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Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 7th of March 2023 - All Blue

Hello and welcome to another Development Diary! Today we will be talking about the new, yet undisclosed content for Europa Universalis IV: Domination, the new expansion that was announced yesterday!

We are very excited to show you the final features that we will include. But let's start by addressing some of the countries that may be on the list of what could be considered Early Modern Great Powers, the main theme of Domination, and that will not receive new content in this expansion. First of all, you may have noticed (and widely requested) new content to be included for two of the ‘historical winners’ in the Middle East during this time period, the Gunpowder Empires of Persia and the Mughals, and also for some other ‘historical losers’ in the area, as the Mamluks. To be clear, they were left out of this expansion on purpose, since we have future plans for the Middle East, so you can expect us to create new content for them in the future. Some of you may have also wondered why countries like Venice, Netherlands or Austria are not in this expansion. You’ll see later that some of them have received some extra flavor in Domination; but, apart from that, today we want to show some countries that we decided to focus on, and that received more extra content, which are:
  • Portugal
  • Prussia
  • Korea
On top of that, we will also be talking about the following new content:

  • Naval Special Units
  • Government Reforms
  • Estate Privileges
With that being said, let’s start with a country that I promised a couple of weeks ago would receive new content - Portugal! Or do we call it now Bluetugal? Anyway, we have reworked some of the older features of the country a bit. First, there was a redesign of its mission tree. Let’s take a look at its new shape:

Portugal 1.png

We reorganized it for better consistency. On the upper part, all the missions related to Exploration and Colonization. We reworked some of their rewards, improved the flow of some of them, and added a few more as well, after reading your feedback in the forums over the past couple of weeks:

Portugal 2.jpg

Portugal 3.jpg

Portugal 4.jpg

‘Sails of Exploration’ and ‘Charter the Seas’ add some flavor to the early Explorations made by Portugal.

Portugal 5.jpg

Portugal 6.jpg

Portugal 7.jpg

‘Clash with the Ottomans’ adds a mid to late game objective regarding the Portuguese push for Hegemony in the Indian Ocean, also adding an extra buff to the Portuguese Marines.

Portugal 8.jpg

Portugal 9.jpg

Portugal 10.jpg

‘Reform the Navy’ unlocks Caravels and Galleons special ships for Portugal, while ‘Lusitanian Empire’ makes for a more interesting reward if completing the lower half content of the Portuguese mission tree.

Apart from that, we also have created two unique Government Reforms for Portugal. The first one is a Tier 1 reform (meaning that Portugal will start with it):

Portugal 11.jpg

While the second one is a Tier 5 unique Military reform, which opens a new decision on top of the reform modifier:

Portugal 12.jpg

Portugal 13.png

To complete the rebalance of Portugal, we also took into account your suggestions for the Order of Avis, and changed their sailors for a more defensive approach for them:

14 Portugal 14.jpg

And we also added a couple of Salt resources in Portugal:

15 Portugal 15.jpg

Now, let’s move to the Prussia rework, which is presented by @PDX Big Boss !



Hey everyone, Prussia has long been a great and fun nation to play as, in Single and (especially) Multiplayer. As we revamp the content of the Great Powers in Domination, I saw it fit to revisit Prussia to some degree and give them a touch-up to accompany the upcoming Expansion. The idea behind this content is that Brandenburg feels like it’s surrounded by very powerful neighbors and rarely is allowed to grow and evolve into Prussia. This is especially true in Multiplayer scenarios, where the Polish, Scandinavian and Austrian players end up bullying little Brandenburg out of key provinces, such as the areas of Eastern and Western Prussia or Silesia etc. Alongside the new Prussian Blue color, I worked through nearly every single mission, providing new requirements and rewards, estate privileges, mechanics and more! Let’s take a look at some of the highlights:

15.5 Blue Prussia.png

Starting off, Reclaim Neumark will offer a new dynamic reward as shown below:

16. Reclaim Neumark Mission.png

Depending on your relationship with the Holy Roman Emperorship, conquering provinces outside of the Empire’s domain will yield a different bonus!

The mission ‘Ansbach Succession’ is now tied to a unique new “Timed Reward” challenge. Should you accept the union with Ansbach in the ‘Franconian Hohenzollerns’ event, you will trigger the mission’s timed challenge, starting the countdown. You will have 5 years at your disposal to reunite the Franconian lands, enjoying a powerful new reward if you are victorious:

17. Franconian Conquest Timed Reward.png

However, as the reward is very powerful, failure will also set you back a good deal as your lands in Franconia will declare independence and in return worsen your relations with your neighbors.

Disaster in Franconia.png

This is an experimental feature due to the fact that I feel like it's a good bit of a challenge for those who wish it. Please keep in mind you can circumvent this feature should you feel like you don’t wanna deal with it!

The mission ‘The Balance of Power’ will empower the Brandenburg Gate Great Project (for owners of Leviathan) with the following reward:

Balance of Power Mission.png

‘Conquer Greater Poland’ will grant the following reward should you complete it with 200 Development in the Polish region, granting you access to a very powerful Age Ability, as the de facto ruler of the Polish domain:

Conquer Greater Poland Mission.png

To be clear, you won’t need to complete the mission DURING the Age of Reformation!

Lastly, as far as Brandenburg-accessible content is concerned, a small pet-peeve of mine has always been the canals. They always felt somewhat underutilized and I would love to see them being built more often as they can provide a strategic advantage and a dynamic change to wars, especially in Multiplayer. To (at least partially) address that, the mission ‘Construct the Kiel Canal’ has had its requirements and rewards changed, to spawn the Canal upon completion:

Construct the Kiel Canal.png

Note: An idea I had during development would be to have the ability of closing and opening the canal, either in general or towards foes but alas, it was not meant to be. More on Great Projects at a later DD.

Moving on to Prussia, they will gain access to some new missions as per the Emperor DLC dictates. What is important to note here however is that Militarization as we know it , as far as Prussia is concerned, has changed.

Prussia now starts with a new version of it, called Early Prussian Militarization:

Militarization 1.png

A few easily-digestible points here:

  • The first level of Militarization is weaker than the 1.34 equivalent.
  • Only Prussia will have access to this, everyone else that uses Militarization will keep the 1.34 iteration.
  • I would like to reinstate the decay of Militarization so it’s not a button you press 10 times and then forget about for the rest of the campaign, that is not very engaging. The idea is that you should always weigh your Mil power and think “Do I want to get a temporary boost, cap my Militarization or boost it ?” especially during wars and crucial battles.
  • Prussia does not need a special unit per-se. The entire army should be bolstered by this mechanic instead, not a few select parts of it. The army IS the special unit.
And how will this mechanic evolve as the game goes on? By completing these 2 missions:

23 Army Reforms and An Army with a State.png

Each will upgrade the mechanic, not only by unlocking more powerful bonuses but also adding new interactions as we will observe further down.

23 Army Reforms.png

25 Militarization 2.png

So the second level is essentially similar to 1.34 Militarization. The only difference here should be the decay, notice how the jump from the first to the second level also increased the decay of it.

Which leaves us with the final level of Militarization. If you are an enemy of Prussia, I would highly advise you to NOT let them reach this stage:

26 Prussia Mil.png

Note: these icons are a WIP!

Scharnhorst Manuevers Button.png

Reform the Military Manual Button.png

At this point I should note that these numbers are very much a WIP and I welcome all feedback, I love Prussia and I want this evolution of the Militarization mechanic to be as interesting and usable as possible. So as far as this new mechanic goes, feel free to chime in regarding stuff like the bonuses themselves, how much they should cost, the decay of each level etc.

Before we move on to another topic, I would like to thank Stiopa for providing me with a few new flavor events, which I plan on adding as part of the base game! And now, @Ogele is going to show you the new content for Korea!



Heya!

While my two colleagues cover two “minor” great powers of Europe, I figured it would be nice to expand Korea a little bit with Domination as all of its neighbors were given extensive overhauls. Generally speaking, I have always been more or less happy with its mission tree, though some of its mission rewards and requirements are in need of a revisit which will happen over the next few days.

With that being said, I still felt like Korea deserves something to make it stand out amongst the hordes of the North, the Empire to its west and Samurai to the east. As such it was only fitting that they receive their own unique Tier 1 reform:

korea_reform.png

korean_focuses.png

Its starting privilege - the “Inward Perfectionism” - has been turned into a three-button government ability for Korea, where they can set their path of how they interact with the world. As the community seems to dislike the idea that Korea expands, the AI will always choose Inward Focus and is prohibited from declaring any wars while they have the Inward Focus.

However, due to the nature of EU4, having only the Inward Focus is not necessarily a lot of fun for many players. As such, Korea also has access to the Outward Focus - one which focuses on interacting but not fighting with outside nations - and an Expansion Focus - the epitome of the EU4 gameplay loop. You can select a new focus every 20 years or when you get a new ruler.

Additionally to this, Korea’s ideas have been revisited. It was promised in 1.33 that they would get an update and it finally has happened:

Code:
KOR_ideas = {
    start = {
        build_cost = -0.1
        land_morale = 0.1
    }
    bonus = {
        infantry_power = 0.1
    }
    trigger = {
        tag = KOR
    }
    free = yes
    kor_uijeongbu = {
        advisor_cost = -0.1
        all_estate_loyalty_equilibrium = 0.05
    }
    metal_movable_type = {
        adm_tech_cost_modifier = -0.05
        innovativeness_gain = 0.5
    }
    choi_mu_seon_gunpower_engines = {
        fire_damage = 0.1
    }
    korean_artisanery = {
        prestige = 1
        development_cost = -0.05
    }
    hyanyak_system = {
        production_efficiency = 0.10
    }
    geobukseon = {
        ship_durability = 0.1
        naval_morale = 0.05
        has_geobukseon = yes
    }
    kyujanggak = {
        idea_cost = -0.1
    }
}

Two things to be mentioned here: the Hangul Alphabet is a big part of Korean history and technology, and while it has been removed from the ideas, it has not been removed from Korea itself.

31 alphabet.png

Note: there is also a revoke decision if you want to get rid of the increased unrest.

The Hopae System itself has become a decision too:

32 hopae.png

The Korean ideas also unlock a new special naval unit for Korea: the Geobukseon Galley:

33 geobukseon.png

The amount of Geobukseon you can construct scales with Navy Tradition. At 100 Navy Tradition, 50% of your Naval Force Limit can be made of Geobukseon ships.

Some other small additions for Korea are the additions of the Tripitaka Koreana and the Righteous Army military reform. Starting with the former, the Tripitaka Koreana is a permanent province modifier which is quite similar to the Emerald Buddha in Chiang Mai. Located in Jinju, the modifier has the following effects:

34 tripitaka_koreana.png

Note: Not shown is the Karma decay for Buddhistic nations.

It is possible for another country of the Eastern Religion Group to steal Tripitaka if the province gets occupied by outside forces:

tripitaka_stolen.png

In order to counteract this, the owner of the Tripitaka Koreana has two decisions which reinforce the defense of this collection.

36 tripitaka_defense.png

37 tripitaka_evacuation.png

Note: the latter decision is only available in a defensive war.

Finally let us tackle the unique military reform of Korea: the Righteous Army. Once just a mission in their mission tree, it is now a government reform in the fifth tier (which I will go into detail later) with the following effects:

38 righteous_army.png

Once selected, you will have access to the following decision when you are in a defensive war OR 10 provinces of your culture have been occupied:

righteous_army_decision.png

The Righteous Army is an emergency mercenary unit with only 10% of its cost and can be recruited like any free company can be:

40 righteous_army_merc.png
Note: I am aware that the Righteous Army is basically a force of peasants which defend their homeland from invaders. I excluded them from the Army Professionalism cost as it would be a bit awkward from a gameplay perspective to be punished for recruiting a special mercenary company with such a niche.

Once peace has returned you get the following event:

41 righteous_army_peace.png

That is it for Korea for the time being. I want to express my gratitude towards Estaloy who helped me a lot with giving good ideas for Korea and as well as giving inspiration for many other aspects for 1.35. I wouldn't have gotten so far without her support.

Unlike other nations, Korea is one of the states which I personally would like to expand with every patch a little bit as there are still a few things to cover such as highly factionalized infighting. However, time is of the essence, and as such we have to move on now to another topic.

Korea, England, Portugal and Castile are not the only countries that have gained access to new special naval units, the new feature that we are implementing in Domination.

Countries of the Venetian or the Ligurian cultures have access to the following Tier 5 government reform:

42 merchant_arsenal.png

43 galleass.png


Galleasses are similar to Geobukseon as the amount of available galleasses scales with your navy tradition. However, you can only construct them in provinces that have either a dock, drydock, shipyard or grand shipyard.

The other special naval unit went to the Dutch and Flemish countries which have one of the three Dutch governments (more about them later).

44 VOC.png

The VOC Indiamen is even for special units extraordinary as it is the only non-transport ship that can actually transport land units. Combined with their ability to protect trade and their additional cannons, the VOC Indiamen are a master of utility. However, you only have 20% of your naval force limit available for you. Any additional force limit available for VOC is increased by your Trade Efficiency. At 100% Trade Efficiency you would be able to recruit 25% more of your total naval force limit as VOC Indiamen.

Now, let’s move to the new Government Reforms and Estate Privileges that we created!

A big part of 1.34’s success was the introduction of many new government reforms which expanded the choices a player could make during their campaign. 1.35 and Domination will continue this trend with the addition of a new government tier and more tier 1 reforms all across the world.

Let’s get started with the new tier!

45 new_tier_5.png

46 tier_5_reforms.png

Note: These reforms and the tier are part of the 1.35 free update. It is a shared tier between Monarchies, Republics, Theocracies and Tribal governments.

You might have noticed that none of these reforms give “hard” land military modifiers. The general idea was that the generic military reforms should be somewhat of a utility reform for your army. Depending on the situation you might want to pick a different reform.

The three exceptions to these are the mercenary as well as the naval reforms. The former gives mercenary discipline in order to encourage active usage of mercenary units for combat (this is especially directed at players like me who love to park their merc units on a fort and forget about them until a siege is over) while the latter is more for the role play aspect.

With that being said, Domination itself brings additional reforms for the 5th tier. These reforms, however, are locked behind specific culture groups in order to give variety to the world. Here are are some examples:

47 specific_reforms.png

Note: As usual, neither numbers nor modifiers are final.

Some reforms enable certain mechanics unique to the government reform. For example, completing the mercenary ideas unlocks the following government reform:

48 elite_mercs.png

49 meme_build.png

Note: The actual price is 0.1 Years of Income.

Now that we have covered the tier 5 reforms, let us return to Tier 1. While the addition of many additional reforms was highly praised, we still were feeling that a bit more variety is missing. As Domination is already a DLC focusing on a global scope, it was only fitting that we introduce new Tier 1 reforms in order to make regions have something to look forward to with the upcoming update and DLC:

50 starting_tier_1.png

A few other new Tier 1 get unlocked as you play through your campaign and form other countries:

51 formables_tier_1.png

Additionally, Domination will unlock some “over-the-top” government reforms for achieving a difficult-ish feat:

special_formables_tier_1.png

Last but not least, Domination enables two new generic Tier 1 reforms for Monarchies and Republics:

52 elective.png

Whenever a new ruler ascends the throne you get the following event pop-up:

53 election_event.png

You always have the option to choose one from your nobility to become the new ruler. Additionally, if you border a country that is not independent, has the Nobility (or its Indian equivalent) estates, is a monarchy, is not at war with you and is not in a regency then you get the choice to elect one of the said country’s relatives to your new ruler. However, this specific ruler is the only one whose stats you cannot see before.

The event will always pick the most developed country as the origin of this foreign noble. Of course I want to point out that this is subject to changes.

The other reform is one for the Republics:

54 civic.png

Unlike other Republics, this reform tries to mix things up by introducing max terms for a ruler to rule.

55 max_terms.png

Of course this stands to the antithesis of the optimal play of Republics where you want to re-elect the same guy over and over again. Because of that, this reform aims for making modifiers which increase the length of terms and more stats for random candidates more attractive by giving new rulers a new lifetime long modifier which makes choosing a new candidate:

56 candidate_bonus.png

There are in total 15 modifiers, 5 for each category (ADM/DIP/MIL). Here is the list of possible modifiers to get from your ruler:

Code:
civic_republicanism_focus_government = {
    reform_progress_growth = 0.1
}
civic_republicanism_focus_expansion = {
    core_creation = -0.05
}
civic_republicanism_focus_technology = {
    idea_cost = -0.05
}
civic_republicanism_focus_stability = {
    stability_cost_modifier = -0.1
}
civic_republicanism_focus_religion = {
    global_missionary_strength = 0.01
}


civic_republicanism_focus_diplomacy = {
    diplomatic_reputation = 1
}
civic_republicanism_focus_court = {
    all_estate_influence_modifier = -0.05
}
civic_republicanism_focus_trade = {
    trade_efficiency = 0.1
}
civic_republicanism_focus_subjects = {
    diplomatic_annexation_cost = -0.05
}
civic_republicanism_focus_development = {
    development_cost = -0.05
}


civic_republicanism_focus_defensive = {
    defensiveness = 0.2
}
civic_republicanism_focus_sieges = {
    siege_ability = 0.1
}
civic_republicanism_focus_leaders = {
    leader_land_shock = 1
    leader_naval_shock = 1
}
civic_republicanism_focus_quality = {
    land_morale = 0.1
}
civic_republicanism_focus_naval = {
    naval_morale = 0.1
    global_ship_trade_power = 0.1
}

These were the government reforms, but I am not done yet. Domination also unlocks up to 60 new Estate Privileges, distributed amongst all the estates (Janissaries and Eunuchs not counted in). It would be a bit too much if I go into detail for every privilege, so instead I will showcase a set of privileges which can be expected for the major estates (Clergy, Burghers and Nobles) and then a few highlights for the more niche estates.

no_crownland_loss_from_deving.png

Every estate gains one privilege which allows you to develop your provinces without the affected estate to lose crown land. While this seems like a drawback for a few estates, for others like the Nobility which has access to Increased Levies or the Rajputs whose access to their special units is tied to the crown land they have it will be a powerful tool.

58 influence_scaling.png

Most estates will also gain access to a privilege whose modifiers directly scale with the influence said estate has.

59 loyalty_scaling.png

Finally, there is a privilege whose modifiers directly scale with the loyalty of your estate. So an estate with 100% Loyalty would give the full modifiers.

Now, you might have noticed that the last privilege has an “Estate Decision” or, synonymously called “Estate Action”. For those who did not play EUIV before 1.30: the estates used to have interactions that you can press in order to get a one-time effect from the estate. Some might even remember the old golden rule of giving the estates 80% influence and then demanding their support every 20 years for 200 Monarch Power.

Well, this has now returned in form of decisions that are unlocked by the estates:

estate_decisions.png

While other interactions have been reworked into an effect that interacts with your estate agendas.

61 minister_decision.png

While other interactions have been reworked into an effect which interacts with your estate agendas.

62 agenda_completer.png

Finally a few estate privileges from the less prevalent estates:

63 cossacks.png

64 hordes.png

And that’s all for today! Here @Pavía again! We hope you enjoy all this new content we have created for Europa Universalis IV: Domination. But on top of that, next week we will be talking about more new content we have created… In this case, free content! We are adding a fair amount of content to the previous DLCs and the base game as we wanted to give the gameplay even more depth and continue to expand some of the features that are included in them, and also as a reward for the large player base that continues to support Europa Universalis IV after almost 10 years of development. See you next week!

eu4-prussia-dd.png
 

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Super duper nice. The only thing i would love for Portugal is that it was somehow possible to go pirate Portugal still. Now it is possible, if you give over alot of provinces, but it's obviously a bit exploitative - the nice thing is just the roleplay and the focus on marines.
 
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Having trouble posting a scathing review of the Prussia changes as it won’t let me post due to spam or inappropriate content in my message. Any admin help available??
 
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@PDX Big Boss

Now that I think of it, I have a question regarding the french musketeers.

I've played a france game until the revolution and it reminded me that they had the national guard as a special unit, so will the musketeers be removed or replaced by the national guard when you become revolutionary ?
It would make sense if they're removed.
Historically they were disbanded in the 1780~ and briefly reformed when the monarchy returned just to be disbanded again 2 years after.

The second one is just to know if they're a cavalry unit or an infantry one ?
They were mainly cavalry but after a time some were just infantry (even tho cav remained the big portion of it)



Edit: something must be done about the Netherlands missions in wich you must have 33% of the lubeck node.
It lock you out of a big portions of your missions and I can barely get to 25% with 50 caravels, so I doubt the IA will ever complete it.
 
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Nice update! But some Chinese players, and I, feel a little dissatisfied after this Dev diary is released. I would like to generalize some opinion on the Chinese forum. In fact, we were very happy to see that the new development include East Asia and add some new missions and mechanisms under the mandate system. However, now there are many other powerful countries having way more missions and claims, even special units. Unfortunately, Qing doesn't even have the claim on the western region (greater Xinjiang) that historically conquered.
Besides, it's great that there are staff who are passionate on expanding more features on East Asian countries like Japan and Korea. However, as claimed by many Chinese players, it's kind of ironic that the Ming doesn't have special unit and new reform/features as the other Confucian country Korea does.
I personally hope to see how the new class of Ming is going to affect the game; and it will be great if a new special cannon unit, Hu Dun Pao, is added to Ming.
There are so many Chinese players who are passionate about this game and hope China is more playable in this game.
Thank you! We can't wait for the new expansion.
 
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I can only imagine how much in flames this forum will be if the developers decide that the best way to ensure Scotland's survival is making England and Scotland historical friends :D
I can see this being an option though.

I mean- England did historically PU Scotland, under the current dynamic this would mean that Scotland as a historical rival will be trying to revolt a lot more than they did historically (since it was their king on the throne the Scots didn't mind all that much).

It could also allow for some historical roleplaying- imagine you play as a released wales and conquer then form England. In that scenario you may want to keep Scotland as an ally (and can still form great britain diplomatically since that is an option).
After estates rework was done, we had a few specialized republics being in a disadvantegous position due to the fact that they did not had estates. In the last major patch you guys adressed Pirate Republics as well as Venice/Trade Republics. I think now that you are continue expanding goverment reforms it is time to adress Sich Rada goverment reform, that still has no access to estates. What is especially disadvantegous for Sich Rada, is the fact that they miss goverment reform and absolutism buffs from hight crown-land mechanic.

It would be cool if you would fix the problem in the same way as you fixed Pirate Republic - by implementing a few gov. reforms that would compensate the lack of estates. Probably, by enabling their estates with a separate goverment reforms?

It would be even cooler if you would give them some other unique specialized mechanics with some gov. reforms to compensate lack of estate mechanics - for example one that would allow them to raid infidels. In the end they are known for raiding Ottoman Empire.

As a third option you could compensate lack of estate buffs by reworking their goverment actions. For example "Organise Raiding Parties" could apply "raid" action (the one that Coastal Raid does) to every neighboring province of a single non-allied neighboring country, but giving manpower instead of sailors.
You know, one possible solution could be some sort of 'border raid' mechanic. It'd work similar to pirate raids, where increase devastation and loot gold (and instead of sailors you get soldiers- though I'm not sure if that makes as much historical sense), but instead of sending your fleets you'd select your neighbors diplomacy screen, click a button and all the provinces on your border get raided. Alternatively maybe it can work by province or by state.

This'd make sense as a mechanic for horde nations, some tribal nations (this'd help flesh out the simulation of the slave trade in africa and how it damaged the continent economically- as african tags could get double the bonus and be incentivized to constantly raid their neighbors lowering the economy overall), could also be used as an estate interaction for the Cossacks too helping buff them. And it wouldn't just be good for making some cash and angering your rivals, could be good as a pre-emptive strike in a war (a natural consequence of this interaction is it should give a CB on you whenever you use it on someone).
 
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Having trouble posting a scathing review of the Prussia changes as it won’t let me post due to spam or inappropriate content in my message. Any admin help available??
Very disappointed in the Prussia changes. Seems like a straight nerf to me. Militarization is far too expensive for the rather useless benefits it provides.
 
I can see this being an option though.

I mean- England did historically PU Scotland, under the current dynamic this would mean that Scotland as a historical rival will be trying to revolt a lot more than they did historically (since it was their king on the throne the Scots didn't mind all that much).
If the mission or event chain will give it as a reward to ensure the stability between the mentioned PU, then yes, it makes some sense. It was already implemented for Kalmar Union members in Lions of the North (historical friend if Denmark treats Sweden and Norway respectfully and historical rivalry if they are abused by their sovereign).

What I meant to say originally Is making England and Scotland historical friends right from the start - just like it is now between Portugal and Castille/Spain. It was already discussed many times over that such friendship is completely ahistorical and serves only to ensure Portugal's survival (being distanced from the European great powers and having pretty weak military and doofus-AI England in the last patches), while not having or knowing of a better way to do it. Although even that didnt prevent Castille from biting huge chunks of Portugal once they got free Enforce PU CB on it via mission.

So both these two regions need a rebalance of power to give them more flavour and more options for survival. Right now certain right steps already being taken for Portugal with and update on NI and introduction of the new early disaster for Castille, although we most likely won't see an alternative outcome for Iberian Union - a pity.

But if it was for me to decide, I would throw the concept of historical friend/rival into the dumpster along with lucky nations.
 
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If the mission or event chain will give it as a reward to ensure the stability between the mentioned PU, then yes, it makes some sense. It was already implemented for Kalmar Union members in Lions of the North (historical friend if Denmark treats Sweden and Norway respectfully and historical rivalry if they are abused by their sovereign).

What I meant to say originally Is making England and Scotland historical friends right from the start - just like it is now between Portugal and Castille/Spain. It was already discussed many times over that such friendship is completely ahistorical and surves only to ensure Portugal's survival (being distanced from the European great powers and having pretty weak military and doofus-AI England in the last patches), while having or knowing of a better way to do it. Although even that didnt prevent Castille from biting huge chunks of Portugal once they got free Enforce PU CB on it via mission.

So both these two regions need a rebalance of power to give them more flavour and more options for survival. Right now certain right steps already being taken for Portugal with and update on NI and introduction of the new early disaster for Castille, although we most likely won't see an alternative outcome for Iberian Union - a pity.

But if it was for me to decide, I would throw the concept of historical friend/rival into the dumpster along with lucky nations.
Nah, if anything I want more historical friends and rivals, or at least to have the option because it gives more depth to international diplomacy. Paradox has tried a lot to incentivize playstyles besides just blobbing, and I commend them for that. Part of the problem though is that you just have more control and reliability of owning land directly than letting the AI handle things.

If say you play England and historically rival france, well it incentivizes you to work with France's enemies because being their friend is cut off from you. If a nation is historically your friend well you can rely on them to not really try to dick you over, so it's okay leaving them alone, or even sharing the spoils with them. I think though they could re-examine subject relations. I don't think they need a huge overhaul, but they should incentivize decentralized empires like they have incentivized playing tall.

In this example, what is the benefit of vassalizing Scotland vs. just annexing the territory outright? Well if you annex the territory you own all their land and the profits therein and remove a potential rival, and most of their territory will be accepted under your culture. Benefits to keeping them a vassal (as Scotland historically was for a couple centuries?) None really. Vassal Scotland won't colonize as they did historically, their army will be smaller and weaker than yours than if you annexed them. Same thing for France by the way, who is historic friends with Scotland. Say you annex the English territory. What would be the point in keeping Scotland around at that point? They have no real route to expand outside Ireland. If you feed them Englands territory they'll form Great Britain and become your rival making vanquishing England pointless.

Problem is that there's no real bonuses for building up a strong nation besides your own, which I think is why players tend to prefer just outright conquest to trying to build up historic relationships with other nations.
 
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Will there be more mechanics to make hordes less powerful after a
the AOD?
 
For more AI Purssia, there has to be limitation for integrating Ducal Prussia when it becomes Polish subject.

I know it’s sandbox game but recently EU4’s stance is making gameplay more OP and railwayed in historical way. For example, Oirat & Manchu has special events to break down Ming and many OP historical ruler event(Suleiman, Peter, Nurhachi etc.)will be updated too. So making AI Prussia to forming more by special event is not a bad idea now.

My suggestion:

When ‘The Peace of Thorn’ event happens, if Poland choose to Make Ducal Prussia, then Teutonic order cedes all of its territory to Poland and release Ducal Prussia as subject of Poland in Eastern Prussia.

Ducal Prussia is special subject type ‘Fief’ which prevents integration for long time(maybe for 100 years. 50 years seems not enough). Poland can take all of Teutonic order’s territory easily and get no AE by this option but that cost is preventing integration for long time.

Historically, Brandenburg-Prussia was formed at 1618. If this PU is formed early in game, it seems not natural. So change ‘The incorporation of Prussia into Brandenburg’ event (which makes PU of both countries) conidtions to needs both of them are Protestant, Reformed, Anglican or Hussite. And give conversion event to Ducal Prussia for more Prussia.

Fief type subeject can be used to make Kurland as subject of Poland via event. If foreign powers conquer most part of Livonian order, Livonian Order will have option to become Fief ot Poland and it will make Order to form Kurland.

I know DLC is in the late stage of developing so this suggestion can’t be implemented now. I hope to see more strong Prussia and Netherlands in future update after Domination.
I would also like for Brandenburg to be able to purchase Neumark from whatever country holds it at the time. I've seen them get locked out of their entire tree because Poland got cute early on.
 
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I would also like for Brandenburg to be able to purchase Neumark from whatever country holds it at the time. I've seen them get locked out of their entire tree because Poland got cute early on.
First it should be a proposition to buy it. Then, if the current holder of Neumark refuses (considering Neumark an imperial land), the Emperor should intervene and give an ultimatum: "Back off. Now. Or else."
Maybe an Imperial Incident is in order. Especially if Poland gets hold of Silesia, like in "With Fire and Sword" mod.
 
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Nah, if anything I want more historical friends and rivals, or at least to have the option because it gives more depth to international diplomacy. Paradox has tried a lot to incentivize playstyles besides just blobbing, and I commend them for that. Part of the problem though is that you just have more control and reliability of owning land directly than letting the AI handle things.

If say you play England and historically rival france, well it incentivizes you to work with France's enemies because being their friend is cut off from you. If a nation is historically your friend well you can rely on them to not really try to dick you over, so it's okay leaving them alone, or even sharing the spoils with them. I think though they could re-examine subject relations. I don't think they need a huge overhaul, but they should incentivize decentralized empires like they have incentivized playing tall.

In this example, what is the benefit of vassalizing Scotland vs. just annexing the territory outright? Well if you annex the territory you own all their land and the profits therein and remove a potential rival, and most of their territory will be accepted under your culture. Benefits to keeping them a vassal (as Scotland historically was for a couple centuries?) None really. Vassal Scotland won't colonize as they did historically, their army will be smaller and weaker than yours than if you annexed them. Same thing for France by the way, who is historic friends with Scotland. Say you annex the English territory. What would be the point in keeping Scotland around at that point? They have no real route to expand outside Ireland. If you feed them Englands territory they'll form Great Britain and become your rival making vanquishing England pointless.

Problem is that there's no real bonuses for building up a strong nation besides your own, which I think is why players tend to prefer just outright conquest to trying to build up historic relationships with other nations.
They could do something like the pope via the french missions to get a buffed March.

Maybe they're thinking about it as a new system in a next dlc who knows.

As someone who like to play with vassals or pu (because I hate to micromanage a tons of things) I am all for it
 
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The issue of colonial nations expanding into other regions then being cut off and having enclaves should be addressed. If a CN expands into another region, it should automatically split off and make its own CN for that region.

Also development should be time based (1 year) to avoid a province being developed 15-20 times overnight.

California colonial region could also be split into two to make Cascadia up north as a region.
 
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  • I would like to reinstate the decay of Militarization so it’s not a button you press 10 times and then forget about for the rest of the campaign, that is not very engaging. The idea is that you should always weigh your Mil power and think “Do I want to get a temporary boost, cap my Militarization or boost it ?” especially during wars and crucial battles.
it isn't engaging but it did successfully do away with the minor annoyance of tabbing into government just to click the little make-my-army-good button every so often (iirc this was the original intention of the change), which this new militarization proposal is bringing back with a vengeance if i'm understanding it correctly. now you will have to click the make-my-army-good button five times when you use an ability i guess, in addition to the increased decay, neither of which i find to be particularly engaging either

my ideal version of militarization would be that you maintain it by... being militarized. as it stands the only ticker actually related to that is army tradition, but it could be expanded to things like army professionalism, % of force limit used, % of force limit being drilled, military maintenance slider, etc. something to do with rebels or overextension would be cool too if you want to nod at how prussia used its army while at peace

my pragmatic version of militarization would be that the lump sum of military power is simply replaced with a war taxes style toggle; this is not engaging, but, it is also not annoying either to use or to implement
 
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The issue of colonial nations expanding into other regions then being cut off and having enclaves should be addressed. If a CN expands into another region, it should automatically split off and make its own CN for that region.

Also development should be time based (1 year) to avoid a province being developed 15-20 times overnight.

California colonial region could also be split into two to make Cascadia up north as a region.
also, if you are are colonizing and have a vassal/PU colonizing they should stay clear of the colonial region where you already have colonies, or when the CN is formed all colonies should belong to this CN.
 
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First it should be a proposition to buy it. Then, if the current holder of Neumark refuses (considering Neumark an imperial land), the Emperor should intervene and give an ultimatum: "Back off. Now. Or else."
Maybe an Imperial Incident is in order. Especially if Poland gets hold of Silesia, like in "With Fire and Sword" mod.
Agreed, I would much rather it be a decision instead of a random event.
 
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