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Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 9th of August 2022

Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Developer Diary! Today’s topics are new Achievements and Moddability expansion, as well as further discussion on the Idea groups changes proposed by the community and our QA

But first, we’ve got a cool Stream for you!
Tomorrow, Wednesday the 10th between 10am and 6pm CEST we’ll go live with the Europa Universalis IV segment of this year’s Grand Campaign! So head on over to our Twitch channel tomorrow and join us!


Read more here: https://pdxint.at/3p5vuqp



Achievements


Brick by Brick
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Starting as Denmark, enact the Unified Kalmar Monarchy government reform and own the entire Scandinavian region as your cores.

This achievement flows nicely with the gameplay elements introduced in 1.34 and ties well into a nice playthrough as Denmark, with a lofty goal in mind!


Super Trooper
achievement_super_trooper-gigapixel-low_res-scale-2_00x.png


Starting as Sweden, enact the Allotment System government reform, have 80 regiments of Carolean raised at the same time with at least +40% infantry combat ability.

Let the Swedish new Carolean units teach you all abbaout combat ability!


Assembly Instructions Needed
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Form Scandinavia and revoke the privilegia of the Holy Roman Empire while being the Emperor.

The manual is surely lying, how am I supposed to put together a large administrative body of dozens of different nations with different goals and agendas in just 15 minutes!?


Holy Horder
achievement_holy_horder-gigapixel-low_res-scale-2_00x.png


Starting as the Teutonic Order, form the Mongol Empire while having the Holy Horde government reform enacted.

Why yes of course, starting as the theocracy of the Germanic Teutonic Order, turning into a special Holy Horde and subsequently resurrecting the Mongol Empire is not the end of times, it’s a legitimate strategy! History at its finest! /s


For the Emperor!
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Form Prussia or Germany, have the Empire government rank and 40.000 Marines raised at the same time.

Prussia is one of the - if not the most - powerful military powers in the entire game. Its soldiers are of unparalleled discipline and combat prowess, one could even say these marines’ ability reaches beyond outer space!


The Freest Man in the World
achievement_the_freest_man_in_the_world-gigapixel-low_res-scale-2_00x.png


Ensure that no colonized province in the world produces slaves while having the War Against the World Doctrine government reform enacted.

The era of free pirates is upon us! Wealth, fame, power are nothing to people if they do not own their freedom first and foremost!


Crossing the Finnish Line
achievement_crossing_the_finnish_line-gigapixel-low_res-scale-2_00x.png


Release and play as Finland in 1444 and have a direct land connection to the Cape while your capital is in Nyland/Uusimaa.

Is it really border gore if the border is a straight line?


Purify the Temple
achievement_purify_the_temple-gigapixel-low_res-scale-2_00x.png


Starting as Riga, enact the Salvific Plutocracy government reform and raid the heretic church of Rome.

Riga receives an interesting and quite large mission tree for its size, now accompanied with a cool new achievement for a flavorful and fresh playthrough! We <3 Riga!


Almost Prussian Blue
achievement_almost_prussian_blue-gigapixel-low_res-scale-2_00x.png


Starting as the Livonian Order, form Livonia and own the territory of the North German Confederation as core provinces.

A new achievement to support a splendid new mission tree for the Livonian Order. Now imbued with style due to Livonia’s new color, it’s an old familiar color but it checks out.


Let it Go!
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As Norway, have your capital in the Canada region while not owning any province in Scandinavia.

Traverse through the snowy locales of Canada with the brand new mission tree for Norway and leave behind your European lands. The cold never bothered you anyway!


Hanukkah Mutapa
achievement_hannukah_mutapa-gigapixel-low_res-scale-2_00x.png


Starting as Mutapa, convert to Judaism and celebrate a festival.

It means no worries for the rest of your campaign! It’s a problem-free philosophy!



Modding Additions

The second part of this Developer Diary will be dedicated to the various additions and new script goodies we are adding with 1.34. In total, over 40 new script parameters have been added to best help the modding community expand its amazing work, a love letter sort of speak. So, in the spirit of showing off some of the cool new script additions, let’s take a look at some of them.

Modifiers and Effects:​


- set_bankruptcy = <tag> The tag gets instantly bankrupt
- Added reasons_to_elect which adds additional modifier for HRE election reasons
- Added morale_damage and morale_damage_received that works similarly to fire_damage and fire_damage_received during combat
- Added military_tactics modifiers which allows you to increase this value given by the military tech.
- Added max_hostile_attrition
- local_garrison_size = <float> - modifies the local garrison size of the province as long it has a fort to begin with, see the "garrison_size" modifier for reference
- global_attacker_dice_roll_bonus, local_attacker_dice_roll_bonus, global_defender_dice_roll_bonus, local_defender_dice_roll_bonus, own_territory_dice_roll_bonus, global_trade_goods_size

ramparts.png


Modifiers both local and country-wide take a good bit of the spotlight for 1.34 with interesting new one such as the dice roll for defenders, attackers and own territory. This new modifier will add another layer of depth to military-related rewards of events, missions and decisions should you wish to mod them in.

What’s more, some new modifiers we are excited to play around with are local garrison size, giving more defensive capabilities to smaller nations with defensible terrain and military_tactics, a very potent modifier that decreases the casualties your side takes during battle. A small note here, this modifier always applies as a percentage to the base amount (0.5) thus a 10% increase would always amount to essentially +0.1 military tactics.

Rule Modifiers​

In the EU IV Wiki there’s a portion of the Modifiers page dedicated to the so-called Rule Modifiers. Up until now, these were hardcoded to only appear either in Ideas or Age Bonuses. However, with 1.34 and onwards we will be able to utilize them as normal country modifiers! Some of the cool modifiers included are the ability for units to ignore fort zones of control, attack bonus in provinces with the same terrain as capital province and allowing ships to repair in coastal sea zones adjacent to owned provinces.

rulemodifiers.png

Triggers (requirements):​

- any_war_enemy_country/all_war_enemy_countries
- gives_military_access_to = <country scope> (returns true if the country gives the specified country military access
- receives_military_access_from = <country scope> (returns true if the country receives military access from the specified country
- gives_fleet_basing_rights_to = <country scope> (returns true if the country gives the specified country fleet basing rights
- receives_fleet_basing_rights_from = <country scope> (returns true if the country receives fleet basing rights from the specified country
- added has_naval_doctrine = <doctrine key> or "any"

triggers.png

The idea behind adding these trigger checks is to help save time from long and performance-intensive scope checks for requirements such as all_war_enemy_countries. Furthermore, checking for countries that give any type of access would only serve to further imbue missions and new modding works with more freedom to create content as it’s visualized, without having to cut down or resort to “duct tape” solutions. Lastly, a personal favorite is the check for naval doctrine, a trigger I am very much looking forward to using!

Miscellaneous​


Mercenary armies will now have descriptions so you can write the story behind some of the most legendary hired arms during the timeline of the game. This change aims at adding an increased sense of roleplay and help the player see the mercenary armies as a unique and alive part of the game, not just some faceless troops to be thrown into battle :D In this instance, the description is used to declare that the Swiss mercenaries will not cost any Army Professionalism:

descmerc.png

Golden Ages now have the ability to be extended (in the form of months) and even be reset as part of a new effect “reset_golden_age = yes & extend_golden_age = <months>”

golden age.png

The Breakthrough mechanic will also appear in the game, however by default it will be turned off (read more in this Developer Diary about Breakthrough). However, the system is in place and modders can activate and tweak it on demand via the “defines” file.

breakthrough.png

Aggressive Expansion can now be granted as an effect as add_aggressive_expansion and reverse_add_aggressive_expansion. Moreover, this effect can be affected by a parameter to simulate AE taking culture, religion etc into account.

Monuments will be able to have descriptions, conditional modifiers (if X applies you get Y else get something else as a modifier) and even have region-wide effects on top of province, area and global effects.

region modifier.png

We went ahead and added a new console command, namely “remove_country <TAG>”, behold its effect!

Before:
before.png


After:
after.png

(Sweden will still fight and win its independence, subsequently annexing the entirety of Scandinavia despite the fact that it does not exist anymore - still not overpowered ).

Finally, we have converted all the stats of special units. They used to reside in the “defines” file, now they are static modifiers which are more moddable:

static hussars.png

Having advisors give scaling bonuses based on their level will also be a reality with 1.34, a change we are most excited about! For example, you can have Advisors grant -5% Mercantilism Cost per level, for a total of -25% at level 5:

scaling advisor.png

Overall, 1.34 adds a very healthy number of new triggers, modifiers and effects to play around with and we are looking forward to seeing how they will be utilized both by our colleagues as well as the modding community. Do bare in mind that the modding additions showcased here are still a work in progress and only reflect a portion of what we are adding for 1.34 due to us wanting to keep this Developer Diary from being 20 pages longer and only showing off some of the highlights!



Idea Groups

And now here @Pavía , talking (again) about the balance changes for the upcoming update.

After going through all the feedback we received from the community a in the last couple of weeks, and more internal testing about the changes, this is going to be the final version of the Idea Groups changes for 1.34 Update:
  • Economic Ideas:
    • Bonus now gives -10% Development Cost instead of -20%.
  • Innovative Ideas:
    • ‘Optimism’ now also gives +1 Leaders without Upkeep.
    • 'Formalized Officer Corps' replaced by ‘Expanded Policies’, now granting +1 Free Policies.
  • Espionage:
    • ‘State Propaganda’ now also reduces Covert Action Relation Impact by -100%.
    • 'Agent Training' now gives -15% Advisor Cost.
    • ‘Vetting’ now also grants -0.2 Yearly Corruption.
    • 'Privateers' now give +25% Chance to Capture Enemy Ships instead of +25% Embargo Efficiency.
    • ‘Audit Checks’ replaced by ‘Blackmailing’, now granting:
      • Reasons to Accept Vassalization +15.
      • Monthly Favors Modifier +33%.
    • Bonus now gives Rebel Support Efficiency of 100% instead of 50%.
  • Exploration Ideas:
    • ‘Free Colonies’ now gives +10% Settler Chance.
    • ‘Global Empire’ now also gives +25% Treasure Fleet Income.
  • Trade Ideas
    • ‘National Trade Policy’ now also decreases Promote Mercantilism Cost by 25%.
    • Bonus now also gives +10% Loyalty of the Burghers/Vaisyas
  • Aristocratic:
    • ‘Noble Knights’ now gives -20% Cavalry Cost instead of 10% and +15% Cavalry Combat Ability instead of 10%.
    • 'Serfdom':
      • National manpower modifier now giving +15% instead of +33%.
      • Adding -5% Development Cost.
    • 'International Diplomacy': Replacing +1 Free Leader Pool for -25% General Cost.
    • ‘Noble Connections’ now increases mercenary manpower by 25% instead of 20%.
  • Divine:
    • 'Martyrs' now gives +20% Manpower in True Faith Provinces instead of +15% Global Manpower modifier..
    • 'Servants of God' now gives -5% Development cost.
  • Horde:
    • 'Horse-lords of the Steppes' now also gives +10% Cavalry to Infantry ratio.
    • Bonus now also gives +10% Tribes Loyalty Equilibrium.
  • Indigenous Ideas:
    • ‘Controlled Burns’ from Indigenous Ideas gives now +15% National Manpower Modifier instead of +20%
  • Plutocratic:
    • 'Tradition of Payment'
      • Replacing +10% Mercenary Manpower for -20% Mercenary Cost.
      • Mercenary Discipline now gives +5% instead of +2.5%.
    • 'Free Cities' now also gives -5% Development Cost.
  • Naval Ideas:
    • ‘Naval Glory’ now also gives +1 Impact on Siege.
    • ‘Oak Forests for Ships’ now also gives +10% Ship Durability.
    • Bonus now gives -100% Naval Barrage Cost instead of +10% Ship Durability.
  • Offensive Ideas:
    • ‘Grand Army’ now gives +10% Special Unit Force Limit and +15% Land Force Limit Modifier instead of 20% Land Force Limit Modifier.
  • Quality Ideas:
    • ‘Quality Education’ now also gives +0.5 Navy Tradition.
  • Quantity:
    • 'Levée en Masse' now gives +25% National Manpower modifier instead of 50%.
    • Bonus now gives +25% Land Force Limit Modifier instead of +50%.
Policies:
  • Economic - Quantity:
    • No longer gives -10% Development Cost, instead it gives -10% Land Maintenance Modifier.
  • Innovative - Quality:
    • Now gives Infantry Combat Ability +15% instead of +10%.
  • Aristocratic - Espionage:
    • Now gives Cavalry Combat Ability +15% instead of +10%, and +10% Noble Estate Loyalty Equilibrium.

On top of that, we’ve made a few small balance changes here and there, implementing feedback we’ve received in the last DDs; most of them we already commented on in there , so I don’t want to make this one longer.

And speaking of, this is going to be the last Development Diary of this cycle. Most of the team here at Tinto will be going on vacation in the next few weeks, so we’re making sure that in the following days all the content gets as polished as possible for the release, and some team members will also be taking care of the preparations during this period. We know that there will be speculation about the dates of the next DLC, but we want to be sure that we offer a high quality product; so hopefully there will be more news on this soon.

Thank you very much to everyone who’s been following us and participated in this cycle of DDs that began more than 3 months ago. We’re quite happy with the feedback we’ve received during it, and we’re also very excited about the new content and the update. See you!
 
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-10% cav to inf ratio seems a bit too small to be. its annoying to be a sunni horde that you would end up with 95% cavalry to inf ratio. I hope it could be buffed to 15% to allow sunni hordes 100% cav armies.
 
When you are spying on somebody, and your diplomat gets caught, you incur a -20 relations modifier called 'Did covert actions', that improves by 5 each year and is capped at -100. If you have this idea, you'll no longer incur the relation penalty if your spies get caught.
Thank you, i guess it is such a minor thing i never noticed or cared about it.
 
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I'm so happy using right now Economic and Quantity in my Switzerlake campaign^^

Will anything be done to calm the American natives in future patch? AI for native is super strong from what I see. Maybe I missed that part in the dev diaries.
 
Have any changes been made to the pulse events for idea groups for 1.34?
He fixed some, but we will do a more comprehensive review of them for 1.35, probably.
I remember there was quite a mess with 1.32 achievements that required country not existing in 1444 (Saruhan, Mongol Empire, Hawaii), making them impossible until hotfix. What is the exact achievement condition for "Release and play as Finland in 1444"?
We have a condition to start as Sweden, then it takes into account either being or having been Finland (so it can be completed if forming Scandinavia, for instance). Our QAs have already tested that it works:

CrossingTheFinnishLineBack.png


(You may notice that we've made the final description, the one written in the DD, a bit clearer).
  • Trade Ideas
    • ‘Free Trade’ now also gives +2 Merchant Trade Power.
    • ‘Overseas Merchants’ now also decreases Trade Company Investment Cost by 25%.
How about the other Trade ideas changes from last dev diary? It's been removed?
Yes, we tested them more thoroughly, and we thought that more modest changes to them would be enough.
Will it be possible to get the Denmark achievement if you form Denmark as Gotland?
In principle no, as we want to have a different achievement for each country.
Everything here sounds great but I’m not sure how the big “debuff“ to manpower amount will workout as often the ai over–stacks a lot, going to zero manpower even with these big bonuses. Will there be something done for manpower recovery rate or the attrition?
The improvements to the AI performance have been implemented and tested with the 'Manpower Debuff' already implemented, so it shouldn't be impactful.



About the questions regarding the Modding stuff, @PDX Big Boss will cover them, as he's quite experienced on that topic.
 
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-10% cav to inf ratio seems a bit too small to be. its annoying to be a sunni horde that you would end up with 95% cavalry to inf ratio. I hope it could be buffed to 15% to allow sunni hordes 100% cav armies.
If i understood the diary about combat changes right the cav inf ratio penalty is no longer all or nothing but scales with how much you exceed your cav inf ratio and only affects your cav.
 
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Have you considered simplifying the mercenary system by making all companies professionalism free and rebalancing accordingly? If you did, what are the reasons against that?

The trade off is generally not worth it and by introducing exceptions the game just gets more complicated/less emergent.
 
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The Freest Man in the World
achievement_the_freest_man_in_the_world-gigapixel-low_res-scale-2_00x.png


Ensure that no colonized province in the world produces slaves while having the War Against the World Doctrine government reform enacted.

The era of free pirates is upon us! Wealth, fame, power are nothing to people if they do not own their freedom first and foremost!
So happy about how much more I can do with pirates now, all that QoL plus estates for merchant republics and the empire rank Veche Tsardom are definitely my favourite things about the coming update.
Some of the cool modifiers included are the ability for units to ignore fort zones of control
Pretty sure this has been in the game for a while, but thanks
we want to be sure that we offer a high quality product
Leviathan noises
 
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If i understood the diary about combat changes right the cav inf ratio penalty is no longer all or nothing but scales with how much you exceed your cav inf ratio and only affects your cav.
True but it seems a shame that a sunni horde can't get to 100% cavalry ratio even if the negative effect of this is lessened.
 
Economic Ideas:
  • Bonus now gives -10% Development Cost instead of -20%.
  • Economic - Quantity:
    • No longer gives -10% Development Cost, instead it gives -10% Land Maintenance Modifier.
While a nerf to the Development Cost was certainly necessary, these changes feel like they might be a bit too much, especially because you don't get anything in return for losing a total of 20% Dev Cost. (-10% Land Maintenance Modifier feels pretty negligible honestly) The loss of the -20% Dev Cost could be made up for by adding something to the Economic Idea Group that really helps tall nations.
 
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I could imagine a future Achievement idea for the Balkans, a place also showing its age lately and in dire need of improvement, which would probably be quite hard to pull off, but as prior YouTube playthroughs have shown it IS possible:

"Prove Voltaire Wrong"
As Byzantium, convert to Catholicism, become Emperor of the HRE, own Rome, become Curia Controller, & unify the HRE. Become holy, Roman, and an Empire.

Really I'm just looking very forward to the coming update & then seeing what region gets looked at again next. Besides the Balkans, the Arabia/Mesopotamia region, North Africa, and China are all in desperate need of touching up, as all are looking kinda dated.
The Orthodoxy in Constantinople would never convert to Catholicism, as they represented the "preferred religion" of the former Roman Empire's A-Team and were the A-Team's religion after the religious schism, a schism that has lasted nearly 2000 years. As reminder, the former Roman Empire's B-Team was left behind in Rome, and was run over by the Lombard Tribe invasion and other incursions, over time. If anything, and if a Byzantine invasion of all Roman Catholic Europe occurred, that former Roman Empire A-Team turned Byzantines would convert Rome and all Europe to Orthodoxy, and disband the HRE as both politically and religiously incompatible. Look no further than modern day leadership of Orthodoxy - which is in Russia now (who will claim the "High Patriarch" status over Istanbul's Patriarch, within the next 1-4 years, just wait for it). There is current "competition" between High Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis, with Russia having parallel opposition to both the Vatican and Italy, as we speak/type. Both sides look at the other with some level of respect, and yet fundamentally consider the other side to be heretic. You don't convert an aligned religious population to the opposing Heretical side, as there is zero motivation to assimilate unless conquered. Rather, one side must conquer the other to force conversion of the conquered, and assimilate the conquered (both politically and religiously).
 
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Is the massive issue with American Natives being far too strong and colonizing land far too quickly going to be addressed in 1.34? Right now half the new world is already colonized and large swathes are part of mega federations which just makes 0 sense.
 
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I would like to say that I wish Scandinavia got a few more provinces. I know you have said you would never add more provinces to the game anymore, but this region really has some huge provinces that could need to be cut in half. In Sweden you could split up Stockholm and Hälsingland, and in Denmark you could split the big island of Sjælland into 2 aswell. Make the city of Copenhagen it's own small province like Lübeck and then the rest of Sjælland is it's own province. (Very similar to how the Regions in Denmark work).
The game has over 4000 provinces and making 3-4 more provinces will not hurt.
In regards to Sjælland/Copenhagen I would also love to know why it is not a center of trade? Copenhagen is litteraly the biggest tradecenter in Scandinavia, and the city's name is litteraly 'Merchant Harbor'.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I cannot wait for the release of this update and DLC.
Agreed, the Swedish-Norwegian borders are... ugly, to say the least.
 
My critique of the Prussia achievement (which is quite Meme-y) is that a "Greater Prussia" formable could have been tabled, along with an achievement for getting there. Such as - Prussia assimilating what became "Germany" to instead be "Greater Prussia" or some such label. This never occurred historically, of course, but if Prussia won out and dominated what we now call Germany, and instead the Prussian way of life was instituted, a "Greater Prussia" would have taken over instead of what progressed on into our modern times as "Germany." Some may say they're so closely related it doesn't matter, but - I think there are enough nuances to offer up an alternative formable. One consideration could have been - Prussian desire to retain Kingdom status (and a theoretical Prussian Empire later) rather than the transition to Republic, that Germany later decided upon (while the German monarchy continued until the 20th Century, the Prussians were arguably - always more favorable of sustaining a Monarchy). These "alternate formables" should be explored as options in the EU series. Whether they're practical for an EU4 DLC/update of the future, or not until an EU5 build - either way, this and other "alternate history" formables would make for interesting gameplay in the EU Series.
 
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Have there been improvements to the AI devving calculations? It's cool they spend excess monarch points on devving, but it sucks that they frequently boost coal provinces to the moon in the early-mid game, which is something a player would never do. It's extremely inefficient (not to mention wildly ahistorical) for the Ottomans to make Tyn the largest city in the world in the mid-1500s just because 150+ years in the future there will be coal in it. Should be a fairly easy fix, just take away the emphasis on coal and make them decide based on a points-per-click basis like a player would. If you want to take trade goods into account it should be a small weight at most and strictly for the DIP mana calculation.
 
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