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Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 31st of January 2023 - Japan

Konnichiwa! Welcome to another week’s Dev Diary, this time around focusing on Japan. As a region, it already received a good amount of interesting content during ‘Mandate of Heaven’, with the introduction of the Shinto interactions, as well as the Shogunate. The goal of revisiting Japan is to expand its mechanics & tie them around new flavor in the form of a mission tree for Japan, new events as well as government reforms. Let’s take a look!

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[WIP] All values, art and even layouts showcased here are work in progress![WIP]​

Note, as you probably might have guessed already, Japan also gets access to the Emperor of China dedicated branch that I showcased a few weeks ago albeit the descriptions and titles are curated for immersion and accuracy reasons.

The tree will be granted upon forming Japan and it houses 30 new missions, 46 if you count the Emperor of China branch, as well as a dozen new events (both tied to the missions AND independent from it) as well as several new government reforms and even a special new unit, the Samurai.

The top half of the mission tree will deal with the internal affairs of the island, instructing you to guide the nation through military, commercial as well as administrative changes you may wish to enact. As we will see in detail further down, nearly every single mission is tied to either a new mechanic specifically made for Japan or a dynamic set of rewards.

Alongside all these cool new additions, we have also created a new special unit for Japan, the Samurai! They will not be easy to recruit and the intention is that they make about 10-25% of your forcelimit as your elite frontline, as shown below:

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Give us some ideas about what color they should be and feel free to chime in with some overall feedback regarding these very powerful bonuses​

Every Daimyo, Shogun and Indep. Daimyo will have access to the new unit either via their national ideas or via their government type, which are accessible in the base game. Furthermore, Japan has a +15% Samurai Forcelimit in its ideas!

Let's take a look at some highlights around new events and missions:

The mission ‘Bushido’ has not only been reworked from the ground up, but it also interacts with the aforementioned new special unit for Japan, the Samurai. By elevating your army professionalism and presenting a robust and powerful army, you will be rewarded with the following event:


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Kept you waiting, huh ?
These options will reform a significant part of the following 2 missions, based on your choices.
Should you choose to focus on the matter of land, you will be greeted by the mission ‘Bugeijuuhappan’ (or ‘18 types of martial arts’), a carefully curated combination of warfare techniques. Here’s Bugeijuuhappan’s reward:

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While, opting to focus on maritime warfare, would yield the mission ‘A New Naval Academy’ with the following reward:

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[This will probably be nerfed, it’s quite powerful!]​

But the dynamic nature of these missions does not stop there! The mission ‘Train the Samurai’ will also be impacted by your choice in the Book of Five Rings event as shown below:

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A very interesting part of the missions revolves around the fact that many of them will have their outcome depend on how you handle certain Shinto Incidents (if you own MoH and are yourself Shinto):


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[Glorious Nippon steel, folded over 1000 times!]

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The tree also plays around some new government reforms, as shown below:

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[That trade value will definitely be nerfed, at the very least! Please keep in mind these numbers are FAR from final]

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[Max Effect of Absolutism amplifies your current Absolutism’s potency. If 100 Absolutism grants
30% Administrative Efficiency, then “20% Max Effect of Absolutism” will amplify the 30% up to 36%]

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Before we move on to the conquest, second part of the tree, here are a few events that are independent of the mission tree:

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Moving on to the conquest branch of the tree, you will have the opportunity to seize land in both Korea and China as well as the Malacca Trade Node:

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[Should you claim the Mandate, you will be able to fabricate Tributary CBs on anyone, as long as they are weaker than you development-wise and independent]

The event ‘Fate of the Mandate’ which is granted after finishing the ‘Mandate to Rule Them All’ mission may grant you the opportunity to seize the Mandate, mid-war, and gain a powerful modifier to go with it:

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[Should you complete the mission while already a hegemon, you will gain a special easter egg modifier called 'Unleash the Shinkirou']

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The above 3 missions will have their rewards depending entirely on the current level of isolation! While we are at it, I took the liberty of changing the bonuses of isolation as I felt that the Open-side was incredibly more powerful than the Isolated side. I chose to have the extremes (0 and 4) be somewhat more powerful in most ocassions, so they are something a player will actively work towards during the entire game. Of course, this does not mean the other levels of isolation are useless, on the contrary:


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Finally, let’s take a look at the mission ‘A New Buddha?’ This one will deal with the relationship between Edo-Period Japan and Christianity:

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Note, the modifier Protectors of Eastern Catholicism will also grant Papal Influence, which is not visible right now​

Should we complete the mission by eradicating Christianity, we will gain access to the following mission and reward:

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Note; all these new reforms will also bolster the amount of Samurai you can recruit, by +10%​

Siding with the Shogun will rename your country to ‘The Shogunate’ and grant you a new and powerful T1 reform whereas siding with the Emperor, will yield the following event:

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[Note; your title with this reform is ‘God-Emperor’]

HOWEVER, if you choose (for whatever reason) to embrace Christianity in the Shinto incident, you will gain the following mission and reward:
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The above event proclaims the ending of the Kirishitan Incident. You won't need to conquer any land outside


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[NOTE; the art is PLACEHOLDER!]

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Please keep in mind the art and the numbers showcased here are a WIP!
The Government buttons showcased here were created from scratch with our new and fully moddable mechanic, which will allow you to create your own government buttons as you see fit should you wish to mod them. You can add 0 buttons or up to however many you can stuff on the UI and have them act accordingly or even evolve based on requirements or rewards you subscribe to them.

These particular ones operate much like the Tsardom buttons, but I could just as easily remove them and have a large bar in their stead, akin to the one we showcased last week for the Ottoman Decadence.


Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this Dev Diary. Next week we will be discussing new content for Russia with @Ogele!

This week's chapel comic, courtesy of Father Lorris:

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That's... A lot of permanent modifiers. Japan is my favorite place to play, so will definitely try this out. Always feel that land focus works out best. Trade routes kind of suck for Japan, and conquering China is about the only way to make it somewhat logical. You can't divert Indonesian trade to Japan, and vica versa only works when also conquering China first. Most colonial trade can't be sent to Japan.

Any chance on taking a second look at the Mount Fuji monument? It's probably the worst monument in the game right now. Maybe make the provincial modifier apply regio wide (so Japan only) at lvl 3?

Any changes to becoming Buddhist?

Also, is there a way to become a theocracy as Japan? Would love a Christian god emperor theocracy with the tier 4 government reform that gives combat ability.
 
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Cool stuff overall.

2 question:
  • Will the tool tips or event descriptions for shinto incidents reworked? Currently it kinda requires you to have the wiki open to really understand what you are doing.
  • Is Samurai Forcelimit seperate from specialunits forcelimit?
But also it looks a bit much like power creep right now, with all those permanent modifiers. (eg. +10%mil tactics and +1artyfire or -10%fire received) Though i guess most MP mods will rebalance it anyways.
 
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Idk, it sounds dumb, but just don't use them to carpet siege
By the sounds of it, you'll have at max 20/30 of these things in the early/midgame,
which means you'll likely be able to pad out your military with other units quite a bit, and probably use those to carpet siege instead. Though a button to separate the two easier may be pretty useful in that regard.
Right, but then one considers the added value of a small (in SP) bonus like 10% discipline relative to the pain of having to have different roles for different units.
Also, the proposal just doesn't work with typical offensive war dynamic since you tend to invade into their land with the ability to fight off any defensive forces. So you fight with your samurai, you're in their territory, and now you just walk your damaged samurai home? It just doesn't work. You'll have to aggressively consolidate and hire more to make this loop work.
 
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That's... A lot of permanent modifiers. Japan is my favorite place to play, so will definitely try this out. Always feel that land focus works out best. Trade routes kind of suck for Japan, and conquering China is about the only way to make it somewhat logical.

Any chance on taking a second look at the Mount Fuji monument? It's probably the worst monument in the game right now. Maybe make the provincial modifier apply regio wide (so Japan only) at lvl 3?

Any changes to becoming Buddhist?

Also, is there a way to become a theocracy as Japan? Would love a Christian god emperor theocracy with the tier 4 government reform that gives combat ability.
There is a way to become a theocracy as japan for a long time with the ikko-ikki incident. Its also the way to become mahayana. Check shinto events: "The Amida Buddha"
 
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Please reconsider your stance on colonization speed and institution spread speed. They are both way too fast (institutions after 1600, colonization always), making the game more like 4X than a historical one. I am only reposting this in hopes that you will take note. I will now shamelessly summon @Johan . I just want my favorite game back.
We're aware that you have posted this in the last three Dev Diaries, as we're aware of these issues. So, if at some point we plan or make any changes to them, we'll communicate to the community thoroughly, as we've been doing for some time. But, please, it's not necessary to repeat it on every single DD; let's keep the focus on the new content, in this case for Japan.
 
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Give us some ideas about what color they should be and feel free to chime in with some overall feedback regarding these very powerful bonuses
Colour: Maybe indigo? Sumptuary laws prevented most samurai from wearing bright colours, but Tokushima indigo was prized and affordable, so it was a common colour for samurai garments.

Modifiers: The extra disc stacking with the shinto bonus seems too much to me! Ideally it would be something that applies to both infantry and cavalry. Maybe shock damage? Or a new bonus that emphasises their social importance as opposed to them being particularly effective on the battlefield, and maybe even ties them to Japanese mechanics like giving them a bonus that scales with legitimacy or prestige.

Finally, let’s take a look at the mission ‘A New Buddha?’ This one will deal with the relationship between Edo-Period Japan and Christianity:

It seems like a shame to make it a choice between christianity or an anachronistic 20th century-style militaristic shinto. In general I think it's unfortunate that the relationship between buddhism and shinto is unexplored. Rather than modifiers about spreading shinto or being better at wars with other religions, some bonuses about internal stabiliy or such might be nice, especially since this is really the historical path.
 
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Japan is probably my most replayed nation after my homeland, any kind of new content for them is amazing.
I think it is appropriate to ask this now, will buddhism get updated? Buddhism used to suck until leviathan added buddhist-exclusive monuments. But now those monuments can be used by anyone in eastern domination as well(which, I think makes sense don't get me wrong) and Buddhist is once again one of the worst religions in the game(and animism isn't even a real religion, it is an umbrella religion for any tribal belief). I confess that I don't know much about Buddhism but they feel soo shallow
 
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Starting to think Paradox Tinto's historical research process is just asking each other what pop history myths they know about a country.

"Uhhh I heard that the Ottomans declined because of decadence"
"Samurais are so cool steel folded over 1000 morbillion times can cut through steel"
"The Japanese worship their Emperor as a god right?"
 
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Uhhh
So now Korea is the country, blocked by two big "regions" of reworked missions trees of China and Japan. Now, culture convert to Japan as Korea is absolute must, and it is very sad...
 
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Is the Sengoku Jidai not being reworked?
 
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Starting to think Paradox Tinto's historical research process is just asking each other what pop history myths they know about a country.

"Uhhh I heard that the Ottomans declined because of decadence"
"Samurais are so cool steel folded over 1000 morbillion times can cut through steel"
"The Japanese worship their Emperor as a god right?"
We actually have people in the team that have lived in Japan, and that do research on Japanese sources. But we have to take into account how to make that material attractive and funny to play, so it's impossible to have a game being 100% historically accurate (and, to be honest, tackling correctly Japanese Early Modern history would require a new Sengoku GSG).
 
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We're aware that you have posted this in the last three Dev Diaries, as we're aware of these issues. So, if at some point we plan or make any changes to them, we'll communicate to the community thoroughly, as we've been doing for some time. But, please, it's not necessary to repeat it on every single DD; let's keep the focus on the new content, in this case for Japan.

I'd also say religious conversion speed needs to be reduced.
 
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