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After a few weeks without Dev Diaries, I am happy to present you a new one. I hope you all had a great time during them!

When I joined Paradox in October, Polynesia was not included in this Expansion. Considering it was the last part of the Earth without representation, I thought it would be nice to have some work done on it, so I proposed some ideas that I am happy to share with you all.

But, before I start, I would like to thank @Mechaffinity for his help and work that has greatly inspired me for this project.

THE MAP
The map has been slightly changed, since the basic needed setup was already there. However, in order to go a bit deeper, a few provinces have been added here and there. Do note that the flags are still a placeholder and not the final result.

Starting with Fiji, the archipelago has been divided in three provinces: one for each big island (Viti Levu and Vanua Levu) and a third one for the Lau archipelago that had a great influence from Tonga. Each province has a country inhabiting it, which is an abstraction of the many clans that populated each island. Should you unite them all under your banner, you will be able to form Viti.

In New Zealand a new province has been added in North Island which has the most populated one by the Maori people. The number of countries, though, goes up to 7. Six of them (Mataatua, Tainui, Takitimu, Taranaki, Te Arawa and Te Tai Tokerau) are in the Northern Island and Waitaha is in the Southern One. As in the case of Fiji, a Maori country that manages to unite the area is able to form Aotearoa.

Finally, the greatest transformation has been done in the Hawaiian Archipelago, that has gone from one province to four. Each province has their own country attached (Hawai’i, Kaua’i, Maui and O’ahu). As in the other cases, there is a formable for the unifiers of the islands.

A Polynesian rework could not let the two most important countries out: Samoa and Tonga.

THE MISSIONS
As in the case of the Americas, the mission tree consists of a general common mission tree for every country and some specific missions for each country or group of them.

[Tonga Mission Tree]
(Notice that all icons are still placeholders)​

Tonga is probably the most important TAG during this period. Despite the fact that the Tongan Empire is no more, a skillful player could rebuild it, bringing not only the neighboring islands under the control of Tongatapu, but go even further.

Some highlights of this tree include:

• Bringing both Fiji and Samoa under your control again.
  
• Recovering the Tongan Empire.
  
• Expand even further.

[Samoan Mission Tree]
(Notice that all icons are still placeholders).​

If Tonga was the political power during the period, Samoa was the cultural one. Most of the Pacific was colonized from there and from there were most of the traditions that ruled the lives of the Polynesians.

Some highlights of this tree include:

• Recover the place as the cultural center.
  
• Challenge Tonga.
  
• Replace Tonga as the main power in the Pacific.

In order to not spoil the surprise, I will let you discover what the missions for the Maori the Fijian and the Hawaiian countries consist of.

THE NATIONAL IDEAS
Adding new TAGs would not be the same if they were not accompanied by their National Ideas.

Starting with the Fijians TAGs, their warring nature brought them a reputation of ruthless combatants, feared by everyone. But Fijians were also deeply religious people and famous shipbuilding artisans. All these things are represented in their National Ideas, making them a rather expansionist set.
[Fijian National Ideas]​

As in the case of the Fijians, the Maori are famed for their bravery and constant warfare. Their set of ideas is focused on land combat, without disregarding ways to keep the land around a strong leader.
[Maori National Ideas]​

As with the missions, we’d better not spoil the surprise by showing everything, am I right? I have a challenge for those that love them: try a world conquest with a Polynesian TAG! There are a couple of things in this area that could help you in that adventure. ;)

THE EVENTS
Events are one of the parts I like the most. While not as much time as I would have liked has been available, I have added more than 40 events to the area, including general events, specific Country events and even a few Easter eggs that I hope you can find and enjoy!

Practice is what makes you a good warrior, after all.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).

This event can be very nasty if you are in a very bad shape.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).

As Samoa, you will be given the choice to reform your society a bit or go on with the traditions with every ruler.
(Notice that all pictures are still placeholders).​

THE EXTRAS
There are a few things that have been added in order to create a bigger sense of immersion.

Maori culture has been created, separated from the main Polynesian branch. By the start of the game, the Maori were abandoning the Archaic Maori Period and entering a transformation one. The Iwi became more sedentary and their once pacific nature became more warlike as competition for resources becomes more central. New traditions had evolved by this time that justifies separating them from their islander cousins.

A new Polynesian technology group has been created. This technology group is between that of the Mesoamericans and the North Americans in penalty, but starts at tech 2.

Most Estates have been renamed to their proper versions to increase the flavor.

And some extra surprises here and there.

For now this is all. We still have lots of things to show, so just be patient and enjoy the time in between, everything will come!

Good morning, everyone! This week we’re going back to Southeast Asia to talk about some extra content that we’re making for some of the tags.

Starting with the Philippines, we have decided to focus on two specific tags instead of giving them all some generic missions. First, we have Tondo. Tondo is located in the island of Luzon, in the northern part of the archipelago. Philippine political organization consisted of a type of “city-states” called barangays, which formed groups of families ruled by a datu. Bigger barangays, as Tondo in this case, would integrate several smaller barangays governed by a paramount datu, whose title would vary in each region (lakan in the case of Tondo). This grand barangay was an important center of trade in all Nusantara, since the presence of Chinese migration resulted in Tondo becoming the main center of Chinese goods, trading all across Southeast Asia.

Some highlights from this mission tree include:

• Growing Strong will reward the existence of level 2 forts in provinces Tondo, Laguna and Mindoro with +25% Defensiveness in each of them.
  
• The Queen’s Channel is a reference to the channel that serves as a natural frontier with Manila, in the Pasig River delta. It was not only an important source of water for said barangay, but also its main opportunity of trading. Gaining control over it will give Tondo a huge +50 Trade Power in the Philippines trade node.
  
• Both Befriend Majapahit and Abandon the Dragon refer to the importance of democratic relations in Tondo’s polity. The Majapahit Empire was a powerful ally of the Tondo people, so regaining their trust will result in some extra Diplomatic Power and +1 Diplomatic Reputation. At the start of the game, Tondo is a tributary of the Ming dynasty, so dissolving this union will grant Tondo Legitimacy, Administrative Power and some claims in the coast of China.

Next up, we have Madyas. After the Chola invasion of Srivijaya in the beginning of the 11th century, a group of dissident datus from Borneo and Sumatra fled their land and sought refuge in the Visayas islands, where they encountered the native population and, according to the legend, made a trade treaty with the Ati hero Marikudo and his wife, rightfully purchasing the land in Panay. Madyas thus became another grand barangay in the archipelago, with a special focus on maritime trade and warfare.

Some highlights from this mission tree include:

• All the Ships of Aklan is a reference to the province of Aklan, seat of the first capital of the polity and center of the Confederation mentioned in the Book of Maragtas that we’ll address later. Because of the naval importance we have mentioned before, having an admiral, more than 8 galleys and building to the 90% of the naval Force Limit will be rewarded with a +5% Morale of Navies, -5% Heavy Ship Cost and -10% Light Ship Cost as our first mission.
  
• Going Back Home implies the preparation for the return to their original land. Permanent claims on Borneo will be granted after making a show of force by owning at least 10 provinces in the Philippines.
  
• The Book of Maragtas is the legendary book that gives an account of the history of the Madyas people and their arrival from Borneo. Owning the northern part of the island will result in 100 Diplomatic Power, 100 Administrative Power, 100 Military Power and +1 Stability.

In addition to these two mission trees, we have prepared 6 unique missions shared by both Tondo and Madyas in slot 2, regarding the conquest of all the archipelago. These missions will require the player to conquer the inhabited land of each of the three main regions: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, thus granting some morale bonuses and the possibility of immediately conquering unoccupied land in each of these areas, as long as there are two regiments present in each province.

Moving on, we have Palembang, one of the pirate nations that can be formed very early on in the game, so we wanted to reflect a bit of the pirate’s life in our missions too! But historically, Palembang was also one of the oldest cities in all Nusantara, once the capital of the powerful Srivijaya empire and main controller of all the maritime trade routes in Southeast Asia. A balance between this major historical moment and the more “modern” piracy was therefore necessary, all of it leading to the restoration of this ancient and powerful realm.

Some highlights from this mission tree include:

• Where the Water Leaks is a reference to one possible etymological explanation for the name of this tag, always associated with water. This mission will require the player to build to 100% Naval Force Limit and will grant permanent claims on the Siak and Jambi controlled provinces, thus starting the recovery of their lost land.
  
• Orang Laut, Arrival of the Dragonships and Pirate Kings all have the same objective of gaining the best possible allies to continue with the expansion plan. Having the state privilege Orang Laut Privileges and some owned provinces in the northern part will boost your Navy Tradition; dragonships were powerful ships of Chinese origin that will reward your conquests and maximum Navy Force Limit with a Ship Cost reduction and another boost to your Ship Combat Ability (all of them for both light and heavy ships); and having 2 powerful admirals and 4 more provinces in the East will allow access to the admiral Chen (3/3/4/3), a legendary Chinese pirate that ruled over Palembang.
  
• Both King Under the Mountain and King’s Court in the second slot focus on the ancient splendor of the Srivijaya Empire, whose Shailendra dynasty came from the neighboring island of Java. Owning some provinces in said location will reduce National Unrest and add a general with 50 Tradition, as well as granting the final cores that will lead to our culminating mission.
  
• Restore Srivijaya will require the player to own all of the Sumatra and Java islands, former possessions of the thalassocracy. With the recovered glory of the Empire, Palembang will be rewarded with a permanent Stability Cost Modifier of -10%, +1 Stability and more Diplomatic, Administrative and Military Power.

That’s all for today! Thank you for reading and have a nice week :)

Click here to discuss on the Forums

Hey everyone,

Pontus here, marketing lead on EU4. Sorry to inform you all that today’s "DD" has been delayed due to sick leave on the EUIV team, and we should be back to more normal next week.

Today we are here to talk a little bit about Grandest LAN. This year posed some additional challenges due to Covid. Obviously we couldn't bring dozens of people together in one place for days on end. Thankfully our partners at Parsec made this year's LAN party possible. Many of you have asked “How is this a LAN”? Simple! All the computers were here in Stockholm, in one great LAN (with minimal latency), and all the players used Parsec, which is a remote desktop app, to control the computers from the comfort of their homes. And it went off without a hitch! Thankfully. Thousands of you watched the events unfold live, and hundreds of thousands have already caught up by watching the VODs on Twitch.

We just want to give a warm and hearty thank you to everyone. TurboLARP for setting up the event, Parsec for making it possible. The players for taking time out of their lives to Role Play with us. Everyone on the back end making sure the game ran smoothly. The GMs, the casters, the devs, and you, the viewers, we do it all for you!

For those of you who missed the Grandest LAN live, the entire event is being uploaded to YouTube in easy to digest, 30ish minute episodes. We will compile the entire event into a playlist for ease of viewing as a series. We know it can be difficult to watch if simply presented, unedited, in two giant 12 hour chunks.

And one more thing we need to discuss... which team was your favorite to watch???
Was it the tag swapping Swiss?
The Dutch, whose cash made the world go round?
The brave Georgians, who fought off so many assaults on their mountain forts.
The Irish, Bretons, or Norwegians, who all fought for control over the New World...so the dutch could plunder the trade routes :D
The Serbs, who started more than a few global conflicts.
The Mighty Prussians! Who were always happy to upset the balance of someone else’s war.
Let us know who was the MVP...in your heart.

The first episode can be watched here:

And the entire playlist is here: Playlist

Next week we will be back with a proper game related Dev Diary, with some very interesting and hotly requested new content that will be coming soon...

Click here to read on the Forums

Welcome back to a new Dev Diary! I am Aldaron and I am the other new Content Designer in Paradox Tinto. Happy to be here with all of you, adding a bit more information to that which my colleague @skingrado shared last Tuesday.

During the last Dev Diary there were two questions that were repeated a few times and that hopefully I will be able to answer today:

What about Western America?
Well, we cannot just add everything we have done to a single dev diary, but do not worry, because today we’ll show you a bit more, this time devoted to this area of North America that you people asked for.

Will there be any work on the rest of America?
The focus of this expansion is not the rest of America, but as a matter of fact, we added a mission for those nations with the Religious Reforms feature.

So without much preambles, and before we start, I would like to remind everyone a last tiny thing. As my colleague said last Tuesday, we have divided North American Natives into 6 of the 9 cultural areas that are normally used in anthropology when studying these people. Dividing them in cultural areas has given us the opportunity to group several TAGs into a common core and at the same time add diversity to the area.

MISSIONS:

As you might know, one of the less fun things when playing natives was the mission tree. You had the general mission tree, but you could not fill it due to the limitation natives have! Well, no more. As part of the work on natives, we have created a new general mission tree adapted to Natives, with some interrelationships between several of the missions and the addition of some new ones to make them more engaging. This mission tree is available to every native nation, from the Northwestern Pass to Tierra del Fuego.

(Notice that all icons are still placeholders).​

Besides, as you can see in the previous image, we have added a small mission (Reform our Religion) for the three more advanced native groups (Aztec, Inca and Maya) to deal with their mechanics, despite them not being the focus of the expansion.

Continuing with last week’s trend, here we have the specific regional mission tree for those natives whose living developed in the Great Plains of North America. This group includes the several Sioux tribes (such as Lakota or Dakota [Sioux ingame]), the Shoshone or the Wichita. This group’s focus revolves around hunting bison and would evolve to a horse riding culture after contact with the Europeans. Without any doubt the most iconic Native American group of people.

Some highlights of this tree include:

• Gathering all that available food from the wild that will improve your economic power.
  
• Befriending those around you will help you with your federations.
  
• Capturing those horses from the Europeans will greatly improve your capacity to combat over them.

If Plain Natives were a rather peaceful people before contact, Northwestern ones were pretty much the contrary. Raidings were a constant in the life of these people and would bring their canoes to capture slaves as south as California. But war and slavery were not the only thing Northwestern natives would focus on, they had a complex social culture that involved showing wealth of to their own people or to foreigners as a way to celebrate their power (the Potlach Ceremony) or showing respect to ancestors or shaming enemies with their elaborate totems.

Some highlights of this tree include:

• Remembering the ancestors and their deeds to unite your people under your rule.
  
• Boasting about your wealth to bring your allies closer to you.
  
• Showing your strength and using that fear against your enemies.

NATIONAL IDEAS:

Pretty much as with Mission Trees, we have divided National Ideas into Regional National Ideas that will fire for TAGs belonging to certain regions.

In this DD I will present two of the six regional sets.

Since California was forgotten in the previous section, I will start with them.

California is the smallest cultural region in North America but with a very pronounced personality. Despite being mostly sedentary people, living in a very rich region, Californian Natives did not rely much on agriculture and despite their population density (it is estimated it was the biggest in NA) they were not very warfaring. Their NIs relate to their own development and diplomatic expansion.

california_native_ideas = {
start = {
autonomy_change_time = -0.25
same_culture_advisor_cost = -0.5
}

bonus = {
years_of_nationalism = -5
}

trigger = {
primary_culture = yokuts
}
free = yes

division_as_a_strength_cf = {
num_accepted_cultures = 1
promote_culture_cost = -0.25
}
basketweaving = {
production_efficiency = 0.05
}
tribelets = {
diplomatic_upkeep = 1
stability_cost_modifier = -0.10
}
forest_gardening = {
development_cost = -0.10
}
kuksu_cult = {
religious_unity = 0.5
}
rock_art = {
prestige_decay = -0.01
global_unrest = -2
}
medicine_men = {
land_attrition = -0.10
}
}

Back to the Northwest, these people had a different angle on how they saw life and their NIs are more devoted to warfare and expansion.

nw_native_ideas = {
start = {
development_cost = -0.10
heir_chance = 0.5
}

bonus = {
army_tradition_decay = -0.01
}

trigger = {
OR = {
primary_culture = athabascan
primary_culture = chinook
primary_culture = haida
primary_culture = salish
}
}
free = yes

raid_warfare_nw = {
infantry_shock = 0.5
rival_change_cost = -0.2
}
brother_salmon = {
tolerance_own = 1
}
potlatch = {
improve_relation_modifier = 0.2
global_unrest = -2
}
mother_and_father = {
female_advisor_chance = 0.1
}
totem_poles_nw = {
prestige_decay = -0.01
stability_cost_modifier = -0.1
}
canoe_people = {
leader_land_manuever = 1
}
division_as_a_strength_nw = {
num_accepted_cultures = 1
promote_culture_cost = -0.25
}
}

EVENTS:

Different regions will have access to different events, and some common ones. This week we will show a few of these regional events and we’ll call it a day for now.

Californian Natives had their own secret cults that should you pay the price for them would bring you some well being.

Diplomacy in the Plains is not always easy.

The Potlach was a massively important ceremony for the Northwestern Natives. Choosing to celebrate it or not could have consequences.

You might have noticed that both my colleague and me have shown a small selection of missions for you. After the release you will have the chance to discover the other two regional mission trees (SE and California) and several TAG/culture specific ones, find some Easter eggs here and there and several other goodies. Stay tuned and see you next week!

We are thrilled to be able to once again together with Turbolarp bring you the ultimate EUIV multiplayer experience, now in an online version inspired by The Grandest Lan Party events (2017-2019). We aim to recreate the atmosphere of the real life event, while we hope to be able to bring back the physical event soon. It is Paradox’s and Turbolarp’s vision to have a fantastic community get-together and make it an EUIV celebration.

Multiplayer Europa Universalis IV is the ultimate challenge for grand strategy game afficianadoes. Coordinating co-operative operations to take down big blue bullies before making that fatal backstab that undoes centuries of friendship. All in the name of history.

Participants will be divided into teams of three and together play one nation at the time. Collaborating in decision making, doing diplomacy and creating a nation’s chronicle will be among activities available. Adding to this, the stream audience will also have a chance to influence the experience of the participants.

Since 2017, The Grandest LAN has been the signature multiplayer event for EU4 fans, but, because of the history we are now living through, an elaborate castle event is impossible this year.

But that does not mean that the history wars have stopped! This year, the Grandest LAN is moving online, opening up the event to even more people who, in previous years, would have been deterred by the travel involved.


For more information, visit: https://www.eu4lan.com/


The whole event will be livestreamed all through the day on both the 21st and 22nd of November (9:30am - 10pm CET) over at our twitch channel!

The Setup
We will have the computers set up in an actual LAN within the Paradox Offices in Stockholm. Each team uses Parsec to connect to "their" computer from which they will control their country.
Interactions and diplomacy will be carried out over Discord, and it will all be casted on Twitch where we aim to bring our viewers insight into the current events and intrigues playing out behind the scenes on top of the usual spectating of the game.

Click here to read on the Forums

Good morning! I’m skingrado, one of the new content designers for EU4 at Paradox Tinto, nice to meet you all! To begin with, I think it’s very important that you know that my favorite castle is Loarre, that’s my main personality trait, so I hope that gives you an idea of who I am (and, as you can imagine, I’m also a big fan of GSGs, and I used to play a lot of CK with my dad). But today I’m here to show you some of the things we’ve been working on for the North American Natives, since a lot of you asked for more content after the reveal of the new mechanics (nothing to do with castles, I’m afraid).

We’re creating completely new native mission trees (since until now they mainly had the generic missions) and we’ve started by designing six new geographical mission trees available to all tribes, according to their localization and culture at the time of contact (i.e. very close to the start of the game). You’ll notice that some of the traditional cultural areas have been merged into one single tree (Northwest Coast + Plateau, for example), more on this to come next week. I’ll be now talking about some that I’ve done:

(Notice that all icons are still placeholders).

The Northeastern Woodlands extend from the Atlantic Coast to the eastern Great Plains, going slightly above the Great Lakes in the north and bordering the Southeastern Woodlands in the south, roughly including the present Mid-Atlantic states. People from this region generally lived in villages with a few hundred inhabitants and used wigwams and longhouses for shelter, as well as canoes for traveling, fishing, trading and warfare. These villages were often placed near their crops, since the so-called Eastern Agricultural Complex was their main source of food, characteristic that they shared with the nearby Southeastern Woodlands.
Their social organization was based on clans, which were often named after some relevant animal to the area, such as wolf or bear (you’ll see more on clans in the events).

Some highlights of this tree include:

• Building tall and preparing for war with the missions Wigwams and Longhouses and Raising Palisades will grant you permanent claims in the Great Lakes, apart from local defensiveness and manpower modifiers.
  
• Conquering the Northeast after conquering the Great Lakes will grant you a +5% to the morale of your armies.
  
• I have talked before about the importance of the Eastern Agricultural Complex, so having 3 irrigation canals and a total of 50 development will improve your production efficiency and grant you some extra gold.

Then we have the North American Southwest, which mainly includes Oasisamerica and borders the Plains-Great Basin to the north. People from this region farmed as a complement to their hunter-gatherer economy (in the case of Aridoamerica tribes) or even had a truly agricultural society in the case of the Oasisamerican tribes. They also cherished precious minerals, like turquoise and cinnabar, and had some interesting ancestors that we will address now on some of the missions:

• “Against the Desert” and “Taming of the Sands” compensate the player’s concern for devastation and development, since the Chihuahuan Desert is home to some of these tribes and its harsh living conditions are rewarded with claims in the region that will provide a tool for the spreading of such knowledge to neighboring provinces.
  
• Yucca Palm Trees were used as food and as the base material for the making of baskets or even “shampoos”, so controlling their province of production will also increase the local production efficiency and boost the economy.
  
• Turquoise Mining will require owning provinces with gems, salt or gold, in which mines could be created, and will also boost production and prestige, since turquoise was a valued trade good.
  
• Lastly, Paquimé was the ancestral home of the Mogollon people, and includes a series of archeological ruins that were burnt around the year 1340, prior to the start of the game. Owning the province and helping rebuild it will decrease the construction and development cost by -10%.

Now moving to the part that is slightly more fun, we have designed mission trees specific to some of the best known native tribes. Today, I’ll be focusing on the Iroquois:


As you can see, culture groups in Native America have been changed, and these missions will be available to those that have “iroquois” as their primary culture. These tribes are mainly known for the famous “Iroquois League” or “Iroquois Confederacy”, which was established prior to European contact and granted these nations security and protection, as well as a saying in the Great Council that ruled over them, much like how the new Federation mechanic is going to work. The focus of this tree is to form said Confederacy and extend its power:

• The Great Peacemaker will require you to have a longhouse in which an assembly can be met, and a reduced local autonomy. This will grant you a theologian named The Great Peacemaker himself, who is the legendary founder of the Confederacy and will lower your unrest.
  
• After gaining some allies through Haudenosaunee (I know it’s a bit of a mouthful, but that’s how Iroquois called themselves), and annexing the five most prominent nations of the League, your duty will be to protect the eastern coast from European explorers, specially French, since the League engaged in the decades-long Beaver Wars against them in 1609.
  
• False Faces will require you to have a spymaster and a spy network of at least 25 in any other country, as well as some diplomatic power. False Faces Masks were used during ceremonies to conceal one’s true nature and completing the mission will boost your spy power and spy detection by +25% each.
  
• Wampum Shells were the main currency used in these nations, so building a storehouse to hoard them will increase your mercantilism.

And, of course, we have also added some events. Some are generic, others will be linked to the totemism “rework” and a few will be specific to certain tribes as well. In this case, the Iroquois culture group gets a new event chain called “The Mourning Wars”.

Mourning Wars were fought when some of the tribe’s warriors were killed in battle and the spiritual balance of the village had to be restored. For Iroquois nations, grief did not come only for the loss of a loved one, but also for the loss of harmony. Thus, they would try to compensate for it, and that compensation came in the form of mourning wars. Now, a series of events will let you decide whether you should kill in revenge for the killing, or maybe take some captives in replacement for the dead members of the tribe.

Expect more information on this matter next week! Thank you for reading :)

We are thrilled to be able to once again together with Turbolarp bring you the ultimate EUIV multiplayer experience, now in an online version inspired by The Grandest Lan Party events (2017-2019). We aim to recreate the atmosphere of the real life event, while we hope to be able to bring back the physical event soon. It is Paradox’s and Turbolarp’s vision to have a fantastic community get-together and make it an EUIV celebration.

Multiplayer Europa Universalis IV is the ultimate challenge for grand strategy game afficianadoes. Coordinating co-operative operations to take down big blue bullies before making that fatal backstab that undoes centuries of friendship. All in the name of history.

Participants will be divided into teams of three and together play one nation at the time. Collaborating in decision making, doing diplomacy and creating a nation’s chronicle will be among activities available. Adding to this, the stream audience will also have a chance to influence the experience of the participants.

Since 2017, The Grandest LAN has been the signature multiplayer event for EU4 fans, but, because of the history we are now living through, an elaborate castle event is impossible this year.

But that does not mean that the history wars have stopped! This year, the Grandest LAN is moving online, opening up the event to even more people who, in previous years, would have been deterred by the travel involved.


For more information, visit: https://www.eu4lan.com/


The whole event will be livestreamed all through the day on both the 21st and 22nd of November (9:30am - 10pm CET) over at our twitch channel!

The Setup
We will have the computers set up in an actual LAN within the Paradox Offices in Stockholm. Each team uses Parsec to connect to "their" computer from which they will control their country.
Interactions and diplomacy will be carried out over Discord, and it will all be casted on Twitch where we aim to bring our viewers insight into the current events and intrigues playing out behind the scenes on top of the usual spectating of the game.

Click here to read on the Forums

Hey everyone! So when we introduced the new natives mechanics several of you were asking why we weren’t changing Totemism as well while at it. So since then and while I was working on the Sikh Gurus and Zoroastrianism I figured I should give it a shot and try to give them something as many of you were pointing out, it is one of the major religions at the start of the game and it deserves some love. Be warned a lot of work in progress values & especially really bad coder art will be shown!

Now North America is a big place, and how we are using Totemism in the game is sort of a catch all for several very distinct mythoses and with that also comes the challenge of figuring out flavor that is general enough and fits all of these as well. What I could find as a best candidate for a fun mechanic that could fit for all of these very different cultures were that they all have legendary figures, and the oral tradition of great deeds. Like Gloosecap of the Abenaki, or Esa the Wolf of the Shoshone.

So now as you progress through the game, you can add one of your previous rulers to your mythos. You can have a maximum of 10 stories added at any point. This costs 100 Diplomatic power but they can also be removed later on for a severe stability hit. It’s not intended to be something that you switch around often but I don’t want to lock you in entirely either.

Adding an ancestor’s story to your religion will have them provide the personality they had in real life be applied to your country for all future, with some modifications which we will get into in a bit. It will be a weaker version than they had in real life but still a nice bonus for you even as they have died.

So with this change in order to keep things balanced rulers who follow Totemism will only have one personality, since it will be combined together with the benefits they get from the religion as well. But these are special and they scale with the rulers skill. This does mean that you can get a ruler with 7.5% discipline bonus instead of 5%. This is also to feed into the ancestor stories where not all rulers will actually be useful to be made into a story. This does mean that totemism needs it’s entire own setup of personalities scripted up but we are aiming to try and match the original ones.

The intent is since you have 10 ancestor stories you can collect, each will just provide a bit of the full picture. It's a religion you build up over time by reconnecting to previous rulers you’ve had.

Also here's a preliminary set of values for the Gurus and their teaching. The value next to the Guru's name is applied by the Guru while they are alive. The ones in the lists are their teachings and can be picked by you as the player. These values are still work in progress but I know people been asking for a complete list.
Guru Nanak: +1 Admin Power

• Share and Consume: -1 Unrest
  
• Work Honestly: 5% Production Eff
  
• Recite His Name: -2.5% Regiment Cost

Guru Angad: +1 Military Power

• Gurmukhi Script: -5% Tech Cost
  
• Temple Langar: +10% Church Loyalty
  
• Wrestling Akhara: +0.1 Yearly Army Professionalism

Guru Amar Das: +1 Diplomatic Power

• Dasvnandh Collection: +5% Tax Modifier
  
• Anand Karaj: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
  
• Sanghat Equality: +10% Nobles Loyalty

Guru Ram Das: +1 Admin Power

• Legitimize Inheritance: +0.25 Legitimacy (or +0.1 Rep Trad, etc. etc.)
  
• Scripture Hymns: +0.5 Prestige
  
• Masand System: +10% Manpower Modifier

Guru Arjan: +1 Diplomatic Power

• Adi Granth: +10% Institution Spread
  
• The Abode of God: +10% Rel Unity
  
• Martyrdom: 5% Land Morale

Hargobind: +1 Military Power

• Throne of the Timeless One: Same as Legitimize Inheritance
  
• Protection of the Poor: -0.025 War Exhaustion
  
• Miri and Piri: +2.5% Discipline

Guru Har Rai: +1 Diplomatic Power

• Impartial Manjis: -0.05 Corruption
  
• The Fragrance of a Flower: +10% Improve Relations
  
• One Guru: +5% Nobles Loyalty

Guru Har Krishan: +1 Diplomatic Power

• Treat the Sick: +1 Monarch Admin Skill
  
• Illiterate Recites Saloks: +1 Monarch Diplomatic Skill
  
• Young Humility: +1 Monarch Military Skill

Guru Tegh Bahadur: +1 Admin Power

• The Word of Sikh: +1 Missionary
  
• All Kings must Pass: +2 Tolerance of Heretics
  
• Resist Persecution: +1 Hostile Attrition

Guru Gobind Singh: +1 Admin Power

• Pluralism: -10% Advisor Cost
  
• Dharam Yudh: 50% War Taxes Cost
  
• The Khalsa Sikh: +0.1 Yearly Army Professionalism

Guru Granth Sahib: -50% State Maintenance Cost, -25% Regiment Drill Loss

• Eternally Living Guru: -10% Development Cost
  
• Divine Justice: 10% Trade Efficiency
  
• The Unchanging Writing: 50% Drill Gain Modifier

And that is it for today! Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next week!

Hello and Welcome to yet another Europa Universalis development diary. Today we’ll first delve into the results of the survey we sent out earlier this autumn, and also do some comparisons with the analytics we have. We’ll also talk about some minor balance changes and an interesting new feature for our future expansion.

First of all, I’d like to thank the over 10,000 people who took their time to reply to all the questions in our survey. While this is but a fraction of the entire playerbase, it gives us an indication of what the more hardcore of the audience likes, with over half of the respondents having played over 1,000 hours.

The most common play-styles, by far, as reported was role-playing and changing history. It is probably not a surprise to anyone that you viewed Victoria to have the best economy, Hearts of Iron the best military, Europa Universalis the best diplomacy and Crusader Kings the best politics.

You also overwhelmingly prefer simulation over boardgame mechanics, and you think that we should focus more on the economical buildup and flavorful content.

While the Golden Century was easily the worst expansion in your eyes, the top 5 expansions according to you were.

• Art of War
  
• Common Sense
  
• Emperor
  
• Rights of Man
  
• Mandate of Heaven

While talking about the survey, I thought it would be fun to look at the top 10 most played countries right now.
France 6.16%
Ottomans 5.08%
Austria 4.39%
Byzantium 4.39%
Custom Nation 4.23%
England 3.35%
Castile 3.29%
Brandenburg 3.11%
Ming 2.24%
Portugal 2.12%
A minor balance change for the people who play multiplayer and play with victory cards enabled, is the small little change that Estates will now become less loyal if you ally with nations which you have victory cards upon.

And for those that play as Cossacks and have the Sich Rada government enabled, as requested by the community, you now have the ability to raze cities, just like hordes does.

Finally, it's time to reveal another feature for our upcoming expansion, a new unit mission called Carpet Siege. It is similar to the hunt rebels mission, but with the difference that the army actively will avoid combat unless it is sure of winning, and primarily focusing on sieging down hostile territory. You can set it to just targeting specific areas on the map, or let it decide on its own when there are valid targets to consider.

Stay tuned, because next week Groogy will be back, talking about a major religion without unique mechanics that will get one.

Click here to read on the Forums

Hello everyone! Today we are going to talk about some improvements in some interfaces for how you deal with governing capacity and one new feature that uses a lot of governing capacity but also let you “keep growing” on the land you already own.

First to make it easier to manage your governing capacity we’ve been adding needed information in two places. First we have added so when a building affects governing capacity it will now show that so you can get a sense of where you will get most value out of it in your realm, helping players with larger empires.

This means buildings such as courthouses will now show how much governing capacity they will remove if built in that specific province.

Next is a little help to everyone who have been amassing a lot of vassals to hold land for them. Previously there was no way to see how much governing capacity a vassal had or how much was being used.

We’ve now added so that can be viewed under the subject interface when you go into the details window for that subject.

Now to the new feature, for the one that has extra governing capacity, a Switzerland hiding in the mountains wanting to play tall. So in a province that is at least 15 development you can expand its infrastructure to allow for another building and manufactory in it. This increases the governing cost of the province by a flat 200 which can not be reduced by province modifiers.

Then for every 15 development of the province and further 200 governing capacity you can expand the infrastructure more for more slots of buildings and manufactories.

Hope you’ve enjoyed today's development diary! Next week we’ll be back with a new diary which will be written by Johan!