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Dev Diary: Governing Capacity and Industrialization

Click here to read the latest Dev Diary by Groogy

Hey everyone! Today we’ll be talking about two changes, part of the patch coming along with the Emperor expansion. You’ve probably already spotted them both if you had a keen eye on one of our streams.

First feature is part of the Governing Capacity rework and some small rework of Government Reform Progress. We’ve changed so that changing a government reform no longer causes you to gain 10 corruption, instead it costs Government Reform progress to switch on a level you’ve already picked.

Now to the new feature that will be interacting both with Governing Capacity and the Reform Progress. The original intent with Reform Progress was that the larger your empire was, the slower you would be reforming your government and progressing through the reforms. Hence why it is affected by the autonomy of your empire as while expanding heavily your autonomy on average will be higher.

So in that spirit as well we are introducing a choice for the player to instead of reforming their government, they can expand the capabilities of their administration in order to integrate more of their conquered territories as core states. This action increases in cost every time it’s used.

This gives the player besides having to pick what land should be states, trade companies or territory, also a choice on if to advance and modernize their government or if to focus on making sure you have full control over the territory that you possess.

Next thing is a new institution we’ve added that is to go together with several of our late game additions we’ve been doing in this patch. We felt that you could just skip by without any technological disparity in the world for the last 80 years So we added a last institution to represent the Industrial revolution. This revolution started sometime after the 1750, as coal, steam engines saw their use increase and industries grew throughout Europe.

The requirements spawning are very much focused on the wealth from nations that have industrialized. It will spawn in any province that has 30 development, a Furnace built, the owner of the province are the leading producers of either iron, cloth or coal. If it is before 1760 it also requires that the province is in the highest trade node in the world. If the player lacks Rule Britannia, then coal and furnace requirements are replaced to focus on simply iron and cloth manufacturies.

This will give a spurt of technological advancement at the end of the game giving those who have modernized their economy an advantage.


So that’s it for this development diary, short but sweet. Next one will be written by @neondt and will be about the content regarding Imperial Diet’s such as Incidents and will be fairly more substantial.

Dev Diary: The Holy Roman Empire

Click here to read the latest Dev Diary by Groogy

Hello everyone! Today’s Development Diary will be focusing on features part of the Emperor expansion. These features aim to enrich the gameplay surrounding the Holy Roman Empire, both for Emperor and Princes part of the Empire.

You might have noticed that there’s been some quite heavy changes to a very old interface in our Developer Clash.

So now let’s go through these changes today. First up is the new reforms. We wanted to accomodate more playstyles than simply always uniting the Empire under the Emperor. So the Reforms have been divided up to three types, Common, Decentralized and Centralized. In order to access either the Decentralized or Centralized path you need to first get some of the Common reforms. Specifically you need to establish a permanent diet for the Empire.

The common reforms are

Call for Reichsreform
  • -5% Construction and Development cost in Imperial Provinces.
  • Enables Imperial Ban
Institute Reichsregiment
  • Emperor gets +1 Diplomat, +1 Diplomatic Reputation
  • Imperial Provinces gets -2 Unrest
Absolute Reichsstabilität
  • Imperial Provinces gets -25% State Maintenance
Enact Gemeiner Pfennig
  • The Emperor gets 0.5 Tax Income per Prince.
  • All Princes gets +1 Diplomatic Reputation.
Perpetual Diet
  • +50% Imperial Authority Gain
  • Establishes the Perpetual Diet in a Free City.
Create the Landsknechtwesen
  • Mercenaries with home in HRE are cheaper for HRE Members by 25%.
Ewiger Landfriede
  • Emperor gets 0.5 Monthly Prestige
  • All members gets -5% Tech cost
  • Imperial Provinces gets +10% Institutional Spread.
  • Disables internal HRE Wars

After you’ve taken the 5th reform, Perpetual Diet, you can go into one of the specialized paths. However these are mutually exclusive and you can’t go into both.
Following is the Decentralized Reforms

Establish the Reichstag Collegia
  • +3 Free Cities
Expand the Gemeiner Pfennig
  • Emperor gets +100 Manpower per Prince
  • Electors gets 200 Manpower per Prince
  • Imperial Princes gets 10% Friendly Movement speed.
Embrace Rechenschaft Measures
  • +1% Imperial Authority per Prince.
  • +1 Max Electors
Geteilte Macht
  • Electors get +0.5 Tax Income per Prince.
  • -5% Development cost in Imperial Provinces
Reichskrieg
  • Emperor & Electors get +500 Manpower Per Prince when at war against Imperial Enemies
  • Enables Reichskrieg Diplomatic Interaction.
Following is the Centralized Reforms
Reform the Hofgericht
  • Emperor gets -10% Core Construction cost
Curtail the Imperial Estates
  • +25% Imperial Authority
Proclaim Erbkaisertum
  • +25% Imperial Authority
  • HRE becomes hereditary
Revoke the Privilegia
  • +25% Imperial Authority
  • Princes & Free Cities gets -10% Stability Cost
  • Members are given a choice to stay within the empire and become a vassal under the Emperor or to leave the empire.
Renovatio Imperii
  • The Emperor unites the empire under the Holy Roman Empire tag.

The centralized reforms are based on the old vanilla reforms to unite the empire with some slight changes. The idea is still that you are uniting the empire under one monarch. The Decentralized path has more of a focus on a strong united empire by devolving some of the responsibilities and powers to the Electors.

The last reform on the Decentralized path might not unite the entire Empire in one tag under the Emperor, but it does give the Emperor a powerful tool to call upon the entire empire in a war against the empire’s enemies. This costs 25 Imperial Authority.

If you become Emperor and the previous Emperor has gone into a path you didn’t want, you can now also revoke reforms once per Emperor. This act costs 50 Imperial Authorities just like adding a reform.

To give the Empire a bit of life we’ve implemented something we call the Imperial Incidents. These are big dynamic historical events that affect huge swaths of Europe. From the Burgundian Inheritance, the German Peasant War, the Question of the Swiss to the Dutch Revolt. In total we’ve made 13 of these.

Every single prince will be allowed to weigh in on the issues at hand. For instance, in a case where Burgundy is properly invited to join the Empire, Princes at the border worried about the duke’s ambitions might not want to permit that.

However the Emperor still gets to pick what option he wants to happen, but if it goes against the diet it will hurt the unity of the empire considerably. The Emperor will either gain or lose imperial authority depending on how the diet positions itself in the incident. It calculates this relative between your pick and the option with most support (besides your pick so if you picked the most supported one it takes the second most picked). Princes are worth 0.2 Imperial Authority each and Electors are worth 1 Imperial Authority. Besides the Imperial Authority there’s also opinion changes with members of the empire depending on what you pick.

Together with these new features we’ve done quite a few balance changes. First let’s cover how things are added to the empire. We don’t want you to keep a “reserve of provinces to add” in order to burst through the reforms of the HRE. We want a “healthy” empire is what leads to progress within it. So when you join all legible provinces gets added at once and a lump sum of 10 IA is given. You can add more provinces as you conquer but this is also done with all provinces all at once in the HRE screen instead for one by one. This does also mean that when the Reformation hits and if left unchecked, it becomes a serious blow to the authority of the emperor.

Of course we’re giving the Emperor some more ways to garden his Empire though, for starters there are now 12 Free Cities at start which gives a good baseline of Imperial Authority generation. Overall there’s a lot more princes & fabricating claims within the empire is 50% more expensive. This together means it’s easier to keep the empire above the 25 princes limit for a lot longer. We’ve also made it easier for the Emperor to enforce peace within the Empire by being able to ignore the opinion requirement so you no longer only have the Imperial Ban as an option.

We’ve also added a Force into HRE CB that the Emperor can use. Nations that have their capital in the same continent and that borders the Empire can be forced in through this treaty.

That’s it for today! Next development diary will be two things you’ve seen hinted here and there from time to time in various screenshots from previous development diaries and in the dev clash.

Dev Diary: The Catholic Faith

Click here to read the latest Dev Diary by Johan

Hi and Welcome to yet another Europa Universalis Development Diary!

We talked a little bit about what is happening to the Catholic Faith in a development diary back in August 2019. Let's delve into that at first, before we talk about completely new features, and remember. All of this is part of the Emperor Expansion.

Curia Coffers
First of all, the Curia has its own pool of money, the Curia Coffers, which is accumulated each month from contributions from each catholic country. The contribution depends on the development controlled by the Clergy estate in each country. Catholic Nations can also Buy Indulgence to increase the Curia Coffers and

The Curia Coffers can then be spent on the following.
  • Call the Ecumenical Council
  • Assign Cardinals
  • Investigate Heresy
  • Papal Bulls
  • Council of Trent Actions.
Ecumenical Council
The Ecumenical Council is a way for the Papal Controller to siphon their own money into the Curia Coffers to increase their influence to become the next Papal Controller.

Cardinals
Assigning Cardinals is a new Diplomatic Action that Curia Controller can do. By spending an amount of the Curia Coffers the target nation will gain a Cardinal. The Curia Controller gains influence towards becoming the controller at the next papal election, and the target nation increases their opinion of the Curia Controller.

The Pope can also spend their own money to Appoint a Cardinal from one of their own provinces, if any of them lack a Cardinal. This increases Corruption by 5%, but sometimes it is needed.

Of course there will be Cardinals appointed automatically each year as before.
Investigate Heresy
Investigate Heresy is an action where the Papal Controller can spend money from the Curia Coffers to reduce the Reform Desire by 5%, while making Reform Desire grow 10% faster in the future. This is a way to delay the Reformation if you so desire.

Golden Bulls
For each Pope, the Curia Controller can pick one new Golden Bull, which will define that Pope’s life. This of course cost money from the Curia Coffers, and there are six different Golden Bulls to pick from. What is interesting with these Golden Bulls, is the fact that they affect ALL catholic nations.

Apostolicae Servitutis
-50% Curia Power Cost (The old Catholic Ones)

Christian Pictas
-5% Development Cost
+1 Tolerance of Heretics

Dei Gratia Rex
+0.5 Yearly Absolutism
-2 Unrest in Catholic Provinces
-25% Drill Decay

Illius Qui Se Pro Divini
Enabled Crusades after the Age limit!

Immensa Aeterni Dei
-10% Institution Embracement cost
+25% Institution Spread
Cardinals will spread institution if the institution has been embraced in a province of another Cardinal or the capital of the Curia(Rome).

Libertas Ecclesiae
+20% Imperial Authority Growth
+15 Imperial Reform Approval by Catholic Princes
Available if Emperor & Catholic is Official Religion of the Empire

Council of Trent
A few decades after the Reformation has started to ravage Europe, there will be something called The Council of Trent that will last about 50 years at maximum, or until the Papal Controller has picked four different changes to the Church.

When the Council is active, rulers of Catholic Nations can set their position as either Harsh or Conciliatory. At default all nations are neutral, and at every new ruler in your nation you get the opportunity to change your position.

Neutral Position
-33% Resistance to Reformation Centers.

Harsh Position
-20 Opinion of Heretics
+25% Resistance to Reformation Centers
+2% Missionary Strength
-25% Institution Spread

Conciliatory Position
+10 Opinion of Heretics
+25% Resistance to Reformation Centers
+25% Improve Relations
-5% Heretic Missionary Strength

The Curia Controller is the one that picks the concessions, and they are quite costly, costing 2000 gold from the Curia Coffers, which is reduced by up to 1500 depending how many Cardinals that are from Countries supporting the stance taken in the concession. And you can only take one concession in each pair, and the effect is applied to all Catholic nations. The Harsh ones all add -20 opinion of heretics to all Catholic countries, and Conciliatory adds +10 opinion, so the Papal Controller can really control how fractured Christianity will be during the Council.

First Concession
Heresy Trials (Harsh) +1% Heretic Missionary Strength
Secret Confessions (Conciliatory) +2 Tolerance of Heretics

Second Concession
Roman Catechism (Harsh) +10% True Faith Institution Spread
Non-Latin Bible (Conciliatory) +5% Institution Spread

Third Concession
Soldiers of Christ (Harsh) +10% Manpower in True Faith
Rescinding Celibacy (Conciliatory) +5% Manpower

Fourth Concession
Catholic Mysticism (Harsh) -10% Warscore Cost vs Other Religions
Sola Fide (Conciliatory) -20% Curia Power Cost

Hope you enjoyed this short but detailed Development diary, and next week we’ll talk more about the Imperial Diet.

Dev Diary: Italian Papal Missions

Click here to read the latest Dev Diary by Neondt

Good morning! As you may have heard, the Paradox office has shut down temporarily due to Coronavirus concerns; we’re all continuing to work from home though, and you’ll be pleased to hear that thus far the team remains in good health. If all goes as planned we should be able to continue releasing dev diaries as normal.

Today I’ll be covering the Papal and Italian mission trees. It’s been a while since we had a content-focused dev diary, and there’s still quite a lot we haven’t covered. Emperor and the 1.30 patch have such an immense wealth of content that we almost definitely won’t be able to talk about it all before release. With that in mind, here’s a list of mission trees we’ve created over the last year or so:

Mission trees available with the Emperor expansion:
  • Austria
  • Bavaria/Bavarian minors
  • Bohemia
  • Burgundy
  • Crusader States
  • Netherlands/Dutch and Flemish minors
  • Florence/Tuscany
  • France
  • Genoa
  • Germany/HRE (several unique missions each)
  • Lubeck
  • Hungary
  • Italy
  • Milan
  • Naples
  • Papal States
  • Provence
  • Brandenburg/Prussia
  • Savoy/Sardinia-Piedmont
  • Saxony
  • Serbia
  • Switzerland
  • Venice

    Mission trees available to all players:

  • Albania
  • Brittany
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia/Ragusa/Dalmatia
  • Dithmarschen
  • Elector Bishops
  • Franconia/Franconian minors
  • French Duchies
  • Hannover/Hannoverian minors
  • Italian minors
  • Palatinate
  • Pomerania
  • Austrian Minors
  • Swabia/Swabian minors
  • Westphalia/Westphalian minors

Improving Catholic and Papal gameplay has been one of our core priorities during the development of Emperor, so it’s only fitting that the Papal States get a suitably comprehensive mission tree to boot. I won’t attempt to describe the requirements and rewards for every mission, so I’ll just focus on the parts I think are especially interesting.

Starting from the Patrimony of St. Peter, the Holy Father is encouraged to embark on a campaign of conquest across the Italian peninsula. Besides uniting Italy under the rightful patrimony of the Pope being a noble goal in and of itself, this will also help you meet the requirements for the Kingdom of God decision.

Among the first missions the Papal States can pursue is Form the Swiss Guard. To achieve this the Pope must either have very good relations with Switzerland or else directly own a province in Switzerland itself.

Several of the missions for the Papal States give bonuses not only to the Pope himself but also to other Catholics. The Holy League for instance gives mercenary bonuses to the Pope’s allies, while Eastern Catholicization gives Lithuania a bonus to their Missionaries. The most interesting application of this idea is in the Missions to China and Japan. Using whatever means the Pope deems necessary, several provinces in China/Japan must be owned by a Catholic country to complete these missions of evangelism. Upon completing the mission, not only will relevant countries receive events giving them an opportunity to embrace Catholicism, but all provinces in China owned by a Catholic but not yet Catholic themselves will become easier to convert, while provinces already converted will receive reduced development cost.

Moving on, here’s the mission tree for a united Italy:

As you can probably tell from some of the mission names, this mission tree has a somewhat Roman theme. Completing these missions will set you well on your way to restoring the Roman Empire and, therefore, Italy’s rightful place in the world.

The leftmost branch of the tree deals with bringing prosperity and advancement to Italy itself. Completing the Prosperity for all mission grants a temporary development cost modifier which will be useful in completing the Develop the South mission, which requires at least 5 provinces in southern Italy to have at least 25 development.

The main part of the mission tree encourages you to embark on a widespread campaign of conquest across the Mediterranean. A new Caesar must launch a new invasion of Gaul by crossing the Alps and defeating whatever barbarians have made it their home in the absence of proper Roman order. The so-called Holy Roman Empire must also be dealt with, either by dismantling it as a false pretender to the mantle of Rome or by seizing its crown for yourself. With the matter of Empire settled, it will be time to consider invasions of Iberia, the Balkans, and Anatolia. Completing this branch of the mission tree will reward you with 10% more manpower and land forcelimit for the rest of the game.

A united Italy must have a great navy, both to repel invasion from the sea and to launch invasions of its own. The Barbary Pirates inhabit the lan

d which was once Carthage, and later the Roman province of Africa. Once again it aligns itself against Italian interests, and must be annexed to ensure the safety of your trade routes. Before taking the fight onward to Egypt, it would be wise to secure an ally in Ethiopia, for the Kingdom of Prester John would surely aid your efforts. Jerusalem is the ultimate goal of this campaign, and once secured its religion will immediately be restored to your faith.

On the topic of Italy, we’ve added some new content about the Italian Wars:

The Italian Wars can begin at any point during the Age of Discovery if an Italian country is the war leader (on either side) against a major Christian power - most likely France or Austria. Lasting for around 50 years, special Mercenary Companies such as the Tuscan Free Company will become available. Participants in the Italian Wars receive -10% mercenary cost and +5% mercenary discipline while they remain in an applicable war.

That’s all from me today. Next week Johan will reveal the major mechanical changes we’ve made to Catholicism, so come back next week to read all about it.

A New Dev Clash Begins - Today 15:00 CET



Make sure you tune in to our twitch at 15:00 today, because...

It's time to start up the next round of the weekly developer multiplayer clash!

It's been too long, the citizens are growing unruly, they demand blood from the arena known as The Dev Clash! We will be playing on Hot Code from the Emperor Expansion so expect a bit of instability as we keep working on it.

We will be playing with the normal scoring system and the victories will go to the people reaching 1 to 3 placements.

When?
Every Wednesday at 15:00CET! Starting the 11th of March

Where can I watch this live?
https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

Where can I watch previous streams that I missed?

Either on our Paradox Grand Strategy Youtube Channel, or the Twitch VOD archive.
Player Nations


  • BjornB - Genoa
  • Konbendith - Hungary
  • Clausewitz is cool - Teutonic Order
  • Gorion - Morocco
  • Matski - Denmark
  • Neondt - Milan
  • Besuchov - England
  • Ofaloaf - Scotland
  • Duplo - The Knights
  • hlilje - Burgundy
  • Meka - Utrecht
  • Alexivan - France
  • Dnote - Tunis
  • MichaelS - Landshut
  • Arheo - Venice
  • theDa9L - Aragon
  • Groogy - Cologne
  • sidestep - Saxony
  • Katz - Norway
  • Green Gradus - Sweden
  • Caligula - Savoy
  • Pizzicato - Brandenburg
  • sanke - Portugal
  • Servancour - Castille
  • Sir Rogers - Austria
  • The French Paradox - Bohemia
  • Wiz - The Papal States
  • KaiserJohan - Florence
  • StarNaN - Switzerland
  • Azurespecter - The Palatinate
  • Pdawg - Brittany
  • fjuttknas - Livonian Order
  • foggmof - Lübeck


15:00 CET today, and each Wednesday after it.