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
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 = 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 = - 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 = (returns true if the country gives the specified country military access
- receives_military_access_from = (returns true if the country receives military access from the specified country
- gives_fleet_basing_rights_to = (returns true if the country gives the specified country fleet basing rights
- receives_fleet_basing_rights_from = (returns true if the country receives fleet basing rights from the specified country
- added has_naval_doctrine = 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 = ”
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 ”, 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.
- 'Tradition of Payment'
- 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!