Hey everyone!
🛠️ Before we get started, I'd like to note that as the features in this update change quite a few things, not all the mechanics are yet fully realized, and are bound to change based on player feedback from this initial version. I figured better to put it out there are hone it further in upcoming updates.
Now let's get to it!
Lost and Rightful Territories 📜💪
Previously, occupations happened whenever land was conquered during wars. It didn't matter who held it at the beginning.
For example, France occupied parts of Germany, and then they pushed them back, Germany's reclaimed losses would show as occupied by Germany. But no more!
Now, the original (or rightful) owner of land is remembered, so now if during the war the attacker is pushed back, the reclaimed territory will show as normal. Hurray!
But that's only the beginning...
Now, when the war ends, and one side loses land, it still remembers it belonged to them. This will now be shown as occupied land permanently, until it is reclaimed back, or the occupier integrates it to themselves, making them its rightful owner.
The pattern is a bit different for land where the rightful owner is currently peaceful or dead, like Poland below as it dies during the war.
Having occupied territory does not have any negative effects for the occupier. Integrating them costs gold, and integrations are done per occupied nation.
Even if a nation dies completely, it still has a memory of its original land. If they revolt, they will now gain back land based on those original tiles, resulting in even more accurate revolt borders! Unless the occupier has integrated them of course.
This mechanic could be a big game changer, maybe even more so in the future. We'll see...
Customizing the experience ⚙️
Since this is quite a big change, and introduces some "noise" to the map, which some people might not like, I've added some ways to customize how this system works. These settings could change in the future, but currently, you can:
Hide occupations during peacetime
If the faint stripe pattern bothers you, you can hide any occupied territory when its occupier and rightful owner aren't actively fighting, from the Display Settings
Hide integration popups
These can get a bit spammy, so you can disable these too.
Disable land integration entirely
This could be a good option if you want nations to never forget their original borders. This however will result in lots of stripes on the map as it changes, but you could combine this with hiding peacetime occupations for a more easier to read map.
Manually integrate land
You can manually integrate all the current occupations from a button in the Economy panel. If you hold shift while pressing it, it will ignore the integration cost.
Puppet Autonomy ⛓️
Puppets have been diversified into three different variants.
Vassal work like all puppets worked before. They donate to their liege frequently and the liege can seize their land bit by bit.
Puppets also donate, but the liege won't seize their territory
Satellite states don't donate or get their land seized and they have the option to join alliances.
If puppet autonomy gets super low, they won't be able to resist land seizures, and if it gets super high, they will be free to leave their liege whenever they want.
Puppet Loyalty 🙏
Puppets now also have a Loyalty score. Disloyal puppets won't donate gold and will more actively revolt if their land is seized.
You can roughly edit both the puppet autonomy and loyalty score by clicking on them in the puppet view.
Puppet loyalty will change on specific things. It increases constantly when the puppet is at war or the liege is at war with a high CE, It decreases whenever the puppet donates to the liege, or when its land gets seized.
Puppet autonomy decreases whenever they get declared on, but it increases if the puppet becomes larger than their liege.
The puppet master can affect puppet autonomy and loyalty. They can offer gold for more loyalty, they can offer more autonomy for more loyalty. They can also lower autonomy, which of course lowers loyalty.
Still a work-in-progress 🔧
This new puppet system is quite not finished. There are many things to iron out. For example I wasn't sure how much influence the liege should have on the puppet autonomy, and how often they should be able to change it, or would players rather have the puppets remain as a certain type for longer.
The different autonomy/loyalty value changes are also a bit of guesswork and might be too low/high, but they will be adjusted in future updates. So let me know what you think after you have tried it out.
Also, both these new systems change quite a lot of small things, so there will definitely be some bugs, so point them out to me on Steam forums or on Discord! 💬
Effects on scenarios from older versions ℹ️
All puppets from old scenarios will be converted to vassals with medium loyalty.
As for occupations, if you have nations at war in your scenarios/saves, the game will try to assign a rightful owner of any occupied tiles to one of their enemies in that war. Results may vary :D
What else?
There is also a new default scenario, World Map 1956, from the early Cold War ear. Note how in this one the Soviet Union is split into different republics compared to the WWII map.
Similarly to puppet autonomy, you can now also edit the loyalty of Alliance members by clicking on the value.
What can you expect to change? 📋
The biggest missing feature from this currently is that you can't easily paint rightful territory to certain nation, in game or in the scenario editor. When painting, all painter territory will be automatically integrated to the new nation, UNLESS the nations are at war with each other. In that case the land will be made occupied.
v4.4.0 Full Changelog
Additions
Expanded Puppets to three different types: Vassals, Puppets and Satellites puppets
Vassals behave like all puppets previously, their land can be taken and they regularly donate to their liege
Puppets can't have their land taken but they still donate
Satellites don't donate or get land taken, but are more loyal. They can join alliances while puppeted
You can quickly change the autonomy level of a puppet by clicking their current type name
If a puppet reaches below 10 autonomy, it can no longer protest against land seizures
If a puppet reaches above 90 autonomy, it can freely leave its liege
Added a loyalty rating to puppets
This can be edited manually by simply clicking on it
Disloyal puppets don't donate, and can revolt against their liege
Added a mechanic where nations have a "rightful territory", which will remain as such even if they lose territory in a war
Occupied territory pattern in wars now only shows up on new territory, not reclaimed one.
Occupations from a nation that the holder is at war with will appear differently compared to occupations from currently peaceful nations.
Occupied territory can be integrated after a war using gold, with each portion of occupations integrated separately.
Percentage of occupied territory is shown on the Economy Panel, and how much integrating it would cost
There is also a button to manually integrate it, even for free if holding shift
This will probably change later but currently, when painting territory, painted tiles will always be rightfully owned by the new nation UNLESS the nations are at war while painting
Added a new scenario, World Map 1956
You can now manually change the loyalty of allies by clicking the loyalty info
Bugfixes & Improvements
With the new mechanic of "rightful territory", if a revolting city is located inside the revolting nations rightful territory, the new revolt will automatically take all its rightful tiles from the previous country. With this countries might revolt with their perfect borders, also taking with them other cities.
Fixed a bug where Annex Cores Setting incorrectly also disabled core transfer in the event of Alliance Unification
Updated scenarios World Map 2026, Europe 1914 and Middle East
Removed Classic Revolt Borders -option 🥀
Fixed some nation/city names