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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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SamuraiLordofWii said:
For trade companys in asia and the example of Japan. Since Japan is a island it dont belong to the contined and so they should be able to have trade companies in India. When i tryed my Korean colonizer run i was able to have a trade company on the philipines after i westernised and they are both in asia but im not sure about inida since both are on the landmass but maybe india count different then east asia.
Click to expand...

With a Japanese start, it seems like you're supposed to take Exploration early and move your capital across the Pacific, which will still be feasible if you plan carefully and don't take too many Asian provinces before the move. You also lose out a lot if you stick to your native religion, both because it's seriously underpowered compared to the alternatives, and because you get thrown into heathen intolerance hell by Kirishitan events/modifiers. Oceanic/North American Christian Japan is best Japan.
 
Sandmann said:
Because you can't turn it off in iron man. The question is why lucky nations is still not optional in iron man but in normal. It should be the other way around because lucky nations has a gazillion überpowered mega bonuses which is super OP and results in super boring predictable blobs on the map. Lucky nations need to go. It should be a flavorful option for normal games but nothing more.
Click to expand...

Ahh, gotcha. I never do Ironman because I don't care a bit about achievements. So I don't even register the warning about achievements not being allowed with a setting.
 
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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).
Click to expand...

A wee baby step in the right direction.

If EUIII is any indication, they'll finally get navies right in the very last update, and then forget what they did in EUV. Well, not exactly right, but close enough to be moddable.
 
Incompetent said:
IIRC, the semi-official excuse when called out on it (according to Chaingun, but admittedly it wasn't his decision) was that the AI can't anticipate ambushes, so it needs to leave its forts un-mothballed all the time, whereas a player can be smarter about mothballing. I'd have bought this explanation if they'd simply made AI fort maintenance half-price and disabled the AI's ability to mothball them. But making border and coastal forts completely maintenance-free is an outright AI cheat with not even an attempt at justification by the devs, as far as I can see. What it tells us is rather that the AI's economy is suffering as a result of making poor building choices in general, with too much emphasis on high-level forts (or failing to demolish excess forts) and not enough on putting manufactories/workshops on high-value goods.
Click to expand...

That still doesn't answer the question of why they can't just make forts cheaper.
 
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Sandmann said:
Because you can't turn it off in iron man. The question is why lucky nations is still not optional in iron man but in normal. It should be the other way around because lucky nations has a gazillion überpowered mega bonuses which is super OP and results in super boring predictable blobs on the map. Lucky nations need to go. It should be a flavorful option for normal games but nothing more.
Click to expand...


18. Including: Chance of new heir, Spy network construction, Stability cost modifier, Fort defense, Possible advisors, Interest per annum, Monthly fervor and Church power. OMG so OP.
 
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Am I right, that forts system intuitiveness problem wasn't addressed at all? Does AI still have free forts?
No changes to attrition cap?
No changes to diplomatic vassalization ability?
No changes to overdeveloped OPMs?
 
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grommile said:
The AI does, in fact, demolish forts. I've seen provinces that used to have forts not have forts in them any more.
Click to expand...

Phlopsi said:
Doesn't seem to always happen, then, but good to know.
Click to expand...
Yes, they changed it some time after they changed the fort cheat for AI, so that AI would be more prompt about deleting forts that were close to each other and thus for a player would be useless and costly :) Not sure if it works perfectly, but have seen forts disappear and a nicer spread to them lately :)
JustMormegil said:
Am I right, that forts system intuitiveness problem wasn't addressed at all? Does AI still have free forts?
No changes to attrition cap?
No changes to diplomatic vassalization ability?
No changes to overdeveloped OPMs?
Click to expand...
This isn´t a patchnote, just an note on the important changes and why they decided for it... Their patchnotes are freakishly long, and is a sick joy to read through :) However, yes... There has been no mention to attrition cap being raised or the overdeveloped OPM, but at least wait for the patchnotes before concluding :)
 
Topias said:
It really seems like a no-brainer, and I fully expect them to do it eventually. Surely there couldn't even be much balancing involved, given how players are already paying less for their forts by not having (very many of) them.
Click to expand...
Yes and no... Players are better at managing their economy overall, so giving the AI cheats helps balancing its faults compared to player, so that we won´t be as bored early on... Could be nice to have the AI play on more even term at some point, but still better than complaining about broke AI (which still happens, despite fort cheat).
 
Johan said:
  • 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...

So I finally can build my forts in the mountains without the fear to not being able to break a siege. Thank you!


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

Always the first thing I am going to do, what else are loans there for anyway :O?
 
brifbates said:
Do you really want the possibility for wealthy nations to dump forts in every province?
Click to expand...
I would like the possibility for building forts to be a good idea for a human player.
 
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Quaade said:
Yes and no... Players are better at managing their economy overall, so giving the AI cheats helps balancing its faults compared to player, so that we won´t be as bored early on... Could be nice to have the AI play on more even term at some point, but still better than complaining about broke AI (which still happens, despite fort cheat).
Click to expand...
Players are better at managing their economy, yes, which leads them to not use forts. So, like someone already put it, forts are too expensive both for the AI and for players. My personal gripe isn't even about the AI cheating, it's about the viability of a core mechanic.
 
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Topias said:
Players are better at managing their economy, yes, which leads them to not use forts. So, like someone already put it, forts are too expensive both for the AI and for players. My personal gripe isn't even about the AI cheating, it's about the viability of a core mechanic.
Click to expand...
I´m not disagreeing on the whole, forts are to expensive parts... Though I think the uselesness of forts are a bit overrated... And the defensive bonus alone should make them more important, but wished they had made them not so one-sided...
 
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Quaade said:
This isn´t a patchnote, just an note on the important changes and why they decided for it... Their patchnotes are freakishly long, and is a sick joy to read through :) However, yes... There has been no mention to attrition cap being raised or the overdeveloped OPM, but at least wait for the patchnotes before concluding :)
Click to expand...
Surely... but if these changes would be done, they were considered as 'Major' as they were asked so many times...
ok, lets wait and hope. Hope level - 10%. :)
 
brifbates said:
Do you really want the possibility for wealthy nations to dump forts in every province?
Click to expand...

Fort 1 - 100, 0.5 Maintenance
Fort 2 - 200, 1 Maintenance
Fort 3 - 400, 2 Maintenance
Fort 4 - 800, 4 Maintenance

Early forts are actually cost effective without being spammable while late ones will be restrictive and emphasize strategic placement. Simple.
 
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Grand Historian said:
Fort 1 - 100, 0.5 Maintenance
Fort 2 - 200, 1 Maintenance
Fort 3 - 400, 2 Maintenance
Fort 4 - 800, 4 Maintenance

Early forts are actually cost effective without being spammable while late ones will be restrictive and emphasize strategic placement. Simple.
Click to expand...

Level 8 forts already cost 4 maintenance, which is why they're never used. This change would encourage spamming outdated forts, rather than having up to date forts.

The fact is that forts past level 2 never make sense outside chokepoints in multiplayer, and even then not really. For the money you spend on the fort, you could improve your army and actually win the war.

Afterall high level forts are really only useful on defense which you as a player not only want to avoid ever being on, but generally can avoid ever being on. (except in multiplayer, as I was saying.)

The fact is that especially with the change, forts in mountains at level 2 will be all the defense you need, and fort level 8 will once again be an AI only mechanic.

It just seems wrong that such a core gameplay mechanic is made so extremely useless for players.
 
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