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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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I'll start this off by saying that I don't really understand the decision to create 4 relatively arbitrary time periods when, in my eyes, the institutions system seems to emulate the spread of technological innovation pretty well.

My initial thoughts on the system are that I'd have preferred something like this:
There are four ages (the number doesn't matter too much, but four is fine and fits with institutions fine), those ages are linked to institutions, with the first having no requirement (so non-feudal governments aren't affected detrimentally).
Ages are linked to institutions, so as a rough guideline this means:
age 1 = 0-2 institutions = 1444-1550
age 2 = 3-4 institutions = 1550-1650
age 3 = 5-6 institutions = 1650-1750
age 4 = 7 institutions = 1750-1821

However, each country will enter an age at a different point because it will be based on embracing a certain number of institutions, not on the year.

In my mind, the final age being shorter could be balanced by making the individual bonuses fewer, but stronger. That is the period of the game where the biggest plays are made for winning/losing objectives, and countries have the most to gain/lose due to high admin efficiency etc. So a decent selection of bonuses to choose from in those final years would be great.

With regards to swapping ages, moving to the next age requires embracing an institution. The trade off becomes do I want to have increased tech costs, and keep my age related bonuses, or do I want to remove the tech cost penalty so I don't fall behind on tech, but lose access to the age related bonuses as a result.

Once per game, this could be offset by entering a Golden Age. Choosing to activate a Golden Age allows you to do the following things for the next 50 years (i.e. half an age):
Have a x% discount to development
Have a y% increase is autonomy reduction
Have a z% reduction in global unrest
Ignore tech cost penalties for unembraced institutions.

In my mind that final point is the important one, because rather than making a Golden Age just give a flat 10% reduction in all costs, it can instead be used as a way of levelling the playing field a little bit for nations that have fallen significantly behind. Yes, it means powerful and technologically up-to-date nations don't get as large a bonus from entering a Golden Age as nations that have fallen behind, but it can be a factor that allows someone who is far from institution spawn points (for the early game, anyone outside Europe) or who has lots of low development land for institutions to spread to (siberian colonies anyone?) to manage to keep up on tech until they are able to embrace. The fact that this is a once per game option makes it interesting too because it means that, as a player, you have to decide if you want the Golden Age for an early edge, or if you want to save it for a situation where you fall behind nearer the end.

Beautifull Idea
9/10
 
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Snozgobler's idea is a good one.

A 7th institution around 1750 has actually been part of the feedback since RoM and would be welcomed, in my opinion.
If we take the current Ages:
Age of Exploration: Renaissance & Colonialism -> It makes sense to group them together and they fit thematically.
Age of Reformation: Printing Press & Global Trade -> Again, this works as the Printing Press is already linked to the Reformation and Global Trade is a concept strongly attached to the Dutch who are a major player of the era.
Age of Absolutism: Manufactories & Enlightment -> Manufactories is what Colbert wanted for Absolute France (Colbertism), and Enlightment indeed started under Absolute rulers in France

Age of Revolution then doesn't have a current institution. I suggest here a 7th Institution, linked to the era. Constitutionalism is probably not 100% accurate as it's more a 1780s thing. What could work here?

And I agree that the shorter timespan (70 years instead of 100 years for the others, not too big a difference in my view) could bring bigger bonuses. :)
 
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I think it would be nice if more of the game's mechanics really varied between the ages as well.
Oh yes, there will be quite alot of difference there.

Is this an early step to integrating the CK, EU, Vic and/or HOI franchises?
Please say it is so :)
A man can dream right?
 
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Do I also need 500 food and 300 gold to advance from the Discovery Age to the Reformation Age? Will my ̶c̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶c̶e̶n̶t̶r̶e̶ capital look different when I do?
 
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You're confusing the terms. Before areas there were regions, which were overlapping in many places. There were low level regions (can't remember what they were called); Asia Minor or the Indian Trade Port (or whatever it was called) area were examples of this; then you had regions like e.g. Germany, Spain, or France. Think there was a third one too doing parts of continents. I.e. Central Europe, Western Europe, India, etc. And then at the top there were continents.
The does seem to ring a bell and remind me how much better the game has gotten. :p
Not rude at all. I'm the artist working on EUIV.
Are you new or just not post very often?
 
I'm still burningly curious for more details about edicts, and I'm also wondering what "Transfer vassal war-goal" does. I'm imaging that if my vassal has a claim, I can take that land for myself, but does it also work for subjugation or pu's?
Er. I would think it would mean you can take someone else's vassal
 
But can't you already take a vassal from somebody else in a peace deal?

I expect the change so that the wargoal is actually to snatch said vassal (for 0 DIP cost).

Wouldn't that make sense?
 
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Please make a wallpaper-sized version of this Age of Discovery artwork <3

That would be fun, but I can't make any promises. ;)

Actually, it would be neat if we had a wallpaper accompanying all previous game DLCs (I don't mean those unit packs or music packs :p) and future ones that generally alluded to each DLC's dominant theme. For instance:

-Mare Nostrum could have maritime-themed wallpapers to go with it.
-Common Sense could have wallpapers depicting the parliamentary debates in a chamber with a layout reminiscent of the British House of Commons; many of you may have seen the chamber like that rendered in 3D for a trailer about Common Sense before it was released... could use that as a basis for such wallpapers.
-Wealth of Nations wallpapers could depict the scenes related to trade and economy
-Res Publica wallpapers could depict the workings of republican government, possibly that of the Venetian council or their doge working out of his office.

Of course, there are more possibilities but you get the idea. ;)
 
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Actually, it would be neat if we had a wallpaper accompanying all previous game DLCs (I don't mean those unit packs or music packs :p) and future ones that generally alluded to each DLC's dominant theme. For instance:

-Mare Nostrum could have maritime-themed wallpapers to go with it.
-Common Sense could have wallpapers depicting the parliamentary debates in a chamber with a layout reminiscent of the British House of Commons; many of you may have seen the chamber like that rendered in 3D for a trailer about Common Sense before it was released... could use that as a basis for such wallpapers.
-Wealth of Nations wallpapers could depict the scenes related to trade and economy
-Res Publica wallpapers could depict the workings of republican government, possibly that of the Venetian council or their doge working out of his office.

Of course, there are more possibilities but you get the idea. ;)
You can always use the loading screens.
 
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Yep, this doesn't seem to be the most Innovative or best feature ever. From my modding perspective, the Disaster functionality has been the best feature so far throughout EU4's history. It's easily applicable, easy to understand, and highly flexible to mod! :)
 
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Age of Revolution then doesn't have a current institution. I suggest here a 7th Institution, linked to the era. Constitutionalism is probably not 100% accurate as it's more a 1780s thing. What could work here?
It should be obvious: Rights of Man. :p

I.e the move towards a society ruled by pluralism and constitutionally guaranteed political rights. While this can largely be placed under the Enlightenment umbrella it is a pretty central point of conflict for the era of 1750-1821. If one wants to introduce a 7th Institution perhaps the best way is to split Enlightenment into two.