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PDXBigBoss

Second Lieutenant
Paradox Staff
May 31, 2022
104
2.879
Dzień dobry! Welcome to today’s developer diary! We will be taking a first look at the new Polish, Lithuanian and Commonwealth trees!

But first, allow me to introduce myself. I am Big Boss, the newest addition to the Content Design team. I started playing Europa Universalis during 2011 and have loved spending time looking at and painting maps since then. More recently, I have been working on several mods, so some of you may know me from my work there. I am genuinely very excited to share with you all the hard work the team has been putting into this update and praise the immense amounts of support I have received from my new colleagues and mentors! As we delve into this developer diary, please keep in mind that the icons and event images as well as numbers displayed are by no means final!

The beginning of the game finds Poland rudderless, with her King, who maintained a union over Lithuania, Hungary and Croatia, having died a mere day earlier, after risking his fate against the Ottomans at the battlefield of Varna. Thus, Poland starts at a quite precarious state: a vacant throne, the Nobility’s Golden Liberty in full effect, and surrounded by powerful neighbors. At the same time, the Ottomans in the South and the Muscovites in the East are taking great steps to consolidate and expand their domain.

1.png

So what’s new for Poland? For starters, they have access to two new T1 Government reforms. The first one is the Great Sejm reform, granted to them at game start:

2.png

Bear in mind that any and all numbers you see in this Developer Diary are strictly work-in-progress and are subject to change, especially in response to valuable feedback from the community!

The second T1 reform is a special reform for Poland upon accepting the Union with Lithuania:

image (30).png

Unlike the Great Sejm reform, the Polish Elective Monarchy grants the ability to elect various princes to the throne, a steeper absolutism malus and, similarly to the Great Sejm, it enables the Parliament and grants a reduced Unrest bonus.

Speaking of the union with Lithuania, it should be noted that some changes were made to that event. Now, it will fire even if Lithuania is a player. A Player Lithuania will be able to decline, but AI Lithuania will always accept. This was done in order to further facilitate the idea that Poland and Lithuania make a great co-op campaign, which is also complimented by both mission trees granting bonuses that follow the spirit of cooperation between the two nations. Here’s how the new event plays out:

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To further immerse the players into the gravity of their choices, I went ahead and added a few dynamic missions for Poland, based on your choice between the local noble or the Lithuanian PU. Accepting the Lithuanian union will lead you towards developing the Lithuanian core as well as elevating their nation financially and (later on) artistically as you prepare them for the eventual integration:

5.png

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This branch ends with you declaring the Imperial Commonwealth, which grants a powerful temporary bonus:

7.png

On the other side, declining the PU with Lithuania will grant you the path that leads you towards the West via entering the Empire, leading it and passing reforms.

8.png

Note: You will still receive claims on Lithuania and be able to form the Commonwealth!
The first mission’s reward is an event for the current Emperor to admit you in the Empire:
31.png
This path will also contain new and innovative rewards such as the new modifier ‘Reasons to Elect’:

0.png

The final mission for the Imperial path of the West will imbue Poland with a sizeable bonus to their Imperial Authority Gain as well as extra Diplomatic skills for her ruler.

Main Body of the Polish Tree​

Addressing the aftermath of the Varna crusade will have a profound impact on the rest of the missions further below. Opting to pursue friendship with Hungary and/or Bohemia will lead both parties to a shared sphere of prosperity, historical friendship and powerful bonuses to last as long as the alliance is maintained. However, should you choose to rival and become antagonistic towards them, the reward will switch to a PU CB / Permanent Claims based on the country’s union eligibility. To be clear; you can pursue friendship with one of them and antagonize the other, the choice rests entirely with you!

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Internally, Poland needs to address the growing influence of the nobility. Regarding that, in the mission ‘Leverage the Magnates’, you are granted the opportunity to cooperate with them and win their favor via great concessions or directly oppose them. Keep in mind that due to their tremendous influence, opposing them is quite difficult. Working alongside them will reduce the cost of Parliamentary Bribes (which will be increased by default for 1.34) and grants a small Loyalty bonus until you pass further legislation as the Commonwealth to reduce their authority. Alternatively, if you dare to oppose their authority, you will gain an event to face a major uprising of Magnates that will also reward you with a unique new modifier:

XusG-PJ1TI34J6kO-2wWh9wpZ1shqmJ-wYxX6I3FbITFJ8Z7mw29ZDBACb_XWZfxdTRZb7QHD1ezgf5hza0yh_ejy8tjVBCYzllSuVsP9KbfOaJfHfYu_IYwwcMQV7zbZCpv0QjYvtnM8zYAcM8

image (42).png
The missions directly below it follow the turbulent history of Poland and will have you attempt to pass legislation and reform the government by undoing nobility influence. Choosing to oppose the nobles in the mission shown above will also impact the following few missions!

The mission ‘Great Sejm’ will unlock a new personality type ‘Reformist’ which grants more reform progress growth as well as new unique Parliamentary Issues for Poland! The new personality can be assigned to all rulers with at least 4 Administrative Skill.

Resolving the matter of Hungary and Bohemia will yield dynamic rewards based on whether you completed them via conquest or diplomacy. This also impacts the reward for ‘Balance the Princely Lands’:

14.png

Moving on, you will also be tasked with harnessing the Polish Renaissance, dealing with the Piasts of Mazovia and developing Krakow:

image (31).png

image (32).png

On the Conquest front, you will be led towards quelling Roman’s Rebellion in the South and seizing control of Wallachia, raising troops from nobility strongholds and assisting the Prussian Confederation:

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Note: Assisting the Danzig merchants may lead to the formation of Royal Prussia as a subject under the Polish crown which will have its own few missions to break free from your hold!

Of course, the Polish tree holds many many more cool new additions, events and rewards and they are up to you to discover!

Finally, Poland (and the Commonwealth in general) will have access to a new special unit, the Winged Hussars! I am very excited to finally talk about this new unit.
  • They will be available for Poland and PLC via a national idea
  • In our current build you may recruit 1 Winged Hussar per 100 Development
  • They come armed with +1 Cavalry Shock and +100% Reinforcement Cost
  • They are further empowered by your choices in the mission tree!

image (33).png

The Winged Hussars have arrived!

As a side note, we currently have not chosen yet what colour the Carolean and Hussar unitbox will have. Janissaries are red, Cossacks are orange. Feel free to suggest potential colours!

The Lithuanian Mission Tree​

Alongside Poland, Lithuania will be getting her very own missions. It builds upon the old mission tree and greatly expands it, honing and improving upon the unique aspects of playing as Lithuania:

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Among the highlights of the Lithuanian tree are the ability to call upon a host of Cossacks, new unique T1 Government reforms (yes, plural!) and the potential to utilize the Tribes Estate for a limited time.

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Alongside these new additions, Lithuania will gain access to new events and flavor:

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If you choose to remain as Lithuania for a little longer beyond Administrative Tech 10, we made sure to accommodate your stay with flavorful missions that will entice you to stick around a while in order to get all the rewards and complete the tree:

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The Commonwealth​

Building upon the solid foundation that is the Polish mission tree, Commonwealth missions originally appear as part of the Polish tree, marked as “Locked Missions”. Unlike other formables, we took the creative decision to showcase the Commonwealth tree to the Polish player, before accessing it. The reason behind this is to prepare the player for whatever challenges and requirements the PLC missions will ask for and ensure the player is not caught off guard.

Thus, if you hover your mouse over the Locked Missions, you will see the requirements as well as potential rewards beforehand.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the missions we have in store for the Commonwealth, starting with this one, my favorite, ‘A Lifetime of War’

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Note; Since the mission only requires one of the listed requirements for it to be completed, you may see fewer choices in your version of the event, based on which way you choose to complete the mission. Shape and sharpen your army the way you want to!

Note: Please be aware that these numbers are not final!

A PLC tree would not be complete without its ‘Invest in Eastern Poland’ Mission, which requires you to have 40 provinces with a manufactory or a level 3 Center of Trade and either 40% Global Trade Goods Produced or 7 ‘Trading-in’ Bonuses. Here is the reward:

image (34).png

Following in the steps made before forming the PLC, and after completing the Great Sejm mission, you will gain access to flavor missions that will assist you in passing and repealing the Articles of Agreement (Pacta Conventa) and even rewriting them completely from scratch, with more favorable terms on the behest of the monarch, if you chose to oppose the Magnates in a previous mission:

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The conclusion of the major flavor part of the tree is the mission ‘Dominate the Markets’ which grants a new mechanic we made specifically for the PLC, the ability to reset or extend a Golden Era:

image (38).png

image (35).png

External Affairs of the Commonwealth​

No major mission tree would be complete without a robust conquest path. That much is true for the PLC, which will be granted missions, a new Casus Belli and even gain Streltsy as a one-time reward from one of their missions:

image (36).png

image (37).png

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Moving on, ‘Prevent the Deluge’ will task you with dealing with whoever the ruler of Scandinavia is, be it Sweden or anyone else. You may deal with them in a multitude of ways, including diplomacy or conquest. Should you choose to approach Sweden diplomatically, both nations will be positively impacted by a wave of prosperity. Sweden will gain +25% increased production for its metals and historical friendship while you will gain direct access to Scandinavian copper and iron, reducing your overall military costs:

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The final conquest mission for the Commonwealth will set you up to become a supreme great power, requiring you to be a hegemon and have a tremendous amount of development under your belt:

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Note: Development Efficiency’s number will be green in the final build!

The philosophy of the PLC missions is that of a tree whose content should last the average player till around the 1700s at the very least, so expect a lot of hard work and very worthwhile rewards from every single mission in this tree!

While we are on the subject of the Commonwealth, I would like to showcase some new implementations that the team worked hard for. As I mentioned above, the PLC will now enjoy a lot of new content including 2 different sets of National Ideas. One for nations whose primary culture is Lithuanian and one whose primary culture is not Lithuanian (namely Poland as an example):

Polish PLC Ideaset:

Code:
PLC_ideas = {
    start = {
        nobles_loyalty_modifier = 0.1
        num_accepted_cultures = 2
    }
 
    bonus = {
        monthly_reform_progress_modifier = 0.25
    }
 
    trigger = {
        tag = PLC
        NOT = { primary_culture = lithuanian }
    }
    free = yes
 
    plc_prosperous_folwarks = {
        global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.10
    }
    pol_jagiellonian_university = {
        idea_cost = -0.10
    }
    plc_the_obrona_potoczna = {
        drill_gain_modifier = 0.25
        army_tradition = 1
    }
    pol_winged_hussars = {
        cavalry_power = 0.3
        can_recruit_hussars = yes
    }
    plc_refine_our_golden_liberty = {
        monarch_admin_power = 1
    }
    pol_royal_guards = {
        infantry_power = 0.10
    }
    plc_tempered_by_neighbors = {
        discipline = 0.05
    }
}


Lithuanian PLC Ideaset:

Code:
PLC_LIT_ideas = {
    start = {
        global_manpower_modifier = 0.25
        tolerance_heretic = 3
    }
 
    bonus = {
        governing_capacity_modifier = 0.15
    }
 
    trigger = {
        tag = PLC
        primary_culture = lithuanian
    }
    free = yes
 
    warlord_dukes = {
        max_hostile_attrition = 1
    }
    plc_tempered_by_neighbors = {
        discipline = 0.05
    }
    new_magdeburg_laws = {
        development_cost = -0.1
        global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.05
    }
    reciprocal_guarantee_of_two_nations = {
        all_estate_loyalty_equilibrium = 0.05
        diplomatic_annexation_cost = -0.15
    }
    lithuanian_hussars = {
        cavalry_power = 0.2
        can_recruit_hussars = yes
    }
    statutes_of_lithuania = {
        global_unrest = -2
    }
    lithuanian_renaissance = {
        technology_cost = -0.05
    }
}

Special thanks to Verinity Void whose National Ideas work was partially adopted for the Polish PLC ideaset!

I am at your disposal for any questions you may have about the trees, as I’d love to read and answer your feedback, and also feel free to suggest tweaks as well. Thank you for taking the time to read my very first Developer Diary! Next week my colleague @Ogele will come back, to talk about some sea-related new content.
 

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Last edited:
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It seems the pictures are showing to some people, but not to others (which is why it wasn't fixed before publishing the DD, they appeared to Big Boss, me, and others reviewing it). We're currently fixing this. ;)
 
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Good that the mission tree became much better than it used to be. It is definitely a good work and a good first mission tree (or a few). A great improvement too, and the idea changes are nice.

Sad that there are no changes to Lithuania apparently. No vassals... No historical events with Cossacks or Ruthenia either if I got it right, that's disappointing. If I remember right, Cossack estate rarely rebels so there is no tension simulating historical one either.

The concept of developing Ruthenia was also heavily flawed - it historically coincided with the Polish Counter-Reformation and oppression of Orthodox population that contributed to the Cossacks Uprisings.

The Lithuanian relationships with Ruthenia are flawed too - because the relationship of Lithuania was vassalic with Ruthenian lords in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Severian principalities and etc. It was the result of the major civil war 10 years before the game start, and one of compromises made after it was the autonomy and respect to Orthodox lords. It would be revoked only later in XV century, and attempt to revoke it from some lords would spark Lithuania-Muscovy wars. One if such lord families that switched allegiance from Lithuania to Muscovy, Glinskie, gave the princess to Russian Tsars and was a mother to Ivan the Terrible.

It's a terrible shame EU IV still cuts off historical content in Ruthenia like this. It's not detrimental to game of course. Just disappointing.
Lithuania will have events to represent the rebellions of the Cossacks and you will even have the ability to play as the Separatist Cossacks! We can't reveal everything in the Dev Diary. To add some more; Lithuanian missions will allude and refer to reducing internal autonomy ^_^
 
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At this point, all pictures should be working and functional. Please let me know if something still appears to be broken, and sorry for the inconvenience. ;)
 
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maybe its just me - but are the most of the screenshots broken?

Also: WoW - 40 Missions for Poland and if you count all the "branching" even more -

Question: The AI Poland picks still not always the union hopefully? So we still have the variability in the game
The screenshots are now fixed thanks to @Pavía ! The Polish AI will evaluate the current situation of the game but will still mostly opt for
'Modernized Fire Ranks' gives Military Tactics. Does this mean it is now useable outside of technology, for the purposes of modding? It currently isn't.
Correct!
 
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I just wonder what is next after this DLC? I hope it will be middle east (ottomans, mamluks, persia etc.)
Stick around and find out!
Nice addition! I hope there is some restriction about integrating Royal Prussia. If Poland integrates Royal Prussia immediately, it seems meaningless.
Normal restrictions will apply. YOU decide what happens to your subjects, the freedom is yours. Of course you will have nice bonuses that would justify keeping them around :D
Doesn't parliament disable Nobility estate? I haven't used it in ages, so maybe something changed.
They are separate arguments!
I also think the Trees are great as they offer challenges and rewards deep into the time of the game so I'll play this countries for sure until 1821.

Also I love it, that you actually try to incoparate true co-op MP possibilites. I teached my brothers and a lot of friends the game by CO-OP MP but a lot of times the mission trees got us in trouble soner or later. Now we actually can work together with the trees. (At least for poland and sweden, and for some way poland with bohemia and hungary. )I really like this approach.

The next game with one of my friends will be for sure a Sweden- Poland game. Thanks!
Super excited to see what everyone thinks once you get your hands on it!
Hi! I love paradox and this is my first post ever here. It was worth it to me to make an account for this question. I would like to request one fix in EU4 - the spawns for the Centers of Reformation are pretty ahistorical and numerous, as we have three centers for protestant, three for reformed, one Hussite (potentially), and one for anglican (optional). All the protestant and reformed Centers almost always are ALL in Germany (because the first countries to convert are often proximal to the first Center, and then get a Center themselves). Furthermore if Anglicanism is enabled, that is too many Centers of Reformation leaving almost all of Western Europe to some form of protestantism EVERY single game. Almost every game of mine has been painted blue (like France, italy, Poland, Austria, Germany without a single catholic province, etc). My request is that if Anglicanism is enabled, a Center of protestantism is removed, and that the rest of the centers have a greater chance at spawning somewhere other than proximal to the first center (like perhaps Scotland or Hungary very far from the original centers). OR even the counterreformation has a Catholic Center of Reformation. I love the reformation era and would love for this to be fixed! Sorry this has nothing to do with this dev diary.
Definitely do make a post about this and we can try and take a look at it at some point when/if we can, thank you for your comment ^_^
- Make "The Struggle for Royal Power" more disastrous. This disaster should effectively cripple the PLC for the duration of it, making external threats lethal. Right now, its more of an inconvenience.

- There are no missions for Poland to expand Westward, beyond PU'ing Hungary and Bohemia. I'd suggest adding a mission or two to reclaim the lands of the Western Slavs and then "reclaiming" Pomerania and possibly pushing to the Limes Saxoniae.
I would love to look into making the Struggle for Royal Power much harsher in general. As for expanding west, unfortunately I cannot do that. Looking at the tree, I think it's good where it's at. You already get claims and a mission for Pomerania.
 
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Heya folks, just wanted to pop in and let you know that based on your feedback I went ahead and made some tweaks to some aspects of the PLC! So let's take a quick look:

  • Removed the Military Tactics bonus from the Modernized Fire Ranks modifier, it now grants Own Territory Dice Roll Bonus +1 only
  • Added a big malus to reform progress growth for Poland's 2 New T1 Reforms to reflect history more realistically. Similarly, undoing the Golden Liberty Privilege will grant you a new reform that will place the PLC somewhat near Russia's Tsardom power
  • Made some tweaks for PLC's idea set.
    • No more reform progress growth in the ambition, it now grants Tolerance of Heretics
    • Instead of +1 Ruler Admin Power, you now get +1 Country Admin Power, so you can still benefit from it even after having 6 ADM Rulers
    • Infantry Combat Ability buffed to 15% from 10%
  • Hussars no longer cost 100% more to reinforce. Instead, they Reinforce 50% Slower and now also have -25% Drill Decay (They still deal +1 Cavalry Shock)
  • PLC Lithuanian Ideas are now called "Lithuanian Commonwealth Ideas" and I am considering renaming the PLC into LPC if formed by Lithuania
Let me know what you think and keep that feedback coming, I may not respond to every message but rest assured that I genuinely value your feedback and read through every single message <3

Until next time!
 
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On the topic of tweaks and communication, please remember we have already said "No New Tags" introduced in the game. The reason behind this is that new tags (even when not active) pose a great strain on the performance of the game. I really wanted to have the Latin Empire appear as its own tag but for now it's just Byzantium with another name (or perhaps a modifier if you are Catholic?) and *potentially* Crusader ideas (based on whether or not you will like this suggestion!)
Let me know what you think and what the best way to tackle this issue might be, from your perspective!
 
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Neat! Though what is that new reform - could we get more specifics? Perhaps representation of the 3rd May Constitution (though some rightly pointed out that it was a response to the decay of the country, imo representing it not exactly correctly is better than not doing so at all)? And I think that most people would still say that Hussars are too weak, far too weak, and I'd agree with them.

Also, I'm not sure if I said so before, but Poland having access to the parliament from the start is a great addition. I hope that this new reform still lets you keep it, considering that the closest Poland ever got to a proper absolute monarchy still had it, and the government (headed by the king) was responsible to the parliament as well.
1656580535928.png

Some context for this reform: You are supposed to get it after repealing the nobility and the Golden Liberty, so expect it around the 1600s at the earliest.

It's quite the reform and packs a good punch but keep in mind it needs to somewhat compete in usefulness with the Russian Tsardom. Keep in mind this DD covers about 25-35% of the content for the PLC!
 
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@PDX Big Boss I have one question. How will Brandenburg react with Royal Prussia? Will there be an event enableing Brandenburg to vasalize RP?
There already is! Event 'The incorporation of Prussia into Brandenburg' is its name.
Does this mean that enacting Parliament no longer disables nobility estate? Because for countries like England it's a huge buff
No, most countries will still have deactivated Nobles while having the Parliament.
Royal Prussia is western part with Danzig and Thorn, not eastern with Königsberg that was united with Brandenburg. Prussia took most of the RP during first partition of Poland. The reason it's called Royal is because it was part of kingdom of Poland and Ducal Prussia was just vassal that later united with the Brandenburg forming Kingdom of Prussia
Thank you for the correction, I implemented the suggestion!
 
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As a thank you for receiving such valuable feedback, I put in a little extra work and behold, forming the Commonwealth as Lithuania (regardless if you do it diplomatically or via war) will give you a pretty new name for you to map-paint with! Enjoy and thanks again for all the feedback and responses!
1656593733401.png
 
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OMG Transparency! thank you so much! I really hope that our feedback got taken into account and might possibly implement more! I just want to ask, if any "bigger" changes were to take place would you be able to tell us which ones exactly? and If they are happening when (DD replies, next DD, a DD later on the line) would it be said?
Thank you sm!
Of course, every time I come across some cool suggestions, we discuss them with the team and then implement them. Rest assured I will absolutely post a reply here again next time (if) I implement a large number of changes!
 
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PDX Big Boss I am Polish and I know that everybody love Poland in Eu 4, but​

1) Can you remove 4 level forth from Giurgiu Mission. It's op in this stage of game. Some defensive bonuses wont be bad.
2) Remove Friend tag from Polish- Swedish relationship. We were mostly time rivals in Baltics sea. I happy that you gave subjugation and it's very good decision that You give some bonuses two countrys if they are friendly. I hope in future diaries we will see more relationship like that. It's great idea.
3) Winged Hussars should cost a lot. One Winged Hussars cost one Village that time. Secondary It's should be most op unit. Bigger prosperity or less devastation in province then Winged Hussars Stronger?. It would be similar mechanics too Militarization.
4) Can you give https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmelnytsky_Uprising( Zaporozhe rise) and Tatars raids( Upgrade border Friction event). Tatars often raid eastern part of PLC.
5) We will get Magnate Estate?. Richer Nobles. They had a lot power in PLC.


For more Thoughts I will give in weekend.

Edit: I learn something today about PLC. I did not know that we had advance fulling.

PLC and LPC love it.​

  1. Based on our tests a robust fort in a non-defensible terrain province is not a gamechanger, especially against the Ottomans.
  2. The idea behind the mission is that you finish it the way YOU want. Sure irl Sweden and the PLC fought a lot however EU4 campaigns don't all go the same way, sometimes you are rivals, sometimes you are not. It's all about giving you the freedom to pursue the mission as YOU see fit.
  3. You are right, I added some extra cost to them c: As for stronger, I am very happy with how they are. I will make some tweaks tomorrow to improve their numbers a tiny bit and run more tests!
  4. That rebellion is already in the game!
  5. No, it's far too complicated and difficult to add an estate at this point of development of the DLC
Even if we don't agree on everything, thank you so much for taking the time to suggest your opinion, I appreciate it!
Last time i played as Poland and tryed to form PLC i had some restriction because my Lithuania (junior partner) was to big. I couldn't form PLC so i had to lose some provinces intentionaly.
I have expanded on that requirement, now both Poland and Lithuania (as junior partners) will be able to hold more provinces BUT you will also need to keep the quite loyal!
 
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PLC is Universalis itself. I know that it cant be everything implement. Thanks for call. I have only one suggestion. There is possibility bigger rebels with The Struggle for Royal Power and more negative aspects in this timeline?.
More rebels you say ? Yes, that would be a good idea I believe. I want to revisit the disaster and make it tougher. Perhaps, if time allows!
 
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It's very exciting to see a modder joining Devs team, so while it's not directly PLC related I just created an account to bring something to your attention, since we have it and you are doing so much extra work! My concern is with milking prestige with demand artifacts from Tributaries.

You can be even a Western tech group country, like France or even PLC, completely annex a tag with OPM tributary, inherit said tributary and start cheesing prestige by demanding artifacts and lowering liberty desire with bestow gifts (few coins). Rinse and repeat! Very silly exploit that has to be eradicated, given how valuable prestige is! Please mark this before going to vocation!)))
We will definitely take a look when we get a chance, thank you for reporting it!
I have a few questions/suggestions:

Would it be possible to give us an option to choose the name of Commonwelth, when we form it, like we have with Malaya? So, everyone could choose, if they want to have PLC, LPC (based on culture), Commonwealth, or my favourite Commonwealth of Both Nations.

Maybe add the decision to form Commonwealth also to countries with ruthenian and byelorussian culture? And they could choose the name of proposed extension of PLC, which was meant to include Grand Duchy of Ruthenia – Commonwealth of Three Nations?

The missions related to HRE seams arbitrary to be related to Lithuania. It would make much more sense to combine them with union over Bohemia. Something like “Bohemia is an HRE elector, but we are the monarch of Bohemia, while not a part of HRE. What are we going to do with this situation?”. At this point we would have an event, in which we would have a few options, namely join the HRE and take bohemian elector status (preferably by Imperial incident), remove Bohemia from HRE (potential war with the emperor), or leave the status quo.
It's poor timing for extensive localisation additions, I can't promise anything but we will see
Hmm, the whole point about WH was that they were almost free of cost for the country. It was the benefit of freedoms and richness of citizens of Poland, that they would finance their own training and equipment.

So maybe some kind of nobility privilege that would lower absolutism but made WH free? Or inability to recruit them if You have devastation in state provinces? It should be hard to keep You WH afloat in useful numbers.

Also, I still believe that stack wiping of WH unit should be disastrous in some way. Maybe add +5 nobility (magnate) influence for 15 years? That way if You lose 10 units => +50 influence and estate disaster is looming at Your door?

Also, +1 shock for just 10 - 15 units is not at all impactful. Especially considering that playing as Poland You have to take +50 cav/inf ratio for Your cavalry armies, so -20 fire damage would never be applied. Or maybe there are more missions that would allow for WH improvement? Or maybe WH should get both -20 fire damage and be exempt from cav/inf ratio malus? Just thinking out loud.

This and similar accounts suggest that Hussars did mostly extreme morale damage and thanks to that could repel much bigger forces:

"Around 10,000 Ottomans moved to attack, but then Chodkiewicz personally led a counterattack with three hussar squadrons and one reiter squadron, a total of between 600 and 650 men. The Sipahi could not withstand the charge and they retreated chaotically. Chodkiewicz with his cavalry pursued them to the camp. Ottomans' losses amounted to more than 500 killed and Commonwealth losses amounted to 30 killed. The charge inflicted heavy casualties and had a huge impact on the morale of the Ottoman army."

Would we be able to recreate at least some of the great Hussar battles, where WH defeated forces 3x, 5x bigger (and more, especially against field infantry that could not defend against them in any way)? They should be able to fight without infantry and artillery - and crush 30-40000 Ottoman, Russian and Swedish armies when full squad (8000 - 12000).
Thank you SO MUCH for this wonderful comment. Your suggestions were inspiration for me to delve into the script and make some tweaks based on your ideas.
I would like to note of 2 new key additions for the Winged Hussars, in the spirit of amplifying them enough so they have good punching power but will never be a full frontline:
  • Added a new Estate Privilege "Sponsor Hussars" for the Nobility, where basically they fund the arming and recruitment of more Hussar squadrons, grants you a flat +5 Possible Hussars and can't be repealed for 50 years (to avoid cheesing the privilege). Also has a steep hit to Absolutism of -15 (numbers can change). So now you go from having 8-10 to about 15-17 Hussars, quite sizeable for 1 powerful stack imo.
  • Removed the Drill Decay for Hussars and replaced it with +33% Morale Damage, might even do +50%! I will run some tests over the weekend to see how they perform and tweak accordingly.
Unfortunately, tying the loss of a specific special unit to a country-wide effect would require extensive background work, the time for which we do not have. But, rest assured, the Hussars will be quite the destructive force!

As always, thank you all for the valuable feedback and thank you for helping shape my work to become better and more enjoyable for everyone! ^_^
(p.s. I will try to see if we can create a Latin Empire tag but NO PROMISES)
 
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A lot of interesting stuff with great potential and falvor.

However, i hope you kept it balanced. Poland/PLC is already a very strong tag. Having it dominate even harder would be a very unfortunate outcome. Prussia is already an extremely rare tag. Also Hungary and Muscovy already get bodied by PLC fairly consistently.

DId you make AI testrun? Did Prussia from and performed reasonably well in any of those? Also, how often did Poland/PLC crushed hungary, muscovy, north germany and scandinavia?
We're doing a follow-up of AI test runs, yes. Prussia is still a bit difficult tag to be formed, but we've already experienced that there are more formable tags appearing than in previous versions. Also, PLC is not consistently overperforming, but it's usually at stake with Muscovy/Russia, so in approx. 50% of the games one of them grows (more or less) over the other.

My fellow colleague @Gnivom will talk more about this topic in a couple of weeks. ;)
Candidly? This feels like too much. Not a little too much, a lot too much.

  • The bonuses for Poland pursuing the imperial path seem like they will almost inevitably result in Poland becoming the Holy Roman emperor regardless of Austria or other contenders' diplomatic maneuvering. And it doesn't even close off being able to PU Lithuania and form the Commonwealth!? I would turn this into an event that asks whether Poland wants to abandon its claims in Lithuania in exchange for getting a relations boost with electors. That also seems more realistic.
  • The Expanding the Quarter Army reforms look totally broken to me; a +1 dice roll for every battle on Commonwealth soil in particular is super-OP. I like the idea of the event and mission, but the bonuses absolutely need to be adjusted before launch.
  • Turning all owned wool provinces into cloth provinces via the mission tree is busted. Unless that is limited to a particular area, a Poland player can easily cheese that by taking a lot of low-value wool provinces and then upgrade them — for free! PLUS a ton of mercantilism! — into one of the best trade goods in the game. I see that the requirements for completing that mission are fairly steep, but even still, the reward is too much.
  • Being able to swipe half of Lithuania and form the Commonwealth early for a minor relations hit is absurd. I see the point here in building in a workaround to the cheesy meta right now that involves ceding and reconquering Lithuanian cores (needed to form Ruthenia). But being able to click a button and own modern-day Ukraine is too much. My suggestion here would be to instead have the event carve out Ruthenia from Lithuania as a separate PU subject and make it a historical friend — better reflecting the aspirational Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth from real-world history — instead of instantly integrating it into Poland, in exchange for gaining some liberty desire in existing subjects. That would add some challenge to the path to forming the Commonwealth and introduce a larger element of strategy in forcing Poland to focus on juggling its complicated tangle of subject interactions.
  • Being able to revoke all estate privileges at will is ludicrous. Sure, you have to fight some magnate rebels for it, but stock Poland has to fight magnate rebels on the regular anyway. I would severely nerf this down to a permanent -10% influence for all estates.
  • Even without all of these gimmicks, getting free RoU CBs on both Hungary and Bohemia as an opening mission plus the auto-PU on Lithuania and ~80% chance of insta-vassalizing Moldavia and free Danzig vassal will make Poland by far the most powerful nation in Europe within the first few years of the game. I would instead have an early option to add either Bohemia or Hungary, but not both, as a historical friend and have the latter decision (since it's objectively less powerful, given Hungary isn't an elector and prospective rival for the emperorship) make AI Hungary never take the decision to voluntarily become a junior partner of Austria. Maybe add a mission or event chain later on in the game for Poland to get a PU over its new best buddy, but not from the start of the game.
I've expressed similar concerns with Denmark and Sweden already, I know, and the impression I'm getting from how 1.34 is shaping up is that it's an arms race between tags that are getting fresh content as part of the update — leaving others that aren't so fortunate behind. Obviously, some tags should be stronger than others, but as powerful as nations like France, Castile, England, Austria, and the Ottomans are right now, they're not getting insane new mission trees, special units (Ottos already have janissaries but they do have significant drawbacks associated with them, including a nasty disaster), and flavor events that give them massive permanent bonuses. I am worried that with the update, the tags that are getting some (much-needed!) extra love in 1.34 are going to be dramatically overpowered relative to tags that aren't being updated now, because the Emperor, Mare Nostrum, Rule Britannia, etc., updates simply did not go this far in turning the tags they overhauled into unstoppable juggernauts. Austria has a great mission tree that does give it opportunities to pick up some early PUs, but 1) those PUs are rooted in history; 2) it usually has to fight similarly sized countries to acquire them; and 3) it has the added headache of managing relations and dealing with internal and external conflicts throughout the HRE as emperor.

Lithuania, FWIW, doesn't appear to be nearly as overpowered as Poland based on its missions and events as described. The tech cost reduction is nice, but it's a temporary bonus. Plus Lithuania already struggles in nearly every game to keep pace on tech, because it's a large country with sparse development on the opposite side of the continent from where Renaissance, Colonialism, Printing Press, and usually Global Trade will spawn, so this is really better thought of as a way to ameliorate its geographic disadvantage. On the topic of Lithuania, I don't like the change to make AI Poland always PU Lithuania and AI Lithuania always accepts becoming a PU, unless I'm reading that wrong. I enjoy the randomness of sometimes having a game in which Lithuania remains independent.

I know numbers aren't final, so hopefully they will be adjusted via balance testing. But as I noted above, I think some of the mechanics themselves here require rethinking to better balance them against other European tags that aren't getting new content through 1.34.
There’s a lot of excellent new development here, but my biggest gripe with Poland as it currently is is that it’s too overpowered and that you get most of that power very early and essentially for free, which makes playing it actually pretty boring and unrewarding, and while I’m sure it’ll be fun to work your way through this mission tree, it seems like these issues will only be exacerbated.
What's with the power creep in new mission trees? It's happening in HOI too, where new focus trees give crazy buffs whereas trees released in older DLC languish in comparison. Are there plans to buff the default mission tree and/or existing mission trees to compensate?
Yeah, yeah, the famous LATIN Empire ruled by west-slavic nobility. Off course it was the right place to introduce them in a mission tree!
Please... Seriously.. At least, show this option only if you were allied to an Italian or a French TAG when you took back Constantinople, or/and if the Ottomans were the target of a crusade. Keep in mind that the Latin Empire was called "latin" for a good reason.

All those new trees are pretty good additions, but you should set limits for yourselves. Bonuses don't need to rain for the final product to be good.
We get to a point where the sole nations not to have special units, special estate privileges, unique modifiers and special T1 reforms, will be the historical winners of EU4's timeline. I thought the basic idea was to give them love and put them on par, not put them well above the fray. Take a look back at Emperor, Third Rome or Rule Britannia mission trees, they didn't turn these countries into instopable juggernauts.
Regarding the balancing of the new mission trees, some comments regarding the overall design:

- We are also concerned about the power creep that expanding mission trees can cause. It's tricky, because if the rewards are not good enough, the player may feel the missions are not worth it, while if they're too powerful, a country may become too OP.
- With that in mind, we like to test the more controversial ideas in DDs, even if they were probably going to be changed after some rounds of internal QA testing, we like to take the pulse of the community on them. So, because of that, we started this DD cycle with the Teutonic and Livonian Orders, as they were the most alt-history ones, even if we started in the development cycle with Sweden and Denmark.
- We are taking a lot into account this feedback. For instance, the Military Tactics bonus reward was changed, as it was feeling a bit out of place.
- On top of that, we continue assessing internally the balance of the different mission trees with our QA people.

On a more general vision, we want to keep balancing the different regions and mission trees; because of that, we made a review of Ming/China on the last patch, and that was one of the reasons for working on the Baltic region for the next DLC, as their countries had very outdated mission trees. We will continue working on this for the upcoming DLCs and updates, as one of our core objectives for the future of EU4 is to have a more consistent balance among the different regions and powers, while adding some more interesting content focused on different gameplay styles, that allows for wider replayability of the different countries.
And now I got it @PDX Big Boss - you are the guy who made "Flavor Universalis"?! One of the best mods up to now - Finally I got hopes that we will see a lot of events added with the Updates, the last DLCs haven't added much "flavor" events outside of missiontrees. Very good addition to the team! Your first DD already shows it - keep up the good work. Maybe you can add a lot of your events to the base game so we have not to play without ironman to get them.
This is the only downside for me. When origin was released, there was a lot of complain that there is almost no way to play jewish. The were a lot of recommondations that poland and/or lithuania could get an event to switch one province to jewish and follow up event regarding switching the king and later the country. The Devs @Ogele (?) said they will try to add something after 1.33. Would'nt be that much work but would be okay with alternate history and give way more ways to play. If bohemia can easy go hussite but none jewish it feels wrong. Also I think there should be at least some jewish flavor events outside when having the religion itself, but with important people of that time.
Regarding the events, we've added a lot for the upcoming update: based on internal numbers, more than 200. A lot of them are linked to the mission trees, obviously, but a lot are not. We have also taken a review of the older events, as the Swedish ones, to keep them consistent with the new flavor added.

Regarding the Judaism events, I'm going to be completely honest: it was on our list of TODOs, but the new content has gone a bit out of our hands because of its depth, so we haven't had the time required to add some more extra content for this religion. It's definitely still on our list for future updates, so hopefully, we will have some time in the upcoming months to give some love to this religion. ;)
The update seems fun and exciting, but I have one BUT - Cossacks.
No mention of their struggle for independence/autonomy. While in real life after the Union of Lublin, the Ruthenian population was oppressed and Polonized. yet in-game we always have Ruthenian as an accepted culture and great religious tolerance. Not to mention there is no malus for converting orthodox provinces to Catholicism.
This created a soil for the uprisings like the biggest one - the Khmelnytskyi Uprising that led to the creation of the Hetmanate (Kingdom tier) (which can be a new tag in the Ruthenia region that will spawn as a vassal of the Muscovy/Ottomans/any other PLC rival in case that PLC will have this disaster triggered) that led to the decline of the PLC. Or smaller uprisings/events for autonomy that can lead to the creation of Zaporizhia (which should be named The Zaporozhian Sich) (County/Duchy tier) as a separate vassal/march that can be effective in repelling the aggression from the east and south, or be a bit of a pain in the a** if their liberty desire (or outcome of some events)will lead to their disloyal status. Sich as an entity (vassal of Lithuania) should be present if not from the start date, then it should spawn as a vassal in 1471.
No Greek-Catholic church as an option for faith, wth great prospect to re-establish Chalcedonian Christianity for example, for those players that think big. To be honest I thought that after Hussite, the Greek-Catholic denomination will come next.
No separate event/mission for The Treaty of Hadiach that should lead to the humanistic and tolerant and maybe tall way of playing the PLC...

Some of the Developers mentioned that they could not fit everything in one dev diary, and some of the PLC missions are hidden, so I have a bit of hope that there will be a separate DEV-Diary for the Sich/Hetmanate and Ruthenia region.
That's not correct, the Cossacks have already been mentioned in a comment by us:
Lithuania will have events to represent the rebellions of the Cossacks and you will even have the ability to play as the Separatist Cossacks! We can't reveal everything in the Dev Diary. To add some more; Lithuanian missions will allude and refer to reducing internal autonomy ^_^
And as said by my colleague in other post, it has been revealed only 25-30% of the content for the PLC, for some of the stuff you are mentioning.
 
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