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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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After the first age ends, crusades and excommunication-wars stop.
But what about forming Jerusalem for the Knights? Shaving 100 years off their time limit would be pretty crumby
 
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Why couldn't you still do it?
Because the time limit for Jerusalem ends alongside crusade and excommunication (IE Religious Actions)
 
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Because the time limit for Jerusalem ends alongside crusade and excommunication (IE Religious Actions)
I wouldn't stress too much about it until the devs confirm it one way or the other. If they do change forming KoJ to be based on ages they could just as easily tie it to the end of the second age, rather than the first. Still a small nerf, but no-where near as bad. And hey, they might just keep the arbitrary 1650 date just for that. Or even take off the date restriction altogether. Who knows?
 
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What is the reasoning behind ending excommunications so early anyway? Napoleon was excommunicated in the early 1800s.
I think it's a mix of arbitrary number and the fact that excommunication in the time period of the late game didn't mean nearly as much as in the early game
 
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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.
Excellent suggestion, and infinitely more interesting than what we're getting. What you described here is what'd actually be the biggest change to the game since launch, whilst what we're getting is trumped easily by development and institutions/westernization removed.
 
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I think it's a mix of arbitrary number and the fact that excommunication in the time period of the late game didn't mean nearly as much as in the early game
While the excommunication wars ending at a certain point makes sense, I feel like there shouldn't be some hard cut off point for excommunications. 'Maybe' some of the penalties could be decreased as the game progresses to simulate their waning importance, but even that I'm not so sure about.
 
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Loving both the Ages system, and the Golden Era! It will really add something extra to the game that both makes a difference and gives you something to aim for during your game.
 
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Awfully eurocentric and christiancentric. And on top of that this looks arcadish.

Have a like.

At least, though, it's a small step up from the single nation you were always meant to play as, in any iteration of this franchise, -hapsderp Austria for some unknown godforsaken miserable and unfathomable reason -derps of which failed again and again and again to keep the invader out when the ERE did it* in its sleep without a single REM. )

*(Also includes House of Sasan, Kiev 'Rus Bulgars and many more !)

Soooo my poor Ternate (but its okay, this is another pass so no no, thank you).
 
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Is this another 20 € patch for some nonsense mechanic?

Here is a total of the game and DLC cost that i have so far:
The game EU4 - 40 €
Mare Nostrum - 15 €
Cossacks - 20 €
Common Sense - 15 €
El Dorado - 15 €
Art of War - 20 €
Conquest of Paradise - 15 €
Wealth of Nations - 10 €
Res Publica - 5 €
American Dream - 5 €
Digital Extream Edition - 8 €
Rights of man - 20 €

The total is 188 € + some other units dlc (The overall DLC cost is 250 €) and sometime you can have a surprise with a missing localisation, a bug or a crash. Do you know any game that cost this much? For just a game is a little insane, that might be the minimum monthly wage in some countries!

Now, you guys just released the Denmark patch and you are announcing another patch ?! But we didn't have time to finish a campaign and we just didn't ask for an update.
Or why don't you do a poll on what nations we like you to improve or what mechanic (Orthodox religion or maybe the trade that haven't got improved since the release or add more goods)

I hope you will think about this to fast patches or just think about EU5!
 
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