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EU4 - Development Diary - 05 of June 2018

Hello! Today we’ll talk about yet another system reworked in Dharma and another feature to make European presence in the rest of the world more interesting. Let’s start with the new feature.

So when we talked about the Charter Trade Company feature, a bunch of you wondered why in the name of Shiva would an Indian ever surrender a province to the Westerners even for a big pile of gold? So I am here to answer that.

We’ve had since Wealth of Nations that you could create Trade Companies in special Charter Regions of the world. It was always a pet peeve for me how they worked out and always wanted more out of it. Company provinces never really covered the interaction you had between the various companies and the local rulers of the area. The initial interaction between the Europeans and India was one of trade, except one… staring at you Portugal. Either way we wanted a way for Europeans and Indians to benefit from each others presence… at first at least :)

So now when a European have established their Trade Company they can further their investments in them by building them up. You’ll have 10 investments you can build up per area you have a company present in, and 5 special ones you can build per charter. They are not the cheapest, the lowest going for 300 ducats, it’s upgrade 600 and the special ones goes for a 1000 ducats. So someone wanting to exploit the full riches of the Far East is going to heavily invest their resources into it.

eu4_13.png


The effects of these investments in their benefits given to you are fairly powerful but most of them also gives bonii to the immediate area or even the larger area for some of them. A little note though they do not stack with modifiers from other nations investments. Here’s an ambitious attempt to list them in full, in case not specified otherwise, the effect is only on the area they are built in.
  • Local Quarter - 300 Ducats
    • +15% Defensiveness, 25% Supply Limit for your TC Provinces
  • Permanent Quarters - 600 Ducats
    • Upgrades from Local Quarters
    • 30% Defensiveness, 50% Supply Limit to your TC Provinces
  • Officers’ Mess - 1000 Ducats
    • 1 Per Trade Company Charter
    • +5 Land Force Limit for TC Owner
  • Company Warehouse - 300 Ducats
    • +2 Local Trade Power to your TC Provinces
    • 25% Production Efficiency in entire Area
  • Company Depot - 600 Ducats
    • Upgrades from Company Warehouse
    • +4 Local Trade Power to your TC Provinces
    • 50% Production Efficiency in entire Area
  • Admiralty - 1000 Ducats
    • 1 Per Trade Company Charter
    • +5 Naval Force Limit for TC Owner
  • Brokers Office - 300 Ducats
    • +25% Production Efficiency to your TC Provinces
    • 0.15 Goods Produced in entire Area
  • Brokers Exchange - 600 Ducats
    • Upgrades from Brokers Office
    • 50% Production Efficiency to your TC Provinces
    • 0.30 Goods Produced in entire Area
  • Property Appraiser - 1000 Ducats
    • 1 Per Trade Company Charter
    • 50% Trade Steering in Trade Node of Charter for TC Owner.
  • <Adjective> Settlements - 300 Ducats
    • 25% Tax Modifier in your TC Provinces
    • -7.5 Development Cost in Area
  • <Adjective> District - 600 Ducats
    • Upgrades from Settlements
    • 50% Tax Modifier in your TC Provinces
    • -15 Development Cost in Area
  • <Adjective> Township - 1000 Ducats
    • 1 Per Trade Company Charter
    • 10% Trade Value on entire Trade Company Charter.
  • Company Administration - 300 Ducats
    • +25% Local Manpower, +25% Local Sailors in your TC Provinces.
  • Military Administration - 600 Ducats
    • Upgrades from Company Administration
    • +50% Local Manpower, +50% Local Sailors in your TC Provinces
  • Governor General’s Mansion - 1000 Ducats
    • 1 Per Trade Company Charter
    • -2% Ship Cost for TC Owner.
Note that this is till work in progress and numbers are subject to change as we test for balance.

That’s it for Trade Company Investments, next up is the system rework that we’ve been so cruel to hint around about on the Dev Clash stream.

There are 120 different policies but there are a very few select that stand out as favorites making pretty much most of it obsolete. Never cared for that and wanted to see a lot more interesting builds be available we’ve reworked the entire thing to change how you interact with it, but also rebalanced a big bunch of them. No longer is Quality Standard policy giving you 5% discipline an Administration policy and the 50% Transport Combat Ability policy is gone. But we’ll get to that later.

First let’s dive into the mechanical changes we’ve done. You can no longer activate 5 policies anymore but you enact 3 per category of monarch power. This means you can at max have 3 policies activated in each category. You also get 1 policy for free per category in order to promote long-term usage. These numbers are however not fixed, some government reforms will let you tweak these, national ideas can also be a source like the Deccan ideas who get an extra administrative policy for free. However this requires Dharma.

eu4_12.png


So for how we went through and balanced these, removed old bad policies, added new interesting ones, I’m not even going to attempt to list 120 policies in this diary. But instead I’ll share an image of the document I used to view everything at once so I knew sort of how it was looking.

capture(194).png

Yet again I can not stress enough, all of these numbers are work in progress!



Hope you’ve enjoyed this dev diary and that it has been meaty enough for you. Next one will be covered by your favorite scotsman, Jake, who will go through some much requested quality of life features.
 
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So I guess Trade Companies will stop having 0 min autonomy, right?

Right???
the effects of some of these TC bonuses basically gives them a negative autonomy floor lmfao

anyways I totally think TCs are fine, no problem, just continue what you're doing its all good

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the effects of some of these TC bonuses basically gives them a negative autonomy floor lmfao

anyways I totally think TCs are fine, no problem, just continue what you're doing its all good

ukwX8Nl.jpg


3jVX8Nk.jpg

I'm low-key scared that no devs have answered any of the comments about the autonomy floor. Guess we got paytowinned again.
 
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It raises a good point, at which autonomy floor do TCs start becoming competitive with states.

I think the answer is somewhere around 80%-85% with these new changes which is pretty horrifying
 
Cheers for the DD Groogy, lots of coolness :D. Sounds like a great step forward for trade companies and how they work out. Also really like the sound of the policies rework - one free one per country means they're always useful, even if you've got a poxy ruler in a small nation (so might not want to spend 25% of your monthly gain on a policy in the current setup), which is a good step forward :).

Admiralty - 1000 Ducats

I may be off here (and apologies if so), but 'Admiralty' sounds a bit funny for a TC - wasn't an admiralty more a national institution, with perhaps 'naval depot' or 'naval dock' sounding a bit more appropriate?

Point is, picking the favored 5 mil policies is not possible anymore and you have more maneuverability to pick non military policies.

Good move :) I'm hardly a min-maxxer, and even I had my 'go to' five policies whenever I was at war with someone scary. Looking forward to the new approach/balance :cool:.
 
Actually, I have mixed feelings about this DD. I agree with people who see new building as a power creep to an already overpowered Trade Companies, but I see good intentions of Devs in rework of the policies: they cut off meaningless bonuses like envoy travel time or transport combat ability (I look into you, rebel support efficiency, you're the last one) and blobbing instruments like discount for aggressive expansion, bonuses for improving relationships and diplo-annex discount, so theoretically blobbing might be a little bit harder in 1.26, also counting 106 new provinces in India and Tibet. I don't like the idea of free policies, though.
Radical changes may cause massive disagreement (see Apocalypse reception from Stellaris fans), and I like these changes in 1.26 and 1.25 with reduction of trade and production efficiency and making armies more costly at times.
 
I am really happy you revisiting old mechanics. I really hoped you'd include some old content in base game. Glad to see it's heppening. Only thing that is left to do is to make old DLCs cheaper or include them in one bundle that gonna cost as one Expantion. That would've been fair to new players. Think about it, when you buy game there's soon 14 expantions to buy + huge list of additional content. Maybe people get scared and never play this game. Decrease ammount of DLCs and how much old ones cost and it'll fix alot. I think so at least. I guess.

I was talking about ooooold Expantions, like Conquest of paradise, Respublica and Wealth of Nation could become one Expantion.
 
These values are not final.
With the 20% Dip annexation, we want to promote more keeping around of Vassals. Though might add back the 20% dip annexation, since that is a playstyle to play by as well.
If you want this to be the case (and I really wish this was a viable strat) then you need to revisit my old suggestion where vassals are worth / cost less diplomatic relation points than allies. Other way, keeping vassals around will never be viable.
 
I really want to find a diplo policy I can take because it's free. But its seems there really aren't any unless you're a trade nation. while this does increase the lure to take trade for 20% goods, I still think im going to go the 7 ideas i always go. economic inovative religious quality quantity defensive offensive

I was trying also to justify not taking religious. Eg going aca ica and discipline as mil policies, so that i could take admin and trade and still have a full compliment of mil policies. I think theres more reason to do it. But I really dont think these changes are going to be very impactful. Although free policies are a nice quality of life improvement.
 
"in long run" sure, but in long run if u didn't take def in Europe u are dead anyway. Asia is different but here u have to probably waste idea slot for admin to blob or maritime if indonesia.
Much depends on players' population density: if you have like more than 5-6 players in HRE only, playable Lithuania, Aragon, Scotland and Denmark, then perhaps you are right. But any nation that isn't threatened by immediate PvP war and struggle for extinction
Always the same discussion for MP, People push up Quality as God - Tier but getting crushed by an defensive pick in the early game.
you can Always Railroad and say " this is the best Combo stats wise " but still the early game is what matters, because you cant exploit the late game , with this usual pick when you getting roflstomp in early game by Defensive/Quantiy picks. Your Statement than is only semi correct. Quality and Offensive may pay off Long term, due they stacking and late game meta but you have no early Punch at all and this matters 9out10 times in big scale MP games.

Taking quantity as first pick is a death sentence. Offensive is a much better pick for earl game because of general pips, discipline and force limits. If you take defensive first, at teck 10 you are denying yourself either quality or offensive ideas with their +5%, another +5 discipline from policy or better generals + FL.
 
Good post Groogy. I wonder about the charter company in India. I suggest that colonists should able to settle in the trade company. In fact, most of the historical charter companies are private and that rights are brought from the rulers. Because most of the Europeans conquest in Indian or Africa start from trade partners, soon after that is become the right to conquest as more settlers reside. Such as, British Empire conquest of India, France conqust
of Indrochina. Start off peaceful, then conquest.
I suggest a charter company becomes a independent entity, and has its own army. Historical speaking, the european empires during this time rare rule directly because of the distance.
I suggest the developers should allow the players to choose policy of trading, military conquest, or cooperating between two countries.
I suggest that foreign influence should be able to force that nearby country of charter company to grant land to the empire or the your settlers will revolts.
 
P2W money grabbing, nothing else matters. And they are not even hiding it anymore. I'm even amazed how many bonuses they can stuff into every place of the game, I would probably lack ideas.

Yep precisely. But let's not forget that this so called "Dharma" DLC has nothing to do with Dharma, and as about as much to do with India, as with Europe and anywhere else in the world. I remember the good old days when EUIV was a hard game, when you actually struggled to get claims, none of this mission tree free permanent claims, crazy sensitive AE, expensive mercenaries instead of standing armies of mercenaries, westernization actually gave Eastern nations a flavour no longer there, now by pumping development into some gully in India, I can have magically the Italian renaissance in India before it spreads to Austria. Now the game is so damn easy it is off putting. And what's worse is that every consecutive DLC adds more P2W features, and less mechanics that actually matter and increase the complexity of the game. The Anglican religion for example is the most boring addition to the game, quite frankly most of those ideas directly conflict to GBR's play style, it is really painful to watch this game drive itself into the ground.

The game has become so trash and easy over the past few DLC's that even if I want to play it, none of my friends are even interested in it anymore. Ironically most of my EU4 friends were British and they ditched the game when they experienced Rule Britannia, and I am Indian and it seems Dharma is the "nail in the coffin". I will probably get the DLC as a last act of charity to this dead game, similar to what my friends did for Rule Britannia. Dharma lol, do they even know what it means? Named a whole DLC after it and not even a single mention of changes to it. Clearly you can see they don't have even the slightest clue, considering the way they classified Buddhism.
 
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These values are not final.
With the 20% Dip annexation, we want to promote more keeping around of Vassals. Though might add back the 20% dip annexation, since that is a playstyle to play by as well.
I think what stops keeping vassals around is the relations cap, not the ease/cost of annexation. The choice between powerful allies and weeny vassals is not really balanced.
 
Moddability question:

-Can we mod the number of simultaneous policies per category? If so, are we forced to have the same number for each category, or can we mod it so that we have 2 max DIP policies, 3 ADM and 4 MIL, for example?

-Are the trade company investments moddable? Also, can we build them with the macro builder?
 
I remember the good old days when EUIV was a hard game, when you actually struggled to get claims, none of this mission tree free permanent claims, crazy sensitive AE, expensive mercenaries instead of standing armies of mercenaries, westernization actually gave Eastern nations a flavour no longer there, now by pumping development into some gully in India, I can have magically the Italian renaissance in India before it spreads to Austria. Now the game is so damn easy it is off putting.
Just a question. Have you ever tried playing Nevers instead of France? Mazovia instead of Poland? Ramazan instead of the Ottomans? Ulster instead of England? Mysore instead of Vijayanagar? Fezzan instead of Tunis? If you've only ever played big nations, I can assure you, OPM starts are still pretty damn difficult, no permanent claims, barely being able to afford an army let alone mercs, generally subpar rulers which means a careful balance between coring, tech and developing for institutions, difficulty in finding allies and so on. To bring these nations up to superpower status is still the most significant source of satisfaction I derive from this game.

Also, I've already mentioned this elsewhere, I'm sure the game is still pretty hard for quite a number of people out there, if the help threads on this forum are anything to go by. Sure, the devs can make the game a lot harder and cater to your desires, but that will drive a lot of potential newcomers away, which isn't an ideal financial situation for Paradox either.

That being said though, I truly hope/wish that Indian nations will get a lot more missions, Hindu events expanded, and Sikhism having some mechanics at least. That would be really nice.
 
1 Per Trade Company Charter
Could you help to resolve a dispute. One guy, who translates diaries on our forum, for unknown reasons thinks this sentence means that it will be limit of provinces which could be bought in trade companies, and this investments will grow this limit.:confused:
I say him that it is just limit of investments of that type for one trade company.

Who is right?
 
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Just a question. Have you ever tried playing Nevers instead of France? Mazovia instead of Poland? Ramazan instead of the Ottomans? Ulster instead of England? Mysore instead of Vijayanagar? Fezzan instead of Tunis? If you've only ever played big nations, I can assure you, OPM starts are still pretty damn difficult, no permanent claims, barely being able to afford an army let alone mercs, generally subpar rulers which means a careful balance between coring, tech and developing for institutions, difficulty in finding allies and so on. To bring these nations up to superpower status is still the most significant source of satisfaction I derive from this game.

Also, I've already mentioned this elsewhere, I'm sure the game is still pretty hard for quite a number of people out there, if the help threads on this forum are anything to go by. Sure, the devs can make the game a lot harder and cater to your desires, but that will drive a lot of potential newcomers away, which isn't an ideal financial situation for Paradox either.

That being said though, I truly hope/wish that Indian nations will get a lot more missions, Hindu events expanded, and Sikhism having some mechanics at least. That would be really nice.

The answer to your question, yes I have played OPM's especially Mysore and conquered all of India and Britain. BS you say? Well I just happen to be from Mysore, and it is nation I wanted to play. I have played Albania, Byzantium, Granada as well successfully. Is that hard enough? When I say I want the game to be hard, I want it to be near impossible for me as England to have PU over France, Scotland, Portugal, Austria and vassals like the entire Ireland, Britanny, Savoy, Norway, and Dutch vassals (of Burgundy) by the early 1500s.

Ohh I also played that Safavid minor and formed the ancient Persian Empire, Ardibil into Achemenid was it?
 
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