Hello and Welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. Today we’ll talk a bit about the future of the game, and what we aim at achieving with it.

It is now almost three years since we released EU4, and the game is growing every month, with far more people playing it today, than ever before. And as we have said before, we’ll continue to support the game with patches and expansions as long as you keep buying them.

Currently we have ideas and designs for several years worth of expansions, but those designs change and grow whenever we read your feedback.

There are of course concerns and challenges with expanding to an already complex game, and what can be added without making the game unplayable. It is also a fine thread to decide which ones should be behind the paywall and which should be free.

While a fair amount of requests keep coming for more peace activities, that also creates challenges, as if that is too engaging, you will suffer when you end up in unplanned wars, and get a far worse experience.

So what do we want to do with EU4 in the future?

Well, there are some parts of the world we want to add more unique flavor to. I am fairly happy with Europe, and we’ve done quite a lot of focus on mechanics for the New World, but there are areas like East Asia, India & Middle East which deserve far deeper looks in the future. With unique flavor I mean things like Dutch Republic, Nahuatl Religion, Polish Elective Monarchy, HRE Religious League Wars, Hordes Razing Provinces, etc… I envision EU4 in 3 years with far far more difference playing each country in the world.

There are also aspects of the game which we once were happy with, but feel would require are not entirely happy with now. Our technology system, basically hailing from EU1, is based too much around rigid tech groups, punishing nations outside of Europe. We’re not entirely happy with how culture works now, and the diplomatic interface just can’t handle the amount of states and actions we currently have. Can these be changed? Maybe? Time will tell.

Here's a screenshot of something you've never seen before.




Anyway, next week I’m gone on holidays, but Catalack will talk about units for eu4.

Read original post

Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Developer Diary Archives

Hello and Welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. Today we’ll talk a bit about the future of the game, and what we aim at achieving with it.

It is now almost three years since we released EU4, and the game is growing every month, with far more people playing it today, than ever before. And as we have said before, we’ll continue to support the game with patches and expansions as long as you keep buying them.

Currently we have ideas and designs for several years worth of expansions, but those designs change and grow whenever we read your feedback.

There are of course concerns and challenges with expanding to an already complex game, and what can be added without making the game unplayable. It is also a fine thread to decide which ones should be behind the paywall and which should be free.

While a fair amount of requests keep coming for more peace activities, that also creates challenges, as if that is too engaging, you will suffer when you end up in unplanned wars, and get a far worse experience.

So what do we want to do with EU4 in the future?

Well, there are some parts of the world we want to add more unique flavor to. I am fairly happy with Europe, and we’ve done quite a lot of focus on mechanics for the New World, but there are areas like East Asia, India & Middle East which deserve far deeper looks in the future. With unique flavor I mean things like Dutch Republic, Nahuatl Religion, Polish Elective Monarchy, HRE Religious League Wars, Hordes Razing Provinces, etc… I envision EU4 in 3 years with far far more difference playing each country in the world.

There are also aspects of the game which we once were happy with, but feel would require are not entirely happy with now. Our technology system, basically hailing from EU1, is based too much around rigid tech groups, punishing nations outside of Europe. We’re not entirely happy with how culture works now, and the diplomatic interface just can’t handle the amount of states and actions we currently have. Can these be changed? Maybe? Time will tell.

Here's a screenshot of something you've never seen before.




Anyway, next week I’m gone on holidays, but Catalack will talk about units for eu4.

Read original post

Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Developer Diary Archives

You can still play with 1.16.3 if you wish. It's available through the BETAS tab as per usual.

Read the patch notes...

You can still play with 1.16.3 if you wish. It's available through the BETAS tab as per usual.

Read the patch notes...

Hello and welcome to another EU4 development diary. There has been a fair amount of bugfixing going on for 1.17, and our current estimated release week is the second week of May, if the gods smile upon us.

One of the many balance things we have done for 1.17 is further tweaks to the covert actions. First of all, instead of having all of the cool unlocks tied to the Espionage idea group, making it a too binary choice, we have moved the unlocks from ideas to tech.

As you can see from this screen, you gain espionage abilities at about every 3rd level, with Agitate for Liberty being late, and stealing maps early in the game.

We have completely changed the Espionage Ideas, removing the unlocks and adding some new more interesting abilities, to create an ideagroup focused on internal strength.

• Efficient Spies: +50% Spy Network Construction & -10% Advisor Costs
  
• Agent Training: +1 Diplomat
  
• Vetting: +33 Foreign Spy Detection, +10% Provincial Trade Power
  
• Additional Loyalist Recruitment: -10 Liberty Desire in Subjects.
  
• Claim Fabrication: 25% Fabricate Claim Cost
  
• Privateers: +25% Embargo Efficiency & +33% Privateer Efficiency
  
• Audit Checks: -0.1 Yearly Corruption

Ambition: +50% Rebel Support Efficiency.

For modders, there’s a new modifier called 'reduced_liberty_desire' which reduces the liberty desire of all your subjects. We primarily use it in the espionage ideas for now, but will probably be applied at more places later on.

We moved the claim fabrication idea from Influence to Espionage. And what did Influence get, well.. They get an idea which increases prestige and heir chance, because monarchies are cool..

Another things we did with spies, was reducing the spy discovered cooldown to 3 months, instead of 5 years.

While the code now supports to put Fabricate Claims behind a tech, it is still going to be allowed from the start of the game, as we have assigned it to tech 0. If a modder wants to put it later in their mod, its very trivial.

There have been some changes to how Claim Fabrication works. First of all, the cost of fabricating a claim is now 30 off your spy network, before other modifiers. If you already have claims on a nation, you cost increases by 10% per claim you have on that nation.

With the threshold of discovery being above 25 in Spy Network, there are now risks with building up a spy network to fabricate claims, unless you have invested into Espionage Ideas, which reduce the cost.

Claims are there to save you from major stability hits when you declare war, and to make it possible to fight wars inside the HRE without the emperor stomping down on you. There is no longer a small reduction in AE when using claim war goals, but it will still be cheaper to take it in dip power.

If you are not eager to directly gain territory yourself, we are working on adding a casus belli which is valid against all your rivals at all time, where you humiliate them, or force them to release nations or return cores.


Oh yeah… The impact from Religious Unity on corruption have dropped from 0.5 to 0.1.

Read original post

Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV Wiki
Developer Diary Archives

Hello and welcome to another EU4 development diary. There has been a fair amount of bugfixing going on for 1.17, and our current estimated release week is the second week of May, if the gods smile upon us.

One of the many balance things we have done for 1.17 is further tweaks to the covert actions. First of all, instead of having all of the cool unlocks tied to the Espionage idea group, making it a too binary choice, we have moved the unlocks from ideas to tech.

As you can see from this screen, you gain espionage abilities at about every 3rd level, with Agitate for Liberty being late, and stealing maps early in the game.

We have completely changed the Espionage Ideas, removing the unlocks and adding some new more interesting abilities, to create an ideagroup focused on internal strength.

• Efficient Spies: +50% Spy Network Construction & -10% Advisor Costs
  
• Agent Training: +1 Diplomat
  
• Vetting: +33 Foreign Spy Detection, +10% Provincial Trade Power
  
• Additional Loyalist Recruitment: -10 Liberty Desire in Subjects.
  
• Claim Fabrication: 25% Fabricate Claim Cost
  
• Privateers: +25% Embargo Efficiency & +33% Privateer Efficiency
  
• Audit Checks: -0.1 Yearly Corruption

Ambition: +50% Rebel Support Efficiency.

For modders, there’s a new modifier called 'reduced_liberty_desire' which reduces the liberty desire of all your subjects. We primarily use it in the espionage ideas for now, but will probably be applied at more places later on.

We moved the claim fabrication idea from Influence to Espionage. And what did Influence get, well.. They get an idea which increases prestige and heir chance, because monarchies are cool..

Another things we did with spies, was reducing the spy discovered cooldown to 3 months, instead of 5 years.

While the code now supports to put Fabricate Claims behind a tech, it is still going to be allowed from the start of the game, as we have assigned it to tech 0. If a modder wants to put it later in their mod, its very trivial.

There have been some changes to how Claim Fabrication works. First of all, the cost of fabricating a claim is now 30 off your spy network, before other modifiers. If you already have claims on a nation, you cost increases by 10% per claim you have on that nation.

With the threshold of discovery being above 25 in Spy Network, there are now risks with building up a spy network to fabricate claims, unless you have invested into Espionage Ideas, which reduce the cost.

Claims are there to save you from major stability hits when you declare war, and to make it possible to fight wars inside the HRE without the emperor stomping down on you. There is no longer a small reduction in AE when using claim war goals, but it will still be cheaper to take it in dip power.

If you are not eager to directly gain territory yourself, we are working on adding a casus belli which is valid against all your rivals at all time, where you humiliate them, or force them to release nations or return cores.


Oh yeah… The impact from Religious Unity on corruption have dropped from 0.5 to 0.1.

Read original post

Useful links
Official Website
Europa Universalis IV 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

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