We're only one month out before PDXCON returns to Stockholm this September! Meet the devs, join a massive board game session, attend Paradox games' orchestra and of course play our games!



In addition to all the activities offered by our other games (Don't forget you'll be able play Victoria 3 at PDXCON!), you also get the chance to experience some in person EU4 fun such as...

Have you played EU1 or EU2? This might be your chance to do it and to meet with Johan and the team at Paradox Tinto. We’ll have all the historical EU games playable for a day at the event, a good opportunity to dive into our (glorious) past.


Johan and the team will be talking about what’s next for EU4 at Paradox Tinto, and of course answer everything you’ve always wanted to know about the game and red spanish wines.


Limited time, a devious challenge carefully crafted by the EU4 team, do you have what it takes to score the best and get on top of the leaderboard?

PDXCON2022 returns to Stockholm this September! Join us on the road to PDXCON2022 with another Grand Campaign!

Watch our developers as they play through a customized game of Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron, and Stellaris and follow laws passed by our Community-led Senate. Following the great tradition laid down last year for PDXCON, there may be familiar faces, returning arch-rivals, and maybe some new friends!




The story of a Grand Campaign is written in the senate, where Community-formed and led parties propose and vote on laws, that our developers have to follow on stream. This Grand Campaign spans the timeframe of four of our games, spanning several thousand years of alt-human history. Starting in the Crusader Kings era, all the way to Stellaris. In between games, we will transfer elements of one era to the next, so that the entire game is played in the same universe. This year, we've teamed up with some of your favorite modders, to make it that much more entertaining!


Join the Senate on discord! Parties on discord are still accepting newcomers, and while the bills have been passed for Crusader Kings, there are still around a thousand years of history, and ~40 hours of streams that your laws can directly affect! There will also be quick votes held on discord for in-game events deemed appropriate to pass to the senate by our Game Masters.


Join us on http://twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive, starting at 1000 AM CEST (0800 UTC)!


PDXCON2022 is an opportunity to meet some of your favorite developers, live in person at our annual Paradox Convention! Join a massive board game session, attend Paradox games’ orchestra & play our games (potentially including some cool new unreleased content)! Get the tickets while supplies last!


https://paradoxinteractive.com/pdxcon[/url] See you there!

See you there!

Welcome to another art dev diary! I’m David Horler, the Art Lead here at Tinto, and I am going to be telling you about all the amazing work that the team has been doing here over the last year or so.

As always, our artists have been working hard creating literally hundreds of new assets, big and small, including the beautiful new Monument illustrations that you saw last week, and dozens of new icons and event pictures for the amazing new mission trees that our Content Designers have showcased over the last few months.

For example, here are the Swedish Scandinavian, Danish, and Commonwealth trees that you have seen in previous diaries, but with all the new icons added.



And here are a couple of my favourite new event images, including this one based on the 1877 painting by Anton von Werner, but with the fashions adjusted to look more period-appropriate for EU4, and also our interpretation of “Livonian knights with guns”.



But today I’m going to be focusing on showing you the Scandinavian Unit Pack that comes packaged with the new content pack, and this one has the aim of bringing new visual flair to the regions around the Baltic and North Seas. It was easy to pick the countries featured here, as many in this region have been frequently suggested by fans for a long time.


The first concepts are rough thumbnails based on our research, so we can quickly choose a direction based on silhouette and values.

We started work on these in December 2021, so it’s incredibly exciting to see our hard work is finally being revealed to fans after working on it so long. With Paradox being a Scandinavian company, but also because we have colleagues here in Tinto with all sorts of connections to Nordic countries, this was a particularly exciting project for us to work on.


The concept team goes through many iterations to find the right look for each unit.



An example of a final concept that is passed to the 3D team.

Most of these unit packs are in fact tied to primary culture rather than tag, so you should see them popping up wherever else it makes sense, including retaining them when forming unions like Scandinavia.


The tier 1 wears a coat of plates sporting the Norwegian lion, as well as good arm and leg protection. The red ribbon around the kettle helmet is a nod towards ‘Kongshirden 1260’, a Norwegian re-enactment group who use it as an identifying mark, as one of their members helped us with the research for some of the units in this pack.

Norwegian fashion throughout the middle eras was inspired heavily by that of the Dutch, and you see some of this influence in the uniforms, especially in terms of the coats and the cravat neckties.

The final tier unit is of course based on the elite ski regiments. The intense training performed by these troops consisted of cross-country skiing while firing muskets, and was designed to prepare them for rapid deployment in the harshest wintry environments of Scandinavia. These training exercises eventually developed into the biathlon sport, today competed by countries from around the world in the Winter Olympics.




The Danish receive a partial set, as their Tier 2 is already featured in the Evangelical Union Unit Pack.

The Danish cross is famously one of the oldest flags still in usage, so we thought it was a cool idea to sew it onto the gambeson of the first tier. We don’t imagine this helmet is great for vision, but they cropped up multiple times in our research and we loved the distinctiveness.

The black facings used on the later tiers were not universal, and they were used by specific Danish regiments, but black is an underutilised facing colour and so we decided to keep them.

During the research stage, we found that many of the references included moustachioed infantrymen, and also our resident Dane character artist Vonboe sports a moustache, so it felt like a very important inclusion.



This small country on the Jutland peninsula is notable for being a peasant republic, and so we examined the way peasants and militias in Frisia and Germany dressed throughout the ages to inspire our designs here. Fans of peasant mobs will be happy with the fact we finally managed to include the trope of pitchforks used as a polearm.



Finland’s native Uralic culture has been influenced through the ages by Sweden, Novgorod, and Russia. Because of this, the Finnish didn't have much opportunity to carve out a military personality of their own - with one main exception.

The iconic appearance of the famous Hakkapeliitta binds together most of these units, from the armoured man-at-arms to the Carolean-era cuirassier. We also used a cartridge pouch made out of näver, a woven birch bark that was a common craft material in the wooded north. The final unit is an infantryman inspired by Russian military kit with a Finnish twist.

The colours of light grey accentuated by blue are inspired by the modern Finnish flag and the military uniforms that Finland developed once it finally became a sovereign country in the 20th Century.




Throughout the eras, we wanted to reflect the wealth and devoutness of Riga, a Hanseatic city in the Baltics settled by German traders and led by the Catholic church.

In terms of later fashion, we drew heavily from the Prussian army but with a twist. The grenadier mitre is reminiscent of the mitre worn by the Archbishop of Riga, and continuing that theme, the glorious feather plume on the shako is also based on German grenadier regiments from a later period.



The Sámi are perhaps the most visually-striking of these units, with their iconic colourful Gátki tunics and extravagant hats. Their pointy boots (known as nutukas) appear unusual but they are practical; they have wide soles for traversing deep snow, and toe hooks for attaching to skis. Their knives are carved from reindeer antlers in the duodji style.

The reindeer fur mittens and thick leather coats betray the harsh conditions that they endured in the far north of Europe, and their bows and spears both double as ski poles.

We selected hats to be reminiscent of fashion elsewhere in Europe, such as the four-winds hat during the tricorn era, and the peaked cap to resemble a Belgic shako.



The armoured footman with a sallet is archetypical of Northern Germany in this era, so felt essential to include. Keeping with the armoured theme, the Tier 2 retains the cuirass and other pieces of armour, as the wealthier soldiers sometimes did.

The final era is inspired by troopers of light horse regiments, which gives them a cavalier appearance that we felt was a little underutilised in EU4.




Another fascinating country without a strong military tradition of their own, we looked for inspiration primarily from contemporary Norwegian styles and the Þjóðbúningur, the modern Icelandic national dress.

In the earliest stages of the game, the metal skullcap, baggy breeches, and handaxes reveal their Norse heritage, and the harpoon spears emphasise their reliance on the ocean.

As they begin to modernise, they follow just a few steps behind the latest fashions in Norway, most notably the almost universal usage of cravats.

Their woolly tail caps (skotthúfur) and closed tunics (treyjur) were necessary protection for the sailors of the windy, northern seas, but also became part of the national costume in the modern era. Furthermore, we drew some inspiration from the rough-and-ready look of North American frontier militias (like Roger’s Rangers), which meshed really well with Iceland's theme of isolated utilitarianism.




The releasable nations of the native Baltic cultures share this unit, inspired heavily from Estonian and Latvian traditional clothing.

The heavy woollen greatcoats are reminiscent of the streltsy, but are embroidered with fine details as a central theme of the Baltic visual style. They also have elaborately-woven socks, magnificent hats, and belt sashes which give them a unique look compared to their conquerors and neighbours.







The EU4 art team has been collaborating with our friends at the Ukrainian studio N-iX for several years now, and they have worked on almost everything beautiful in the game, from monument illustrations to event pictures to unit models.

We had already started working with them on the unit pack when the news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine broke. For those of us here in Spain, working with them almost every day, it was a shock. But not nearly as much as it must have been for them, forced to either displace across Europe as refugees, or remain in the uncertainty of their home cities.

Despite these unimaginable challenges, the team continued with determination, and delivered some exceptional work for you. So please spare an extra thought for our Ukrainian colleagues the next time you load up EU4.


Next week PDX Big Boss will bring you an update on the new Achievements and some moddability changes. Until then, let us know in this thread what you think of the units and icons!

Hello everyone! Today I’ll introduce you to the new monuments we’ve designed for the next update. As before, this content will be free for all Leviathan DLC owners. Along with that, I’ll also comment on some game balance changes we’ve implemented for free in the 1.34 update.


As already mentioned in some of the previous DDs, we decided to introduce a few more monuments. Overall, we’re happy with the monument density we got after the 1.32 update, so we just wanted to address one specific region that was lacking in love (Scandinavia, which fits in pretty well with the upcoming DLC), and a few gaps we wanted to cover here and there. Since we had few monuments to cover this time, we also tried to get creative with the attached modifiers (you may notice some new modifiers on them, also). Let’s see:

The Falun Copper Mine was already present in the game, as a local modifier to the province of Dalaskogen. As it was the main copper production site for Europe in the Modern Age, we decided to turn it into a monument (and for those not owning Leviathan, the local province modifier will stay as it is).



Modifiers:


Built by King Erik VII in the early 15th century, Kronborg Castle was established to enforce the Sound Toll, though it would later be transformed into a magnificent royal residence.



Modifiers:


The city of Visby was one of the main ports on the Baltic trade routes, its walls protected it from its many enemies, making it the heart of an independent Gotland.



Modifiers:


Trakai Island Castle was completed in the early 15th century by Grand Duke Vytautas, first for a military purpose and later transformed into a royal residence.



Modifiers:


Salvador da Bahía was one of the oldest cities established by the Portuguese in Brazil, becoming the capital of the colony for more than two centuries.



Modifiers:


M'banza-Kongo was the seat of Manikongo, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, becoming the most important city in the region during the 15th and 16th centuries, as the power of its king prospered.



Requirements:
Culture is in Kongo group and is accepted by its owner

Modifiers:


The historic city of Harar Jugol was one of the main places of pilgrimage for Muslims, with dozens of mosques and shrines, and a tradition of scholars and holy men.



Requirements:
Province has the state or syncretic religion, which is in Muslim group.

Modifiers:


Dujiangyan is related to the ancient irrigation system developed around the city of the same name, and how it made the Sichuan region one of the most prosperous in China.



Modifiers:

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We already talked in previous DDs about the new national ideas that we developed for some countries. Along with that, we decided to rebalance some of the existing idea groups. The general design behind this rebalance was to give again a bit of extra diversity to the different groups available, so choosing different possibilities between them might be more viable from this update. Getting into more detail, here are some of the reasoning behind specific changes:

• Ideas giving National Manpower and Land Force limit are nerfed, to combine them with the new changes in the combat system. We felt that there were already many different sources of Manpower and Land Force available to the player and that also some ideas (e.g. Quantity) were heavily favored over others.
  
• We’re also nerfing both the Economic Ideas and the Economic-Quality Policy Development Cost reduction, as we felt that we already introduced a fair amount of Development Cost elsewhere, so we saw it right to reduce it considerably here, effectively rebalancing the total amount you get from these sources.
  
• We wanted to buff some of the underdogs in the Idea Groups, such as Espionage, Trade and Naval, to make them more viable compared to others in their groups.

Here you’ve got a detailed account of the changes implemented:

• Innovative Ideas:
  
  • ‘Optimism’ gives now also gives +1 Leaders without Upkeep.
    
  • 'Formalized Officer Corps' replaced by ‘Expanded Policies’, now granting +1 Free Policies.
• Economic Ideas:
  
  • Bonus now gives -10% Development Cost instead of -20%.
• Espionage Ideas:
  
  • ‘State Propaganda’ now also reduces Covert Action Relation Impact by -50%.
    
  • ‘Vetting’ now also grants -0.1 Yearly Corruption.
    
  • ‘Audit Checks’ replaced by ‘Blackmailing’, now granting:
    
    • Reasons to Accept Vassalization +15.
      
    • Monthly Favors Modifier +33%.
  • Bonus gives now Rebel Support Efficiency of 100% instead of just 50%, and reduces Covert Action Relation Impact by -50%.
• Trade Ideas
  
  • ‘Shrewd Commerce Practice’ now also decreases Promote Mercantilism Cost by 25%.
    
  • ‘Free Trade’ now also gives +2 Merchant Trade Power.
    
  • ‘Overseas Merchants’ now also decreases Trade Company Investment Cost by 25%.
    
  • Bonus now also gives +10% Loyalty of the Burghers/Vaisyas
• Exploration Ideas:
  
  • ‘Free Colonies’ now gives +10% Settler Chance.
    
  • ‘Global Empire’ now also gives +25% Treasure Fleet Income.
• Aristocratic Ideas:
  
  • ‘Noble Knights’ gives now -20% Cavalry Cost instead of 10% and +15% Cavalry Combat Ability instead of 10%.
    
  • ‘Serfdom’ now gives +20% National Manpower Modifier instead of +33%.
    
  • ‘Noble Connections’ now increases mercenary manpower by 25% instead of 20%.
• Divine Ideas:
  
  • ‘Martyrs’ gives now +25% Manpower in True Faith provinces instead of +15% Global Manpower modifier.
• Horde Ideas:
  
  • Bonus now also gives +10% Tribes Loyalty Equilibrium.
• Indigenous Ideas:
  
  • ‘Controlled Burns’ from Indigenous Ideas gives now +15% National Manpower Modifier instead of +20%
• Offensive Ideas:
  
  • ‘Grand Army’ now gives +10% Special Unit Force Limit and +15% Land Force Limit Modifier instead of 20% Land Force Limit Modifier.
• Quality Ideas:
  
  • ‘Quality Education’ now also gives +0.5 Navy Tradition.
• Quantity Ideas:
  
  • ‘Levée en Masse’ now gives +33% National Manpower Modifier instead of 50%.
    
  • Bonus now gives +33% Land Force Limit Modifier instead of +50%.
• Naval Ideas:
  
  • ‘Naval Glory’ now also gives +1 Impact on Siege.
    
  • ‘Oak Forests for Ships’ now also gives +10% Ship Durability.
    
  • Bonus now gives -100% Naval Barrage Cost instead of +10% Ship Durability.

Policies:

• Economic - Quantity:
  
  • No longer gives -10% Development Cost, instead it gives -5% Land Maintenance Modifier.
• Innovative - Quality:
  
  • Now gives Infantry Combat Ability +15% instead of +10%.
• Aristocratic - Espionage:
  
  • Now gives Cavalry Combat Ability +15% instead of +10%, and +10% Noble Estate Loyalty Equilibrium.

---

You may know that it was commented by my colleagues PDX Big Boss and Ogele that we replaced the tax modifier from high crownland with Reform progress growth, but for those who don’t follow as much in detail the DDs, here is a kind reminder of it:



We made an additional change to this: now each Crownland Level above 50% Crownland increases Reform Progress Growth (the modifier, not the flat value) by 20%, up from the current 10%, so the final amount of RPG you can get at 100% Crownlands is 100%. And we’ve also lowered the subsequent reform growth cost from 50 to 40. This makes for more consistent growth of RP, making it easier to progress through the expanded tiers of Government Reforms.

---

Along with the above change, we also decided that we could make Reform Progress Growth even more strategic, by adding a malus to Administrative Efficiency if being over the Government Capacity - which is something that can be countered either by the Centralize State mechanic or by getting more Gov. Cap. with buildings, monuments, reforms, etc. This will certainly curb growth speed, but we think that this also adds some more depth to the game because it presents the player with the choice of how to get extra Gov. Cap. from the different features from where it can be expanded, but also an additional “How do I spend my precious Government Reform Progress” because it can be used either on the ‘Centralize State’ mechanic or in getting more Government Reforms.

Thus, the change we implemented is adding -1% Administrative Efficiency for every 2% Governing Capacity above the cap. This way it scales logically and gives off a dynamic and natural effect on the expansion speed of the country in question.



To help adjust the Government Capacity, we made that Courthouses and Town Halls no longer require an open building slot to be constructed, similar to how Universities work, making them a more interesting type of building. Additionally, the State House building now no longer requires an open building slot, and now decreases local governing cost by a percentage of 25% and a flat -25. These governing modifiers are doubled when constructed on a Paper, Gems or Glass province.

---

Aside from that, we've implemented a few more changes here and there, which we're covering in this miscellaneous section, as we think they might be of interest:

• Expanding the Infrastructure of a province now increases local development cost by -25% instead of -5%. We decided against using Development Efficiency because it could end up at 0 Dev Cost for a province
  
• Ramparts give 1 Combat Roll Bonus for the defender.
  
• Pagan religious rebels can now force you to convert to their religion if the majority of your country has this religion. Nahuatl, Mayan and Ican are excluded from it due to their "primitive" status in the game.
  
• If you have Mare Nostrum then the Spy Network in a foreign country will decrease AE Impact in that nation by -30% instead of -10%
  
• Support Rebels now costs 30% Spy Network instead of 60%
  
• Scorched Earth now causes +0.25 Local Monthly Devastation alongside the -50% Hostile Movement Speed for 5 years
  
• Devotion now gives +25% Church Power, 25% Harmonization Speed, 0.001 Monthly Piety Accelerator, 0.5 Yearly Authority, 0.1% Yearly Patriarchal Authority, 0.5 Yearly Doom Reduction, 0.05 Yearly Karma Decay and 0.05% Clergy/Brahmins Loyalty Equilibrium additionally to the Papal Influence, Prestige and Global Tax modifiers
  Note: this change has been added to make Theocracies more fitting for other religions too.
  
• Crimea now becomes a Tributary State of the Ottomans instead of a March when they seek Ottoman protection during the "Fate of the Crimean Khanate" event

There were a lot of things to cover today! Please let us know of any feedback you have regarding these changes, as we feel today's DD is more about engaging with the community on balance changes than any other. Also, keep in mind that the numbers presented still have room for improvement, so please stay civil in discussing them. Next week the DD will be all about the great art our team has been working on for the upcoming DLC, brought to you by SaintDaveUK. See you!

Welcome to this week's Dev Diary! Today I'm back to talk about some of the changes we've made to the AI for 1.34.

National Ambitions

For a long time, there has been code and script for the AI to be aware of the conditions of its missions and decisions and try to achieve some of them. But because of various issues this has not had a significant impact.

For 1.34, we’ve made sure the AI takes many of these conditions into account, especially those related to conquests. We also made the AI pursue cultural unification, depending on government rank. These changes will work together with the AI’s more organic desires to shape its ambition and strategy. The result is an effect which is just noticeable in terms of AI behavior, but compounds over time to create AI empires - sometimes historically reminiscent - that provide a real challenge to players who continue into the late game.

We were a little worried that this might cause games to all look the same, but our hands-off overnight games look arguably even more varied than before.

Here are a bunch of recent hands-off 1821 maps, only slightly cherry-picked:








It makes us happy and proud to see the AI form historical countries such as Germany, Italy and Qing.

Typically, these AIs balance off each other nicely. If your plan as a player is to “Kill Ottomans early, then chill”, you may find that you’ve just aided some other AI in taking their place as your end-game boss. Admittedly though, a downside of this more opportunistic AI is less clean borders.



Peace Negotiation

What started out as an investigation into why AIs often left OPMs alive in peace deals, turned into a slightly bigger project.

When the AI is winning a war, and making demands, it has a bunch of preferences that it tries to balance against each other for an optimal peace deal. This is unlike when it is losing, where it will only care about objective measures such as war score cost. However, when the AI is winning, but receives an offer, it has previously relied on very coarse-grained expressions for whether the offer matches its preferences:

• “Does not want parts of the offer”
  
• “Requires X to be part of the offer”
  
• “Wants other concessions than gold”

This has given clever players a little too much room to outsmart the AI.

In 1.34, the second expression in particular has been reworked, to allow the AI to express its preferences in more detail. Let’s take a look at an example:



Here, I was trying to get out of a bad situation by giving away my ally’s land, but Nassau wouldn’t have it. It’s not that they don’t want Candar to be released - note the green thumb - it’s that they’d much rather have me release some of my own land. Unlike the old “Requires X to be part of the offer”, this new condition can not be circumvented by completely filling the peace deal with less important treaties.

As a consequence of this, we’ve also been able to loosen up the “Does not want” condition by making the thumbs green in more cases.

One more subtle but important change is that when an AI warleader considers a separate peace with individual enemies, it will be more lenient. This helps expanding AIs take more stuff, while also reducing the risk and cost of war, compared to just waiting for the enemy warleader to sign a deal. It will also make it more risky for players to start a war where they rely too heavily on their allies.

As a related side note, we’ve fixed a crash related to the PRESS_THEM_FURTHER moddable define. If enabled, it makes your war allies who have been promised land get mad at not getting enough land, even if the war leader doesn’t take anything for itself.



Independence Wars



Given that we’re doing a Scandinavia-themed update, it seemed appropriate to do something about subjects’ willingness to declare independence. We haven’t changed a lot, but subjects will overall be a bit bolder when it comes to declaring independence. In particular they may now do it while at war, if at 100% Liberty Desire, so no more constant wars to pacify your subjects. There’s not much more to say about it, but we can for example see independent Sweden a bit more often, as well as a collapsing Timurids and occasionally breakaway nations in the Americas.



War Evaluation


(But Tunis will accept once I start the war)

When the AI considers starting a new war, it will look at basically the same information as the player can see in this window to figure out who will join on either side. Unfortunately, this has had a couple of bugs, related to the “Attitude towards enemies” and “Distant war” reasons potentially changing as the war starts and additional countries join. This has made both players and AIs declare suicidal wars.

These inconsistencies have now been fixed, where we could find them. But the problem remains when predicting acceptance for recursively called allies (such as allies of the Holy Roman Emperor when attacking a member state). Because of this, already in 1.33, the player interface doesn’t try to tell you whether those countries will join or not. But the AI still tried to “look at the checkmark”. In 1.34, the AI will simply assume that recursively called countries would all join. This will fix the “Burgundy suicides into Liege” bug.



Passive Subjects

Players with Rights of Man are able to set their subjects’ military focus to “Passive” and “Defensive”, but these focuses have been a bit wonky for some time. We fixed a number of bugs with these for 1.34, and there is one I would especially like to share.

In very simplified terms, this is how Passive was originally coded:


But then single-province subjects with big armies would stay and take attrition (especially if another country is also standing there), as well as when enemy armies are approaching. So the objectives were reordered:


And it turns out the AI knows you can’t take attrition while fighting a battle… So “passive” subjects would sometimes actively seek out enemy armies on foreign territory in order to avoid attrition!



Other

There have been a number of improvements to for example army and navy handling. This Dev Diary is already long enough, but the biggest bug worth mentioning is when the AI would just lock its armies in place near the coast, while its navy was too afraid (often irrationally) to come and pick them up. This easily caused e.g. Denmark/England/Spain not making themselves useful in wars.

Historically, many AI bugs have been caused late in the development cycle of a patch, perhaps because they often need time to be found. Right now, we’re quite happy with the state of the AI in our internal builds so we will try not to repeat that mistake by stirring things up before 1.34 releases.



Patch Notes

Here are roughly the AI-related patch notes so far. This is still WIP and a more final and curated list will be released in connection with the update as usual.


Buildings
- AI will now properly calculate when to construct Docks based on a multitude of factors such as sailor percentage, idea group choices, capital position and more.
- Fixed that AI sometimes deleted all forts right after a bad war.
- Fixed another case of AI deleting forts unnecessarily.
- Fixed bug that 'Conqueror' ruler personality made AI delete all/most forts.
- AI less keen to build fort in capital (though still preferred). This will somewhat reduce the fort slog in Central Europe.

Budgeting
- Changed AI budgeting algorithm to be more flexible. Fixes e.g. small CNs sometimes not colonizing when they should.

Geopolitics - Declare wars
- Fixed some cases of AI declaring war over provinces it can't/won't take.
- Made AI less likely to declare war on island nations it lacks the transports to invade.
- Fixed bug that revolutionary AI could declare war on coalition target with any cb, thinking coalition members would join.
- AI is no longer blocked from declaring independence when at war.
- Fixed bug that sometimes made aggressor AI erroneously think HRE allies would refuse to join when attacking HRE minors.

Geopolitics - Missions and Decisions
- Added AI weights to mission trees which make them now more considerate which mission they want to strive for and how much (for context related reasons).
- AI now understands and tries to achieve army_size and army_size_percent triggers in missions.

Geopolitics - Other
- Fixed bug that AI couldn't get hostile towards, and hence rarely attacked, others’ vassals and some other subjects.
- AI is now better at evaluating when to annex/integrate a subject.
- Fixed bug that catholic AI colonial nations avoided expanding into overlord's Tordesilla regions.
- Reduced AI avoidance of having interest in provinces that are vital to allies.
- AI Duchies are now permanently interested in provinces of their culture, Kingdoms their entire culture group, and Empires also all provinces on their border.

Peacemaking
- Fixed some issues with AI peace acceptance 'wants other concessions than gold' and 'does not want anything else', causing AI to often leave OPMs in peaces.
- Fixed bug sometimes preventing AI from taking the last enemy province.
- AI warleaders are now more happy to make separate peaces with non-cobelligerents.
- AI will unconditionally surrender in more cases.

Army
- Fixed one bug that made AI send armies far away instead of defending home.
- Made AI more likely to reinforce adjacent battles.
- Improved AI attrition handling. Should get both less attrition and less confused behavior.
- Fixed bug that AI helped allies with rebels even when at peace.
- AI overlord now treat subjects' rebels like their own in more cases.
- Fixed bug that made AI ignore flanking when evaluating battle.
- Fixed multiple cases of AI subjects being stupid when set to Passive or Defensive.
- Increased preferred size of AI armies, especially late game.
- Increased AI desire to disrupt sieges, especially with high progress.
- Improved AI logic for when to abandon sieges.
- Made AI armies prioritize coordinated offensives more.
- Made army AI try to stay close to enemy armies when it has nothing else to do.
- AI somewhat more likely to defend homeland.
- Improved AI for consolidation before battle.
- Fixed instance of AI armies going back and forth when sieging.
- AI vassals no longer delete exiled armies if they can get home.
- Fixed issues with autonomous sieging and rebel suppression missions.
- Fixed case of AI armies canceling movement every other day

Navy
- Fixed some issues with AI naval invasions.
- Made AI better at understanding when a naval invasion risks being intercepted.
- Fixed bug that made AI often unassign general when naval invading.
- Fixed yet another case of AI naval invasion stalling forever.
- Made AI fleets consider troops further away when protecting straits.

Trade Company
- Fixed bug that AI sometimes wouldn't ever core Trade Company provinces.
- AI will no longer accidentally remove trade companies by creating states.

Cheats
- Fixed bug that AI could add provinces to HRE when emperor, even if not a member.
- Fixed bug that AI could use Break Alliance for Favors diplomatic action with Leviathan disabled.


That's it for today. I hope you found this Dev Diary interesting!

Next week my colleague Pavía will be showing all the new Monuments that will be added in the 1.34 Update, along with some game balance and changes we want to share and discuss with the community, coming also for free in the update.

Hyvää päivää! Welcome to this week’s developer diary where I will be revealing two new mission trees: Finland and Lübeck! As a note ahead of time, the new Finland mission tree will be part of the upcoming DLC, while we decided to grant Emperor’s Lübeck tree to Hamburg and Bremen (with the appropriate tweaks, available for Emperor owners) and give Lübeck a brand new, expansive set of missions for the base game. However, more on that further down!

Please keep in mind that the numbers showcased here are NOT FINAL and are very much subject to change based on your feedback!

During the timeline of the game, Finland rested under the crown of Sweden and had some regional development in terms of its farming population. The Finnish cavalry known as the Hakkapeliita were famed for their ability to provide valuable skirmishers, reconnaissance, and devastating charges in campaigns against both Russia and Poland. However, as with the Teutonic Order, Gotland and Livonia, this set of missions revolves around a scenario in which Finland fought (and won) their independence, making them a valid contender for the Scandinavian crown and expanding their domain across several shores and regions.

Despite Finland’s status as a releasable tag, we felt it was appropriate to satisfy the demands for a proper and interesting Finnish mission tree:




Finland will receive 15 new missions, each one carefully crafted to offer new and unique rewards, leading into the formation of Scandinavia and the domination of the Baltic shores. Please note that the art of the icons is placeholder and is not final!

Raise Our Army will give a short yet tactically crucial bonus to your forces, allowing you the ability to outmaneuver the numerically superior Swedes and their wartime allies:



What’s more, you will gain access to a unique version of the Hakkapeliitta Cavalry which costs no Army Professionalism to recruit:



The mission Defend Independence will require you to make allies, raise your stability and bring balance to your financial affairs by having no loans. As a reward, you will be able to write your own story, your saga, which will grant you a scaling reward based on your ruler’s achievements during his lifetime at the time of completing the mission. The factors for the reward are:

• Stability (Administrative Accomplishment)
  
• Number of Allies (Diplomatic Accomplishment)
  
• The amount of development you’ve grown by (Military Accomplishment)

Each of these will grant our ruler between 1 and 3 monarch stats (or monarch points if already at 6), along with this powerful ruler-tied modifier as well as permanent claims on the Baltic Trade Node (that’s a surprise tool that we will use later):



Completing the aforementioned mission will open the way for 3 new missions. First off, conquering Stockholm from your former overlords will change the name of Stockholm (if your culture is Finnish), grant it some development and give you access to a discounted advisor:




Seize the Means will task you with seizing the means of production behind Europe’s prime source of copper and will grant you a good bit of ducats from your copper and iron production, the ‘Industrious’ trait (if your ruler has enough available slots) as well as the following reward:



Expanding St. Olav’s Tower will yield quite an interesting and powerful local reward:



Keep in mind that if for whatever reason an enemy force (another nation or rebels) takes control of the province, you will lose the above modifier!

Declaring a Baltic Empire will give you a new name and if you have Mandate of Heaven the following reward along with granting you the rank of Empire:



On the right side of the tree you will see missions relating to the development of the countryside and the founding of new cities:



Founding Turku, an important city for Finland guarding the way to and from Stockholm:




Founding Helsinki will grant a level 2 Center of Trade as well as a few buildings for your newly developed province. Note that if you complete the mission with a Shipyard and a Dockyard, you will instead gain their upgraded versions:



Finetuning the Finances of the realm will require you to increase your income, employ a level 2 Administrative Advisor, run a positive monthly balance and have no loans:




The Turku Academy, your domain’s first university and institution of higher education, will yield the Scholar trait for your ruler, Innovativeness and more:



The culmination of the Finnish tree ends with unleashing the White Death upon Europe and a powerful permanent country modifier to go with it:



Of course, you are welcome to form Scandinavia and gain the Scandinavian mission tree, however Finland will not have a unique Scandinavian tree, as its senior siblings in the region do.



Now, 1.34 will also hone and improve as well as add new content for the base game. One such addition is an expanded mission tree for Lübeck. Before we delve into it, I would like to repeat that the Emperor DLC Lübeck tree will be available for Hamburg and Bremen (if you have the Emperor DLC) with a good number of tweaks and new rewards as well as localisation.
Moreover, the Hanseatic League will now be a formable nation with its own set of national ideas (essentially Lübeck with a different name and better ideas). Since that’s out of the way, let’s go, Lübeck!

From a historical perspective, Lübeck (and the Hansa as a whole) has seen better days. The 15th century brought a lot of decline for their merchants, with business shifting westwards towards the English channel. You are tasked with reviving the mercantilist grip of the League, expanding it and creating a trade Empire the likes of which the world has never seen. To assist you in your endeavors, the various missions of your tree also benefit the members of your trade league, giving you a reason to care for them and if possible, expand their ranks:



The top half of the tree will focus on expanding the League outwards. However, many of these missions will not require direct conquest. You will be able to complete many of these via diplomacy as well! The goal is to give the player the freedom to choose how they want to approach the tree.

The conquest branch will start with requiring you to raise an army which will seamlessly grant claims for and flow into missions about Visby, Mecklenburg, Riga and more.



Gateway to the East will require you to have Riga be part of the trade league and have high opinion of you or control the similarly named province as well as having a certain amount of troops.




Restore Visby will lead you to restoring a historical stronghold for the League:





Gaining ports in Danzig, cooperating with the Traders and developing the city of Danzig will grant the following benefits:



The conquest path ends with the appointment of an official War Minister. Every different military advisor will grant a different, dynamic reward:



The second part of the tree is wholly dedicated to the internal affairs of both Lübeck itself and the Hansa as a general league of trade nations. Initially, you will have to expand the Old City of Lübeck and its market, yielding powerful Trade Efficiency and Institution Spread modifiers for a few years followed by the Peace of Vordingborg, imitating the styles of Italian Bookkeeping and Financing the Guilds of Lübeck:







Of course, no Hansa playthrough would be complete without a mission to address and expand the Hansehalle, the legendary administrative center and the heart of the entire Hansa:





Funding the shipbuilders’ Guild will grant a flavor event about the legendary Hanseatic Cog which will grant Light Ship Cost as well as Sailors and increased Naval Leader Maneuver. Elsewhere, Organize Hanseatic Diets will require you to bring peace within the Trade League and develop Diplomatic channels between yourself and potential members or subjects:



Impose Lübeck Law will grant another dynamic reward, based on which faction is in power at the time of completion:



Presenting a grown and powerful economy as well as increasing your total development in the Tend to the Towns mission will yield a positive bonus for you and your Trade League members:



Developing the Mineral Trade in Europe has quite a spicy reward that will, just like its predecessors, change depending on the circumstances of its completion, here’s the direct and less likely outcome of importing large amounts of precious metals in your ports:



To wrap up the flavor part of the tree, declaring the Queen of the Hansa mission will turn all members of your trade League into subjects and grant a diplomatic relations modifier to cover part of the upkeep costs for 30 years. Furthermore, you will gain monarch power scaled to the Development of your capital, 10 points per development to be precise:



The event Crowning of a New Queen grants 2 different bonuses. Either you change your country’s name to The Hanseatic League and gain a new idea set or keep your current ideas while your ruler gains +1 adm/dip/mil and you gain 3 Mercantilism:



The new Hanseatic League national ideas:


Earlier in this Developer Diary, I mentioned that the Emperor DLC Lübeck tree will be playable for Hamburg and Bremen, since Lübeck got a shiny new tree. To add to that, the Hanseatic League, which is the reward for the final flavor mission for Lübeck, is now available as a formable nation and will come outfitted with the Lübeck tree and the evolved idea set I showcased just above.

In the interest of time, this Developer Diary cannot be too large. Thus, we have intentionally omitted showcasing the rest of the flavor coming for Lübeck. This Diary barely covers 40% of the new content! As mentioned above, this Lübeck mission tree will be part of the **base game** and will come fitted with 36 new missions and 20 new events!

Lastly, I would like to bring another small change to your attention: the UI for Estates has been reworked and I would like to give special thanks to Artemis, whose UI work served as the basis for our own:



Now passing the mic over to my dear friend and colleague Ogele to talk about new shiny Theocratic Reforms!

Hello there!

In the last development diaries we have shown new government reforms for monarchies, republics and even pirate republics which will all be part of the 1.34 update. Today I want to finish this topic for good as I will present to you what we have in store for theocracies!



Theocracies were the last on our list for new government reforms and had already a bunch of interesting and fun choices to pick from. As such, they don’t receive as many new reforms as for example monarchies and republics do. With that being said, we still think they deserve some love nonetheless and because of that we have decided to add 2 new theocracy specific tiers.

Tier 2:



Note: Internal Mission, External Mission and Mission to Civilize are unchanged while Mission on the High Sea only requires one owned port instead of a capital port.

Tier 3:



Education of the Theocrat will immediately trigger an event for you when picked which allows you to choose what stat bonus your next heir shall receive:




This event will always trigger when you get a new ruler and fires before you can select an heir so your heir will benefit from the bonus you choose.

While we are at it: the Kingdom of God reform for the Papal State is still in the 3rd tier, but has received some buffs to make it more on par with theocracies which have access to the Papal Influence and Education of the Theocrat:



Tier 5:


Note: Only Subservient Bureaucrats and Zealous Administrators received changes

Tier 6:


Note: Magister Militum Dei and Embrace Conciliarism are Papal State only

Tier 8:


Note: only “Pursuit of Knowledge” is new here, the other reforms are former Tier 2 reforms which have been moved to Tier 8.

Tier 9:


Governments which have the “Is a Monastic Order” government trait gain access to four additional reforms which are already part of the game right now.



Tier 10:



Tier 11:



Tier 12:




That was it for this week! Next week Gnivom will talk about the AI changes and adjustments for 1.34. Until then, we wish you all a great week!

Welcome to our next Development Diary for Europa Universalis IV! The majority of the new content for the upcoming DLC has been revealed so far and all that is missing are two nations - one of them is an island nation which almost never sees the light of day.



Prior to 1.34 Gotland was a province occupied by a rebel stack led by the Danish ex-king Eric of Pomerania. This has changed now and Gotland is selectable at the start of the game with Eric as its ruler.

Originally a commercial center situated in the crossroads between the merchants of Russia and Germany, Visby has quite an interesting history during the century prior to the beginning of the game. Home to privateers such as the Victual Brothers and the bastion of a former Danish King, Gotland ended up being the guarantee of peace between the Teutonic Knights and the monarchs of Denmark. Coupled with a fresh new mission tree, its very own great project and unique new paths to explore, Gotland will offer a fascinating playthrough.

As Gotland was a member of the Hansa, the hideout of the ex-king Eric and a base of operation of Eric’s piracy, the fate of Gotland is quite open-ended (though, in 99% of games Gotland will probably end up as territory of Denmark or Sweden as these two countries still have their core on Gotland).

The content for Gotland is intended to reflect the possibilities Gotland’s history could have gone and as such when you start as Gotland you get the following event instantly:




When you select the second choice you get a follow-up event:




Of course the claims of Eric won’t make much sense when he dies before pressing them against Denmark. If you select the monarchy path of your missions and Eric finds himself buried with the head first in the mudflat then you get an event which allows you to change your direction (this only triggers when you picked the monarchy missions though):




But what are these missions even about? Let’s start taking a look at them, starting with the monarchy missions:



As your goal is to become Denmark, the monarchy missions of Gotland are a little bit shorter, but will help you with your ambition.
“Dynastic Relations” for example gives you 10k manpower per nation which has the same dynasty as you and has at least 100 opinion of you. As you start with the Gryf dynasty you can get 20k manpower rather easily from Stettin and Wolgast - if you manage to finish the mission before they annex each other.
Meanwhile, “The Enemy of My Enemy” makes alliances with rivals or enemies of Denmark easier.
The biggest supporter would be the HRE however. “The Emperor’s Treasury” is mission which allows you to make a deal with the Emperor upon reaching 100 opinion of him:



Naturally, this event triggers an interaction with the Emperor:



Of course you can accept or reject these conditions:



Taking the help of the Emperor will have consequences. If you ever manage to get Holstein or Slesvig then you get confronted with an event which reminds you of your end of the deal:




Of course you are free to ignore your promise, but this will result into a diplomatic escalation of the situation:



Of course the event for the ultimatum has a proper title which is a homage to a different demand of German territory in history:




As Eric was voted out by the nobles of Norway and Sweden it is only natural that you want to get on Norway and Sweden’s good sides - either through diplomacy (they have 100 opinion of you) or through espionage (you have 50 spy network in their overlord).



The main focus of the monarchy missions is your war with Denmark. “War for the Crown” which is doable after getting any kind of cb against Denmark will give you a restoration of Personal Union casus belli against Denmark as well as 10% Land and Naval Morale for 25 years.
“Take over Sjaelland” which can be achieved by occupying the capital of Denmark (in this case it is Sjaelland) will trigger the following event:



If you manage to get 50 War Score against Denmark, control the Danish capital and be at war with Denmark for 3 years you can complete the mission “Execute the Wrong King” which will end the war immediately in your favor:



Of course these missions are all completable if you manage to win the war against Denmark on your own and get them under a personal union before. In that case the events will not fire, but their rewards are given directly by the missions themselves.
Also, if Norway or Sweden are independent then you gain a PU cb against either of them in this event.

As soon you have the Kalmar Union under your control you can complete the mission “Back in Control” and get the following event:



From this point forward you are then playing as Denmark, though with a slightly easier time with Sweden.

But not everybody wants to play “Denmark with extra steps” and so you can choose to become a republic instead.



Your mission tree is tailored to become the dominant trade power of the Baltic Sea, rivaling the likes of Lübeck or Riga.
As it has become a little bit of an unofficial tradition for this DLC, so does Gotland too have a way to join the HRE with the “Imperial Protection” mission. The claims of the mission tree are few and mostly focused on the Baltic coast of Germany as well as the lands of Denmark and Novgorod.
Real highlights of this mission tree are +25% Permanent Ship Trade Power from the mission “Compete with the Hansa”, as well as +25 Trade Power in the English Channel until the end of the campaign from “Channel’s Trade”.
“Gutnish Trade Fleet”, “Strong Mercantilism” and “Gotland’s Trade Empire” have dynamic rewards which depend on which faction is currently at power:



“Gotland’s Trade Empire” has of course the most impactful reward of all three of them:




But what if you don’t want to make your ducats the honest way through trade and commercial? What if you want to embrace the historical roleplay of Eric, the king who became a pirate? For that there is the last and biggest mission tree of Gotland which explores this path.



The Gotland AI will always take the Pirate missions as historically Eric of Pomerania was living the pirate life on Gotland until he eventually died.
The pirate missions are divided into three greater branches and some miscellaneous missions which are adopted from the generic Pirate missions and slightly adjusted for the North Sea.
Starting from the left to right, the missions starting with “Gotlander Pirate Fleet” are your conquest and exploration missions, handling Denmark and, of course, the Caribbean. When you complete the mission “Pirates of the Caribbean” you get the option to move your capital in to the new world through an event:



Meanwhile, the mission “The Worst Pirate” gives the following rewards if you own or have a subject own Tortuga:



The missions branching from “Reach the Mediterranean” are all about raiding and looting certain places of importance such as Rome and its Curia coffers, or Venice and its arsenal. “Pirate versus Berber” on the other hand is more of a mission for all those who played in the Mediterranean and had to suffer under the Berbers.
Each one of these three missions rewards you with an unique event which is of narrative nature. But they also contain strong rewards which are fitting to the text. Here is the event “The Raid of the Venetian Arsenal” which is the reward of the mission “Raid the Arsenal”:


I will come back to the “Legendary Pirate” personality later.

“Terror of the Baltics” and the followup missions are about, well, raiding the Baltic Sea, but also “liberating” Lübeck, Danzig and Riga from their owners and incorporating them into your pirate republic. Each mission gives their respective city the following reward:



“The Pirate Haven” is the finisher of these missions and is completed when you own at least 10 provinces which are either centers of trade or have a river estuary. Finishing it gives you a reward which mirrors the Merchant Republic dynamic mission reward:



Finally a few words for the remaining missions:
“A Pirate Federation” works exactly like the generic pirate mission. “Global Piracy” requires you to privateer in at least 10 different trade nodes of the world and gives you extra privateer efficiency of 33% until the end of the game. “Scourge of the North Sea” requires you to privateer in the North Sea and the English Channel while “Loot London” and “Loot the Low Countries” are rather self-explanatory. All of these missions reward you with good chunks of money.
“Renowned Pirate King” is a special version of the “Renowned Buccaneer” mission of the generic Pirate mission. But it is worth mentioning that both missions have received an additional bonus in its reward:



The “Legendary Pirate” is a new ruler personality which can be gained through either mission rewards - as it was the case in Gotland’s mission tree - or by winning against an enemy who is above your own weight. Also, all historical pirates have the “Legendary Pirate” personality.



It goes without saying that the Legendary Pirate is part of the free update and not locked behind the newest DLC.

Speaking of free content: monarchies and republics received new government reforms, and so did the Pirate Republics some new reforms to play with too! I will list the tiers where a new reform has been added or an old Pirate reform has been adjusted and will highlight them.

Tier 2:



Tier 4 (they are all new):



Tier 7 (they are all new):



Tier 8:



Tier 10 (the first three are generic Republican reforms, hence their theme is not quite fitting for Pirates):



Tier 11 (the first three are generic Republican reforms, hence their theme is not quite fitting for Pirates):



Tier 12:



Next to the pirate government reforms we also have added some new naval doctrines. In the development diary for Denmark we presented you some of the new naval doctrines and you gave us ideas for new additions of naval doctrines. While not all were able to make the cut for 1.34, some of your suggestions have been implemented!

For Venetian countries



For Korean (or Snocized-Korean) countries



For Japanese countries



For Lower Saxon countries (in that case it is mostly relevant for Lübeck):



It goes without saying that the icons for the Naval Doctrines are placeholder.

Last but not least we also did some balance changes regarding the navy to make them (and their ideas) a little bit more impactful.

Blockaded provinces now receive +0.25 Monthly Devastation and -50% Local Trade Power additionally to the +20% Local Ship and Regiment recruitment time.
Additionally, blockading a country’s ports not only increases +0.10 Monthly War Exhaustion but also -75% Global Trade Power and -75% Trade Steering, scaled by proportion of (core, state) development blockades.

1.33 buffed the Maritime Ideas and Naval ideas and while we are happy with Maritime ideas for now, the Naval ideas are still lackluster in their usage. They do their purpose which is buffing the navy, but due to how EU4 works naval battles are rarely of big concern and as such the Naval Ideas have a too high opportunity cost.
So we have decided to give a secondary role to Naval ideas which is rewarding your land conflict if you have naval dominance by giving the fourth idea “Naval Glory” +1 Blockade Impact on Siege additionally to the Yearly Navy Tradition. The +10% Ship Durability has been moved from the bonus of the ideas group to the sixth idea, “Oak Forests for Ships” (the +20% Heavy Ship Combat Ability remains) while the bonus now has -100% Naval Barrage cost next to the +15% Ship Disengagement Chance.
The Naval/Maritime policy “The Naval Supremacy Act” now gives +1 Blockade Impact on Siege instead of +50% Privateer Efficiency. The +50% Blockade Efficiency remains unaffected here.

Finally one quick Quality of Life addition to the game:



That was it for today! Next week PDX Big Boss will present the final country which receives content from this DLC. Little hint: it is NOT a nation you can select when you start the game.

With that being said I wish you all a nice week!

Dzień dobry! Welcome to today’s developer diary! We will be taking a first look at the new Polish, Lithuanian and Commonwealth trees!

But first, allow me to introduce myself. I am Big Boss, the newest addition to the Content Design team. I started playing Europa Universalis during 2011 and have loved spending time looking at and painting maps since then. More recently, I have been working on several mods, so some of you may know me from my work there. I am genuinely very excited to share with you all the hard work the team has been putting into this update and praise the immense amounts of support I have received from my new colleagues and mentors! As we delve into this developer diary, please keep in mind that the icons and event images as well as numbers displayed are by no means final!

The beginning of the game finds Poland rudderless, with her King, who maintained a union over Lithuania, Hungary and Croatia, having died a mere day earlier, after risking his fate against the Ottomans at the battlefield of Varna. Thus, Poland starts at a quite precarious state: a vacant throne, the Nobility’s Golden Liberty in full effect, and surrounded by powerful neighbors. At the same time, the Ottomans in the South and the Muscovites in the East are taking great steps to consolidate and expand their domain.



So what’s new for Poland? For starters, they have access to two new T1 Government reforms. The first one is the Great Sejm reform, granted to them at game start:



Bear in mind that any and all numbers you see in this Developer Diary are strictly work-in-progress and are subject to change, especially in response to valuable feedback from the community!

The second T1 reform is a special reform for Poland upon accepting the Union with Lithuania:



Unlike the Great Sejm reform, the Polish Elective Monarchy grants the ability to elect various princes to the throne, a steeper absolutism malus and, similarly to the Great Sejm, it enables the Parliament and grants a reduced Unrest bonus.

Speaking of the union with Lithuania, it should be noted that some changes were made to that event. Now, it will fire even if Lithuania is a player. A Player Lithuania will be able to decline, but AI Lithuania will always accept. This was done in order to further facilitate the idea that Poland and Lithuania make a great co-op campaign, which is also complimented by both mission trees granting bonuses that follow the spirit of cooperation between the two nations. Here’s how the new event plays out:





To further immerse the players into the gravity of their choices, I went ahead and added a few dynamic missions for Poland, based on your choice between the local noble or the Lithuanian PU. Accepting the Lithuanian union will lead you towards developing the Lithuanian core as well as elevating their nation financially and (later on) artistically as you prepare them for the eventual integration:





This branch ends with you declaring the Imperial Commonwealth, which grants a powerful temporary bonus:



On the other side, declining the PU with Lithuania will grant you the path that leads you towards the West via entering the Empire, leading it and passing reforms.



Note: You will still receive claims on Lithuania and be able to form the Commonwealth!
The first mission’s reward is an event for the current Emperor to admit you in the Empire:



This path will also contain new and innovative rewards such as the new modifier ‘Reasons to Elect’:



The final mission for the Imperial path of the West will imbue Poland with a sizeable bonus to their Imperial Authority Gain as well as extra Diplomatic skills for her ruler.


Addressing the aftermath of the Varna crusade will have a profound impact on the rest of the missions further below. Opting to pursue friendship with Hungary and/or Bohemia will lead both parties to a shared sphere of prosperity, historical friendship and powerful bonuses to last as long as the alliance is maintained. However, should you choose to rival and become antagonistic towards them, the reward will switch to a PU CB / Permanent Claims based on the country’s union eligibility. To be clear; you can pursue friendship with one of them and antagonize the other, the choice rests entirely with you!



Internally, Poland needs to address the growing influence of the nobility. Regarding that, in the mission ‘Leverage the Magnates’, you are granted the opportunity to cooperate with them and win their favor via great concessions or directly oppose them. Keep in mind that due to their tremendous influence, opposing them is quite difficult. Working alongside them will reduce the cost of Parliamentary Bribes (which will be increased by default for 1.34) and grants a small Loyalty bonus until you pass further legislation as the Commonwealth to reduce their authority. Alternatively, if you dare to oppose their authority, you will gain an event to face a major uprising of Magnates that will also reward you with a unique new modifier:





The missions directly below it follow the turbulent history of Poland and will have you attempt to pass legislation and reform the government by undoing nobility influence. Choosing to oppose the nobles in the mission shown above will also impact the following few missions!

The mission ‘Great Sejm’ will unlock a new personality type ‘Reformist’ which grants more reform progress growth as well as new unique Parliamentary Issues for Poland! The new personality can be assigned to all rulers with at least 4 Administrative Skill.

Resolving the matter of Hungary and Bohemia will yield dynamic rewards based on whether you completed them via conquest or diplomacy. This also impacts the reward for ‘Balance the Princely Lands’:



Moving on, you will also be tasked with harnessing the Polish Renaissance, dealing with the Piasts of Mazovia and developing Krakow:





On the Conquest front, you will be led towards quelling Roman’s Rebellion in the South and seizing control of Wallachia, raising troops from nobility strongholds and assisting the Prussian Confederation:







Note: Assisting the Danzig merchants may lead to the formation of Royal Prussia as a subject under the Polish crown which will have its own few missions to break free from your hold!

Of course, the Polish tree holds many many more cool new additions, events and rewards and they are up to you to discover!

Finally, Poland (and the Commonwealth in general) will have access to a new special unit, the Winged Hussars! I am very excited to finally talk about this new unit.

• They will be available for Poland and PLC via a national idea
  
• In our current build you may recruit 1 Winged Hussar per 100 Development
  
• They come armed with +1 Cavalry Shock and +100% Reinforcement Cost
  
• They are further empowered by your choices in the mission tree!

The Winged Hussars have arrived!

As a side note, we currently have not chosen yet what colour the Carolean and Hussar unitbox will have. Janissaries are red, Cossacks are orange. Feel free to suggest potential colours!


Alongside Poland, Lithuania will be getting her very own missions. It builds upon the old mission tree and greatly expands it, honing and improving upon the unique aspects of playing as Lithuania:



Among the highlights of the Lithuanian tree are the ability to call upon a host of Cossacks, new unique T1 Government reforms (yes, plural!) and the potential to utilize the Tribes Estate for a limited time.







Alongside these new additions, Lithuania will gain access to new events and flavor:



If you choose to remain as Lithuania for a little longer beyond Administrative Tech 10, we made sure to accommodate your stay with flavorful missions that will entice you to stick around a while in order to get all the rewards and complete the tree:




Building upon the solid foundation that is the Polish mission tree, Commonwealth missions originally appear as part of the Polish tree, marked as “Locked Missions”. Unlike other formables, we took the creative decision to showcase the Commonwealth tree to the Polish player, before accessing it. The reason behind this is to prepare the player for whatever challenges and requirements the PLC missions will ask for and ensure the player is not caught off guard.

Thus, if you hover your mouse over the Locked Missions, you will see the requirements as well as potential rewards beforehand.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the missions we have in store for the Commonwealth, starting with this one, my favorite, ‘A Lifetime of War’:





Note; Since the mission only requires one of the listed requirements for it to be completed, you may see fewer choices in your version of the event, based on which way you choose to complete the mission. Shape and sharpen your army the way you want to!

Note: Please be aware that these numbers are not final!

A PLC tree would not be complete without its ‘Invest in Eastern Poland’ Mission, which requires you to have 40 provinces with a manufactory or a level 3 Center of Trade and either 40% Global Trade Goods Produced or 7 ‘Trading-in’ Bonuses. Here is the reward:



Following in the steps made before forming the PLC, and after completing the Great Sejm mission, you will gain access to flavor missions that will assist you in passing and repealing the Articles of Agreement (Pacta Conventa) and even rewriting them completely from scratch, with more favorable terms on the behest of the monarch, if you chose to oppose the Magnates in a previous mission:



The conclusion of the major flavor part of the tree is the mission ‘Dominate the Markets’ which grants a new mechanic we made specifically for the PLC, the ability to reset or extend a Golden Era:






No major mission tree would be complete without a robust conquest path. That much is true for the PLC, which will be granted missions, a new Casus Belli and even gain Streltsy as a one-time reward from one of their missions:







Moving on, ‘Prevent the Deluge’ will task you with dealing with whoever the ruler of Scandinavia is, be it Sweden or anyone else. You may deal with them in a multitude of ways, including diplomacy or conquest. Should you choose to approach Sweden diplomatically, both nations will be positively impacted by a wave of prosperity. Sweden will gain +25% increased production for its metals and historical friendship while you will gain direct access to Scandinavian copper and iron, reducing your overall military costs:



The final conquest mission for the Commonwealth will set you up to become a supreme great power, requiring you to be a hegemon and have a tremendous amount of development under your belt:



Note: Development Efficiency’s number will be green in the final build!

The philosophy of the PLC missions is that of a tree whose content should last the average player till around the 1700s at the very least, so expect a lot of hard work and very worthwhile rewards from every single mission in this tree!

While we are on the subject of the Commonwealth, I would like to showcase some new implementations that the team worked hard for. As I mentioned above, the PLC will now enjoy a lot of new content including 2 different sets of National Ideas. One for nations whose primary culture is Lithuanian and one whose primary culture is not Lithuanian (namely Poland as an example):

Polish PLC Ideaset:



Lithuanian PLC Ideaset:


I am at your disposal for any questions you may have about the trees, as I’d love to read and answer your feedback, and also feel free to suggest tweaks as well. Thank you for taking the time to read my very first Developer Diary! Next week my colleague Ogele will come back, to talk about some sea-related new content.

Welcome to our next Development Diary for Europa Universalis IV! For today we take a look at a fan favorite™ of the Scandinavian region: Scandinavia itself.

Unlike our other Scandinavian kingdoms, the unified country of Scandinavia was never a real country. Yet it is undeniable that Denmark and Sweden tried to unite Scandinavia under their own banner during the history of this region. The Kalmar Union was the closest to a unification of these countries.

As Scandinavia is a formable with little historical ties we decided to make its mission tree into an extension of pre-existing mission trees of Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The newly gained missions are either an expansion on the current playstyle, or are mirroring key missions from the other Scandinavian Kingdoms. So let us go through the different tags and how forming Scandinavia impacts them.

As Sweden already has a very extensive mission tree the formation of Scandinavia expands the mission tree by 13 new missions:



Sweden receives three new branches of their mission tree and two additional missions expanding the Caroleans and Hakkapeliitta even further.

Starting from the left, the missions “Invest in the Workforce”, “Scandes Infrastructure” and “Intensify Metal Production” are newly acquired missions which are available to both Denmark and Sweden when forming Scandinavia. They give you access to the Mountain Expansion privilege as well as the event chains to discover new sources of copper, iron and even silver in Scandinavia. So in other words: they are the development missions of Norway.

The missions started with “Handle the Empire” are Swedish specific as they are a continuation of Gustavus Adolphus’ ambitions in Germany. Either through conquest or diplomacy, the goal of these missions is to dominate the Holy Roman Empire. The great payoff of uniting Germany is the following reward:



Note: keep in mind that at this point you already are the strongest nation anyway, so the payoff is one final “get richer” reward.

The final branch on the right covers the construction of a flagship which should be the pride of Swedish Scandinavia. Of course this whole branch is a reference to the Vasa.



However, if you had the event “The Sinking of Vasa” before then this event changes slightly:



The missions “Refine the Caroleans” and “Incorporate the Cavalry” revolve around the Carolean and the Hakkapeliitta. With the former mission you need to specialize even further into your military by reaching 20% Discipline OR gain 14 Military Power per month, have 25 Swedish or Finnish provinces with a barracks and at least 75% Army Professionalism. As a reward you get the following effect:


Note: This image of the Carolean buff has been done before we got to rebalance it. Right now, the reward is not set in stone.

Meanwhile, the cavalry requires you to have the Hakkapeliitta in action for 5 years as well as either having 20% Cavalry Combat Ability OR 50 cavalry in total, and having at least 10 Finnish provinces with 10 development and a barracks.





You might notice that their names are in green. The reason for that is to showcase that these mercenaries cost no Army Professionalism to hire. They also possess a special tooltip when you hover over them to showcase their special feat:



These were the Scandinavian missions for Sweden. Two to go!
Next we move on to the Danish version of the Scandinavian missions:



As Denmark your missions for the Indian subcontinent get expanded even further. “Rule over West India” and “Dominate North India” give you claims on the vast Indian regions while the “Crown of India” finishes this path of the mission tree with a permanent modifier which increases Trade Steering by 20% and Trade Company Governing Cost by 25%.

Note: We did and still do consider adding the Indian estates as a reward too for the “Crown of India” mission. Due to problems with the UI (the estate window would require a rework to be able to show more than 5 estates + crownland at the same time) as well as the issues of immersion (all the Dharma estate events will assume you are an Indian nation, not a Scandinavian foreign power which happens to own India) we are hesitant to add this reward though.

Additionally to the development missions of Norway, you also get the ones of Sweden, which are about the Sami and the Forest Expansion. These two missions are shared with Norway. You also gain the Swedish missions about dominating the Baltic Sea and conquering the entire coastline of said sea.

Finally, the mission “The Military Question” is the finisher for the mercenaries of Denmark. By having a completed Military idea group, 30% Army Professionalism, 40% Army Tradition and a level 3 Military Advisor you can fulfill this mission and trigger the following event:





That was the Danish Scandinavian missions. Last but not least, let’s see what Norway gets from forming Scandinavia.

Norway gets the biggest addition to its mission tree with 17 new missions from forming Scandinavia.



As Norwegian Scandiavia your New World ambition gets expanded way beyond North America. Do note that the “Dominate North America” and “Control South America” are not only about colonizing these continents, but also about keeping your rivals and enemies away from there. “Settle in Rio Grande” will give a permanent claim on every province owned by your rival/enemy or by their subjects in North America while “Expand the Frontier” does the same for South American provinces.

The final mission rewards of dominating the entirety of the New World are two permanent modifiers:



You will also gain some old world related missions such as new goals in Africa and the Baltic Sea.

The more exciting missions are, however, in the middle. With “Expand the Leidang” you unlock two new estate privileges for the Nobility which mirror the customizability of the Swedish Caroleans - but not it affects your marines.



Finally the mission “Kingdom of the Sea” gives a permanent 20% Good Produced and the bonus of getting 0.5% Army Professionalism whenever you hire an admiral.

Those were the Scandinavian mission trees for the three kingdoms. Of course you know that Scandinavia is not a formable exclusive to Sweden, Denmark and Norway, so the question arises: what happens if somebody else forms Scandinavia? Don’t worry, we got this case covered!



The Scandinavian mission tree was mostly inspired by the Germany mission tree as both formables are late game “what if” nations in EU4. Because of that the mission tree is split into 4 branches:

• A conquest branch, which is about the conquest of North Germany, the British Isles, the Baltics and Russia. The big reward is a permanent +100 Power Projection.
  
• A colonial branch which revolves around the New and the Old World colonialism. The highlight of these missions is a permanent Trade Company Investment cost reduction of 20% and Build Cost reduction of 10%.
  
• A branch about absolutism and revolution - Scandinavia is a tag you form with admin tech 20 after all unless you are either Sweden, Denmark or Norway. +20% Max Absolutism, +1 Diplomat and -3 Global Unrest are the rewards for sticking to the late game.
  
• A branch about the internal development of your country. Unlike the other branches, this one has the more interesting rewards and requirements. Through “Let the Ducat Roll” you unlock the Mountain and Forest Expansion privileges. “Invest in Finland” unlocks the Hakkapeliitta mercenaries for your country, “Develop the Scandes” fires the Norwegian event chain for the copper and iron in Scandinavia. And “Empire of the North” gives permanently +5% Development Efficiency.

That was it for the Scandinavian content for the DLC. However, I am not done yet with them as there are other changes related to this tag. First thing (and I know this one might not be very popular): Scandinavia is an Endgame Tag, which means you cannot form any other country other than the Roman Empire and the unified HRE.

To compensate this, however, Scandinavia receives its own unique set of ideas which reflects the different aspects of the Northern kingdoms:


Next I want to close the Carolean topic. Our newest unit had a little bit of an identity crisis as their first iteration was one of a special elite unit and the second iteration was the result of a too harsh nerf hammer.

Now we have the third and final iteration of them:



Note: These three manpower modifiers do NOT stack with each other. So in Sweden’s case it would work like this: Swedish provinces give +33% more Manpower, Finnish provinces (which are accepted by Sweden) give +20% more Manpower, Danish provinces (which are not accepted but are in the same culture group) give +10% more Manpower.



Additionally, we reduced the number of development required to recruit a Carolean unit. Now you can recruit one regiment of Caroleans for every 10 development of Swedish or Finnish provinces.

The goal is to make the Caroleans more into the standard army of Sweden than a special elite force, but they should still have a significant punch. Maybe this version might be a bit too strong, but that is the one we will stick to until the release of the DLC.

Last week’s development diary showcased the monarchy government reforms and today I want to give an update in that regard.

Many of the new reforms and changes to old reforms adjusted absolutism for monarchies which was not a very popular approach whatsoever. Because of that we have decided to drop this idea entirely. We also did some rebalancing of the tiers. Here is the new update of the monarchy reforms:

Tier 2:



Tier 3:



Note: The requirements of the Centralized Bureaucracy reforms scales with the ages. With every age the range of the requirements increases by 10 (for example: Centralized Imperial Bureaucracy would require 35 provinces in the Age of Absolutism to be visible while during the Age of Discovery it would be only 15 provinces).

Tier 5:



Note: Only the “Dynastic Administration” is new here. The other three reforms are untouched from the current version.

Tier 6:



Note: Parliamentarism and States General are unchanged.

Tier 8:



Tier 9:


Note: L’Etat c’est moi is also part of this tier, but unchanged.

Tier 10:


Note: Not in picture, “Become a Republic” and “Install Theocratic Government” are also part of this tier, but unchanged.

We also overhauled the republican reforms too. See for yourself!



Tier 2:



Tier 3:



Note: Merchant republic related reforms will not be touched and are not shown here.

Tier 5:



Tier 6:



Tier 8:



Tier 9:



Tier 10:



Tier 11 and 12 are currently WIP.

Here is also an update for the shared Tier 4 and 7.

Tier 4:


Note: All the different reforms for the religions will be revealed in a later Development Diary.

Tier 7:



This was it for this week! Next week we will take a look into a region on the other side of the Baltic Sea. I won’t say which region, but expect for next week to learn to hate your nobles when you play the star of next week’s Development Diary.

Until then I wish you all a nice week!

EDIT: I just noticed that the numbers for the army tradition decay modifiers are off. Of course we mean -0.3% and -0.1% Army Tradition Decay, not -3.0% and -1.0%. This has been fixed internally already.

Welcome to our next Development Diary for Europa Universalis IV! Today we dive into the last starting Kingdom in Scandinavia, which has not been covered yet: Norway.

As for Denmark and Sweden, the History of Norway in the Modern Age directly depended on the fate of the Kalmar Union. After the accession of the House of Oldenburg to the Danish throne in 1448, the Danish kings increasingly centralized government, even if a Norwegian Council of State formally governed the country. In fact, Norwegian landed nobles and merchants prospered under this system, as they were effectively the middlemen between the Crown and the commoners. Although some rebellions arose, such as that of Knut Alvsson, the conflicts with the Danish crown were of much less intensity compared to Sweden. This changed with the Reformation, as Frederick I and Christian III's adherence to Protestantism sparked a revolt led by the Norwegian Church. However, it was defeated in the decade of the 1530s, so Denmark and Norway remained Tvillingerigerne (Twin Realms) until 1814.

Although Norway’s history is intertwined with that of Denmark throughout the EU4 time period, we have decided to reflect in the new mission tree for Norway the potential ambitions and challenges it would have faced had it broken free with the end of the Kalmar Union.



Keep in mind: Norway’s mission tree was created before the mission trees of the Teutonic and Livonian Order. As such, the mission tree for Norway is a lot less “what if” even though they were historically no winner either. With that being said, let’s get a look at the details of the tree.

The missions of Norway are split into three themes: gain independence from Denmark and place your own Monarch on the Danish throne, Colonization and internal missions.

Starting with the independence missions, the mission “Norwegian Allies” can be completed by having two rivals or enemies of Denmark have 100 opinion of Norway. As a reward you can request their support through the following event:




Note: Although you are asking Denmark’s rivals/enemies for support in the first three options, you still get a flat reward so the war against Denmark/Sweden will be easier to handle even if the rivals refuse to support you.

Choosing one of the the first three option will of course trigger an event for Denmark’s rivals:





“Liberty for Norway!” will restore the stability loss and get you 30 Legitimacy while “Win Our Independence!” grants you a Restoration of Union cb against Denmark, allowing you to reverse the historical roles of Denmark and Sweden.

With the mission “Norway-Denmark” you no longer require an admin tech of 20 to form Scandinavia and you get the following event when you have Denmark as your personal union:


Note: It also makes you and Denmark historical friends too if you lose this status during the Restoration of Personal Union war.

While the main missions are all about reversing the flow of history and subjugating Denmark, there is also a reference to the Scottish Sinclar clan which swore loyalty to the Norwegian crown with the mission “The Claims of Orkney”. Completing it by conquering Scotland will fire this event:



These were the conquest missions for Norway. The rest of the tree is focusing on flavor and colonization, though one of these missions is of particular importance forNorway: “Expel Danish Nobility”.

As you can see, Norway was especially badly affected by the Black Death and lost the majority of its Norwegian nobility and royalty to the plague. As such, it was easier for the Danish nobility to replace them after the Kalmar Union. This is represented by the two starting privileges of Norway which are designed to be mildly annoying to have:


Note: while these privileges are active the Norwegian AI is more inclined to accept the Danish King as their monarch during the Kalmar Succession events.

While not really too harmful, these privileges prevent you from completing the mission “Norway-Denmark” and “An Absolute Kingdom”, the latter one being a mission which will give +20 Max Absolutism and -20% Autonomy Change Cooldown permanently.

Moving on to the colonial missions, although the Norwegian ideas “The Call of our Forefathers” and “Pioneer Spirits” are not exactly accurate at capturing the spirit of Norway during the 15th century and onwards, but they at least enabled a unique play style for Norway where they are “Budget Britain”. As Sweden is busy with the affairs of Europe mostly and Denmark is focusing on trade in the Old World, it was only fitting for Norway to be more about the colonization of the New World.

The mission “Colonial Ambitions” will give you a head start on exploration as it will fire the following event for you:



Speaking of Greenland, the mission “The Colony of Greenland” will require you to send troops to Greenland in order to see what happened to the former viking colony. Historically, the last written record of the Nordic Greenlanders documents a marriage in 1408. After that there was no contact with the people living there anymore.

By placing 3 regiments of infantry in either of Greenland provinces (under the assumption that they are uncolonized that is) you can complete the mission and get the following event:




The second option is the safe option where you always get the Greenland colony while the first is a gamble. 90% of the time you will get the following event when you try to look for the lost settlement:



However, if you are lucky you get this event instead:



The rest of the colonial missions focus naturally on the colonization of North America as well as expanding a little bit into South America too. They are in general quite self-explanatory, though one mission is a little bit special. “Navigation Mastery” is actually not about colonization but about circumnavigating the world!



Now let’s take a closer look at the internal missions. There are three small branches of them: trade, development of Norway, and religion.

The trade missions on the most left side of the mission tree are about completing Burgher Agendas, construct markets and, of course, dominating the trade of the North Sea and Lübeck. Highlights here are the permanent +20% Loyalty Bonus for Burghers with the mission “Monopolize the North Sea” and the new Burgher Estate privilege “Mountain Expansion” from the mission “Please the Burghers”.



The religious missions are also branching missions for Norway just like it is the case for Sweden and Denmark. However, Norway is focusing more on expanding the Heddal Stave Church in Bratsberg and keeping a stable country.

The final branch I want to talk about is the one regarding developing Norway - which also contains two missions regarding the military identity of Norway. While Denmark uses mercenaries for their wars and Sweden has its Caroleans, it was only fair that we would also give some love to Norway too.

The mission “Restore the Leidang” is about re-establishing the medieval Leidang conscription. Although ahistorical, it is an interesting way to make the military of Norway distinguishable from Sweden and Denmark as this mission will unlock the following Nobility privilege:



“Expand the Royal Navy” will further improve your naval and marine gameplay as it gives permanently -10% Shock Damage Received for your Marines, completely nullifying their drawback, and unlocking an upgraded version of your Naval Doctrine too.


Note: Numbers and modifiers are still work in progress.

The other missions of the branch are more about actually developing Norway. “Restore the Infrastructure” will request you to develop Trondelag, Ostlandet and Vestlandet so that every owned province in these areas has 10 development. As a reward you get the following event:


Note: This event is one of the flavor events Norway already has. However, now you can trigger it on your own and don’t have to wait for it.

Over the duration of this modifier you get the chance to get the following events if you own the necessary provinces:


Note: we have decided to not touch the Vanilla Silver event. We might consider making this province into a gold province or not - depending on your feedback.

Finally, the mission “Norwegian Great Power” requires you to be one of the great powers with at least 600 development and gives the following rewards:



And that was it for the content for Norway. Before we continue with the additions to the free update, let’s talk about the Caroleans. The last Development Diary has showcased the Caroleans and we have received a lot of constructive feedback from you.

We are still not finished with the balancing of the Caroleans, but I want to share our progress with you so far so we can get an idea if we are moving into a direction the community likes to see or not.

First thing, the Allotment System government reform has been rebalanced so that it reduces your force limit.



The units themselves have received a nerf. They now deal +10% Shock Damage and have -15% Morale Damage Received instead.


Note: Background of the unit is still work in progress. We need to find the right tone of blue so it is distinguishable from Rajputs, Marines and Cawa units.

And finally the privilege “Carolean March” increases the discipline of Caroleans by 5% instead of 10%.

Now let us take a look at the changes for the government reforms, which are part of the free update.



We have been working on revamping the government reforms available to the player and for today I want to showcase what we have so far for monarchies. Keep in mind: numbers and mechanics are still work in progress and what you see here is not final.

With that being said, I will go through every single tier and show the finished reforms of each tier:

Tier 2:


Tier 3:


Note regarding Tier 4: this government tier gets shared with the Republics and Theocracies, which means most of the reforms here are available to the other governments too. The reforms of Tier 4 focus on the religious and clerical matters of your state, and as such Tier 4 has 3 Clergy reforms and 14 government reforms depending on your own religion. Here are some examples of the religious government reforms:


Note: From left to right, the reforms are available for Catholics (minus the Pope), Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.

These are the remaining Tier 4 reforms:


Tier 5 (only one new reform, the rest are Vanilla)


Tier 6 is at this point of time unchanged, but we will address these reforms and make them more interesting to select.

Tier 7 is another common tier shared with Republics and Theocracies and handles the Burghers and all the economical matters of your country.



Tier 8, which is a completely new tier for Monarchies, and the reforms for Tier 9 are still work in progress, so they will have to wait for next week’s Development Diary.

That was it for this week! For next week we will finally get to know more about this one special tag:



Until then I wish you all a nice week!