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EU4 - Development Diary - 13th of December 2016

Hello everyone and welcome to yet another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. Today we’ll talk about the biggest feature of our next expansion. A system we called “Ages of Europa Universalis”.

The game is now divided into 4 separate ages, where different rules apply in each age. Each age also have objectives you can fulfill, and abilities you can use use.

  • Age of Discovery => 1400 -1530
  • Age of Reformation => 1530 - 1620
  • Age of Absolutism => 1620 - 1710
  • Age of Revolutions => 1710-1821

Each age have seven objectives that can be fulfilled, and if they are fulfilled, you gain +3 power-projection as well as 3 splendor each month.

Now you may ask? What is splendor then? Well.. Splendor is the age specific currency you use to purchase abilities. There are seven abilities in each age that each country can purchase, and there is also four unique abilities in each age, where countries that historically were powerful in that age can unlock a special ability.

Whenever a new Age arrives, you power projection from objectives start decaying, and you now lose all the abilities you purchased in the previous age.

Today we’ll take a look at the Age of Discovery, which is the first Age.

eu4_140.png


Rules
Religious Rules are valid. (Previously before 1650)
Peasants War, Castilian Civil War, War of the Roses can only happen in this Age.

Objectives
  1. Capital in old world, discover Americas
  2. Own Territory on two continents
  3. Embrace Renaissance and keep it in all state provinces.
  4. Own a 30+ development city
  5. Own 5 Centers of Trade
  6. Have at least 2 personal unions.
  7. Humiliate a Rival
Abilities
  • Allow Edict “Feudal De Jure Law”
  • Transfer vassal wargoal
  • Create a claim bordering claims
  • 50% longer lasting claims.
  • Explorers & Conquistadors do not cost maintenance while on missions.
  • Finished colonies gets +1 random development.
  • Gain +1 attack bonus in your capital's terrain type
  • Ottomans : +33% Siege Ability
  • Portugal : +50 colonial growth
  • Denmark : 30 less liberty desire in subjects.
  • Venice : +50% Trade Power from Ships

Another cool concept we have related to the Age mechanics is the Golden Era. A golden era can be started once per game for a country, as soon as you have fulfilled 3 objectives in an Age, and lasts for 50 years.

A golden age gives you 10% cheaper costs for anything you spend monarch power on, your land and naval morale increase by 10%, and you produce 10% more goods.


The free patch keeps track of which age the game is in, and uses it for triggers for disasters and events.
 
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Going to predict there are variant objectives for different culture groups/regions/or at least a replacement for PU's for ROTW
There isn't according to the below post.

They won't be able to get that objective in that age.

Denmark SHOULD lose its PUs
Why? Norway was solid as a rock and due to the Norwegian nobility pretty much going extinct from the black death and being replaced by Danish nobility I have a hard time seeing it break away from Denmark unless something really extraordinary happens.
And Sweden didn't break until 1523; and it's arguable whether that one should be railroaded to break, since there were specific circumstances which led to it breaking and without those circumstances happening then it needn't break.
 
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It's interesting how Johan answer most of specific and individual questions but didn't say a single word about people asking if the "1400" is a typo or an actual new start date ;)
I have a theory that Johan is giggling mischievously right now over making us all freak out over this monumental change that he'll tell us more about in a later DD.
 
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that sound too much like civilization series tbh
 
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  • Portugal : +50 colonial growth
Shouldn't Spain get this bonus? The only country that in this era could be said to have engaged in serious settlement of colonies was Spain, Portugal was busy bombing Muslim ships in the Indian Ocean and deploying armies to conquer choke points in Asian trade routes, not "colonising" in the EU4 sense. In fact, organised colonisation of Brazil only began immediately after the end date of this Age, in 1534 with the creation of the Captaincies of Brazil.
 
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Yup, 30% CA vs Protestants :p.

they protected protestants :) ottoman hungary was kind of center of exile place of protestants.

johan said ages related to historically powerfull states at that time, so most powerful state in that era (1530-1620) was the ottoman empire.
 
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Would you consider reducing the amount of monarch point we receive in the game? As a safe player, i always end up with too many monarch points espacially in the mid game.

I know there is a lot of conquererant players, i don't want to start a war here. It's just a question.
 
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While I like the overall idea, there is one thing that annoys be straight away - the fact that these "Ages" start and end on preset dates, instead of ending based on what is actually occurring in the game. I mean, if for whetever reason, exploration in a particular game is lagging behind what it did historically, then surely the "Age of Discovery" should last longer?
 
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ottoman empire was most success state about the sieges or logistics in the 16th century. they sieged and took tens of castles in hungary.

This doesn't contradict my point. I agree, that they had superior supply system and were able to field huge armies. This isn't represented in game.
They were good with sieges and were more developed in military science for some time. This is represented by 6-mil ruler at start and good pips of units.
They didn't have huge quality of army. But, for some reason, it is in the game.
 
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How about changing Portugal's bonus to 100% growth, but only in Africa (where there are a lot of penalties) and maybe with a reduction in this bonus for every colony built in the region.
 
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How about changing Portugal's bonus to 100% growth, but only in Africa (where there are a lot of penalties) and maybe with a reduction in this bonus for every colony built in the region.
Portugal didn´t really take much in terms of land, a massive colonial range bonus would male more sense.
 
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Really blown away by the scope of this new feature, and feeling a hint of Age of Empires nostalgia to boot. Seems like a great way to differentiate the various time periods of EU4 without having to create an entirely separate game for each one. Would be cool to have convenient historical bookmarks set at the beginning of each Age. After all, I'll be wanting to play a separate game from the beginning of each one to really get a feel for that particular era and its unique mechanics!
 
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Underwhelming, there's not much wrong with it aside from the Eurocentrism and the countryspecific buffs in my book but it's not a monumental addition to the game as well. There's no real gameplay involved it's just a way to guide your development path along certain roads and a bunch of buffs to reward you for that throughout the game. It's also an extra incentive to play a lot of nations even more historically then now.
 
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It's interesting how Johan answer most of specific and individual questions but didn't say a single word about people asking if the "1400" is a typo or an actual new start date ;)

No new start date
 
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