Europa Universalis IV: Greatest game of all time
08-15-2014
, 09:21 AM
08-15-2014
, 10:00 AM
08-18-2014
, 10:53 AM
Only played 24 years due to a ton of player wars and I unfortunately missed the first ~10 years, so not a ton of changes. Its now 1685 which is easily the latest i've ever played a multiplayer game. Yet another massive cascading war was again the focus. Netherlands declared war on Austria, hoping for a 1v1, but Spain, Austria's ally, joined in. Netherlands was slowing losing, with like 5-6 of its provinces occupied, but then France chose that moment to strike at Spain, its long-time foe. This brought in Venice and the Mughals on the side of Spain, and PLC joined in for France. Russia soon allied with Spain and was called into the war as well, becoming the war leader. Austrian gains in the Netherlands soon evaporated, as hundreds of thousands of French troops poured across the border.
I had just gotten back from a brunch and didn't want to sit this war out even though it didn't really involve me. My first thought was to invade the Netherlands while they were otherwise occupied, but we share SO many fronts and are competing friendly-ish in so many regions (Germany, new world, indonesia, England) that it would mean a major headache to have them as a thorn in my side in the future. Ottomans approached me wanting to get involved and invade the PLC, I said sure. PLC, outnumbered, retreated and we began to mass siege. However, while distracted irl, PLC managed to get an 80k stack up north to start killing my siegers. I blocked them with a 50k stack to buy time for my 10x3 siege armies to run away and not get routed individually, planning to retreat and consolidate on that front. However, due to unknown reasons/mechanics, my 50k stack instantly was wiped on day 2 of the battle despite full maintenance/morale/etc. Much confusion was had by all, and I am not sure what happened. That was about 1/2 my troops in Europe and kind of crushed the northern front, and Russia had most of its troops in Austria fighting France. PLC was then able to overrun the Ottomans outmatched troops.
While it could still have been possible to win the war, I didn't feel like transferring over all my troops from around the world. I had only ~90k in Europe when the war started, with another ~50k in Asia and ~50k scattered around Africa and the New World. However, the war looked to be lost in the West, as Austria was nearly completely overrun, with only a small pocket holding out, protected by Russian troops. Since it would take like a year to ship troops back to Europe from Asia/etc, it seemed pointless to continue fighting, as the potential gains were minimal. While the war still raged, me/Ottomans white peaced out, with Ottomans almost immediately switching sides and declaring war on Venice. This might not have been the smartest as they are now being massively invaded by the Mughals from the east and fully blockaded. However, Austria surrendered to the Netherlands, ceding 2 provinces to them and returning 4 cores to Bavaria, a Dutch vassal. The rest of the wars continue, although it looks like peace is in sight following the stack wiping of several Russian armies. Russia, with nearly endless manpower and vast territories, remains defiant.
Meanwhile, while I was gone Russia, along with Mughals (a Scandinavian ally, but also a near-vassal of Russia), worked together to cut off further expansion into China. Russia is posed to absorb most/all of China, which will increase their already massive manpower and income enormously since it is not distant overseas for them. However, with them wrapped up in this current war in Europe, it might be time to take some stuff in Asia, like perhaps the Phillipines.
AI Winterfell meanwhile is continuing its rapefest and has taken another 4-5 provinces. Check out that badboy in the ledger, most OP colonial pet of all time, ~64 income, 48k manpower, 61 ship fleet. I didn't even try feeding them anything this session, and they are sure to gain another 15+ provinces over the rest of the game.
However it looks like the decision not to backstab the Dutch might have been bad, as they finally noticed that I have been stealing a huge portion of the trade they were forwarding around Africa. Dutch/France have been forwarding from Malacca->Bengal->Ceylon->Aden->around africa->western europe, but I have Cayor and Cape Verde, both with maxxed trade buildings which along with ideas etc is providing me with a lot of trade power in Mauretania, allowing me to collect and earn a sizable chunk of monies. So ya, maybe the Dutch gonna war me
.
ledger dumb in spoilers, with the standard caveat that everyone except for me is a war. Also, my fleet is massively smaller due to scrapping all of my Galleons and such for a modern Two-Decker fleet (if only I had that xpac and could upgrade ships). My Galleon fleet served me well, destroying a large portion of the French trade fleets during the war which has had a major impact on their income.
I had just gotten back from a brunch and didn't want to sit this war out even though it didn't really involve me. My first thought was to invade the Netherlands while they were otherwise occupied, but we share SO many fronts and are competing friendly-ish in so many regions (Germany, new world, indonesia, England) that it would mean a major headache to have them as a thorn in my side in the future. Ottomans approached me wanting to get involved and invade the PLC, I said sure. PLC, outnumbered, retreated and we began to mass siege. However, while distracted irl, PLC managed to get an 80k stack up north to start killing my siegers. I blocked them with a 50k stack to buy time for my 10x3 siege armies to run away and not get routed individually, planning to retreat and consolidate on that front. However, due to unknown reasons/mechanics, my 50k stack instantly was wiped on day 2 of the battle despite full maintenance/morale/etc. Much confusion was had by all, and I am not sure what happened. That was about 1/2 my troops in Europe and kind of crushed the northern front, and Russia had most of its troops in Austria fighting France. PLC was then able to overrun the Ottomans outmatched troops.
While it could still have been possible to win the war, I didn't feel like transferring over all my troops from around the world. I had only ~90k in Europe when the war started, with another ~50k in Asia and ~50k scattered around Africa and the New World. However, the war looked to be lost in the West, as Austria was nearly completely overrun, with only a small pocket holding out, protected by Russian troops. Since it would take like a year to ship troops back to Europe from Asia/etc, it seemed pointless to continue fighting, as the potential gains were minimal. While the war still raged, me/Ottomans white peaced out, with Ottomans almost immediately switching sides and declaring war on Venice. This might not have been the smartest as they are now being massively invaded by the Mughals from the east and fully blockaded. However, Austria surrendered to the Netherlands, ceding 2 provinces to them and returning 4 cores to Bavaria, a Dutch vassal. The rest of the wars continue, although it looks like peace is in sight following the stack wiping of several Russian armies. Russia, with nearly endless manpower and vast territories, remains defiant.
Meanwhile, while I was gone Russia, along with Mughals (a Scandinavian ally, but also a near-vassal of Russia), worked together to cut off further expansion into China. Russia is posed to absorb most/all of China, which will increase their already massive manpower and income enormously since it is not distant overseas for them. However, with them wrapped up in this current war in Europe, it might be time to take some stuff in Asia, like perhaps the Phillipines.
AI Winterfell meanwhile is continuing its rapefest and has taken another 4-5 provinces. Check out that badboy in the ledger, most OP colonial pet of all time, ~64 income, 48k manpower, 61 ship fleet. I didn't even try feeding them anything this session, and they are sure to gain another 15+ provinces over the rest of the game.
However it looks like the decision not to backstab the Dutch might have been bad, as they finally noticed that I have been stealing a huge portion of the trade they were forwarding around Africa. Dutch/France have been forwarding from Malacca->Bengal->Ceylon->Aden->around africa->western europe, but I have Cayor and Cape Verde, both with maxxed trade buildings which along with ideas etc is providing me with a lot of trade power in Mauretania, allowing me to collect and earn a sizable chunk of monies. So ya, maybe the Dutch gonna war me
.ledger dumb in spoilers, with the standard caveat that everyone except for me is a war. Also, my fleet is massively smaller due to scrapping all of my Galleons and such for a modern Two-Decker fleet (if only I had that xpac and could upgrade ships
). My Galleon fleet served me well, destroying a large portion of the French trade fleets during the war which has had a major impact on their income. Spoiler:
Last edited by Nonfiction; 08-18-2014 at 11:20 AM.
08-20-2014
, 02:57 PM
08-22-2014
, 03:29 PM
First Dev blog for Art of War.
Quote:
Welcome to the first development diary for Art of War, the third major expansion for Europa Universalis IV. To start off, we’ll focus on how the expansion will change you naval management, and get into some detail about the new concept of “local autonomy”.
We’re also happy to announce that we are adding a lot of new nations and provinces to the the game, mostly to make sure that the rest of the world gets the same attention to historical detail that we’ve spent on making Europe look right. But don’t worry; we are making sure that the game runs as quick as it does in the version you have now. Today, we will talk about the changes coming to India.
[SIZE=4]Upgrading Fleets[/SIZE]
Building a fleet is a lot of fun, but can sometimes feel like a chore, especially when you have 30 Early Carracks and everyone else is cruising around in the latest two-decker technology. In Art of War, we are aiming to make it easier to keep you fleets up to date. The fleet menu now has a button that allows you upgrade the entire fleet to more modern ships of the same type.
How much will this shiny new option cost? The same amount of money as building a new fleet in that location would, and putting each ship at 0% strength for a while. This is best used as a peacetime action in a province that is dedicated to building ships (to keep the cost down.) This is not a strictly historical idea, of course; it’s easier to give an infantryman new weapons than it is to refit a warship. But we want to ease some of the micromanagement of navies that we thought took away from the more enjoyable parts of the game.
[SIZE=4]Mothballing Fleets[/SIZE]
If you have been playing the game for a while, you will notice a lack of fine control over your fleets. Your main warfleet is expensive and not always needed, whereas your trade fleet and pirate hunters are usually indispensable. As it stands now, your only funding choices are all or nothing; to keep your frigates and merchantmen at full power you need to have your ships-of-the-line sucking cash, too.
No longer.
Each individual fleet can be now be mothballed (or not) while at port. While mothballed, they lose 5% strength each month, down to 25% minimum. They do not repair while mothballed, nor can they move out of port. A mothballed fleet always costs as if the maintenance slider is at 0. At any point in time, you can always toggle a fleet back from its mothball status, but, if they have been mothballed for a while, it will take quite some time until they are fully repaired.
[SIZE=4]Local Autonomy[/SIZE]
Each province now has a variable called “local autonomy”, which ranges from 0 to 100%. This represents how freely the province operates from central authority; i.e., how much direct control you have over what is happening there. This is an inverse value, so the higher it is, the worse it generally is for you income wise, but the population will be happier. If a province’s local autonomy is at 100%, it basically provide nothing valuable to the owner of the the province, economically speaking. Mind you, fewer rebellions could be of economic value in the short term.
Specifcally, Local Autonomy will have an effect on your trade power, tax income, production, manpower, missionary work and recruitment/shipbuilding times. It is something that you will need to pay attention to from time to time, especially in those provinces that are the centers of your wealth and manpower.
Every 30 years, you can directly increase or decrease the autonomy of a province. Increasing it will give the province -10 unrest or 30 years, and adding +25% autonomy. Decreasing local autonomy adds 10 unrest and removes 25% autonomy. (What is unrest, you may ask? It’s a replacement for revolt risk, but we’ll talk about that in more detail next week!)
If you are at peace, autonomy decreases by about 1 point per year, with more advanced forms of governments decreasing it far more quickly. An occupied province slowly increases its autonomy by 1 per year, so long bitter wars are not entirely ideal, even if you may recover your lands.
Conquering a non-core province adds +50% autonomy to that province, while having a claim reduces the impact to 40%. It will take time to establish a firm foothold on newly taken lands.
Local autonomy lets us change some things in the main game to avoid some weirdness. For example, we removed the overseas penalties, and instead an overseas province can never be below 50% autonomy. This, we think, captures the economic problems of managing large overseas empires better than a penalty based on map location, which did not always make sense.
Also, the Ming have been changed a fair bit as well. Its government penalties have been reduced (they weren’t much fun to fight against and forced certain strategies), but instead the Celestial Empire means that a province can never be below 50% autonomy. And hordes can never reduce autonomy below 25%. These changes, we think, enhance the historical flavor.
[SIZE=4]India[/SIZE]
Now I give the word over to Trin Tragula, who was the main man behind the changes in India.
As it stands now, India in EU4 has 77 provinces. These had mostly been drawn to facilitate the many border changes that took place between 1444 and 1820. They were a convenience more than anything else.
After the overhaul in Art of War, India is made up of 153 provinces. This has added a considerable level of detail to the subcontinent and, much like in Europe, you'll now see a higher province density in richer areas especially. The Indian tax and manpower base has also been boosted a bit to compensate for the added amount of provinces.
As you can imagine, this means both that there is a whole lot more to do for the tags in the area themselves and there can be more historical competition for the ports of the region. It also means the region is more differentiated. You can more clearly tell which areas are rich and which are poor. Along the way some changes have been made to the general setup as well as some new additions in the form of tags, cultures, etc.
Easiest way to see the changes is probably a tour of the new map region by region. So here's a short overview of the area and what's going on in 1444:
Delhi and Jaunpur, the Indo-Gangetic Plain:
The Indo-Gangetic plain is really the heart of northern India. This is one of the most densely populated regions in the world and was the centre of all the great northern Empires of India.
Apart from dividing up the plain itself into many provinces due to its high population, the overhaul has allowed us to pay better attention to the various minor states that border it here and there.
Overview of the area in 1444:
Once the overlord of all Muslim Indian states, the Sultanate of Delhi is crumbling in 1444. While the last ruler of the Sayid dynasty is hiding in his palace, the neighboring state of Jaunpur, itself a former possession of the Sultanate under its last dynasty, has advanced up the Ganges and now borders the city itself in the east.
In the west a local Afghan strongman named Bahlul Lodi is massing an army to march on the capital* after having made a base for himself in the Punjab.
New Tags:
*Historically Bahlul Lodhi was content to make the last of the Sayids his puppet for a while. Then he attacked again and took the throne for himself. He then proceeded to reinvigorate the Sultanate and reclaim much of what was once lost.
Bengal, Bihar and Assam:
The eastern parts of the Ganges and its delta are much like the central region: a highly populated and rich area both in terms of agriculture and trade. Controlling this territory is, therefore, essential for any great northern Indian empire. Over the centuries, however, it proved to be harder than holding on to the rich central areas of the river plain.
In 1444 this region is dominated by the Bengal Sultanate under the Ilyas Shahis, while, in the northeast, the Ahom kingdom of Assam is slowly expanding in the Brahmaputra valley, annexing and integrating the various kingdoms and tribal populations in the area through its process of Ahomization.
New Tags:
Rajputana, Gujarat, Sindh and Malwa:
Notoriously divided and prone to conflict, the region of Rajputana is now a region of larger minor states rather than just a few one-province minors (amazing what you can do with more province!). The richer areas of Gujarat and Malwa are now more divided and Malwa has also gotten a culture of its own to distinguish it from the Rajput provinces to its north.
In 1444 the kingdom of Mewar is the dominant power in Rajputana, despite being surrounded by vengeful Sultanates to its east, west and south however the kingdom is focused on the neighboring state of Marwar. A period of joint rule and very close cooperation has just ended very badly between the two states with intrigues, murder and treason leading to the total annexation of Marwar as retribution. As the game starts the claimant to the Marwari throne is roaming the countryside with the remains of his army*.
New Tags:
*And would continue to do so for several years until he managed to retake the area. Relations between the two states would take a very long time to recover and for much of the history of Rajputana they are to be considered the main rival powers of the region.
Central Indic Tribal Region:
The region between Malwa and the eastern coast is characterized by hills, jungles and many tribal kingdoms. It was quite possibly one of the most abstracted regions in the pre-AoW map, and, while it hasn't received as many provinces as some other parts of India (due to being both poor and relatively lightly populated), care has been taken to make it a bit different from the other Indian regions.
The states in this part of India all use a new government type called Tribal Kingdom (which is a less expansion-oriented form of tribal government). New cultures have been added to better cover the diversity in the region and they also get a new National Idea group relating to tribal religion and customs.
New Tags:
Deccan:
In 1444 the Deccan is defined by the tripartite struggle between Orissa, the Bahmani Sultanate and the Vijayanagara empire.
As the game starts the Gajapatis of Orissa have just managed to expand deep into Vijayanagara territory and entrenched themselves there. Nonetheless, the Orissan state itself is by far the weakest of the three and the areas they now hold in this region are a long way from the Orissan power base in north-eastern India.
Dependent on the arrival of outside goods and immigration, the cosmopolitan Bahmani state is desperate to regain the coastal areas it lost to Viyanagar some 60 years before.While large and seemingly stable the Vijayanagara empire has grown a lot over the last 80 years and straddles a diverse area of cultures, terrains and climates.
New Tags:
Southern India:
Covered almost entirely by the Vijayanagara empire on this picture, the southern part of India is far more diverse in itself than the northern regions above. The dry Telugu and Kannada uplands that are the base of recruitment for the Vijayanagara state are actually a comparatively small part of the empire by now. Having lost its eastern ports to Orissa the main source of income for the empire is instead the lush Tamil region in the far south.
When revising the provinces in this region, one of our goals was been to create a sensible setup not only for Vijayanagara, but also for its various regional revolter states that can appear here. The southern coast is also a very rich region and one that consequently drew the most attention of the European imperial powers, almost all of home had a settlement or factory in the region.
In game terms, the main difference in the political setup in 1444 from before AoW is that we now have an independent state in Mysore under the Ummatur chiefs and the inclusion of the obscure last remains of the ancient Pandya dynasty clinging on in Tirunelvelli in the extreme south of India.
New Tags:
Himalayas:
Last but not least there have been changes to the Himalayas too. The old Kashmir province was huge, and has now been broken up into some more provinces. The new tag of Ladakh (often refered to as "Little Tibet") has been added and it starts out controlling Ladakh and Baltistan in the north where India borders the Tarim basin, Afghanistan and Tibet.
Trade Flow:
With this many new provinces a new trade node setup was more or less necessary in itself. The new setup has the added benefit of portraying the trade links of the subcontinent a lot better than the old one did. The Indian interior (the Doab node here) nicely incorporates the grand trunk road into the game, while the southern coasts are divided into the historical zones of competition for more distant traders.
We’re also happy to announce that we are adding a lot of new nations and provinces to the the game, mostly to make sure that the rest of the world gets the same attention to historical detail that we’ve spent on making Europe look right. But don’t worry; we are making sure that the game runs as quick as it does in the version you have now. Today, we will talk about the changes coming to India.
[SIZE=4]Upgrading Fleets[/SIZE]
Building a fleet is a lot of fun, but can sometimes feel like a chore, especially when you have 30 Early Carracks and everyone else is cruising around in the latest two-decker technology. In Art of War, we are aiming to make it easier to keep you fleets up to date. The fleet menu now has a button that allows you upgrade the entire fleet to more modern ships of the same type.
How much will this shiny new option cost? The same amount of money as building a new fleet in that location would, and putting each ship at 0% strength for a while. This is best used as a peacetime action in a province that is dedicated to building ships (to keep the cost down.) This is not a strictly historical idea, of course; it’s easier to give an infantryman new weapons than it is to refit a warship. But we want to ease some of the micromanagement of navies that we thought took away from the more enjoyable parts of the game.
[SIZE=4]Mothballing Fleets[/SIZE]
If you have been playing the game for a while, you will notice a lack of fine control over your fleets. Your main warfleet is expensive and not always needed, whereas your trade fleet and pirate hunters are usually indispensable. As it stands now, your only funding choices are all or nothing; to keep your frigates and merchantmen at full power you need to have your ships-of-the-line sucking cash, too.
No longer.
Each individual fleet can be now be mothballed (or not) while at port. While mothballed, they lose 5% strength each month, down to 25% minimum. They do not repair while mothballed, nor can they move out of port. A mothballed fleet always costs as if the maintenance slider is at 0. At any point in time, you can always toggle a fleet back from its mothball status, but, if they have been mothballed for a while, it will take quite some time until they are fully repaired.
[SIZE=4]Local Autonomy[/SIZE]
Each province now has a variable called “local autonomy”, which ranges from 0 to 100%. This represents how freely the province operates from central authority; i.e., how much direct control you have over what is happening there. This is an inverse value, so the higher it is, the worse it generally is for you income wise, but the population will be happier. If a province’s local autonomy is at 100%, it basically provide nothing valuable to the owner of the the province, economically speaking. Mind you, fewer rebellions could be of economic value in the short term.
Specifcally, Local Autonomy will have an effect on your trade power, tax income, production, manpower, missionary work and recruitment/shipbuilding times. It is something that you will need to pay attention to from time to time, especially in those provinces that are the centers of your wealth and manpower.
Every 30 years, you can directly increase or decrease the autonomy of a province. Increasing it will give the province -10 unrest or 30 years, and adding +25% autonomy. Decreasing local autonomy adds 10 unrest and removes 25% autonomy. (What is unrest, you may ask? It’s a replacement for revolt risk, but we’ll talk about that in more detail next week!)
If you are at peace, autonomy decreases by about 1 point per year, with more advanced forms of governments decreasing it far more quickly. An occupied province slowly increases its autonomy by 1 per year, so long bitter wars are not entirely ideal, even if you may recover your lands.
Conquering a non-core province adds +50% autonomy to that province, while having a claim reduces the impact to 40%. It will take time to establish a firm foothold on newly taken lands.
Local autonomy lets us change some things in the main game to avoid some weirdness. For example, we removed the overseas penalties, and instead an overseas province can never be below 50% autonomy. This, we think, captures the economic problems of managing large overseas empires better than a penalty based on map location, which did not always make sense.
Also, the Ming have been changed a fair bit as well. Its government penalties have been reduced (they weren’t much fun to fight against and forced certain strategies), but instead the Celestial Empire means that a province can never be below 50% autonomy. And hordes can never reduce autonomy below 25%. These changes, we think, enhance the historical flavor.
[SIZE=4]India[/SIZE]
Now I give the word over to Trin Tragula, who was the main man behind the changes in India.
As it stands now, India in EU4 has 77 provinces. These had mostly been drawn to facilitate the many border changes that took place between 1444 and 1820. They were a convenience more than anything else.
After the overhaul in Art of War, India is made up of 153 provinces. This has added a considerable level of detail to the subcontinent and, much like in Europe, you'll now see a higher province density in richer areas especially. The Indian tax and manpower base has also been boosted a bit to compensate for the added amount of provinces.
As you can imagine, this means both that there is a whole lot more to do for the tags in the area themselves and there can be more historical competition for the ports of the region. It also means the region is more differentiated. You can more clearly tell which areas are rich and which are poor. Along the way some changes have been made to the general setup as well as some new additions in the form of tags, cultures, etc.
Easiest way to see the changes is probably a tour of the new map region by region. So here's a short overview of the area and what's going on in 1444:
Delhi and Jaunpur, the Indo-Gangetic Plain:
The Indo-Gangetic plain is really the heart of northern India. This is one of the most densely populated regions in the world and was the centre of all the great northern Empires of India.
Apart from dividing up the plain itself into many provinces due to its high population, the overhaul has allowed us to pay better attention to the various minor states that border it here and there.
Overview of the area in 1444:
Once the overlord of all Muslim Indian states, the Sultanate of Delhi is crumbling in 1444. While the last ruler of the Sayid dynasty is hiding in his palace, the neighboring state of Jaunpur, itself a former possession of the Sultanate under its last dynasty, has advanced up the Ganges and now borders the city itself in the east.
In the west a local Afghan strongman named Bahlul Lodi is massing an army to march on the capital* after having made a base for himself in the Punjab.
New Tags:
- Patiala, a minor western Punjabi state that, much like Punjab itself, is a revolter in 1444.
- Baghelkhand: Minor kingdom at the border of the northern plains and the tribal hills to the south.
- Rohilkhand: A state founded by Afghan military colonists in the traditionally unruly Katehar hills in the north. Historically this small state would take an active part in carving up the lands of the Mughal Empire once it crumbled.
- Garhwal: A minor Rajput kingdom on the slopes of the Himalayas. Fiercely independent, one of its queens earned her nickname from taking of the noses of would be invaders.
*Historically Bahlul Lodhi was content to make the last of the Sayids his puppet for a while. Then he attacked again and took the throne for himself. He then proceeded to reinvigorate the Sultanate and reclaim much of what was once lost.
Bengal, Bihar and Assam:
The eastern parts of the Ganges and its delta are much like the central region: a highly populated and rich area both in terms of agriculture and trade. Controlling this territory is, therefore, essential for any great northern Indian empire. Over the centuries, however, it proved to be harder than holding on to the rich central areas of the river plain.
In 1444 this region is dominated by the Bengal Sultanate under the Ilyas Shahis, while, in the northeast, the Ahom kingdom of Assam is slowly expanding in the Brahmaputra valley, annexing and integrating the various kingdoms and tribal populations in the area through its process of Ahomization.
New Tags:
- Sadiya: Along with the Kachari kingdom this is the last remains of the older culture of the area before the arrival of the Ahoms.
- Tirhut: Northern Bihar is still under Hindu rule in 1444 and continued to thrive for another 100 years before succumbing to the Muslim states that surround it.
- Manipur: At a crossroad between India and Burma lies the valley kingdom of Manipur. In 1444 this is still an animist state and will remain so until the 18th century when Hinduism is promoted by royal decree.
- Tripura: Another small kingdom in the mountains separating India and Burma.
Rajputana, Gujarat, Sindh and Malwa:
Notoriously divided and prone to conflict, the region of Rajputana is now a region of larger minor states rather than just a few one-province minors (amazing what you can do with more province!). The richer areas of Gujarat and Malwa are now more divided and Malwa has also gotten a culture of its own to distinguish it from the Rajput provinces to its north.
In 1444 the kingdom of Mewar is the dominant power in Rajputana, despite being surrounded by vengeful Sultanates to its east, west and south however the kingdom is focused on the neighboring state of Marwar. A period of joint rule and very close cooperation has just ended very badly between the two states with intrigues, murder and treason leading to the total annexation of Marwar as retribution. As the game starts the claimant to the Marwari throne is roaming the countryside with the remains of his army*.
New Tags:
- Nagaur: While the Muslim kingdoms in India are generally the dominant ones Nagaur is the exception. This small Sultanate lies precariously surrounded on all sides by Hindu Rajput states, ruling only a swath of desert.
- Hadoti: The Hadoti region is home to the kingdoms of Kota and Bundi, a vassal of the dominant Mewar state in 1444.
- Rewa Kantha: Small kingdom in the hills between Malwa and Gujarat based around the great fortress of Champaner.
*And would continue to do so for several years until he managed to retake the area. Relations between the two states would take a very long time to recover and for much of the history of Rajputana they are to be considered the main rival powers of the region.
Central Indic Tribal Region:
The region between Malwa and the eastern coast is characterized by hills, jungles and many tribal kingdoms. It was quite possibly one of the most abstracted regions in the pre-AoW map, and, while it hasn't received as many provinces as some other parts of India (due to being both poor and relatively lightly populated), care has been taken to make it a bit different from the other Indian regions.
The states in this part of India all use a new government type called Tribal Kingdom (which is a less expansion-oriented form of tribal government). New cultures have been added to better cover the diversity in the region and they also get a new National Idea group relating to tribal religion and customs.
New Tags:
- Chanda: Small Gond kingdom east of Bastar.
- Jharkhand: A tag that represents the many minor states in the jungles south of Bihar such as the Nagas of Kokrah or the Raksels of Surguja.
Deccan:
In 1444 the Deccan is defined by the tripartite struggle between Orissa, the Bahmani Sultanate and the Vijayanagara empire.
As the game starts the Gajapatis of Orissa have just managed to expand deep into Vijayanagara territory and entrenched themselves there. Nonetheless, the Orissan state itself is by far the weakest of the three and the areas they now hold in this region are a long way from the Orissan power base in north-eastern India.
Dependent on the arrival of outside goods and immigration, the cosmopolitan Bahmani state is desperate to regain the coastal areas it lost to Viyanagar some 60 years before.While large and seemingly stable the Vijayanagara empire has grown a lot over the last 80 years and straddles a diverse area of cultures, terrains and climates.
New Tags:
- Baglana: Small Rajput kingdom at the border of Gujarat, Malwa and Bahmani. Tried to play its neighbors against each other but was more often than not the vassal of one (or two) of its neighbors.
- Habsan: Small naval oriented state created by freed Muslim Ethiopian slaves. Its capital is the impregnable island fortress of Janjira.
Southern India:
Covered almost entirely by the Vijayanagara empire on this picture, the southern part of India is far more diverse in itself than the northern regions above. The dry Telugu and Kannada uplands that are the base of recruitment for the Vijayanagara state are actually a comparatively small part of the empire by now. Having lost its eastern ports to Orissa the main source of income for the empire is instead the lush Tamil region in the far south.
When revising the provinces in this region, one of our goals was been to create a sensible setup not only for Vijayanagara, but also for its various regional revolter states that can appear here. The southern coast is also a very rich region and one that consequently drew the most attention of the European imperial powers, almost all of home had a settlement or factory in the region.
In game terms, the main difference in the political setup in 1444 from before AoW is that we now have an independent state in Mysore under the Ummatur chiefs and the inclusion of the obscure last remains of the ancient Pandya dynasty clinging on in Tirunelvelli in the extreme south of India.
New Tags:
- Jaffna: Small Tamil kingdom on the northern part of Sri Lanka under Vijayanagara protection.
Himalayas:
Last but not least there have been changes to the Himalayas too. The old Kashmir province was huge, and has now been broken up into some more provinces. The new tag of Ladakh (often refered to as "Little Tibet") has been added and it starts out controlling Ladakh and Baltistan in the north where India borders the Tarim basin, Afghanistan and Tibet.
Trade Flow:
With this many new provinces a new trade node setup was more or less necessary in itself. The new setup has the added benefit of portraying the trade links of the subcontinent a lot better than the old one did. The Indian interior (the Doab node here) nicely incorporates the grand trunk road into the game, while the southern coasts are divided into the historical zones of competition for more distant traders.
08-22-2014
, 05:15 PM
08-29-2014
, 10:24 AM
Quote:
Welcome to the second dev diary for Europa Universalis 4: Art of War. Today, a look at a new way to handle vassals, how we're changing revolts and a sneak peek at how the Persian map is being transformed.
[SIZE=4]Marches[/SIZE]
Marches are a new type of subject that can be created from existing vassals. By designating your vassal as a March, you are giving that vassal greatly expanded autonomy in exchange for greater military service. A March does not pay taxes to its Overlord and cannot be diplomatically annexed. However, they get a 25% bonus to manpower, a 30% bonus to force limits and have 20% better fort defense, making them useful as military buffers against enemy states, or when you simply need additional soldiers more than you need the income from those territories. March status can be retracted, but doing so results in a stability hit and a very large opinion penalty with the vassal whose autonomy you just revoked.
[SIZE=4]Unrest & Rebels[/SIZE]
The old system of revolt risk, with a chance of rebels spawning in a province by random chance every month has gone the way of the dodo. It was a system that has served us well through many versions of Europa Universalis, but we think we have something better.
The new concept reflecting unhappy subjects is called unrest. Unrest in a province will affect how quickly regiments and ships can be recruited there, but it has no direct impact on your economy, since we've introduced Local Autonomy to cover that side of the ledger.
Every province is aligned with one possible rebel faction. Each month, every province has a chance (depending on its unrest level) to see an increase in the progress of an uprising from the local rebels. When the progress reaches 100%, the faction rises up in revolt with as many stacks it has support for, and the unrest is reduced in those provinces - they have expressed their anger through arms and it's up to you to put them down.
Because unrest can happen anywhere, building courthouses and employing theologians is now a good strategy to reduce general unrest, not to mention adopting a few policies to placate the masses. The old tyrannical standby of Harsh Treatment now targets rebel factions instead of provinces and reduces the progress towards an uprising from that faction at a cost in MIL points, scaled to the size of this particular rebel faction. This change means we should get less micromanagement and more direct control of popular satisfaction in the hands of the player.
There is also no longer a distinction between accepted and enforced demands from successful rebellions. A rebel faction's demands are always the same.
In a more positive change, any Rebels that are friendly to you, either through culture or support will lift Fog of War for you.
[SIZE=4]Persia[/SIZE]
Last week, we dove into the doubling of Indian provinces. Another region that has seen substantial changes in our great map overhaul is Greater Persia and the Caucasus.
In 1444 this region is to a large extent split between the still sort of impressive empire of Timur's descendants in the east and the rising Qara Qoyunlu empire in the west. Just like in the last dev diary, the diversity of the region means that it's perhaps best to go over its various parts in turn.
The Caucasus:
In the time depicted by EU4, the rugged Caucasus will be the border line between the Turkish, Persian and eventually Russian Empires. Throughout all of this, the valleys and the slopes of these mountains are home to a number of different peoples and states attempting to preserve their independence against hungry neighbours.
In order to portray the independent nature and resilience of the area, a new Caucasian culture group has been added to the game. Apart from the familiar Armenian and Georgian cultures, this new group is also made up of the newly introduced Circassian and Dagestani cultures. The tag and province setups have been revised accordingly.
New Tags:
Western Persia:
While entirely locked in the struggle between the Timurid and Qara Qoyunlu empires in 1444, Western Persia is soon going to be the site of the rise of the Qizilbash and the birth of the Safavid Empire. This region is defined by densely populated valleys with a strong urban Persian culture, both of which the map can now portray in a better way in terms of borders and province density.
As in the Caucasus, including more provinces also allows us to include some of the smaller players in the region.
New Tags:
Khorasan and Baluchistan
Where western Persia is dominated by mountain ranges and rich valleys, Eastern Persia is a region of mountain ranges and deserts. Due to the much harsher climate, most of Khorasan would often be incorporated into surrounding empires unless these were too weak to control the vast area. The even more inhospitable Baluchistan would remain independent, divided into various tribal entities, for most of the period covered by the game.
The greater number of provinces here primarily means that conquering and traversing this region isn't going to be as easy as it was prior to AoW and will also mean that the revolts that historically started in this area will be a bit harder to put down.
Afghanistan
Home to thriving cities such as Herat and Kabul, Afghanistan is richer and more influential than the rest of Eastern Persia. During the period covered by EU4, states such as the Mughal or the Durrani empires used this region as a jumping off point to successfully to expand into India or Persia.
The AoW map accentuates the role of Afghanistan as a good base for expansion and a gateway between east and west. In order to show the importance of the Khyber and Bolan passes as routes into India, a wasteland province has also been added to represent the Suleiman mountain range in eastern Afghanistan.
[SIZE=4]Marches[/SIZE]
Marches are a new type of subject that can be created from existing vassals. By designating your vassal as a March, you are giving that vassal greatly expanded autonomy in exchange for greater military service. A March does not pay taxes to its Overlord and cannot be diplomatically annexed. However, they get a 25% bonus to manpower, a 30% bonus to force limits and have 20% better fort defense, making them useful as military buffers against enemy states, or when you simply need additional soldiers more than you need the income from those territories. March status can be retracted, but doing so results in a stability hit and a very large opinion penalty with the vassal whose autonomy you just revoked.
[SIZE=4]Unrest & Rebels[/SIZE]
The old system of revolt risk, with a chance of rebels spawning in a province by random chance every month has gone the way of the dodo. It was a system that has served us well through many versions of Europa Universalis, but we think we have something better.
The new concept reflecting unhappy subjects is called unrest. Unrest in a province will affect how quickly regiments and ships can be recruited there, but it has no direct impact on your economy, since we've introduced Local Autonomy to cover that side of the ledger.
Every province is aligned with one possible rebel faction. Each month, every province has a chance (depending on its unrest level) to see an increase in the progress of an uprising from the local rebels. When the progress reaches 100%, the faction rises up in revolt with as many stacks it has support for, and the unrest is reduced in those provinces - they have expressed their anger through arms and it's up to you to put them down.
Because unrest can happen anywhere, building courthouses and employing theologians is now a good strategy to reduce general unrest, not to mention adopting a few policies to placate the masses. The old tyrannical standby of Harsh Treatment now targets rebel factions instead of provinces and reduces the progress towards an uprising from that faction at a cost in MIL points, scaled to the size of this particular rebel faction. This change means we should get less micromanagement and more direct control of popular satisfaction in the hands of the player.
There is also no longer a distinction between accepted and enforced demands from successful rebellions. A rebel faction's demands are always the same.
In a more positive change, any Rebels that are friendly to you, either through culture or support will lift Fog of War for you.
[SIZE=4]Persia[/SIZE]
Last week, we dove into the doubling of Indian provinces. Another region that has seen substantial changes in our great map overhaul is Greater Persia and the Caucasus.
In 1444 this region is to a large extent split between the still sort of impressive empire of Timur's descendants in the east and the rising Qara Qoyunlu empire in the west. Just like in the last dev diary, the diversity of the region means that it's perhaps best to go over its various parts in turn.
The Caucasus:
In the time depicted by EU4, the rugged Caucasus will be the border line between the Turkish, Persian and eventually Russian Empires. Throughout all of this, the valleys and the slopes of these mountains are home to a number of different peoples and states attempting to preserve their independence against hungry neighbours.
In order to portray the independent nature and resilience of the area, a new Caucasian culture group has been added to the game. Apart from the familiar Armenian and Georgian cultures, this new group is also made up of the newly introduced Circassian and Dagestani cultures. The tag and province setups have been revised accordingly.
New Tags:
- Imereti: Small kingdom that can appear in western Georgia (or in late start dates). Historically, this state became part of the Ottoman sphere of influence in Georgia.
- Circassia: Small Orthodox tribal monarchy in the northern Caucasus representing the various minor states there. This is the primary tag for provinces of Circassian culture.
- Gazikumukh: A small Shiite kingdom in the northeastern Caucasus. This is the primary tag for provinces of Dagestani culture.
Western Persia:
While entirely locked in the struggle between the Timurid and Qara Qoyunlu empires in 1444, Western Persia is soon going to be the site of the rise of the Qizilbash and the birth of the Safavid Empire. This region is defined by densely populated valleys with a strong urban Persian culture, both of which the map can now portray in a better way in terms of borders and province density.
As in the Caucasus, including more provinces also allows us to include some of the smaller players in the region.
New Tags:
- Tabaristan: A small kingdom along the southern coast of the Caspian sea. Primary tag for the new Mazandarani culture.
- Ardalan: A small Kurdish kingdom in the Zagros mountains.
Khorasan and Baluchistan
Where western Persia is dominated by mountain ranges and rich valleys, Eastern Persia is a region of mountain ranges and deserts. Due to the much harsher climate, most of Khorasan would often be incorporated into surrounding empires unless these were too weak to control the vast area. The even more inhospitable Baluchistan would remain independent, divided into various tribal entities, for most of the period covered by the game.
The greater number of provinces here primarily means that conquering and traversing this region isn't going to be as easy as it was prior to AoW and will also mean that the revolts that historically started in this area will be a bit harder to put down.
Afghanistan
Home to thriving cities such as Herat and Kabul, Afghanistan is richer and more influential than the rest of Eastern Persia. During the period covered by EU4, states such as the Mughal or the Durrani empires used this region as a jumping off point to successfully to expand into India or Persia.
The AoW map accentuates the role of Afghanistan as a good base for expansion and a gateway between east and west. In order to show the importance of the Khyber and Bolan passes as routes into India, a wasteland province has also been added to represent the Suleiman mountain range in eastern Afghanistan.
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...est-amp-Persia
08-29-2014
, 10:50 AM
08-29-2014
, 10:59 AM
Triple post, but a new game is starting on Saturdays, currently set for at 1700 GMT but trying to get it to start a few hours earlier maybe 1400 since its Saturday and people have things to do in the evenings. We are going to play an all asia game using a custom mod Asiapa Universalis since no one wants to do another full world game until the new expansion comes out. It breaks China up so there is no superpower, and has a few other changes to make Asia more interesting to play and viable for MP. It also incorporates brockmod, a mod we played with in the last game that removes the competing great powers relations, historical friends relations, and historical enemies relations, allowing for more fluid diplomacy in MP. Mod is available in the steam workshop http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...rchtext=asiapa
Anyways, heres the map:
And the change log:
Anyways, heres the map:
And the change log:
Changes in Asiapa Universalis
This mod is designed to make the rest of the world a little bit more playable in multiplayer games, specifically making an Asia only game fun and rewarding.
Technology
Currently, tech groups are rather painful due to the pain of westernizing right now. To compensate, I've added a decrease in idea cost to all of the tech groups between and including Muslim to Chinese. These bonuses will apply when the country is above two stability. Idea cost decreases start at 5% and move up by 5% for each tech group, with the exception of the Nomad group who are at only 10%, due to the fact that Nomads are already rather powerful. So this means
Muslims get -.05 idea cost
Indians get -.10 idea cost
Chinese get -.15 idea cost
Hordes get -.10 idea cost
Western Arms Trade is also no longer available to eastern and ottoman countries. This is so that these tech group countries cannot have better tech percentages than western countries. To compensate, eastern and ottoman tech are both 5% cheaper(so eastern is 15%, and Ottoman is 20%).
Map
Zhou, Xi, and Shun now control the land that once was Ming. Ming is a truly interesting country to play in singleplayer, but rather painful to play in multiplayer, as well as being a big massive blob extremely early in the game. All three countries are significantly more player friendly, as they start with despotic monarchy as a government type.
Japan has gained a significant number of it's prior vassals' lands, and the vassals that remain are larger now. This should help Japan form faster, making Japan's first session a bit more entertaining. The Shogunate government has been adjusted to make Japan still maxed on relations, and has gained a relations modifier instead.
Ideas
Ming's three celestial Kingdoms have had their ideas changed to be Chinese instead of national ideas.
With the decrease in idea cost for lower tech groups, some countries become exceptionally powerful due to their country ideas, so any country idea group that grants a decrease in idea cost has had it moved to the ambition. This does not include Western, Eastern, or Native tech groups. Affected nations are all Chinese nations, Tibet, all Malayan nations, all Daimyo nations, and Korea.
Champa has inherited South Indian ideas, because historically Champa imitated much of India culturally and religiously.
Westernizing
A new way of westernizing is available, based on decisions. Each decision will move you up one tech level. Overall, it will cost you more than clicking the westernize button on the tech page, but the results will be a little more direct. Each tech group up to ottomaneastern will cost you 100 of each power, three stability, 10 legitimacy, and 100 ducats. Moving from Muslim to Ottoman and Ottoman/Eastern to Western will cost 300 of each power, three stablity, 30 legitimacy, and 300 ducats. For ten years after each move you'll have the effect of westernizing which gives an extra three revolt risk, tech will be 5% more expensive, and you won't be able to accept the next westernize decision.
Right now we have:
Brunei
VJ
Shun
Delhi
Japan
Manchu
and 1-2 people left to pick. Still some good picks left like Bengal, Ayyutaya, Aceh, Zhou, Korea, maybe one of the hordes. If anyone is interested in playing, here is the thread, games aren't really intense or super competitive so good place to try out some MP. http://failheap-challenge.com/showth...es-on-Saturday
This mod is designed to make the rest of the world a little bit more playable in multiplayer games, specifically making an Asia only game fun and rewarding.
Technology
Currently, tech groups are rather painful due to the pain of westernizing right now. To compensate, I've added a decrease in idea cost to all of the tech groups between and including Muslim to Chinese. These bonuses will apply when the country is above two stability. Idea cost decreases start at 5% and move up by 5% for each tech group, with the exception of the Nomad group who are at only 10%, due to the fact that Nomads are already rather powerful. So this means
Muslims get -.05 idea cost
Indians get -.10 idea cost
Chinese get -.15 idea cost
Hordes get -.10 idea cost
Western Arms Trade is also no longer available to eastern and ottoman countries. This is so that these tech group countries cannot have better tech percentages than western countries. To compensate, eastern and ottoman tech are both 5% cheaper(so eastern is 15%, and Ottoman is 20%).
Map
Zhou, Xi, and Shun now control the land that once was Ming. Ming is a truly interesting country to play in singleplayer, but rather painful to play in multiplayer, as well as being a big massive blob extremely early in the game. All three countries are significantly more player friendly, as they start with despotic monarchy as a government type.
Japan has gained a significant number of it's prior vassals' lands, and the vassals that remain are larger now. This should help Japan form faster, making Japan's first session a bit more entertaining. The Shogunate government has been adjusted to make Japan still maxed on relations, and has gained a relations modifier instead.
Ideas
Ming's three celestial Kingdoms have had their ideas changed to be Chinese instead of national ideas.
With the decrease in idea cost for lower tech groups, some countries become exceptionally powerful due to their country ideas, so any country idea group that grants a decrease in idea cost has had it moved to the ambition. This does not include Western, Eastern, or Native tech groups. Affected nations are all Chinese nations, Tibet, all Malayan nations, all Daimyo nations, and Korea.
Champa has inherited South Indian ideas, because historically Champa imitated much of India culturally and religiously.
Westernizing
A new way of westernizing is available, based on decisions. Each decision will move you up one tech level. Overall, it will cost you more than clicking the westernize button on the tech page, but the results will be a little more direct. Each tech group up to ottomaneastern will cost you 100 of each power, three stability, 10 legitimacy, and 100 ducats. Moving from Muslim to Ottoman and Ottoman/Eastern to Western will cost 300 of each power, three stablity, 30 legitimacy, and 300 ducats. For ten years after each move you'll have the effect of westernizing which gives an extra three revolt risk, tech will be 5% more expensive, and you won't be able to accept the next westernize decision.
Right now we have:
Brunei
VJ
Shun
Delhi
Japan
Manchu
and 1-2 people left to pick. Still some good picks left like Bengal, Ayyutaya, Aceh, Zhou, Korea, maybe one of the hordes. If anyone is interested in playing, here is the thread, games aren't really intense or super competitive so good place to try out some MP. http://failheap-challenge.com/showth...es-on-Saturday
Last edited by Nonfiction; 08-29-2014 at 11:05 AM.
09-16-2014
, 09:12 PM
09-16-2014
, 09:19 PM
09-16-2014
, 10:36 PM
09-19-2014
, 02:09 PM
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...-amp-Indonedia
[SIZE=4]Improved Diplomacy[/SIZE]
Declare war in Support of Rebels
If you are declaring war on a nation, you can now declare war in support of a rebel faction that you are supporting inside that country. If you do this, you are committed to supporting the rebels for as long as the war lasts. If you use this “support rebels” casus belli, then you have the possibility to enforce the rebels demands on the defeated enemy.
Other Peace Options
In Art of War, we have added the possibility to have the losing side give up claims in a peace treaty. We also added the option to have the loser pay war reparations for the duration of the truce, which is currently set at 10% of their monthly income.
Fight for your Subjects
In an earlier dev diary, we explored a few of the new things you could do with your vassals. Furthering that theme, you can now fight for your subjects’ casus bellis. So if for example, if your vassal has a claim on a border province, you can now declare war on behalf of your vassal using that CB.
Sell Ships
This is a new diplomatic action for when you are allied to a nation that does not have good shipbuilding capacity. You can sell any ships you have to any nation with a port for the price you want to set for it.
[SIZE=4]Catholic Church[/SIZE]
We’ve removed the subgame of investing papal influence to gain cardinals. It wasn’t interesting, and though automating the spending of influence to dominate the curia made things easier, it did nothing to address the underlying problems with the system.
Cardinals are no longer just a person. They are a title permanently tied to one Catholic province. The game will generate new cardinals until there are 49, so you could have a cardinal in Paris or Vienna. These cardinals give benefits to whomever controls their province, as long as that province is still Catholic. If there are less than 49 cardinals, such as at the beginning of the game or when they start converting to new religions, a new one will be spawned each year, with rich European provinces being most likely to be chosen.
There is still papal influence, and this is generated by the number of cardinals in your territory, so there is some randomness you will have to deal with. Your relation with the Papacy also has an effect, as do events and other game decisions. You can store up to 100 papal influence points.
The Curia controller is now determined when a new Pope is elected and the controller will remain in charge until the Pope dies. At any point during the game, you can spend papal influence in an effort to strengthen your chance of a friendly candidate winning the next election. If France spends 70 total papal influence, Poland 40, and Spain 30, then France has 50% chance of winning the next Papal election and controlling the Curia.
You can now also spend your papal influence on other actions in the Papacy View. For example, you can spend papal influence to increase your monarch’s legitimacy (a handy blessing from the Pope for rulers with tenuous claims), or to persuade the Pope to send you money.
[SIZE=4]Indochina and Indonesia[/SIZE]
Now I hand over the keys to chatnoir17 who has been in charge of this area of the map:
We might tag both of these regions "South East Asia". However, they have different characteristics, both in our history and in how we model that history in Europa Universalis IV. So we’ll refer to them as separate spaces and what we say about one may not apply to the other.
Indochina
Between 1444 and 1821, Indochina was a dynamic region with quickly changing borders, a lot of warfare and some small empires. If you look at the map of 1444, you will find no large Vietnam, united Siam (Thailand) or single Burma (Myanmar). These were countries yet to be born, and, in the time frame of EU4, we see that movement to the states we recognize today.
Beside simply adding more provinces in Indochina (which we have), the changes represent one of the most important attempts to represent the political map of 1444 and after in Art of War. You will find big Lan Xang and divided Shan in the grand campaign. If you change the start date, you will see how the Taungu dynasty expands their territory, or how Vietnamese Trinh and Nguyen war lords appear. More provinces and revised borders have enabled us to represent these historic changes in the political borders more precisely.
Of course we had to simplify the historical facts for the game. For example, there were many small Shan states, but we can't put each of them on the map. We have settled on having three Shan states (Mon Yang, Hsenwi and Ava) to represent the fragmented territory.
One of the bonuses of the new map to make the course of history in Indochina more unpredictable. The power balance is a big issue of the current version (1.7x) with both Ayutthaya and Shan being too powerful and very likely to run roughshod over the region in ahistorical ways. So Shan is split into smaller factions and Ayutthaya has lost its southern territory, now incorporated as Ligor (Nakon Sri Thammarat), their new vassal. On the other hand, Malacca owns more rich provinces now, so Siamese expansion down the Malay peninsula won’t be as easy as it is now.
The base tax, manpower value, trade goods, cultures and religions in provinces have also been revised in order to balance the power of countries in Indochina.
Indonesia
We have changed not only Indonesia, but also Polynesia and Australia so let’s throw them into this discussion, too.
We are very aware that the current division of provinces (ver.1.7x) is quite rough. Not to mention the fact that we have too few of them, in spite of the area’s rich population and history. We are missing many important countries in this region.
But, Indonesia was one of the important targets of European colonization and world trade. So some provinces should be colonizable, even though local sultanates or tribes governed there. This is a problem we face in many parts of the world; you don’t want to say that nobody lived in Massachusetts or Timor or Namibia, but you do want to give Europe the historical openings it had; modeling history is a great saga of compromises.
For players who want to choose a faction in Indonesia, we have added many new countries. And taken out others. Aceh, for example, has been removed from the 1444 start of the grand campaign. It was an ahistorical abstraction to begin with, but it also was a major balance breaker, since Aceh quickly became a beast. It is same in Java and Borneo. We have also added some important states through the history such as Ternate and Tidore. Western countries can conquer them or make them their protectorates.
As for Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, we haven't added any playable provinces. We are aware of the civilizations of Aboriginal and Maori people, but we stuck with the decision to completely open these regions to colonizers. Some people might also wonder why we haven't removed the wastelands entirely when we have added more provinces that weren't colonized before 1821. This basically comes down to that bit of magic we call the "feeling of the era". We need some impassable areas to represent the limitatins of the pre-industrial period. Yes, the explorers in this region discovered different coasts and mountains and not just a big wasteland. There were also many attempts of colonization before 1821, even though they failed. Still, the outback has to remain a forbidding barrier if we want to have the spirit of 18th and 19th century Australian settlement.
For the beta team, discussion on the number of new provinces and the effect they have on balance has taken up many hours. Changes to the map are always exciting, and Art of War is full of exciting changes.
[SIZE=4]Improved Diplomacy[/SIZE]
Declare war in Support of Rebels
If you are declaring war on a nation, you can now declare war in support of a rebel faction that you are supporting inside that country. If you do this, you are committed to supporting the rebels for as long as the war lasts. If you use this “support rebels” casus belli, then you have the possibility to enforce the rebels demands on the defeated enemy.
Other Peace Options
In Art of War, we have added the possibility to have the losing side give up claims in a peace treaty. We also added the option to have the loser pay war reparations for the duration of the truce, which is currently set at 10% of their monthly income.
Fight for your Subjects
In an earlier dev diary, we explored a few of the new things you could do with your vassals. Furthering that theme, you can now fight for your subjects’ casus bellis. So if for example, if your vassal has a claim on a border province, you can now declare war on behalf of your vassal using that CB.
Sell Ships
This is a new diplomatic action for when you are allied to a nation that does not have good shipbuilding capacity. You can sell any ships you have to any nation with a port for the price you want to set for it.
[SIZE=4]Catholic Church[/SIZE]
We’ve removed the subgame of investing papal influence to gain cardinals. It wasn’t interesting, and though automating the spending of influence to dominate the curia made things easier, it did nothing to address the underlying problems with the system.
Cardinals are no longer just a person. They are a title permanently tied to one Catholic province. The game will generate new cardinals until there are 49, so you could have a cardinal in Paris or Vienna. These cardinals give benefits to whomever controls their province, as long as that province is still Catholic. If there are less than 49 cardinals, such as at the beginning of the game or when they start converting to new religions, a new one will be spawned each year, with rich European provinces being most likely to be chosen.
There is still papal influence, and this is generated by the number of cardinals in your territory, so there is some randomness you will have to deal with. Your relation with the Papacy also has an effect, as do events and other game decisions. You can store up to 100 papal influence points.
The Curia controller is now determined when a new Pope is elected and the controller will remain in charge until the Pope dies. At any point during the game, you can spend papal influence in an effort to strengthen your chance of a friendly candidate winning the next election. If France spends 70 total papal influence, Poland 40, and Spain 30, then France has 50% chance of winning the next Papal election and controlling the Curia.
You can now also spend your papal influence on other actions in the Papacy View. For example, you can spend papal influence to increase your monarch’s legitimacy (a handy blessing from the Pope for rulers with tenuous claims), or to persuade the Pope to send you money.
[SIZE=4]Indochina and Indonesia[/SIZE]
Now I hand over the keys to chatnoir17 who has been in charge of this area of the map:
We might tag both of these regions "South East Asia". However, they have different characteristics, both in our history and in how we model that history in Europa Universalis IV. So we’ll refer to them as separate spaces and what we say about one may not apply to the other.
Indochina
Between 1444 and 1821, Indochina was a dynamic region with quickly changing borders, a lot of warfare and some small empires. If you look at the map of 1444, you will find no large Vietnam, united Siam (Thailand) or single Burma (Myanmar). These were countries yet to be born, and, in the time frame of EU4, we see that movement to the states we recognize today.
Beside simply adding more provinces in Indochina (which we have), the changes represent one of the most important attempts to represent the political map of 1444 and after in Art of War. You will find big Lan Xang and divided Shan in the grand campaign. If you change the start date, you will see how the Taungu dynasty expands their territory, or how Vietnamese Trinh and Nguyen war lords appear. More provinces and revised borders have enabled us to represent these historic changes in the political borders more precisely.
Of course we had to simplify the historical facts for the game. For example, there were many small Shan states, but we can't put each of them on the map. We have settled on having three Shan states (Mon Yang, Hsenwi and Ava) to represent the fragmented territory.
One of the bonuses of the new map to make the course of history in Indochina more unpredictable. The power balance is a big issue of the current version (1.7x) with both Ayutthaya and Shan being too powerful and very likely to run roughshod over the region in ahistorical ways. So Shan is split into smaller factions and Ayutthaya has lost its southern territory, now incorporated as Ligor (Nakon Sri Thammarat), their new vassal. On the other hand, Malacca owns more rich provinces now, so Siamese expansion down the Malay peninsula won’t be as easy as it is now.
The base tax, manpower value, trade goods, cultures and religions in provinces have also been revised in order to balance the power of countries in Indochina.
Indonesia
We have changed not only Indonesia, but also Polynesia and Australia so let’s throw them into this discussion, too.
We are very aware that the current division of provinces (ver.1.7x) is quite rough. Not to mention the fact that we have too few of them, in spite of the area’s rich population and history. We are missing many important countries in this region.
But, Indonesia was one of the important targets of European colonization and world trade. So some provinces should be colonizable, even though local sultanates or tribes governed there. This is a problem we face in many parts of the world; you don’t want to say that nobody lived in Massachusetts or Timor or Namibia, but you do want to give Europe the historical openings it had; modeling history is a great saga of compromises.
For players who want to choose a faction in Indonesia, we have added many new countries. And taken out others. Aceh, for example, has been removed from the 1444 start of the grand campaign. It was an ahistorical abstraction to begin with, but it also was a major balance breaker, since Aceh quickly became a beast. It is same in Java and Borneo. We have also added some important states through the history such as Ternate and Tidore. Western countries can conquer them or make them their protectorates.
As for Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, we haven't added any playable provinces. We are aware of the civilizations of Aboriginal and Maori people, but we stuck with the decision to completely open these regions to colonizers. Some people might also wonder why we haven't removed the wastelands entirely when we have added more provinces that weren't colonized before 1821. This basically comes down to that bit of magic we call the "feeling of the era". We need some impassable areas to represent the limitatins of the pre-industrial period. Yes, the explorers in this region discovered different coasts and mountains and not just a big wasteland. There were also many attempts of colonization before 1821, even though they failed. Still, the outback has to remain a forbidding barrier if we want to have the spirit of 18th and 19th century Australian settlement.
For the beta team, discussion on the number of new provinces and the effect they have on balance has taken up many hours. Changes to the map are always exciting, and Art of War is full of exciting changes.
09-19-2014
, 03:42 PM
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Fight for your Subjects
In an earlier dev diary, we explored a few of the new things you could do with your vassals. Furthering that theme, you can now fight for your subjects’ casus bellis. So if for example, if your vassal has a claim on a border province, you can now declare war on behalf of your vassal using that CB.
In an earlier dev diary, we explored a few of the new things you could do with your vassals. Furthering that theme, you can now fight for your subjects’ casus bellis. So if for example, if your vassal has a claim on a border province, you can now declare war on behalf of your vassal using that CB.
09-22-2014
, 11:27 AM
09-23-2014
, 02:19 AM
10-11-2014
, 07:38 PM