Welcome to another development diary about Europa Universalis IV. This time we talk about something that will be in the next major patch we do.

One of the parts of the game that has not changed much since eu1 is the concept of technology groups and technological development around the world. We’ve added concepts like westernising, and tweaked that one, but in the end Europe has a huge advantage from day 1, and lots of fun gameplay options are limited the further away you are.

So this is what will happen in 1.18, when it is released this autumn..

A nation’s technology group no longer affect technology research.

There is now a concept called Institutions, which will affect your technology research. There are seven different institutions that appear over the game, and if you don’t get them to spread into your country and then get embraced by your government, your technology costs will slowly rise.

Each institution will appear in a province fullfilling certain factors, and then slowly spread around the world. The nation owning that province will gain prestige and monarch power.

Every year the penalty for not having embraced an institution will grow by 1%, so there is a gradual process.

When an institution has spread to at least 10% of your development, you can embrace it in your government, removing the penalty permanently, and also giving a bonus to your nation. The cost to embrace depends on the amount of development in your nation without the institution.

All institutions spread over borders (including 1 seazone away), if relations are positive, and the spread is based on development in the province getting it. There are also lots of other factors related to the spread.

So which are the the seven institutions then?

Feudalism
This is present from the start in almost all the world, except among the hordes, new world and sub-saharan africa. It will slowly spread into neighboring lands, but it is not quick.
Bonus: Gives 1 extra free leader.
Penalty: 50%


Renaissance
This appears in Italy after 1450, in either a capital or a 20+ development province. It will spread quickly through high development in europe, particularly through italy, but can only spread into provinces that have feudalism already.
Bonus: 5% Cheaper Development & 5% Cheaper Buildings
Penalty: 20%


Colonialism
Appears after 1500 in a port province in Europe, who’s owner has the Quest of the New World idea, and have discovered the new world. And will spread very quickly through any port in countries with colonies.
Bonus: +10% Provincial Trade Power
Penalty: 20%


Printing Press
This arrives after 1550, most likely in germany, but can happen in any protestant or reformed province. It will spread quickly in Protestant and Reformed territory, but also into capitals with dip tech 15.
Bonus: 5& Cheaper Stability
Penalty: 20%


Global Trade
This arrives after 1600, in a center of trade in the highest value trade node, and will spread quicker into provinces with trade buildings.
Bonus: +1 Merchant
Penalty: 20%

Manufactories
This arrives after 1650 in a province with 30 development and a manufactory, and will spread quicker into provinces with manufactories.
Bonus: +10% Goods Produced
Penalty: 20%

Enlightenment
Arrives after 1700 in a province that either is a seat of a parliament, or is a province in europe owned by a monarch with at least 5 in all stats. Universities & Parliament Seats spread this institution.
Bonus: 25% Cheaper Culture Conversion
Penalty: 30%
​

What does this mean?


The progress of Europe is not guaranteed, but most importantly, a nation in Asia or Africa is no longer crippled from day 1, and forced to avoid spending power on ideas and development.

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We’re constantly tweaking the spread factors, but here are some screenshots from mid 18th century in a hands-off game from this morning.

This is the institutions mapmode, where green are provinces that have all the enabled institutions, and yellow are don’t have them all.

And here is the technology mapmode, of the same game.

Some other aspects that has changed include the following
- New World Native Reforming will give you all institutions that the one you reform from has.
- Trade Companies are available to all technology groups.
- Lots and lots of triggers on western techgroups have been changed to check for specific relevant institutions.

 

[Vishaing]

And today, on this solemn day, as we say goodbye to one who has been with us for so long, I just want you to know, dear Westernization and Tech Groups, from the bottom of my Heart of hearts...

No one ever Loved you. You were always Trash.

Good Bye. Good Riddance.

Now that that's out of the way time to criticize this feature;

It would probably be better if Institutions weren't a straight line thing of constant progression. If we had Parallel Institutions it would provide a great deal of flexibility to the system, and allow for parallel development.

Alternatively, just changing the Institutions so they can 'start' multiple places and had more universal names. That would be easier but less interesting, but in many ways more realistic for the more generic Institutions. There's no real reason why the Enlightement couldn't start in Europe at about the same time a completely different Enlightenment started in China.

For instance; "Feudalism" is a terrible name for an Institution. Instead it would work better if it was "Social Contract", representing that some legal framework exists which the Rulers derive their Legitimacy From instead of just outright Force. This Institution could then exist in Europe, The Middle East, China, and probably India as well though my knowledge of India is rather lacking.

But as said, I would prefer Parallel Institutions to exist. In this way; Europe could start with "The Feudal Contract". The Middle East could start with the Iqta Institution which provided similar benefits, and these Institutions would not spread over each other. The Ottomans on the other hand would be able to ennact a Unique Institution after conquering Constantinople called "Imperial Bureaucracy" or something similar, to represent their adoption of Roman Governing Policies. Meanwhile the Ming would begin with the "Divine Mandate" Institution which would only ever spread to Chinese Countries and which could only be Embraced by Chinese Countries.

How would the system deal with Exclusive Institutions. It looks like you can Skip Over Institutions, what happens when you do? If I modified an Institution to be unavailable for a country, would it just not appear in the Interface?

 

[NetherViking]

Damn Paradox! This is potentially awesome! I can't wait to see how this plays!

 

[bitmapmedivh]

This looks like an absolutely fantastic change to the old system! And making it as moddable as it seems to be is just a Godsend. I foresee many mods for the new tech system. I'l probably do some tweaks to it myself.

@Vishaing , from the code that was linked, I wonder if you won't be able to add mutually exclusive institutions. Just condition the spread of one so that it won't spread to a province containing the other.

 

[fdgbjksdf]

How does this interact with vassals and protectorates?

 

[Lemont Elwood]

I hope India isn't CONSISTENTLY favored.

As is, I pretty much never see trade companies getting strong in South Asia.

 

[Chief of Staff]

I wonder if it will be possible to mod it so that Europeans (western and eastern included) would usually be pretty much guaranteed to remain at the top over all other tech groups. I'm .... somewhat historically deterministic when it comes to EU4.

Still... look good to me.

 

[imuniti]

This is good to keep in mind. Especially for those worrying about the Printing Press. Yes Europe had plenty of printers before 1500, the works they produced are known as Incunables due to how they're considered pioneers of a new art and today those books (in much smaller editions than later ones) are worth fortunes to collectors.
The number of active printers a hundred years later is _a lot_ higher than the one for the late 1400's.

Yes Printing Press, Global Trade, Colonialism are not strictly things that are unheard of before a certain date. The idea is that the period after their institution unlocks is highly characterized by them however. They're also game mechanics and as such need names, they should not be taken too literally
The history of the development of the printed book is very interesting and we have no intention to disrespect the work of Manutius or the others, who I'm sure you know also have ingame flavor events related to them

(Sorry for using your post about something slightly different to say this Victimizer I just thought it was well put and wanted to add to it)

I fully understand the prequisites in this article may not be the final setup. And the following is my suggestion. Is it possible to link some institution perquisites or spread preferences with idea groups? For example, maybe make printing press appear in country with humanity or make them more likely to spread though country with humanity? Linking printing press to certain religions is understandable in the real history, but also make me feel a bit streamlined. And doing so may make RotW more controllabe. You can just hardcode RotW AI not (or more unlikely) to dive into certain idea groups and effectively cut them off certain institutions.

 

[Praetorian44]

Printing Press
This arrives after 1550, most likely in germany, but can happen in any protestant or reformed province. It will spread quickly in Protestant and Reformed territory, but also into capitals with dip tech 15.​

​

Why? In Italy, the printing press was used widely quite early, and Italy is was as Catholic as it gets. This is just more of the discriminatory rhetoric that Catholics were against all progress. Also, why does the printing press arrive in 1550? It was developed in 1440 and had spread throughout most of Europe by 1500. It was very influential in the Renaissance, and the Reformation may not have happened as it did without this invention.

Overall I don't like this change. While I agree that technology groups and westernization did need to be changed, this change looks like it will result in a much less historically accurate world most often. EU IV continues to move away from history to become a sandbox game loosely based on some historical events.

 

[2dme]

So is there a reason not to embrace an institution? Other than just the initial monetary cost.
Otherwise, what's the point? Why would the AI ever choose not embrace them? Because all the requirements you posted seem very hands off, with very little for the player to influence.

 

[Dakka]

What about decisions that have to do with westernization and their ilk? For example, Russia with the St Petersburg decision.

Also, like others I don't like the fact that opinion is a factor, as countries with few borders will have a hard time having ideas spread. If I'm Portugal and I go to eat Castile, then France rivals me, I can be cut out of the loop for quite some time. That being said nothing can be said for sure until we see how it plays, but isolated countries like Portugal, GB, and Japan have a high potential of getting screwed I think. Though why Japan has the institutions in that pic I'm not quite sure, looks like it skipped over quite a few countries.

I just hope we don't go back to the days where late game India and China are always out teching western states. I liked seeing the AI actually eat into those areas with regularity rather than being purely the opportunity of the player. Much more fun to fight global empires than one small theatre because the AI is too incompetent to expand elsewhere

 

[Metz]

What about adding Industrialism as a way to represent the Industrial Age that occurred starting in the 1760s?

It can start in provinces with iron, copper, etc.

Also maybe coal should be a late in-game resource that appears.

 

[Paweud]

Wow! Nice halo effect around the flag!

I spy a new globe mapmode in the menu bar (3d globe perhaps?)

It's the Overseas mapmode

 

[Lemont Elwood]

i'm cautiously optimistic about this. It sounds like a great idea, I'm just skeptical of balancing, especially in regards to South and East Asia.



In my opinion, embracing an institution should not automatically make all your provinces adopt it. Rather, those provinces which don't have it should be very upset (and be able to spawn reactionary rebels), and the likelihood of it spreading within your country should be greatly increased. If the reactionaries win, you lose your adoption of the institution and can't adopt it again until, say, 20 years have passed.

I've no idea how much money it'll cost to adopt the change, so I'll just say that if dealing with the adoption penalty is particularly harsh by itself, the money cost could be reduced.

Also, I'd argue that the Enlightenment should come before Manufactories, and Manufactories could be renamed to the Industrial Revolution.

 

[Prince Ire]

Printing Press

This arrives after 1550, most likely in germany, but can happen in any protestant or reformed province. It will spread quickly in Protestant and Reformed territory, but also into capitals with dip tech 15.
Bonus: 5& Cheaper Stability
Penalty: 20%​

Because clearly, there weren't already enough incentives to switch from Catholic to Protestant or Reformed.​

 

[Freudia]

EU IV continues to move away from history to become a sandbox game loosely based on some historical events.

That's what it always was. You can't just ignore all the ahistorical advantages Europe had in earlier builds of the game while spouting 'It's moving away from history!'; selective application of flawed logic is worse than consistent application of flawed logic.

 

[Paweud]

​

Why? In Italy, the printing press was used widely quite early, and Italy is was as Catholic as it gets. This is just more of the discriminatory rhetoric that Catholics were against all progress. Also, why does the printing press arrive in 1550? It was developed in 1440 and had spread throughout most of Europe by 1500. It was very influential in the Renaissance, and the Reformation may not have happened as it did without this invention.

You seem to miss the point. That is what Johan said:

its not the invention of it, but the concept of how it changes things.

 

[adlerchen]

there is no westernisation

I'm guessing that means that achievements like No Trail of Tears and Turning the Tide which have required westernization will be tied to embracing institutions, then?

 

[Bc1225]

How will this affect the Ming dynasty? Previously, you lost the celestial empire government + mandate of heaven after you westernized, but now that there is no westernization what will happen?

 

[Praetorian44]

That's what it always was. You can't just ignore all the ahistorical advantages Europe had in earlier builds of the game while spouting 'It's moving away from history!'; selective application of flawed logic is worse than consistent application of flawed logic.

I never said that EU IV was ever devotedly dedicated to accurately simulating history. What I said is that it continues to move away from history and more towards sandbox gameplay with features like the nation designer, random new world, this new tech system, as well as all the other many features that have been added that really don't have any historical context.

You seem to miss the point. That is what Johan said:

Ah no....I wasn't saying that it should be available in 1440, what I said was that it was a very important factor in both the Renaissance and the Reformation, both of which happened well before 1550. So how does that fit with the Johan remark that you quoted? If it is about how it changes things, then why does it happen well after these two events that drastically changed things and were considerably influenced by the printing press?

 

[adlerchen]

Because clearly, there weren't already enough incentives to switch from Catholic to Protestant or Reformed.

There's usually plenty of reasons not to do so though. Not wanting to be a pariah state with the large and powerful catholic countries like Austria, Castile, France, and Poland is a strong reason to keep your head down. The moment the leagues form there's no way to know who will sever their alliance with you.