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EU4 - Development Diary - 27th of September 2016

Hello everyone and welcome to another Europa Universalis development diary. This time we’ll take a look at the most important balance changes for 1.18, with a quick explanation on why we did them..

Setup
  • Lucky nations are now down to 8, sorry Poland, Brandenburg & Sweden.
The balance of having 10 lucky nations made the likelihood of a strong Russia too uncommon for us, and especially having those 3 as likely lucky nations was too much for Muscowy.

  • Lots of National Ideas have been changed, but most importantly Knights lost their tolerance for heretics, but can instead do slave raids.
As usual, we keep changing the ideas as we add new functionality, and giving people new abilities. There was a rather large following for giving the Knights access to Slave Raiding, as they were rather fearsome pirates, so they gained that ability.


Navies
  • If you have a port, now you get at least 5 sailors per month.
This was also requested, as some nations with 1 port just could never get any sailors at all.

  • Ships now engage in a priority order from heavy, galley, light to transport, up to a maximum of the engagement width (for which heavies count as 3 rather than 1).
This creates a more interesting naval combat experience, as you’ll all notice on October 11th.


Espionage
  • Reworked foreign spy detection & counter espionage. Counter espionage have less impact on discovery, but both now impact the spy network buildup of the target in your nation.
Basically, being able to defend against spy activities is now possible, even if stopping them entirely might be impossible.

  • Reduced unrest and Republican Tradition impact from Sowing discontent spy action
And many tears have been shed over this ….

  • Spy network bonuses will now apply to the target's subjects.
No more micromanagement and extra hassle! Rejoice!


Subjects
  • Breaking vassalage with a vassal that has over 50% in liberty desire no longer gives a relation penalty.
In the “duh?” category right?

  • Increased Liberty Desire from tariffs, up to 50% LD at 100% tariffs
Tariffs are no longer no-brainers to increase..

  • Colonial nations only lose half the money the overlord is getting in tariffs.
But this makes it so you can’t cripple your colonial nations..

  • Large colonial nations now gives you +5 land force limit each
And now you also want LARGE colonial nations :) ie, buffing Portugal..

  • There is now a scaled penalty to Liberty Desire up to +25% at max Mercantilism.
Aka, the longer the game goes, the more likely subjects get rebellious.

  • Vassals fighting each others (i.e. in Japan) now always accept Enforce Peace requests of overlord, but all vassals except the defending peace target get +10 Liberty Desire.
More power to the Emperor! or.. The Shogun!

  • All subjects now get reduced AE from your actions, not just vassals & marches.
No longer will your union-partners hate you for conquering their cores!

  • Subjects now have land and naval access to other subjects of the same overlord.
No longer will your subjects units get stuck!


Religion
  • Patriarch Authority no longer reduces tax income.
It all belongs to Mother Russia!. Sorry, I meant all orthodox nations..

  • Sanction Commercial Monopoly now costs 50 PI, instead of 100.
And we boost Catholics!

  • Defender of Faith now gives you +10 opinion of all with that religion.
Clearly this was our most important tweak in 1.18.

  • Theocracies, especially the Papal State, have an increased alliance acceptance penalty towards different religions now.
  • When you change religion as a Monastic order, Devotion is now decreased to the resulting Religious unity
These above are in the “this will improve immersion while improving the balance”-category.



Forts
  • If you are enter battle while in an enemy province with a fort, you will be treated as the attacker in battle and incur that province's terrain penalties.
Building forts is now a strategic decision. Where can you stop your enemies the best?

  • Penalty for not occupying forts in an area will no longer apply if the enemy does not control any forts in the area.
This will make it possible to sign a peace that you as a player likes far easier.


Misc
  • There is now an increase in efficiency of embargoes for a nation scaled by its Mercantilism up to +50%.
This is also another change that makes Mercantilism more powerful, while at the same time improving immersion.

  • Trade Companies is now open to all technology groups.
With the new technology changes, this just makes sense. However, you can not have trade-companies on the same continent as your capital.

  • All countries should now have access to at least one skill 2 advisor at start.
Just for you to have a choice!

  • You can no longer move capital to a continent that has less than a third of your total provinces, unless your capital is the last province you own on its continent.
There were a few exploits where you could swap continents back and forth a few times, that this solves.


Technology

We already talked about the changes to technology in a previous development diary, but here is a quick recap!

  • In 1444, all non-tribal nations start without tech penalties.
  • Primitive Status is now tied to starting techgroups.
  • Institutions will appear in certain provinces at key dates and spread from province to province.
  • Once 10% of your development has this Institution present, you can embrace that Institution for a monetary cost scaled on how much that institution has spread throughout your nation
  • If you have not embraced an Institution, you will have a tech penalty. This penalty grows by 1% each year up to a maximum of 50% penalty per non-embraced institution.
  • American Natives reforming their religion gain all the institutions from their advanced neighbour
  • Many existing ideas have been altered to give faster Institution spread and cheaper embracement costs.
  • Increasing development in provinces will also boost institution presence in that province

Culture

Cultures were also mentioned in a previous development diary, but here is a quick recap.
  • Cultures are now promoted manually, and any culture of at least 20 development can be promoted for 100 DIP.
  • All nations can promote 2 cultures in addition to their primary culture, and additional cultures can be promoted from ideas and Diplomatic technology
  • Old modifiers to Accepted culture Threshold now affect number of promoted cultures
  • Promoted cultures can be Demoted. This will give +5 unrest in all provinces of that culture

Stay tuned, next week we’ll show off new achievements and national ideas..
 
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Johan said:
  • Ships now engage in a priority order from heavy, galley, light to transport, up to a maximum of the engagement width (for which heavies count as 3 rather than 1).
This creates a more interesting naval combat experience, as you’ll all notice on October 11th.


  • If you are enter battle while in an enemy province with a fort, you will be treated as the attacker in battle and incur that province's terrain penalties.
Building forts is now a strategic decision. Where can you stop your enemies the best?
Click to expand...

My two preferred balance changes, this is really great news, cheers!
 
Azhcristokos said:
Reworking paid features from DLC is fine; removing them entirely without replacing them is a terrible idea.
Click to expand...

A perfect example of this would be what happened to the American Republic - and the firestorm that followed.

That was just a single government type. Imagine what would happen if the three New World religions were removed.
 
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Zhadum101 said:
I asked that earlier... We assume when they reform religion... But don't know the requirements for doing so.
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Reforming religion as Mesoamericans/Andeans requires passing the five reforms and bordering a western neighbor. North Americans instead reform their government when they complete all the native council ideas and border a western neighbor. In the current game, either option will bring them up to 75% of the technology level of their neighbor; I recall reading that reforming will now give them the institutions of their western neighbor.

Otherwise, I suspect the primitive status might disappear when they adopt the first institution, which is Feudalism I think?
 
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Grand Historian said:
A perfect example of this would be what happened to the American Republic - and the firestorm that followed.

That was just a single government type. Imagine what would happen if the three New World religions were removed.
Click to expand...

Since the entire focus of El Dorado is custom nations and Mesoamerica, there would be a huge uproar of fury at having half the content of a relatively expensive DLC being cut. I normally don't get up in arms about much here, but I'd be pretty mad too.

In this scenario that will never happen, though, they'd just remove the reforms probably and not the religions outright, since even people without El Dorado get the religions I believe, just without the reform mechanics.
 
Azhcristokos said:
Reforming religion as Mesoamericans/Andeans requires passing the five reforms and bordering a western neighbor. North Americans instead reform their government when they complete all the native council ideas and border a western neighbor. In the current game, either option will bring them up to 75% of the technology level of their neighbor; I recall reading that reforming will now give them the institutions of their western neighbor.

Otherwise, I suspect the primitive status might disappear when they adopt the first institution, which is Feudalism I think?
Click to expand...

Right but the final reform does it require only western neighbor or anyone how has institutions like the ottomans?
 
Azhcristokos said:
I wasn't around for that, actually. Would anyone be willing to kindly fill me in?
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Basically, the American Dream DLC came with a unique Government for the USA; the American Republic. Because America rarely if ever formed it was almost never seen, but one of the reasons people bought the DLC in the first place was for the government form, and so Paradox removing it in 1.12 without explanation caused an uproar on the forums - made worse by the fact that the English Monarchy was introduced in the same patch (so apparently America's Republic isn't unique enough to warrant its own government type but England's monarchy is?). The result was about four or five petitions springing up asking for its restoration over the next few months - some people signed because they wanted it back, some just signed because it was part of the reason they paid for the DLC, some signed out of the principle of not wanting paid DLC content removed after the fact when there was nothing wrong with it to begin with. In the end, the American Republic's still gone but now we get a Prussian Monarchy and the Ottoman Sultunate.
 
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Grand Historian said:
Basically, the American Dream DLC came with a unique Government for the USA; the American Republic. Because America rarely if ever formed it was almost never seen, but one of the reasons people bought the DLC in the first place was for the government form, and so Paradox removing it in 1.12 without explanation caused an uproar on the forums - made worse by the fact that the English Monarchy was introduced in the same patch (so apparently America's Republic isn't unique enough to warrant its own government type but England's monarchy is?). The result was about four or five petitions springing up asking for its restoration over the next few months - some people signed because they wanted it back, some just signed because it was part of the reason they paid for the DLC, some signed out of the principle of not wanting paid DLC content removed after the fact when there was nothing wrong with it to begin with. In the end, the American Republic's still gone but now we get a Prussian Monarchy and the Ottoman Sultunate.
Click to expand...
I do believe that the US (being renamed to United States next patch, yay) becomes a Constitutional Republic through event. Though I really do wish they would rename Parliament for CRs to Congress.
 
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Dakkadakka127 said:
I do believe that the US (being renamed to United States next patch, yay) becomes a Constitutional Republic through event. Though I really do wish they would rename Parliament for CRs to Congress.
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Or better yet just reinstate the American Republic with a unique mechanic - federalism, congress, the states, constitution and whatnot are surely unique enough to deserve their own government. This time, however, instead of having it reliant on events have it where any English primary-culture colony that transforms into a new nation can adopt the American Republic so it can actually be seen and played more than once in a blue moon.
 
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Would it be possible to enable Coastal Raids for norse custom nations? I tried a custom nation with it but was unable to raid, but it would not be out of place for vikings to raid :)
 
@Johan @DDRJake

relating to accepted cultures:

1) Can we still add accepted cultures by event and remove them by event?
2) Currently in defines we can set a requirement to gain a new culture at 100% and lose culture at 0% and just add accepted cultures by event. Can modders still some how make something like this work using the new setup?

thanks
 
Sexual Velociraptor said:
where were you when burgundy was kill?

In all seriousness though I liked a lot of the changes, but I need to ask about player fort costs. I've never bought more than 1 or 2 level 8 forts in a game, are rarely buy forts in general. They're really expensive for a small benefit, especially as the game drags on.

I'm fairly certain most players don't get them either unless they're playing a tall country with development instead of expansion.

My point is that I think it would make sense to lower maintenance and maybe purchase price of forts by half. They're currently WAY too expensive. One level 8 fort costs as much as a 23 Infantry.

How should I be expected to spend 4 gold in maintenance per 50 development, or 40,000 gold adding forts to my currently 2.5k dev blobbed empire.

Nerf forts defensive stats if you need to, but right now players just don't use them. That's neither historical or balanced.
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The new fort changes should make them quite useful. Put your forts in mountains and the like, wait for them to be besieged, then pounce.
 
DominusNovus said:
The new fort changes should make them quite useful. Put your forts in mountains and the like, wait for them to be besieged, then pounce.
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It doesn't address the primary concern I have though. The game's mechanics want you to have 1 fort per 50 dev (Based on the Army tradition mechanics) however that would cost 16,000 ducats to construct and 80 ducats per month in a 1000 dev country. That's bonkers. 100k troops cost WAY less than that, and those actually WIN wars.

I don't think making forts stronger is the right solution, I think they need to be less expensive.
 
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Arklari said:
So... when do native americans lose the primitive tag then? Not being able to build boats or having a permanent cb from the colonial powers sounds... awful.
Click to expand...

Probably never, it is a core feature of the colonial game.
 
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