Hello everyone! Our latest EU4 mod spotlight features Beyond the Cape.

This mod enriches the seas of EU4 with a rework of several game mechanics, creating a fresh experience for exploration, navies, and colonisation. Portugal also receives a great deal of flavour in the name of immersion and historicity.

Here is Fen_the_man to discuss their work. Enjoy!

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Greetings fellow Explorers,

I am Fen_the_man, the creator of Beyond the Cape. This mod focuses on providing a realistic and historical exploration and colonisation experience and overhauling many events and mechanics in the game to be more interesting, fun, and to better resemble how they happened in real life. The countries revamped by this mod are almost exclusively historical colonisers, mainly Portugal.

One of the main mantras of this mod is “Keep it Simple”. There are no major overhauls of any mechanics, you will not need to learn anything that you do not already learn from vanilla, and there will not be so many provinces added that will lag your gameplay.

As the Dev Diaries of the Domination DLC were being released, I’ve noticed that many people were disappointed that their suggestions and desires were not added. Of course, not everything can be implemented, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and do what I can to help the community. Let’s take a look at what this mod offers:

• Historically Realistic Exploration
  
• Overhauled Castilian Civil War Disaster
  
• Immersive Portugal Experience
  
• General Improvement to Colonisation
  
• Rework of Institution Spawn and Spread
  
• Increased Importance of Naval Dominance
  
• Overall Balance Changes

[Beyond the Cape Mod Image]

Please be aware that for this mod to work as intended, the Domination and Golden Century DLCs are required, while Origins is optional. Still, I recommend having all DLC for a complete experience.



Portugal, the country that started the discovery age, did this out of necessity. Henry the Navigator had already conquered Ceuta and sponsored voyages to the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in the colonisation of the Azores and Madeira islands and sailing past Cape Bojador, previously thought to be the end of the world. As the Ottomans further increased their stranglehold on the trade between Asia and Europe, with Portugal being on the westernmost edge of the continent it is inevitable that they would suffer the most. Going around Africa to find the sea route to India and claim its riches was the goal. There was never any interest in sailing west like Columbus did.

To represent this, Exploration ideas have been changed, so that Quest for the New World is no longer an idea there. Many other missions, estate privileges and events were changed to prevent early exploration of open seas.

The countries that can explore in the first decades of the game are very limited, obtaining their explorers through missions and events. This results in Portugal exploring around Africa rather than being able to map the New World by 1450.


[Portugal going around Africa without exploring New World]

You’ll also notice that trade winds have been reworked to have a bigger impact. This is not the only obscure mechanic that has been touched upon in this mod.

As we know, Christopher Columbus was the first European to set foot in the New World, sponsored by Castile. This event is already represented in the game, but now it is much more relevant. Columbus’ event will allow the country to sail to the Caribbean and be the first to discover the New World.

Portugal will get the Columbus event before Castile does, if they have Exploration ideas and the year is 1488. However they can only accept his proposal if they have not discovered the Cape of Good Hope. If they reject, Castile will get the event if they have Exploration ideas and there are no provinces in Iberia owned by muslims.


[Columbus event 1]


[Columbus event 2]

If Castile is the one getting the Columbus event, Portugal will be able to contest his discoveries, claiming those lands as rightfully theirs. Castile can then negotiate with Portugal, and the Treaty of Tordesillas will be enforced from then on. It will only allow Portugal to colonise in Africa, Asia and parts of Brazil, while Castile can only colonise the rest of the Americas. Both countries also get a colonial growth bonus.

In order to avoid confusion, the vanilla Treaty of Tordesillas has been renamed to Inter Caetera.

There are two other instances during the game that will modify the treaty under certain circumstances. You can revoke the treaty any time you like via decision, paying the consequences for it of course…

Eventually, countries that pick Exploration ideas will be able to enter open sea tiles, once they hit diplomatic tech 9.


[Quest for the New World event]

There is also a new estate that aims to replicate the Atlantic Slave Trade - the Slavers Estate. This estate is unlocked once an European country has a presence in West Africa and in the New World, complete with unique privileges to choose from, agendas, events and a disaster.


[Slavers privileges]

One of the most ambitious additions to the exploration and colonisation experience is the Settler Pool mechanic. It is available to every country with a colonist and aims to represent the available population to be sent to colonise new lands. Smaller countries like Portugal had mostly trade posts composing their global empire, rather than vast swathes of land as is the case with Spain.

The max settler pool is calculated based on a country’s total development and number of provinces in states. For each province being colonised, 1000 settlers are deducted from the pool, being replenished when the colony is finished. Depending on the percentage of available settlers in comparison with the total number of settlers, a modifier is given to the country that either boosts or hinders colonisation efforts.


[settler pool decision]

The Hunt for the Seven Cities of Gold has also been expanded upon. Now the search is guaranteed to happen when you start searching with your explorer. Events will happen during the course of their exploration that will determine the likelihood of finding the fabled cities of gold. There are three possible outcomes, much like in vanilla. However, the best outcome will uncover a monument that will yield great rewards when you claim it.

Even if you do not claim it, since you were the one discovering this monument, no other nation knows of its location, therefore only you can unlock the monument by owning the province.

The Fountain of Youth works much in the same way as the others, except it is your explorer that needs to do the… exploring.

Each monument exists in a different region. Go claim them all!


[El Dorado]


[Fountain of Youth]




One of the major reworks of this mod is how the Castilian Civil War disaster happens. In the base game it is quite uneventful, spawning a few rebels that you have to defeat and resulting in an opinion boost with either Aragon or Portugal.

In real life though, this was a major event in Iberian history, resulting in a conflict between Portugal and Aragon to decide which country would place their consort as ruler of Castile. Aragon won this war, and Isabella was made Queen of Castile. Together with Ferdinand of Aragon they were the Catholic Monarchs, and eventually would unite the two countries to form Spain. Things could have been very different though, had Portugal placed Joanna la Beltraneja as ruler of Castile.


[Castile Civil War initial decision between Joanna and Isabella]

This disaster has a lot of decisions and different outcomes. You can decide to stay out of it altogether, or participate to claim the grand prize. Eventually, even France can get involved indirectly to further their own interests.

When this disaster ends, if either Portugal or Aragon placed their consort on the throne of Castile, there will be something else to keep you on your toes. Both countries will get an heir, and when she rises to the throne of either country, she will form a personal union between them. Whoever has the most legitimacy, stability and prestige, as well as development in the capital, will be the Senior Partner, so watch out! It is generally easier for Castile to become the senior partner as they only have to fulfil one of the aforementioned requirements. If the heir dies though, there will be no personal union outcome (yet).

In this disaster both the Iberian Wedding event and Isabel of Castile event have been incorporated, so those will no longer fire as they are no longer necessary.

Regardless of the outcome of the disaster, even if Portugal loses that war, it might be beneficial to them to participate in it, as you’ll be able to see in the mission Intervene in Castile. This mission has 3 different rewards based on the outcome of the Castilian Civil War.




In vanilla, armies are more important than navies, and rightfully so. However, navies do not get the importance they deserve. The global empires of Great Britain, Spain, Portugal and Netherlands had a powerful navy that projected influence and allowed them to control their trade and colonies.

In order to try and represent this, there have been 20 unique naval units (so far) added to certain countries that will replace their standard counterparts. Portugal will get the Nau instead of the Carrack, Venice will get the Argosy instead of the Galley, Castile and Spain will get the Manila Galleon instead of the Wargalleon, to name a few. These units have better stats than their standard counterparts.


[Portuguese Unique Units]


[Venetian Unique Unit]

The naval special units have been renamed. It felt wrong to have a Great Frigate ship be a Caravel special unit. So now Caravels are Armadas, Galleons are Full-Rigged Ships, Man-of-Wars are Royal Ships and Geobukseons are Turtle Ships. Additionally, some countries are able to modify their special units via decision, giving them interesting bonuses and making gameplay more fun.

Roughly half of the straits have been removed and military access has been restricted to only neighbours (except in the HRE). This prevents countries from marching their armies through entire continents and laying siege to your lands. Now they will be forced to invade you by sea. Blockades are also more severe, increasing devastation at double the rate. Some narrow sea tiles also give reduced engagement width, such as the Sea of Marmara or Strait of Gibraltar.

The AI will also pick naval ideas more often. Countries such as England and Tunis will have a more powerful navy, so players can actually have a challenge at sea.




This is really the star country of the mod, but do not think that means you’ll have an easy time with them! In the quest for historical accuracy, a lot of things we take for granted have been removed. Case in point: Portugal and Castile are no longer historical friends. In fact, it is very likely that they will start the game as rivals!

So how do you fight Castile? There’s a reason Portugal’s borders remain virtually unchanged since the 13th century. This is due to staunch resistance to foreign invasions. This mod gives you the tools to replicate this, the rest is up to you.


[Portugal ideas][/i]


[Portugal missions]

Coimbra starts with the level 1 monument Batalha Monastery, which gives a little boost to the Portuguese army. Lisboa does not have any monuments at game start, but you can unlock two there by following the mission tree.


[batalha Monastery][/i]

Portugal gets a decision to upgrade their Armada ships to a more expensive combat-oriented light ship. There is also a decision to upgrade their Full-Rigged ships, sacrificing combat prowess for the ability to transport units.


[Armada and Full-Rigged ship upgrades][/i]

The Order of Christ holy order has been added. As the official successors to the Knights Templar and main financiers of the Portuguese discoveries, they are arguably the most important holy order in Portugal’s history, who displayed the order’s famous cross in their caravels’ and carracks’ sails.



[Order of Christ]

Portugal’s government has also been reworked. It allows the establishment of Feitorias along the African, Asian and Brazilian coast. These are trade posts that give you trade power in exchange for increased province governing cost.


[Portugal government]



[Feitoria event]

It also unlocks the Saudade mechanic. Saudade is a representation of the willingness to go out to sea rather than stay home, ranging from 0 to 100. Neither is inherently good or bad, it has to do with your playstyle and current situation of the country, and it is up to you to control it.


[Saudade mechanic]

If you have 100 Saudade and own at least 5 times more territory provinces than state provinces, you may trigger the Overextended Empire disaster. This disaster does not spawn rebels, but drastically reduces the economic efficiency of your empire. It represents the difficulties of managing a scattered overseas empire with limited resources.

This disaster is repeatable, so don’t make the same mistake twice!


[Overextended Empire disaster]

Each Portuguese monarch can now choose an ordinance to focus on during their reign. If they rule for long enough, they can even make their chosen ordinance permanent, lasting for the remainder of the game.

Ordinances range from simple ones, such as giving +10% tax or +10% production efficiency, to more unique ones, such as the Padrão ordinance that allows you to place the namesake Padrão (stone pillar standards) in uncolonised provinces. Once colonised and grown into a city, you will be able to choose the trade goods the province will produce - for a small cost.

There are hundreds of new events for Portugal, including the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake event chain, the Portuguese-Mamluk wars including the important Battle of Diu, and the attempted capture of the Prophet Muhammad’s remains by Afonso de Albuquerque. All these events ensure that you’ll have a rich experience and never a dull moment.


[Lisbon Earthquake]


[Tomb of Muhammad]

Portugal is also able to form Iberia, which is basically the same as forming Spain with extra steps. Naturally they cannot form Spain anymore. Iberia keeps the Portuguese ideas, and then gets a few dozen unique ones. They also get their own idea set.

To conclude this Portugal section, we give players a decision to choose Portugal’s colour, so Greentugal fans are not disappointed by the new Bluetugal.


[Portugal colours]

I will not spoil what the “meme colours” are, go check them out for yourself ;)

Other countries that have received some love so far have been:

• The Netherlands, with an updated, improved and reorganised mission tree making it more accessible for both the AI and players to complete missions and reach the East Indies. They can release the VOC much like England can release the EIC. In the Eastern America colonial region they have a unique colonisation mechanic unlocked via the Patroonschap mission. Much of their newly added flavour revolves around their conflict with Portugal.
  
  
• Aragon, who now has Sardinia and Sicily as juniors, with missions to integrate them and Naples. If they integrate the three of them, they’ll get an event that will allow them to choose where their capital will be, and depending on their decision it will upgrade the new Crown of Aragon government accordingly. There are 4 possible upgrades to the government, so choose wisely.
  
  
• Burgundy, with a unique casus belli that will allow them to subjugate the Dutch minors without the HRE Emperor interfering, as well as some historical events regarding their conquest of the Low Countries.
  
  
• Austria has Styria and Tirol as juniors, England has Wales as junior and Cornwall as a vassal, Bohemia has Moravia as junior, Wolgast has Rügen as a vassal.
  
  
• Castile, Morocco, England, Norway, and a few other countries also had slight updates to their ideas and mission trees.

This mod also addresses many other areas of concern to make gameplay feel more realistic, rewarding and challenging, including but not limited to:

• Buildings - They are more expensive the more development a province has. Most buildings now reduce development cost. This represents the effects of infrastructure in a province. Some building bonuses have also been changed.
  
  
• Development - It is more expensive to develop a province the higher its development is. This represents the effects of population increase in a province. There is also a small chance that after an enemy army occupies a province that its development will decrease by 1 in a random category.
  
  
• Terrain - Combat width from terrain has been reintroduced. Watch out for that -50% width in mountains!
  
  
• Attrition - Maximum attrition has been raised fourfold. Scorched earth, monsoons and winters give increased attrition, amongst other modifiers.
  
  
• Devastation - There is a chance for every province with at least 10 devastation to lose 1 development in a random category. This has a cooldown time, but try not to have high devastation for too long.
  
  
• Prosperity - Conversely, there is a chance for every prosperous province to gain 1 development in a random category. This also has a cooldown time.
  
  
• Corruption - More sources of corruption, namely advisors and low crownland. This represents how those in positions of power can abuse that power.
  
  
• Institutions - Dynamic representation of institution spawn. Renaissance exists in North Italy at game start, Printing Press can spawn after the Gutenberg or Aldus Manutius event, and more. Institution spawn is no longer tied to specific years. Institution spread has also been significantly slowed down. While the chance that institutions spawn in Europe is higher, it is not guaranteed.
  
  
• Casus belli - Added specific casus belli for certain historical conflicts, and a Naval War casus belli that has a Naval Superiority Wargoal, giving navies increased importance. You can unlock this casus belli after completing either Exploration, Maritime or Naval ideas.
  
  
• Sound tolls - 6 different sound tolls have been added throughout the world. Controlling the required provinces to unlock the toll gives +5 trade power to each province.
  
  
• Colonial nations - Colonial nations can no longer colonise outside their colonial region. Subject countries will no longer colonise in the same colonial region their overlord has Inter Caetera in. If a country has 2 colonial nations with capital in the same colonial region, now you can combine them into one colonial nation.

Once you load up the mod, you will be greeted by a tutorial event, which I highly recommend reading to better understand everything we hope to accomplish. You can always access it again later via decision.


[Tutorial event page 1]


[Tutorial event page 2]




Each of the new military holy orders now have a province that is their headquarters. By establishing a holy order in the area this province belongs to, not only will you unlock a modifier in the headquarters province, but also a mercenary company representing the knights of that order, each with their own unique attributes and sprite. Below you can see the Knights of Montesa.


[Knights of Montesa]

Many new songs with Portuguese flavour have been added, giving you a little taste of Portuguese culture, so you can be fully immersed in your playthroughs. You can toggle them on/off in the music channel.

We’ve also got permission from Halcyon Reign to use their amazing music in the mod. Fitting, since one of their songs is called Beyond the Cape, and it rocks! Their work is wonderful, I’m sure you guys will like it. As usual, you can also toggle it on/off in the music channel. Link to their social media will be present in the mod’s Steam page at the end of the spotlight.

There is also new loading screen art, as well as loading screen tips specific to the mod. More will be added in time.

There’s so much more to talk about! But I don’t want to spoil the whole thing for you. I encourage you to try it out and see for yourself, and find all the new things this mod brings to the game.



We’re currently in the process of reworking the idea groups, adding a few more (not many) and making meaningful changes to the way you interact with them. This will probably come in the form of a submod.

Another submod we are planning is related to unit composition, but this still very much on paper, and will only be seriously worked on after the idea submod.

Italy is also getting a significant rework, with a spotlight on Venice and the Italian Wars. The Netherlands will also continue getting more updates, focusing on their colonial endeavours.

Currently designing a province expedition event chain on certain uncolonised provinces that may yield valuable rewards, interesting discoveries, or some other hidden secrets… and easter eggs of course.




I would like to emphasise to you guys just how important this project is to me, and how during its development I saw the excitement of players flooding me with ideas and suggestions that they would like to see in the game.

With this in mind, one of my goals is to give everyone a platform to express themselves. Do you want to:

• develop your own modding project?
  
• start modding but you do not know how to?
  
• make art, UI changes, or any exciting modifications?
  
• see your favourite region represented and improved?
  
• just give suggestions for improvements?

Then this is the place for you! Beyond the Cape will provide you with a blank slate so you can express yourself and show your ideas to the world.
You will have full autonomy to do your own projects, and all the tools you’ll need to thrive, backed by a team that will be with you every step of the way.
Your contributions will gradually be added to the mod, giving you the deserved credit, and helping the mod grow.

I am very passionate about giving back to the community that gave me so much, so everyone can enjoy the game the way they want to, as it is supposed to be. So with that said, hop on to our Discord and join the team! I want to hear all about your ideas!



To finish up, I want to leave a special thanks to:

• Hermerico, for finding the Portuguese songs and for numerous ideas for events and balance changes, as well as being part of the mod’s development since the very beginning.
  
• Sete, for the many years advocating for changes to Portugal, as many of his ideas have been added to the mod.
  
• Xary Moft, for being the main tester and reporting all sorts of bugs and exploits that I wouldn’t be aware of, as well as for the expert knowledge of the game files.
  
• Everyone that is active on the Discord server, continuously giving suggestions and bug reports, keeping the mod alive and helping it grow.

Thank you for your time! I hope I managed to grab your attention with this project of mine. I also want to thank Ryagi, Vasi, and Paradox for the opportunity to spotlight the mod. You guys are seriously awesome! Please check the Steam page below, and our Discord server if you want to help this mod grow.

Steam: http://'https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2966858781'
Discord: http://'https://discord.com/invite/kTPQsRStn3'

That is it from me today! I hope to see you all again, beyond the cape!

Grab some snacks 🍿
Our Anbennar Spotlight has turned into an Anbennar Marathon.

Part 2 (And 2.5) of our multi-part spotlight on Anbennar is out now! Featuring a look into the upcoming Sarhal update, join us as we continue our Anbennar world tour. (Once again way too long for steam 👀)



And check out the moditself on the workshop here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1385440355

Have a question for the devs? Now is your time to shine!

Join us shortly as we host a developer Q&A live on our newly launched Discord Server. Paradox Tinto studio manager and long-time Europa Universalis developer Johan Andersson, and EUIV content designer Álvaro Sanz, will be available to answer your questions.

Q&A begins 15:00 CEST/09:00 EST, and will be live on our Discord server:

https://discord.gg/europauniversalisofficial

We can't wait to see you there!

Hello EU4 community, and welcome to the first Anbennar Mod Spotlight!
Today, JayBean, the creator of Anbennar and Lead Writer Karlov will be introducing you to the Anbennar EU4 mod and the Anbennar setting as a whole as part of EU4’s 10th birthday celebration in this first of a two-part series.

We'll let JayBean and Karlov take it away:


Anbennar is a fantasy total conversion mod set in an original setting inspired by D&D settings like Forgotten Realms as well as settings like Dragon Age and The Witcher. But first, let’s begin with a question:

Have you ever wanted to see how a fantasy world evolves PAST the medieval era?
How wizards react to the advent of gunpowder?
Or what if colonial exploration actually unearthed relics of immense magical power?

Anbennar is all about exploring those themes and more.
In the EU4 mod you’ll be playing through a fantasy world set during the same time span as vanilla (1444-1821). You’ll witness all the events and themes of the early modern period albeit through a fantasy lens.
Watching how a fantasy world evolves through the ages is something we don't often get to see, let alone play through, but PDX games give us the perfect platform to tell these stories - and so enters Anbennar: A Fantasy Total Conversion mod for Europa Universalis IV.


The World of Anbennar



Magic UI



Necromancy is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural



Racial advisor portraits



The God Fragment by Biegeltoren


We’ve been around for five years now, and later this year Anbennar is aiming to release our largest ever update, Scions of Sarhal, and we are incredibly excited to introduce our version of Africa when it drops in Q4 (and we finally update the mod to 1.35 - we hear you, chorus of people in the steam comments)!

But our special EU4 10th Anniversary Dev Diaries aren't just about that update.
We’re also going to take you on a grand tour of Anbennar as a whole, showcasing the regions of the world, their cool gameplay mechanics, systems, and the lore you can expect when you download the mod. Additionally, we’ll share some insight and commentary on how and why we brought these unique twists on EU4 gameplay to life...


As you might expect there is a lot to cover with such a massive Mod. Too much to fit even just part 1 into this post! Whether you have heard of Anbennar before or it's a first, if this spotlight sounds interesting we encourage you to

Read the Rest here

And check out the moditself on the workshop here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1385440355

Today we have some very exciting news for you. If you have been waiting for EUIV to finally have its own Official Discord server. Your day has come!



As part of our August Anniversary celebrations, we are launching the official Europa Universalis Discord server. If you are interested in sharing your game moments, interacting with the EUIV team, and generally hanging out with our awesome community in a Discord setting we invite you to join! If this sounds appealing to you and you do not have a Discord Account it's fairly easy to make. Discord should do a good job at giving you instructions by simply clicking the link but you can also find more information on account creation here.

In recognition of this launch as well as continuing our 10th Anniversary celebration month we are also hosting a displate giveaway on the newly launched discord server itself. This is separate and in addition to our recently concluded social media displate giveaway. We will be giving away 4 displates per day for 4 days. (See because, EU4, 1444, shoutout to the number 4 in general.)

The first of these starts today!

Giveaway times here:


Whether you are just interested in throwing your hat in the ring for our giveaways or you're interested in participating beyond that.

We welcome you to join us at:
https://discord.gg/europauniversalisofficial

Can’t wait to see you there! ♥

We’re very proud to have collaborated with Utopia Music - known to many of you as the brainchild of Runite Drill - and producer George Hammond, to release these community favourites directly through the game as DLC.

Utopia/Runite’s passionate work over the years has become a recognisable staple of EUIV’s modding community, and stands as testament to the talent and dedication of our community. This music pack is but one representation of the thriving enthusiasm that has been built around and within the game, and all the people it has brought together. Thank you.

Ten iconic tunes have been remastered for this pack, featuring tracks from Anbennar, Extended Timeline, Ante Bellum & more. They’ll be available via your store of choice and will indeed be free for all players; you simply need to claim it and it’s yours. You can also listen to them on Spotify for any extracurricular conquests.


Hello Conquerors!

This music pack is a celebration of Europa Universalis IV’s modding community and the incredible creations they have made. It features ten of the most popular original main theme songs from iconic EU4 mods, such as Anbennar, Ante Bellum and Extended Timeline. Each song has been carefully recreated from scratch and remastered to add depth, breadth, power and glory in a way that the community’s music has never before experienced.

Inspired by great composers such as Andreas Waldetoft, Howard Shore and Geoff Knorr, the songs are built upon a series of motifs and themes designed to invoke the magic, wonder and essence of each of the community’s mods. Come join us, and experience an iconic journey through the legendary ten years EU4’s modding community.

Your conquests have never sounded better.

- Utopia



Full track listing:
1. Dawn of an Empire (Anbennar)
2. Into the Beyond (Ante Bellum)
3. The Conquistador (Atlas Novum)
4. A World to Explore (Europa Expanded)
5. A Brief History of Everything (Extended Timeline)
6. One World (Flavor Universalis)
7. All Roads Lead to Rome (Imperium Universalis)
8. Clara Umbra (Lux in Tenebris)
9. Back to the Motherland (Third Odyssey)
10. In Taverns and Great Halls (1356 - A Timeline Extension)

Today, August 13th of 2023, Marks the 10th Anniversary day of Europa Universalis IV. To look back on how we got here, we invite you to join long time GSG Developer and Studio Manager of Paradox Tinto Johan Andersson as he reflects on the last 10 years.


Today it is 10 years ago since we released EU4, back on August 13th of 2023. I guess it's a sign that you are getting old that you can write posts like this.

Back in the early autumn of 2011, PDS was much smaller, I was still the studio manager, and we had 1 full team led by Henrik ‘Doomdark’ Fåhraeus working on CK2, while a smaller team with Dan ‘podcat’ Lind and 2 other people was doing expansions for HoI3 and V2. Paradox France, which was a small subsidiary with 2 employees, was working on “March of the Eagles” with support from Olof ‘Birken’ Björk.

I remember this as a time when we had lots of experience, with some of us doing these games for a decade or more, and the studio was growing every year.

We had just wrapped up Sengoku with another small (4-5 people) team, and we needed to decide what to do now. Thomas ‘Besuchov’ Johansson, by then a ten year veteran, who had been away on parental leave was coming back, and the two together with Chris ‘King’ King started to define what project we want to do.

It was quickly obvious that it should be a sequel to Europa Universalis III, but how we should go ahead was a bit harder. After a few days of talks, we settled on a simple vision of

• 25% on better UI
  
• 25% on multiplayer
  
• 25% on better graphics
  
• 25% on new features

We started building the game in late 2011, with Thomas taking the new engine version of CK2, with better map graphics, multiplayer code and support for the new DLC model, and ported in so that EU3 was running on it. After that we could start with the true development of the project.

When it came to the better UI, this was the first time we had a dedicated UI designer. Daniel Moregård who later worked on Stellaris, and is now a Game Director at PDS did a great job, making sense of the mechanics. While the macro builder he designed was a great boon we all appreciate since then, one thing he made that is not as obvious was the naming consistency on all modifiers and values in the game.

The creation of EU4 was not just about making a good UI, we also had to make new features. Some of the EU3 features were reworked, like how we went from the policy sliders to the new Ideas system, which included unique National Ideas for quite a few countries. We also reworked the trade system from the Centre of Trade system of previous iterations to the new system where you had a flow of trade and had to control ports and manage light fleets.

There were countless other features added to the game, but the biggest and most noticeable one was the introduction of the monarch power system. During all the previous iterations of EU we had had problems with balancing the game between various size of countries, and this was an attempt both to stop the snowballing that is so common in strategy games, while also creating ebbs and flows in a countries progress, tying it heavily to the monarchs themselves.

The map, graphical looks and the core features were all in and working by the summer of 2012, and we could announce the game on Gamescom in august that year.


this is one of the first screnshots we had in an early development diary for EU4.

As we had a playable game early on, we could constantly playtest the game. By the autumn of 2012 we had grown the studio to include 4 internal QA. We divided the EU4 team into two, where Thomas Johansson led people developing additional features, fixing bugs and improving UI, while I led the other half that just focused on playtesting, balancing and feature changes.

Several days each week for quite a while we started the new nightly version in multiplayer, with about 6 players playing one of France, Castille, Portugal, England, Burgundy or Austria. After about 100-150 years, or about 5-6 hours into the session we gathered for feedback, fixed what we could fix, or made jira’s for the other team on what did not work.

All in all, we spent about 18 months on the project before release, and by the time we reached the release, it was the biggest project PDS had ever done.



I guess you could describe the release as a roaring success. By then it was our best selling GSG, while also having a 87 score on Metacritic.

We had experience of how good the new DLC model was for our studio with Crusader Kings 2, so we planned for up to 3 years of regular DLC. The key thing was to do realistic things that could be released on a regular basis, which would be good for the player. Most of the time this succeeded. So let's now see how this decade panned out, and if I have any anecdotes.

The first dlc was the minor American Dream, which was basically an event pack that was released not too long after the release. I really don’t have any memories from it, and suspect it is not on anyone’s list of our top 5 dlc’s.

The first big expansion for EU4 came about half a year after release, with Conquest of Paradise. Back during the original design talks for EU3, I had envisioned a random new world. This was beyond our skill back then, and it was beyond what we could add to Eu4 at release, so we thought it would be a good idea to add to the first expansion. In hindsight it was not. Besides the fact that it was insanely expensive to do, it also did not work properly in multiplayer nor did it create good maps.

The next two expansions, Wealth of Nations and Res Publica, that we released during the first half of 2014 were smaller in scope, and mostly focused around trade and politics. During this time period we played lots of both single player games and dev clashes, so a lot of feature design came from, let's make this better.

Speaking of the dev clashes. Most of the features we made for Art of War, which came out in late autumn of 2014, were designed and created directly based on our experience there. First of all, we added in the Zone of Control system that has been used ever since, removing the tedious need to siege every single province. Most importantly, we spent a lot of time revising the map outside of Europe to make density more evenly distributed, so warfare outside of Europe was as fun as inside it. Moving armies on a detailed map is about half the fun of a PDS game, and especially in a multiplayer game. I really must give a huge shout out to Henrik ‘Trin Tragula’ Lohmander, who was doing a lot of that map overhaul!


We had some map upgrades to India for Art of War.

During the summer of 2014 we did some severe reorganizations at Paradox and I got cursed with the position being an executive in charge of all of our studios, so after Art of War I basically had to leave the EU4 development, which I handed over to Martin ‘Wiz’ Anward, who had been working with AI and design on EU4 for a while. Of course, I could not keep my hands away and did design and code systems like the Nahuatl religion and the development system.

During Martin’s reign, we first released El Dorado, which included fun mechanics for the new world, while also adding the custom nation feature, which is among the most popular starts. The accompanying patch had the big reworking of the random new world feature, making it actually fun to use.

The next expansion was Common Sense, which made the political and diplomatic game deeper, and after that, in December of 2015 it was time for The Cossacks, which added so much to the center of the eurasia. This was also when estates were first introduced into EU4.

Now,in the beginning of 2016, PDS had grown a fair bit, and we had two games about to be released in HoI4 and Stellaris, and other games in the early phases, like CK3 and V3, so the team got reduced in size, and Martin left for the V3 team. I came back to be a dedicated Game Director for EU4 for a while. Being an executive is not fun, and it's far more fun to be a game developer.

As we started on Mare Nostrum we had a dilemma, as we would be releasing in the middle of Stellaris and HoI4 which was not something Paradox could handle then. So we scoped down and reduced the price of it to reflect what it contained, and released it earlier than originally planned. It was not a great expansion, but it was not bad either..

Now Jake Leiper-Ritchie joined the team as a designer, and we designed Rights of Man together. This is one of the expansions I am most proud of. We added the great powers system, personalities and traits to rulers & leaders, consorts for rulers and ways to give military objectives to your subjects. In the accompanying patch we reworked technology groups to the new Institutions system. During this development, we also added in ideas for what we then viewed as the final four expansions, which we had already named, and set the theme for. Mandate of Heaven, Cradle of Civilization, Dharma and Emperor.

Mandate of Heaven, this was the April 2017 expansion, where the focus was on East Asia with mechanics for China, Japan and Manchu. Together with a patch that added the Age System this was greatly appreciated by the players.

During the spring, I had the idea that we should make smaller immersion packs, focused on a single country, or a smaller region. I wrote the design and coded Third Rome, basically myself, with Art and QA support, for a release in June 2017. Ironically, the timing was pretty shit, as at the same time we released it, a dlc with focus on Russia, our sales team did a huge regional price adjustment which was a bit less than popular to say the least.

Now I felt that Jake was experienced enough to handle EU4, and he took over as Game Director.

The second of the “final” expansions was Cradle of Civilization which was released in late 2017, with a focus on the Middle East. In retrospective it's interesting how much we released during the first four years of EU4.

Spring of 2018 saw the release of the immersion pack Rule Britannia, which was a pretty release, but it's overshadowed by the patch which introduced the new mission system. This new mission system has managed to prolong the life cycle of the game several years beyond what we had deemed possible.

At the end of the Summer of 2018 we saw the release of what we had envisioned as the “penultimate” expansion of Eu4, named Dharma. It was not all that positively received, and the most popular feature, the government reforms were baked into the base game soon after.

A third immersion pack ‘Golden Century’ was released at the end of the 2018, also to extremely bad reviews. A decision was made to make a big free patch fixing bugs and improving the game, but the patch got severely delayed, and was also tied together with the new launcher which was not popular either. At this point, we had to bake in features like transfer occupation, government reforms and improve development to the base game, to improve the community perception.

Meanwhile, work was ongoing on what we had we originally thought of as the final expansion, in Emperor. It was getting delayed, and then Jake resigned during the autumn of 2019, to focus more on his career as an influencer. At this point “Emperor” was in a mess, and we had no idea if it could be finished. PDS had other projects with major needs, so we decided to move most people to projects like CK3 and Stellaris, and focus with a small old-school team Daniel ‘Starnan’ Olsson as producer/qa-coordinator, Henrik ‘Groogy’ Hansson as designer/programmer, Daniel ‘neondt’ Tolman as content designer and me as game director/programmer. We had some UX, Art and QA support as well, but the team was really small. A lot of features was revamped, redesigned, and made more streamlined, and I must say that those 3 people did a marvelous job, an absolutely stunning performance there. What made it even more challenging was the little thing called “Covid” which happened half-way through “Emperor”'s development. We eventually launched at huge success, being the best selling eu4 expansion ever. It was definitely a good way and a good end to what we originally had planned for EU4.

It was during Emperor, and reflecting over the impact of the pandemic, that we started the decision to create a studio, Paradox Tinto, in Barcelona. Some of us had houses there, so it felt like a good place for somewhere new. Of course, the studio needed to do something, so starting with making content for EU4 sounded like a good idea.



Yeah.. We released leviathan. Good ideas, and pretty fun now, but the launch was an unmitigated disaster. Too buggy, and missing art etc.

Anyway, we moved forward, recruited more people, and continued on. What does not kill you etc,..

One of the fun things with recruiting to Tinto has been recruiting people with more hours than me actually playing the game. I’m a noob outside of work, with only about 1400 hours in my spare time playing the game. Being able to hire modders with more experience making mission trees for eu4 than any internal staff, or QA with 5,000+ hours is such a boon. I can’t name drop everyone at Tinto, but they are all awesome to work with!

While we had focused a fair bit on fixing old bugs before the release of Leviathan, now it was our goal with all releases. We should be the team with the least amount of open and known bugs at Paradox, which we have successfully been able to uphold ever since then, averaging between a third or a half of the 2nd best teams bug count. We also made the decision to not add new major systems, nor do major map overhauls to keep risks down, and make sure that the player experience was the main focus of our job.

The first release we did as a full team on our own here at Tinto was Origins, which was the African focus Immersion pack. It was a good learning experience for the team, and we like to think it was well received. We tried out new ways with missions, which so far has been a success for us.

The year after Origins, we released Lions of the North, an immersion pack focused on the Baltics. Here the team went absolutely ballistic with content, and diverging mission trees, new government reforms, and most importantly overpowering Sweden.


I guess this was a bit more popular.

After this, the team went even more ambitious with Domination, creating enormous mission trees, unique units and much more for the major powers, those that are the most played ones.

It's been a fun ride for over a dozen years, actually, let's face it, it's been 25 and half years since we started with the first EU1. Most of the time I’ve been involved on a daily basis, and sometimes I’ve merely been a supervisor, but EU has always been the franchise closest to my heart

What does the future hold from here? Well, we have promised some more releases….

Europa Universalis IV is turning 10 this month, and we’re celebrating with some small community activities! Please note that there will be no major gameplay updates, but you can expect some giveaways and other exciting things.

Today for instance, we want to announce that we now have an official EU IV Displate store! For those inclined towards some classy merch, these high quality metal posters featuring iconic EUIV art can now finally be yours. (is it truly a battle station without paintings of history’s most famous leaders?)

Check it out here: https://pdxint.at/3qbFXVG

We are also giving away 9 free EUIV Displate posts across our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram channels, so be sure to check that out too (entries strictly limited to one per person). Winners will be chosen & announced on August 9th.

Hey all! Today's Mod Spotlight features pretty art and pretty numbers.

Ages Reformed adds a plethora of well-thought-out age objectives and abilities. And, it conveniently plays nice with other popular mods too! we're excited to have MDoulos share it with you.

Hello Everyone,

I am MDoulos, the creator of Ages Reformed, a mod that completely overhauls and improves the age mechanic that was introduced in Mandate of Heaven. Welcome to the mod spotlight for the mod that adds several small but very meaningful mechanics to the ages feature. If you aren't already using Ages Reformed, I appreciate that you're giving me the opportunity to convince you to try. :)

In this mod spotlight, I’d like to talk about the important features which help improve your gameplay experience. I’ll also briefly mention some of the unimportant features which were created with love, just because they’re cool. So let’s go!


Painting: Ferdinand Pauwels, "Luther Posts His 95 Theses"

Let’s start with an outline of the things touched in Ages Reformed:

• Selectable Abilities
  
• Nation Specific Abilities
  
• Age Objectives
  
• UI and Artwork
  
• Age Painting and Tooltip
  
• Mod Compatibility

When I first started playing EU4, I was drawn to and inspired by Ages and Splendor Expanded. In my opinion, the default Ages feature was lacking in depth and I wanted to find a mod that improved it asap. It felt unfinished. I loved ASE, but had my own ideas about improvements that could be made to the age mechanics. So as a new modder (with prior experience in another game/genre), I am deeply appreciative of the blessing I received to use ASE as a base from Melvasul and LimonenZitrone. LZ was extremely helpful in answering my questions early on, and without the expanded mod team’s help, Ages Reformed wouldn’t exist.

One thing ASE did well was expand the number of selectable abilities. This is an obvious improvement over the default which features 7 or 8 broadly available abilities along with 3 or 4 nation-specific abilities. A crucial difference though is my strong distaste for nation-locking abilities and for scroll bars. So I fit as many abilities onto the UI as possible without a scroll bar, and removed the nation-specific element from all abilities.

This resulted in 18 selectable abilities per age. More than double the amount previously available to all nations. And without a scroll bar!

I will talk more about nation-specific abilities in the next section, but basically I made them on by default and reworked selectable abilities to be useful for all nations.
I added two brand new mechanics to Ages: permanent bonuses and stacking bonuses (from age to age).

Many of the abilities you can choose for each age now offer a small permanent bonus that is relevant to the bonus you chose. For example, if you choose the ability called “Hardened Soldiers”, you will receive the primary buff of -25% Land Attrition until the end of the age, but you will also receive a permanent buff called “Endurance” which gives your nation +5% Fort Defense until the end of the game.


Not only does your nation receive a permanent buff, in subsequent ages, choosing a similar ability offers you the chance to improve the previously acquired permanent buff. For example, choosing “Hardened Soldiers” again in a later age, will give your nation +10% Fort Defense until the end of the game.

These stacking bonuses come in groups of three and cover a number of different ability and bonus types including: economy, espionage, religion, military, navy, diplomacy, and more. Choosing the third buff in a stack of three in the third or fourth age will give your nation a “History of “ bonus that drastically improves the nature of the buff. Therefore it can be said that the decisions your people make in the Age of Discovery have a lasting impact on their descendants in the Age of Revolutions!



The default age mechanic locks three or four selectable abilities to certain nations only. In Ages Reformed, these ability slots are freed up for all nations and the removed abilities that must have been chosen as the specific nation before are now granted to those nations by default. Example, the Ottomans no longer need to choose the Guns of Orban. They now start the game with the bonus.

In addition, some new nation specific abilities have been added. To see a list of the nation specific abilities present in the game, hover over the icon in the bottom right of the age painting. This list will show all nation specific abilities active from the start of the age. They expire at the end of the age.



One thing that I set out to “fix” with the objectives feature, was the idea that some of the objectives were not at all able to be accomplished by many nations. For example, in the Age of Discovery, the default mechanic gives landlocked mid-Asian countries the objective to “Discover America”, something severely out of reach for such nations. I looked for opportunities like this to create objectives which were more broadly accomplishable and took it a step further by introducing the concept of region specific objectives. Now it doesn’t matter where you play, you’re almost always guaranteed to see eight objectives per age that your nation can accomplish.



To build on top of this accessibility, some objectives which require getting or building x of thing, now define x differently for different nations. For example, while the objective “Build a Fleet” may require Ming or other large powers to have 10 Light Ships and at least 5 Heavy Ships or 20 Galleys, the same objective only requires 2 Light Ships and at least 1 Heavy Ships or 4 Galleys from tribal nations.

Build a Fleet - Larger fleet required to complete the objective for larger nations.


Build a Fleet - Smaller fleet required to complete the objective for smaller nations (Ex: Sub-Saharan Africa).


When fulfilling age objectives, splendor is no longer the only reward. Now each objective fulfilled provides a buff to your country until the end of the age. This information is visible by hovering over the ribbon icon in the bottom right of the age painting. This provides new motivation to achieve certain objectives!



As a professional graphic designer, I really put a lot of love into designing the UI for Ages Reformed and I think this is one area where the mod really shines.

Let’s start with the age frame itself. As mentioned previously, I really did not want to use scroll bars, and so my focus was zoomed in on presenting 18 age abilities, 8 age objectives, and 4 age icons (more for compatible mods) in a concise and compelling way.



I mimicked the art style used by Paradox and really strove to make sure the frame and background fit into the game and looked as if what I imagined the default would look like if they had created the same mechanics that I had.

This had me swapping the placement of the age icons, making the age abilities go vertical and increasing the size of the overall frame to accommodate the extra objective per age.

One of the most defining characteristics of Ages Reformed is the region, religion, and culture specific objectives, highlighted by the unique artwork for each. Why use a picture of a Catholic cardinal for “Convert Provinces” when playing as an Islamic nation, when a picture of an Imam would add so much visual flavor?



These images were sourced from both historical painting, icons I found or made myself, and other images in the creative commons. To get the right look and to create images that have never existed before in the correct postures and art style, I also used Stable Diffusion (ai) to create or edit the foreground or background of many objective icons. Overall, half of the time developing Ages Reformed was invested in image sourcing online, in SD, and tons of editing and original work in Photoshop.

I spent a lot of time working on this particular feature of Ages Reformed, because removing the one image fits all default and seeing unique and relevant images for the nation you’re playing as adds a ton of flavor and visual interest in my opinion. It really helps immersion!



Take a look at how these age objective icons differ by region, religion, or culture. These examples don’t necessarily include all of the images shown in game for that objective.

Humiliate Rival - In this example, you’ll see this icon if your rival is likely to be (in order): Native, European, Muslim, African, Indian, Steppe (Mongol), Asian, and Aboriginal (Australian Native).


Regional Market Supply - Unique pictures for different cultures and regions.


Build a Fleet - Unique pictures for different cultures and regions.


Great Leader - Unique pictures for different cultures and regions.


Competent Court - Unique pictures for different cultures and regions.


Religious Unity - Unique pictures for each religious group and some individual religions in the game.


Convert Provinces - A unique picture of a missionary for each religion in the game.

And so much more not shown here! The screenshots above don’t necessarily include all icons for the objective.

I really endeavored to make sure the age paintings stood out. Each painting highlights something significant from each of the four ages. The realistic paintings have been touched up in Photoshop to highlight certain details.

Age of Discovery - Columbus Landing at Guanahani, John Vanderlyn, 1837



Age of Reformation - Luther at the Diet of Worms, by Anton von Werner, 1877



Age of Absolutism - Charles II, by John Michael Wright, 1676



Age of Revolutions - Washington Crossing the Delaware, Emanuel Leutze, 1851


You can hover over the question mark icon in the bottom right of the painting to reveal a tooltip that provides details about each painting.


Each of these three hover buttons provides useful information.

• Nation Bonuses Listed
  
• Objective Rewards Listed
  
• Information about the Age Painting

Six compatibility patches were made to make Ages Reformed compatible with other popular mods like Ante Bellum, Anbennar, Victorum Universalis, Albert (AIM), 1356, and Lords of Universalis. In addition, Ages Reformed is confirmed to work with the Expanded Mod Family (it replaces ASE) and over a dozen other widely used mods.

When I made the compatibility patches, I was sure to add custom content that was relevant to the mods themselves. Check out the following screens and images from a few of the mods.

Great Leader (Anbennar) - Unique pictures for different popularly chosen mod-specific races: Elves, Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Goblins, and Harimari.


Humiliate Rival (Anbennar) - Unique pictures for different mod-specific races: Elves, Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Centaur, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Harimari.


Competent Court (Anbennar) - Unique pictures for different cultures and regions: Elves (Aelantir), Humans (Cannor), Elves (Cannor), Orcs, Dwarves, Harimari, Humans (Haless), Other.


Age of Feudalism (1356) - The Archoros City, Merl1ncz, 2007


Age of Industrialization (Ante Bellum, Victorum Universalis, Albert AIM) - BASF Werk

Thank you for taking the time to read the mod spotlight, and I hope you enjoy Ages Reformed!

Ages Reformed has been reviewed on youtube.
(English)
(Spanish)

You can download the mod from the following links:
Steam Workshop
Paradox Plaza


Thank you MDoulos for this detailed spotlight on ages reformed!

This will be our last Mod Spotlight for a little while... that is until we return for Europa Universalis IV’s 10th Anniversary in August. For such a special occasion we'll be covering a mod long requested. Take your bets on what that is :p

Until then, we'll see you later!

Greetings, and welcome everyone to the last Dev Diary of the Domination cycle! We’ve been active in the forums and receiving your feedback about this expansion and the 1.35 ‘Ottomans’ update for almost 7 months, and now it is time to retire for a well-deserved Summer break. But before we do that, let’s have a retrospective of the past months.

First is first, on June 20th we released the 1.35.4 patch, and on June 27th and July 4th the 1.35.5 and 1.35.6 hotfixes. We think that the most important and urgent reported issues have been addressed, making this the final and stable version of the 1.35 update. Releasing them has been demanding for us, especially 1.35.6, as the Summer Break has already started in other regions, making releases more difficult; but we thought that fixing most of the reported CTDs would make for the better stability we were looking for, and therefore worth it.

Generally speaking, we’re very thankful for the reception of Domination. This expansion was an ambitious project, as we were working on and creating content for most of the Great Powers of the Modern Age at the same time, something never done before in Europa Universalis IV. This was challenging, as the polishing and balancing of the game were set to be the most difficult tackled by Paradox Tinto since our tenure of EUIV started. In this regard, our QA Team did an amazing job, and they deserve to be praised for it; for every bug that slipped through and was reported in the release version, at least 5 had already been internally reported and fixed. Unfortunately, sometimes things will still slip through the cracks - yes, the Chinese floods will haunt us for a while! This is just a sign that even as we we're confident with our QA processes, there's still room for improvement with every new release.

Speaking of the content, we also put a great effort into making the most possible for this expansion. There was also a great challenge regarding this, as most of the countries had already received content in previous DLCs. What we tried to do is to integrate as much as possible the previous systems, mechanics, and features with the new content, which was designed to expand the possibilities and gameplay options of some of the most-played countries of the game. That is, to create new experiences in a 10-year-old game. For some countries, we achieved this better than with others, I think; but we’ll keep working on improving their balance and polish, in order to make Domination a truly must-have DLC. Also, following this line of thought, we have increased the depth of the game, by adding the new, scriptable government system, more reforms and privileges, the new idea groups, etc., for an even deeper experience.

This is something that will make for some of our future plans: keep working on improving the base game and older DLCs as we work on new content. This is the design philosophy of PDX Tinto regarding EUIV’s development, and we’ll continue to work this way in the following months, going through the reports made in the Bug Reports subforum, and gathering the feedback we receive from the community. Coupled with this, we had the release of a new type of DLC, the History Lessons, which albeit not being a massive one, it’s a nice companion to Domination, already having generated interest in players desiring to know more about the History of China and Japan while they play.

Before I finish, I want to note that next month we will be celebrating something that I already mentioned: Europa Universalis IV’s 10th Anniversary! This is really great for Paradox as a whole, as this is the longest-lasting title ever published by the company, and it also makes our Team, led by the original Game Director Johan, to be quite proud of this achievement. Our Marketing Team is also working hard to celebrate with you the history of EUIV throughout the entire month of August, as well!

With nothing more to say to you than thank you for your support with Domination and during these 10 years, I say goodbye until Autumn, when we will talk again about new content for the game. Goodbye!