equlibrium and +0.05 Corruption growth?

1. We have discussed it internally, and, yes, you are not incorrect that they could be represented as a subject. However, we have opted to avoid unnecessary complexity by just increasing the local autonomy to represent Constantine's rule over it instead of having a country which has him as the ruler while he is also your heir. After all, it wasn't a vassal either.
2. Feedback noted.
3. Yes. That is intended.
4. Maybe.

Would it be possible to change the requirements for forming Rome as Byzantium to only require the areas that were held by Justinian. This in turn would both reward the player for doing so as Byzantium rather than say, France, while also ensuring that by there is still a sizable part of the campaign left when you actually form Rome, rather than you having pretty much finished the campaign.

No. Forming Rome should be the goal of the campaign.

Can you confirm if there will be any branching missions for players that choose to buddy up with Rome with those early Council of Florence events? It doesn't look like it - since there's no branching missions in the graphic - but it seems peculiar to incorporate a way for Byzantium to become Catholic (stronly implied in the DD) while also having an entire chunk of the mission tree still dependent on them being Orthodox.

There are no branching missions in relations to the religion of Byzantium. There is, however, a way to play Catholic Byzantium, but I prefer to let this be something to discover for yourself instead of spoiling it.

Huh, why is Stefan Dusan of Serbia depicted here??
View attachment 1025811

Placeholder art. In hindsight, I probably should have used the "404 texture not found" mission icons instead to limit confusion. Whoops.

Will Arabia receive a mission tree in this DLC? Feels like an oversight if it doesn't...

Stay tuned for future dev diaries.

From the very tiny outlines I see that youve followed the Rhine border to its historical extent.

Could you add the following provinces as well which historically were majority (or at least their capital) was in the Roman Empire:

Cleves
Utrecht
The Hague
Mainz

The modern rhine especially in the Netherlands used to have a different path which went much further north.

Sure.

The forcelimit, manpower and sailors modifier pronoias provide to their overlord, is that calculated from their fl/manpower/sailors or the overlords fl/manpower/sailors?

It is calculated from their FL / Manpower / Sailor Pools.

No Muslim path?

We introduced the Muslim path with 1.35 already. It just goes by the name of the Ottomans!

Oi, look, Syria exists from the start date:
View attachment 1025824
View attachment 1025821
Aren't we supposed to make a choice either to release it as a vassal or tolerate the schenanigans of local governors as Mamluks?

That one is for @PDXBigBoss

 

[PDXBigBoss]

Oi, look, Syria exists from the start date now:
View attachment 1025824
View attachment 1025821
Aren't we supposed to make a choice either to release it as a vassal or tolerate the schenanigans of local governors as Mamluks?

This is a change I implemented, because I was not happy with the event choice. Syria will now always start as a vassal of the Mamluks in 1444 and the event will now offer a choice between:
- Cores on Syria's lands and grant them Liberty Desire and a truce
- Leave the status quo undisturbed

The associated mission has been tweaked accordingly

 

[PDXBigBoss]

Thank you for clarification!

I take it that releasling Lebanon from the start date will be much harder? And who is the ruler of Syria now?

I looked far and wide for a historical name and accomplishments but did not find anything, so it will be a ?/?/? like Lubeck