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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!

japantree.png

[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:

samuraibonkers.png

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:


Screenshot_3.png

Screenshot_4.png
Screenshot_5.png

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:

Screenshot_6.png
While, opting to focus on maritime warfare, would yield the mission ‘A New Naval Academy’ with the following reward:

Screenshot_7.png

[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:

Screenshot_8.png

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):


Screenshot_10.png

[Glorious Nippon steel, folded over 1000 times!]

Screenshot_13.png

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

Screenshot_12.png

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

Screenshot_11.png

[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%]

Screenshot_14.png


Screenshot_15.png


apgain.png

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

Screenshot_2.png


Screenshot_9.png


Screenshot_1.png


Screenshot_17.png

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:

imjin.png


false.png


hegemonasia.png

[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:

Screenshot_18.png


surpasswest.png

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

Screenshot_19.png

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:


Screenshot_20.png

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:

Screenshot_21.png

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:

Screenshot_24.png

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:

Screenshot_25.png

[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:
Screenshot_27.png

The above event proclaims the ending of the Kirishitan Incident. You won't need to conquer any land outside


christiansun.png


t1reform.png


button1.png
[NOTE; the art is PLACEHOLDER!]

button2.png


button3.png


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:

chapel_japan_dd.png
 

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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
Respectfully, I am worried that this may make Japan much more harder to conquer as an outsider from early-mid game, as they will be able to conjure up a large army to defend. Maybe the rebels should be reduced for daimyos (unfortunately I cannot think of a fort solution off the top of my head)
 
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So, let's address this. The way the Yuan missions are scripted right now is kinda convoluted in the sense that they are not tied to a tag of Yuan - if memory serves right - and rather, they are attached to certain cultures. If I were to add the EoC missions on top of those cultures, I would have to re-script the same missions into the Yuan file, with different names in the script (because same names conflict even between different files). I did this process already for Japan and it's a bit tiring and may itself present more conflicts in the future.

I know people really want Yuan to have access to these but I can't in good conscience promise it. If there is time, I will attempt it though, I got your back :D

I have registered at forum just to post it:

If adding content for Yuan is only a matter of time, then maybe move the release (still not announced yet) of the dlc could be an option?
Yuan is an important element of this region.

Additionally: will there be also a buddhist path for Japan?
 
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Respectfully, I am worried that this may make Japan much more harder to conquer as an outsider from early-mid game, as they will be able to conjure up a large army to defend. Maybe the rebels should be reduced for daimyos (unfortunately I cannot think of a fort solution off the top of my head)
Isn't that just something to consider when you invade japan? You essentially have to be prepared to fight all of it to invade.
 
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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!

View attachment 943179
[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:

View attachment 943180
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:

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

View attachment 943185
[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:


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):


View attachment 943187
[Glorious Nippon steel, folded over 1000 times!]

View attachment 943188

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

View attachment 943189
[That trade value will definitely be nerfed, at the very least! Please keep in mind these numbers are FAR from final]

View attachment 943190
[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%]

View attachment 943191

View attachment 943192

View attachment 943193

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

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:

View attachment 943198

View attachment 943199

View attachment 943200
[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:

View attachment 943201

View attachment 943215
[Should you complete the mission while already a hegemon, you will gain a special easter egg modifier called 'Unleash the Shinkirou']

View attachment 943203

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:

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:

View attachment 943205
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:

View attachment 943207
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:

View attachment 943208
[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:
View attachment 943216
The above event proclaims the ending of the Kirishitan Incident. You won't need to conquer any land outside


View attachment 943211

View attachment 943210

View attachment 943212
[NOTE; the art is PLACEHOLDER!]

View attachment 943213

View attachment 943214

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:

Super cool stuff! Since we’re in the area, can you consider bumping up the development of Korea a bit? It got some nice mechanical updates recently, but the country is still ludicrously underdeveloped— maybe the most underdeveloped tag in the game relative to its historical state.
 
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I'm at least seeing a reason to not convert to Confucian whenever I get the chance to take advantage of Meritocracy and some monuments so that's good, will probably actually be a difficult choice to make now.
 
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So as far as I'm seeing, is there any content for the daimyos? It feels like it is never convenient to have them around, when it's the main feature in the region (and adds a lot of flavour IMO). If the Japan tag is intended to represent Meiji's restoration Japan, then it makes little sense to allow this to happen in 1460. Maybe not allowing daimyo integration until a specific condition is met can improve the situation a bit, because currently 100% of the time the AI forms Japan before Age of Absolutism
 
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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.
This game, like all other paradox games, was never historical and always 4x.
 
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The samurai 10% discipline is just ridiculous with no basis in reality.

Japan's victories against Ming and Korea had more tô do with weakness of their enemies. Make It 5% then but not 10!
 
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so I enjoy this a lot! this adds a lot of needed flavor to the region. my biggest problem with this is how I feel this will affect daimyos. i think this will make the daimyos feel more outdated than they already do

I personally dislike the daimyo system it's just weird to play as. If your Ashikaga it's OP if your any other daiymo it's just annoying after a while because you have basically the same game plan. I think a rework of the daimyo system is in dire need of assistance, and I know this will affect three mountain runs but "eh". something that would be interesting is if you are Ashikaga you would build up these daimyos (maybe you don't even get to call them into offensive wars, in the beginning, you have to unlock that) and you play the vassal game while others like oda etc play the conquering game or something. each vassal brings something unique with its ideas so it's a shame that I have to play each nation the same. like So can technically become pirates, which is a thing that happened on Tsushima. Imagine the flavor of Japanese pirates ruling japan. it's just the problem of the 27ish daimyos playing the exact same way and then it's just a meta of what is the more powerful daimyo instead of the flavor of what would happen if Satake won.
 
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Great job! And can I suggest some changes for the Spain rework? The Jesuits should not be available at the start of the game, but a couple of years after the start of the Protestant Reformation. It would also be great if we could recruit "tercios" and play a little with the golden age of literature and the arts. Perhaps a chain of events exploring the feud between Lope de Vega and Miguel de Cervantes and another about Velázquez. Finally, also look for some way to incorporate the orders of Santiago and Alcántara
 
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Are there any plans for making a new mission tree for the USA? I know they aren't a starter nation, but I still think they deserve more flavour than 4 unique missions.
Same goes for Brazil, Mexico and colonies in general. Maybe, like, add a generic MT for colonies that leads to independence and then have a unique one or two for the big ones. Just giving ideas...
I agree. Although in my opinion colonials should have generic mission on whether they stay loyal to their overlord or revolt. And like you said in the case of independence some of the big ones (Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil and Australia) could have their own unique. I would add to this list Texas and California but i don't know if it's to much asking for.
 
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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).
All I hear is Sengoku 2 confirmed
 
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