[2023] EU4 Dev Diary - King of Kings coming Nov 6! Pre-Order Now!

Hello, and welcome to another EUIV Dev Diary! Today it will be a bit of a different one, as we will be addressing three topics that we think are of the most relevance to the upcoming DLC and update, which are:

• A recap on the list of features that will come in EUIV: King of Kings.
  
• Addressing the questions and some feedback that arose in the last DD.
  
• Presenting you the free features coming in the 1.36 update, which are mostly focused on QoL (Quality of Life) improvements added to the base game, and 8 new monuments added for the Leviathan DLC owners.

But before getting started, let me say a couple of things. The first one is that this DD was prepared with the help of our new Assistant Producer, Dargeths, who in his previous role as Embedded QA, also knows the game very well, with more than 5,000 hours of gameplay in it.

The second one is that today we have opened the Pre-Orders for EUIV: King of Kings, with its release date being revealed: the 6th of November!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2502910/Immersion_Pack__Europa_Universalis_IV_King_of_Kings/

It also comes from a great Trailer made by our Marketing Team:



Now let’s go into the Dev Diary itself. As we’re very excited about the upcoming release, we also want to be super transparent with you when it comes to the content included in this DLC. Because of that, below you can find a summary of all the content this Immersion Pack is going to bring to Europa Universalis IV. Let’s dive country by country, then, including links to the previous DDs:

----------------------------
Persia[forum.paradoxplaza.com]
While not a starting nation in 1444, Persia can be a powerful player on the world stage, when formed. During the Early Modern period, it was historically reunified by the Safavids from Ardabil, so we have made this a more attractive path in the game, with more content and flavor around the historical outcome. However, this is not the only path to a unified Persia. Each of the nations featured in this DLC will come packed with its own unique twist through various unique government reforms, and the religious path to pick will also reflect different gameplay and flavor options.

• New Mission Tree for Persia with 116 Missions in total (77 common Missions, 31 Mission depending on Religion - Sunni, Shiite, Zoroastrian, 8 Missions depending on Origin - Ardabil, post-Timurid, Mazandarani).
  
• New mission tree for Ardabil with 12 Missions.
  
• 2 new government mechanics (‘Persian Influence' for a Muslim Persia, and 'The Three Royal Fires for a Zoroastrian one').
  
• 2 new Estates for Persia, 'Ghilman' and 'Qizilbash', with their own set of agendas and disasters.
  
• 20 new estate privileges.
  
• 6 government reforms.
  
• A new special unit, the ‘Qizilbash’, which can be recruited either as Infantry or as Cavalry units.
  
• 68 new events for Persia.
  
• And even more additional content like Diplomatic Actions, Subject Types, CBs, and Local Organizations.

----------------------------
The Mamluks[forum.paradoxplaza.com]
A realm facing a turbulent period encroached on all sides by enemies wishing to claim Qahirah as their own, the Mamluk Sultanate is slated to experience troubles with their northern territories and the growing power of the Ottomans. Embark on an epic journey to rewrite history, vanquish your foes, and experience brand new flavor for one of the strongest starting Muslim nations!

• New mission tree for the Mamluks with 39 missions.
  
• A new mechanic, 'Egyptian Westernization', either by forming Egypt through the Mamluk Mission Tree, or independently as another Nation.
  
• 7 new government reforms.
  
• 13 new estate privileges.
  
• 1 new Holy Order, 'Kashifs'.
  
• 4 new Naval Doctrines, 'Mamluk Galleys', 'Mamluk Light Ships', 'Mamluk Warships', and 'Mamluk Transports'.
  
• 1 new special unit, 'Mamluks’.
  
• 16 new events.
  
• New hirable Mercenaries, Diplomatic Actions, and Estate Agendas for the Nobility centered around the Mamluk ruling class.

----------------------------
Byzantium[forum.paradoxplaza.com] The Purple Phoenix shall rise again and reclaim not only Byzantium, but the Roman Empire itself. The powers of the West and East proclaim that our era has been over long ago. Defeat them and reclaim our historical rights.

• New mission tree for Byzantium with 55 missions.
  
• 6 new government reforms.
  
• 6 new Estate Privileges.
  
• 57 new events.
  
• 10 new decisions.
  
• A new Type of Subject, ‘Pronoia’.
  
• New Decisions and hireable Mercenaries.

----------------------------
Arabia[forum.paradoxplaza.com] Unify all Arab tribes under a single ruler and claim the caliphate crown to take control of the entire Muslim world from Morocco to Zanzibar.

• New mission tree for Arabia Minors with 34 Missions, making it possible to form Arabia using the Mission Tree.
  
• 1 New Estate Privilege for Arabia.
  
• 9 new events.
  
• A new CB, 'Spread Islam', and a new Decision for Arabia.

----------------------------
Yemen[forum.paradoxplaza.com]
Assert your domination in the south of the Arabian Peninsula and create a Continent-spanning Trade Empire.

• New mission tree for Yemeni Nations with 26 Missions, and 5 extra missions for the Rassids.
  
• 1 new Estate Privilege for Yemen.
  
• 7 new events.

----------------------------
Georgia[forum.paradoxplaza.com]
The situation in the Kingdom of Georgia is dire. Internal struggles are common every few years and external powers are waiting for the opportunity to take our mountain strongholds that protect our land to the mountains. Find a strong leadership to survive and rebuild your dominion over the Caucasus.

• New mission tree for Georgia with 30 missions in total.
  
• 1 new disaster, 'Georgian Crisis', with 4 new related events.
  
• 1 new Estate Privilege, 'Highland Fortifications'.
  
• 7 new events.
  
• Added a New Georgian culture and a new setup for the Georgian area in the base game (free).

----------------------------
Armenia[forum.paradoxplaza.com]
Unite the Armenian people under your rule, and make it rise to greatness among your powerful neighbors, while fully restoring the ancient influence of Church of the East.

• New mission tree for Armenia with 30 missions in total.
  
• 2 new government reforms for Armenia, 'Nakharar Title' and 'Sparapet Office'.
  
• Added 4 new events.

----------------------------
Turkomen[forum.paradoxplaza.com]
As Aq Qoyunlu, take the reins of the White Sheep Tribe and lead the Tribal Federation to new Conquests. Or, as Qara Qoyunlu, the Black Sheep, secure your position in the fertile region of Iraq, and further expand your domain over the rich lands around you.

• New mission trees for Aq Qoyunlu with 31 missions in total.
  
• New mission tree for Qara Qoyunlu with 30 missions in total.
  
• Aq Qoyunlu and Qara Qoyunlu can now access Janissaries and Pashas through the mission tree.
  
• Added 1 new government reform, 'Turkmen Ottoman Institutions'.
  
• Added 2 new Estate Privilege for Turkmen Tribes, 'Emirs of Baghdad' and 'Great Works of Iran'
  
• 11 new events
  
• Added the Turco-Iranian culture in the base game (free).

----------------------------
Flavour Content

• 32 New Unit Sprites.
  
  • 4 new units for Cyprus.
    
  • 4 new units for Trebizond.
    
  • 4 new units for Karaman.
    
  • 4 new units for Israel.
    
  • 4 new units for Tlemcen.
    
  • 4 new units for Syria.
    
  • 4 new units for Armenia.
    
  • 4 new units for Georgia.
• 3 New Music Packs, with 12 new songs.
  
  • Music pack with 4 new songs of Persian flavor.
    
  • Music pack with 4 new songs of Egyptian flavor.
    
  • Music pack with 4 new songs of Caucasian flavor.

----------------------------
Now that we’ve presented you with the full content of the upcoming DLC, let’s continue with the design philosophy, and some numbers behind it, as a direct answer to the feedback we received last week.

Our benchmark for King of Kings was Lions of the North, both on the quantitative and qualitative scopes. So after diving a bit into the numbers of each of these DLCs, we are happy to say that we have created more content in KoK in terms of total Missions, Estate Privileges and Estates-related content, Government Reforms, Government Mechanics, Miscellaneous Content, and Songs, while we’re at similar numbers in Events and Sprite Models. And this just focuses on the ‘main content’, and not counting on what we term as ‘miscellaneous content’, like new types of Subjects, Diplomatic Actions, Holy Orders, etc. So, what you may notice here is that in the rough numbers of content assets created, both Immersion Packs are not only comparable, but in most of the aspects KoK is the DLC having more, which is something that we desired to achieve.

But another topic we want to tackle is the design direction. A lot of you have pointed out that there are a few countries that are much-loved by the community that are not receiving content in this DLC. We had to make design decisions on which countries to cover, and which not, in order to deliver this new DLC spending a comparable amount of time in its development to LotN; thus, we decided to focus on some selected countries rather than spreading ourselves thin over more, to make sure that we could deliver content for the chosen ones with a higher level of quality. Persia, which is the most important country of the expansion, is probably the best example, as we created a wide range of possible gameplays coming from very different origins, making it one the most replayable countries in the game, if not the most.

Does this mean that we aren’t going to work on Middle East countries anymore? Not at all! We have read a lot of content requests and suggestions for countries like:

• The Timurids
  
• The Mughals
  
• The Central Asian Hordes
  
• Hisn Kayfa
  
• Oman/Hormuz
  
• Trebizond

I’m allowed to tell you that many of these are likely to receive content in 2024, as we’re already planning our pipeline for next year; therefore, KoK/1.36 won’t be the last opportunity for them to get content. Also, these aren’t the only countries that will receive content in 2024… But I’m not yet allowed to further disclose our future plans, I’m sorry to say.

----------------------------
Let’s speak now about the quality of the content itself, which was a different focus from that of quantity. First of all, we were busy early on in the development process with the fixing of Domination post-release bugs; we’re happy to say that over 100 of them are fixed in the 1.36 free update, which will increase the overall quality of the last DLC. We’ve also implemented some of the new features, like the Branching Missions buttons, in countries such as the Teutonic and the Livonian Order. But that was on the Content Design Team, and they aren’t the only ones working on this project. Our Programmers have been busy as well, not only fixing bugs, but also working on the game’s performance - which won’t be worse compared to 1.35 on most of the PCs, and will most likely be better on a number of them, although we prefer to be cautious about this -, and on new Quality of Life improvements for the base game, as well as increasing the modding possibilities of the game, which I’ll comment now in detail.

First, it is now possible to transfer the control of multiple provinces by SHIFT-Left Clicking the controlled provinces and transferring them to another war participant.




Then a feature that will be appreciated by all of the players who love to see their own religion’s name big on the map, Autonomous Missionaries finally making their way into the game (yay!):



A few new alerts which have been requested by the community for quite some time:



Note: Modders can decide which state edicts should have an alert and when.


Some small improvement for your blobbing campaigns:



For all of our spreadsheet enthusiasts, the pie charts now show the development part in the ledger too:



For those who like to play with Mercenaries in their armies, they now merge units even if they have Mercenaries in the mix (mercs do not merge with other mercs though):



You can now sort provinces if you can in- or decrease their autonomy:



And for those who are sick of AI building churches in every province. If you select a building in the macro builder and right-click a province that has this building present already, you will instantly destroy it instead:



Now for the modding part: the biggest addition to 1.36 is the ability to add custom, functional UI buttons. One example has been shown in the form of the “Preview Mission Branch” as these buttons are fully scriptable. For those wondering how it is done, here is the surface magic (a lot of scripted effects and triggers here):

custom_button = {
name = select_current_branch_missions
potential = {
ai = no #make sure the AI gets an event or something similar where they can choose their branch the moment these buttons get unlocked for the player
has_branching_missions = yes
has_preview_mission_flag = yes
}
trigger = { has_selected_a_branch = yes }
effect = { select_current_branch = yes }
tooltip = select_current_branch_missions_title
}

And in the .gui file:

guiButtonType = {
name = "select_current_branch_missions"
position = { x = 545 y = 80 }
quadTextureSprite ="GFX_select_current_missions_button"
scripted = yes
}

This is just a very small example of what could be done, and I am looking forward to the very creative buttons and mechanics added via the custom buttons. Here is the readme file to give you an idea how the script works:

# The custom guiButtonType/instantTextBoxType/iconType must have a 'scripted = yes' line to work
#custom_button = {
# name = custom_button_testing #Must match a scripted guiButtonType in a .gui file
# potential = { } #Determines when the button is visible
# trigger = { } #Determines when the button is clickable
# effect = { } #Effect
# tooltip = localisation_key #Can use customizable localisation
# frame = { #Can define multiple frame clauses
# number = <int> #Which frame to use. Check dds files with multiple icons like icon_religion.dds
# trigger = { } #First matched frame clause will be used.
# }
#}


#custom_text_box = {
# name = custom_text_testing #Must match a scripted instantTextBoxType in a .gui file
# potential = { } #Determines when the text is visible
# tooltip = localisation_key #Can use customizable localisation
# #To localize it, use the name of the button as a key, can also use customizable localisation
#}


#custom_icon = {
# name = custom_icon_testing #Must match a scripted iconType in a .gui file
# potential = { } #Determines when the icon is visible
# tooltip = localisation_key #Can use customizable localisation
# frame = { #Can define multiple frame clauses
# number = <int> #Which frame to use. Check dds files with multiple icons like icon_religion.dds
# trigger = { } #First matched frame clause will be used.
# }
#}


#custom_shield = {
# name = custom_button_testing #Must match a scripted guiButtonType in a .gui file
# potential = { } #Determines when the shield is visible
# trigger = { } #Determines when the shield is clickable
# effect = { } #Effect for clicking
# tooltip = localisation_key #Can use customizable localisation
# global_event_target = <string> # Global event target name
# open_country = <bool> #If clicking opens the country view
#}


############################## Supported files with scopes ##############################
# The Gui objects must be directly inside the specified window Gui element!
# FROM is always the country that clicks
# provinceview.gui:
# province_window (ROOT: Clicked province)
# buildings_window (ROOT: Clicked province)
# state_window (ROOT: Clicked province)
# countrycourtview.gui:
# countrycourtview (ROOT = FROM)
# countrygovernmentview.gui:
# countrygovernmentview (ROOT = FROM)
# countrydiplomacyview.gui:
# countrydiplimacyview (ROOT: Selected country)
# countryeconomyview.gui:
# countryeconomyview (ROOT = FROM)
# countrytradeview.gui:
# countrytradeview (ROOT = FROM)
# countrytechnologyview.gui:
# countrytechnologyview (ROOT = FROM)
# countryideasview.gui:
# countryideasview (ROOT = FROM)
# countrymissionsview.gui:
# countrymissionsview (ROOT: Selected country)
# countrydecisionview.gui:
# countrydecisionsview (ROOT = FROM)
# countrystabilityview.gui:
# countrystabilityview (ROOT = FROM)
# countryreligionview.gui:
# countryreligionview (ROOT = FROM)
# countrymilitaryview.gui:
# countrymilitaryview (ROOT = FROM)
# countrysubjectsview.gui:
# countrysubjectview (ROOT = FROM)
# countryestatesview.gui:
# countryestatesview (ROOT = FROM)
# ages_view.gui:
# ages_view (ROOT = FROM)
# tradeinterface.gui:
# TradeNodeInterface (ROOT: Trade capital of a trade node)
# hre.gui:
# hre_window (ROOT = FROM)
# papacy.gui:
# papacy_window (ROOT = FROM)
# faction.gui:
# All faction windows (ROOT = FROM)
# celestialempireview.gui:
# celestial_window (ROOT = FROM)
# countrynativesview.gui:
# natives_window (ROOT = FROM)
# religiousreforms.gui:
# reforms_window (ROOT = FROM)
# parliament.gui:
# parliament_window (ROOT = FROM)
So in the end when you add a new button you will have this connection at the end:



----------------------------
Now let’s move into the final part of the DD, which is some content that we are adding to previous DLCs: the new Monuments for Leviathan owners! We have added 7 new Great Projects around the Middle East region, which we’re now presenting as well (all shown at their Tier 3 level):

Golestan Palace, in Teheran:



Al-Azhar University, in Qahirah:


Note: We rebalanced the Pyramid to not overlap with the Idea cost of the new monument, and now they grant +1 Yearly Government Power, All Estate Loyalty Equilibrium +5%, -1% Prestige Decay, and no Stability Loss on Monarch Death, at Tier 3.

City of Sana’a, in Sana’a:



Tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam, in Multan:



Nizwa Fort, in Nizwa:



Itchan Kala, in Khiva:




Narikala Fortress, in Tbilisi:



Kazan Kremlin, in Kazan:


Note: the monument has always the same type of modifiers, but they are set to Province/Area/Region in Tier 1/2/3.

This is all for today. I have to say on behalf of PDX Tinto that we’re very excited about the upcoming content in King of Kings, and also with the free 1.36 update, and we really hope that you can enjoy and have fun with it, as we’ve put a lot of effort into it, as usual. Because of this, we wanted to be as transparent as possible with you in this Dev Diary, and answer directly to the comments and feedback that we received after last week’s one. We will be very much open to further answering follow-up questions, as this DD is the proper place to do it.

And what’s coming next? First, my fellow colleague Pintu (who will soon join the ranks of the Content Design Team from his previous role as Embedded QA), and I will be playing and commenting on the new content with BjornB; this will be on the Paradox Twitch account[www.twitch.tv] on Wednesday at 16:00. And next week, SaintDaveUK, our Art Lead, will present the Art for King of Kings, while the new Achievements will be presented by Pintu. See you!

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.