Aug 9, 2022

Europa Universalis IV - PDXRyagi

Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Developer Diary! Today’s topics are new Achievements and Moddability expansion, as well as further discussion on the Idea groups changes proposed by the community and our QA

But first, we’ve got a cool Stream for you!
Tomorrow, Wednesday the 10th between 10am and 6pm CEST we’ll go live with the Europa Universalis IV segment of this year’s Grand Campaign! So head on over to our Twitch channel tomorrow and join us!

Read more here: https://pdxint.at/3p5vuqp[/url] [hr][/hr] [h1]Achievements[/h1] [b]Brick by Brick[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/993c9d57f1e164cbb71acdc6da9536f87a9e1a55.png[/img] Starting as Denmark, enact the Unified Kalmar Monarchy government reform and own the entire Scandinavian region as your cores. This achievement flows nicely with the gameplay elements introduced in 1.34 and ties well into a nice playthrough as Denmark, with a lofty goal in mind! [b]Super Trooper[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/c62bf918f44fb7a32f425de03a4f18b09bc78553.png[/img] Starting as Sweden, enact the Allotment System government reform, have 80 regiments of Carolean raised at the same time with at least +40% infantry combat ability. Let the Swedish new Carolean units teach you all abbaout combat ability! [b]Assembly Instructions Needed[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/13983f8669ab358d36b3925fd69a5e4ab52218cf.png[/img] Form Scandinavia and revoke the privilegia of the Holy Roman Empire while being the Emperor. The manual is surely lying, how am I supposed to put together a large administrative body of dozens of different nations with different goals and agendas in just 15 minutes!? [b]Holy Horder[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/06b92016b448cb689c7e43f083705e216419d7e9.png[/img] Starting as the Teutonic Order, form the Mongol Empire while having the Holy Horde government reform enacted. Why yes of course, starting as the theocracy of the Germanic Teutonic Order, turning into a special Holy Horde and subsequently resurrecting the Mongol Empire is not the end of times, it’s a legitimate strategy! History at its finest! /s [b]For the Emperor![/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/09d9f5ae94ddef2206678b9fd7b660da3083d802.png[/img] Form Prussia or Germany, have the Empire government rank and 40.000 Marines raised at the same time. Prussia is one of the - if not the most - powerful military powers in the entire game. Its soldiers are of unparalleled discipline and combat prowess, one could even say these marines’ ability reaches beyond outer space! [b]The Freest Man in the World[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/db4aece23b5dbb67c6164637f37559e69253dde3.png[/img] Ensure that no colonized province in the world produces slaves while having the War Against the World Doctrine government reform enacted. The era of free pirates is upon us! Wealth, fame, power are nothing to people if they do not own their freedom first and foremost! [b]Crossing the Finnish Line[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/1d6a7df3f829e59a363b3da2ab6112957cd3d312.png[/img] Release and play as Finland in 1444 and have a direct land connection to the Cape while your capital is in Nyland/Uusimaa. Is it really border gore if the border is a straight line? [b]Purify the Temple[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/89a005e7182a476eb4fcd33b737f27f9d6a65feb.png[/img] Starting as Riga, enact the Salvific Plutocracy government reform and raid the heretic church of Rome. Riga receives an interesting and quite large mission tree for its size, now accompanied with a cool new achievement for a flavorful and fresh playthrough! We <3 Riga! [b]Almost Prussian Blue[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/af7ed2fa0d46f0859b88777c8bfcde10a542c08f.png[/img] Starting as the Livonian Order, form Livonia and own the territory of the North German Confederation as core provinces. A new achievement to support a splendid new mission tree for the Livonian Order. Now imbued with style due to Livonia’s new color, it’s an old familiar color but it checks out. [b]Let it Go![/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/90782541b3f4cefd6e44f1867bad4c6c676295c3.png[/img] As Norway, have your capital in the Canada region while not owning any province in Scandinavia. Traverse through the snowy locales of Canada with the brand new mission tree for Norway and leave behind your European lands. The cold never bothered you anyway! [b]Hanukkah Mutapa[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/69619abe6170e908da4b9e795f7b793fcac08764.png[/img] Starting as Mutapa, convert to Judaism and celebrate a festival. It means no worries for the rest of your campaign! It’s a problem-free philosophy! [hr][/hr] [h1]Modding Additions[/h1] The second part of this Developer Diary will be dedicated to the various additions and new script goodies we are adding with 1.34. In total, over 40 new script parameters have been added to best help the modding community expand its amazing work, a love letter sort of speak. So, in the spirit of showing off some of the cool new script additions, let’s take a look at some of them. [h3]Modifiers and Effects:[/h3] - set_bankruptcy = <tag> The tag gets instantly bankrupt - Added reasons_to_elect which adds additional modifier for HRE election reasons - Added morale_damage and morale_damage_received that works similarly to fire_damage and fire_damage_received during combat - Added military_tactics modifiers which allows you to increase this value given by the military tech. - Added max_hostile_attrition - local_garrison_size = <float> - modifies the local garrison size of the province as long it has a fort to begin with, see the "garrison_size" modifier for reference - global_attacker_dice_roll_bonus, local_attacker_dice_roll_bonus, global_defender_dice_roll_bonus, local_defender_dice_roll_bonus, own_territory_dice_roll_bonus, global_trade_goods_size [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/d001aedd839385657ddbae959c552ed409484a6e.png[/img] Modifiers both local and country-wide take a good bit of the spotlight for 1.34 with interesting new one such as the dice roll for defenders, attackers and own territory. This new modifier will add another layer of depth to military-related rewards of events, missions and decisions should you wish to mod them in. What’s more, some new modifiers we are excited to play around with are local garrison size, giving more defensive capabilities to smaller nations with defensible terrain and military_tactics, a very potent modifier that decreases the casualties your side takes during battle. A small note here, this modifier always applies as a percentage to the base amount (0.5) thus a 10% increase would always amount to essentially +0.1 military tactics. [h3]Rule Modifiers[/h3] In the EU IV Wiki there’s a portion of the Modifiers page dedicated to the so-called [URL='https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Modifier_list']Rule Modifiers[/url]. Up until now, these were hardcoded to only appear either in Ideas or Age Bonuses. However, with 1.34 and onwards we will be able to utilize them as normal country modifiers! Some of the cool modifiers included are the ability for units to ignore fort zones of control, attack bonus in provinces with the same terrain as capital province and allowing ships to repair in coastal sea zones adjacent to owned provinces. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/503d0865906551541e22017e3453be17f97bb8af.png[/img] [h3]Triggers (requirements):[/h3] - any_war_enemy_country/all_war_enemy_countries - gives_military_access_to = <country scope> (returns true if the country gives the specified country military access - receives_military_access_from = <country scope> (returns true if the country receives military access from the specified country - gives_fleet_basing_rights_to = <country scope> (returns true if the country gives the specified country fleet basing rights - receives_fleet_basing_rights_from = <country scope> (returns true if the country receives fleet basing rights from the specified country - added has_naval_doctrine = <doctrine key> or "any" [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/637d3809587346c9e4dea6f651945458c0d2b5e0.png[/img] The idea behind adding these trigger checks is to help save time from long and performance-intensive scope checks for requirements such as all_war_enemy_countries. Furthermore, checking for countries that give any type of access would only serve to further imbue missions and new modding works with more freedom to create content as it’s visualized, without having to cut down or resort to “duct tape” solutions. Lastly, a personal favorite is the check for naval doctrine, a trigger I am very much looking forward to using! [h3]Miscellaneous[/h3] Mercenary armies will now have descriptions so you can write the story behind some of the most legendary hired arms during the timeline of the game. This change aims at adding an increased sense of roleplay and help the player see the mercenary armies as a unique and alive part of the game, not just some faceless troops to be thrown into battle :D In this instance, the description is used to declare that the Swiss mercenaries will not cost any Army Professionalism: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/76ad465a3e136d6550472b3863b8db7d2349d356.png[/img] Golden Ages now have the ability to be extended (in the form of months) and even be reset as part of a new effect “reset_golden_age = yes & extend_golden_age = <months>” [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/46aa11893f65ef3c622f5185d1b46b1cad661cc9.png[/img] The Breakthrough mechanic will also appear in the game, however by default it will be turned off ([URL='https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/europa-universalis-iv-development-diary-24th-of-may-2022.1527592/']read more in this Developer Diary about Breakthrough[/url]). However, the system is in place and modders can activate and tweak it on demand via the “defines” file. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/b1a56902416aad8ab6bea770d3a0a331201e1cc0.png[/img] Aggressive Expansion can now be granted as an effect as add_aggressive_expansion and reverse_add_aggressive_expansion. Moreover, this effect can be affected by a parameter to simulate AE taking culture, religion etc into account. Monuments will be able to have descriptions, conditional modifiers (if X applies you get Y else get something else as a modifier) and even have region-wide effects on top of province, area and global effects. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/ddb20231137849b943e93eb57d6345f500934db9.png[/img] We went ahead and added a new console command, namely “remove_country <TAG>”, behold its effect! Before: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/02f8df46ed731faf3e59a995594c7ca500412a6f.png[/img] After: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/0a5104987fe9c096623fb1a8b133586c0e098cc9.png[/img] (Sweden will still fight and win its independence, subsequently annexing the entirety of Scandinavia despite the fact that it does not exist anymore - still not overpowered ). Finally, we have converted all the stats of special units. They used to reside in the “defines” file, now they are static modifiers which are more moddable: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/b034c5131af5e2d9d68aad63cbcf4b0a325c47e2.png[/img] Having advisors give scaling bonuses based on their level will also be a reality with 1.34, a change we are most excited about! For example, you can have Advisors grant -5% Mercantilism Cost per level, for a total of -25% at level 5: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/4678173/e5b2783c2ed20e8bd765f1f80bbc399149f80d8d.png[/img] Overall, 1.34 adds a very healthy number of new triggers, modifiers and effects to play around with and we are looking forward to seeing how they will be utilized both by our colleagues as well as the modding community. Do bare in mind that the modding additions showcased here are still a work in progress and only reflect a portion of what we are adding for 1.34 due to us wanting to keep this Developer Diary from being 20 pages longer and only showing off some of the highlights! [hr][/hr] [h1][b]Idea Groups[/b][/h1] And now here Pavía, talking (again) about the balance changes for the upcoming update. After going through all the feedback we received from the community a in the last couple of weeks, and more internal testing about the changes, this is going to be the final version of the Idea Groups changes for 1.34 Update: [list] [*]Economic Ideas: [list] [*]Bonus now gives -10% Development Cost instead of -20%. [/list] [*]Innovative Ideas: [list] [*]‘Optimism’ now also gives +1 Leaders without Upkeep. [*]'Formalized Officer Corps' replaced by ‘Expanded Policies’, now granting +1 Free Policies. [/list] [*]Espionage: [list] [*]‘State Propaganda’ now also reduces Covert Action Relation Impact by -100%. [*]'Agent Training' now gives -15% Advisor Cost. [*]‘Vetting’ now also grants -0.2 Yearly Corruption. [*]'Privateers' now give +25% Chance to Capture Enemy Ships instead of +25% Embargo Efficiency. [*]‘Audit Checks’ replaced by ‘Blackmailing’, now granting: [list] [*]Reasons to Accept Vassalization +15. [*]Monthly Favors Modifier +33%. [/list] [*]Bonus now gives Rebel Support Efficiency of 100% instead of 50%. [/list] [*]Exploration Ideas: [list] [*]‘Free Colonies’ now gives +10% Settler Chance. [*]‘Global Empire’ now also gives +25% Treasure Fleet Income. [/list] [*]Trade Ideas [list] [*]‘National Trade Policy’ now also decreases Promote Mercantilism Cost by 25%. [*]Bonus now also gives +10% Loyalty of the Burghers/Vaisyas [/list] [*]Aristocratic: [list] [*]‘Noble Knights’ now gives -20% Cavalry Cost instead of 10% and +15% Cavalry Combat Ability instead of 10%. [*]'Serfdom': [list] [*]National manpower modifier now giving +15% instead of +33%. [*]Adding -5% Development Cost. [/list] [*]'International Diplomacy': Replacing +1 Free Leader Pool for -25% General Cost. [*]‘Noble Connections’ now increases mercenary manpower by 25% instead of 20%. [/list] [*]Divine: [list] [*]'Martyrs' now gives +20% Manpower in True Faith Provinces instead of +15% Global Manpower modifier.. [*]'Servants of God' now gives -5% Development cost. [/list] [*]Horde: [list] [*]'Horse-lords of the Steppes' now also gives +10% Cavalry to Infantry ratio. [*]Bonus now also gives +10% Tribes Loyalty Equilibrium. [/list] [*]Indigenous Ideas: [list] [*]‘Controlled Burns’ from Indigenous Ideas gives now +15% National Manpower Modifier instead of +20% [/list] [*]Plutocratic: [list] [*]'Tradition of Payment' [list] [*]Replacing +10% Mercenary Manpower for -20% Mercenary Cost. [*]Mercenary Discipline now gives +5% instead of +2.5%. [/list] [*]'Free Cities' now also gives -5% Development Cost. [/list] [*]Naval Ideas: [list] [*]‘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. [/list] [*]Offensive Ideas: [list] [*]‘Grand Army’ now gives +10% Special Unit Force Limit and +15% Land Force Limit Modifier instead of 20% Land Force Limit Modifier. [/list] [*]Quality Ideas: [list] [*]‘Quality Education’ now also gives +0.5 Navy Tradition. [/list] [*]Quantity: [list] [*]'Levée en Masse' now gives +25% National Manpower modifier instead of 50%. [*]Bonus now gives +25% Land Force Limit Modifier instead of +50%. [/list] [/list] Policies: [list] [*]Economic - Quantity: [list] [*]No longer gives -10% Development Cost, instead it gives -10% Land Maintenance Modifier. [/list] [*]Innovative - Quality: [list] [*]Now gives Infantry Combat Ability +15% instead of +10%. [/list] [*]Aristocratic - Espionage: [list] [*]Now gives Cavalry Combat Ability +15% instead of +10%, and +10% Noble Estate Loyalty Equilibrium. [/list] [/list] On top of that, we’ve made a few small balance changes here and there, implementing feedback we’ve received in the last DDs; most of them we already commented on in there , so I don’t want to make this one longer. And speaking of, this is going to be the last Development Diary of this cycle. Most of the team here at Tinto will be going on vacation in the next few weeks, so we’re making sure that in the following days all the content gets as polished as possible for the release, and some team members will also be taking care of the preparations during this period. We know that there will be speculation about the dates of the next DLC, but we want to be sure that we offer a high quality product; so hopefully there will be more news on this soon. Thank you very much to everyone who’s been following us and participated in this cycle of DDs that began more than 3 months ago. We’re quite happy with the feedback we’ve received during it, and we’re also very excited about the new content and the update. See you

Achievements

Brick by Brick

Starting as Denmark, enact the Unified Kalmar Monarchy government reform and own the entire Scandinavian region as your cores.

This achievement flows nicely with the gameplay elements introduced in 1.34 and ties well into a nice playthrough as Denmark, with a lofty goal in mind!

Super Trooper

Starting as Sweden, enact the Allotment System government reform, have 80 regiments of Carolean raised at the same time with at least +40% infantry combat ability.

Let the Swedish new Carolean units teach you all abbaout combat ability!

Assembly Instructions Needed

Form Scandinavia and revoke the privilegia of the Holy Roman Empire while being the Emperor.

The manual is surely lying, how am I supposed to put together a large administrative body of dozens of different nations with different goals and agendas in just 15 minutes!?

Holy Horder

Starting as the Teutonic Order, form the Mongol Empire while having the Holy Horde government reform enacted.

Why yes of course, starting as the theocracy of the Germanic Teutonic Order, turning into a special Holy Horde and subsequently resurrecting the Mongol Empire is not the end of times, it’s a legitimate strategy! History at its finest! /s

For the Emperor!

Form Prussia or Germany, have the Empire government rank and 40.000 Marines raised at the same time.

Prussia is one of the - if not the most - powerful military powers in the entire game. Its soldiers are of unparalleled discipline and combat prowess, one could even say these marines’ ability reaches beyond outer space!

The Freest Man in the World

Ensure that no colonized province in the world produces slaves while having the War Against the World Doctrine government reform enacted.

The era of free pirates is upon us! Wealth, fame, power are nothing to people if they do not own their freedom first and foremost!

Crossing the Finnish Line

Release and play as Finland in 1444 and have a direct land connection to the Cape while your capital is in Nyland/Uusimaa.

Is it really border gore if the border is a straight line?

Purify the Temple

Starting as Riga, enact the Salvific Plutocracy government reform and raid the heretic church of Rome.

Riga receives an interesting and quite large mission tree for its size, now accompanied with a cool new achievement for a flavorful and fresh playthrough! We <3 Riga!

Almost Prussian Blue

Starting as the Livonian Order, form Livonia and own the territory of the North German Confederation as core provinces.

A new achievement to support a splendid new mission tree for the Livonian Order. Now imbued with style due to Livonia’s new color, it’s an old familiar color but it checks out.

Let it Go!

As Norway, have your capital in the Canada region while not owning any province in Scandinavia.

Traverse through the snowy locales of Canada with the brand new mission tree for Norway and leave behind your European lands. The cold never bothered you anyway!

Hanukkah Mutapa

Starting as Mutapa, convert to Judaism and celebrate a festival.

It means no worries for the rest of your campaign! It’s a problem-free philosophy!

Modding Additions

The second part of this Developer Diary will be dedicated to the various additions and new script goodies we are adding with 1.34. In total, over 40 new script parameters have been added to best help the modding community expand its amazing work, a love letter sort of speak. So, in the spirit of showing off some of the cool new script additions, let’s take a look at some of them.

Modifiers and Effects:

- set_bankruptcy = <tag> The tag gets instantly bankrupt
- Added reasons_to_elect which adds additional modifier for HRE election reasons
- Added morale_damage and morale_damage_received that works similarly to fire_damage and fire_damage_received during combat
- Added military_tactics modifiers which allows you to increase this value given by the military tech.
- Added max_hostile_attrition
- local_garrison_size = <float> - modifies the local garrison size of the province as long it has a fort to begin with, see the "garrison_size" modifier for reference
- global_attacker_dice_roll_bonus, local_attacker_dice_roll_bonus, global_defender_dice_roll_bonus, local_defender_dice_roll_bonus, own_territory_dice_roll_bonus, global_trade_goods_size

Modifiers both local and country-wide take a good bit of the spotlight for 1.34 with interesting new one such as the dice roll for defenders, attackers and own territory. This new modifier will add another layer of depth to military-related rewards of events, missions and decisions should you wish to mod them in.

What’s more, some new modifiers we are excited to play around with are local garrison size, giving more defensive capabilities to smaller nations with defensible terrain and military_tactics, a very potent modifier that decreases the casualties your side takes during battle. A small note here, this modifier always applies as a percentage to the base amount (0.5) thus a 10% increase would always amount to essentially +0.1 military tactics.

Rule Modifiers

In the EU IV Wiki there’s a portion of the Modifiers page dedicated to the so-called Rule Modifiers. Up until now, these were hardcoded to only appear either in Ideas or Age Bonuses. However, with 1.34 and onwards we will be able to utilize them as normal country modifiers! Some of the cool modifiers included are the ability for units to ignore fort zones of control, attack bonus in provinces with the same terrain as capital province and allowing ships to repair in coastal sea zones adjacent to owned provinces.

Triggers (requirements):

- any_war_enemy_country/all_war_enemy_countries
- gives_military_access_to = <country scope> (returns true if the country gives the specified country military access
- receives_military_access_from = <country scope> (returns true if the country receives military access from the specified country
- gives_fleet_basing_rights_to = <country scope> (returns true if the country gives the specified country fleet basing rights
- receives_fleet_basing_rights_from = <country scope> (returns true if the country receives fleet basing rights from the specified country
- added has_naval_doctrine = <doctrine key> or "any"

The idea behind adding these trigger checks is to help save time from long and performance-intensive scope checks for requirements such as all_war_enemy_countries. Furthermore, checking for countries that give any type of access would only serve to further imbue missions and new modding works with more freedom to create content as it’s visualized, without having to cut down or resort to “duct tape” solutions. Lastly, a personal favorite is the check for naval doctrine, a trigger I am very much looking forward to using!

Miscellaneous

Mercenary armies will now have descriptions so you can write the story behind some of the most legendary hired arms during the timeline of the game. This change aims at adding an increased sense of roleplay and help the player see the mercenary armies as a unique and alive part of the game, not just some faceless troops to be thrown into battle :D In this instance, the description is used to declare that the Swiss mercenaries will not cost any Army Professionalism:

Golden Ages now have the ability to be extended (in the form of months) and even be reset as part of a new effect “reset_golden_age = yes & extend_golden_age = <months>”

The Breakthrough mechanic will also appear in the game, however by default it will be turned off (read more in this Developer Diary about Breakthrough). However, the system is in place and modders can activate and tweak it on demand via the “defines” file.

Aggressive Expansion can now be granted as an effect as add_aggressive_expansion and reverse_add_aggressive_expansion. Moreover, this effect can be affected by a parameter to simulate AE taking culture, religion etc into account.

Monuments will be able to have descriptions, conditional modifiers (if X applies you get Y else get something else as a modifier) and even have region-wide effects on top of province, area and global effects.

We went ahead and added a new console command, namely “remove_country <TAG>”, behold its effect!

Before:

After:

(Sweden will still fight and win its independence, subsequently annexing the entirety of Scandinavia despite the fact that it does not exist anymore - still not overpowered ).

Finally, we have converted all the stats of special units. They used to reside in the “defines” file, now they are static modifiers which are more moddable:

Having advisors give scaling bonuses based on their level will also be a reality with 1.34, a change we are most excited about! For example, you can have Advisors grant -5% Mercantilism Cost per level, for a total of -25% at level 5:

Overall, 1.34 adds a very healthy number of new triggers, modifiers and effects to play around with and we are looking forward to seeing how they will be utilized both by our colleagues as well as the modding community. Do bare in mind that the modding additions showcased here are still a work in progress and only reflect a portion of what we are adding for 1.34 due to us wanting to keep this Developer Diary from being 20 pages longer and only showing off some of the highlights!

Idea Groups

And now here Pavía, talking (again) about the balance changes for the upcoming update.

After going through all the feedback we received from the community a in the last couple of weeks, and more internal testing about the changes, this is going to be the final version of the Idea Groups changes for 1.34 Update:

Economic Ideas:
- Bonus now gives -10% Development Cost instead of -20%.
Innovative Ideas:
- ‘Optimism’ now also gives +1 Leaders without Upkeep.
- 'Formalized Officer Corps' replaced by ‘Expanded Policies’, now granting +1 Free Policies.
Espionage:
- ‘State Propaganda’ now also reduces Covert Action Relation Impact by -100%.
- 'Agent Training' now gives -15% Advisor Cost.
- ‘Vetting’ now also grants -0.2 Yearly Corruption.
- 'Privateers' now give +25% Chance to Capture Enemy Ships instead of +25% Embargo Efficiency.
- ‘Audit Checks’ replaced by ‘Blackmailing’, now granting:
  - Reasons to Accept Vassalization +15.
  - Monthly Favors Modifier +33%.
- Bonus now gives Rebel Support Efficiency of 100% instead of 50%.
Exploration Ideas:
- ‘Free Colonies’ now gives +10% Settler Chance.
- ‘Global Empire’ now also gives +25% Treasure Fleet Income.
Trade Ideas
- ‘National Trade Policy’ now also decreases Promote Mercantilism Cost by 25%.
- Bonus now also gives +10% Loyalty of the Burghers/Vaisyas
Aristocratic:
- ‘Noble Knights’ now gives -20% Cavalry Cost instead of 10% and +15% Cavalry Combat Ability instead of 10%.
- 'Serfdom':
  - National manpower modifier now giving +15% instead of +33%.
  - Adding -5% Development Cost.
- 'International Diplomacy': Replacing +1 Free Leader Pool for -25% General Cost.
- ‘Noble Connections’ now increases mercenary manpower by 25% instead of 20%.
Divine:
- 'Martyrs' now gives +20% Manpower in True Faith Provinces instead of +15% Global Manpower modifier..
- 'Servants of God' now gives -5% Development cost.
Horde:
- 'Horse-lords of the Steppes' now also gives +10% Cavalry to Infantry ratio.
- Bonus now also gives +10% Tribes Loyalty Equilibrium.
Indigenous Ideas:
- ‘Controlled Burns’ from Indigenous Ideas gives now +15% National Manpower Modifier instead of +20%
Plutocratic:
- 'Tradition of Payment'
  - Replacing +10% Mercenary Manpower for -20% Mercenary Cost.
  - Mercenary Discipline now gives +5% instead of +2.5%.
- 'Free Cities' now also gives -5% Development Cost.
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.
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:
- 'Levée en Masse' now gives +25% National Manpower modifier instead of 50%.
- Bonus now gives +25% Land Force Limit Modifier instead of +50%.

Policies:

Economic - Quantity:
- No longer gives -10% Development Cost, instead it gives -10% 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.

On top of that, we’ve made a few small balance changes here and there, implementing feedback we’ve received in the last DDs; most of them we already commented on in there , so I don’t want to make this one longer.

And speaking of, this is going to be the last Development Diary of this cycle. Most of the team here at Tinto will be going on vacation in the next few weeks, so we’re making sure that in the following days all the content gets as polished as possible for the release, and some team members will also be taking care of the preparations during this period. We know that there will be speculation about the dates of the next DLC, but we want to be sure that we offer a high quality product; so hopefully there will be more news on this soon.

Thank you very much to everyone who’s been following us and participated in this cycle of DDs that began more than 3 months ago. We’re quite happy with the feedback we’ve received during it, and we’re also very excited about the new content and the update. See you!

Aug 2, 2022

Developer Diary - Unit Models

Europa Universalis IV - PDXRyagi

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.

Norway

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.

Denmark

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.

Dithmarschen

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

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.

Riga

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.

Sápmi

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.

Holstein

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.

Iceland

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.

Latgalia

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.

N-iX Game & VR Studio

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 Dev Diary

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!

Jul 26, 2022

Developer Diary - 1.34 Monuments

Europa Universalis IV - PDXRyagi

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.

New Monuments

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:

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Local modifiers:
+3 Local Goods Produced

Area modifiers:
−5% Local construction cost
−5% Local construction time

Local modifiers:
+6 Local Goods Produced

Area modifiers:
−10% Local construction cost
−10% Local construction time

Global modifiers:
-10% Artillery cost

Local modifiers:
+9 Local Goods Produced

Area modifiers:
−20% Local construction cost
−20% Local construction time

Global modifiers:
-20% Artillery cost

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:

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Local modifiers:
+15% Local defensiveness

Global modifiers:
+25% Navy tradition from protecting trade

When upgraded:
+1 Mercantilism

Local modifiers:
+25% Local defensiveness
+1 Naval combat local bonus off owned coast

Global modifiers:
+50% Navy tradition from protecting trade

When upgraded:
+3 Mercantilism

Local modifiers:
+33% Local defensiveness
+2 Naval combat local bonus off owned coast

Global modifiers:
+100% Navy tradition from protecting trade

When upgraded:
+6 Mercantilism

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:

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Local modifiers:
-25% Local shipbuilding time
+50% Hostile disembark time

Global modifiers:
+20% Privateer efficiency

Local modifiers:
-33% Local shipbuilding time
+100% Hostile disembark time

Global modifiers:
+33% Privateer efficiency
+15% Domestic trade power

Local modifiers:
-50% Local shipbuilding time
+200% Hostile disembark time

Global modifiers:
+50% Privateer efficiency
+25% Domestic trade power

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:

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Local modifiers:
+10% Local manpower modifier

Global modifiers:
+0.25 Yearly prestige
+0.5 Monthly splendor
+5% Reform progress growth

Local modifiers:
+15% Local manpower modifier

Global modifiers:
+0.5 Yearly prestige
+1 Monthly splendor
+10% Reform progress growth
+1 Possible advisors

Local modifiers:
+25% Local manpower modifier

Global modifiers:
+1 Yearly prestige
+2 Monthly splendor
+20% Reform progress growth
+2 Possible advisors

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:

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Local modifiers:
+10 Local trade power

Global modifiers:
+10% Global trade power
+10 Global settler increase

Local modifiers:
+15 Local trade power

Global modifiers:
+10% Global trade power
+10 Global settler increase
+0.25 Goods produced

Local modifiers:
+25 Local trade power

Global modifiers:
+10% Global trade power
+10 Global settler increase
+0.5 Goods produced

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:

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Global modifiers:
+20% Institution spread in true faith provinces
+10% Reform progress growth

Global modifiers:
+33% Institution spread in true faith provinces
+15% Reform progress growth
+0.5 Yearly legitimacy

Global modifiers:
+50% Institution spread in true faith provinces
+20% Reform progress growth
+1 Yearly legitimacy
Allow Estate Privileges to be revoked regardless of loyalty and influence

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:

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Local modifiers:
+0.25 Institution Growth

Global modifiers:
+0.1 Prestige per development from missionary

Local modifiers:
+0.25 Institution Growth

Global modifiers:
+0.2 Prestige per development from missionary
-10% Stability cost modifier

Local modifiers:
+0.5 Institution Growth

Global modifiers:
+0.3 Prestige per development from missionary
-25% Stability cost modifier

When upgraded:
Unlocks decision which allow to embrace Legalism at below -50 Piety and Mysticism above 50 Piety

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:

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Local modifiers:
-20% Province governing cost
-5% Development efficiency

Area modifiers:
-0.05 Monthly devastation

Local modifiers:
-10% Development efficiency
+1 Possible number of buildings

Area modifiers:
-20% Province governing cost

Region modifiers:
-0.05 Monthly devastation

Area modifiers:
-40% Province governing cost
-10% Development efficiency
+1 Possible number of buildings

Global modifiers:
-0.05 Monthly devastation

Idea groups & Policies rebalance

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.

Crownland & Government Reform Progress

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.

Government Capacity

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.

Other Miscellaneous Changes

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!

Jul 19, 2022

Developer Diary - 1.34 AI Improvements

Europa Universalis IV - PDXRyagi

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:

Objective #1: Avoid foreign territory. Objective #2: Avoid enemy armies on home territory. Objective #3: Avoid attrition (with a big margin if possible).

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:

Objective #1: Avoid enemy armies on home territory. Objective #2: Avoid attrition (with a big margin if possible). Objective #3: Avoid foreign territory.

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.

Jul 12, 2022

Developer Diary - Finland + Lübeck

Europa Universalis IV - PDXRyagi

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:

FU2_ideas = { start = { trade_efficiency = 0.2 merchants = 1 } bonus = { trade_steering = 0.2 } trigger = { tag = HSA has_country_flag = hsa_proclaimed_queen_of_the_hansa_flag } free = yes FU2_foreign_kontors = { global_trade_power = 0.15 } FU2_the_handelsmarine = { global_ship_trade_power = 0.25 global_ship_cost = -0.05 } FU2_reform_queens_army = { discipline = 0.05 } FU2_adler_von_lubeck_legacy = { heavy_ship_power = 0.1 } FU2_merchants_with_state = { global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.1 development_cost = -0.05 } FU2_spread_the_northern_style = { idea_cost = -0.1 } regularised_contribution = { global_prov_trade_power_modifier = 0.20 } }

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!

Jul 5, 2022

Developer Diary - Gotland

Europa Universalis IV - PDXRyagi

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!