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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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Sexual Velociraptor said:
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.
Click to expand...
But the game does not punish you for having no or too few forts.
 
ecrurudesby said:
But the game does not punish you for having no or too few forts.
Click to expand...
They added the Army tradition to forts to address the fact that fort and battle changes have made it so that even when you're constantly at war your army tradition rarely breaches 40 without ideas giving bonuses.

It would be like if they massively nerfed your trade power somehow, and then buffed mercantilism so that at max mercantilism you're at where you were before.

If their goal was to make sure that every player has much less army tradition then they've achieved it, but we were told that forts were supposed to adress the issue, not be mostly meaningless.

Additionally There's still the fact that players are just encouraged not to use forts higher than level 2 ever by basic economics. A level 2 fort stalls rebels and enemies long enough for your army to get there, so why would you quadruple the cost? For an impossible to achieve army tradition goal?

At this point level 8 forts are pretty much an AI only feature that players will only use VERY occasionally on chokepoints and/or their capitals. They make lategame warfare a snorefest too.

It just doesn't make sense to make such a core gameplay feature so inaccessible to the player unless they feel like handicapping themselves.
 
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I mean, Paradox have even effectively admitted that forts are too damned expensive, by exempting the AI from paying maintenance for border and coastal forts... yet somehow they insist that humans should always have to pay full price.
 
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Xdevo said:
Now if only there were 0 Lucky Nations instead of 8
Click to expand...

Why not just turn off Lucky nations? There's been an option to do that for a very long time... I know I've had it turned off since the moment it was introduced because I find lucky nations to be a stupid thing too.
 
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I like the changes in general, but did anyone else notice that Wallacia, Portugal, and Byzantium just got sniped? They hard nerfed the mechanic that Portugal uses to move its capital to the new world (compensating it with a +5 force limit for keeping large colonial nations that it barely has the power to keep in line, then increasing the liberty desire they have) And, I'm glad to see that they nerfed the only ally Wallachia and Byzantium usually can get to counter the Ottomans. Because, honestly, those two countries weren't hard enough already. I'm still waiting on the Ryukyu nerfs.

Lol, but seriously, I like the culture changes. It will be nice to have more control over acceptance.
 
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I'm really enthusiastic about that naval change. Should balance things out much better now.
 
Honon said:
I like the changes in general, but did anyone else notice that Wallacia, Portugal, and Byzantium just got sniped? They hard nerfed the mechanic that Portugal uses to move its capital to the new world (compensating it with a +5 force limit for keeping large colonial nations that it barely has the power to keep in line, then increasing the liberty desire they have) And, I'm glad to see that they nerfed the only ally Wallachia and Byzantium usually can get to counter the Ottomans. Because, honestly, those two countries weren't hard enough already. I'm still waiting on the Ryukyu nerfs.

Lol, but seriously, I like the culture changes. It will be nice to have more control over acceptance.
Click to expand...
I mean, theoretically the +5 force limit should give portugal the ability to keep her subjects in line.

Also I've found many ways to beat the Ottomans without allying Poland as tiny Balkan Countries. Get creative. Besides, Othodoxy got buffed, which helps Byz and Wallacia more.
 
Metz said:
Will there be a PU event for Brandenburg and TO just like there is for Castile and Aragon?
Click to expand...
There is one, but it's bullcrap because it turns a vassal into a junior partner, which screws you if you wanted to integrate (must be stable for 50 years instead of 100).

http://www.eu4wiki.com/Brandenburg-Prussian_events#The_incorporation_of_Prussia_into_Brandenburg

I would like one that doesn't require existing vassalage. Oh I just re-read it, yeah it's for Prussia not TO.
 
ecrurudesby said:
There is one, but it's bullcrap because it turns a vassal into a junior partner, which screws you if you wanted to integrate (must be stable for 50 years instead of 100).

http://www.eu4wiki.com/Brandenburg-Prussian_events#The_incorporation_of_Prussia_into_Brandenburg

I would like one that doesn't require existing vassalage.
Click to expand...
The existing one doesn't technically require vassalage.
Code: 
  trigger = {
     tag = BRA
     PRU = {
       ai = yes
       was_player = no
       OR = {
         has_opinion = { who = BRA value = 100 }
         vassal_of = BRA
       }
     }
   }
 
Brilliant!

It's nice to see old religions get buffed to be reasonably comparable to new ones, and Russia finally getting some love.

Now time to whine about the next complaint....Manchu->Qing never happening :)
 
Johan said:
Penalty for not occupying forts in an area will no longer apply if the enemy does not control any forts in the area.
Click to expand...

In this context, what does "area" mean? Currently you basically just need to occupy a fort somewhere in a conjoined region to demand those provinces - what's different now? Is it area in the sense of say "Thrace" or "Normandy"? Or is this just if the forts are occupied by a 3rd party?
 
Johan said:
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?
Click to expand...

Dear lord. Playing defensively with Norway is actually an option now.
 
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isansom said:
In this context, what does "area" mean? Currently you basically just need to occupy a fort somewhere in a conjoined region to demand those provinces - what's different now? Is it area in the sense of say "Thrace" or "Normandy"? Or is this just if the forts are occupied by a 3rd party?
Click to expand...

Presumably 3rd party occupation as that is a regular (and IMO valid) complaint-if they don't hold the fort they shouldn't benefit from its existence.
 
Ulfing said:
Dear lord. Playing defensively with Norway is actually an option now.
Click to expand...
And Switzerland. And Tibet. And SE Asia will suck with all the jungles. Not to mention the French/Spanish Border. Navarra will be very important to Iberian defense now, and yellow Iberia is always nice to see
 
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Yellow Iberia can feel like such a rarity sometimes, so yes, with better fort placement hopefully the AI can be vastly more defensive as well. In a recent Italy game with Spain as an Ally I just watched them hit the French meatgrinder that was the Pyrenees with abject horror.

Its such a simple change that has such a grand impact on military strategy. I can't wait to see it in action.
 
Metz said:
Will there be a PU event for Brandenburg and TO just like there is for Castile and Aragon?
Click to expand...

Prussia and Brandenburg I assume you mean?
 
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