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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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Maybe increased war score from undeveloped coastal provinces?
Maybe to combine this idea with a possible solution for the exploration and expansion bonus problems:
they could bring back the exploration and expansion idea CB's, but instead have that be unlockable during the Age of Exploration with certain conditions (i.e. some of the goals in that age, or by being Portugal or Spain during that time).
 
Portugal should get colonization distance instead of colonization growth. It had mostly outposts along the African coast and the coastline of Brazil (which didn't boom in population until the slave trade). This along with missions about making colonies in Africa may encourage Portugal to historically focus on Brazil and Africa instead of the Caribbean.
They never focused on Africa.
Trade posts in Africa were only a way to reach India.
The main objective (and their neighbours' too) was India. And Indian trade was actually what was the most profitable for them, even compared to Brazil one century later.
I agree with your statement about the ingame bonus though, but they already have one in their NI's. I'd rather go for a naval bonus.
 
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@Johan would it be possible to make it so that subjects or members of trade leagues count towards controlling important trade centers? the Hanseatic League certainly had its splendid moments from trade without resorting to hanging the Lubeck flag in every major port. Would make trade leagues a lot more appetizing rather than just breaking it and eating all the locations yourself.
 
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Was this feature "the biggest feature yet", or is it still to be announced hopefully?
This diary is about "the biggest feature yet for EU4" according to Johan.
 
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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 makes 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.
My thoughts exactly!
 
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@Johan

Are the start and end dates for ages moddable, and can we add other conditions for them occurring?
How much of the goals and bonuses are moddable (i.e. adding or removing them)?

HOI4 was mentioned to be aimed at having more moddable stuff and less hardcoding. I really hope new EU4 features get the same treatment.
 
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I'm really torn on this.

First impression is that it's really cool and will create a game within the game like institutions did.

But then I have this nagging doubt that it's more money making bloat.

I could get more on board with it if we got a patch dedicated to bug fixes, wonky mechanics and game balance.
I'd vastly prefer bugs and balance being addressed for next patch. This isn't the biggest thing added to the game thus far by a mile, really. It's just some age-related modifiers and more tedious goals encouraging you to go a certain path and not expand dynamically. What a let-down. :(

Edit: I can, however, see a potential for this.

It does need some serious redrawing however.

Golden ages and time periods could be based, like others have said, off of culture/religion. This means that, within your sphere, you can usher in a golden age of your own and prosper by focusing on your own part of the world. As is, this is incredibly underwhelming and eurocentric based off a checklist of arbitrary things to do at arbitrary points in time. The game really doesn't need that, doubt I'll keep up with EU4 if this is the way it'll be. The next diaries need to be both interesting and, well, innovative for once.

My fault for buying into the hype Johan put up last diary though.
 
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The question that needs to be asked though: Where is the long awaited rework of the Orient? Personally, I'm not buying this DLC unless it overhauls the far east.
Yes, Asia needs a rework. It's very quickly losing any of its charm and desire to play until it gets redone. Plenty of threads and suggestions have been made.

Please tell me after this ages thing gets covered in DD's we will see some Asia improvements :p
 
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5. Own 5 Centers of Trade
While this mechanic looks interesting, I find this goal here is a major turnoff. It might seem like nitpicking but this is a very historically implausible goal for a nation to complete before 1530. To me this indicates that the new expansion will continue to focus around arcadey map painting rather then anything grounded in history

So yeah, a lot of potential but not interested in arcade mode so I will continue to not buy DLC.
 
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With the last two ages being the age of absolutism and the age of revolutions, does that mean that France gets two unique bonuses? After all, France is the historical posterboy for both the absolute monarchy and the revolution.

countries have nothing to do with the names of the ages. see mughals and safavids in reformation age :)
 
Honestly, Ming not being there in #1 is semi-suprising to me. They were so powerful in causing the age of discovery in the first place. I mean, wasn't it searching for a way to make trade with India/China easier that caused pressure to search for trade routes via sailing west in the first place?
 
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One thing I don't think I've seen commented upon is the possibility to gain a "transfer vassal" CB, though I hope it applies to all subjects and not just vassals, I want to finally see the Italian Wars over the fate of Naples break out. I hope we see even more era based CBs as things go on.

As for the four special nations for the next age, Spain/Castile is confirmed as one, I'd estimate that Austria would be another alongside maybe Poland/Commonwealth and one more. For the age of Absolutism I'd expect France, Prussia/Brandenburg, possibly Muscovy/Russia and the Netherlands?
 
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While this mechanic looks interesting, I find this goal here is a major turnoff. It might seem like nitpicking but this is a very historically implausible goal for a nation to complete before 1530.
Assuming that Inland centres count:

QQ starts the game with two (Tabriz and Baghdad), and have at least three more within plausible reach (Aleppo, Mogostan, Mazandaran).

The Timurids start with two (Mogostan, Samarkand) and have quite a few within manageable reach if they survive the collapse-railroad (Tabriz, Baghdad, Mazandaran, ...).

The Ottomans start the game with one (Hüdavendigar), grab a second (Constantinople) quite quickly, can get a third (Dubrovnik) fairly readily if they drop or circumvent their guarantee on Ragusa, and can get a fourth (Aleppo) and fifth (Alexandria) by achieving their historical borders of 1517.

Ming starts the game with this goal fulfilled.

Muscovy starts with two (Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod), and is in plausible reach of Novgorod, Kazan, and if Lithuania gets unlucky, Kiev.
 
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