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EU4 - Development Diary - 28th of April 2016

Hello and welcome to another EU4 development diary. There has been a fair amount of bugfixing going on for 1.17, and our current estimated release week is the second week of May, if the gods smile upon us.

One of the many balance things we have done for 1.17 is further tweaks to the covert actions. First of all, instead of having all of the cool unlocks tied to the Espionage idea group, making it a too binary choice, we have moved the unlocks from ideas to tech.
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As you can see from this screen, you gain espionage abilities at about every 3rd level, with Agitate for Liberty being late, and stealing maps early in the game.

We have completely changed the Espionage Ideas, removing the unlocks and adding some new more interesting abilities, to create an ideagroup focused on internal strength.
  1. Efficient Spies: +50% Spy Network Construction & -10% Advisor Costs
  2. Agent Training: +1 Diplomat
  3. Vetting: +33 Foreign Spy Detection, +10% Provincial Trade Power
  4. Additional Loyalist Recruitment: -10 Liberty Desire in Subjects.
  5. Claim Fabrication: 25% Fabricate Claim Cost
  6. Privateers: +25% Embargo Efficiency & +33% Privateer Efficiency
  7. Audit Checks: -0.1 Yearly Corruption
Ambition: +50% Rebel Support Efficiency.

For modders, there’s a new modifier called 'reduced_liberty_desire' which reduces the liberty desire of all your subjects. We primarily use it in the espionage ideas for now, but will probably be applied at more places later on.

We moved the claim fabrication idea from Influence to Espionage. And what did Influence get, well.. They get an idea which increases prestige and heir chance, because monarchies are cool..

Another things we did with spies, was reducing the spy discovered cooldown to 3 months, instead of 5 years.

While the code now supports to put Fabricate Claims behind a tech, it is still going to be allowed from the start of the game, as we have assigned it to tech 0. If a modder wants to put it later in their mod, its very trivial.

There have been some changes to how Claim Fabrication works. First of all, the cost of fabricating a claim is now 30 off your spy network, before other modifiers. If you already have claims on a nation, you cost increases by 10% per claim you have on that nation.

With the threshold of discovery being above 25 in Spy Network, there are now risks with building up a spy network to fabricate claims, unless you have invested into Espionage Ideas, which reduce the cost.

Claims are there to save you from major stability hits when you declare war, and to make it possible to fight wars inside the HRE without the emperor stomping down on you. There is no longer a small reduction in AE when using claim war goals, but it will still be cheaper to take it in dip power.

If you are not eager to directly gain territory yourself, we are working on adding a casus belli which is valid against all your rivals at all time, where you humiliate them, or force them to release nations or return cores.


Oh yeah… The impact from Religious Unity on corruption have dropped from 0.5 to 0.1.
 
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Nice changes!

A revamp of the dynastic and character aspects of the game is hopefully soon going to done. It was a very important factor of the time, and could use more love and transparency, by adding more depth to it. It doesn't have to be as complex as Crusader Kings II, but something more simple like Europa Universalis: Rome or just basic characters of the dynasties of Europe would add a lot to the game in my opinion. Would be a good occasion for working with regencies too.
 
There have been some changes to how Claim Fabrication works. First of all, the cost of fabricating a claim is now 30 off your spy network, before other modifiers. If you already have claims on a nation, you cost increases by 10% per claim you have on that nation.

With the threshold of discovery being above 25 in Spy Network, there are now risks with building up a spy network to fabricate claims, unless you have invested into Espionage Ideas, which reduce the cost.

Claims are there to save you from major stability hits when you declare war, and to make it possible to fight wars inside the HRE without the emperor stomping down on you. There is no longer a small reduction in AE when using claim war goals, but it will still be cheaper to take it in dip power.

Goddamnit Paradox.
GODDAMNIT.
Will you for the love of all that is holy GIVE IT A BREAK.
 
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[/QUOTE]
For limits, maybe use the government level tiers as a benchmark:

* Duchy level nations can only form spherelings from neighboring OPMs or low development (1/3 of sphere leader?) nations (HRE emperor is exception); or Duchy level nations are disqualified from SOIs?

* Kingdom level nations can form spherelings out of Duchy level countries (that they neighbor or are in trade range?).

* Empire level nations can form spherelings out of both Duchy and Kingdom level countries (after a late game tech Empires get a SOI CB against non-Empire nations in their trade range?).



A comparison:

Before nations reach the higher admin tech to switch to Constitutional Monarchy/Republic, only England/Great Britain has access to it; likewise, before tech 10(?), the HRE would be the only Sphere of Influence (maybe Japan too?) starting at 1444. With the HRE in mind...

* When a SOI is formed, a SOI icon appears in the Vassals Tab (similar to Trade Companies) with the shields of the spherelings (like Trade Leagues in Diplomacy Tab) listed.

* As an initial bonus for the sphere leader, they automatically have military access within sphereling provinces during times of war (just like the emperor in the HRE).

* When the interaction button in the Vassals Tab is selected, various options appear that emulate (to a lesser degree) the HRE reforms; specifically, they would be short-term bonuses that will cost trust from the spherelings, and if the trust of a sphereling falls below a certain level (maybe also as a consequence of diplomatic subterfuge...) they will leave the sphere for another leader they trust more.

* Borrowing from @FlaviusMarcusFelix12 , maybe begin to tick up trust with sphereling members so that after 50 or a 100 years they would be more likely to accept a vassalization offer. The meta game becomes whether or not to occasionally spend the accumulated trust for short-term benefits or to reserve it for outright vassalization (to then integrate, etc.)

* Such examples of interaction options could include...

Leader is Duchy Tier:
1) Force embargo rivals: One time (with 5 year cooldown?) cost of -10 trust from spherelings.
Leader is Kingdom Tier:
2) Call to Arms: One time (with 5 year cooldown?) stealing of 1/4(?) manpower from spherelings costs -20 trust.
3) Force annual tribute: Continuous on/off option that takes 1/4(?) of spherelings' income yearly at -15 trust/year.
Leader is Empire Tier:
4) Send zealots: One time religious rebel event to attempt their nations' conversion at -40 trust cost.
5) Back coup d'etat: One time rebel event to attempt overthrow of ruler and force vassal/protectorate at -80 trust.

* Defending spherelings, returning cores, etc., will increase trust with spherelings, as well as event decisions.[/QUOTE]

[/QUOTE]

Maybe something of a hybrid system?

Still have rivals and a historical rivals modifier but with a sphere of influence mechanic like the trade league that gives you a defensive pact with that country or at least a free CB with the "liberate sphere state" or something. hell they could even expand the threaten war mechanic to allow you to use in on a country that is eating up your client states.

If this is added I would also like to see the ability to maybe vassalize the countries in my sphere of influence after 100 years or so, because maybe that way diplo annexing would become fun again.

also as a side note, this does have a historical basis rival empire would often keep small kingdoms between them acting as a sort of buffer zone. But the kingdom would often be within the sphere of influence of one of these major power Ex: Armenia filled this role with the Romans and Parthians
[/QUOTE]


@Johan
 
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Seems reasonable. Claims will probably be in a better place next patch (assuming the build time grades out to something reasonable). They were pretty vexing in 1.15 with 4x length but in 1.16 they got overtuned to the point of it being trivial to tag every border province with a claim on 3 diplomats without too greatly constraining diplomats for other resources, kind of silly.

Still don't like the design for monarchies, unless you're implying you are changing regency or how heirs work somehow :).
 
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Any chance to do a little in order to help Denmark surviving the Swedish engulfment and to have Hungary at least challenged by Ottomans ?
Oh yeah… The impact from Religious Unity on corruption have dropped from 0.5 to 0.1.
This should help the Ottomans.
 
I would argue that Innovative is one of the strongest idea groups, not because of their own ideas, but because they unlock some of the strongest policies in the game... An idea group is not only the ideas it gives, but also the policies and events that are attached to it.. And in the case of innovative those policies are arguable the best in the game (stuff like 20% infantry combat ability, 10% siege ability + 1 siege value on generals)

And the other administrative idea groups give similar bonuses. Religious can give +10% morale and another +10% morale. Humanist +1 shock value on generals and -5 Nationalism. Economic +5% discipline and +10% artillery combat ability. Even expansion gives +1 fire value on generals. The only administrative group that doesn't have any policy that gives better combat stats is Administrative but it already has the core cost reduction.

So no, Innovative doesn't have any edge over other Administrative idea groups with policies.
 
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@Johan
Please remove corruption for tech imbalance. If you change that + the RU penalty as you just announced, corruption will stop limiting most choices just by being a beat stick. Still disagree with the implementation of it in its current state, but having to pay more money on top of everything else for conquering new land is much, much better than just punishing people for playing already bad religions and for making decisions on whether to tech up or not without being forced into it.


espionage idea group still useless, HRE minors getting more ae from expanding inside HRE with conquest cb.

And all the fabricate claim change does, is making vassal feeding with cossacks dlc 'grant province' even more feasible.

At least the corruption change in religious unity makes me willing to try a ROTW nation in a multi religion region.

The permanant cb on rivals is good idea, as it allows periodical PP gain wars, with humiliating.

Rival end node nations, get a foothold province in the trade node, and then do constant 40% humiliate +60% transfer trade power=100% peace deals, and then collect in end node.

Incoming Trasfer Trade Power costing 61% warscore in 1.17.


And yeah, losing the AE reduction seems a bad idea for HRE minors.

You're both wrong.

"Humiliating a rival now no longer allows you to take anything else in that war".
 
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The new Espionage ideas look fun. Lots of cool options. Piracy is a nice touch. LD reduction is a little surprising. Seems like a reduction in unrest in newly-conquered territories would be more on theme.

I’m surprised by the changes to Claim Fabrication and AE. Now it’s harder to fabricate multiple claims, but there’s no reduction in AE using claims. The only upside to claims now is a savings on diplo power. But, if you’re expanding via force, you’re probably much more limited by AE than you are by diplo power, so players should look to Influence (especially since Unjustified Demands does basically the same thing) instead of the new Espionage. That’s a bummer, especially since the new ideas are shiny and look fun.

It seems like it would be fun if Influence and Espionage were both viable options for blobbing. Influence could be good for people expanding into lots of countries and would reduce AE slightly in each one, and Espionage could be an option for eating one specific neighbor with a more substantial AE discount, but only against that neighbor – going after someone else would require more spy investment. Espionage could have a reduction in AE for neighboring provinces you have claims on – right now fabricating claims doesn’t seem to have much upside.

This would also help what I’m sure is one of the reasons Paradox doesn’t love blobbing; you basically always take the same idea sets. Buffing Espionage to compete with Influence would help with that. Plus, trolling people with rebels is fun, and giving people more valid options for that sounds awesome.
 
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Dear god, you must be one lucky person then, my kings die all the time, generally right after my heir died which alway's include the pay for a trained medicus for half of your warchest and a 50% chance of death which means 99.99% chance of death in EU4. Or am I just that unlucky? And no I am not exaggerating when it comes to the 99.99% I truly wish I was. Currently on my fifth female ruler in a row thanks to events allowing me to get female heirs to replace the dying male ones in a brandenburg playthrough in 1620.

It is bad enough that I always consider making my own custom nation and start out with the heir chance +100% from the start. Sometimes I simply give up and play a republic.

That said I am going to miss the bonus for my influence ideas.

I've had my ruler die with my heir being a year old a few times, but cannot remember having no heir.. Or I should say, a situation that results in my being put in a personal union. I always have at least 4 royal marriages and if it late game, usually with vassals if I run out of allies.
 
Fabricating Claims: Convincing the international community that you have a legitimate claim on a piece of land; that it is historically or naturally yours, out of nowhere. 20 months look better than a couple of months to me.

20 months? Two years to convince your population and the international community that there may be something to your claims. Should be closer to a decade.

Ok, this is a game based on history. It's not a historical simulation. Claims are annoying and boring and should simply be done away with. But since they are not going away, time to fabricate should not be increased.

I swear, some people really just want a game where you just stare at all the pretty colors for an hour at a time.
 
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Ok, this is a game based on history. It's not a historical simulation. Claims are annoying and boring and should simply be done away with. But since they are not going away, time to fabricate should not be increased.

I swear, some people really just want a game where you just stare at all the pretty colors for an hour at a time.
Do you really have that short an attention span? Patience should be a part of any real strategy game. Knowing when to act and when not to.
 
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It feels like we are going from one extreme to another with Fabricating claims. It use to take a year to fabricate claims, so wouldn't it be best to get a time close to that again?
 
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You're not wrong. As others have commented, that's going to be /brutal/ in the HRE. And as someone else pointed out, this actually makes taking land as a defender cheaper than taking land with a claim. (Defender AE reduction patched out in 3...2...1...)

I don't see the problem with that. If someone chooses to attack you, then it makes perfect sense that they should be punished for their aggressive actions. Right now, it is a significant advantage (in terms of the peace deal) to be on the attacking side of a war, and I don't think that should be the case.
 
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Espionage idea group ..whats the point of it anyway now? The bonuses are not good enough. Foreign spy detection doesn't even matter much now since spy discovered cool down is so low. Also infiltrate admin at lvl 30? I don't think I have ever even got to lvl 30 in diplo tech :rolleyes:. I was hoping for more changes to idea groups, especially military idea groups which are OP.
 
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The ONLY reason I picked espionage ideas was for the "steal technology" idea in espionage. I honestly hate these changes and am back to never picking espionage ideas again. How can you think that anyone would want the new espionage ideas? +1 diplomat, lame, discount on fabricating a claim, lame.

Man Paradox seems to have made Eu4 its last priority.
 
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@Johan why not take the next patch to really iron out the kinks in all the sub-systems that have been added over the years. there have been mechanics added and taken away only to be re-added then buffed, then nerfed.

I would like more than anything else a comprehensive smoothing out of all the inconsistencies within the game. not just minor tweaks.

"paradox pls fix"
 
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Ok, this is a game based on history. It's not a historical simulation. Claims are annoying and boring and should simply be done away with. But since they are not going away, time to fabricate should not be increased.

I swear, some people really just want a game where you just stare at all the pretty colors for an hour at a time.

I think in EU2 or EU3, you were just waiting or hoping for an event to get a claim. Those games were probably exciting enough that now we have EU4. You always have the option to absorb the stability hit and AE btw. Claims are for those who want to take land smoothly. It seems players nowadays want to play aggressively but without being considered aggressive.
 
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Oh yeah… The impact from Religious Unity on corruption have dropped from 0.5 to 0.1.

I'm certain either you or some other Paradox Dev said you will NOT be nerfing Corruption.

I guess you guys actually tried playing in a region with various different Islamic [-2 Missionary strength] religions such as Qara.
 
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@Johan why not take the next patch to really iron out the kinks in all the sub-systems that have been added over the years. there have been mechanics added and taken away only to be re-added then buffed, then nerfed.

I would like more than anything else a comprehensive smoothing out of all the inconsistencies within the game. not just minor tweaks.

"paradox pls fix"
I would love it if they would fix the missions shit. Fix the crap of omnipotent bank which can never go bankrupt. Fix the mercs being always available. Fix the decisions; some of the decisions are ridiculous. Also truce timers.....too long. There are loads of other things like development based on terrain, poor switzerland.
 
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