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Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 28th of February 2023 - Great Britain

Greetings! A new week, a new Dev Diary, and this time it is about our final big country of the DLC, England, and its follow-up nation of Great Britain. Similar to Russia, England and Great Britain received their content update with 1.25 which is now almost 5 years old. While the British mission tree was one of the most extensive in its time, it has become quite outdated and was in dire need of receiving an update in order to keep England on the same level as the other great powers which are seeing a liftover with 1.35.

So, let’s get started!
british_missions.png

These are all the missions you have available as England and as Great Britain. These missions are available to everyone who forms GB.

The mission tree is split into several themes:
- The internal affairs and issues of England, which were the War of the Roses, the English Reformation, and of course the English Civil War
- The classic conquest of the British Isles
- Trade Dominance in Europe
- Colonizing the New World
- The conquest of India
- Internal development

Starting with the classic missions, the British Isles conquest missions are what their name suggests: unifying the British Isles under your banner. The highlight of these missions is the ability to unlock the “Act of Union” which is a unique parliament issue to form Great Britain - more on it later. Also a ,QoL addition has been added to these conquest missions: if you conquer Scotland you can get the following event if Norway did not sell Orkney to Scotland yet.
flavor_gbr.2.png

The AI is very likely to accept as long as they don’t have any negative opinion of you.

The missions regarding colonizing the New World are also quite self-explanatory. However, these missions do have some unique rewards which make colonization a little bit more interesting. The mission “Found the Royal Navy” grants you +33% Colonial Range and the ability to recruit explorers and conquistadors for 25 years. It also unlocks a parliament issue that gives you the same modifiers once the mission reward runs out.

“Discover the Americas” unlocks another Parliament issue with a rather experimental and unique effect:
colonial_venture.png


As long this modifier is active and you fully colonize a colony you get the following event:
colonial_venture_event.png

You get a selection of trade goods to choose from. The province will then start producing the selected trade goods. The first option keeps the current trade good if you don’t want to select any new production.

Keep in mind that the trade goods you can choose from have the same requirements as they would normally have when you colonize a province. In other words: you cannot select every province in North America to be a gold province out of nowhere.

Speaking of gold: selecting a certain trade good to be produced has a price that is calculated by the following formula: (1 + <the times you selected the trade good>) * 5 * <base cost of trade good without any modifications from events>.

In this example, we decide to create our own Fish & Chips monopoly, so we choose fish for every colonized province:
colonial_venture_event_2.png


Some trade goods are inherently more valuable than others. If a trade good has a higher base cost than 2.5 then it will also have an Administrative cost in order to be produced:
colonial_venture_gems.png

Note: The admin cost will be rounded down to 7.

Again, the formula for this is also rather simple: (<base trade good price> - 2.5) * 25 * <the times you selected the trade good>.

Now of course I have to address the elephant in the room: Gold. In order to avoid a world where a Great Britain player would put a gold province in every single eligible province of the New World, I decided to give Gold an “estimated value” of 10 Ducats base cost. This is reflected in the price you have to pay for a Gold province in the new world:
colonial_venture_event_gold.png

The only limit for how many gold provinces you want in the end is not any hard block but your tolerance for pain in paying for the establishment of another gold province.

Of course there is a decision which toggles this off if you are not interested in micromanaging every single colony you create:
colonial_venture_toggle.png

The missions “Settle in America” and “Colonize the Caribbean” modify your colonial capabilities even further with more unlocked parliament actions:
taxation_vs_representation.png

gold_act.png

Note: You have access to a sugar and spice version of this Parliament Action in the mission tree.

Finally, the mission “Dominate the New World” gives a permanent modifier which also benefits your colonial subjects too.
new_world_domination.png

Note: The Trade Efficiency might look weird considering that you siphon the trade from the New World, but Tariffs in their current iteration are calculated from the production income + trade income. As such, this bonus is an indirect bonus to how much tariff you receive from your colonies.

Of course a British mission tree would not be complete without a trip to India. The mission “East India Company” gives you an early choice of how you want to manage your territory in India.
east_india_company_event.png
The first option will release a unique subject in the form of the East India Company and it gives all permanent claims you get in India to your subject. The second option lets you keep the claims, but you won’t have access to your new subject, while the third option is for the purpose of role-playing where you can play as the company yourself, which might be an interesting campaign for some people.

The East India Company starts with a unique version of the Merchant Republic:
trade_company_reform.png

And of course it has its own set of ideas:
Code:
EIC_ideas = {
    start = {
        global_prov_trade_power_modifier = 0.2
        tolerance_heathen = 3
    }

    bonus = {
        global_trade_power = 0.15
    }
   
    trigger = {
        tag = EIC
    }
    free = yes        #will be added at load.

    eic_governors_general = {
        global_unrest = -1
        governing_capacity_modifier = 0.1
    }
    eic_indian_trade = {
        global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.15
    }
    eic_chartered_merchants = {
        merchants = 1
        placed_merchant_power = 10
    }
    eic_presidency_armies = {
        global_manpower_modifier = 0.1
        global_sailors_modifier = 0.2
    }
    eic_intercontinental_trade = {
        trade_steering = 0.25
        trade_range_modifier = 0.1
    }
    eic_colonial_monopoly = {
        trade_efficiency = 0.1
    }
    eic_colonial_exploitation = {
        trade_company_investment_cost = -0.1
        build_cost = -0.1
    }
}

This trade company subject has some special properties which aim to make it competitive to the trade companies we already know and love. A trade company behaves in many ways like a colony, which means it is able to declare its own wars, it will pay tariffs to its overlord and you can use the “Modify Subject Relationship” on them (modifications for Self-Governing Colonies are applied here). However, when an external nation attacks your Trade Company you are called into war. There are also some additional subject interactions which are not available to normal colonies such as “Siphon Income” and “Fortify Subject” (in the past it was March, but it has been renamed now).

“Masters of India”, which requires you to own or have a subject own 200 provinces in India, gives an additional bonus to your trade company subject:
masters_of_india.png

These were the colonial missions. Now we move on to the internal missions.

The missions of the “War of the Roses” path are all about your religious internal affairs. Depending on what is your stance towards the clergy, you unlock one of the two government reforms for the 4th tier:
religious_reforms.png
The missions “Strengthen the Kingdom” and “Acts of the Parliament” play heavily into the conflict between the monarch and the parliament during the Age of Absolutism, which eventually led to the English Civil War.

Completing both missions give you access to both mutually exclusive government reforms:
more_reforms.png

Speaking of, in order to properly represent the struggle between crown and constitution, you will eventually receive the following event as you enter the Age of Absolutism:
strife_king_and_parliament.png

absolute_power.png

Note: Background UI is still work in progress. The Monarchists will start the civil war when it reaches -100, not 100. Not shown in the image: if the value drops below 0 the modifiers change to: +4 Global Unrest, -10 Years of Nationalism, -10% Idea Cost and -1 Yearly Absolutism.

Resetting Debates, letting debates fail and revoking parliament seats increase your Absolute Power while giving away seats and letting debates win decrease Absolute Power. There are two ways of handling the mechanic altogether: you either juggle with the Absolute Power until the Age of Revolution starts or you try to reach either direction as fast as possible in order to trigger the following event:
escalation_event.png


If this event fires then the conditions to fire the English Civil War change to the following:
new_disaster_conditions.png

The disaster itself has seen little change per se. Pretender rebels on the parliament side have been replaced with a new, Parliamentarian rebel type which are basically Pretenders, but republican versions of them. The big change for the disaster is the end reward when you go through them.

If you side with the Royalists and end the Civil War without breaking to rebels you get the following reform:
absolute_britain.png

Letting the Parliamentarian win and choosing to become a republic will unlock the following reform:
parliamentarian_republic.png

And finally, if you let the Parliamentarians win, but decide to become a monarchy after Cromwell’s death:
british_monarchy.png
If you complete the mission “The Three Kingdom Wars” (which really should have been called “Wars of the Three Kingdoms”, but there was no space for it) by going through the hassle of the English Civil War, you unlock the following reward:
english_civil_war_mission_reward.png
These parliament issues are unlocked as you also unlock your national ideas. You have up to three issues which negate one of your national ideas in order to introduce a new strength.
ideas_altering_issues.png
These issues are, however, limited to three national idea groups in total though - they do not cover you if you form a nation which would not be typical in your England run like, let’s say France or Spain.

Of course you can toggle them off with a decision in order to have the space of your parliament issues not be occupied with them anymore, and you can revoke all of the adjustments - though at a heavy cost:
toggle_off.png

Note: Forming a different country will automatically revoke these modifiers. I am also considering making this cost a lot less severe though in order to promote flexibility. Maybe 75 ADM cost per adjusted idea is more manageable.

While these were the internal disasters and issues, there is more to the mission tree. The mission “Issue the Royal Warrant” goes more into the economical direction of your country. While the mission itself can be completed rather early, its big reward is more something you will unlock later on as you get the following reform unlocked for tier 8:
royal_charters.png

trade_protectorate.png

Note: Numbers are not final, as usual.

As it is somewhat of a running theme with 1.35, another mechanic of the old EU4 has returned once again, though this time it is a little bit different. Trade Protectorates are a voluntary relationship between you and the target country, and some AIs might even request to become such a subject in order to be protected from foreign forces. The Trade Protectorate and the overlord are free to annul the treaty, though they have to pay with 1 Stability unless the liberty desire is 100.

Only countries whose capitals are within your trade range are eligible to become your protectorates.

I should also mention that these Protectorates are not Great Britain only as any country which “Confirms Thalassocracy” unlocks the following government reform, which is part of the free update:
thalassocracy.png

The missions following “A House Divided” (which is more a reference to how the “House of the Parliament” is split into the House of Common and the House of Lords) are more internally related missions. Highlights here are “Expand the Royal Navy” which unlocks the special unit of your country:
expand_royal_navy.png

man_of_war.png

Note: The color should be actually green as a reduced Engagement Width means more ships are in combat at the same time.
You have 20% of your Naval Force Limit available for constructing Man of War.

The mission “The Royal Marines” makes your marine units to be the “special land unit” of your country as it gives -10% Shock Damage Received and +5% Discipline while “The Redcoats” is a flat +10% Infantry Combat Ability until the end of the game.

Now that was the British Mission Tree. As you have seen, it is relying heavily on colonization and overseas ambitions. But not everyone might enjoy this kind of playstyle. Because of that there is a second path of the mission tree which is unlocked as soon as the Hundred Years’ War goes into its final phase. The mission “The Hundred Years’ War” fires an event which gives you the choice to play England in a new way which focuses a lot more on the continent:
angevin_path.png

This will of course update your mission tree accordingly:
angevin_missions.png

All of the colonial missions are replaced with missions which nudge you into conquering vast territories of Europe. Of course, your first target is France and securing the personal union over it. In order to complete the mission “Shatter French Nobility” you will have to enact a unique Parliament Action which might cause pain in the short run, but ensures France’s loyalty to the English throne:
curtailed_nobles.png

I mentioned earlier about the Acts of Union. For players, the Acts of Union will be an actual parliament issue which is available to you when you complete this mission “Unify the Isles” and have reached Administrative Technology 10.
acts_of_union_britain.png

gb.png

The AI will keep its decision though.

For the Angevin path we have something similar. The mission “The Angevin Kingdom” unlocks the English-French Acts of Union parliament issue which allows you to form a new tag:
acts_of_union_issue.png

angevin_kingdom.png

Note: Historically speaking, it would make more sense to have it as a name change as the “Angevin Empire” was mostly a name for the possessions of the Plantagenet dynasty and not a real political entity per se. For the sake of gameplay, however, I decided to make a new tag for it with unique ideas, colors and, most importantly, the flag.

angevin_flag.png
You might have noticed that the Angevin flag is already included in the already used English flag. We are aware that it can feel kinda weird when you form the Angevin Kingdom and your flag, which was previously a combination of the Angevin and the French flag, just returns to being the Angevin one.
Because of that we request your opinion on that matter, and want to know what you guys prefer:
  1. Keep the way it is presented here (same flag for England, three lions for the Angevin Kingdom).
  2. Give the Angevin Kingdom the current English flag and give England the three lions as starting flag.
  3. Give the Angevin Kingdom the current English flag and give England the St. George cross as flag.
  4. Other ideas / suggestions.
With that being said, let's take a look at the ideas:
Code:
AVE_ideas = {
    start = {
        global_manpower_modifier = 0.2
        improve_relation_modifier = 0.3
    }

    bonus = {
        years_of_nationalism = -5
    }
   
    trigger = {
        tag = AVE
    }
    free = yes        #will be added at load.

    angevin_decentralized_rule = {
        core_creation = -0.2
    }
    english_common_law = {
        global_tax_modifier = 0.15
        num_of_parliament_issues = 1
    }
    lessons_of_the_anglo_french_wars = {
        discipline = 0.05
    }
    the_many_thrones = {
        heir_chance = 0.5
        years_to_integrate_personal_union = -10
    }
    reformed_angevin_infantry = {
        infantry_power = 0.1
    }
    seneschal_of_france = {
        governing_capacity_modifier = 0.15
    }
    rule_of_the_plantagenet = {
        legitimacy = 1
        devotion = 1
        horde_unity = 1
        republican_tradition = 0.3
        meritocracy = 1
    }
}

Note: England and Great Britain too received a +1 Number of possible Parliament Issues. The Horde Unity and Meritocracy (as well as Devotion / Legitimacy / Republican Tradition) have been added to all ideas which give one of the 5 government measurements in order to promote more variety in campaigns where you can switch your governments without feeling at a disadvantage because of it.

From here on out your path is set to conquer Iberia and Italy, as well as pushing into the Lowlands and the HRE. Each of these regions unlocks a “Crown of <Region>” Parliament issue which lets you decide how to properly deal with your newly conquered territory:
the_three_crowns.png

îberian_crown.png

italian_crown.png

imperial_diet.png

Note: There will be a tooltip saying that you unlock HRE related parliament issues.

These issues will affect the HRE as a whole and not just your country.

Another highlight would be the ability to adapt the British culture group into the French culture group with the mission “The Angevin Culture”:
anglois.png


A final highlight would be “Claim the Empire Title” which gives your country a name fitting to your situation.
empire_name.png

republican_name.png

theocratic_name.png

And if you, somehow, manage to fall from grace…
sadge.png

That was it for mission tree content. However, there is still a lot more to talk about. As you might have noticed, the parliament plays a large role in the content. As such, it was only natural to improve the parliament mechanics in general and then to add something special to the parliament of England / GB / Angevin to make it stand out from the other parliaments.

So, let us take a look at the general improvements for the parliaments. First thing first, parliaments have now the ability to reset a debate.
reset.png
You can reset a debate only every 20 years and it brings some penalties with it. Still, it can be a nice QoL addition when you accidentally select the wrong debate.

Secondly, parliament bribes will no longer spawn for an issue which would give this resource as an effect when the issue gets passed. Example: the parliament issue “The Draft” which gives manpower scaled to the seats will never have any parliament bribe which requests you to pay with manpower.

Thirdly, the prices of bribes have been revisited and have been tuned down to a manageable number.

Fourthly, parliaments of a size of 40 seats unlock new bribes which have “National” in their name. These bribes are more expensive than their local version, but have the bundled effect to automatically flip all seats with this kind of bribe in favor of the bribe. This way parliaments of big nations with many seats are not as annoying anymore as they were in the past.
national_bribes.png
Finally, manually placing a parliament seat no longer reduces absolutism. Getting seats assigned automatically, on the other hand, does cost absolutism.

All of these parliament updates are available if you have Common Sense (the original DLC which unlocks Parliaments) or the new DLC (which unlocks Parliaments too in case you don’t have Common Sense).

Now back to England / GB which have a bit more refined version of their parliament. Most issues they have access to now scale in their effect power with the influence of one of their estates:
influence_scaling.png

Note: I consider to push this all one level up, so that the 100% of the normal effect would be achieved between 20% and 40% already.

This has not an effect on the modifiers from the issues themselves though, only on the instant effects, so keep this in mind.

Bribes, on the other hand, scale with the loyalty of the estate:
loyalty_scaling.png
If an estate is disloyal, the cost of the bribe increases by 100%. However, if the estate is loyal then the bribe gets reduced by 50%. This stacks with the government mechanic of halved parliament issue costs, so it is possible that a single bribe might be as cheap as 1 Monarch Power.

Now with that all being said, let’s end this dev diary with the additional events England / GB / Angevin receives:
flavor_gbr.3.png

flavor_gbr.4.png

flavor_gbr.5.png

flavor_gbr.6.png

flavor_gbr.9.png

flavor_gbr.7.png

Note: This event is the starting point of 8 events in total which depict the different ways of how the English monarchs handled the reformation. Each option leads to different events. The AI always picks the one option which fits their ruler’s religion - even if it is against their country’s religion.

flavor_gbr.8.png

flavor_gbr.10.png

Note: the conditions for this event to happen are similar to the ones for its Reformed equivalent.
flavor_gbr.11.png


chapel_ENG_DD.png

And that was it for this week. Next week @Pavía will present content for the minor Great Powers, unique government reforms and additional estate privileges.

Until then I wish you all a nice week!
 
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I assume the Royal Marines -10% shock damaged received is just meant to cancel out the normal +10% shock damage received for marines, so basically they just get the +5% Discipline plus the normal marine benefits when disembarking from a ship
and it's still good compared to +10% fire damage
 
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Being a naval power for the whole game timeframe, but still British culture doesn't have a unique special modification for its Flagship. The Scandinavian unique special modification should be what brits have for its Flagship
 
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Here's my thought:

- The three lions for England at the start
- The three lions + french fleur-de-lis for the Angevin Empire
- The St George Cross for England if it is no longer a monarchy

That last one makes sense because the three lions are for the royal banner, while st george's cross is for the state itself
Also, yes I was inspired by Vicky 3 for this

Alternatively, it could just show-up as an event to chose the flag. I'm sure that would make everyone happy
 
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These changes all look great! Glad Parliament is getting a rework, it became such a headache in the lategame before.
View attachment 951698
Note: I consider to push this all one level up, so that the 100% of the normal effect would be achieved between 20% and 40% already
I would say this should definitely be how it works - 30-40% loyalty is 'neutral' so should give the standard effect. There should be rewards for high loyalty, and penalties shouldn't start until loyalty is below 30%. It makes sense for 20-30% to have penalties as this is considered 'disloyal'.
 
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My suggestion on how to do the issue of England's flag is to have it depend on what the player chooses at the "Destiny of England" event.
If they seek to go Angevin, they receive the three lions, which leads to the classic English flag if they succeed with forming the Angevin Kingdom.
If they seek to go British, they receive the cross of St. George, which will nicely go in line with the British flag if they succeed in forming GB.
 
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ddition has been added to these conquest missions: if you conquer Scotland you can get the following event if Norway did not sell Orkney to Scotland yet.
View attachment 951646
The AI is very likely to accept as long as they don’t have any negative opinion of you.

And England won't immediately get an interest in Norway's new province as well as a dominating/hostile attitude yes?
 
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I personally would really love for South Africa to get some flavor. The dutch and british cape colonies, although contemporaraneous only to the latter half of the game, could really do with some mechanical nuance, tags, events, and better representation in general. I think Prussia and the netherlands need this calibre of treatment desperately too. The South African, Australian, Alaskan (which should have its own trade node imo) and California gold rushes could be provided with opportunities for some early exploitation or alt history. My next wishlist would be more focus on the Mamluks, Persia, South America (Inca), the caucases (Armenia/Georgia/Circassia), and Tartary/ Siberia, with more tribes and better horde gameplay and flavor.
 
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It's great that you're updating some older missions, but what I think really need attention are Middle East and cultural adjustment.

- Mamluks, Trebizond, Armenia, Georgia and both Qoyunlus should at least get some unique events. Mission trees would be great for them.

- Mazovia, Moravia and Silesia should get their little mission trees as you can make some really good scenarios with them.

- As for cultures: the map looks too modern and some culture groups are complete nonsense (Turks and Arabs in the same group or Albanians together with the Slavs). Below are few suggestions:

- Pomeranians shall be in West Slavic group (at least those in Wolgast and Stettin) with option to become Germanic (Pommersch?) later in the game (via event, maybe after 1500). Kashubian culture also should be introduced (West Slavic).

- Until 18th century there was a Slavic-speaking region called Wendland between Mecklenburg, Sachsen Anhalt and Brandenburg. So there should be two provinces of Polabian culture in game (West Slavic). Maybe Altmark and Prignitz?

- Give Turks their own culture group together with Azerbaijanis, with option via event to accept all Levantine cultures. The same for Albanians, they are also unique - they are not slavs and they are not Greeks. Gothic should be in Germanic group. Slovaks should be in West Slavic group.

- Western coast of Anatolia should be of Greek culture. Sinop and Canik - of Pontic. Armenians were still dominant in Cillicia and what is in game Dulkadir. One or two provinces in Karaman should be of (new culture) Cappadocian Greek. Aramaic and Assyrian people should definitely get their own cultures in game.

- The same goes for Coptic Egyptians who could also be a culture in Alexandria and Qus.

-I agree with the notion of Turkish culture should be separate, as the Ottomans are (gaming wise) already very powerful and generally seem to take more land that isn't in their culture group, so it feels pointless having it part of the Levantine group.
-I don't agree with the addition of Polabian as the actual area in which Polabian existed at this point is rather small, and wouldn't be anywhere NEAR being a majority in either of your recommended provinces (probably about 20-25% IRL)
-Gothic is in the Byzantine group purely for strategic/gameplay reasons, but also, by 1444, they weren't really "Germanic" culturally, despite their language. Albanian should also be in the Byzantine group, as they had more cultural similarities to Greeks (though obviously still very culturally distinct) , than to Serbs and Croats at this point, also for gameplay reasons it makes a bit more sense.
-better provinces for Copts should be in Minya, Manfalut, Girga, and *possibly* Isna, at 1444 date, Alexandria was already definitely majority Muslim, while Qus is *likely* majority Muslim already, but many areas, mostly in Middle and Upper Egypt were still majority Coptic, and only in the 16th through the 18th centuries would they lose that status (which mamluks/egpyt could get a mission/event chain for earlier on in the game)
Yeah I know that Goths formed distinct culture from the Germans and Scandinavians but I think that ethnically and linguistically they fit Germanic group much better than the Byzantine one. I don't see why people want Albanian to be in either Greek or South Slavic culture but yes - Byzantine group would fit them much better than the Slavic one.

As for the Copts - thanks for the suggestion. I hope that someone at pdx will read your post.
 
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My suggestion on how to do the issue of England's flag is to have it depend on what the player chooses at the "Destiny of England" event.
If they seek to go Angevin, they receive the three lions, which leads to the classic English flag if they succeed with forming the Angevin Kingdom.
If they seek to go British, they receive the cross of St. George, which will nicely go in line with the British flag if they succeed in forming GB.
If this is scriptable, I love this idea. Makes the two paths feel distinct & internally well-integrated.
 
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- Mazovia, Moravia and Silesia should get their little mission trees as you can make some really good scenarios with them.
I am very pleased that you have drawn attention to this area and those nations that do not have any things of their own despite the huge potential that lies in them.

Mazovia
As a state between the Teutonic Order, Lithuania and Poland, Mazovia could juggle between them - it would have the option of taking the side of the PLC or the Teutonic Order, but nothing would stand in the way of being an independent player in the region. I think that the Mazovian culture could be separated from the Polish culture and would cover the area of Mazovia as well as the province of Podlasie (269 ID).

Moravia
Moravia should have its own quest tree, which would be to rebuild Great Moravia.

1677602388102.png

Approximate area of Great Moravia.

As it was the first more significant Slavic state in history, I believe that Moravia could have the opportunity to resurrect Slavic paganism.

Silesia
It is the most neglected area due to the fact that it contains an awfully small number of provinces - where the population density in Silesia resembled more HRE than Poland. I think that this area requires the addition of completely new provinces as well as the division into two areas - Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia. I also think that the Upper Silesian and Lower Silesian area is more suited to the North German region than to the Polish one - from cultural and historical facts. Optionally, a Bohemian region could be created - the Bohemian sphere of influence was enough to be a region.

1677603590769.png

Map of Silesia from 1642.

1677603725653.png

A simplified map of the Duchies of Silesia.

From Mazovia, Moravia and Silesia, it is Silesia that has the most interesting and complex possibilities for the development tree. Silesia was divided into numerous small but rich independent duchies. The tree of Silesian missions could focus on unification at the very beginning of the area - Upper Silesia or Lower Silesia. Both of these would be separate TAGs with their own missions - for example, Upper Silesia would focus on mining and industry and urbanization. After the unification of all Silesia, a separate TAG would appear, which would have imperial aspirations - controlling the HRE, gaining access to the sea and maybe colonialism. The directions of territorial expansion of united Silesia would be: Bohemia, Lusatia, Slovakia, Northern Hungary, Poland (more precisely, Lesser Poland and Greater Poland), Pomerania, Brandenburg and Saxony.

It is also worth noting that many Germans settled in Silesia. I think that it would be interesting to accept German settlers, which would contribute to the development of the province (the one that the settlement action would concern) at the expense of changing its culture to a completely new one - Schlesisch (German Silesians).

Silesia requires the most updates and content additions from these three regions.

- As for cultures: the map looks too modern and some culture groups are complete nonsense (Turks and Arabs in the same group or Albanians together with the Slavs). Below are few suggestions:

- Pomeranians shall be in West Slavic group (at least those in Wolgast and Stettin) with option to become Germanic (Pommersch?) later in the game (via event, maybe after 1500). Kashubian culture also should be introduced (West Slavic).

- Until 18th century there was a Slavic-speaking region called Wendland between Mecklenburg, Sachsen Anhalt and Brandenburg. So there should be two provinces of Polabian culture in game (West Slavic). Maybe Altmark and Prignitz?

- Give Turks their own culture group together with Azerbaijanis, with option via event to accept all Levantine cultures. The same for Albanians, they are also unique - they are not slavs and they are not Greeks. Gothic should be in Germanic group. Slovaks should be in West Slavic group.

- Western coast of Anatolia should be of Greek culture. Sinop and Canik - of Pontic. Armenians were still dominant in Cillicia and what is in game Dulkadir. One or two provinces in Karaman should be of (new culture) Cappadocian Greek. Aramaic and Assyrian people should definitely get their own cultures in game.

- The same goes for Coptic Egyptians who could also be a culture in Alexandria and Qus.
1. Pomeranians should stay in the German cultural group as much as possible. Kashubians should be included in the game and they would belong to the West Slavic cultural group. They could cover several provinces in the east of Pomerania and the Teutonic Order.
2. The Polabian culture could be added to the game, and it could be presented as a weak culture on the verge of extinction - so some nations could come to their aid.
3. - Turks should definitely have their own cultural group - what is now is very bad and messy.
- Albanians are a difficult topic because it is not known what cultural group they belong to - surely adding a unique cultural group especially for them would be something bizarre. Maybe it's worth trying to create a cultural group that includes all autochronic nations, including Albanians and Basques.
- As for Goths and Slovaks, I fully agree with you.
4. These are really very good suggestions and I would like to see them in the game. This would make Anatolia, the Caucasus and the Middle East very attractive.
5. The Coptic Egyptians are a cool idea. Maybe give them the opportunity to recreate a state that would be the heir of ancient Egypt?
 
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-I agree with the notion of Turkish culture should be separate, as the Ottomans are (gaming wise) already very powerful and generally seem to take more land that isn't in their culture group, so it feels pointless having it part of the Levantine group.
-I don't agree with the addition of Polabian as the actual area in which Polabian existed at this point is rather small, and wouldn't be anywhere NEAR being a majority in either of your recommended provinces (probably about 20-25% IRL)
-Gothic is in the Byzantine group purely for strategic/gameplay reasons, but also, by 1444, they weren't really "Germanic" culturally, despite their language. Albanian should also be in the Byzantine group, as they had more cultural similarities to Greeks (though obviously still very culturally distinct) , than to Serbs and Croats at this point, also for gameplay reasons it makes a bit more sense.
-better provinces for Copts should be in Minya, Manfalut, Girga, and *possibly* Isna, at 1444 date, Alexandria was already definitely majority Muslim, while Qus is *likely* majority Muslim already, but many areas, mostly in Middle and Upper Egypt were still majority Coptic, and only in the 16th through the 18th centuries would they lose that status (which mamluks/egpyt could get a mission/event chain for earlier on in the game)
As for Polabians - I forgot that they were minority in this area at that time xD but I think that if you conquer this region as for example Poland or Bohemia you should be able to make these provinces Polabian via event or let Germans stay.
 
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I honestly just skimmed this to see if Angevin Empire was in and read from there - first time I've been interested in an England campaign.

And I definitely prefer option 2 - Three lions for England, current English flag for Angevin.
 
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The Kingdom of Castille and Leon
It's not, actually.
There was no "Kingdom of Castile and León" the Kingdoms of León, Castile AND GALICIA (eternally omitted for no practical reason) were technically all distinct kingdoms under a personal union and were only merged under a single "Kingdom of Spain" in 1715.

For the sake a simplicity, people tend to simply call "Kingdom of [Senior partner]", or more accurately, "Crown of [Senior Partner]".

There was never a "kingdom of Castile-Leon", it was simply the Crown of León, but people often mention Castile in the name too because of the political role it had later on in the formation of Spain.
 
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Will the East India Company get a massively reduced quest for freedom (liberty desire)?

Otherwise it will be impossible to give her all of India. And in the course of the historical situation she should get it. (Ok they didn't have all of India but you know what I'm getting at)
 
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For option 4, what about the current UK flag with the French symbol in the middle for the Angevin Empire? Might not be popular but since an Angevin Empire is going to cover the British Isles, It might be cool having such an option to have all 4 nations represented.
 
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I am very pleased that you have drawn attention to this area and those nations that do not have any things of their own despite the huge potential that lies in them.

Mazovia
As a state between the Teutonic Order, Lithuania and Poland, Mazovia could juggle between them - it would have the option of taking the side of the PLC or the Teutonic Order, but nothing would stand in the way of being an independent player in the region. I think that the Mazovian culture could be separated from the Polish culture and would cover the area of Mazovia as well as the province of Podlasie (269 ID).

Moravia
Moravia should have its own quest tree, which would be to rebuild Great Moravia.

View attachment 951808
Approximate area of Great Moravia.

As it was the first more significant Slavic state in history, I believe that Moravia could have the opportunity to resurrect Slavic paganism.

Silesia
It is the most neglected area due to the fact that it contains an awfully small number of provinces - where the population density in Silesia resembled more HRE than Poland. I think that this area requires the addition of completely new provinces as well as the division into two areas - Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia. I also think that the Upper Silesian and Lower Silesian area is more suited to the North German region than to the Polish one - from cultural and historical facts. Optionally, a Bohemian region could be created - the Bohemian sphere of influence was enough to be a region.

View attachment 951817
Map of Silesia from 1642.

View attachment 951818
A simplified map of the Duchies of Silesia.

From Mazovia, Moravia and Silesia, it is Silesia that has the most interesting and complex possibilities for the development tree. Silesia was divided into numerous small but rich independent duchies. The tree of Silesian missions could focus on unification at the very beginning of the area - Upper Silesia or Lower Silesia. Both of these would be separate TAGs with their own missions - for example, Upper Silesia would focus on mining and industry and urbanization. After the unification of all Silesia, a separate TAG would appear, which would have imperial aspirations - controlling the HRE, gaining access to the sea and maybe colonialism. The directions of territorial expansion of united Silesia would be: Bohemia, Lusatia, Slovakia, Northern Hungary, Poland (more precisely, Lesser Poland and Greater Poland), Pomerania, Brandenburg and Saxony.

It is also worth noting that many Germans settled in Silesia. I think that it would be interesting to accept German settlers, which would contribute to the development of the province (the one that the settlement action would concern) at the expense of changing its culture to a completely new one - Schlesisch (German Silesians).

Silesia requires the most updates and content additions from these three regions.


1. Pomeranians should stay in the German cultural group as much as possible. Kashubians should be included in the game and they would belong to the West Slavic cultural group. They could cover several provinces in the east of Pomerania and the Teutonic Order.
2. The Polabian culture could be added to the game, and it could be presented as a weak culture on the verge of extinction - so some nations could come to their aid.
3. - Turks should definitely have their own cultural group - what is now is very bad and messy.
- Albanians are a difficult topic because it is not known what cultural group they belong to - surely adding a unique cultural group especially for them would be something bizarre. Maybe it's worth trying to create a cultural group that includes all autochronic nations, including Albanians and Basques.
- As for Goths and Slovaks, I fully agree with you.
4. These are really very good suggestions and I would like to see them in the game. This would make Anatolia, the Caucasus and the Middle East very attractive.
5. The Coptic Egyptians are a cool idea. Maybe give them the opportunity to recreate a state that would be the heir of ancient Egypt?
Your suggestions are great! Autochtonic cultures should be reworked in the game. As for Pomeranians - at that point regions of Mecklemburg were largely germanized but what is now Poland (Hinterpommern, Pomorze Zachodnie i Gdańskie) were still Slavic at that point. Of course germanization was in process but in 15th century Slavs still dominated in the countryside and Germans were slight majority in the cities like Stettin (Szczecin) or Köslin (Koszalin). In 16th century they began banning entrance of Slavs to the cities. So there was a bug influx of them from the countryside. So that's why Wolgast should start Slavic with and option to convert to Germanic later. Stettij should be Germanic with Stargard being still Slavic. So here is my idea to divide the Pomeranian culture into two - Pommersch (Mecklenburg and Stettin) and Pomeranian (Wolgast). Topic of German settlers is also important - until 1945 Germans were present in a lot of place qround Eastern Europe. A lot of these settlements took place in the medieval era so for example Transylvanian Saxons should be represented. As for the others - you could get an event in which you can decide whether you want to invite Germans to one of your provinces (so the culture change there) if you play as e.g. Hungary and Poland. I think that province of Cheb was also German at that time.
 
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