Well people, what do you know? I needed a break from the Stellaris crunch, so here’s an unscheduled dev diary! All the hubbub about Defensive Pacts and Shattered Retreats got me thinking about an old ambition I’ve had to improve the game set-up screens in order to allow players to customize their experience without having to resort to modding. The idea is inspired by games like Civilization and the Second Wave DLC for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which allow players to change various advanced options and settings for a different experience in the game. I really like such options and typically make good use of them myself.

Now, of course there is such a thing as “the way the game was meant to be played”. That is, how the designers made the game and like to play it themselves. However, variety is the spice of life, and after 11 Crusader Kings II expansions things are not as clear-cut anymore. It’s actually pretty funny that I’ve been using a small personal mod for CK2 for awhile myself. There are some downsides to modding and using mods though:

• It requires awareness that it’s possible, and where to find existing mods. The modding scene is a jungle.
  
• It takes a modicum of extra effort and skill.
  
• It might not feel quite legitimate (it can feel a bit like cheating) and you might not get any Achievements.
  
• Mods typically do not have the same level of support as the base game. Many become fossilized or are otherwise problematic.

For these reasons especially, I think that adding a bunch of Paradox-approved, fully supported in-game rule variations is a good idea. Thus, when you start a new game, you are now presented with several interesting options. Most of them are simple flavor variations, but some are more fundamental and will disable Achievements in Ironman mode. Here’s the list of options we are currently showing in the new screen (still a work in progress though):

• Sandbox vs Ironman
  
• Shattered Retreats: On/Off
  
• Defensive Pacts: On/Off
  
• Gender Equality: Default/Historical/AllPlayers
  
• Sunset Invasion: 13th Century/Random/Off
  
• Mongol Invasion: Historical/Random/Off
  
• Raiding: Historical/Unrestricted/None
  
• Epidemics: Dynamic/Historical/Deadly
  
• “Supernatural” Events: On/Off
  
• Adventurers: Normal/Rare/None
  
• Provincial Revolts: Normal/Rare/None
  
• Regencies: On/Off
  
• De Jure Drift: Default/Restricted/Off
  
• Dynamic Kingdoms and Empires: On/Off
  
• Diplomatic Range: On/Off

Our new rule system is itself fully moddable, so that modders can use the same system with pretty much any options they might want!



I look forward to your thoughts and comments. Are there any rule variations you think we’ve missed, or that you would really like to see?

Useful links
Official Website
Crusader Kings II Wiki
Developer Diary Archives

Well people, what do you know? I needed a break from the Stellaris crunch, so here’s an unscheduled dev diary! All the hubbub about Defensive Pacts and Shattered Retreats got me thinking about an old ambition I’ve had to improve the game set-up screens in order to allow players to customize their experience without having to resort to modding. The idea is inspired by games like Civilization and the Second Wave DLC for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which allow players to change various advanced options and settings for a different experience in the game. I really like such options and typically make good use of them myself.

Now, of course there is such a thing as “the way the game was meant to be played”. That is, how the designers made the game and like to play it themselves. However, variety is the spice of life, and after 11 Crusader Kings II expansions things are not as clear-cut anymore. It’s actually pretty funny that I’ve been using a small personal mod for CK2 for awhile myself. There are some downsides to modding and using mods though:

• It requires awareness that it’s possible, and where to find existing mods. The modding scene is a jungle.
  
• It takes a modicum of extra effort and skill.
  
• It might not feel quite legitimate (it can feel a bit like cheating) and you might not get any Achievements.
  
• Mods typically do not have the same level of support as the base game. Many become fossilized or are otherwise problematic.

For these reasons especially, I think that adding a bunch of Paradox-approved, fully supported in-game rule variations is a good idea. Thus, when you start a new game, you are now presented with several interesting options. Most of them are simple flavor variations, but some are more fundamental and will disable Achievements in Ironman mode. Here’s the list of options we are currently showing in the new screen (still a work in progress though):

• Sandbox vs Ironman
  
• Shattered Retreats: On/Off
  
• Defensive Pacts: On/Off
  
• Gender Equality: Default/Historical/AllPlayers
  
• Sunset Invasion: 13th Century/Random/Off
  
• Mongol Invasion: Historical/Random/Off
  
• Raiding: Historical/Unrestricted/None
  
• Epidemics: Dynamic/Historical/Deadly
  
• “Supernatural” Events: On/Off
  
• Adventurers: Normal/Rare/None
  
• Provincial Revolts: Normal/Rare/None
  
• Regencies: On/Off
  
• De Jure Drift: Default/Restricted/Off
  
• Dynamic Kingdoms and Empires: On/Off
  
• Diplomatic Range: On/Off

Our new rule system is itself fully moddable, so that modders can use the same system with pretty much any options they might want!



I look forward to your thoughts and comments. Are there any rule variations you think we’ve missed, or that you would really like to see?

Useful links
Official Website
Crusader Kings II Wiki
Developer Diary Archives

Hi all!


In this Dev Diary I'll present the EU4-team as it looks currently.

The Team

• Johan, still game director, creating the high-level design for the expansions.
  
  
  
• Anona, I’m the new project lead, making sure planning and priorities are made, as well as keeping deadline and being on budget. Been with Paradox for 2,5 years and hope you look forward to the upcoming expansions!
  
  
  
• Gnivom, I’m a new recruit to Paradox who loves EU4. I am a junior programmer who just graduated from High School.
  
  
  
• Chaingun. Programmer on EU4. Conveniently, I used to play EU2 in my early teenage years.
  
  
  
• Trin Tragula, Content Designer. I used to be a modder for PDS games and later became a research alpha/beta for EU4 (mainly doing both pre-AoW and post-AoW India). I joined the EU4 team during the development of Art Of War and my work includes creating and researching most events, missions, decisions, etc in the game as well as any changes to the map.
  
  
  
• LittleFido, embedded QA for EU4, I've been at Paradox for almost two years now and been attached to EU for over a year of that time. I love seeing the project grow and trying to find, reproduce and help solve bugs we encounter. Seeing a new patch or DLC release is at the same time the most exciting and stressful time for me! I hope you all enjoy the game as much as I do!
  
  
  
• I’m DDRJake, QA turned Junior Designer for EU4. I’ve been part of the Paradox family for over a year now after years of sacrificing sleep and other necessities to stare at maps. Continuing to play the game to ensure it is enjoyable and interesting is an important role of mine, as well as writing and refining future designs for EU4. You’ll catch me lurking in the suggestions forum and the bug reports section, taking in community feedback on improving Europa.
  
  
  
• r_lazer, lead programmer on the EU4 team. Started on the EU4 team around 1.5 years ago and have enjoyed working on every DLC since then. El Dorado was a favourite where I got to implement the Nation Designer.
  
  
  
• StarNaN, Embedded QA for EU4. Started working at Paradox last year in December. I’ve been playing Europa Universalis since early EU3 and loved Svea Rike 1 and 2 as a child, therefore I want EU4 to be as good as it can be. My part in doing this is the same as LittleFido, I try to find, reproduce and help solve bugs.
  
  
  
• The Real Timor, I’m the rather odd artist who makes things look nice and neat. Or at least as neat as they can be in a screen with 50+ icons, numerous stats, and tooltips to blot out the sun. Aaah, the beauty of EU4. And let’s not forget the cute Big Blue Blob achievement.

1.17
We’re currently working on the upcoming 1.17 patch which we we’ll release when it’s ready. The patch will contain bugfixes and crash fixes for Mare Nostrum such as:

• Christian Hordes will reform into Eastern technology
  
  
  
• Disbanding ships in port will return Sailors to the Sailor Pool
  
  
  
• Fix for the 0Kb savegame crash
  
  
  
• Republican Sufferance impacts sailor gain
  
  
  
• Performance optimization
  
  
  
• Fixed Central African Lakes
  
  
  
• Refining Naval Missions
  
  
  
• OOS fix
  
  
  
• Tightened up AI budgeting to help prevent debt spirals.

Ideas for Dev Diaries
If you have ideas for upcoming dev diaries, feel free to post them in the official thread.


/The EU4-Team

Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Developer Diary Archives

Hi all!


In this Dev Diary I'll present the EU4-team as it looks currently.

The Team

• Johan, still game director, creating the high-level design for the expansions.
  
  
  
• Anona, I’m the new project lead, making sure planning and priorities are made, as well as keeping deadline and being on budget. Been with Paradox for 2,5 years and hope you look forward to the upcoming expansions!
  
  
  
• Gnivom, I’m a new recruit to Paradox who loves EU4. I am a junior programmer who just graduated from High School.
  
  
  
• Chaingun. Programmer on EU4. Conveniently, I used to play EU2 in my early teenage years.
  
  
  
• Trin Tragula, Content Designer. I used to be a modder for PDS games and later became a research alpha/beta for EU4 (mainly doing both pre-AoW and post-AoW India). I joined the EU4 team during the development of Art Of War and my work includes creating and researching most events, missions, decisions, etc in the game as well as any changes to the map.
  
  
  
• LittleFido, embedded QA for EU4, I've been at Paradox for almost two years now and been attached to EU for over a year of that time. I love seeing the project grow and trying to find, reproduce and help solve bugs we encounter. Seeing a new patch or DLC release is at the same time the most exciting and stressful time for me! I hope you all enjoy the game as much as I do!
  
  
  
• I’m DDRJake, QA turned Junior Designer for EU4. I’ve been part of the Paradox family for over a year now after years of sacrificing sleep and other necessities to stare at maps. Continuing to play the game to ensure it is enjoyable and interesting is an important role of mine, as well as writing and refining future designs for EU4. You’ll catch me lurking in the suggestions forum and the bug reports section, taking in community feedback on improving Europa.
  
  
  
• r_lazer, lead programmer on the EU4 team. Started on the EU4 team around 1.5 years ago and have enjoyed working on every DLC since then. El Dorado was a favourite where I got to implement the Nation Designer.
  
  
  
• StarNaN, Embedded QA for EU4. Started working at Paradox last year in December. I’ve been playing Europa Universalis since early EU3 and loved Svea Rike 1 and 2 as a child, therefore I want EU4 to be as good as it can be. My part in doing this is the same as LittleFido, I try to find, reproduce and help solve bugs.
  
  
  
• The Real Timor, I’m the rather odd artist who makes things look nice and neat. Or at least as neat as they can be in a screen with 50+ icons, numerous stats, and tooltips to blot out the sun. Aaah, the beauty of EU4. And let’s not forget the cute Big Blue Blob achievement.

1.17
We’re currently working on the upcoming 1.17 patch which we we’ll release when it’s ready. The patch will contain bugfixes and crash fixes for Mare Nostrum such as:

• Christian Hordes will reform into Eastern technology
  
  
  
• Disbanding ships in port will return Sailors to the Sailor Pool
  
  
  
• Fix for the 0Kb savegame crash
  
  
  
• Republican Sufferance impacts sailor gain
  
  
  
• Performance optimization
  
  
  
• Fixed Central African Lakes
  
  
  
• Refining Naval Missions
  
  
  
• OOS fix
  
  
  
• Tightened up AI budgeting to help prevent debt spirals.

Ideas for Dev Diaries
If you have ideas for upcoming dev diaries, feel free to post them in the official thread.


/The EU4-Team

Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Developer Diary Archives

Hello everyone, and welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. Today we’ll focus a bit on Mare Nostrum, and what was the goal of the features in that expansion and the accompanying patch.


Improve the Naval aspect of the game
The Naval game is something that has received quite a few complaints over the year, so we really wanted to make an expansion on the naval theme.

Some of the features like Sailors and the Combat Tweaks were just too much of a rework of core concepts that they had to go into the free patch.

We’re rather happy with how the naval combat now works, now that quality actually matters, and it is no longer just about who has the most money to maintain the most heavy-ships.

The Naval Missions, and the Repair mechanics was based on our experiences of the Hearts of Iron IV development, and how much more fun it made the naval game, to avoid constant micromanagement. It was one of the main features we built the exoansion around.

The changes to making blockades more visible, and having Admirals that could be good at blockading was a few free features that have proved to be a success as well.


More Peacetime Activities
After Art of War there has been a constant barrage of requests for more peace-time activities. Pretty much every expansion since then have had a large focus on adding more things to do at peace time. El Dorado had exploration related mechanics, Common Sense added Development, Interaction with Subjects & Parliaments, while Cossacks had Estates and Diplomatic Feedback, not to mention all minor actions added for the all.

Mare Nostrum is no exception there, with two major systems to enhance gameplay outside of war. First of all, we reworked how espionage works for the free patch, to make it more of an interactive mechanic, and far more transparent than before. We also made Support Rebels more of a valid option, and added lots of new spy actions.

Secondly, the feature that was the biggest to develop for Mare Nostrum. The Condottieri. We designed and added this because at the end of the day fighting in eu4 is fun. It was also heavily influenced of the fact that HoI4 testing showed us it was great fun helping out in the Spanish Civil War while still building up your own nation. Of course, Eu4 was not really designed to have units checking two sets of allegiances, so the amount of work to get it to the state we have now was enormous.

It is also the only feature that has made the AI able to crush all QA within a few decades, so we had to scale it back a bit when balancing.


Regional Specific Enhacements
Every expansion we try to add unique mechanics to some part of the world, to make for more variation in gameplay.

Besides implementing a detailed map for central and east africa, with lots of new nations and ideas, we added two cool features to make some less popular countries played, while keeping to the naval theme.

There is not much to say about the Slave Raids and Trade Leagues, except that they work, they are fun, and they create diversity.


Community Requested
We also try to add in things that the community requests in each patch, and Mare Nostrum contains two such features..

Unconditional Surrender - This was requested by both SP & MP proponents, and was added to make it possible to get out wars when you have truly lost, without the opponent totally ruining your nation forever.


Timeline Mapmode - I think this feature has been requested since eu1. One of the most

Balance Related
Obviously, these are the features that tend to be not so popular.

Corruption - This solves quite a lot of balance problems, and makes for a more challenging game longterm.

States and Territories - This solves the problems of overseas mechanics which you had to work around and exploit to benefit from. It also gives greater flexibility to the player.


The teams favorites

So, what did the development team like the most from Mare Nostrum?

Condottieri won in a landslide!

Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Developer Diary Archives

Hello everyone, and welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. Today we’ll focus a bit on Mare Nostrum, and what was the goal of the features in that expansion and the accompanying patch.


Improve the Naval aspect of the game
The Naval game is something that has received quite a few complaints over the year, so we really wanted to make an expansion on the naval theme.

Some of the features like Sailors and the Combat Tweaks were just too much of a rework of core concepts that they had to go into the free patch.

We’re rather happy with how the naval combat now works, now that quality actually matters, and it is no longer just about who has the most money to maintain the most heavy-ships.

The Naval Missions, and the Repair mechanics was based on our experiences of the Hearts of Iron IV development, and how much more fun it made the naval game, to avoid constant micromanagement. It was one of the main features we built the exoansion around.

The changes to making blockades more visible, and having Admirals that could be good at blockading was a few free features that have proved to be a success as well.


More Peacetime Activities
After Art of War there has been a constant barrage of requests for more peace-time activities. Pretty much every expansion since then have had a large focus on adding more things to do at peace time. El Dorado had exploration related mechanics, Common Sense added Development, Interaction with Subjects & Parliaments, while Cossacks had Estates and Diplomatic Feedback, not to mention all minor actions added for the all.

Mare Nostrum is no exception there, with two major systems to enhance gameplay outside of war. First of all, we reworked how espionage works for the free patch, to make it more of an interactive mechanic, and far more transparent than before. We also made Support Rebels more of a valid option, and added lots of new spy actions.

Secondly, the feature that was the biggest to develop for Mare Nostrum. The Condottieri. We designed and added this because at the end of the day fighting in eu4 is fun. It was also heavily influenced of the fact that HoI4 testing showed us it was great fun helping out in the Spanish Civil War while still building up your own nation. Of course, Eu4 was not really designed to have units checking two sets of allegiances, so the amount of work to get it to the state we have now was enormous.

It is also the only feature that has made the AI able to crush all QA within a few decades, so we had to scale it back a bit when balancing.


Regional Specific Enhacements
Every expansion we try to add unique mechanics to some part of the world, to make for more variation in gameplay.

Besides implementing a detailed map for central and east africa, with lots of new nations and ideas, we added two cool features to make some less popular countries played, while keeping to the naval theme.

There is not much to say about the Slave Raids and Trade Leagues, except that they work, they are fun, and they create diversity.


Community Requested
We also try to add in things that the community requests in each patch, and Mare Nostrum contains two such features..

Unconditional Surrender - This was requested by both SP & MP proponents, and was added to make it possible to get out wars when you have truly lost, without the opponent totally ruining your nation forever.


Timeline Mapmode - I think this feature has been requested since eu1. One of the most

Balance Related
Obviously, these are the features that tend to be not so popular.

Corruption - This solves quite a lot of balance problems, and makes for a more challenging game longterm.

States and Territories - This solves the problems of overseas mechanics which you had to work around and exploit to benefit from. It also gives greater flexibility to the player.


The teams favorites

So, what did the development team like the most from Mare Nostrum?

Condottieri won in a landslide!

Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Developer Diary Archives

Corruption
- Updated corruption tooltip to show what actually effects it.
- Easy Difficulty now reduces your corruption dramatically.
- Root Out Corruption is now based on your development, not your income.
- Halved frequency of good and bad corruption events.

Achievements
- Updated Luck of the Irish achievement to account for 4 new Irish tags
- New Achievements updated to block custom nations

Unconditionally Surrender
- If war leader Unconditionally Surrenders, their allies no longer do so too.
- If an Overlord Unconditionally Surrenders, their Subjects now do so too.

Merchant Republics
- Merchant Republics are now limited by provinces in states, not total amount of provinces.
- Merchant Republics no longer want to become a Free City.

States & Territories
- Fixed: States couldn't be formed if there was a colony in the area.
- Empty State/Territories will not linger after loading savegames.

AI Tweaks
- Fixed some unlikely reasons for AI getting stuck and never cancelling condotieri.
- AI will go a bit easier on guarantees of countries that it wants to conquer or ally.
- Tweak to gifts/subsidies to reduce long range spam.
- AI should no more be willing to hire condottieri to fight some future rebellion (only serious present rebellions now count).

Misc Bugfixes
- Fixed wrong unit colors for a number of countries (e.g. Aragon).
- Fixed only Muscovite countries being able to form Russia.
- Fixed Hokkaido Strait
- Fixed saves sometimes not loading correctly after using Hunt Naval Mission.
- You can no longer detach mercenaries from a hired out Condottieri unit.
- MP: Fixed game going out of sync if host had Wealth of Nations DLC but not client.
- Fixed Bad Unit Position in Kholmogory

Misc Complaints Adressed
- When mothballing a fleet, sailors no longer needed are now returned to the country's sailor pool (up to max sailors).
- Razing provinces no longer adds unrest to them.
- Removed Regicide Event
- Removed historical neutrality between Portugal and Aragon
- Fixed Threaten War could be used during Regency.
- Central African Event 15 will no longer spam the player by triggering every other month or so.

Please post any bugs discovered in our bug report forum (click here to go there) - we won't be collecting bug reports from the Steam forums.

Corruption
- Updated corruption tooltip to show what actually effects it.
- Easy Difficulty now reduces your corruption dramatically.
- Root Out Corruption is now based on your development, not your income.
- Halved frequency of good and bad corruption events.

Achievements
- Updated Luck of the Irish achievement to account for 4 new Irish tags
- New Achievements updated to block custom nations

Unconditionally Surrender
- If war leader Unconditionally Surrenders, their allies no longer do so too.
- If an Overlord Unconditionally Surrenders, their Subjects now do so too.

Merchant Republics
- Merchant Republics are now limited by provinces in states, not total amount of provinces.
- Merchant Republics no longer want to become a Free City.

States & Territories
- Fixed: States couldn't be formed if there was a colony in the area.
- Empty State/Territories will not linger after loading savegames.

AI Tweaks
- Fixed some unlikely reasons for AI getting stuck and never cancelling condotieri.
- AI will go a bit easier on guarantees of countries that it wants to conquer or ally.
- Tweak to gifts/subsidies to reduce long range spam.
- AI should no more be willing to hire condottieri to fight some future rebellion (only serious present rebellions now count).

Misc Bugfixes
- Fixed wrong unit colors for a number of countries (e.g. Aragon).
- Fixed only Muscovite countries being able to form Russia.
- Fixed Hokkaido Strait
- Fixed saves sometimes not loading correctly after using Hunt Naval Mission.
- You can no longer detach mercenaries from a hired out Condottieri unit.
- MP: Fixed game going out of sync if host had Wealth of Nations DLC but not client.
- Fixed Bad Unit Position in Kholmogory

Misc Complaints Adressed
- When mothballing a fleet, sailors no longer needed are now returned to the country's sailor pool (up to max sailors).
- Razing provinces no longer adds unrest to them.
- Removed Regicide Event
- Removed historical neutrality between Portugal and Aragon
- Fixed Threaten War could be used during Regency.
- Central African Event 15 will no longer spam the player by triggering every other month or so.

Please post any bugs discovered in our bug report forum (click here to go there) - we won't be collecting bug reports from the Steam forums.

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for all support and dedication to the game, and its great to see 1.16 & Mare Nostrum breaking popularity records. There were a few issues that cropped up, that we are fixing or changing for a 1.16.2 patch, which will be released as soon as its ready. I hope tomorrow,...

This is the current changelog, and we're working on a CTD, and a Multiplayer OOS.

Corruption
- Updated corruption tooltip to show what actually effects it.
- Easy Difficulty now reduces your corruption dramatically.
- Root Out Corruption is now based on your development, not your income.
- Halved frequency of good and bad corruption events.

Achievements
- Updated Luck of the Irish achievement to account for 4 new Irish tags
- New Achievements updated to block custom nations

Unconditionally Surrender
- If war leader Unconditionally Surrenders, their allies no longer do so too.
- If an Overlord Unconditionally Surrenders, their Subjects now do so too.

Merchant Republics
- Merchant Republics are now limited by provinces in states, not total amount of provinces.
- Merchant Republics no longer want to become a Free City.

States & Territories
- Fixed: States couldn't be formed if there was a colony in the area.
- Empty State/Territories will not linger after loading savegames.

AI Tweaks
- Fixed some unlikely reasons for AI getting stuck and never cancelling condotieri.
- AI will go a bit easier on guarantees of countries that it wants to conquer or ally.
- Tweak to gifts/subsidies to reduce long range spam.
- AI should no more be willing to hire condottieri to fight some future rebellion (only serious present rebellions now count).

Misc Bugfixes
- Fixed wrong unit colors for a number of countries (e.g. Aragon).
- Fixed only Muscovite countries being able to form Russia.
- Fixed Hokkaido Strait
- Fixed saves sometimes not loading correctly after using Hunt Naval Mission.
- You can no longer detach mercenaries from a hired out Condottieri unit.

Misc Complaints Adressed
- When mothballing a fleet, sailors no longer needed are now returned to the country's sailor pool (up to max sailors).
- Removed Regicide Event
- Removed historical neutrality between Portugal and Aragon
- Fixed Threaten War could be used during Regency.
- Central African Event 15 will no longer spam the player by triggering every other month or so.