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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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anachronistic 20th century-style militaristic shinto
the seeds for the japanese imperialism of the 20th century were sown well before then, and in fact began immediately after Japan unified in 1868. If they were to unify earlier (say in 1800, within the game's timeframe), they'd probably embark on similar militaristic conquest
 
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Good job, I only have some concerns:
"+25% ships cannon
+25% hull size
[This will probably be nerfed, it’s quite powerful!] "
Stacked with +1 artillery fire (some people maybe don’t know but Artillery affects the damage of the ship)

Yeah this is broken. if there are 25% ships with 25% more life is like having +25% global naval engagement modifier but with no need for the extra ships. also if you have global naval engagement modifier from other source this will multiply with ships cannon and hull size instead of instead of being additive. Also the +1 artillery fire to the base will be multiply by +25% ships cannon so there is a lot of modifiers multipling each other this means it can go really crazy very fast.

Also, i want to point out that in the mission that gives "Artillery fire +1" or "-10% fire damage recieved-10%" or "+10% fire damage". the first one is substantially stronger than the other 2, so there is no question which one to aim to have. nerfing the "Artillery fire +1" is the easiest way to have a decision here instead of one always being "meta". other option is making the conditions to have the "Artillery fire +1" substantially harder than the others.

The mission ”expand the Gokaido” the +5 local trade value seams insane except for the fact that is unlock in tier 8 government reform and is only for the region of japan. Even though I steal feal like is to strong because it affects the bace and also has other bonus. Mybe only +2?
I love that there is a mission that only affects a region I want more of this in others mission trees. It is a nice way to give a power full bonus with out being insanely broken.
To be fair, I overtuned these modifiers with the idea in mind that the community is a very good pointer for matters of balance. Please rest assured these numbers will be thoroughly reviewed after we collect feedback! I think for starters (as an example) 25% for both hull and cannons is way too much, and that arty fire, while a fun idea, is way too strong!
 
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the seeds for the japanese imperialism of the 20th century were sown well before then, and in fact began immediately after Japan unified in 1868. If they were to unify earlier (say in 1800, within the game's timeframe), they'd probably embark on similar militaristic conquest
'Militaristic shinto', not 'imperialism'
 
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This looks like some fantastic flavour! I really enjoy the addition of unique/elite cultural units. I really hope you keep up this and add more to many cultures. I would love to see some for Germany and England especially. Keep up your great work :)

Many Thanks!
 
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There's a lot of power creep in this one. The permanent modifiers to warscore costs and to monarch point generation and expenditure stand out, but the tree in general seems significantly too strong. Even some of the temporary bonuses appear too powerful.

The missions allowing Japan to seize the mandate mid-war and become a naval hegemon, apparently without fulfilling the requirements, are a new form of power creep because they rely on breaking or circumventing existing mechanics. Taking the mandate isn't just a modifier - it's knee-capping another country by clicking a button, thus forgoing the need to win a war for the mandate as every other country has to. (Even Qing has to win a war to seize the mandate!)

Receiving the naval hegemon bonuses is similar - it's not just a modifier but a way to hamper other countries by circumventing a mechanical system. Japan doesn't need to win a naval arms race to become a hegemon; it just clicks a button. Countries that use the hegemon mechanics as intended will then have to beat Japan in a war to become the naval hegemon. If Japan isn't a world-spanning power (as the mechanic assumes all hegemons will be) this should be doable, but it will also be tedious to send fleets and armies halfway around the world just to beat a much weaker country pretending to be an unchallengeable naval power.
 
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Wow these government buttons suck. 1 1 1 dev for 100 diplo will only be worth it if you are about to overflow.
Keep in mind, it's 1 1 1 dev for EACH province with 50 units in it, by the looks of things. So while it's rather weak early on, once you get to a big army that button suddenly can become really strong. (It's literally 3 dev per 50 units you own as long as you place them correctly.)
 
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There should be a japanese event via mission that allows japan to switch unit tech type to western units just like the ones in Ethiopia mission tree. Because they did that historically. Also this would mean that doing this would disband existing Samurai units.
 
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With Japan getting defender of the Faith would it be possible to change how DOTF tiers work? If it was based on total Dev or provinces of your religion it would allow Japan and other nations like Britain to get higher then tier one.
 
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While in the topic of Japan, is there any chance for a tweak of the Portuguese mission concerning Nagasaki?
It's supposed to be an historical mission yet It's impossible to achieve with historical borders other than by no-CBing Japan and the reward is so bad it's not even worth the stability hit. A very poorly designed mission that feels like a choir more than a goal.
 
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I think eyalets of ottomans should be the same color as them because they are less autonomous subjects like collaboration governments in hoi4 and collab governments are same color as the overlord so eyalets should be same
 
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Can daimyo FL be adjusted? Frankly, it's pretty much impossible to slowly chip away at provinces as daimyos -- you kinda have to zerg everyone while going over force limit. There are two problems with the lowered FL from being a subject:
  1. Rebels from conquering a single province is bigger than your FL early on
  2. Level 3 forts are fun
 
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Samurai for Japan? Awesome.
Black was the formal samurai attire colour right? Can you do black for Samurai?

I just love me some special units!
Keep them coming.

(Don't forget Conquistadors for Spain and Aventureiros for Portugal much love)

Will def do a Japan run when the update hits. A Christian Japan run with lots of guns and cannons.
 
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