Europa Universalis IV Thread 3: If only we had comet sense...

[tonberrian]

"Europa Universalis 4 is the 4th in a series of Grand Strategy games by Paradox Interactive, set in the years 1444-1821, the Age of Exploration, Enlightenment and Empire Building. You control a nation from the period and seek to guide it to a grand destiny, through trade, conquest, religious strife, colonization and technological ingenuity. You can visit the Paradox Forums for detailed information, and there is a good fan-supported Wiki for more stratefgy and reference." - OrcusMcP

Currently, we have six major expansions that have reworked... practically everything from the base game. The latest, Common Sense, allows you to improve your provinces base tax, production, and manpower; allows finer control over your subject nations; gives government ranks with increasing benefits; reworks Protestantism, Buddhism, and Theocracies; and introduces Free Cities, single province republics in the Holy Roman Empire.

Pretty much every Thursday, the development team will post a development diary about what they are currently working on at the official forums.

Useful links:

Previous thread
Official forums
Fan wiki

(I chose the thread title, because no consensus was reached. I can change it if I must.)

[OrcusMcP]

What's next, "Comet sighted"?

Well, it kind of fizzled last time we tried, but since we have gotten the swing of the CK2 succession games going, would anyone be interested in an EU4 succession game?

[tonberrian]

What's next, "Comet sighted"?

That's ridiculous. Comet sense is the reply to that event.

[Leecros]

Does anyone else think it's rather silly that enemies can move through their own forts that are occupied by your forces as if they still controlled it?

Just had a situation where i had troops stationed in Brittany. i'm helping Castile in a war vs France, but I tanked their maintenance because i was done with the war. I needed to recover manpower.

there are french forts in Poitou and Anjou. Admittedly i didn't have any of my own forts nearby, but i figured those two forts that i had occupied would keep France from charging in and defeating my 0 maintenance troops.

Nope. It doesn't take long for the Git Rekt Xpress to charge on through Anjou to attack my troops. Fortunately i managed to avoid a complete loss, but it's still rather frustrating that occupied forts don't inhibit troop movement the same way that owned forts do.

[Grif]

What's next, "Comet sighted"?

Well, it kind of fizzled last time we tried, but since we have gotten the swing of the CK2 succession games going, would anyone be interested in an EU4 succession game?

I would, but I'd prefer it to have a Republic nation + that mod that changes it back to EU3 styled random republic leaders. The latter might shake things up. (Do a mini-campaign thing where we vote for the leader in the thread.)

[AgentPaper]

I'd be up for a succession game. Any ideas on what country to play?

[rweird]

Does anyone else think it's rather silly that enemies can move through their own forts that are occupied by your forces as if they still controlled it?

Just had a situation where i had troops stationed in Brittany. i'm helping Castile in a war vs France, but I tanked their maintenance because i was done with the war. I needed to recover manpower.

there are french forts in Poitou and Anjou. Admittedly i didn't have any of my own forts nearby, but i figured those two forts that i had occupied would keep France from charging in and defeating my 0 maintenance troops.

Nope. It doesn't take long for the Git Rekt Xpress to charge on through Anjou to attack my troops. Fortunately i managed to avoid a complete loss, but it's still rather frustrating that occupied forts don't inhibit troop movement the same way that owned forts do.

It is annoying, I don't really get why you can't move past forts. I see it kind of as guerrilla warfare and stuff, which makes it sort of make sense, because the occupied population (typically) would prefer their current ruler to someone new, and not really permit such guerrilla warfare. Perhaps if you have a core on the province/the province is of your culture and/or religion, while the owner is of a different religion and/or doesn't accept the culture, then you could block enemy movement (rebels probably should be able to as well), although that probably would be difficult to code, so I'd understand it not being so.

[Sian]

actually, it might not be wholely fair to call eu4wiki a fanwiki, as its login mechanisms have recently been tied into peoples Paradox accounts

[rweird]

actually, it might not be wholely fair to call eu4wiki a fanwiki, as its login mechanisms have recently been tied into peoples Paradox accounts

Although it still is the fans that post the content (to my understanding), not the Devs, and the only real requirement to get a paradox account is to own a paradox game (so about everyone who knows about EU4 could).

[Razanir]

I got the Shattered Europa mod. The basic premise is that all those countries that start within another country and can be freed actually start out free. As Savoy, I became Emperor, have enacted one reform, and have prevented the Shadow Kingdom from firing off. I'm also large enough that Bari, who annexed Naples, are the only country large enough to be my rival.

[Flickerdart]

I'd be up for a succession game. Any ideas on what country to play?

Ulm or Ryukyu.

[AgentPaper]

Ulm or Ryukyu.

Ulm sounds fun. Ryuku would be a bit of a slow start though, especially if we have inexperienced players to start.

[Grif]

Ulm would probably be okay, but it's really beaten to the ground as a meme-bait for EU4 players. How about something less orthodox? There's still five other free cities to choose from. Frankfurt, anyone?

[rweird]

What exactly is the Ulm meme?

[Leecros]

what about a Daimyo in Japan? It's not anyone who starts particularly powerful, but is capable of becoming Stronk Japan.



Also, I'd like to note that i'm a huge fan of some of the new aesthetic things coming down the line in the next patch. Primarily regional naming for unconnected pieces of land(ex. French Egypt, Russian Anatolia, English Arabia, etc) and them finally using the ability to make wasteland regions the same color as a country that completely surrounds it. (linky)

[Flickerdart]

What exactly is the Ulm meme?

It comes from this AAR some dude did.

[Sian]

I'm going to suggest East Frisia ... not member of HRE, all neighbours are members

[Grif]

I'm going to suggest East Frisia ... not member of HRE, all neighbours are members

Not gonna make a difference in the long run. Suck up to Austria, join HRE is a pretty standard opening move when you start as East Frisia. (And they did historically join the HRE after 1444.)

[Grif]

Double posting for the new dev diary about new horde features:

Hello everyone and welcome back to yet another development diary for Europa Universalis 4. This marks the first of the dev diaries that will be discussing features from the upcoming but unannounced expansion. This diary in particular will focus on the Steppe Nomads, who are getting a whole host of new features as part of the paid expansion. There is currently no announced release or announcement date for 1.14 and its accompanying expansion.

Horde Unity (Expansion Feature) First out of the new mechanics is Horde Unity. Horde Unity is unique to countries with the Steppe Nomads government form and replaces Legitimacy. It represents the amount of control the Khan has over the tribes, and decreases slowly over time. To maintain control over your Horde, you will need to placate them with the opportunity for plunder by invading other countries and looting their provinces. A high level of Horde Unity will increase Discipline and lower Unrest, while letting it drop will have the opposite effect and can also result in tribal rebels rising up to challenge the Khan. For those with the expansion, this mechanic also replaces the old Horde events that create Pretender rebels when you are at peace for too long. To prevent defeated hordes from falling into a death spiral and represent the tribes coming together in face of an external threat, Revanchism (a mechanic discussed in last week's dev diary) also increases Horde Unity.



Razing (Expansion Feature) What would a Khan be without his pyramid of skulls? No kind of Khan at all! The Raze feature lets you bring out your inner Timur by razing conquered provinces to the ground. Razing can be done in any non-core province you own, and will lower that province's development by about 30%, down to a minimum of 1 in each development type. Each point of development razed gives you Monarch Power, with Base Tax giving Administrative Power, Production giving Diplomatic Power and Manpower giving Military Power, and also raises your Horde Unity significantly. Additionally, if there is loot left in the province, your razing troops will automatically grab it. The ability to accumulate Monarch Power by waging war allows Nomads a way to try and keep up in technology - or rush towards reform. Provinces can only be razed once every 30 years, as takes some time for a province to recover and build up a surplus of skulls for your next pyramid.



Tengri (Expansion Feature) The Tengri faith added in 1.12 also gets some new mechanics in the expansion, with a focus on Syncretism. The Tengri nomads of the EU4 era lived alongside and frequently mixed their beliefs with Muslims, Buddhists and other religions. Our inspiration for this feature was Esen Taishi of the Oirats, who habitually changed his stated faith according to what was most diplomatically convenient at the time. Tengri countries have the ability to choose a Syncretic Faith, which can be any religion that they either own or border provinces following that religion. Having a Syncretic Faith changes which bonus you get from your religion, replacing the default Regiment Cost and Unrest reduction with something befitting your new Syncretic Faith. It also lets you treat all provinces you own of that faith as if they were Tengri for the purpose of tolerance and religious unity, but you will also be unable to convert those provinces to Tengri. Additionally, other countries following that faith will treat you as one of their own, meaning that an Oirat Horde that adopts Confucianism as their Syncretic Faith will find their Chinese neighbours to the south a good deal friendlier than they might otherwise be.

As there were not very many Tengri countries to choose from in 1.12 and 1.13, and Buddhist mechanics turned out to mesh poorly with always needing to be at war, we've changed the East Asian hordes to all be Tengri, with their previous religion set as their Syncretic Faith at the start of the game. Changing your Syncretic Faith costs 50 prestige.





In addition to the paid features, there is also a couple of free goodies that will be available to all aspiring Khans with the 1.14 patch.

Horde Units (Free Feature) Part of the old philosophy for Hordes was 'adapt or die', meaning that a Horde that did not reform its government in time would fall hopelessly behind and be unable to defend itself against more modern states. For this reason, the Nomadic Technology Group were stuck with their starting units in 1444, and would not get new units no matter how far they progressed in technology. This has now been changed, with a whole new set of units created for nomads going all the way up the technology tree.



Returning and Selling Provinces (Free Feature) As Nomads have no great attachment to land, we felt that it did not make sense for them to suffer a loss of face for giving it up. As such, Steppe Nomads will no longer take a prestige hit for selling and returning provinces.

That's all for today! Check in next week for a dev diary about Estates - and I'm not talking about the kind you build manors on.

Source

[mythmonster2]

Razing and selling provinces seems like a fun time for nomads. The only thing I'm not sure about is if it'll be very efficient.

[Pahvimato]

As something you do always? No, of course not.

However, 25 MP per 1 development is pretty good if you wish to slingshot something, say, reforming your government or that military tech you are going to need in order to bring down your next big foe.

[Artanis]

HORSES FOR THE HORSE GOD! LOOT FOR THE LOOT THRONE!

[tonberrian]

Hrmm. I should write up an analysis of combat modifiers.

[OrcusMcP]

Did someone say Double the third, vote by head?

Sorry, been listening to Revolutions.

[mythmonster2]

By the way, there's a great sale going on right now, most DLC's are 50-75% off. Great time to pick up missing things.

[IthilanorStPete]

Did someone say Double the third, vote by head?

Sorry, been listening to Revolutions.

Certainly looks like a neat expansion, more domestic detail is always good with me. Any word on when it'll come out?

[mythmonster2]

The new expansion's name is now official, though the date is just "late 2015". Get ready for The Cossacks!

- New Diplomatic Options: Let the world know what you think of your neighbors by setting a public attitude to foreign powers.
- Tell The World What You Want: Designate neighboring provinces as “places of interest”, build trust with other nations, and entice allies with the promise of land for their support.
- Tengri: Tengri is now a Syncretic faith, allowing it to tolerate a secondary religion as if it were a national faith.
- Horde Unity and Razing: Nomadic nations now must pay attention the horde unity of their tribes – a unity that can only be maintained by the occasional pillaging
- Improved Culture Change: You can now restore a previous culture to a converted province, or convert a province you hold to a culture that is not your own.
- Native Policies: Set your policy for colonial encounters with natives. Are you focused on quick subjugation, peaceful growth or trading advantages?
- Improved Espionage: New spy actions allow you to study the technology of more advanced countries and prod your rivals’ subjects towards independence.

Bit of an odd name, since as far we know right now, the Cossacks are just going to be one estate for Eastern European countries. Maybe we'll get more information on them later.

[Flickerdart]

Bit of an odd name, since as far we know right now, the Cossacks are just going to be one estate for Eastern European countries. Maybe we'll get more information on them later.

Cossacks are cool and move game sales, presumably.

[OrcusMcP]

New Diplomatic Options: Let the world know what you think of your neighbors by setting a public attitude to foreign powers.
Tell The World What You Want: Designate neighboring provinces as “places of interest”, build trust with other nations, and entice allies with the promise of land for their support.
Improved Espionage: New spy actions allow you to study the technology of more advanced countries and prod your rivals’ subjects towards independence.

This is what I'm excited about, but I have reservations as to how well it will end up working. But oh man, if it does work? Diplomacy with the AI is going to get interesting. Maybe Espionage will finally be an idea group worth taking! (I still like it, but that's me.)

[Narkis]

Man, the game is really getting better with every new expansion. But I can never muster the strength to start playing again when it's always gonna be so much better in the near future.