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Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan announced letting players have smaller focused realms

Ready for one more attempt? Paradox Interactive and Paradox Tinto have announced he newest expansion to Paradox's flagship grand strategy game about the early modern world with Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/02/europa-universalis-iv-leviathan-announced-letting-players-have-smaller-focused-realms

Focus Your Power in New EU4 Expansion: Leviathan

Picture a capital city that shines like a gemstone, improved by the wealth drawn from the hinterland - decorated by riches demanded from vassals. A capital not of a mighty territorial empire, but of a compact and concentrated state that can still use gold and favors to influence neighbors and rivals. Picture it and then make it so in Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan.

Leviathan is the newest expansion to Paradox’s flagship grand strategy game about the early modern world. Leviathan offers new tools that allow you to play “tall” with smaller and more focused realms with a few centers of power. It also has a host of other changes to well-established game features like Regencies and Colonies.

Among other things, Leviathan gives you new ways to quickly develop your capital, drawing resources and power from vassals or newly conquered territories, and allows you to build beyond your province’s construction limit if you are willing to pay the price.

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Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan will be accompanied by a major free update that reworks the Southeast Asian and Australasian maps, with new nations, new cultures and new religions. This fascinating region of powerful monarchs and rich merchants takes on new color and offers new ways to play.

Release Date and Price will be communicated later


Wishlist today
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1416420/Expansion__Europa_Universalis_IV_Leviathan/

Dev Diary: Monuments

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Good morning, everyone! Today we're back to some exciting content, talking about a whole new feature we'll be introducing in our next expansion: Monuments!

Similar to the Wonders feature in CK2, you'll be able to build some of the most iconic and stunning buildings that serve as landmarks for many of our different playable nations. And, of course, given how important they were (and some still are), they will also grant you special and permanent bonuses. Let's cover some of their major points!
  • Monuments are a special type of building that can only be built in certain provinces (according to their real life location), already set at the beginning of the game. However, some of them will be able to be relocated to your capital if you own their province. This is true for some "non-settled" monuments, like Stonehenge or the Moai, but will be impossible to do when it comes to other bigger monuments, like Nôtre-Dame.
  • Monuments will be displayed in the province view in a separate window, each of them having a new and unique 2D art that portrays the monument at its highest (but also according to our time period). In this view you'll be able to see the benefits of upgrading it, the cost and the requirements for doing so, as well as the current tier, represented by medals.
  • Monuments have 4 different tiers, ranging from 0 to 3. Tier 0 implies that said monument is completely devastated or not even built yet and you will get no bonuses from it; each building will have a default tier at the beginning of the game, according to its real life state in 1444. Achieving a new tier is both time and resource consuming, costing a total of 1000 gold to upgrade each time and taking 50 years to complete. This process can be sped up by using an extra 300 gold to bring the project forward by 730 days or by using 10000 manpower to get the same result.
  • The modifiers you get from reaching every tier are permanent and linked to the purpose of each building: for example, the Alhambra will reward you with some diplomatic and administrative bonuses, whilst the Shwedagon Pagoda will help you boost your karma and legitimacy, also reducing the unrest in the area. These bonuses may apply to your province, its area or the entire nation, growing stronger and wider as you upgrade your monument.
  • Monuments will require you to meet certain conditions before building or upgrading them and, if you fail to meet them, you will also lose their bonuses even after having completed their construction. Normally these conditions are to have a certain culture or follow a certain religion, but some monuments, like the Ambras Castle, are available for everyone that owns their province to build.
  • After conquering a province with a monument, its tier is reset to 1 to show the impact of the war in the city, even if it was already in an upper tier. However, it won't be reset to tier 0, as if it was completely destroyed. Also, provinces with a monument cost more warscore, as they hold a special significance to their owner. The new owner, however, will be able to upgrade it again, as long as the requirements are still met.
  • Some missions will also be linked to certain monuments, specially if they were relevant for a tag during the time period we are covering. For example, you can see that in this Majapahit mission one of the requirements is to have the Borobudur temple upgraded to its maximum tier. Some other missions will also give you a great projects' building cost reduction or time reduction bonus, making it easier to upgrade your monuments.

(Please notice that our icons are still placeholders).
As you can see in the first screenshot, certain monuments will also have 3D art displayed on the map. Those models that were already implemented in the National Monuments cosmetic dlcs will be added as proper monuments, and you'll be able to see them both in the political and terrain mapmodes.

Thank you for reading and I hope you're as excited as we are about this! See you next week!

Dev Diary: Draft Transports

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Welcome everyone to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. This time it's yet another short one, written by me, talking about some new mechanics.

First of all, we are changing the Plutocratic Government Reform. For those that do not recall what it is, it's a reform available to countries in either of the indian, muslim, chinese or east-african technology groups. Previously it gave a merchant and affected the influence of some estates.

In 1.31 it will become far more powerful, as it will also get all the benefits and drawbacks of a merchant republic, including trade posts & trade leagues. This will make it possible to create a powerfully focused trading nation in the east.

Secondly, as you may have noticed in the previous screenshot, this reform also unlocks something called “draft transports”. This is an ability that comes with the next expansion, and allows you to quickly get transports at a cost that may be beneficial to you if you are a smaller nation.

Drafted Transports will begin construction in as many ports as needed, just like building a template, and the amount of transports you get depends on your naval force limits.

Drafted Transports take half the time of a normal transport to build.

Drafted Transports cost a fraction of your income instead of a fixed amount, so it is not really beneficial to large empires, but it is a great way to quickly and cheaply get a new transport fleet when playing a lesser naval power that can not afford keeping it around all the time.

Next week, we’ll be back, talking about a new feature that may either be unprecedented or something really really lasting.

Dev Diary: North American Tags

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Good morning, everyone! Today we're back at North America taking a look at some of the remaining interesting tags in terms of missions and events.

To begin with, we have the Pueblo tribes, in the actual New Mexico region. The tags we have for them are Isleta, Acoma, Zuni, Zia and Ohkay Owingeh. They lived in adobe or stone villages, and were mainly interested in agriculture, specifically maize. They were descendants of the Mogollon Culture, the Hohokam Culture, and the Ancestral Pueblo people, who inhabited the village of Mesa Verde, where a spectacular cliff palace can be seen. Some highlights of this tree include:
  • The missions "Place that Always Was" and "Restore Mesa Verde" make reference to said village, giving prestige and diplomatic bonuses after owning and developing it.
  • "Chaco Roads" and "Irrigation Canals" are references to the importance of agriculture in the region, with the first giving benefits to trade efficiency and range in the provinces that have native great trails, as well as some small manpower modifier, since they can also be used for military travel purposes. The second one rewards the building of irrigation canals with some local production efficiency, as long as you keep your devastation low.
  • The "Ancestral Puebloans" mission lets you change your tag name to "Pueblo", as long as you have conquered all the other provinces of the same culture, or by having a Federation Size bigger than 5. It will compensate your efforts with a permanent modifier that gives you +5% Morale of the Armies and +1 Diplomatic Reputation until the end of the game.

When it comes to events, among others, the Pueblo tribes will get "Po'pay's Rebellion" events, which happened in 1680 and was a revolt organized by the Native Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizers, and which succeeded in expelling them from their land for more than ten years. In the starting event, you'll get a general named "Po'pay" and a +10% Morale of the Armies to combat the colonizers.

Then we have the Dakota and Lakota nations, formed by the Sioux, Wichiyena and Lakota tags, which lived around the Lake Superior region. They were a society much more focused on hunting and gathering, thus tracking animals through the woodlands, harvesting wild rice and fishing on wooden canoes. Their villages were organized in camp circles, large extended families led by a chief appointed by a council of elders, and this kinship ties were a key feature of their lives both on a personal and on a more pragmatic level, affecting warfare, alliances, work and marriage.
  • The "Camp Circles" mission addresses this social organization, being triggered when your capital has at least 10 Development, and you have at least 1 Stability and 200 Diplomatic Points. As a reward, you'll get +25 Government Reform Progress, and some extra diplomatic power.
  • The "Seven Council Fires" mission is a reference to each of the fires representing one of the seven Dakota villages, who would gather together in peace or war negotiations. Owning these seven provinces would add some extra military power to your nation.
  • Both "Hereditary Enemies" and "Fight the Iroquois" address some old rivalries between the Dakota and Lakota people against some other tribes. The first one is about the dispute against the Ojibwe people, so having a -100 opinion of them, and them having a -100 opinion of you would be rewarded with some prestige and morale bonuses, as well as claims to their provinces. The second one is about fighting for the resources around the Great Lakes against any of the Iroquois tribes, giving an extra manpower modifier as a reward.

One of the events for these nations is Foreign Trade, since a few European explorers and missionaries lived among the tribes and tried to gain their respect by following their traditions. One of the most important alliances was the one that the Dakota tribes entered with French merchants in the late 17th century, where they traded fur in exchange for European goods. In this event, you'll get local trade power and production efficiency to your capital, in case you manage to achieve an alliance with France while they own any province in the North America super-region.

After that we have the Powhatan nation, which inhabited the actual Virginia region. One of the main focuses of these people was the use of birchbark canoes for both warfare and fishing, however, they also had a great interest in growing crops, especially maize, as well as in hunting in the woodlands. They were among the first Natives to experience contact with Europeans, and some of the events for this nation address that matter. Some highlights of the mission tree are:
  • "Just Around the Riverbend", "Head of Navigation" and "Powhatan Fleet" are all focused on the naval power of the Powhatan tribe, so building to Naval Force Limit, and having enough transports and a flagship will reward you with Ship Durability, Morale of the Navy, National Sailors Modifier, and some Navy Tradition, apart from a Admiral with 80 Tradition when completing the last mission.
  • "Yehakins" is a reference to the type of buildings they used for living, made of young saplings, woven mats or bark. Having a longhouse in any of your provinces and a fortified house in the capital will reduce the development cost for those provinces, as well as increasing the local tax modifier and giving a small government reform progress.
  • "The Laughing King" was chief Debedeavon, ruler of the Accawmacke Native nation, tributaries of the Powhatan Chiefdom when the first Europeans arrived in 1608, and a legendary monarch that will become available for duty as a 1/4/3/2 general if you have built your Army and Navy to their Force Limit.

Some of the events for the Powhatan tribe include Tribal Trade and European Trade, which both focus on changing the resources produced in your land. The first one addresses the trade of copper and red dye as luxury objects that the Powhatan would cherish, while the second is triggered when any European nation gets a neighboring province, allowing you to exchange crops for iron or wool from the Old World.

Lastly, we have the Cherokee people that lived in villages along river valleys in the actual North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama areas. Agriculture and gathering were both part of their culture, and, as most Native societies at this time, gathered maize, but also engaged in hunting, with their trade being valuable by European nations, since the deer skins they collected from their mountain hunting-grounds were of exquisite quality.
  • The "White Government" and "Red Government" missions are references to the two types of government that the Cherokee people had, one for the peaceful times and another for times of war. The first one requires a Stability of at least 1, +200 Gold and the employment of a Diplomatic advisor, and will reward the player with a new and cheaper advisor, and some diplomatic power. The second one needs a general and to build to Army Force Limit and will reward the player with a new general and some military power.
  • "Botanical Exports" addresses the ethnobotanical knowledge of the Cherokee people, both in recognizing the healing and harmful properties of the plants that surround their land. Completing the mission will reward the player with two modifiers, one increasing the Trade Efficiency and another one increasing the Manpower Recovery Speed, since this knowledge will help them recover from battle.

Among the events for the Cherokee nation, we have the Cherokee National Council, which was created in 1794 and ruled their nation as a legal and autonomous tribal government until the year 1907. The event will be triggered either by having the Clan Council Reform or the Native Republic Reform, and some stability and diplomatic power will be added to your country.

We have also added 18 events to the Totemism faith, including two small event chains. One of them addresses a Native myth that holds some similarities to Orpheus and Eurydice's famous story; the second one is about the finding of a sacred cave in your land and follows this structure:
Where the Legend Begins (totemism_flavor.8):
  • Triggers if you have a province that is not your capital.
  • Option a: Send explorers (-5 treasury, -0.05 manpower, adds province modifier “legendary_location”, giving local_autonomy = 0.1, local_unrest = -2 and prestige = 0.25 until the end of the game).
  • Option b: Do nothing.
Exploring the Caves (totemism_flavor.9):
  • Triggers if you have chosen option 8.a.
  • Option a: Adds church_loyalty if you have estate_church, adds temple to the sacred province if the nation is reformed, adds native_ceremonial_fire_pit if the province doesn’t have one, adds a native_longhouse if they do or adds prestige = 10 if none of these are applicable.
Cave Maintenance (totemism_flavor.10):
  • Triggers if you have chosen option 8.a. and have already had event flavor.9.
  • Option a: Sends your adm or dip advisor to take care of it, adds province modifier “tot_legendary_location_maintained” for 1825, giving local_unrest = -3, prestige = and prestige_decay = -0.01.
  • Option b: Sends your heir (will trigger event flavor.12 and he gets a 50% chance of having a +1 adm point), adds province modifier “tot_legendary_location_maintained” for 1825, giving local_unrest = -3, prestige = and prestige_decay = -0.01.
  • Option c: Donate some money, treasury -10, adds province modifier “tot_legendary_location_maintained” for 1825, giving local_unrest = -3, prestige = and prestige_decay = -0.01.
  • Option d: Do nothing.
Where the Legend Ends (totemism_flavor.11):
  • Triggers if the country doesn't follow the Totemism faith anymore.
  • Option a: You leave the caves. Removes all province modifiers of the chain, adds country modifier “tot_legend_abandoned” for 3650, giving religious_unity = -0.25.
A Convenient Landslide (totemism_flavor.12):
  • Triggers if you have chosen option 10.b.
  • Option a: There’s a 30% chance that your heir might die.

Thank you for reading and see you next week back with some new mechanics!