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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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It would be quite 'easy' (for someone who knows what they're doing!) to mod a 1400 start
Especially given that all provinces, which existed in EU3, still have their game file histories stretch back to 1399.
 
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Keyword here was "convenient".
Missed that. (There's surprisingly many who aren't aware that you can start at any date, and not just at the bookmarks...)
Though given that you can move by century and decade with a single click I'd say that getting to 1530, 1620, and 1710 through the start date selector is quite convenient already.
 
Disappointed personally, its not the "biggest feature ever made".

I will continue to watch the diaries but personally im not confident :(
 
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well there bonus is there only till 1650 while the age last so it reflect the ottoman power and use of artillry befor the rest of europe and will end after 1650 when everybody got slowly use to it
1650 is a ludicrous amount of time. 33% is a third of siege time, and with offensive ideas, you get 53% siege ability. That is awfully broken.

Edit: Apparently it's 'till 1530. That is still a very long time. Like I said, buff it up to 53%, and you'll blob so far out of control it's not even funny the power you can wield by 1530.
 
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This sounds like a great feature but if I may you hear me out on a suggestion I have? Many people have criticised the system for being too eurocentric / christian-centric but I really don't think that's the case, the system makes sense and the only objective that doesn't apply to other religions is the PU one but there is one additional ability I think would be interesting to look into adding, just for the age of discovery maybe look into adding an ability for Ming / Qing that reduces tech cost. It makes sense for the era and would really help with expanding the system just a bit outside of Europe, thank you for reading / considering this, I've loved the direction you're taking EU4 in recently and I hope you stick with it, thanks!
 
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1650 is a ludicrous amount of time. 33% is a third of siege time, and with offensive ideas, you get 53% siege ability. That is awfully broken.
1530; it's still a long time, yes, but significantly shorter than 1650.
 
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Actually it may be bigger than it looks, if they pull it off well it could mean that the game becomes radically different every century, giving incentive to play all the way to the end date.
How? The "rules" part seems like an interesting addition and can potentially change up gameplay, but the objectives part is a glorified mission system that's already in the game. It's even semi-railroaded for certain countries just like missions are...

The biggest change yet would be adding population, but that's turning into Vicky 3.
 
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I like the idea and it looks interesting but it feels rather underwhelming that it was hyped up to be the biggest change ever in EU when there is so many bigger than this.
 
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Not really a fan. Overall rather underwhelming, and however you acquire a golden age and fulfill the to-do list of any age seems to meet a checklist of arbitrary points. It's not that big of a change and I don't see it impacting the game more than buffing a few already strong, easy countries while leaving others in the dark.

If the point here was to make your country stronger and greater, it served only as an easy checklist for already power nations in Europe. And that siege bonus for Ottomans is insanely strong.
 
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I maybe a bit slow here but apart from the golden age, what does this addition have to do with civ? I've seen quite a few people mention it and as a long time civ player I'm struggling to see the link.
 
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Regarding the UI, I feel it's a little strange that in the ages window the first age is on the bottom and the last is on the top and I hope future ages will be 'greyed out' and cannot be viewed before they're unlocked. Besides that, I really like this new feature and am looking forward to trying it out. And I got to say, I'm really liking the artwork. Kudos on the artist.
 
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By "discover at least one province in North or South America" do you mean discover it with an explorer yourself, or just know it exists? Because I believe spread of discoveries will make that happen before the end of the age.
 
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How? The "rules" part seems like an interesting addition and can potentially change up gameplay, but the objectives part is a glorified mission system that's already in the game. It's even semi-railroaded for certain countries just like missions are...

The biggest change yet would be adding population, but that's turning into Vicky 3.

Because of the "rules" part. Imagine that one Age of the game is more about expanding directly, another one's designed to reward a playstyle of influencing other nations, then one that heavily rewards "internal" play and vassal managment and Revolutions is trying to keep everybody from rebelling (while making the subjects and rebels of your rivals destroy them).
 
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How will american nations get a capital in the new world? They don't even have boats! How will they have territory in 2 continents?

Seriouly Pdx, just limit nations choice to Europe. Right now you're just shaming yourself.
The era lasts until 1530... It's not a problem that it is not centered on the new world!! Wait for the description of the other eras before criticize.
 
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I'm not sure this game really needs more 'win-more' mechanics but ok.

But things like "have a province on two continents" is so painfully ... arbitrary (so somehow Hejaz / Uzbek are just magically better because they live on a continent divide) that I'm concerned that other objectives will similarly force you to pull stunts that fall outside good gameplay 'just because'. Just like the design of colonialism - it incentives exploration-abandon strategies, but then adds a good bit of RNG because if you are ROTW and you don't get the colonialism institution spawn, you are actually screwed.

And given certain devs opinions regarding game pacing there's a bit of concern about what sort of era rules might be implemented.

Because of the "rules" part. Imagine that one Age of the game is more about expanding directly, another one's designed to reward a playstyle of influencing other nations, then one that heavily rewards "internal" play and vassal managment and Revolutions is trying to keep everybody from rebelling (while making the subjects and rebels of your rivals destroy them).

Yeah exactly, this would be terrible.

Internal management has never been this game's strong set (in fact, tall play is weaker than it was pre-Common Sense).
 
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I'm kind of disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I do not think these are bad mechanics. They probably will allow for new strategic decisions: Min-maxing splendor, choosing the right abilities, etc.
But I like the simulation aspect of the game. Leading a country in a world that makes sense. Example Manpower: If a country looses a lot of troops in fights they can't create new ones because they lack men to become soldiers. It's an abstraction but it makes sense. Even the (sometimes hated) monarch points make sense. They might be too abstract but they make sense: A good administration allows to core more land. If your monarch is a great strategist you probably develop new unit types and tactics faster.
But splendor makes no sense: What does it represent? It represents the ability to create more claims by settling America. Or to humiliate your rival to make your troops fight better in your capital's terrain. There's no causality here.
As I said: That doesn't make this mechanic bad (chess doesn't make sense either). It's just a direction that's not to my tast.
 
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