Developer Diary - Tsardom of Russia
Author: indiefoldcreator
Date:
Mon, 27 Mar 2023
Game: Europa Universalis IV
Genre:
Simulation, Strategy
Developer: Paradox Development Studio
Release Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2013
Developer: Paradox Development Studio
Release Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2013
Privet! Welcome to this week’s Dev Diary, which is all about Russia. The last time Russia saw any big changes was with the release of “Third Rome” in 1.22 and the addition of their mission tree in 1.26. Ever since not a lot has happened there. 1.35 will change this as we are revisiting this region and updating it so it can keep up with Scandinavia, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottomans.
All numbers and art you see here are not final.
So let’s take a look at what we have for Russia!
The mission tree for Russia is split into two sections: the one you currently see is the Muscovite section, while the mission “Found the Tsardom” updates your tree with the actual Russian part. As Muscovy is the major player in this region, I have decided to focus first and foremost on their update, which is why we have this part here.
However, the Russia mission tree you get when forming Russia looks a bit different - depending on who you form Russia with.
The mission tree when you form Russia as Muscovy.
The mission tree when you form Russia as Novgorod.
Note: The mission tree is a bit outdated as your trade missions will focus on monopolizing the East and steer all the trade to Novgorod instead of competing with Western Europe.
When you form Russia as neither Muscovy nor Novgorod then you get a slightly altered Muscovite version of the tree with the top right mission being the following one:
With that out of the way, let us dive into the main protagonist of the region, which is Muscovy.
The Pre-Russian missions are all conquest-related missions for Russia. Here you get claims on the historical borders of the Russian Empire, but also very ambitious ideas for regions Imperial Russia was interested in. Regions like Ruthenia, the Baltic region, and Poland, but also regions like Scandinavia and the northern parts of Persia are included.
An interesting mission would be the early “Rally the Army” mission, as this will define what kind of Russia you want to play:
Note: the -15% Core-Creation Cost is added to offset the fact that Permanent Claims have -25% Core-Creation Cost compared to normal claims with their -10%. Due to the mass of permanent claims given away through mission trees, we are considering nerfing the Core-Creation Cost of permanent claims to -10% and removing this modifier from Russia.
But before we make a decision, we would like to hear the community out first.
As you can see, you have the option to abandon all Permanent Claims in exchange for temporary ones and a buff that allows you to fabricate new ones easier - a modifier that synergies really well with the “Claim State” diplomatic action of the Tsardom. Of course, you are not forced to do it and can still go with the permanent claims from the first option.
Another highlight would be the “Conquest of Finland” mission as it fires the following event:
Owners of Lions of the North DLC are able to get an experimental reward from the mission “Slay the Lion of the North” if they decide to release Finland as a subject country:
Note: There is a tooltip bug. What you actually get are Caroleans, not Cawa if you decide against releasing Finland.
As for the other conquest-related missions, they are quite grounded. The “Third Rome” related missions have been integrated from the old mission tree into the new one. There is one highlight to be mentioned though with the mission “Protect the South Slavs”. You can complete it by… liberating the Slavs of the Balkans from the Ottomans. As a reward you will be able to form the Slavic culture group, unifying all Slavs into one cohesive culture group:
Other missions worth mentioning are “March into the Caucasus” and “Beyond the Caspian Sea” as both missions can be completed by having an Orthodox ally in the Caucasus fulfilling the requirements.
As you might have noticed, the missions which have “Dynamic Mission Rewards” now have an indicator in the form of a red cross or a green checkmark that shows which of the rewards you will get when you complete this mission. A common issue reported from 1.34 was the lack of readability of mission rewards and triggers, and while I prefer to avoid the “grocery lists”, sometimes they are a necessary evil.
Because of that, I have decided to work out this system which can be very useful when you have such switch-case mission rewards:
This mission is the worst offender of the “grocery lists” rewards in the Russian missions.
Finally, you have of course the classical “Colonize Siberia” missions, which then expand into colonizing North America. In order to make colonizing North America actually a worthwhile endeavor, the trade flow of North America has been adjusted:
The trade from Rio Grande and Hudson Bay now flows into California, which itself can flow into the Girin Trade Node.
And before you ask for it: No, there will not be dynamic trade in EU4. Period.
Now back to Muscovy. When you start as them you will be greeted with the following event:
Historically, Muscovy was still a tributary state of the Hordes in 1444 and only stopped sending tribute to the Tatars in 1476. Instead of letting Muscovy start as a tributary state of the Great Horde, I have decided to portray their relationship in the form of this modifier instead as an actual tributary relationship has led to a lot fewer Russias in the game.
While you get the negative version of the modifier, the Sarai province gets a triggered modifier which benefits its horde owner:
While this modifier is active you have to pay an annual tribute to the owner of Sarai:
The Great Horde will receive exactly this amount of Ducats if you decide to pay.
However, if you decide to not pay the tribute then this event will fire for the Great Horde:
In order to end this relationship you must ensure that a non-horde country owns Sarai.
Once the Tatar Yoke has been broken, it cannot be restored.
While the Tatar Yoke is one early struggle, Muscovy has to face another one in form of the Muscovite Civil War, which is caused by a dispute for the throne between Vasily II - your starting ruler - and Dmitry Shemiaka, the last of Yury’s three sons and cousin of Vasily.
As it is the final phase of the Muscovite Civil War, I decided to portray it through a very small flavor event chain instead of an outright disaster:
This was for the Muscovy part of the content. Before we go into the matters of Russia, we take a look at the Novgorodian part first. As I mentioned earlier, if you form Russia as Novgorod your mission tree will be slightly altered as it does not make much sense for you to be asked to “Conquer Novgorod” while you originally started as Novgorod.
While Monarchical Russia puts a great emphasis on the idea of a “Third Rome”, Republican Russia aims for commercial dominance in Europe. As such your missions are less about conquering your way to the Balkans but instead focusing on monopolizing the trade of Eastern Europe for yourself. “Compete with the Channel” is the penultimate end to it with a neat +25 permanent Power Projection as a reward.
With that being said, let us continue with the missions of a unified Russia. While the top part is heavily focused on conquest, the lower part is about the internal affairs of Russia. Missions like “Enact the Sudebnik” and “Book of Royal Degrees” concern themselves with administrative reforms in Russia. “Handle the Boyars” and “Abolish the Mestnichestvo” are about your nobility and how you should get rid of your starting estate privilege.
Note: Right now, the privilege can be finished on day one, but this will be covered during the development.
Another part of the internal affairs is related to Vodka (which was historically a big part of Russian society and the Tsar’s way to keep his people pacified) and the peasantry, represented by the missions “The Vodka Monopoly” and “The Fate of the Peasantry” - more to the peasants of Russia later.
Finally, a mission about the Patriarchate which upgrades your “Consecrate Metropolitan” ability.
One of the more impactful missions regarding your special unit is “Recruit the Streltsy” as its reward is an event that can turn your Streltsy into a parallel version of the Janissaries:
With every new ruler, your Streltsy will demand their payment once again.
Note: should you lose your ability to recruit Streltsy in any way, shape or form then this event will no longer fire.
The final mission of the Tsardom missions of Russia is the “Great Imperial Ambitions” which can only be completed if you finish modernizing your country.
And, well, here I should address the elephant in the room. As you have seen, some rewards give something called “Modernization”. This is part of the new mechanic unique to Russia:
Note: The UI and the modifiers it gives are still very much in work in progress. As you might have noticed, there are a few issues with it like our +- Modernization gain.
Modernization is a measurement of how much your country has westernized. You gain modernization from having more than 50% Crown Land, from embracing institutions 10 years after they have been unlocked, from Innovativeness (for now, I want to move this to a new “Ahead of Time” static modifier), from Advisors which are NOT from your culture group scaling with their skill level, from your ruler’s administrative abilities and from positive relations with countries which either have researched more technologies than you OR a great power of the Western Technology group.
The “Grand Embassy” event chain (which triggers have been updated in order for it to fire more frequently) gives a huge boost to Modernization too.
However, you lose Modernization on a base level as well as from every estate privilege you give away. This is especially the case if you give the Nobles or the Cossacks privileges while the Burghers or the Clergy have a lot less negative impact on Modernization. Having obsolete buildings which are not up to your technology as well as having any kind of instability, corruption, inflation, and disaster reduces modernization.
This is especially noticeable during the Times of Trouble.
I keep myself a bit vague with the sources of Modernization and how the actual numbers will play out as this is still in development and some ideas might have to be replaced with others. The aim is to recreate the necessary feeling that your country has potential for greatness, yet is stuck with outdated traditions which hinder you to reach said greatness until you get rid of these troublemakers.
So, what do you get from handling modernization? You will be able to enact the following decision when you reach 90% Modernization, be one of the great powers and have humiliated one of your rivals.
Of course, there is a Republican version of this mechanic and event too!
Unlocking the new government reform also gives you access to the Imperial Russian missions and a cosmetic goodie:
Note: ONLY your tech group gets changed to Western, NOT your units. They get updated with a later mission.
With the new government reform, you get a new mechanic which replaces the Modernization mechanic: the Russian Rule.
Note: right now they are just bars, I am currently thinking of ways of making them a bit more interactive, but I figured I should still mention them anyway.
These bars represent the different directions Russia went historically depending on what kind of ruler they had. Somebody like Catherine the Great would have a high rule while Peter III would be… not so beneficial for the state in comparison.
With every new ruler, these bars reset to 0, though they are still subject to further changes.
With that being said, let us continue with the mission tree once again. With the formation of the Russian Empire, you get access to the following missions:
Note: right now they are just bars, I am currently thinking of ways of making them a bit more interactive, but I figured I should still mention them anyway.
These bars represent the different directions Russia went historically depending on what kind of ruler they had. Somebody like Catherine the Great would have a high rule while Peter III would be… not so beneficial for the state in comparison.
With every new ruler, these bars reset to 0, though they are still subject to further changes.
With that being said, let us continue with the mission tree once again. With the formation of the Russian Empire, you get access to the following missions:
Highlights here are the missions "Westernize the Military", “The Governing Senate”, and “Pass the Issues”.
As the name implies, "Westernize the Military" will update your unit type to the Western Tech group, though you need to win 40 battles (starting counting after the mission "Handle the Streltsy", reach 80 Army Tradition and 90% Army Professionalism)
Completing “The Governing Senate” gives you access to two unique government reforms - though you can only pick one of the two:
Note: Modifiers are not final.
While the Governing Senate has the classic parliament, Enforced Autocracy changes the way you can interact with your estates.
Note: Depending on feedback, this could become a default thing for all countries at a certain government tier. At least this suggestion reached me within the office, but I am curious what you think of it.
“Pass the Issues” has a reward that synergies with the reform you have chosen prior.
If you complete the mission “Great Power of the East” then you will be able to unlock the very final missions of Russia during the Age of Revolutions:
The highlight is +5% Administrative Efficiency and Revolutionary Zeal / Max Absolutism from the final mission.
That was it for the mission tree part, but I am not done quite yet.
Next to the mission tree, Russia has received a bunch of new flavor events too!
Note: Yes, I am aware of the missing localization in the effect section. It has been fixed after the DD has been finished.
And of course, a whole event chain related to the peasantry of Russia - and its unfortunate fate.
One of your early missions as Russia will require you to enact one of the two privileges to the Nobility: “Early Serfdom” and “Increased Peasant Freedom” which would be the alt historical path for the peasantry to take.
For the sake of the dev diary, I will showcase the Serfdom path.
In order to get rid of this privilege for good you need to complete the mission “Abolish the Serfdom” in the Revolutionary part of the mission tree.
That was it for today. I thank you all for your attention! Next week we will focus on Western Europe with PDX Big Boss as we take a closer look at the content for France!
Another special episode of Chapel Comic:
All numbers and art you see here are not final.
So let’s take a look at what we have for Russia!
The mission tree for Russia is split into two sections: the one you currently see is the Muscovite section, while the mission “Found the Tsardom” updates your tree with the actual Russian part. As Muscovy is the major player in this region, I have decided to focus first and foremost on their update, which is why we have this part here.
However, the Russia mission tree you get when forming Russia looks a bit different - depending on who you form Russia with.
The mission tree when you form Russia as Muscovy.
The mission tree when you form Russia as Novgorod.
Note: The mission tree is a bit outdated as your trade missions will focus on monopolizing the East and steer all the trade to Novgorod instead of competing with Western Europe.
When you form Russia as neither Muscovy nor Novgorod then you get a slightly altered Muscovite version of the tree with the top right mission being the following one:
With that out of the way, let us dive into the main protagonist of the region, which is Muscovy.
The Pre-Russian missions are all conquest-related missions for Russia. Here you get claims on the historical borders of the Russian Empire, but also very ambitious ideas for regions Imperial Russia was interested in. Regions like Ruthenia, the Baltic region, and Poland, but also regions like Scandinavia and the northern parts of Persia are included.
An interesting mission would be the early “Rally the Army” mission, as this will define what kind of Russia you want to play:
Note: the -15% Core-Creation Cost is added to offset the fact that Permanent Claims have -25% Core-Creation Cost compared to normal claims with their -10%. Due to the mass of permanent claims given away through mission trees, we are considering nerfing the Core-Creation Cost of permanent claims to -10% and removing this modifier from Russia.
But before we make a decision, we would like to hear the community out first.
As you can see, you have the option to abandon all Permanent Claims in exchange for temporary ones and a buff that allows you to fabricate new ones easier - a modifier that synergies really well with the “Claim State” diplomatic action of the Tsardom. Of course, you are not forced to do it and can still go with the permanent claims from the first option.
Another highlight would be the “Conquest of Finland” mission as it fires the following event:
Owners of Lions of the North DLC are able to get an experimental reward from the mission “Slay the Lion of the North” if they decide to release Finland as a subject country:
Note: There is a tooltip bug. What you actually get are Caroleans, not Cawa if you decide against releasing Finland.
As for the other conquest-related missions, they are quite grounded. The “Third Rome” related missions have been integrated from the old mission tree into the new one. There is one highlight to be mentioned though with the mission “Protect the South Slavs”. You can complete it by… liberating the Slavs of the Balkans from the Ottomans. As a reward you will be able to form the Slavic culture group, unifying all Slavs into one cohesive culture group:
Other missions worth mentioning are “March into the Caucasus” and “Beyond the Caspian Sea” as both missions can be completed by having an Orthodox ally in the Caucasus fulfilling the requirements.
As you might have noticed, the missions which have “Dynamic Mission Rewards” now have an indicator in the form of a red cross or a green checkmark that shows which of the rewards you will get when you complete this mission. A common issue reported from 1.34 was the lack of readability of mission rewards and triggers, and while I prefer to avoid the “grocery lists”, sometimes they are a necessary evil.
Because of that, I have decided to work out this system which can be very useful when you have such switch-case mission rewards:
This mission is the worst offender of the “grocery lists” rewards in the Russian missions.
Finally, you have of course the classical “Colonize Siberia” missions, which then expand into colonizing North America. In order to make colonizing North America actually a worthwhile endeavor, the trade flow of North America has been adjusted:
The trade from Rio Grande and Hudson Bay now flows into California, which itself can flow into the Girin Trade Node.
And before you ask for it: No, there will not be dynamic trade in EU4. Period.
Now back to Muscovy. When you start as them you will be greeted with the following event:
Historically, Muscovy was still a tributary state of the Hordes in 1444 and only stopped sending tribute to the Tatars in 1476. Instead of letting Muscovy start as a tributary state of the Great Horde, I have decided to portray their relationship in the form of this modifier instead as an actual tributary relationship has led to a lot fewer Russias in the game.
While you get the negative version of the modifier, the Sarai province gets a triggered modifier which benefits its horde owner:
While this modifier is active you have to pay an annual tribute to the owner of Sarai:
The Great Horde will receive exactly this amount of Ducats if you decide to pay.
However, if you decide to not pay the tribute then this event will fire for the Great Horde:
In order to end this relationship you must ensure that a non-horde country owns Sarai.
Once the Tatar Yoke has been broken, it cannot be restored.
While the Tatar Yoke is one early struggle, Muscovy has to face another one in form of the Muscovite Civil War, which is caused by a dispute for the throne between Vasily II - your starting ruler - and Dmitry Shemiaka, the last of Yury’s three sons and cousin of Vasily.
As it is the final phase of the Muscovite Civil War, I decided to portray it through a very small flavor event chain instead of an outright disaster:
This was for the Muscovy part of the content. Before we go into the matters of Russia, we take a look at the Novgorodian part first. As I mentioned earlier, if you form Russia as Novgorod your mission tree will be slightly altered as it does not make much sense for you to be asked to “Conquer Novgorod” while you originally started as Novgorod.
While Monarchical Russia puts a great emphasis on the idea of a “Third Rome”, Republican Russia aims for commercial dominance in Europe. As such your missions are less about conquering your way to the Balkans but instead focusing on monopolizing the trade of Eastern Europe for yourself. “Compete with the Channel” is the penultimate end to it with a neat +25 permanent Power Projection as a reward.
With that being said, let us continue with the missions of a unified Russia. While the top part is heavily focused on conquest, the lower part is about the internal affairs of Russia. Missions like “Enact the Sudebnik” and “Book of Royal Degrees” concern themselves with administrative reforms in Russia. “Handle the Boyars” and “Abolish the Mestnichestvo” are about your nobility and how you should get rid of your starting estate privilege.
Note: Right now, the privilege can be finished on day one, but this will be covered during the development.
Another part of the internal affairs is related to Vodka (which was historically a big part of Russian society and the Tsar’s way to keep his people pacified) and the peasantry, represented by the missions “The Vodka Monopoly” and “The Fate of the Peasantry” - more to the peasants of Russia later.
Finally, a mission about the Patriarchate which upgrades your “Consecrate Metropolitan” ability.
One of the more impactful missions regarding your special unit is “Recruit the Streltsy” as its reward is an event that can turn your Streltsy into a parallel version of the Janissaries:
With every new ruler, your Streltsy will demand their payment once again.
Note: should you lose your ability to recruit Streltsy in any way, shape or form then this event will no longer fire.
The final mission of the Tsardom missions of Russia is the “Great Imperial Ambitions” which can only be completed if you finish modernizing your country.
And, well, here I should address the elephant in the room. As you have seen, some rewards give something called “Modernization”. This is part of the new mechanic unique to Russia:
Note: The UI and the modifiers it gives are still very much in work in progress. As you might have noticed, there are a few issues with it like our +- Modernization gain.
Modernization is a measurement of how much your country has westernized. You gain modernization from having more than 50% Crown Land, from embracing institutions 10 years after they have been unlocked, from Innovativeness (for now, I want to move this to a new “Ahead of Time” static modifier), from Advisors which are NOT from your culture group scaling with their skill level, from your ruler’s administrative abilities and from positive relations with countries which either have researched more technologies than you OR a great power of the Western Technology group.
The “Grand Embassy” event chain (which triggers have been updated in order for it to fire more frequently) gives a huge boost to Modernization too.
However, you lose Modernization on a base level as well as from every estate privilege you give away. This is especially the case if you give the Nobles or the Cossacks privileges while the Burghers or the Clergy have a lot less negative impact on Modernization. Having obsolete buildings which are not up to your technology as well as having any kind of instability, corruption, inflation, and disaster reduces modernization.
This is especially noticeable during the Times of Trouble.
I keep myself a bit vague with the sources of Modernization and how the actual numbers will play out as this is still in development and some ideas might have to be replaced with others. The aim is to recreate the necessary feeling that your country has potential for greatness, yet is stuck with outdated traditions which hinder you to reach said greatness until you get rid of these troublemakers.
So, what do you get from handling modernization? You will be able to enact the following decision when you reach 90% Modernization, be one of the great powers and have humiliated one of your rivals.
Of course, there is a Republican version of this mechanic and event too!
Unlocking the new government reform also gives you access to the Imperial Russian missions and a cosmetic goodie:
Note: ONLY your tech group gets changed to Western, NOT your units. They get updated with a later mission.
With the new government reform, you get a new mechanic which replaces the Modernization mechanic: the Russian Rule.
Note: right now they are just bars, I am currently thinking of ways of making them a bit more interactive, but I figured I should still mention them anyway.
These bars represent the different directions Russia went historically depending on what kind of ruler they had. Somebody like Catherine the Great would have a high rule while Peter III would be… not so beneficial for the state in comparison.
With every new ruler, these bars reset to 0, though they are still subject to further changes.
With that being said, let us continue with the mission tree once again. With the formation of the Russian Empire, you get access to the following missions:
Note: right now they are just bars, I am currently thinking of ways of making them a bit more interactive, but I figured I should still mention them anyway.
These bars represent the different directions Russia went historically depending on what kind of ruler they had. Somebody like Catherine the Great would have a high rule while Peter III would be… not so beneficial for the state in comparison.
With every new ruler, these bars reset to 0, though they are still subject to further changes.
With that being said, let us continue with the mission tree once again. With the formation of the Russian Empire, you get access to the following missions:
Highlights here are the missions "Westernize the Military", “The Governing Senate”, and “Pass the Issues”.
As the name implies, "Westernize the Military" will update your unit type to the Western Tech group, though you need to win 40 battles (starting counting after the mission "Handle the Streltsy", reach 80 Army Tradition and 90% Army Professionalism)
Completing “The Governing Senate” gives you access to two unique government reforms - though you can only pick one of the two:
Note: Modifiers are not final.
While the Governing Senate has the classic parliament, Enforced Autocracy changes the way you can interact with your estates.
Note: Depending on feedback, this could become a default thing for all countries at a certain government tier. At least this suggestion reached me within the office, but I am curious what you think of it.
“Pass the Issues” has a reward that synergies with the reform you have chosen prior.
If you complete the mission “Great Power of the East” then you will be able to unlock the very final missions of Russia during the Age of Revolutions:
The highlight is +5% Administrative Efficiency and Revolutionary Zeal / Max Absolutism from the final mission.
That was it for the mission tree part, but I am not done quite yet.
Next to the mission tree, Russia has received a bunch of new flavor events too!
Note: Yes, I am aware of the missing localization in the effect section. It has been fixed after the DD has been finished.
And of course, a whole event chain related to the peasantry of Russia - and its unfortunate fate.
One of your early missions as Russia will require you to enact one of the two privileges to the Nobility: “Early Serfdom” and “Increased Peasant Freedom” which would be the alt historical path for the peasantry to take.
For the sake of the dev diary, I will showcase the Serfdom path.
In order to get rid of this privilege for good you need to complete the mission “Abolish the Serfdom” in the Revolutionary part of the mission tree.
That was it for today. I thank you all for your attention! Next week we will focus on Western Europe with PDX Big Boss as we take a closer look at the content for France!
Another special episode of Chapel Comic:
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