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Hello everyone and welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. I’m not sure how many times I’ve written these exact words in the last 8 years, but this time it is a special one. It may not be to announce an unprecedented new feature, or to tell you guys that having two consuls in rome is a stupid idea, or anything like that..

Today I’m here to introduce the new team for Europa Universalis IV. This summer we started up and recruited for a new studio based in Barcelona to take care of the game. While Starnan and Neondt having left the team this summer, Groogy is still part of the EU team, working as game designer and programmer with us.

So Paradox Tinto, who are we?

Johan Andersson
I suspect most of you know me by now, but for those who don’t. I’ve been here since 1998 and was one of the founders of Paradox, and ran PDS as Studio Manager for 15 years, and have spent the last 5 years as a creative director there. Now I am here starting up a new studio in a new country, and this is something I’m super-excited about.

Sonia Linares
Hola! I am Sonia Linares, Studio Operations Manager at Paradox Tinto.
I started my career within the Video Games Industry over 11 years ago in Madrid. During all these years, I have worked with a multitude of AAA games and a wide range of development Studios across the globe. I also have been lucky enough to be part of different departments & functions like Publishing Operations, Product Launch, Central Development Services -Age Ratings, Localization, Certification and First Party Submissions- .
I am sure that running Paradox Tinto (Barcelona) with Johan Andersson will be one of the most challenging, enlightening and fun jobs I have ever had!
Other than that I like sports, traveling and I love sweets.

Alexander Ivannikov
Hi, I'm Alexivan. I've been working at PDS for the last 7 years on pretty much all of our projects and my current favourite PDS game is EU4. I feel very lucky and happy to be joining the Tinto team as the new Tech Lead and once again work on EU4.
In my spare time I play a lot of games and watch tons of anime, tv series, and movies. Some of my favourite games outside PDS are factorio, GTA5 MP, Terraria. When it comes to TV I would definitely recommend Watchmen, I love both the movie and the tv series. My anime recommendation for you guys would be Gintama. Leave a comment if you have suggestions on new things for me to check out.

David Horler
Hello, my name is David Horler, and I am the Art Lead at Tinto.
I began at Paradox South way back in 2013, where I worked on 3D art for Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV.
For the last 3 years I've been at Paradox Development Studio, where I started off painting the Imperator: Rome world map. Most recently I was the technical artist on Crusader Kings III, where I got to work a little bit on almost everything artsy, like the environments, to the coats of arms, and the portraits, as well as lots of slightly less artsy behind-the-scenes stuff with our excellent Engine and Tools teams.
I'm a strategy gamer and really into history, so I'm very excited to help set up a new team of GSG-focused artists where we can put into practice everything we've learnt over the last few years.

Verónica Pazos
Hey! I'm Verónica, content designer at Paradox Tinto. I joined the team just a month ago, so my work has mainly consisted of getting to know the workflow and writing lots of flavor text. From now on, I'll be taking part in the design team and I'm really excited about creating a new heresy (and hopefully more content for your favorite countries). I like writing, History and games, so I kind of run out of hobbies coming here.

Jordi Santiago
Hi, I'm Jordi Santiago, gameplay programmer at Paradox Tinto. Me and some of my fellow workers here in Tinto have just joined Paradox, so I'm still getting familiar with code and stuff. Hopefully, I will be soon making your favorite games just a little better.

Adrián González
Hi! I'm Adrián and I've just arrived at Paradox Tinto. I'm a software engineer who will be working as a Gameplay programmer (or whatever is related to code!). Our team has just started and I'm very excited to see what we can build together. If I'm not playing and learning about EUIV, you can find me at Hallownest, Toussaint, or Caed Nua :)

Next week we are getting another content designer, and by the end of October another programmer. We are also recruiting UI & Concept Artists, and an UX Designer!

Building a new team is something that takes time. A programmer, even if he is very skilled with a lot of experience, takes a fair bit of time to learn a codebase, until that person is able to create new features. The same is for designers or artists, as it takes time to understand philosophies and processes. However, we have already working on new things together, and today we’ll show you the first things!

For a long time we have had one of the idea groups you can pick from switch depending on if you are a republic or not. Republics would get plutocracy and the others Aristocracy. Now in the next big update, we’ll have 3 new idea groups that can become available depending on what type of country you play.

Horde Government Ideas
horde_gov_ideas = {
category = MIL

bonus = {
cavalry_power = 0.25
}

trigger = {
has_reform = steppe_horde
}

horse_lords = {
cavalry_cost = -0.33
}
beyond_the_sun = {
ae_impact = -0.1
}
mandate_of_the_khan = {
religious_unity = 0.25
}
there_shall_be_no_grass = {
land_attrition = -0.2
}
horde_loyalty = {
global_unrest = -1
}
watchers_of_the_silk_road = {
caravan_power = 0.20
}
a_magnanimous_empire = {
num_accepted_cultures = 2
}

ai_will_do = {
factor = 20
}
}
Divine Ideas
theocracy_gov_ideas = {
category = MIL

bonus = {
global_heretic_missionary_strength = 0.01
church_loyalty_modifier = 0.1
brahmins_hindu_loyalty_modifier = 0.1
brahmins_muslim_loyalty_modifier = 0.1
}

trigger = {
government = theocracy
}
servants_of_god = {
devotion = 1
}
by_the_grace_of_god = {
fire_damage_received = -0.1
}
friends_in_high_places = {
leader_cost = -0.2
}
flesh_is_weak = {
land_morale = 0.1
}
alpha_and_omega = {
enforce_religion_cost = -0.1
culture_conversion_cost = -0.1
}
conviction_of_sin = {
global_unrest = -2
}
martyrs = {
global_manpower_modifier = 0.15
}
ai_will_do = {
factor = 0.9
modifier = {
factor = 0
has_idea_group = humanist_ideas
}
}
}
Indigenous Ideas
indigenous_ideas = {
category = MIL

bonus = {
global_institution_spread = 0.25
}

trigger = {
has_government_attribute = enables_natives_idea_group
}

indigenous_bountiful_land = {
tribal_development_growth = 0.05
development_cost = -0.05
}
indigenous_irregular_warfare = {
hostile_attrition = 1
}
indigenous_constitution = {
reform_progress_growth = 0.25
}
indigenous_braves = {
land_morale = 0.10
}
indigenous_controlled_burns = {
global_manpower_modifier = 0.2
}
indigenous_trade_with_foreigners = {
idea_cost = -0.1
}
indigenous_treaties = {
province_warscore_cost = -0.2
}

ai_will_do = {
factor = 1.0
}
}

When it comes to policies, these idea groups will be considered as aristocracy. Next week I’m back to talk a lot about some important balance changes we have been doing, with galleys, marines and other important things.

It is that time of year again, time for the Paradox Interactive Strategy Weekend! Get up to 75% off PDX titles and DLC from now till September 28th. The perfect time to round out a collection or get started on a new game!

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Hey everyone! Today is the last day of us talking about the native americans and the rework they are getting. We’ll be talking about the changes to the Federations and the new world setup. As you’ll see on the pictures for the map, a lot of tags have been split up in order to represent federations properly. A prime example is the Iroquois who will now be several tags and start in a federation at game start.

So let’s start with how to form them. Since we are splitting up the federal tags like the Huron and Iroquois I still wanted to retain some kind of identity for them. As such when you invite the first member to form a federation with you, you get the opportunity to also name the Federation. There are some default options scripted that can be based on Tags and Cultures which it will suggest for you, but you can of course just write whatever you want here.

We’ve also redone how leadership of the federation is decided. It is no longer decided on the death of the monarch of the leader in the tribe, instead we measure a cohesion value of the Federation. This value changes each month depending on the composition of the Federation but also some external factors. Keep in mind that any numbers & values are work in progress!

If cohesion hits 0% then it will trigger a change in leadership. In order to keep the cohesion high you want to keep similar cultures within your federation, however having one or two of a separate culture group won’t really be problematic. Another source of loss of cohesion is also if there are members that are stronger than the leader. For later in the game to help you keep a large federation together, if you have any colonizers on your border it will help you keep it together by having an external threat increasing your cohesion.

If a leadership change is triggered it will try to pick the strongest member to be the new leader, if the leader is the strongest then the federation will be disbanded. This entire process is 100% done in script, from calculation of members strength to what happens during leadership change. Currently for testing the strength is calculated from the max manpower of members and is done as a scripted function with an effect and looks like this:
Code:
calculate_federation_member_strength = {
effect = {
export_to_variable = { which = our_manpower value = max_manpower who = THIS }
set_variable = { which = federation_strength which = our_manpower }

}
}

Here’s the current list of values that affect your cohesion

• -1 For every member not of leaders culture group
  
• +1 For every member of leaders culture group
  
• -1 For every member stronger than the leader
  
• +1 for neighboring hostile Europeans

The aim here is to make Federations more something you can count on, instead of having to try and keep your prestige high or stack diplomatic reputation at all times just in case your leader at some random point dies, you can now count on it instead and try to plan around what you need to do in order to keep the leadership position.


Now I’m going to hand it over to a member of our beta program. @Evie HJ who have done the excellent work of reforming North America’s setup making it a much more vibrant and interesting place.

It's a whole (new) New World we live in

The setup for North America hasn’t really changed much at all since the release of Art of War, almost ix years ago – and, as far as the list of playable countries is concerned, since Conquest of Paradise even earlier. The new changes to the Native game mechanics in this patch provided a perfect opportunity to take a new look at a region that has remained largely untouched for a long time.

In some ways, this overhaul is our most ambitious review of the North American setup to date. The province count does fall short of Art of War (though fifty-three new provinces, not counting wastelands, is nothing to sneeze at), but the list of new tags is more than we ever added to North America at any single time. In fact, with fifty-six new tags, we’re adding more North American tags in this one overhaul than we have in the entire history of the Europa Universalis franchise.

Those tags are not evenly spread out across the continent. Two regions (the South-East United States and the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence) get the lion’s share of the tags. Others like the Great Plains or Hudson Bay, get a handful of provinces or tags. The West Coast, for its part, where we know almost nothing of Indigenous people before the last century or so of the game, was entirely outside the scope of this overhaul. This applies to the provinces as well as the tags: in broad terms, we tried to add provinces in the same general region we were adding tags, to keep the amount of empty (or tribal land) provinces roughly similar.

With twenty-one new tags, it is the South-East United States that receive the most work in this new overhaul. The reason is simple: up until now, the 1444 setup in the game represented the historical situation around 1600-1650. The first 150 years of the game – a time when the last great cities of the Mississippian civilizations flourished in the region (the more northern city, like Cahokia, were likely abandoned by 1444)– were left out entirely. This was the first thing we set out to fix, and the new setup, as a result, emphasize the situation that early European explorers and archaeologists tell us about – not English colonists two centuries later. By and large, most of those new tags are settled nations, and (except the Cherokee) all belong to the Muskogean culture group. This is a compromise for some of them: while they spoke Siouan languages like Catawba, they were heavily influenced by the Southern Appalachian Mississippian culture, and it’s those cultural ties we chose to emphasize.

In the new setup, the Creek Confederacy is no longer available at game start, and the Cherokee are reduced to a one-province statelet in the mountains. In their stead, the Coosa Paramount Chiefdom is now the major power of the region. Though a one-province nation in itself, it rules through a network of subject states (Satapo, an area stretching from the Kentucky border to Alabama along the spine of the Appalachians. Surrounding it are a number of smaller, independent chiefdoms, including both sites visited by the De Soto expedition (Altamaha, Cofitachequi, Joara, Ichisi, Chisca, as well as Atahachi, the future home of Chief Tuscaloosa) and of Muskogean towns that would eventually form the seeds of the future Creek Confederacy, like Coweta and Kasihta. Further west, in the valleys of the Mississippi, they are joined not only by more of the chiefdoms documented by De Soto, (Quizquiz, Anilco, Pacaha and Casqui, the last three corresponding to the Menard-Hodges, Nodena and Parkin Mound archaeological sites), but also by the Natchez people, who would, in later century, become the last tribe to embrace Mississippian culture.

Further north, our other focus region was the Great Lakes of North America. Here, the main concern was nothing to do with our setup representing the wrong date (except along the Saint Lawrence, where the Iroquoians of the sixteenth century were mysteriously missing), and everything to do with the fact that the two most famous (con)federations of natives, the Hurons and Iroquois, were represented as monolithic nations with no use for the in-game Federation mechanism. Once it was decided to represent each of the nations making up those two confederations independently, adding in the other relevant nations in the region was an obvious choice. As with the United States South-East, these are largely settled nations of Iroquoian cultures, although a handful of them are migratory instead.

This gives us a sizeable five new nations where the one Iroquois tag used to be: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca (plus, starting much further south at game start but not forgotten, the Tuscarora). Opposing them are the less well-known member nations of the Huron Confederacy: Tahontaenrat, Arendaronon, Attignawantan and Attigneenongnahac. In addition to them, we have a selection of minor Iroquoian nations that can struggle to strike the right balance to remain neutral between these two powerful Confederacies. This notably include the aptly named Neutral Nation (Attiwandaron), as well as the Tionontate (or Tobacco Indians), the Wenro of far western New York, and the Erie of Northwest Pennsylvania (plus the already existing Susquehannock). As the last two (Erie, Susquehannock) represent nations that claimed large territory but with very little united government, they are represented as migratory nations. You can think of the migration as representing shifting balance of power among the different villages and groups of their respective nations, rather than actual physical relocation. Also represented as migratory are the first two Iroquoian nations ever encountered by European: Stadacona, on the site of present day Quebec City, and Osheaga (Hochelaga), in present Montreal. In their case, leaving them migratory was the simplest way to enable them to potentially vanish from the Saint Lawrence lowlands, as they did in the late sixteenth century.

Our changes didn’t stop at those new areas, though they received the bulk of the changes. Existing tags that represented larger confederations or culture group were split into (some of) their constituent parts: the Illinois are now represented by the Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Peoria, the Shawnee by Chalahgawtha, Kispoko and Hathawekela, and the Puebloan people expanded from Keres and Pueblo to Acoma, Zia, Ohkay Owingeh and Sandiat. In a similar vein, some particularly large groups that used to be represented by a single tag now have additional tags to represent them: this is the case of the Cree, with the addition of the Nehiyaw (Plains Cree) nation, the Ojibwe, who are now additionally represented by the Mississage for their easternmost group and the Nakawe (or Saulteaux) for their western bands, and the Sioux, now expanded to include the Wichiyena (Western Dakota) and Lakota nations. Historical confederations that were lacking some of their members or needing a boost also gained it: the Iron Confederacy gained the Nehiyaw and Nakawe, described above; the Three Fires now add the Mississage to their alliance, and the Wabanaki Confederacy of North-East North America can now count on the help of the Maliseet and Penobscot as well as the pre-existing Abenaki. Finally, three more tags are added on sheer account of their historical importance in the Colonial era, two as allies of New France, one as ally-turned-enemy of New England: the Algonquin of the Ottawa valley, the Innu of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and the Wampanoag of Massachusetts Bay.

Along with all these changes, we finally introduced Wasteland mountain ranges to North America. Not in the Rockies (where the handful of connections already represent major passes through the mountains), but rather, in the East, along the Appalachian mountains. While they may not seem like much today, they were formidable obstacle to westward expansion in colonial time, when it was said that there were only five paths from the East Coast westward that could be taken by large groups of people: around the mountains to the south in the Piedmont of Georgia, through the Cumberland gap on the border of Virginia and Tennessee, through the Cumberland Narrows of western Maryland, the Allegheny gaps of Pennsylvania, and finally through the valley of the Mohawk river, in New York. In addition, through it didn’t allow for east-west travel per se, the Great Valley of the Appalachians was another significant route through the region, running from Alabama to Pennsylvania. All of them are now represented in the game, along with the mountains that bordered them.

We also tried to adopt a somewhat consistent standard in the naming of provinces, and revise province names accordingly. The new standard prefers the self-given names of a Native group (tribe, nation, band…) who lived in the region where we can find one. If none can be found, other options include a name given to a local people by a neighboring tribe (provided it’s not derogatory), or a geographic name in a local Native language. In all cases, we now tend to favor native spelling where we are able to find it, though symbols that are particularly unusual in the standard Latin Alphabet may be set aside or approximated for our players’ benefit.

That’s it for today, as usual I’ll answer questions in the thread however there’s one I want to address yet again as it keeps getting asked and I can’t answer every single time it gets asked. People have asked if these features will be applied to South America or the Siberian Natives etc. It all depends on time, the main focus is to rework the North Americans and if I have time I will make sure it plays nice with others that can also benefit but it is not a priority. Next week will have it’s development diary written by Johan.

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Hey everyone! Today we’ll continue on the native americans that we talked about last week. Last week we covered the migratory mechanics and how they will change. Of course though several nations in North America won’t be migratory and the ones who are can settle down.

I covered a bit that government reforms will be how native americans reform between their different stages. In total there will be 5 categories, which might not sound like a lot but natives will gain at start reform progress quite slowly and the point is for them to reach the end quite quickly by building up. So let’s cover the different government reforms that will be available.

The first two categories of government reforms have some modifiers to them, however there are some unusual ones here. In the first tier under the Chiefdom reform you have the Tribal Development Growth modifier. This modifier increases how much of tribal development you gain each month, regardless if you are migratory or settled. We’ll get to how that’s used for settled tribes. The other interesting modifier is the Oral Tradition reform in the second tier which gives you more reform progress growth, a quite helpful one if you intend to go all the way down to the last reforms.

After those two levels of reforms you will be presented with the option to settle down (if you are migratory). This will enable you to take direct control of the tribal land to grow in and build up your tribe.

Once settled you get the option to modernize through a European sponsor. Just like before you will adopt the sponsor's government type and it will make you adopt the institutions that the Europeans have. However if you don’t want to do that you have another option. If you wait just another level of reform you can pick what you want yourself.

Now if you have somehow stayed migratory the entire way to the end here, you get a special choice to become nomads of the great plains, essentially adopting the lifestyle of the Commanche after European contact.

Here’s a list of all the reforms. Keep in mind things are not final and values given here might change!

Base Reform

• 0.1 Monthly Reform Progress Growth
  
• -25% Land Maintenance Modifier
  
• -1 Diplomatic Upkeep
  
• -50% Institution Spread

Tier 1

• Chiefdom Reform: 0.05 Tribal Development Growth
  
• Federation Reform: 20% Manpower Modifier
  
• Clan Council Reform: -33% Stability Cost modifier

Tier 2

• Martial Tradition Reform: 10% Infantry Combat Ability
  
• Oral Tradition Reform: 10% Reform Progress Growth

Tier 3

• War Band Reform: 15% Land Forcelimit
  
• Settle Down Reform: Stops being migratory

Tier 4

• Codified Power Reform: -2 National Unrest
  
• Trading with Foreigners Reform: Will reform off a European

Tier 5

• Become Monarchy
  
• Become Republic
  
• Become Theocracy
  
• Become Horde

Next up I want to cover buildings. You can build these already as migratory and they’ll move with you as you migrate, but their main use will be by settled tribes that will have more buildings to build. Mainly it’s the old buildings redone and rebalanced a bit but you’ll see some interesting effects to some of these, letting you build up your reform progress gain and tribal development gain as well. Just as with reforms these values are very much work in progress.

Unique Buildings - 200 ducats

• Fortified House: 10 Land Forcelimit
  
• Cermonial Pit: -50% Advisor Cost & +0.2 Reform Progress
  
• Sweat Lodge: 1 Diplomatic Reputation

Expensive Buildings - 200 Ducats

• Palisade: 1 Fort Level
  
• Irrigation: 0.05 Tribal Development Growth

Normal Buildings - 100 Ducats

• Earthwork: 25% Defensiveness
  
• Storehouse: 50% Production Efficiency
  
• Longhouse: 0.1 Reform Progress Gain
  
• Great Trail: 50% Manpower Modifier
  
• Three Sisters Field: 50% Trade Goods modifier

Now you’ve seen how you become a settled tribe, so let’s talk about what you do once you’ve become one. As settled you no longer get tribal development from being migratory, i.e you no longer cause devastation and passively gain tribal development. You instead need to build irrigation in provinces held directly by you to grow your tribe. Though you don’t migrate anymore, this development still resides in your capital.

That is until you decide to settle it into one of the provinces that is considered your tribal land. This will make the land directly owned by you and up to 10 developments will be moved there. This action costs 50 diplomatic monarch points. You can also decide to settle some development into an already settled province if you so want to, same mechanics apply.

Once a province is settled the Europeans can’t just simply colonise it anymore as they could with tribal land and the only way for you to lose control of that now is through a war.

It’s through settling your tribal land, subjugating other tribes while warding off the Europeans that you will grow your nation. All the while dealing with this you invest your resources to develop these provinces so that you can eventually reform and create a nation in the image you want.

I hope you enjoyed the dev diary today. Next one we’ll be covering new federation mechanics & the setup of North America. Cya then!

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Hey everyone! So there’s been quite a few development diaries from @neondt now on South East Asia telling you about the new content we’ll be adding to it, a region that had gotten a bit missed by us over the years and which very much needed some love from us. I am going to do the exact same, but an entirely different region that I have always wanted to do better than how it currently is.

I have always as a player liked playing the under dogs and as such the Americas have always been some of my favorite places to play in, to fight against the invasion of the Europeans and establishing your own nation in your own image. But the last time we really touched on the North American tribes were in Conquest of Paradise and these mechanics haven’t aged… well. If I would sum up the mechanics today of how it is to play a Migratory tribe it is to “wait”. You wait to migrate, you wait for Europeans, you wait, you wait you wait. So we decided to redo all of these mechanics that came with Conquest of Paradise from the ground up and just make North America a lot more vibrant and fun to play in. This of course will still be part of the Conquest of Paradise DLC so it’s a semi-free change :)

In the coming dev diaries you are going to be getting a lot of work in progress interfaces, so stay with me as my ux skills are not the best. We got a lot to cover so let's get started with the mechanics of how I’ve changed the migratory tribes.

So one thing that did bother me was how we portrayed the migration, the various people of north america didn’t usually migrate from the Appalachian to the Rockies every other decade or so. They had a concept of land that they used and seasonally migrated between, but they did consider it to “belong to them” in some manner. Now we can’t have seasonal migration as it doesn't fit how the game flows but these changes should make it more fun and meaningful to interact with.

First there's tribal ownership of land, this is sort of a semi ownership of the province, it belongs to the tribe but its resources are not being currently fully exploited. People can move in and out of these provinces freely and Europeans can even colonize them. One of the reasons why we haven’t populated the eastern seaboard much has been because it would block European colonization but with this change it allows us to actually fill out North America a bit more. Like let’s say introducing the Mississippi civilizations.

A province can be made into your tribal land by adding it at a cost for 100 Administrative Monarch Power, it also requires you to have migrated to it. If you try to integrate a province that is not connected to your already defined territory it will abandon the previous and start a new home for you at that province.

Coupled with this the migration is no longer a thing that is locked to a cooldown that you press every now and then in order to get some extra mana. Instead the feature has been reworked into something you need to do in order to keep growing as your tribe keeps depleting the natural resources of the current province you are in.

You can migrate to any province that is not directly owned by anyone, that includes into other tribes territories. Migrating currently as I’m writing this costs 50 military monarch points but it’s still up for balance tweaks. For each step though you migrate outside of your territory the cost will double. You can still migrate away to wherever you want and set up a new territory to live there instead but as you won’t be limited by a timer anymore you’ll still be limited by your monarch points.

So why would you want to migrate through? While you stay in a single province the tribe will be causing devastation in that province, until it eventually reaches a 100%. In addition to this each tribe has a tribal development that grows each month little by little as long as the province hasn't reached 100% devastation. The larger the tribe is, the faster the devastation goes up to simulate their increased consumption.

Part of appealing to the fantasy I talked previously about we’ve also redone how reformation works and integrated it into the Government Reform system instead. We’ll talk more about that in a later development diary, but the first step will be to settle your tribe which will enable you to settle your tribal development into several provinces letting you expand and grow stronger. The goal is to also have it possible for you to continue reforming your tribe without settling which will have a unique reward at the end of the tree.

How you gain reform progress is going to be different and something we are currently working on. We won’t be relying on the average autonomy as that won’t make sense and right now we have it mainly comes from buildings (that migrate with you mind you) but as always I am keen to listen to community suggestions :)

Native Tribes will have a new set of CB’s available to them to fit with their new way to fight wars. The migratory peace treaty has been remade to be focused around your tribal territory, you will force out any other migratory tribe that has moved into your land and make them either return home or to any border province of yours. There is also a feud CB against bordering tribes to try and take their territory away from them. And then last a CB that lets you fight off Europeans colonising in your home which will burn their colonies. (Tribes can’t use the burn colony interaction anymore and must use the CB now)

This does it for this development diary. We’ll continue to cover the new ways the native americans work next week. Cya then!

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Good morning! This will be the last in my series of dev diaries about new content coming to South-East Asia. This week we’ll be covering another assortment of countries, with a focus on Lan Xang and Sunda.

Above is the mission tree for Lan Xang, the Land of a Million Elephants. Lan Xang was founded in 1353, in the midst of the collapse of the Khmer Empire. A Lao prince, Fa Ngum, was given an army by the Khmer king and as well as authority to establish a friendly buffer state in modern Laos. Laos was once ruled directly by the Khmer, but the empire was no longer capable of exerting any control over the region. Fa Ngum was successful in his campaigns and carved out the Kingdom of Lan Xang, ultimately becoming even more powerful than the crumbling Khmer empire.

Some highlights for this mission tree:

• Much like in the Vietnamese mission tree, one part of the tree kicks off with the conflict over the one-province nation of Muang Phuan. Owning the province or having it owned by your subject will grant a Subjugation CB against Dai Viet.
  
• The Raid on Cambodia mission grants a Subjugation CB against Khmer.
  
• You’ll have to Subjugate Lan Na using your own means, but once you do you’ll get a Subjugation CB against Ayutthaya.
  
• Last week we talked about the Emerald Buddha mini-mechanic, and Lan Xang is one of the nations that must acquire the Buddha as part of their mission tree. I’ll get into the subsequent mission in just a bit.
  
• I’ll also talk about the Avoid Fragmentation mission below, but essentially it requires surviving intact until 1700.

Lan Xang has also received a couple of tweaks to their national ideas:

• 10% cavalry power increased to 15%
  
• 1% Missionary Strength replaced with 15% Cavalry/Infantry Ratio

LXA can form Siam to get their more extensive mission tree as well as a new set of National Ideas.

I mentioned that I’d talk more about Lan Xang’s religious missions. Above is a new Estate Privilege for the Monastic Orders, available to Lao countries in the Eastern religion group. Lan Xang begins with this privilege in 1444. It greatly increases your Tolerance of Heathens and negates the religious unity penalty of your Animist provinces, but it also significantly increases the Influence of the Monastic Orders and entirely negates the +2 Tolerance of the True Faith from your National Ideas. The Convert the Polytheists mission requires that you revoke this privilege, convert all the Animists in your country, and achieve at least 90% Religious Unity. To help with revoking the privilege, completing the Steal the Emerald Buddha mission grants +20 Monastic Orders Loyalty.

On the topic of religion, here’s the religion mapmode in 1444. Of particular note are all the Animist provinces owned by Lan Xang, the bastion of Mahayana Buddhism in inland Pahang, and the fact that Ligor is now a Siamese Buddhist nation.

I also mentioned Lan Xang’s Avoid Fragmentation mission. Unlike several other countries in the South-East Asia update, this doesn’t refer to a full-fledged Disaster, but instead it’s a series of additional events added to the existing Civil War Disaster if you are playing as Lan Xang.

If during this Disaster pretender rebels occupy either Vientiane, Champassak, or Luang Prabang an event will fire that releases the respective country from their home state as well as the Khorat state for Vientiane and Champassak if you own any of it. If when one of these events fires you do not own the other two cities, instead your tag will change to either Vientiane, Champassak, or Luang Prabang depending on the circumstance. Players will be warned about these events when the Civil War Disaster begins for Lan Xang. You can prevent this from happening by either avoiding the Civil War Disaster, completing the Prevent Fragmentation mission, or forming a different nation (such as Siam).

Now on to a very different nation:

Shown above is the mission tree for Sunda, with unique missions highlighted in red and the rest being the Malay mission tree. The Sunda Kingdom is an ancient realm, surviving through the rise and fall of great empires without ever establishing a hegemony of their own. For nearly all of their shared history, Sunda and Majapahit had excellent relations and recognized each other as equals despite the disparity in strength. This changed when the Majapahit leader Gajah Mada - having vowed to bring all of Nusantara under Majapahit rule - used a royal wedding to declare Majapahit’s supremacy over Sunda. This resulted in the Battle of Bubat in 1357, which Sunda decisively lost. Despite this, Majapahit did not go on to conquer Sunda. Instead, the Majapahit court punished Gajah Mada for his dishonorable actions and stripped him of his power. Sunda survived, but relations between the two states would never recover.

Some highlights from the Sunda mission tree::

• The Consider Islam mission requires owning 4 Sunni provinces and fires an event giving you the opportunity to convert your nation to Sunni Islam, immediately converting several of your provinces. Alternatively you can gain 1% Missionary Strength and +1 Tolerance of the True Faith for the rest of the game while remaining Hindu.
  
• The next mission, Develop New Cities, requires increasing the development of Cirebon, Kalapa, and Banten to 20. This will then fire an event prompting you to relocate your capital: picking Banten or Cirebon will immediately cause you change your nation to Banten or Cirebon. Whichever capital you pick, it will gain +2 additional development in each category and Kalapa will be renamed to Jayakarta.
  
• The Rebuild Candi Temples mission requires owning at least 15 Temple buildings and finding an ally that follows any Buddhist faith. Completing this mission unlocks the Buddha Personal Deity discussed previously.
  
• The Improve Rice Production mission unlocks the Improved Irrigation privilege discussed previously that reduced the development cost of your grain-producing provinces by 10%.
  
• The Legacy of Bubat mission can be completed in two very different ways. One method requires that you become strong enough to guarantee Majapahit - this fires an event that describes a royal wedding between Sundanese and Majapahit royalty, and in a reversal of the betrayal preceding Bubat Sunda will take the opportunity to make Majapahit into a vassal state.
  
• The subsequent Rule Java mission requires directly owning all of Java, and rewards a free Administrative Policy for the rest of the game.
  
• The Conquer Lampung mission rewards Subjugation CB’s against every country with its capital on Sumatra.

Shown above are the missions unique to the Spice Islands of Ternate and Tidore - they’ll also get the Malay mission tree. These nations have the potential to become very rich through a monopoly on the trade in Cloves, a new trade good discussed in a previous dev diary.

Some highlights for Tidore and Ternate:

• The missions begin by tasking you with removing your rival spice traders from the map. Once you accomplish this, an event will fire asking you to select a location for your first colony. This will naturally great a colony in the selected location. Subsequent missions in the leftmost branch require the completion of these colonies and reward additional colonies on completion.
  
• Completing this branch of missions rewards you with +1 Colonist and -50% Native uprising Chance for the rest of the game.
  
• Export Cloves requires being the strongest trade power in the Moluccas node, as well as building to your naval forcelimit. It awards permanent claims on Sulawesi, which you pursue in the Conquer Sulawesi mission.

One last set of missions: Bali! Once again, Bali also receives the Malay mission tree.

• Bali begins as a tributary state of Majapahit, and its first mission requires ending that relationship while not having a truce with Majapahit. Completing this mission rewards you with a free colony on the neighboring island of Lombok. Completing this colony allows you to complete the Expand Eastwards mission, which then rewards an additional colony on Sumbawa and +25 Global Settler Increase for the rest of the game.
  
• The Majapahit Refugees requires that Majapahit either does not exist or is a subject nation. This grants you a massive -80% advisor cost for 20 years, representing the flight of many former Majapahit nobles to Bali. It also awards permanent claims on eastern Java.

Last thing for today: national ideas for the formable nations of Siam and Malaya.
MSA_ideas = {
start = {
global_trade_power = 0.15
land_morale = 0.1
}
bonus = {
ship_durability = 0.1
}
trigger = {
tag = MSA
}
free = yes
settle_the_islands = { # same as malay ideas
global_colonial_growth = 20
}
msa_advanced_galley_warfare = {
galley_power = 0.25
}
msa_expert_haggling = {
trade_efficiency = 0.15
}
msa_chart_the_seas = {
own_coast_naval_combat_bonus = 1
naval_morale = 0.15
}
msa_in_every_port = {
merchants = 1
ship_power_propagation = 0.2
}
msa_sea_nomads_steering = {
trade_steering = 0.25
}
msa_spice_kings = {
global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.1
}
}
Code:
SIA_ideas = {
start = {
land_morale = 0.1
global_manpower_modifier = 0.3
}
bonus = {
discipline = 0.05
}
trigger = {
tag = SIA
}
free = yes
sia_royal_poets = {
prestige = 1
idea_cost = -0.1
}
sia_advanced_elephant_warfare = {
cavalry_power = 0.15
cavalry_fire = 1
}
sia_experienced_ambassadors = {
diplomatic_reputation = 2
}
sia_encourage_immigration = {
development_cost = -0.1
}
sia_integrating_the_realm = {
diplomatic_annexation_cost = -0.2
}
sia_education_reform = {
technology_cost = -0.1
}
sia_royal_absolutism = {
yearly_absolutism = 1
legitimacy = 1
}
}
That’s all for today! This concludes the 8-part series of development diaries on content for South-East Asia. There are a few things I've done that haven't been featured in dev diaries and there's a possibility of more content for the region being added before release, so don't take these dev diaries as a completely exhaustive list of all SEA content. This content update for South-East Asis is something I’ve wanted to work on for a few years now and I’m very happy that I was able to see my vision realized before the end of my time on the project. I hope you enjoyed reading. Thank you and goodbye!

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A word from PDX about the next patch

Good morning! Today’s dev diary will focus on Pegu but will also feature a variety of nations in Mainland South-East Asia - namely Lan Na, Sukhothai, the Shan states, the Burman nations, and the highland tribes.

Restore the Mon hegemony in the South-East Asia update

Pegu is the last independent Mon kingdom at the start of the game, and besides a brief period of restoration in the 1700’s it would be the last sovereign Mon state ever to exist. The Mon people and culture were once the dominant force in what is now Myanmar and Thailand, but the Thai migrations and subsequent establishment of kingdoms such as Sukhothai, Lan Na, and Ayutthaya as well as the rise of Bamar kingdoms like Pagan and Ava forced the Mon to retreat to what is now Lower Burma. In 1444 Pegu is ruled by Binnya Ran, and he and his successors (including the celebrated Queen Shin Sawbu) would preside over Pegu’s golden age of peace and prosperity.

Binnya Ran and his heir Binnya Waru have had their monarch stats significantly increased. Their stats are now 3/5/4 and 4/2/3 respectively, making Pegu a stronger contender at the start of the game.

Some highlights from the Pegu mission tree:

• The Rebuild Saghuin mission requires 20 development in both Pegu and Martaban. You will be rewarded with an upgrade to your Center of Trade in Pegu, while Martaban is renamed to Sahuin and given a permanent discount to its development cost.
  
• Further missions down this branch focus on gaining trade dominance in the Burma and Malacca nodes, rewarding Navy Tradition and Mercantilism along the way.
  
• Resist the Burmans requires that you own or vassalize Taungu and Prome, as well as have a larger army than Ava. This grants permanent claims on Ava as well as a Subjugation CB against Lan Na.
  
• The Restore Hariphunchai mission is where you make use of your CB against Lan Na. You must own or have a subject own all of the Chiang Mai area. If you complete this mission by vassalizing Lan Na, its primary culture will change to Mon and it will be renamed to Hariphunchai, an ancient Mon kingdom centered around modern Lamphun. You’ll also receive a Subjugation CB against Ayutthaya.
  
• Similarly to the mission above, Reconquer Dvaravati tasks you with conquering or subjugating Ayutthaya. If you do this by vassalizing Ayutthaya, its primary culture changes to Mon and its name changes to Dvaravati, an ancient civilization that spoke the Mon language. You will also receive a permanent -25% Culture Conversion Cost modifier that will help you with the next mission in this branch.
  
• The Mon Resettlement mission requires spreading the Mon culture to at least 30 owned provinces, restoring the ancient Mon cultural hegemony in the region. You’ll be rewarded with 50 Prestige and -10% Technology cost for the next 50 years.
  
• This mission tree has a variety of requirements and effects that I can’t talk about yet as they involve unrevealed code features that may or may not ultimately make it into the game.
  
• Completing the “final” mission - The Golden Land - gives the option of adopting the Chakravarti reform discussed in previous dev diaries, as well as changing your government rank to Empire and adding 100 of each Monarch Power. Your country will also be renamed to Ramannadesa, representing a shift from the Mandala system to a nation-state.

Besides their mission tree, Pegu also receives a couple of new events that I’ll let speak for themselves:


Since we’re talking about Pegu, the Sailor Mon achievement should be a little easier now: I’ve added a new tier 3 government reform available to all countries in the Thai, Burman, or Cambodian culture groups called Corvée System. This reform adds +10% National Manpower and -10% Construction cost, and also modifies your Docks and Barracks buildings so that they immediately grant 1000 manpower or 200 sailors upon completion.

Also somewhat relevant to Pegu is this:

I’ve indicated before that I intended to revise the trade routes for the Siam node, and here it is. Now both Canton and Burma flow into Siam, while the Burma node is significantly improved with the addition of Lower Burma. Pegu will now have a much easier time dominating the Burma trade node, while players in the Siam node finally steer trade from China and Burma into their home node.

Next up, Lan Na:

In the South-East Asia update Lan Na will receive a small mission tree aimed primary at forming Siam, which requires owning Chiang Mai, Sukhothai, and Ayutthaya.

A Million Rice Fields unlocks the Advanced Irrigation estate privilege just like Khmer, giving -10% development cost in grain-producing provinces. Protect the Shrine refers to a minor but in my opinion pretty cool scripted mechanic called The Emerald Buddha:

The Emerald Buddha functions as a permanent province modifier, initially present in Lan Na’s capital of Chiang Mai. This modifier provides your country with +0.1 Monthly Karma, and a decision is available to renovate the shrine for a cost and reverse the effect so that it instead provides -0.1 Monthly Karma depending on your current needs. You can switch the bonus back and forth endlessly so long as you can afford the cost. Historically the Emerald Buddha changed hands several times in our period, being appropriated by Lan Xang and eventually Ayutthaya. In EU4, any country in the Eastern religion group can seize the Emerald Buddha for themselves by occupying its present location. Losing control of the Buddha hits you with -20 Prestige and -10 Legitimacy, so you probably want to guard this sacred relic closely. This gives Buddhist players a new way to control their Karma and encourages competition over control of the Buddha.

Next up, Sukhothai:

Sukhothai receives only a very small set of missions, and like Lan Na’s missions they are essentially focused on acquiring the provinces you need to form Siam (and thereby get access to a much larger mission tree). But that’s not all for Sukhothai:

In 1444 the ruler of Sukhothai is Trailok, a prince of Ayyuthaya appointed as governor of the once-independent realm. Trailok would go on to become King of Ayutthaya, and this is now handled by and event in EU4. When Ayutthaya gets Trailok as its ruler, the above event fires and typically Ayutthaya will simply inherit Sukhothai. However, if Sukohthai is in player hands the event works very differently. The player can choose to make Ayutthaya into a vassal, separate from Ayutthaya entirely, or (the mechanically best option) make Ayutthaya into a vassal and gain control of the western part of their territory.

Now let’s look at the Shan states:

A colleague affectionately referred to the Shan missions as a “mission stick”. While it consists of only 2 missions, they pack a punch and can allow you to expand in a unique way. The first mission requires that all countries with Shan primary culture are either your ally or your vassal. Additionally, a total of 15 provinces must be owned by countries with Shan primary culture and you must have the largest army of all Shan-cultured countries. When you complete this mission, you immediately integrate all of the other Shan states and gain permanent claims on any Shan culture provinces that you do not own after the integration. You will also form the Shan tag and gain a Subjugation CB against Ava. This represents the formation of the Confederation of Shan States, led by Mong Yang, which banded together to defeat Ava in 1527. The Shan Domination mission requires subjugating or conquering Ava, and rewards permanent claims on all of Burma. Additionally, if Ava is your vassal at the time of completion it will change its primary culture to Shan and its ruler will be replaced by a prince of your dynasty. The Shan States can form Siam for access to their larger mission tree.

The Taungu mission tree has been slightly reworked so that it is now accessible to Ava and Prome as well as Taungu itself. This tree remains limited to owners of the Dharma expansion.

The Chakravarti mission from this tree has received a couple of notable additional rewards. It now gives you the option to switch to the new Chakravarti government reform discussed in previous dev diaries, as well as cosmetically changing the name of your nation to Burma.

Alright, last thing for today. I hope you’re up for an extreme challenge:

The highland tribes of Rhade, Jarai, and Koho begin with the Stateless Society reform. This gives them a massive 99% penalty to their governing capacity, making it almost impossible for them to expand. To make things worse, they are all Animist tribes that have not embraced feudalism and are not tributaries of Ming. Their only advantage is high starting morale and very defensible capitals. Play these tags if you fear nothing and love pain. Stateless Societies always reform into Peasant Republics.

That’s all for today! Next week will likely be the final South-East Asian content dev diary, so I’ll try to include as much of the content that I haven’t revealed yet as I can. That’s going to include a look at Lan Xang as well as a variety of nations in Maritime SEA like Sunda and Ternate. Until then, have a good week!

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Good morning! As promised, the focus of today’s dev diary is Vietnam.

In 1444 Dai Viet is a newly independent nation, having won its sovereignty in a bloody war against the occupying Ming Chinese forces through the efforts of Vietnamese national hero Lê Loi. Early campaigns against Champa began a centuries-spanning process of Vietnamese expansion southwards. Dai Viet is now ruled by Lê Loi’s infant grandson Bang Co, though true power resides with Queen Regent Nguyen Thi Anh and Trinh Kha (a 2/3/5/1 General). For all the promise of the early Lê dynasty, the seeds of its undoing were already present; the immense power that would be hoarded by the Nguyen, Trinh, and Mac families would divide the nation multiple times throughout our period.

Shown above is the new Vietnamese mission tree available to Dai Viet, Annam, and Tonkin. Some highlights:

• Like other nations in this update, Dai Viet receives many Subjugation CBs through its mission rewards. Dai Viet gets Subjugation CB’s on Lan Xang, Lan Na, Khmer, and Ayutthaya. They later get permanent claims on Burma.
  
• The rightmost mission branch begins with the Rule Muang Phuan mission. Muang Phuan is a small semi-independent nation in the strange position of being guaranteed by both Lan Xang and Dai Viet, while also being a tributary of Ming. You can either try to diplomatically vassalize Muang Phuan or ignite the powder keg of war with Lan Xang by launching an invasion.
  
• The Defy Ming mission can allow you to steal the Ming subject Yue during their Crisis Disaster, so it may be worthwhile to time completion opportunistically. The mission also reduces Ming’s Mandate by 20, so again it pays to be opportunistic and complete the mission when you’re ready to engage them on the battlefield.
  
• Completing the Claim the Mandate mission fires an event that allows you to cosmetically change your nation’s name. You can choose between Viet Nam, Dai Nam, or stick with Dai Viet.
  
• The Purchase Western Arms mission requires having strong relations with a European power present in the East Indies, and rewards a permanent -30% Artillery Cost and +10% Siege Ability.
  
• The Faith and Learning mission requires constructing many Temples and achieving high religious unity. If you are playing a Confucian nation this rewards a large permanent bonus to your Harmonization Speed, else it permanently reduces your Idea Cost by 5%.
  
• The State Education mission requires the construction of Universities, and adds Institution progress to your capital for each Institution that is active but not yet fully present in the capital.
  
• The Imperial Citadel mission does something I can’t talk about yet, but also gives you the opportunity to move your capital to Hue, or else rename Dong Kinh to Hanoi.

I’ve excluded the four missions in the top left part of the mission tree because they deserve a bit more elaboration and they’re tied to some additional content for Dai Viet.

These four missions are aimed at preventing exactly the scenario seen above. The player must consolidate the power of the state and curtail the power of the powerful noble families, or else they will eventually make a major power grab and divide the country in two. A new Disaster, called the Northern and Southern Dynasties, can fire after the Age of Discovery when Dai Viet has a particularly incompetent ruler. By following the mission tree this disaster is relatively easy to avoid, but if you do decide to play through it you can choose whether to side with the northern or southern faction. Historically this happened twice at different times during the period, but in EU4 it can only happen once, with slightly different effects depending on when it happens. The northern dynasty, represented by the Tonkin tag, is ruled by the Mac dynasty if the Disaster fires during the Age of Reformation and by the Nguyen dynasty in later Ages. The southern dynasty, represented by the Annam tag, is controlled by Lê loyalists in the Age of Reformation, and afterwards by the Trinh family (descendants of Trinh Kha). Land is divided between the north and south of the country, and even includes dividing subject nations between the two contenders for the throne - so if for example Dai Viet had vassalized Ming and Khmer, Ming would go to the northern dynasty while Khmer would go to the southern dynasty. Dai Viet is now reformable by both of these breakaway nations.

So, how do you avoid all this? The four missions required to do are as follows:

• Dai Viet begins with a new generic Estate Privilege for the Nobility called Control of the Army. This privilege greatly increases Nobility influence, increases Leader Cost, adds additional Nobility influence whenever you recruit a leader, and adds a little monthly Army Tradition (it’s not all bad). The Control the Army mission requires you to revoke this privilege while building to 100% of your land force limit.
  
• The Curtail the Nobility mission requires reducing the influence of the Nobility estate while holding at least 50% Crown Land.
  
• The Restore Examinations mission refers to the Confucian examination system employed by China, Vietnam, and Korea throughout various points of their respective histories. State officials must complete a series of examinations that test their knowledge of Confucian literature and statecraft before they can assume office, a system that was at least theoretically meritocratic as the examinations were open to all. You must enact The Examination System government reform (shown below) while also employing any 3 advisors without running a deficit.
  
• Prevent Division simply requires you to own Dai Viet’s core territories, have 2 stability, and for neither Tonkin nor Annam to exist. Completing this mission prevents the Northern and Southern Dynasties disaster from ever happening, and rewards -10% Stability Cost Modifier for the rest of the game.

I mentioned The Examination System above, which is a new government reform that increases your Advisor Pool by 1 and reduces Nobility Influence by 10%. This reform is available to any nation that either has the Celestial Empire or Confucian Bureaucracy reform. Confucian Bureaucracy is yet another new government reform, initially granted to both Dai Viet and Korea in 1444. This reform reduces your Advisor Costs by 10% and is available to nations that have either Confucian religion or Vietnamese primary culture. Dai Viet's government had more in common with Chinese administrations than with the mandala-style governments of the rest of South-East Asia, while characterizing Korea's government as an "Autocracy" felt inadequate; the Confucian Bureaucracy reform kills two birds with one stone in this sense.

On the topic of culture, I’ve altered the culture group setup in the region since I last talked about it. The Tai group contains countries that could sensibly form the nation of Siam, and since Siam is very much a focus for the update and an “historical winner” of the period it feels appropriate for them to have a strong culture group. Northern Thai is back but renamed to Khon Muang. Khmer is left on its own, again appropriate given that this period is very much a dark age for Khmer civilization. The Vietnamese culture, on the other hand, has been “buffed” by moving it into the Chinese group. This allows Dai Viet to hold the Mandate of Heaven without penalty and eases expansion into China on the way to achieving that goal. Miao is now in the Tibetan group, which was done less because it really fits into that group and more to move it out of the Chinese group. Cham has been returned to the Malay group, which gives it access to the Malay mission tree in addition to its own unique mission branches, which you can see below.

Some highlights from the Cham mission tree:

• The Reconquer Indrapura mission tasks you with reconquering the two provinces to your north. On completion both provinces become Cham culture, and Shunhua is renamed to Kandarapura.
  
• Completing the Conquer Vietnam mission rewards -20% Culture Conversion Cost for the rest of the game.
  
• Completing Subjugate the Highlands grants a Subjugation CB against the weakened Khmer Empire.
  
• The Malay Connections mission requires that you have a moderately powerful Sunni ally in the Malaya region, such as Malacca. On completion you are offered an opportunity to convert to the Sunni faith.
  
• The Expedition to Tondo mission requires conquering parts of Luzon and having a Colonist from any source. It grants +25% Colonial Range for the rest of the game, encouraging an early exploration of the Americas.

That’s all for this week! Since I’ve decided to take a short vacation this week, I may not be around to answer questions - or at least not as quickly. For the same reason next week’s dev diary may be a little shorter and focus on some of the minor nations we haven’t talked about yet like Lan Na and the Shan states.

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Good morning! In today’s dev diary we’ll be taking a look at three nations in Maritime South-East Asia: the Sultanates of Brunei, Malacca, and Aceh. Each of these nations founded successful empires during our period, and each has a unique set of national ideas and missions.


Mission trees for Malay nations other than Majapahit are split into 4 sections. In red are missions unique to that country, in this case Malacca. In green and blue are missions available to all Malay nations, and in purple are missions available only after forming Malaya.
The Malacca Sultanate is a descendent of the Srivijaya Kingdom which dominated Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula prior to the rise of Majapahit. Malacca won the favor of Ming China during the period of Zheng He’s voyages, which set the rising city-state up to be a serious contender to Majapahit’s hegemony. By 1444 Malacca is the richest city-state in the Malay world due to its maritime control over the straits. Malacca would go on expand further on the Malay Peninsula and even onto Sumatra, before ultimately succumbing to Portuguese invasion in 1511.

Malaccan missions reflect their expansion path and diplomatic ties. Some highlights:

• Wherever appropriate, Subjugation CB’s are awarded instead of permanent claims
  
• If you complete the Subjugate Pahang mission by vassalizing Pahang, they will get a ruler of your dynasty, reduced liberty desire, and their religion will be changed from Mahayana to your religion.
  
• Malacca is no longer a Ming tributary in 1444. Though in theory they maintained their relations, in reality Ming had largely abandoned its interests in the region. The Emissary to the Emperor mission allows you to restore your special relationship with Ming China.
  
• Befriend Champa ties in with one of Champa’s missions - Champa needs to make a Sunni friend in Maritime SEA which gives them the option to convert to Sunni. Completing this mission grants a Subjugation CB against Champa’s greatest enemy: Dai Viet.
  
• The mission Make a Show of Force requires having a superior army to both Majaphit and Siak. By demonstrating your superiority over their old overlords, Siak will willingly become your vassal.
  
• The Develop Malacca mission can upgrade Malacca’s Center of Trade to level 3 after you improve its development and construct buildings in the province - including a Fort to repel the pesky Portuguese.
  
• Loyal subjects grants -10 Liberty Desire in all your subjects until the end of the game.
  
• Destroy Majapahit, as you might imagine, requires Majapahit to entirely cease to exist as well as for Malacca to gain a foothold on Java. Completing this mission awards a version of Majapahit’s unlimited subjugation CB: the Malacca Campaigns CB can be used against any country in the Malay culture group and the warscore cost for vassalization is reduced by 25%.

Malaccan national ideas allow them to truly dominate the spice trade and get the most out of their vassals.
MLC_ideas = {
start = {
global_trade_power = 0.1
naval_forcelimit_modifier = 0.33
}
bonus = {
merchants = 1
}
trigger = {
tag = MLC
}
free = yes
mlc_vassal_princes = {
reduced_liberty_desire = 10
vassal_income = 0.25
}
mlc_maritime_laws = {
global_ship_trade_power = 0.2
}
mlc_new_hegemony = {
diplomatic_reputation = 1
}
mlc_islamic_sultanate = {
tolerance_own = 1
}
mlc_habor_masters = {
trade_steering = 0.2
num_accepted_cultures = 1
}
mlc_daulat = {
legitimacy = 1
}
mlc_jawi_script = {
idea_cost = -0.1
}
}

The Aceh Sultanate wouldn’t reach its apex until the reign of Iskandar Muda in 1583, but it’s available to play from 1444. Aceh’s missions and national ideas are also available to neighboring Pasai, which was richer and more dominant in our start date. Iskandar Muda’s conquests would gain Aceh an empire spanning most of the Sumatran coast as well as parts of the Malay Peninsula. Perhaps the most important contribution of the Aceh region to history is its status as the Porch of Mecca, the most prominent hub of Islam in Maritime SEA.

Aceh’s mission tree follows their historical conquests of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, but more interestingly it also encourages the player to spread Islam across the region. Some highlights:

• Completing the Porch of Mecca mission allows you to use the Propagate religion trade policy with only 35% trade power in a node (down from 50%), and also unlocks the Sword of Islam CB, which allows the Force Religion peace treaty against nations with Sumatran primary culture. This CB evolves as you continue to spread your faith across the islands, gaining the ability to target Javanese, Sundanese, Moluccan, and Sulawesi cultures. Completing this branch of the mission tree allows you to use the Sword of Islam CB against any neighboring heathen country.
  
• Hindus and Buddhists in the Malay culture group now have a decision to convert to Sunni Islam if it becomes their dominant religion. This gives Aceh the option to spread their faith through peaceful trade or by military force; the choice is yours.

Acehnese national ideas reflect the focus on trade, navy-driven conquest, and religious conversion:
ATJ_ideas = {
start = {
global_ship_cost = -0.1
global_missionary_strength = 0.02
}
bonus = {
production_efficiency = 0.1
}
trigger = {
OR = {
tag = PSA
tag = ATJ
}
}
free = yes
export_economy = {
global_trade_power = 0.1
}
islamise_sumatra = {
missionary_maintenance_cost = -0.25
}
rise_of_aceh = {
province_warscore_cost = -0.1
}
military_adventures = {
naval_morale = 0.15
}
porch_of_mecca = {
technology_cost = -0.10
}
acehnese_moneylending = {
interest = -1
}
settle_the_islands = { # same as malay ideas
global_colonial_growth = 20
}
}

Brunei is a renegade Sultanate, breaking away from Majapahit rule while also avoiding an uncomfortably close relationship with Ming China. The Bruneian Empire would grow to encompass the entire coast of Borneo as well as parts of the Philippines, and was able to resist repeated attempts at European domination long after many of its peers had fallen.

Brunei’s missions lead them to unite Borneo under their rule, and also on a campaign of conquest in the Philippines. The missions Impress Manilla and Impress Sulu vassalize those nations if you can maintain good relations with them, regardless of whether they’d normally accept vassalization. Many of Brunei’s missions also add a province modifier to uncolonized provinces that make them much faster to colonize, hastening their unification of the islands.

Brunei’s national ideas emphasize their dominant navy and diplomatic prowess:
BEI_ideas = {
start = {
land_morale = 0.1
global_ship_cost = -0.1
}
bonus = {
ship_durability = 0.1
}
trigger = {
tag = BEI
}
free = yes
bei_galleys = {
galley_power = 0.2
}
bei_sea_nomads = {
global_sailors_modifier = 0.2
}
bei_diplomacy = {
diplomatic_reputation = 1
}
bei_vassals = {
reduced_liberty_desire = 10
}
settle_the_islands = { # same as malay ideas
global_colonial_growth = 20
}
bei_naval_prowess = {
naval_morale = 0.15
}
bei_trade = {
trade_efficiency = 0.1
}
}

One last thing for today - last week I showed off some new Estate Privileges, but there is one I didn’t show that is exclusive to countries with their capital in the Malaya region. The Orang Laut were (and still are) groups of maritime nomads who extensively engaged in trade with the Malay kingdoms. They were often employed to divert trade to certain ports and to deter pirates, and would grant their allies lands and titles on the islands within their domain. This is in fact how the Malacca Sultanate got its start - Seri Teri Buana, a Srivijayan prince, was granted the small Kingdom of Singapura (modern Singapore) by the Orang Laut, a polity which would eventually become the Malacca Sultanate. Malacca begins with the Orang Laut Alliances estate privilege.

And that’s all for this week! Next week’s dev diary will be a focus on Vietnam, including the new mission trees for Dai Viet and Champa.

Click here to read on Paradox Plaza

Good morning! Welcome to another South-East Asian themed dev diary. This week we’re focusing on the Khmer Empire.

Khmer was once the dominant power in Mainland South-East Asia. Ruling from the mighty capital of Angkor, the empire encompassed most of modern Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. Due to a combination of factors which may have included plagues, ecological issues, and the decision to change the state religion from Hinduism to Theravada Buddhism the empire fell into decline starting from the 14th Century. Thai and Lao powers broke away from the periphery of the kingdom and established their own domains. In 1431, the killing blow was struck by Ayutthaya with the sack of Angkor. The Khmer empire would never recover from this final defeat. The period following the sack of Angkor has been called the Dark Age of Cambodia, and neatly corresponds to the EU4 timeframe.



Like Majapahit, Khmer begins the game in a Disaster. The Dark Age of Cambodia is a lot less punishing than Majapahit’s situation in that there are no additional events that break up the country or spawn rebellions, but you need to contend with a hefty 25% increase to all power costs (as always, numbers presented in dev diaries are not final). Your priorities will have to be on consolidation and reconstruction rather than expansionism.



Khmer can end their decline and restore the glory of their old empire through their new missions tree. They’ll need to restore their old capital of Angkor, achieve some degree of religious unity, and improve the development of their more rural provinces. When this is achieved the disaster ends and Khmer can truly begin restoring its empire.

Some additional highlights:

• The Second Golden Age mission rewards -25% powers costs and -33% culture conversion cost for 20 years, compensating for the lost monarch points during the disaster.
  
• The Enlightened Rule mission enacts the Chakravarti government reform discussed in previous dev diaries.
  
• Around half of the mission tree is focused on military expansion, and like Ayutthaya’s mission tree these missions reward Subjugation CB’s against your targets.
  
• The Restore the Empire mission increases your government rank to Empire.
  
• The Invade Burma mission grants +0.5 Army Tradition for the rest of the game.
  
• The Overseas Adventures mission has you invading Borneo and being rewarded with a permanent +1 Yearly Navy Tradition.

Above you can see four new estate privileges, with effects that should be fairly self-explanatory. Brahmins at Court functions essentially the same as the Brahmin privilege for Indian Muslims. This privilege as well as Advanced Irrigation Techniques are only available to specific nations, including Khmer, and are unlocked through their mission trees. Monastic Temples is available to all Buddhists and provides a new way to control your Karma, while Tropical City Planning is available to all countries in the Chinese or Indian tech groups and offsets the penalties for developing and colonizing in Tropical provinces.

That’s all for today! Next week we’ll take a look at the maritime Sultanates of Malacca, Brunei, and Aceh. And I think the week after that will be Vietnam. There's still plenty of content to show off, so make sure to catch up with weekly dev diaries.