Europa Universalis IV: Domination Announced

[Willwhit]

I profoundly dislike how all these trees could have been updates of the ones created through existing DLCs such as Rule Britannia, Third Rome, Mandate of Heaven, Golden Century... Regional flavour is always welcome, but the only part of the map that lacked it so far was the Middle East and Persia.

I believe we see here the pernicious effects of previous game development orientations; to maintain interest in the game, designers created increasingly rewarding mission trees for new releases; to the point where older trees of major nations couldn't compete on equal footing with new intrants (ahem Scandinavia); thus making further updates most necessary in a potentially never ending cycle. And this coming update being locked behind a paywall, even if you already paid to upgrade your nation tree once, disgusts me.

Strangely, I found this expansion lacks the ambition and scale of Imperator, and even rewrites negatively any progresses made in that release. The upcoming French tree no longer incentivizing colonisation of North America is a perfect example of this, as any meaningful flavour is being ditched for absurd modifiers that will keep this nation afloat in a sea of nonsensical OPness.

It looks like one of the latest updates before the development of the game is put to a halt, a most necessary stop. If mission trees are all we can expect going forward, why bother? Modders already do a great job with that.

I wouldn't like to end on a bad note. To conclude I would like to say how thankful I am to the dev team. Their continuous support on the game, hard work on eliminating bugs and the overall amelioration of performance has always meant a lot to me. This game is great and I'm still having a lot of fun with it thanks to you!

 

[Rakdar]

I wish there was also a Byzantine revamp. Surely they are one of the most popular nations to play, no?

 

[blackjack419]

Great Powers become GREATER Powers!

 

[RMS Oceanic]

The content in the dev diaries has mostly looks good, but I think Paradox has not been messaging this DLC effectively.

Before Lions of the North, Paradox put out a poll out about which regions needed an overhaul. Scandinavia won and rightfully so, and we went on to get Lions of the North which has been great. I think however that the assumption for most folk that the runner up regions would be what's next, specifically the Middle East and Mesoamerica were the most coherently requested. Instead we have what I'm calling a Great Power themed DLC, but at no point did Paradox lay out the scope. When the diaries for Lions of the North started, you made it clear we were getting Scandinavia/Baltic Sea, so our expectations were managed in that regard. In never officially laying out the scope of Domination you allowed people to speculate about which countries would get an update and now there's disappointment about who's not included.

There's also a question of the necessity of some of the updates. I'm not even touching the "DLC of DLC" criticism, I just wonder whether the mission trees of big powers in Western Europe really needed the update ahead of others. Ming's tree is worthwhile, and the Ottomans needed an overhaul for sure, but my experience of Spain and France and England was that their trees were perfectly servicible, especially compared with the relatively underdeveloped trees of their neighbours. It feels weird they'd get a second treatment ahead of someone like Persia, who still has a mission that requires you to be Shia despite Zoroastrian playthroughs becoming more popular after Leviathan. And in this DLC not having a strict geographic scope these larger powers these new shiny countries contrast sharply with their untouched neighbours, as Scotland and Ireland show all too well.

I'm reminded of Golden Century honestly. It had been a few patches since we were in Western Europe and when an Iberian forcus was announced, everyone was excited for stuff like a rework of the Burgundian Inheritance and other European Mechanics that Spain/Portugal were historically involved with. What Golden Century turned out to be was focused way more on Iberia's colonial empires, and people naturally got disappointed.

 

[Nostalgium]

I am honestly so disappointed there is no content for Persia, Caucasus and the Levant in this expansion. It so badly needs it. Right now, Persia exists as either a place to expand into, or a place to start a Mughals run from. A united Persia - even a Safavid empire at full extent - barely registers as a major power in the current state, and the mission trees there are so outdated they may as well be generic.

 

[currylambchop]

Hmm, seems great! But I do wonder why France and Austria get updates when they have some of the most missions in the game? I would have thought that Persia and the Mamluks would have made more sense, after all they were great powers too.

 

[cnwi]

No Italy

 

[Gouda_boy]

I think I can speak for quite a few players in the great disappointment this DLC announcement will bring in terms of scope. While I personally love the Mission trees and flavor that's being brought to the major powers of this time frame... That's it? A few big countries get special units, and some huge mission trees? what will probably be 20 bucks... for THAT? oh and sure, Portugal, Prussia, Korea too.

Maybe I can wait until tomorrow for the next dev diary to see if at the end you announce any other minor nations that may be getting some extra treatment and hopefully there are, but if it stops at Portugal, Prussia, and Korea... YIKES.

Scotland, Irish Minors, Austria*, Hungary, Saxony, Bavaria, Burgundy and Dutch Minors, Byzantium, Serbia, Wallachia, Naples, Mamluks ALL could have fit very nicely within the scope to provide a bit more balance, in fact probably NECESSARY to at least somewhat counter all these super buffed, quite possibly broken large nations.

I know a big thing was you wanted to add more content to some of the most played countries in the game, but the reason they are some of the most played is because they already have content! I want even just SOME content for North Africa, instead of seeing it conquered by Portugal, Spain, France in every single game. I want more content for the Middle East and Persia, More content for the Hordes of Central Asia, really I want to see more content for the places people don't play as often, which aren't played often because they have no content. Example, I, for some reason, love the country of Georgia and their culture and language, but because they have no content or flavor, they are incredibly boring to play. I literally cannot play my favorite country because they have nothing special to do. And it's sad.

I'm holding out that there will be more content to come after tomorrow, but if not, I will be severely saddened. Just like the lack of care that was put into West Africa, which could have been so much more.

Paradox, I love ya, its amazing when you guys listen, work with your audience and respond to criticism, but gosh this DLC announcement this morning has been upsetting.

 

[Korsjan Rīkis]

I certainly hope so. I would love Middle East update more than anything. Byzantium is only one nation i would like, another is Nubia so i do hope as well that Nubia won't be left behind.

After the release of Origins, someone from Tinto said that Nubia would be included in the Middle East update, so we know for sure that it will get updated. I would also like to see detailed mission trees for Persia, Mamluks, Aq Qoyunlu and Qara Qoyunlu, Oman and Hormuz, Arabia, Georgia and Armenia.

True the Middle East feel very lackluster, did a Nejd to Arabia run and my god was it so boring with the missions trees being outdated as hell. Only Ottomans and Mamluks are at all viable.

It's weird since the literal Abbasid Caliphate from CK3 is still active in Egypt at this time, so you can do a lot around that not to mention the Bedouin tribes... or a unique Caliphate mechanic to emulate the Ottomans ursurping the Caliphate. The Caliphate status held a lot of sway over Sunnis until 1924 when the Ottoman Caliphate was abolished.

Mamluks also have an outdated mission tree. I hope that they'll receive some new mechanics and interesting mission tree.
I think that we'll get another DLC this Autumn, hopefully it will be about Middle East.

 

[FantasticFwoosh]

This is a little deflating to learn the mission DD topics recently are all DLC, I can hope the mainline patch content (which there is some promising things but too soon to say without being put in players hands without just theorycrafting it) can rescue this DLC from being another Leviathan post release PR disaster if it comes to that.

I can least say the trailer is really pretty, and a move away from the previous artstyles (LOTN and i can say Mandate of Heaven pivoted nicely, but this is more of a modern take on it), if it was a 5 minute full feature trailer, the DLC title cover would have been perfectly acceptable for debuting EU5, more marketing please.

 

[Temudhun Khan]

Surprised to see Korea in here, I guess it benefits from being both China's and Japan's neighbor. On the other hand, we apparently won't have anything for Austria, Netherlands, Venice/Italy, Persia, Timurids and Mughals. The last three I guess will be updated in the future Middle East dlc (though I have some doubts regarding Mughals), but I suppose the devs see the first three as finished and not needing any update?

 

[EUnderhill]

Surprised to see Korea in here, I guess it benefits from being both China's and Japan's neighbor. On the other hand, we apparently won't have anything for Austria, Netherlands, Venice/Italy, Persia, Timurids and Mughals. The last three I guess will be updated in the future Middle East dlc (though I have some doubts regarding Mughals), but I suppose the devs see the first three as finished and not needing any update?

Venice/Genoa are getting a new ship type.

 

[adin85]

I was hoping we will see some update for Netherlands and Italy too. It was probably last chance they could get some additions.
Middle East we will see in the next patch. Persia need love.

 

[Romanix90]

After the release of Origins, someone from Tinto said that Nubia would be included in the Middle East update, so we know for sure that it will get updated. I would also like to see detailed mission trees for Persia, Mamluks, Aq Qoyunlu and Qara Qoyunlu, Oman and Hormuz, Arabia, Georgia and Armenia.

I remember as well. And your list is definitely a hit on the right spot. I would also add Trebizond to your list.

 

[Masyanya028]

Really, Netherlands as minor power not included? This is truly joke...

 

[Gouda_boy]

Venice/Genoa are getting a new ship type.

Wow, How exciting!/s
But really, that's rather irrelevant as that just happens to be coinciding with a bunch of other unique ships for big countries, with none of the content.

 

[Romanix90]

I was hoping we will see some update for Netherlands and Italy too. It was probably last chance they could get some additions.
Middle East we will see in the next patch. Persia need love.

It's not just Netherlands it's HRE members as well. Specificaly those biger nations like Austria and Brandenburg/Prussia, but also regional nations like Bohemia, Bavaria, Milano and Savoy. Also perhaps unique government reforms for members of HRE.

 

[Strager]

Has Domination been confirmed as the last EU4 DLC? We've got to be getting close to EU5 by now.

 

[Temudhun Khan]

It's not just Netherlands it's HRE members as well. Specificaly those biger nations like Austria and Brandenburg/Prussia, but also regional nations like Bohemia, Bavaria, Milano and Savoy. Also perhaps unique government reforms for members of HRE.

Well, Prussia will get content, which makes me think the others were not left out in prevision of a HRE/Germany dlc (which was already a big part of the Emperor).

 

[Korsjan Rīkis]

I remember as well. And your list is definitely a hit on the right spot. I would also add Trebizond to your list.

Yeah, Trebizond, too.

Also, all of the mission trees are part of the new DLC, including the ''minors''. We could also get some free mission trees, like it was with Lubeck, to compensate the older DLCs.