Europa Universalis IV News

Greetings everyone! Today we will take a look into Yemen and the Arabic states, coming back to a more regular type of DD.

Let us start with the content for the Yemeni countries:
Note: Mission icons are still WIP.

As you might notice, the first mission tree is for the Rassids while the second one is for all Yemeni countries. The reason for this is that they are one of the two unique tags that follow the Zaidi school of Islam (the other one is Gilan on that note) and even are a Feudal Theocracy, so figured they deserve a bit more attention.

In general, though, the Yemeni tags are relatively similar with a similar focus which is the unification of southern Arabia, expansion into the Horn of Africa, and, of course, trade.

The Yemeni tags won’t have any big gimmicks to play with as you will probably either form the Mamluks / Egypt or Arabia later on. With that being said, they still have some interesting additions and small design experiments. An example is the addition of more age-lasting rewards like in the “Unite Yemen” mission:
Note: Completing missions with age-limited modifiers after the age has passed will just give some small monarch power instead.

These kinds of rewards should incentivize you to focus on certain missions and allow us to give impactful rewards without having to worry about them stacking too much indefinitely as this was the case with permanent rewards.

A bit of a theme for the Yemeni mission rewards is to strengthen the Propagate Religion Trade Policy as you can see in the following missions:


And as a trade-focused nation, you will gain the ‘Thalassocracy’ reward when you manage to make the Gulf of Aden the highest-valued trade node and make a monthly income of 300 ducats.


What is a Yemeni country without its focus on coffee?


The “Port of Mukha” requires you to have a workshop, shipyard, and 20 development in the coffee province. The resulting plantation will then pretty much carry your economy while you can focus on “Qahwah Monopoly”.

Now a short insight in the Rassids-specific missions:


And when you are done with the Yemen mission tree then you can form into Arabia to continue your campaign. With “Unite Arabia” you will be able to form Arabia a lot earlier too:


With that being said, let’s take a look at the Arabic content. Before I go into the Arabic mission trees, I should mention that Arabia has received new ideas so they are no longer a drawback to form:

ARB_ideas = {
    start = {
        tolerance_own = 2
        years_of_nationalism = -10
    }

    bonus = {
        siege_ability = 0.15
    }

    trigger = {
        tag = ARB
    }
    free = yes

    ARB_arabian_pincers = {
        cav_to_inf_ratio = 0.25
        cavalry_power = 0.25
    }
    ARB_pact_of_umar = {
        dhimmi_loyalty_modifier = 0.1
        global_tax_modifier = 0.2
    }
    ARB_engage_in_indian_ocean_trade = {
        trade_steering = 0.2 
    }
    ARB_conversion = {
        global_missionary_strength = 0.03
    }
    ARB_jihad = {
        warscore_cost_vs_other_religion = -0.1
    }
    ARB_new_caliphate_rising = {
        missionaries = 1
        missionary_maintenance_cost = -0.25
    }
    ARB_mubarizun = {
        army_tradition_decay = -0.01
    }
}

Also forming Arabia will now fire the following flavor event, allowing you to change your capital to one of the important provinces from the Caliphate states:


Now to the mission tree for the Arabic countries and Arabia as a whole:


These missions are available to all Bedouin and Hejazi countries. The mission tree is split into 5 parts, 2 of them are inspired by Hejaz while the other 2 smaller parts are inspired by Najd. The last and biggest part is telling the narrative of the formation of a new Arabic Caliphate, and as such possesses a large number of conquest missions.

Starting with the Hejaz-flavored mission parts which branch from the missions “Promote Shura” and “Protectors of the Two Cities”. Here are some highlights of these missions:
Note: Jeddah is a Coastal Desert province. So in total, the province will have a -5% Local Development Cost from mission rewards after completing these missions.

As for the Najd-flavored part, here are the following highlights:
Note: Countries which do not have the government mechanic gain +15% Permanent Reinforce Speed instead.



Before moving on to the last part of the mission tree, I should mention a special decision available to Bedouin and Hejazi countries. Near the city of Medina used to be an old gold mine which was virtually exhausted in EU4’s timeframe. However, as your early economy in Arabia is barely sufficient enough to cover your state maintenance, we have added a decision that allows the Medina province to help boost your economy for the early years:


And once gold runs out of its usefulness to you, you can restore Cloth production once more.


At last, we now take a look at the core of the mission tree which is heavily dedicated to expansion to mirror the past achievements of the Islamic conquests. As these missions are quite self-explanatory, I will focus on the big highlights of this part:
Note: The mission is significantly easier to complete than the Unify Islam decision.



That was it for this week. Next week @Pavia will present you a feature breakdown of 1.36 as well as new and exciting QoL and modding additions. Until then, I wish you all a great week!

What do you think of these new missions for Yemen and Arabia? Let us know in the comments below or discuss with us on our Discord here: https://discord.gg/europauniversalisofficial

Good afternoon everyone and welcome! This week we will be covering multiple nations through the lenses of 2 Developer Diaries, one for Qara/Aq Qoyunlu and one for Georgia/Armenia in the thread below!

Embroiled in both external and internal conflicts, the Turkomans in the Middle East offer a very interesting playthrough including government mechanics, events, and now completely new mission trees, government reforms, and more! Both tags share similar mission trees, each imbued with unique branches for AQ and unique branches for QQ.



QQ and AQ will largely share most missions, each tree granting certain diversity in key points.

Despite its smaller size compared to its Eastern neighbor, AQ starts at a much stable situation (more on that further down!). In 1444 the legendary Uzun Hasan stands as the heir to a Tribal Federation ready to spread its wings and bring the surrounding territory under its heel.

The AQ mission tree offers 31 new missions, interacting with nearly every facet of gameplay, from conquest and integration to estate interaction and events. Your first tasks would be to eradicate the last remnant of the Ayyubids in Hisn Kayfa, and rally your powerful cavalry. The former will then give rise to aspirations for expansion in every direction while the latter mission (Rally the Turkomans) will play around with the existing Tribal Allegiance mechanic and grant a bonus to province warscore cost.



At the same time, you will be called to eradicate one of the last Roman bastions in Eastern Anatolia, Trebizond, offering a unique event reward:

The first option of the event will grant some prosperity over time in the entire state as well as some reduction to local autonomy among other minor rewards.

Another highlight of the Aq Qoyunlu conquest path is “The House of Wisdom”. The House of Wisdom in Baghdad was a renowned center of scholarship and intellectual activity in the Islamic world. Established during the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th and 9th centuries, it continued to flourish into later centuries, being a hub of learning, translating, and preserving ancient Greek, Persian, and Indian texts, contributing significantly to the Islamic Golden Age. Scholars from various backgrounds gathered there to engage in scholarly pursuits, making significant advances in fields like astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy. The House of Wisdom's enduring legacy lies in its role in preserving and transmitting knowledge, which later influenced the European Renaissance and the broader development of human civilization. Therefore, there will be a mission about fully restoring it:



To wrap up the showcasing of conquest for Aq Qoyunlu, let’s take a look at “A Gunpowder Empire”. This is a term coined for empires such as the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals, as they used this new warfare technology to expand their territories and dominate their regions. Their military strength and control over trade routes were largely built upon their mastery of gunpowder weaponry and tactics, and Aq Qoyunlu may be able to join that group as well:



Moving on to the internal part of the content, we will be greeted by objectives centered around an improved court, the patronization of art and literature, as well as the development of new imperial fabrics:







Finally, let’s take a look at some more highlights before we move on to the Black Sheep:





The Black Sheep on the Eastern border suffered a turbulent time during the middle of the 15th century. In 1444 the lands around Mesopotamia were highly autonomous and far away from the central domain in Tabriz. As a result, the lands that fell in the hands of Ispend Mirza (brother of Jahan Shah) created a thorn in the side of the government, resisting the payment of taxes and drafts, thus posing a significant threat to Jahan’s rule. We decided to represent the Emirate of Baghdad via an Estate Privilege, which increases the autonomy in select areas via a flat and a monthly amount:



Getting rid of this privilege will be a race against time, as the autonomy of the provinces affected will be very difficult to lower - and at times it may even grow naturally over time.
Against the threat of the Ottomans to the West, not losing a single battle against this fearsome enemy will yield a powerful permanent reward:



The defeat of the Ottomans will herald a new era of warfare by introducing Janissaries in Tabriz as well as a new Tier 1 Government:



Unlike its Western counterpart, Qara Qoyunlu will facilitate a lot of its expansion into the lands of Persia in a different style, starting with the ‘Princes of Persia’ mission:





The content for the Turkomans could not be complete without a reference to a very iconic place of worship. The Blue Mosque in Tabriz, also known as the Masjed-e Kabud, is a historic mosque in Iran that earned its name from the stunning blue tiles that once adorned its walls. The mosque was originally built in the 15th century during the rule of the Qara Qoyunlu dynasty and features impressive, intricate architecture with beautiful calligraphy and geometric patterns:



Before we conclude this part of the Developer Diary, here’s some more content for these two countries:





It should be mentioned that the Turkoman trees are designed in a non-restrictive way to allow the player any playstyle - tribal, monarchy, horde. Although the mission tree follows the historical narrative of Persian conquests and Persianization, forming Persia is just an option the player can do at the end of the tree rather than being forced to do it. This philosophy is inspired by forum and Reddit comments by people who are hoping for the ability to stay as AQ/QQ rather than having to form another tag. Lastly, the content shown here is about half of the content planned for the Turkomen, and in the interest of keeping you excited and allowing you the ability to discover the content for yourselves, I decided against fully showcasing more missions, events, etc.

Here we will focus on the new content we have to present on Georgia and Armenia.

Georgia in 1444 was a state in disarray and disintegration. After the Timurid invasions, it broke down into several smaller kingdoms and principalities. The major political entities during this time included the Kingdoms of Kartli, Kakheti, and Imereti, and the Principality of Samtskhe. This fragmentation weakened Georgia's ability to defend itself against external threats and hindered efforts at reunification. To add some more historical accuracy while trying to deal with the looming disaster, we have added a truce between Georgia and Qara Qoyunlu for both gameplay and historical reasons. Jahan Shah of Qara Qoyunlu in fact invaded Georgia in early 1444 and so we depicted it with this short starting truce.





To add more depth to the Georgian content, we have created a new starting disaster to better mirror the situation in the region under the weakened rulership of Vakhtang. 1.36 completely reworks the disintegration of Georgia – in 1444, the country has not yet divided the way it was in 1.35, and so Imereti is now a part of Georgia and Samtskhe starts as its vassal:





WIP Art.

In order to restore order, you will need to succeed in a multitude of different objectives:

• Increase legitimacy to 90
  
• Produce an heir
  
• Increase your stability to at least 1
  
• No provinces controlled by rebels
  

The content of Georgia is designed in a way to facilitate game flow either via overcoming or circumventing the disaster, by completing certain missions within a reasonable time frame:



During the disaster, should it fire, there will be several new events occurring to help build and promote the narrative of a torn realm in distress:



Should you complete these tasks, you will be greeted by this event, announcing the end of a turbulent period:



Conquest missions are oriented around the unification of Caucasia, punitive campaigns against the Hordes and, similarly to Armenia, you will be pushing your way across the Middle East and bringing the region back under the rule of the Cross:



One of the highlights of your conquest missions is the ‘Throne of the Romans’ mission, allowing you to make yourself the rightful heir of the Eastern Roman Empire by moving your capital to Constantinople and your culture to the Byzantine culture group:



Since Georgia was heavily ravaged by the past wars, your tall missions mostly deal with the restoration of the country and the revival of your culture and religion – you will be restoring the glory of the days of David 'the Builder' and elevating the Autocephalous Church of Georgia into a Patriarchate:









Finally, Georgia also received flavor in other areas of the game, including localized ruler titles, localized government ranks, and historical flavor events about important personalities such as Giorgi Saakadze or Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani.



Let’s move forward to Armenia, but first, let us make a comment about it. We have been working on unique content for the Armenian region for a long time, and it reflects our understanding of the historical situation. In no way it is intended to be a comment or reference to the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan or the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Now, let’s go back to the content itself. During the second half of the 15th century, Armenians in the Caucasus faced complex geopolitical shifts. The region was caught in the midst of territorial disputes and power struggles involving the Safavid Persian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and local rulers. During our timeline in that century, as a Christian minority, Armenian communities often found themselves caught between these larger empires. Some Armenians living in the Caucasus were subjected to religious and political pressures from the Ottoman and Safavid rulers, leading to challenges and occasional persecution.

Karabakh is arguably one of the most difficult tags in the game. The goal of the mission tree is to give them a flavorful and powerful tree without trivializing the difficulty of their early game – the tree does not give you anything before you succeed in securing independence. The narrative of the content is built around the restoration of Mets Hayk – the Greater Armenia, which existed during the glorious reign of the Artaxiad dynasty, but it also takes you beyond that and allows you to exceed the golden age of Armenia by conquering Persia, Anatolia, and Egypt. Lastly, before we delve into the content, forming the Armenian tag is now easier since it no longer requires the province of Adana.



Let’s take a look at some of the conquest-related highlights of the new content for Armenia and Karabakh:









Your conquest missions will have you restore the borders of Great Armenia but also venture into Persia, Mashriq, Anatolia, Egypt, and even Ethiopia. You will be joining with the Churches of the East and gaining powerful rewards, such as a Coptic Center of Conversion in Baghdad, the Defender of the Faith position as a mission reward, an upgrade of the Holy City of Jerusalem Great Project, and access to the Cawa regiments:

The tooltip is a WIP and it mentions the bonuses of the reform itself, which include the recruitment and improvement of Cawa units from fellow Coptic lands, the reduction of war exhaustion, regiment cost, and more!



Here are the new Great Armenian ideas:

ARM1_ideas = {
    start = {
        war_exhaustion = -0.05
        recover_army_morale_speed = 0.10
    }


    bonus = {
        hostile_attrition = 1
    }
 
    trigger = {
        OR = {
            tag = ARM
            tag = MLK
        }
        has_country_flag = arm_great_armenian_ideas
    }
    free = yes      #will be added at load.
 
    apostolic_church = {
        global_missionary_strength = 0.02
        prestige_per_development_from_conversion = 0.25
    }
    land_reclamation1 = {
        development_cost = -0.15
    }
    border_nation = {
        diplomatic_reputation = 1
    }
    melikdom_organization1 = {
        global_tax_modifier = 0.2
    }
    sygnakhs = {
        global_regiment_cost = -0.1
    }
    nakharar_titles1 = {
        army_tradition = 1
    }
    end_of_armenian_diaspora1 = {
        production_efficiency = 0.1
        manpower_in_own_culture_provinces = 0.2
    }
}

We should note here, before we move to internal-development-related missions, that Armenia also gets access to new government reforms, granted via the missions ‘Refine the Nakharar’ and ‘The Office of Sparapet’.

Your tall missions will have you strengthen the Apostolic Church of Armenia, liberate the holy sites, rebuild the majestic city of Tigranakert, and resettle your ancestral lands with Armenians, unlocking powerful culture conversion rewards such as +1 of all development on culture converting a province to Armenian:



And as has become tradition, this weeks DD comic from FatherLorris:


Thank you for tuning in for another week’s Dev Diaries, next week we will take a look at Yemen and Arabia with Ogele.

On the 13th August 2013, EU4 was released to the public - and with it a small little event pack called “Purple Phoenix” for a country whose popularity was almost uncanny even back then. Over the ten years, this popularity did not stop but rose further and further, and now it is one of the main three focus points of King of Kings.

Welcome to today’s Development Diary which is all about the one country you guys have been looking forward to the most: Byzantium. Hardly in need of any more introduction on the country, as every single patch of EU4 has at least one video tutorial dedicated to the remnant of the Roman Empire. So without further ado, let us jump into the content we can expect for Byzantium in 1.36.

So first thing first: the setup of Byzantium. The province change has been somewhat spoiled already, but I will mention it here nonetheless to confirm it: yes, Mesambria is now part of Byzantium and it will have the Bulgarian core on it:


Another change is the adjustments on the stats of its heir, Konstantinos Palaiologos. Although the empire did eventually fall under his rule, it was not anything he could have prevented, and as such the stats he had were a bit unfair considering his experiences as the past Despot of Morea. He is now a 5/2/3!

Speaking of Morea, the area of Morea now starts with +25% Local Autonomy to represent the kinsmen of the Byzantine Emperors ruling over this part of the empire.

Another point of Byzantine adjustments is their ideas. While their +3 TotF and 3% Missionary Strength make them a strong religious country, the rest of their ideas are relatively underwhelming. As Byzantium is an end-game tag it felt kind of justified to balance their ideas a bit better out. Additionally, it is a nice reward for players who survive the early years.

These are the new ideas (Ideas with a # at the start are the modifiers that used to be there pre-1.36):

BYZ_ideas = {
    start = {
        advisor_cost = -0.10
        improve_relation_modifier = 0.2
        #tolerance_own = 3
    }
 
    bonus = {
        tolerance_own = 3
        #prestige = 1
    }
 
    trigger = {
        tag = BYZ
    }
    free = yes
 
    repopulation_of_countryside = {
        global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.1
        #merc_maintenance_modifier = -0.15
    }
 
    byz_roman_empire = {
        core_creation = -0.25
        #global_manpower_modifier = 0.1
        #global_trade_goods_size_modifier = 0.05
    }
 
    ecumenical_patriarch = {
        global_missionary_strength = 0.03
        yearly_patriarch_authority = 0.003
        #global_tax_modifier = 0.1
    }
 
    byz_corpus_iuris_civilis = {    #Replaces byz_admin_power for Purple Phoenix events
        reform_progress_growth = 0.2
        #stability_cost_modifier = -0.1
    }
 
    byz_protect_the_frontiers = {
        defensiveness = 0.15
        #global_trade_power = 0.1
    }
 
    byz_strategikon = {
        discipline = 0.05
    }


    new_imperial_army = {
        global_manpower_modifier = 0.15
        #global_missionary_strength = 0.03
    }
}

With that out of the way, let’s talk for a moment about the intentions for Byzantium. I mentioned in the Persia Development Diary that countries that receive content tend to become a lot easier than they used to be, hence Ardabil received explicitly nothing that could trivialize their early game.

Byzantium is another candidate where we explicitly want it to be a fight for survival. Because of that, the Byzantines will now start with 4 privileges which are more curses than blessings to you:
Note: That privilege increases the starting opinion of the Papal State of you by 125. More to it later. Note: The Morale Reduction is only present if you have King of Kings active as the mission tree will give you Land Morale modifiers over the course of the campaign to counteract this privilege.

All of the privileges with the exception of 'Reliance on Republics' can be removed through decisions. Both the starting privileges and the decisions are part of the 1.36 update.

Additionally to the penalties, the privileges also cause certain events to happen to your country. Our first example is the Union of Churches. Roughly 3 months into the game you get greeted with the following event in regard to the union:


While revoking the privilege immediately would prevent the spawn of rebels further down the line, there is an argument to be made for keeping the privilege active as they can trigger the following event if you are in a defensive war against the Ottomans while having this privilege active:

I don’t want to spoil this part as this should be rather experienced in your own playthrough. But a little teaser: the second option allows for a very different religious path for the Byzantines!

Moving on, the 'Tax Exemption' privilege also fires an event that can be an early game boon with a long-term penalty.


Byzantium has been fitted with many early game events leading up to their eventual demise. While it would be lovely to showcase them all, we only have so much time. So here are a few:
Note: that event is firing for the Ottomans. The follow-up event is triggered for the Byzantines. Also an event for the Ottomans in relation to the Byzantine content:

One final thing to mention to make the early game even more of a challenge - the starting reform for the Byzantines has been adjusted with a new penalty… and a new mechanic (more to it later):
There is nothing more Roman than falling in the back of your countrymen in time of need for a chance to seize absolute power for yourself.

Now that we have the events through, it is time to take a look at the new mission tree for the Byzantines for the upcoming DLC:

Note: with 55 missions in one playthrough, the Byzantine tree is the largest of the DLC.

First a few words about the general theme of the mission tree before going into detail: there are vastly different ideas of what is to be expected of a tree for Byzantium (a look into your local Steam Workshop is a fast way to see what I mean). Some would like to see the addition of Hellenism and a whole path revolving around it, others want a mission tree that revolves around the big “what if” questions of a modernized Byzantium that no longer tries to forge its own destiny independently from the Roman legacy.

While all of these ideas are great ones to explore, we have decided to focus on the one path which is generally the one accepted by the majority of the player base which is the ambition of restoring the Roman Empire. The goal was to keep the spirit of the Purple Phoenix mission tree and expand it with flavor so the reconquest of your empire feels like a bigger narrative than just good ol’ blobbing.

The mission tree is split into six parts:

• A small defensive part with three missions revolving around reinforcing the Theodosian Walls and constructing the Hexamilion Wall
  
• A large conquest part starting from “The Impending Doom”
  
• A small trade part of the two missions “Peloponnesian Renaissance” and “Monemvasian Merchants”
  
• An internal infrastructure part starting from “A Tarnished State” and “Promote the Emporoi”
  
• A part about the military and administrative aspects of the Empire
  
• And finally the religious part
  

As usual, I will start with the more obvious part which would be in that case the re-conquest missions. In this branch of the missions, you gain areas of permanent claims after another area of permanent claims. Notable within this branch is the theme of an evolving permanent modifier as a reward. Usually, you get the strong permanent modifier at the end of a mission path. Here, however, you get it early on, though in a very weak state:

This modifier will then be further modified through follow-up missions:

Finally merged into the finisher reward once you finish the conquest path of the mission tree which requests you to be the Roman Empire:

The final version of the modifier at the end of your long spree of conquest has the following bonuses:
Governing Capacity: +300
Global Missionary Strength: +2%
Yearly Prestige: +1
Morale of Armies: +10%
Morale of Navies: +10%
Stability Cost: -25%

Of course, this part of the tree has more to offer than just a growing modifier though. Here are some other great highlights of the conquest part:


Oh, while I am at it: the decision to form the Roman Empire has been adjusted.

Note: this will retroactively affect the achievement "Mehmet's Ambition" too. Also, we might add some key provinces to the decision to be part of the Empire - depending on how these changes play out.
In total, there are 475 provinces highlighted, and you will actually have to conquer MORE provinces than before. But at least you no longer have to subject yourself to the conquest of Mesopotamia anymore.

Moving on, the next part is about the walls of Constantinople:


I should talk about the elephant in the room here: yes, the Theodosian Wall is a permanent province modifier instead of a unique monument. This is a choice that has been made because we want to spread out the monuments and the Theodosian Walls would be put on a province that already has two static monuments placed on it.

Anyhow, the defensive missions are relatively easy to achieve early game which can give you some significant months to survive the Ottomans.

Now let us take a small look at the small trading missions:
Gemistos Plethon is the only, small nod to Hellenism you can expect from 1.36. For more information, I highly suggest checking out Third Odyssey.

With that out of the way, let’s continue with a more exciting part of the mission tree: the internal development and infrastructure missions:

And of course the map color in question:

It is the color of the Roman Empire.

Continuing on with the religious part of the mission tree. Due to the Council of Florence and the religious policies enacted by the last Emperor, the public trust in the Patriarch and the government has crumbled. This mission branch focuses on rebuilding that trust, limiting the rivals, and eventually bringing the schism to an end. Beginning with the trust:

While also limiting the ever stronger Muscovy ambition:

Restoring the Pentarchy:
Note: this decision is usable every 25 years.
And of course, mending the Schism:

Note: the mending will be significantly more difficult though as you must ensure that 300 provinces in Europe are Orthodox and in Orthodox hands. Fortunately, many provinces are already Orthodox. They just need a Roman hand to free themselves from the heretics.

And at last the military and administrative missions. The “Sea Fire” mission lets one already guess what it is all about. So once you finish it, your galleys get +10% combat ability for the rest of the game under the assumption that they are once again using the Liquid Fire.

Now before we continue with the branching missions, let us take a short look at a new mechanic added for Byzantium which is the Pronoia. This new subject type is available to countries with the Byzantine Autocracy, Reformed Byzantine Monarchy, the Roman Empire, and the Roman Republic government reforms.

Nations with Pronoia available will be able to convert their Vassals and Client States into a new type of subject, the Pronoia. The idea of the subject type is to provide military support during your wars. Pronoia Subjects get military bonuses and do not cost a diplomatic relation slot, but are limited by a new modifier – Number of Pronoiars.
The sources of the above include:
+1 per 100 Force Limit
+2 for “Reform the Pronoia System”


+2-4 from Byzantine Missions and up to +6 from various idea groups (namely Offensive, Aristocracy, Espionage, Quantity, and Administrative)

As for how to establish and annex these subjects and what bonuses they give, I will let those images speak for themselves:

After you ‘Retract Right to Inheritance’, the Pronoia will be annexed on their monarch’s death. We are looking forward to the “Pronoia Swarms”!

Anyway, back to the missions. Let us familiarize ourselves with the Theme System:


As you can see, The Byzantine mission tree utilizes the same Preview System as Persia does: you can choose between a standing-army build or a mercenary, feudal build:

First, let us begin with the Standing Army Build. With this rendition, you will be able to take stricter control over the Pronoia subjects that you have, opting for their quality:

There is also a mission about the Varangian Guard, allowing you to bring this nearly-extinct guard back to life, making you into the real Lord of Varangian. Lastly, a final mission that gives your troops a bit more firepower while also making them cheaper by granting them +10% Land Fire Damage and -10% Land Maintenance Modifier.

The other branch focuses on building a military based on mercenaries and Pronoiar. The missions here will allow you to focus on the quantity aspect, while also providing bonuses to Mercenaries:

The final mission here gives an additional +50% Mercenary Manpower and +5% Mercenary Discipline.

Note: All the art is placeholder, as the new icons are currently WIP. All the numbers are also WIP and are subject to change.

That was it for this week. Thank you all for reading today’s Development Diary! My colleague PDXBigBoss will continue next week with a hefty DD on Georgia, Armenia, and the Qoyunlus!

We thought you'd enjoy a sequel to the most recent Byzantium Comic From FatherLorris:

Want to embrace your inner Purple Phoenix and talk about Byzantium with others? Join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/europauniversalisofficial

Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Developer Diary where we will be discussing new content for the Mamluks! As a preface, there is merit in addressing the design approach I chose to pursue for this country. Domination and its huge amounts of content served as a great platform to gauge what the people wanted, what they liked and disliked. This helped shape the content for 1.36 moving forward, as the entire team takes feedback very seriously and our ears are keenly tuned to the forums and various platforms for it.

How does this affect the content of the Mamluks? For starters, the entirety of the Mamluk tree hosts only 2 new country_modifiers, one temporary and one permanent (more on that later). The idea behind this shift is to give more room to mechanic-related bonuses over pure modifier stacking. So, missions for the Mamluks have been designed from the ground up as a way of investing more effort into slower and natural growth for the country. Moreover, the tree was conceived from the base with simplicity in mind, both for requirements as well as effects. Gone are the long lists (for the most part) of effects that were featured in Domination. As a pleasant side-effect, the AI is also more capable with this mission tree, as missions are simpler but fair in their difficulty for most players and not too overbearing.



To better simulate the turbulence that the Mamluks experienced, especially across their Syrian provinces, this event should help set the tone just at the start of the game; a vast realm whose fringe border provinces near Anatolia have come to disdain the rule of Qahirah, ready to take up arms.

Note; your choice in this event will impact the reward for “The Northern Territories” mission! The first option will release a rebellious Syrian subject whilst the second will severely increase autonomy and unrest in Syrian provinces

The top third of the mission tree is devoted to expansion against Anatolia, Constantinople, and maritime dominance over the Mediterranean as a whole either through sheer might or diplomacy:

Note: Keep in mind that ALL art is WIP in this Developer Diary!







Note; The other option here will grant you some permanent power projection (+15) and give you the option to move your capital to Europe (wink wink, Trade Company enthusiasts).







The second third of the missions will focus on expanding Mameluke influence across the deserts of Arabia to the Southeast, the realms of the Tunisians and Moroccans to the West, the Ethiopians to the South, and the territories of the (soon to be) Safavids to the East, offering a satisfying avenue for expansion in any direction, without constraining and forcing you to always conquer towards one direction:

Note; Numbers are far from final, your feedback is appreciated!

Note; Should you complete this mission outside of the Age of Reformation, you will receive a different reward!

Note; Opting to integrate Ethiopian administration via the first option, will enable several flavor events over the course of the game (Zara Yakob as an advisor in your court, etc.) among other rewards!

This leads us to the third (but not final!) part of this Developer Diary and by far my favorite: internal flavor! The difficulty of reading up on the Mamluks’ final 100 years made crafting content for them quite an interesting challenge. The following missions (much like the conquest missions above) are a mixture of what the Mamluks did between the 14th and 16th centuries, what they sought to do (corroborated by historical sources), and what would make sense for most players to do, in an effort to facilitate content that makes sense and does not break immersion. It should be repeated here, as noted in our introduction, that the Mameluke mission tree is by far not a hard or complicated piece of work to follow, for the player or the AI. It was made from the ground up for both the AI to follow and the player to comprehend, with simple tooltips, simple (but fair) requirements, and consistent flow.

As part of the new content, you will gain access to a new special unit, the slave soldiers “Mamluks”:

Note: The modifiers are not final, feel free to leave feedback! The idea is for these units to become the backbone of your army. Not as powerful and few in numbers as the Hussars and not as stacked as the Janissaries.

The primary source of these units will initially be a new Estate privilege for your Noble estate (now renamed ‘Mamluks’) but later on through idea groups, events, etc. you will potentially gain access to more!



Moving on, the impact of the Estate will be magnified via the ‘Recruit the Mamluks’ mission, which will require you to recruit them and grant the following reward:



These new Agendas are meant to be very useful and help your nation militarize further, by performing tasks such as:

• Constructing barracks, regimental camps
  
• Improving your army tradition
  
• Improving your army professionalism
  

In total, there will be 6 new Estate Agendas for the Mamluks through this mission alone! Moving on, you will be able to further hone your army through the following government reform:

Note; I had this idea while writing the DD that instead of yearly innovativeness, this reform would grant yearly army and/or naval tradition from certain advisors. I have a feeling it would fit better than yearly innovativeness. Let me know what you think!

While on the topic of Government reforms, the Mamluks will have access to several new ones, some as mission rewards and others by reaching the eligible reform tier, let’s take a look at one of them!

Note; The Mamluks will have 5 new government reforms ranging from military to economic themes.

I took the time to rework this event and make sure it fits and plays well into the new content for the Mamluks while granting them a useful reward from developing Cairo, which can now be accessed by either a mission reward or a standalone event:

Note; A capital and a reward fitting of a prestigious nation.

Mameluke content would not be complete without missions and events around the lifeblood of Egypt, the river Nile:



Note; the Burghers are set to play a very important role within your nation’s administration. Numbers are not final!

Known as the Canal of the Pharaohs, a predecessor of the Suez Canal, this set of public works connected Cairo with the Red Sea and was often used up to the 8th century for the transportation of goods via sea lanes. Historically, the Mamluks came in agreement with the Venetians to rebuild and extend it, in an effort to weaken the Portuguese, who had discovered a direct sea route to India through the Cape of Good Hope. This undertaking was never realized, the Mamluks were soon thereafter invaded by the Ottomans, and the canal was abandoned. However, through the mission ‘Highway of an Empire’, you will be able to complete the works, go a step further, and connect the Mediterranean and Red Seas! The idea here is that this will create a whole new avenue of gameplay, adding useful rewards (naval movement to and from Arabia) without granting overly powerful modifiers, etc.



The mission ‘Cultivate the Delta’ will instruct you to develop the breadbasket of the world, allowing you to expand production and increase your grip on local trade:

Note; The other option grants +1 Production Development as well as stronger Estuaries and ports across the Delta’s Mediterranean coast.

Moving on, let’s talk about the most important caste of merchants within the Mameluke domain. The Karimi merchants played a significant role in the Mameluke Sultanate during the medieval period. Hailing primarily from the Persian Gulf region, the Karimi merchants were known for their expertise in maritime trade, especially in the Indian Ocean. They established prosperous trading networks that connected the Mameluke Sultanate to distant lands such as India, Southeast Asia, and East Africa. These merchants facilitated the exchange of goods like spices, textiles, precious metals, and luxury items, contributing to the economic prosperity of the Mameluke Sultanate and fostering cultural exchanges in the region. Their entrepreneurial spirit and maritime skills made them vital actors in the bustling trade scene of the Mameluke era. During research I came across a very interesting paper that I used to create content around these merchants, its title being ‘The Spice Trade in Mameluke Egypt: A Contribution to the Economic History of Medieval Islam’.

Note; Yes, cloves. The requirements for this mission potentially involve a new estate privilege ‘Fund the Karimi Merchants which grants Trade Efficiency and Merchant Trade Power at the expense of National Tax and Crown land:

Another aspect of your economic development will revolve around the exporting of grain, via the Khass al-Sultan mission. It will require establishing workshops in your highest grain-producing provinces as well as either raising your crown land or enacting the Diwan al-Khass reform:



Exporting Grain as well as the previous Sponsor Grand Hajj action were designed with two goals in mind

• Assist with immersion and add new avenues of gameplay
  
• Be useful (but somewhat minor) tools for multiplayer and introduce a new layer of importance to human-to-human diplomacy
  

Note; As with the Grand Hajj, you can only have 4 such relationships with other countries at the same time, and only once per ruler’s lifetime. Hajj would grant piety and better school relations, allowing you to more easily host their scholars without depending on high-influence estate privileges and Exporting Grain would grant your allies Development Cost, Unrest and in return you would gain Mercantilism. Both actions would also improve relations.

As a nation that is majorly dependent on the spice trade, this part of the content is more of a “What If?”. In this instance, the missions Harness the Spice Trade and Reach the Spice Islands will be your stepping stones towards exploration and eventual colonization of the Spice Islands.







The mission ‘Assign a Waqf’ will require you to tend to your religious responsibilities, either by embracing certain idea groups or by assigning a new privilege for the Mamluks:

Note to ourselves; We should rename Holy Orders to Local Organizations.

The following event will be the reward for the mission:

Note; The first option will allow all our administrative advisors to generate -1% idea cost reduction per level and construct a University in our capital. The second option will generate 0.25% crown land per mosque built (subtracted when they are demolished).

Of course, in the interest of time, I cannot showcase every bit of content, and as a result, this Developer Diary should serve as a taste of the content we have for the Mamluks!



The final piece of the Mameluke puzzle happens to be its most interesting, in my opinion. Let’s take a look at the mission of “Kashifs of Egypt”. It will require you to centralize, increase your crown land, and establish an efficient administration. A reward is an event called ‘The Administration of the Mameluke Domain’.



The first option will enable a new powerful local organization for the Mamluks, and if you are not an Empire, you will become one. But, I believe that the second option is far, far more interesting; the ability to reform into Egypt and pursue a new government mechanic; Egyptian Westernization!

Note; Art is WIP

Unlike its Russian counterpart, Egyptian Westernization (or EW for short) is dependent on 3 separate government, interactions, each one a symbol of the country’s management aspects:

• Administration
  
• Manufacturing
  
• Armed Forces
  

Calling on each interaction will push your country closer to the brink of westernizing a specific aspect, with each having 5 distinct levels:

Note; Westernizing each level will change the red X to a green ✓ to keep track of your current level!

To do so, you would need to spend a little bit on 3 resources; Innovativeness, Monarch points, and EW progress. However, with ample governing capacity, goods produced, and Western units accompanied by a significant amount of army tradition, this is well worth the trade!

But wait, there’s more, this mechanic goes even deeper! The bar below the new interactions is beneficial on either side (0 or 100) much akin to Army Professionalism. Whilst Egypt has no Westernization, estates are happy, stability will be cheaper to increase and general tolerance towards the true faith will be happier. On the other (and more lucrative) end, a truly westernized Egypt will enjoy bonuses such as technology and idea cost, as well as yearly innovativeness.

Of course, this choice is major and will impact other aspects of your content, such as mission rewards:

• The mission 'The Imperial Gambit' would grant Egypt Innovativeness, 25 progress towards their Westernization as well as reduce the cost of increasing Westernization by -5.
  
• The mission 'Center of the Islamic World' would grant Egypt Innovativeness and double the chance of getting positive traits for your rulers based on which aspect they excel in, the most.
  
• However, for the Mamluks, the mission Center of the Islamic World will grant an additional Golden Age or extend the current one by 50 years.
  

The content for Egypt would not be complete without a brand new idea set that plays well with the new content:

EGY_ideas = {
    start = {
        trade_efficiency = 0.1
        administrative_efficiency = 0.05
    }

    bonus = {
        free_policy = 1
    }
 
    trigger = {
        tag = EGY
    }
    free = yes        #will be added at load.
 
    egy_centralization_works = {
        development_cost = -0.1
    }
    training_missions_in_egypt = {
        country_military_power = 1
    }
    legacy_of_the_karimis = {
        burghers_loyalty_modifier = 0.1
        burghers_privilege_slots = 1
    }
    nile_production = {
        production_efficiency = 0.10
    }
    westernize_the_military = {
        max_general_fire = 1 #YES!
        fire_damage = 0.1
    }
    mediterranean_shipwrights = {
        sea_repair = yes
    }
    crossroads_between_europe_and_africa = {
        global_trade_power = 0.1
    }
}

Reforming Egypt via a national decision will also grant access to these missions, the government reform, and the Westernization mechanic!

As mentioned before, the content showcased here is about half of the content we have in store for the Mamluks, and as such expect more content to be present once you play. The Mamluks are a very fun country to play in with a marvelous position on the map and lots of different ways to play and stuff to do. We hope this content adds to the joy and interest many of us (myself included) have while painting the map with the Mameluke color! Next week [USER]@Ogele[/USER] will come back to present the long-awaited Developer Diary focused on the Byzantine Empire!

Oh look at this! Our weekly chapel comics have returned:


Want to discuss this Dev Diary? Feel free to join our Discord:
https://discord.gg/europauniversalisofficial