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.
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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
[h2]Selectable Abilities[/h2]
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.
[h2]Permanent and Stacking Bonus Pathways[/h2]
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!
[h2]Nation Specific Abilities[/h2]
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.
[h2]Age Objectives[/h2]
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).
[h2]Age Objectives - Fulfilled[/h2]
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!
[h2]UI and Artwork[/h2]
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.
[h2]Region or Religion Specific Artwork[/h2]
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.
[h2]Age Paintings and Tooltips[/h2]
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
[h2]Mod Compatibility[/h2]
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
[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
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.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube] (English)
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube] (Spanish)
You can download the mod from the following links:
Steam Workshop
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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!
