Working on adding and correcting a few missions and events. The weirdest thing right now is probably raw volatility from the minors. But I have seen Zenata collapse from a 15 province empire to an annexed state in a matter of months. Occitania, Sweden and southern Russia are anybody's game.
On the plus side, Castille and León usually get a nice dynamism going. And the emperorship usually hops between Austria, Bohemia, Brandenburg and Poland (at least in the first 150 years). I've still spent time adding and fixing bugs that crop up in the first 100 years (still looking into Kayne's 'phantom cardinals from nonexistent countries' bug and hoping it's just a flag or localization error).
Rex proposes options! We're still working on it, we're just slow!
China Syndrome
So our Mongols were pretty ineffective (this is why we have so many random states and a different culture north of the Black Sea). In the East, we have some choices. In the 1350s and 1360s ethnic Han Chinese revolted against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. This new Chinese country became the Ming dynasty, one of the most (individually) prosperous and orderly Chinese states, which would last over 250 years.
We can:
1. Weaken the Ming and give some of their lands to the Mongol Khanate, or Qirat Horde - implying the Mongol Hordes directed their efforts East instead of West)
2. Strengthen the Ming with either A. additional tech research speed, or B. money and resources - implying the Chinese got to capitalize off of Mongol failures in the West.
3. Fracture the Ming a bit (possibly with something like Manchu) off the bat. This could be because individual ethnicities began fighting in China with a Mongol power vacuum (let's say similar to a Three Kingdoms period China), or because the Mongol (Yuan) overlords are having a civil war with the potential Ming successor state (i.e. the Ming rebellion happens about 40-50 years later than it historically did).
4. Leave it as is.
Scramble for Africa
Ebum has expressed the desire to limit African colonisation. I can artificially assist this by increasing the ferocity of African natives and potentially including additional modifiers or events that make African colonisation closer to the edge of impossible (or just more difficult). The real scramble for Africa happened in the late 1800s, although many European powers had token 'trading posts' well before then). So we can:
1. Limit countries to [x] number of African colonies with A. a soft limit, or B. a hard limit (i.e. 3 colonies and the rest will fail).
2. Increase native ferocity and/or pop count to add a fairly organic means of keeping people out (unless they decide to march in with guns and bombs).
3. Hope to rely on the diminished colonists and time difference for colonisation and leave it as it is modded.
(I can try to limit European activity in India as well if desired)
Carolingian Persistence
So we've got 350 years of history behind us. EU3 has a fairly robust event system (easier to randomly pop events than Vicky or HOI2, anyway). I can add in events that harken back to our humble beginnings (that I would probably preface with "The Carolingian Dynasty" or something in the event text so people know to screencap the non-standard happenings).
This could include things like:
1. a sect of William's heretical followers (the good stat guy who didn't get to be king)
2. events regarding the beatification of various kings
3. Louis' writings become a popular book across the land
4. Threats from descendents of antiquated French kings
etc. (open to ideas)
That Holiest of Unholy Empires
So we want to prevent the HRE from becoming a unified solid state (at least until a proclamation of a German state or two in Vicky). This is fairly easy to do by just chopping off the end of the events. Where to chop is the question (I would recommend option 3 here (hereditary emperors, but not able to make the whole HRE vassals).
1. End the chain before Ewiger Landfriede (invalidates CBs within the HRE)
2. End the chain before Proclaim Erbkaisertum (emperorship becomes hereditary)
3. End the chain before Revoke the Privilegia (HRE members become vassals)
4. End the chain before Renovatio Imperii (emperor becomes newly declared HRE nation)
Also, does anyone want a couple additional random choices for the emperor to institute instead? Things like stopping all wars in the empire at the moment, or instituting trade agreements and the like?
Vote!
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
China Syndrome: 3 (I love RotTK, and I like the idea of a power vacuum causing all kinds of brush fires to start up.)
Scramble for Africa: 2 (Tougher natives are organic, and hard caps are ... gamey. Let people fight for Africa if they want it.)
Carolingian Persistence: Fantastic idea! This is one of the best ... homages? ... to the earlier game that you could implement. I wish I knew the game better to make more suggestions here.
That Holiest of Unholy Empires: I don't know the game well enough to make a rational suggestion. Additional options for "Things I Can Declare in My Empire" is a good idea.
Also minor edit for that list: I meant Alexander for the writings, not Louis. My personal leanings are 1, 2, yes and 3.
And if anyone has missions/events/decisions they'd like to potentially see, you can send me a PM with the basic idea and I can look into how it fits in with what we've got going on now and its possible implementation.
And since puns are totally awesome, I cannot let this go unnoticed:
Phantom cardinals? Probably caused by the Holy Spirit.
Also:
Europa Universalis III: Complete and Heir to the Throne
are $6.00 on Steam until January 27th.
If you don't have it, buy it. It's totally worth six bucks.
Check out EU3 Complete ($4.00) and Heir to the Throne ($2.00) in the store.
EU3: Complete contains Napoleon's Ambition and In Nomine. The succession game is using EU3+NA+IN+HTTT, so if you spend the six dollars you'll be set (aside from needing the beta patch and the mod).
Note that you cannot revert to previous versions of DLC through Steam, so if you plan on getting Divine Wind through Steam too you'll want to duplicate your EU3 directory with HTTT installed before you buy DW.
3. Fracture the Ming a bit (possibly with something like Manchu) off the bat. This could be because individual ethnicities began fighting in China with a Mongol power vacuum (let's say similar to a Three Kingdoms period China), or because the Mongol (Yuan) overlords are having a civil war with the potential Ming successor state (i.e. the Ming rebellion happens about 40-50 years later than it historically did).
Scramble for Africa
Can we do:
1. Limit countries to [x] number of African colonies with A. a soft limit and
2. Increase native ferocity and/or pop count to add a fairly organic means of keeping people out (unless they decide to march in with guns and bombs). ?
Colonising should be hard.
Carolingian Persistence
Yes.
That Holiest of Unholy Empires
2. End the chain before Proclaim Erbkaisertum (emperorship becomes hereditary)
Elections can yield interesting results sometimes.
China: 2. I like the idea of a strong China as a rival, and if the mongols failed to get their world-destroying act together, a strengthened China (and persia/muslim lands) would be the logical conclusion.
Africa: 3. Dunno how quickly the Europeans get around to hitting Africa in EU 3, but we can always mod their colonies into smaller ones if necessary when Vicky comes out.
Carolingian Persisitance: Sounds good. Rival members of the dynasty popping up to give us internal troubles might be fun.
HRE: 3 sounds good as well.
I played a lot of EU 2, but skipped EU 3. Until now. Just snagged the deal off of steam, so I guess I can also play a turn in this version.
Half the time I play the Mongols fracture, the other half they stay intact. It's seems pretty random whether they get into a revolt spiral and fracture or not, tweaking them might be hard. I don't mind a powerful Ming though
If we hard limit the colonies the colonizing powers may waste all of their colonists fruitlessly colonizing Africa instead of the Americas, unless we can drop the success chance and the AI takes that into account. Increasing pop count may have a side effect of making successful colonies very useful as all the natives join for free. Ferocity would be good though.
As for the HRE, 1-3. If we let the Emperor have the entire HRE as vassals, that's little better than a unified country, although it's slightly easier to dismantle than actual inheritance. Also, if we become Emperor, vassalizing the entire Empire would be hilariously overpowered.
For Carolingian events, I like the idea of heretical events; MTTH should probably be linked to being excommunicated.
I've got HTTT now, so let me know if you need any more beta testers
2. Strengthen the Ming with
A. additional tech research speed
I do like the suggestion of a strongly mongol Persia as well though.
Scramble for Africa
2. Increase native ferocity and/or pop count to add a fairly organic means of keeping people out (unless they decide to march in with guns and bombs).
Carolingian Persistence
This could include things like:
1. a sect of William's heretical followers (the good stat guy who didn't get to be king)
2. events regarding the beatification of various kings
3. Louis' writings become a popular book across the land
4. Threats from descendents of antiquated French kings
etc. (open to ideas)
These are all good ideas, and I endorse them.
That Holiest of Unholy Empires
1. End the chain before Ewiger Landfriede (invalidates CBs within the HRE)
I would suggest adding the decision to end all existing intra-HRE wars though, especially if we do stop before the invalidation of the CB's as it gives a means for the Emperor to influence a battle without actually having to join it.
FarseerBaradas on
0
I ZimbraWorst song, played on ugliest guitarRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
Well, you've all gone and done it again. After reading through this up through Bjorn's reign I went and bought CK. And only days after getting EU3. Time for Scotland to take it's rightful place ruling Europe, or at least get crushed in comical fashion by the British.
Yup. I've been hard at work [strike]watching the AI Byzantines crush everybody[/strike] [strike]conquering everything[/strike] beta testing and it's getting pretty good. I think I might try an under-BB-limit WC in this scenario
The flu was a minor setback. In other news - here's the list of (early) national ideas. Ebum wanted to vote on them so I present them here for perusal. Some of these might change slightly before the final release, but the general idea will be the same.
Since I'll likely be playing the first round soon and - barring some sort of disaster - I'll live long enough to reach government technology level 4 to select a national idea.
National Ideas
If you're looking for spreadsheet style listings, try the EU3 wiki here. The tech level 30 and 53 ideas aren't listed here (because that woild bring us into the 1650s and require people to select about 8 ideas they'd want. I'll update any of these that happen to change; at the moment only some exploration ideas are affected.
Tech level and number of national ideas estimation:
All ship building and maintenance costs are halved.
Forcelimits increased by 5%
"Life at sea is hard and unforgiving and not everyone is keen on a career in the Navy. By legalising the impressment of men of seafaring habits, it will be easier to crew our ships speeding up the process of commissioning ships."
This national idea is essentially the use of impressment. Merchant sailors are pressed into military service to bolster the number of capable seamen in the navy. This is often one of the first naval ideas of choice due to the huge reduction in cost for building and maintaining a navy (although maintenance is pretty low to start with).
Grand Navy
Doubles naval forcelimits
Big ship building and maintenance 5% cheaper
Naval technology 5% cheaper to research
"Allows us to create one of the largest and most powerful fleets the world has ever seen."
This idea implies a heavy naval focus - a desire for a wave of galleons sweeping across the ocean. In practical effect the main forcelimits bonus is for smaller nations to match the naval forces of larger nations since naval forcelimits are determined by the taxes of coastal provinces. Big ship and naval technology bonuses also reflect this focus
"Allows us to focus heavily on military advancements and thereby increase our naval tradition."
A sea hawk is an experienced seaman; this idea implies that the country's navy does a good job retaining experienced personnel. This idea lets a country more easily maintain a high naval tradition (even without combat), thus allowing for better naval leaders. Experienced sailors also allow ships to venture farther out at sea and more effectively control enemy shipping lanes.
"Enables us to transform our fleet into a supreme naval force with high-class vessels and highly skilled captains and sailors."
Practically allows navies to recover faster from combat, allowing them to engage other navies more often. The small morale boost may allow them to withstand a superior force slightly better, as well. However, it's very rare to encounter multiple massive navies in succession, so the morale bonus isn't particularly useful. It's more beneficial before naval tech 17 (when morale from naval technology is still very low). Unfortunately, then you're dedicating a naval idea to just the first century of the game).
This idea now provides the largest range boost aside from Quest for the New World.
Naval Glory
Doubles prestige gained from naval battles
+0.25% Naval tradition per year
+0.5% Cultural tradition per year
"The sight of our glorious and prestigious navy will make all adversaries tremble in fear."
Allows naval powers to gain more prestige from naval combat. Some decisions and events are based off of prestige, but the higher prestige is the faster it declines. So this idea now also provides tradition bonuses due to the country's focus on emphasizing their navy.
"By gathering the best shipbuilders our nation has to offer, we are able to build us a fleet of modern vessels unmatched in craftsmanship and manoeuvrability."
Has some combat effect (more in DW that we're not using), but also increases movement speed. Also increases explorers' chances of discovering adjacent coastal provinces. Also allows ships to stay out at sea longer.
Army
Grand Army
+33% land forcelimits
Land technology research is 5% cheaper
Infantry 10% cheaper
Artillery 5% cheaper
5% more manpower
"Allows us to create one of the largest and most powerful armies the world has ever seen."
Lets a country field a larger army without paying the increased costs for going over forcelimits. Forcelimits are calculated from the base taxes in all of a country's provinces, making the forcelimit bonus only really useful for small countries that are rich (from production or trade).
Small bonuses in many military fields represent the country's focus on developing and supporting a larger army.
Military Drill
+1 land morale
Discipline increases 5%
Regiments reinforce 5% faster
"Allows us to invest in military training and thereby improve battle formations, weapon handling and boost the morale of our army."
Morale for land forces tends to be more important than for naval forces, making this more useful than its naval analogue, Superior Seamanship. This increases land morale, which allows soldiers to stay in formation longer. Most useful before land tech 20, when the relative size of the technology-based morale increases begin to surpass this idea's bonus.
As a side benefit, higher morale helps prevent complete annihilation of a country's troops if they're constantly under attack by enemies. Drill means constant practice, which means regiments can reinforce with greater ease and maintain unit cohesion with strict discipline.
Engineer Corps
+1 leader siege
Buildings 5% cheaper
+5% fort defensiveness
"Allows us to gather the greatest minds our nation has to offer in the area of military technology and make use of their unrivalled services."
This is a country's attempt to integrate a Corps of Engineers into its military - dedicated fortifications and logistical assistance in wartime, and manpower for building and maintaining infrastructure in peacetime. The French, English and Prussians all had pioneers to assist with field fortifications or demolitions.
Leader siege helps make sieges go faster. Each level of siege basically negates a fort level (so a leader with 1 siege attacking a level 3 fort is effectively attacking a level 2 fort with more defenders). Practically this bonus is more useful if the country must siege with a large force on the move, instead of destroying the enemy army and sieging every enemy province with smaller forces.
A dedicated engineer force also helps in civil construction projects and increasing fortification effectiveness.
Battlefield Commissions
+1% annual army tradition
+0.05 leader shock
War exhaustion reduces 1% faster
"Allows us to focus heavily on military advancements and thereby increase our army tradition."
“A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.”
-Napoleon Bonaparte - July 15, 1815
Lets a country maintain higher tradition, allowing the recruitment of better military leaders (like the naval equivalent Sea Hawks). Comissions also drive soldiers to fight harder and with more spirit, reducing exhaustion and increasing the impact on enemy forces.
Glorious Arms
Doubles prestige from land battles
+0.15% army tradition per year
+0.5% cultural tradition per year
"The sight of our glorious and prestigious army will make all adversaries tremble in fear."
Like the naval equivalent, Naval Glory. This time with people on land.
National Conscripts- Requries land technology level 7
50% more manpower
Infantry 5% cheaper
Reduces discipline 5%
Reduces land morale by 0.05
"Increases our military numbers by making it compulsory for men to enrol for military service."
Essentially the adoption of conscription for lots of cheap manpower. Good for small countries because they'll have more manpower to work with...good for large countries because they'll have more manpower to work with (...and can partially negate war exhaustion by having huge manpower reserves).
The large number of conscripts does - however - negatively impact unit discipline and morale.
"By portraying colonial lands as new virgin territory where any man can make his fortune, possibly some women too, people will emigrate quicker to the colonies. Meaning the nation will have spent less money encouraging people to go there."
The non-exploratory colonial option. If a country has adjacent empty land this idea will let them plant their few scarce colonists and let the colonists' libidoes do the rest.
"Allows us to make use of the numerous traders lusting for fame and fortune, eager to offer their services for a chance to search and explore new trade routes."
Lets a country send merchants for less money, increasing the number of merchants willing to go abroad. Support from the state also allows them to entrench themselves better.
"Enables us to send more Colonists to uncharted lands."
Colonial aspirations intent on making use of newly discovered lands. This is the national idea best for providing additional colonists, but also makes them more likely to succeed abroad.
As in vanilla EU3, this decision also substantially increases the chances of getting the event that can give you 5 free colonists.
Shrewd Commerce Practices
Merchants 10% more competitive (less likely to lose their spots to incoming merchants)
"Allows us to make use of more refined trading practices giving our merchants the upper hand over our competitors."
Good for small nations with little infamy or high merchantilism (and less chance of being removed from a Center of Trade). Works well with the National Trade Policy idea, which lets merchants bring in more money. Also lets this country's merchants more easily break up monopolies.
Support from the state in Machiavellian trade practice also increase the chance merchants will be able to worm their way into centers of trade.
Vice Roys
+25% tariffs
+5% overseas income
"Makes it possible for us to establish Viceroys and thereby improve the administration of our Colonies and increase the amount of money they generate."
Lets a colony owner actually receive more of a colony's wealth. A viceroy is an official who runs a colonial (or distant provincal) region in the name of the monarch. In essence they are the rulers of a colonial region that made sure distant regions followed the homeland's government...but in game they just get you more money.
Quest for the New World - Requires trade technology level 11
Allows the recruitment of conquistadors and explorers (for discovering terra incognita)
Colonial range extended 50%
"Allows us to join the number of nations set to explore the world outside of their borders or strive to be the first nation to circumnavigate the world by commencing a quest for the new world."
Allows the country to discover land to colonize, send merchants abroad, and circumnavigate the world. Since most colonizing happens overseas it also greatly increases colonial range.
State
Vetting
+20% spy defense
Spies 15% cheaper
Spies 5% more efficient
"With so many offices for profit, we sometimes find that those who run our administration are susceptible to bribes from foreign powers. A few simple background checks will weed out the most likely."
Helps prevent enemy spy missions from succeeding. Cheaper, more efficient spies make spy missions less expensive and more likely to succeed.
Bureaucracy
[
+7.5% census tax income
+0.25 officials (magistrates) per year
Advisors 15% cheaper
"Allows us to increase our tax revenues by adopting a more bureaucratic administrative system governed by state officials."
Bureaucracy has developed a bad connotation in modern times, but in earlier centuries it represented effective implementation of a government's administration throughout the land. Instead of random officials arbitrarily exercising power, bureacracy brought a hierachical organization and specialization of governmental agents. This allowed government to more efficiently implement the will of the state (the monarch in an authoritarian regime, or the people in a republic).
Practically, this idea increases money from census taxes by 5% (i.e. province base taxes), but doesn't affect trade or production taxes or tariffs. As such, it's more useful in the early game when the majority of taxes come from province base tax rates. It also makes advisors a bit cheaper (particularly useful for smaller nations that can barely afford to have them hold office) and helps countries accrue officials.
It was more useful before the introduction of decisions, since national union formation events were sped up by it.
National Bank
-0.1% inflation
2% lower interest rates
"By establishing a central authority for financial matters, we will have better control over our nation's economy."
One of the major sources of inflation reduction. This is the go-to "I don't know what to pick!" idea. It lets you attempt to reduce inflation, or maintain 0 inflation while printing a decent amount of money. If you like to rack up loans the interest rate reduction may also help.
"By adopting a national trade policy, we can strengthen our commercial presence and increase the effectiveness of our trade."
Increases revenue from merchants placed in COTs. As a side benefit, trade efficiency also increases merchant compete chance. This is like a 10 level jump in trade technology.
Espionage
+1.00 spies per year
+15% spy efficiency
Enables new spy missions
"Allows us to train more spies and thereby increase our chances of obtaining political and military information about our enemies."
The only way for many governments to actually get spies. Plutocratic and mercantile countries get spies, anyone else that wants spies gets to pick this idea. Gives more spy missions and makes them more likely to succeed.
Bill of Rights - Requires production technology level 7
-1.5 revolt risk in every province
Stability investments 5% cheaper
Free Liberation casus belli on any country with a vassal
"By granting the citizens certain fundamental rights, we reduce the likelihood of a peasant uprising."
Slight reduction in revolt risk, which can be useful if a country has a bunch of heathen and heretic provinces, nationalism or roving rebels. The population's adoption of fundamental human rights also makes it easier to maintain stability. As a side benefit, the idea also gives this country CBs to liberate vassals from any country that can vassalize countries and has at least one vassal already.
Culture
Through much of EU3's timeframe culture and religion were nearly synonymous, which is why - despite the game listing this group as 'Culture' - many of these seem to focus on religion.
Ecumenism
+3 tolerance of heretics (provinces with different religions in the same religion group)
-5% stability cost
-2.5% Papal influence
"The problem with how to deal with heretics in the realm is always difficult. Although the good old-fashioned fire and sword approach will solve most problems eventually, diplomacy can also succeed. By encouraging dialogue between the various sects we can reduce misunderstanding and promote peace in the realm."
Ecumenism is the idea of a unified Christian church - the removal of schisms for doctrinal or denominational differences. Practically in game, it increases tolerance for other religions in the same religion group (heretics); it also slightly decreases papal influence.
For innovative countries it's an alternative to using missionaries to convert the various heretics they may have in their lands. As a side effect, it decreases the chances of the cultural assimilation event (which gives a province your primary culture).
Enables Gilded Icons cultural decision (+3 cultural tradition)
Decreases chance of Reformation spreading to owned provinces
"By adopting a mandatory church attendance policy, the emphasis on religious values and beliefs will unquestionably minimize the costs of maintaining law and order."
Going to church is mandatory in this country. Lowers stability costs, which is really only important for countries attacking without CBs, or which have a very difficult time investing in stability (large poor nations). Also makes it easier to convert provinces.
Has a variety of religion-related effects, including curtailing the spread of the Reformation.
Divine Supremacy
0.5 missionaries per year
+7.5% Papal influence
Gives 'Holy War' casus belli against any country with a state religion in a different religion group
Decreases chance of Reformation spreading to owned provinces
"It is of the utmost importance that we rid our nation and its surrounding borders from the infidels pestering our lands."
A means of getting more missionaries, or getting (slightly) closer to the pope. It can be used to have a positive number of missionaries in innovative countries. Like the Church Attendance Duty above, Divine Supermacy also decreases the chance of the Reformation spreading to the owner's provinces. It also affects some far eastern religious decisions.
Patron of the Arts
+3% Cultural Tradition
+0.5 prestige per year
+0.25 officials (magistrates) per year
Enables or increases the chances of positive cultural events
"Our quest towards a culturally cultivated society begins here. Our artistic wonders will go down in history as the most marvellous of this era."
This is an alternative for taking Church Attendance Duty and its Gilded Icons decision. It basically trades the 33% stability cost reduction for officials (magisters) and a slight prestige boost. And a bunch of events that can give you prestige and slider moves - plus a much more useful event that can build a university or fine arts academy for 500 gold.
Unam Sanctum
Gives 'Purging of Heresy' casus belli against any country without the same state religion
Gives 'Holy War' casus belli against any country with a state religion in a different religion group
Missionaries are 20% cheaper
+5% Papal influence
If Catholic slows spread of Reformation; if Protestant or Reformed, speeds the spread of the Reformation
"'Therefore, of the one and only Church there is one body and one head, not two heads like a monster.'\n- Pope Boniface VIII"
This idea references Pope Boniface VIII's unam sanctum Papal bull, which established dogma for the necessity of a unified Catholic church (hence unam sancum, "one holy [church]"). He was talking about Catholicism, but any country can use this in an attempt to paint the world in their religious ideology.
In-game it lets a country declare war on any country with a different religion (separate CBs for heretics and heathens).
Humanist Tolerance - Requires government technology level 7
+2 tolerance for heathens (provinces with different religions in a different religion group)
Enables various events that change province religions
"By striving towards a more tolerant society and making attempts at solving our social and religious problems in more rational ways, the risk of civil disorder will diminish."
Basically the same as Ecumenism, except for heathens instead. Useful for countries that hold a bunch of heathen land. Brotherly love between everyone also results in slightly less revolt risk.
Based on my test games, we seem to be good until at least the second idea unless we go crazy with the army. However, if we're not going to be very expansionist the advisors are way better
Also note that Divine Supremacy also gives the Holy War CBs on heathens.
Tough choices. I'd start with Military Drill, then get National Bank. I could see having a tougher army being very useful to get us started, then once we're set we can make tons of money.
I'll agree with Military drill. We have enough land that we should have sufficient income that we don't need to mint most of the time. Alternatively we could opt for Trade Policy if we want to get a head start on research.
So, my original idea for this was for the ruler to propose a few options and for us to vote on those. Personally, my goal is for us to end EU3 as a liberal democracy.
So I'm going to vote against war or centralized power in the hands of the King here and go with Patron of the Arts. Get that money into the hands of the people. And make neat stuff for our people to admire and be inspired by.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I vote for National Trade Policy, because I usually go for Military Drill and National Bank, so it would be nice to see something different.
Seconded. I usually do Grand Army - want to see something different.
You know, that's not a bad idea. I vote we start with espionage. It might be an interesting change of pace to be influence peddlers instead of warlords for once.
I should point out that there are quite a few changes to the ideas from vanilla EU3. I'm looking into any egregious balance issues, but - even if you voiced a vote already - you may want to look over them again.
I've also partially addressed the trend towards a liberal democracy. I think that may be a bit lofty for EU3 (considering the European powers that historically became democractic usually ended up getting beaten back and "fixed" into monarchies). I'm working on a series of events to lead our country towards enlightened depotism (think Prussia) or a constitutional monarchy (e.g. the UK). This would better allow us to flow into the world of conflicting autocracy and democracy (and later socialism and fascism) of Victoria. Although it's just as likely that we'll get picked to be the revolutionary nation.
I am partial to Constitutional Monarchy in the vein of the UK...as that lets us keep our fancy royal lineage. Which would basically be an anachronism by the time HOI rolls around, but we may at least have Karl XXII Karolinger as our figurehead king or something.
Hopefully various playtesters can get any outstanding issues to me soon. And then I can get an introduction to the world written up. And then a tutorial integrated into the first few years. And then onward to victory ...or lots of crashing and software problems.
I don't think I've ever not taken national bank, except when playing on easy or something. So for variety's sake I'd like to see something different, also because I think it might be fun to have our superpower crumble from ruinous inflation.
Since there are so many ideas it may be best to pick the 3 you find the most ...endearing, and then we are more likely to come away with a viable starting idea.
Keep in mind that the ones requiring higher tech levels won't be available until at least our second idea.
1. National Bank
2. National Trade Policy
3. Military Drill
I am fully in support of the Constitutional Monarchy idea. I think it'd be a shame to totally lose our familial roots, and it seems like a good way to modernize/liberalize while still retaining that.
Also, does anyone know if the save game that gets passed around would be compatible with the Mac version of EUIII? It might be nice to take a turn, but I'm not sure whether or not I'd be able to, if the save and mod files are all compatible with the Windows version or not.
Hooo boy.. I haven't checked this thread in months. I assume the conversion is still in progress? What sort of an epic mega-mod are we constructing here?
I think I played my turn some time last summer, even. Wow.
Ok, so. Once we have forum stability, Rex is going to play the first update. He's going to go to Government 4, I'll update the title, and hopefully we'll get some votes.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I don't have a write-up yet (but the forum seems a bit more stable; so I will likely start in tomorrow). I do have an abundance of mod-related information for any interested parties. So vote on the National Ideas (check the 4th post for a list)!
Not to overwhelm people with choices, but we can either: set the succession order with challenges (e.g. "who can convert the most provinces to Judaism in 50 years" or "who can unify Sweden fastest"), or we can go the "first come, first served" route we used in CK).
CK to EU3: The Carolingian Mod
Check the 4th post of the thread (here) for an up-to-date version of this post (with mod dowload link and checksums once it's available).
The mod requires Europa Universalis 3 with Napoleon's Ambition, In Nomine and Heir to the Throne (or EU3 Complete and HTTT) updated to Heir to the Throne's official 4.1 patch. Note that if you have the Steam version of Divine Wind installed over EU3-Complete you won't be able to downgrade to HTTT (if you plan on buying DW but want to play the mod then copy your EU3 folder with HTTT somewhere - the executables should still work).
Team
enlightenedbum: support; province allocation; initial religion allocation starkiller: playtesting; religion and Levant-area decisiion and mission ideas Kayne Redrobe: playtesting; assorted content for Illyria, Scotland, Egypt Phyphor: über playtesting; balance testing and suggestions President Rex: anything else (particularly after ebum's computer exploded)
Everybody that played through CK for their write-ups for the persistence events.
Installation
1. Download the mod (which will be cleverly hosted at Google Docs)
2. Extract the ZIP
(which should have a Carolingian folder and Carolingian.mod at the root level) It should go in the mod folder in your Europa Universalis III folder. For example, my path is C:\Program Files\Europa Universalis III\mod
Default Steam EU3: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\europa universalis iii - complete\mod
(if the mod folder doesn't exist then create it)
3. Run the EU3 launcher
This is EU3.exe in the Europa Universalis folder. Steam defaults to launching eu3game.exe, so you will need go to your EU3 folder.
4. Select "Carolingian" in the drop down mod selection list and play
5. Acknowledge the launch through steam (if using steam)
Playing in the LP
If you haven't played EU3 before check out the basic tutorial in the Paradox thread (in parts one and two)
There's one game mechanic we're not using, and that is government changing via the Form of Government button on the Government overview tab (at least until my event chain completely fractures under pressure). Government changes are covered by a series of events (although feel free to enact the decisions that change the government if they become available during your reign). Otherwise don't expect to colonize until we get QFTNW or it's into the 1600s. And be wary of your reptutation due to the CB and infamy changes.
At some point a critical flaw is likely to reveal itself and then I will jump in to try to save the day (like some sort of Lex Luthor figure that intentionally sabotages his own work to look like a hero!).
Major changes
The mod is intended to be played on Hard difficulty as Vermandois (BUR), which has the option of becoming The Frankish Empire (CRL). If you're interested in general changes to a variety of game aspects view the vast amount of information below.
For clarity I will refer to the LP country as BUR/CRL below.
The World
Poland, Scotland, Brandenburg, Norway and Lithuania are the only large European countries whose borders nearly match their EU3 Grand Campaign counterparts.
Aquitaine constitutes the major French nation. While they are unlikely to reform France, they are capable of forming Occitania.
Bohemia's king is currently the Holy Roman Emperor, but he must contend with a growing Austria, an upstart Bavaria, expansive Brandenburg and the rock of CK Europe - Poland.
Byzantium currently controls something similar to historical Byzantium of the 13th and 14th centuries. But their position is just as precarious: they're having economic trouble and face competition from other major Greek states of Crete and Epirus, as well as the Bulgarian pretender kingdom of Illyria.
Castille and Léon share the Iberian peninnsula similarly to Aragon and Castille in vanilla EU3.
Denmark is fractured, although the core kingdom still exists.
Egypt has essentially replaced the Mamlukes (also they're Coptic).
England has recently reunified is on the warpath to conquering the British Isles. However, Scotland has been one of the sturdiest kingdoms in Europe and has a good chance of forming the Scottish Union as an alternative to England's United Kingdom.
France does not exist. This will likely be the largest change normal EU3 players will notice since France is a huge powerhouse. France consists of Aquitaine, Vermandois, Brittany and a collection of smaller countries.
Golden Horde is significantly smaller due to their terrible, terrible performance in CK. The usualy Tartar horde north of the Black Sea has been replaced by a variety of countries with Tartar's precursor culture: Cuman.
Karelia occupies a significant portion of Northern Russia, and has a good chance of being an alternative to the formation of Russia. At the moment they are still following their Finnish Pagan gods.
Makuria exists. By the 12th and 13th centuries the fairly civilized country of Makuria had been islamicized and was was being crushed between the emerging Funj people in the South and Muslim raiders in the North. Since our crusaders were incredibly successful Makuria stayed Oriental Orthodox (Coptic) and managed somewhat peaceful relations with Ethiopia and Egypt.
Ming has benefited from the Mongols' failed invasions of the Muslim and Christian sphers in the Far West. They're relatively stable and more prosperous - the smaller dynasty of Manchu may not manage to usurp control over China.
Sweden does not (yet) exist. Sweden consists of Scania, Dalecarlia, Goethaland, Svealand, Gotland and Jaemtland and Lappland - any of which can potentially reunite the kingdom (or it may fade into obscurity).
Zenata has - to a certain extent - replaced the Ottomans, they are aided by their partner Magreb Arab allies, Morocco. They are surrounded by lesser Muslim dynasties in the south and recent Cuman converts to Christianity in the north and will likely come into conflict with Byzantium or Egypt.
Colonisation
Colonisation is one of the most heavily affected gameplay aspects. The mechanics themselves have not changed (send colonists and build colonies), but getting colonists and starting colonies may be more difficult. Colonists - particularly in the early game - are much more limited. Colonization capability is controlled through 4 modifiers.
Colonisation falls into 4 groups:
Traditional Worldview - (no colonists) pre-Age of Exploration outlook
Expansionist Worldview - desire to seek out and colonise new land
Colonisational Worldview - located the New World and working towards colonisation
Contented Worldview - located the New World and can't or won't colonise
Only countries on the Iberian peninsula, Morocco and Zenata have the potential to start with positive numbers of colonists. Otherwise countries must actively adopt colonisation-oriented ideas or be adjacent to empty land (e.g. Russian Steppe, Nubia). To offset the initial lack of colonists for explorers and conquistadors there are now events that provide them. Native hostility in African coastal provinces has been increased (except in the early-colonised region of South Africa)
BUR/CRL's National Ideas have not been set, but starts with the Tradtional Worldview.
The goal of this change is to limit the number of overseas colonizers and the number of colonies - particularly in Africa. The rationale is twofold: 1. historically - although Europeans had permanent trading posts in Africa beginning in the late 1500s - the true colonisation of Africa happened during the Age of Imperialsm better covered by Victoria; 2. the number of nation tags available in Victoria is (unlike EU3) limited, so making sure there isn't a vast patchwork of disparate cultural colonies will help in the long run.
Cores
Cores are not as freely given as vanilla EU3. Most missions do not give free cores and the border friction event is much less common. Cores are gained after 55 years and lost after 85 years (unless - like in vanilla EU3 - the province is of the same culture group).
BUR/CRL starts with cores on its owned provinces as well as Bar, Hainaut, Bourgogne and Franche Comté.
The goal of this change is to limit outlandish spread of countries. It should be difficult to hold land from another culture and 'core' land should be earned not given.
Government
There are now a series of events to lead BUR/CRL to either an Absolute Monarchy, Enlightened Despotism or Constitutional Monarchy. While some of these events are also available for other nations, their primary purpose is to direct the governmental changes of BUR/CRL. Each government form has a type of parliament - naturally more absolutist government can disregard the parliament completely - if desired. Enlightened Despotism does require at least one humanistic National Idea.
BUR/CRL's government should not be changed through the government tab. Decisions and events are designed to do it somewhat organically. All events impacting the government of the country are prefaced with red "Carolingian Governance" text. Repeatable parliament events are prefaced with red "Carolingian Parliament" text.
The goal of this change is to prevent one player from making a vast overarching change to the country that is difficult to reverse. The events are designed to fire 1 or 2 per monarch reign, with a minimum needed before the government can change (although with EU3's event system it's completely possible that one person may get substantially more or fewer events). Generally events have a absolutist and a democratic option - pick whichever you feel your monarch (or you) would want to do.
Event listing (actual spoilers inside)
Government and Parliament-related events are contained in Carolingian\events\CarolingianGovernance.txt
Flags are Boolean states used by the game to check if something has happened. I.e. they are "yes this 'flag' has been set" or "no this 'flag' is not set." Variables are like flags that can contain an actual number value.
# EVENTS
#
# 30201 - Execution of the Magna Carta / Ioannes
# -decision to follow the noble's decision or challenge the magna carta
# 30202 - Invocation of the Magna Carta
# -nobles furious at breach of feudal contract;
# another chance to invoke the Magna Carta (not used in LP)
# 30203 - Parliament Composition I
# 30204 - Parliament Composition II
# -explain the different political factions at work
# 30205 - Parley on Military Matters (Naval/Army)
# 30206 - Parley on Domestic Matters (Government/Culture)
# 30207 - Parley on International Matters (Mercantile/Diplomatic)
# -various parleys directing the policies of the nation [repeatable]
# 30210 - Effective administration
# 30215 - Administrative Monarchy
# 30220 - Parliamentary Impasse (disenfranchisement of the lower nobles)
# 30221 - Parliamentary Impasse - if 30235C is picked before 30220 fires;
# 30225 - Petition for Redress
# 30230 - Burghers Convene
# 30235 - Clergy Demand more power
# 30240 - Colonists demand representation
# 30245 - [Monarch] dei gratia rex (king through the grace of God)
# 30250 - Unwritten Constitution
# 30255 - Recorded and Published Proceedings
#
# 30300 - Switch to Absolute Monarchy
#
# 30315 - Parley for Absolute Monarchy/Enlightened [repeatable]
# 30325 - Heretics [repeatable]
# 30330 - Assemblies
# -allows grant/revoke right to assembly decision
# 30335 - Due Process
# -uphold the idea of due process/disregard it
#
# 30400 - Switch to Constitutional Monarchy
# 30405 - Adoption of a bicameral system
# 30406 - Adoption of a unicameral system
# 30415 - Parley for Constitutional Monarchy [repeatable]
#
# 30515 - Switch to Enlightened Despotism
#
# FLAGS [all flags are global unless marked]
#
# CRL_government1 - monarch agreed to parley
# CRL_government_noparley - monarch refused to parley
# CRL_magnacarta_abolished - Magna Carta dissolved; no parley -also used for "I am the state"
# CRL_military_parley - last parley was military in nature -Used to make sure the same
# CRL_civil_parley - last parley was civil in nature parley type is not repeated
# CRL_diplomatic_parley - last parley was diplomatic in nature twice in a row
# CRL_government2 - a parley has dealt with government matters
# CRL_government3 - adored administration (step to administrative monarchy)
# CRL_government4 - Administrative Monarchy adopted
# CRL_government5 - Absolute Monarchy adopted
# CRL_government6 - Constitutional Monarchy adopted
# CRL_government7 - Enlightened Depotism adopted
#
# CRL_scandal - parliamentary scandal resulted in dissolved parliament
# CRL_bicameral - parliamentary scandal resulted in trend towards bicameral legislature
# CRL_unicameral - Junkers expelled the Lehnsherren; trend towards unicameralism
# CRL_petition - burghers and unlanded knights voiced conerns of representation
# CRL_burgherrecht - burghers have tried to convene
# CRL_clergy_parliament - clergy have asked for more power in parliament
# CRL_clergy_removed - clergy have been banned from the parliamentary process
# CRL_colonists - colonists have requested representation
# dei_gratia_philosophy - concept of rule 'dei gratia' put forth [COUNTRY FLAG]
# CRL_unbound_constitution - parliament uses unwritten constitution
# CRL_recorded_minutes - minutes are now recorded and published
# CRL_disregard_minutes - parliament is a closed (oral) discussion
# CRL_chambers - constitutional reform has occured
# CRL_religious_massacre - Heretics massacred
# right_to_assembly - decisions for assembly unlocked [COUNTRY FLAG]
# CRL_due_process - due process event
#
#
# VARIABLES
#
# vCRL_constitution - trend towards constitution
# +1 via 30215, 30220B/30221B, 30225B, 30230A, 30235A, 30240A, 30250, 30255A
# +1 via record_frankish_law decision
# [30215 is the change to admin. monarchy]
# 7 needed for "formalize constitution" decision (or fewer with centralized, plutarchic government)
# vCRL_absolutism - trend towards absolute power of the monarch
# +1 via 30225A/C, 30230B, 30235C, 30240B, 30255B
# +1 via der_staat_bin_ich decision
# +2 via 30220A/30221A, +2 for 30245
# 5 needed for "der staat bin ich" decision (or fewer with very centralized, aristocratic government)
# vCRL_enlightened - trend towards enlightened absolutism
# +1 via 30210, 30225C, 30235C, 30240A, 30325C, 30335A
# +1 via record_frankish_law decision
# [30210 is the well-administered realm on the way to admin. monarchy]
Holy Roman Empire
The HRE functions the same as it does in vanilla EU3 with 3 major changes:
There are now events in place to encourage higher relations between members (to dissuade infighting)
Significantly large, non-German countries can collectively have their core provinces leave the Empire
The reform decision tree now ends at Erbkaisertum (hereditary emperorship is the last available step).
BUR/CRL begins the game with some provinces as part of the HRE. Because Vermandois (the capital) is not part of the HRE, she is technically not a member.
The goal of these changes was to prevent the rapid expansion of the HRE to vastly ahistorical locations (an AI emperor tends to bring any owned province into the Empire). It also helps keep the HRE fairly cohesive (less in-fighting), yet weak (in keeping with the fairly weak state of Germany in CK).
Infamy
The infamy limit has been reduced. With a leader of average diplomacy the BB limit is approximately 20 infamy (infamy decay remains the same). Similarly, BB costs for many wars have been increased, meaning it makes more sense to meddle in others' affairs and prevent them from doing things than wantonly expanding. There are no longer casus belli that provide no infamy increases.
BUR/CRL also has a national decision where the king can abdicate for a reputation drop. Unlike CK infamy does not decay when a new monarch ascends to the throne.
The goal of this change is to prevent the globe from being painted one color by 1600 (I know Phyphor could probably still easily do it). The AI is similarly bound, and this helps prevent them from undertaking rabid expansion as well.
Missions
There are numerous missions at work to direct the AI towards certain objectives. Quite a few vanilla EU3 missions have been modified to accept more varied triggers (e.g. instead of having the Netherlands directed to colonize South Africa any Dutch or Hannoverian country of significant size can receive the mission).
BUR/CRL was built from Burgundy and many of those missions remain relevant (with altered descriptions). I specifically avoided making specific missions for Burgundy because I have no idea what people will want to do with it (conquer Europe? Colonize? Form merchant power? Crusading state? etc.).
The goal of this change was to give some order and direction to AI action (hence missions were mostly avoided for BUR/CRL.
Persistence
There are now a number of events that work off of events from the CK game. Some of them give choices, most of them are one-off events. There's one for each reign up to Ioannes. Each of them has a variety of triggers so it's completely possible some may not fire.
The effect on BUR/CRL should even out - there's a mix of negative and positive and neutral events. All events impacting the government of the country are prefaced with red "The Carolingian Dynasty" text.
The goal of this change is to offer persistence through the succession game. If I need to update the mod partway through the EU3 succession I hope to make additions to this referring to earlier events in EU3.
Event listing (actual spoilers inside)
Persistence events are contained in Carolingian\events\CarolingianPersistence.txt
Positive events are denoted with a +, negative events with - and neutral or variable events with / .
# 30001 - Poet King's Words + Alexander
# 30002 - Curses from Anjou - ANY / Hamelin
# 30003 - Transgressions of Tournament's Past - Herbert IV
# 30004 - the Breda Boodschap + Eudes (Odo) II
# 30005 - The Dark Magus (science!) + Henri
# 30006 - Abelhard's Saint George Statue + Jordan
# 30007 - The Bishop of Mar - Serlo
# 30008 - The Slaying of Arnaud de Brittany - Godfrey
# 30009 - Celebrated Military Hero + Robert (brother of Godfrey)
# 30010 - Degradation of the Krak des Karlings / Bjorn
# 30011 - Arrow of Tourraine / Thomas
# 30012 - Stolen Relics from Valencia - Louis II
# 30013 - Ceuntulean Summer + Centule
# 30014 - Echoes of the Great Ducal War - Frigyes
# 30015 - Michael's Tomb (Plague!) - Michael
# 30100 - standardized_curriculum -
Religion
There are now 4 new religions: Cathar, Jewish, Sami and Coptic.
Cathar (Albigenisans/Waldensians) were generally considered Heretics in southern France and northern Italy and were annihilated in the Albigensian Crusade of the early 1200s. Our Cathari were a bit more successful due to a string of heretic Burgundian (Vermandois' kings) and a decentralized Papacy.
Jewish people had small enclaves throughout Europe, but our CK game saw the survival of the Khazar 'Empire.' In the 10th century Khazar nobility converted to Judaism and a portion of the population followed; CK models this by making them the only Jewish 'country' in CK. Their survival means there is a Jewish country at the beginning of our EU3 game (unfortunately there's barely enough territory to cover one territory, so they are pretty doomed).
Sami represents the various Finnish Pagan religions of Karelia and northern Finland that we have. Since Karelia has a decent chance of replacing Russia their religion is represented.
Coptic is an easier means of referencing Oriental Orthodox Christianity, and represents the faction of Christendom that broke from the (then unified) East-West church at the Council of Chalcedon. They were effectively under the Patriarch of Alexandria (compared to the Patriarch of Rome for Catholicism and the Patriarch of Constantinople for Eastern Orthodox). Egypt, Makuria and Ethiopia are Coptic.
BUR/CRL will likely be unaffected by the religion changes, although it's possible that the proximity to Catharism may lead to some Cathar provinces.
The goal of this change was to closer mimic the world of our CK game (the fact Ethiopia is now properly Oriental Orthodox is just a side benefit). Plus there will be an interesting challenge to see who can survive longest as a Jewish Khazar Empire.
Posts
Any hilarious glitches like Khmer conquering India?
On the plus side, Castille and León usually get a nice dynamism going. And the emperorship usually hops between Austria, Bohemia, Brandenburg and Poland (at least in the first 150 years). I've still spent time adding and fixing bugs that crop up in the first 100 years (still looking into Kayne's 'phantom cardinals from nonexistent countries' bug and hoping it's just a flag or localization error).
China Syndrome
So our Mongols were pretty ineffective (this is why we have so many random states and a different culture north of the Black Sea). In the East, we have some choices. In the 1350s and 1360s ethnic Han Chinese revolted against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. This new Chinese country became the Ming dynasty, one of the most (individually) prosperous and orderly Chinese states, which would last over 250 years.
We can:
1. Weaken the Ming and give some of their lands to the Mongol Khanate, or Qirat Horde - implying the Mongol Hordes directed their efforts East instead of West)
2. Strengthen the Ming with either A. additional tech research speed, or B. money and resources - implying the Chinese got to capitalize off of Mongol failures in the West.
3. Fracture the Ming a bit (possibly with something like Manchu) off the bat. This could be because individual ethnicities began fighting in China with a Mongol power vacuum (let's say similar to a Three Kingdoms period China), or because the Mongol (Yuan) overlords are having a civil war with the potential Ming successor state (i.e. the Ming rebellion happens about 40-50 years later than it historically did).
4. Leave it as is.
Scramble for Africa
Ebum has expressed the desire to limit African colonisation. I can artificially assist this by increasing the ferocity of African natives and potentially including additional modifiers or events that make African colonisation closer to the edge of impossible (or just more difficult). The real scramble for Africa happened in the late 1800s, although many European powers had token 'trading posts' well before then). So we can:
1. Limit countries to [x] number of African colonies with A. a soft limit, or B. a hard limit (i.e. 3 colonies and the rest will fail).
2. Increase native ferocity and/or pop count to add a fairly organic means of keeping people out (unless they decide to march in with guns and bombs).
3. Hope to rely on the diminished colonists and time difference for colonisation and leave it as it is modded.
(I can try to limit European activity in India as well if desired)
Carolingian Persistence
So we've got 350 years of history behind us. EU3 has a fairly robust event system (easier to randomly pop events than Vicky or HOI2, anyway). I can add in events that harken back to our humble beginnings (that I would probably preface with "The Carolingian Dynasty" or something in the event text so people know to screencap the non-standard happenings).
This could include things like:
1. a sect of William's heretical followers (the good stat guy who didn't get to be king)
2. events regarding the beatification of various kings
3. Louis' writings become a popular book across the land
4. Threats from descendents of antiquated French kings
etc. (open to ideas)
That Holiest of Unholy Empires
So we want to prevent the HRE from becoming a unified solid state (at least until a proclamation of a German state or two in Vicky). This is fairly easy to do by just chopping off the end of the events. Where to chop is the question (I would recommend option 3 here (hereditary emperors, but not able to make the whole HRE vassals).
1. End the chain before Ewiger Landfriede (invalidates CBs within the HRE)
2. End the chain before Proclaim Erbkaisertum (emperorship becomes hereditary)
3. End the chain before Revoke the Privilegia (HRE members become vassals)
4. End the chain before Renovatio Imperii (emperor becomes newly declared HRE nation)
Also, does anyone want a couple additional random choices for the emperor to institute instead? Things like stopping all wars in the empire at the moment, or instituting trade agreements and the like?
Vote!
Scramble for Africa: 2 (Tougher natives are organic, and hard caps are ... gamey. Let people fight for Africa if they want it.)
Carolingian Persistence: Fantastic idea! This is one of the best ... homages? ... to the earlier game that you could implement. I wish I knew the game better to make more suggestions here.
That Holiest of Unholy Empires: I don't know the game well enough to make a rational suggestion. Additional options for "Things I Can Declare in My Empire" is a good idea.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
And if anyone has missions/events/decisions they'd like to potentially see, you can send me a PM with the basic idea and I can look into how it fits in with what we've got going on now and its possible implementation.
And since puns are totally awesome, I cannot let this go unnoticed:
Also:
are $6.00 on Steam until January 27th.
If you don't have it, buy it. It's totally worth six bucks.
Check out EU3 Complete ($4.00) and Heir to the Throne ($2.00) in the store.
EU3: Complete contains Napoleon's Ambition and In Nomine. The succession game is using EU3+NA+IN+HTTT, so if you spend the six dollars you'll be set (aside from needing the beta patch and the mod).
Note that you cannot revert to previous versions of DLC through Steam, so if you plan on getting Divine Wind through Steam too you'll want to duplicate your EU3 directory with HTTT installed before you buy DW.
3. Fracture the Ming a bit (possibly with something like Manchu) off the bat. This could be because individual ethnicities began fighting in China with a Mongol power vacuum (let's say similar to a Three Kingdoms period China), or because the Mongol (Yuan) overlords are having a civil war with the potential Ming successor state (i.e. the Ming rebellion happens about 40-50 years later than it historically did).
Scramble for Africa
Can we do:
1. Limit countries to [x] number of African colonies with A. a soft limit
and
2. Increase native ferocity and/or pop count to add a fairly organic means of keeping people out (unless they decide to march in with guns and bombs). ?
Colonising should be hard.
Carolingian Persistence
Yes.
That Holiest of Unholy Empires
2. End the chain before Proclaim Erbkaisertum (emperorship becomes hereditary)
Elections can yield interesting results sometimes.
Africa: 3. Dunno how quickly the Europeans get around to hitting Africa in EU 3, but we can always mod their colonies into smaller ones if necessary when Vicky comes out.
Carolingian Persisitance: Sounds good. Rival members of the dynasty popping up to give us internal troubles might be fun.
HRE: 3 sounds good as well.
I played a lot of EU 2, but skipped EU 3. Until now. Just snagged the deal off of steam, so I guess I can also play a turn in this version.
If we hard limit the colonies the colonizing powers may waste all of their colonists fruitlessly colonizing Africa instead of the Americas, unless we can drop the success chance and the AI takes that into account. Increasing pop count may have a side effect of making successful colonies very useful as all the natives join for free. Ferocity would be good though.
As for the HRE, 1-3. If we let the Emperor have the entire HRE as vassals, that's little better than a unified country, although it's slightly easier to dismantle than actual inheritance. Also, if we become Emperor, vassalizing the entire Empire would be hilariously overpowered.
For Carolingian events, I like the idea of heretical events; MTTH should probably be linked to being excommunicated.
I've got HTTT now, so let me know if you need any more beta testers
We can:
2. Strengthen the Ming with
A. additional tech research speed
I do like the suggestion of a strongly mongol Persia as well though.
Scramble for Africa
2. Increase native ferocity and/or pop count to add a fairly organic means of keeping people out (unless they decide to march in with guns and bombs).
Carolingian Persistence
This could include things like:
1. a sect of William's heretical followers (the good stat guy who didn't get to be king)
2. events regarding the beatification of various kings
3. Louis' writings become a popular book across the land
4. Threats from descendents of antiquated French kings
etc. (open to ideas)
These are all good ideas, and I endorse them.
That Holiest of Unholy Empires
1. End the chain before Ewiger Landfriede (invalidates CBs within the HRE)
I would suggest adding the decision to end all existing intra-HRE wars though, especially if we do stop before the invalidation of the CB's as it gives a means for the Emperor to influence a battle without actually having to join it.
But from the demo it totally seems worth $30 as well, so I may still get it in time to contribute a spectacular collapse to this thread. :P
Since I'll likely be playing the first round soon and - barring some sort of disaster - I'll live long enough to reach government technology level 4 to select a national idea.
If you're looking for spreadsheet style listings, try the EU3 wiki here. The tech level 30 and 53 ideas aren't listed here (because that woild bring us into the 1650s and require people to select about 8 ideas they'd want. I'll update any of these that happen to change; at the moment only some exploration ideas are affected.
Tech level and number of national ideas estimation:
This national idea is essentially the use of impressment. Merchant sailors are pressed into military service to bolster the number of capable seamen in the navy. This is often one of the first naval ideas of choice due to the huge reduction in cost for building and maintaining a navy (although maintenance is pretty low to start with).
Grand Navy
This idea implies a heavy naval focus - a desire for a wave of galleons sweeping across the ocean. In practical effect the main forcelimits bonus is for smaller nations to match the naval forces of larger nations since naval forcelimits are determined by the taxes of coastal provinces. Big ship and naval technology bonuses also reflect this focus
Sea Hawks
A sea hawk is an experienced seaman; this idea implies that the country's navy does a good job retaining experienced personnel. This idea lets a country more easily maintain a high naval tradition (even without combat), thus allowing for better naval leaders. Experienced sailors also allow ships to venture farther out at sea and more effectively control enemy shipping lanes.
Superior Seamanship
Practically allows navies to recover faster from combat, allowing them to engage other navies more often. The small morale boost may allow them to withstand a superior force slightly better, as well. However, it's very rare to encounter multiple massive navies in succession, so the morale bonus isn't particularly useful. It's more beneficial before naval tech 17 (when morale from naval technology is still very low). Unfortunately, then you're dedicating a naval idea to just the first century of the game).
This idea now provides the largest range boost aside from Quest for the New World.
Naval Glory
Allows naval powers to gain more prestige from naval combat. Some decisions and events are based off of prestige, but the higher prestige is the faster it declines. So this idea now also provides tradition bonuses due to the country's focus on emphasizing their navy.
Excellent Shipwrights - Requires naval technology level 7
Has some combat effect (more in DW that we're not using), but also increases movement speed. Also increases explorers' chances of discovering adjacent coastal provinces. Also allows ships to stay out at sea longer.
Lets a country field a larger army without paying the increased costs for going over forcelimits. Forcelimits are calculated from the base taxes in all of a country's provinces, making the forcelimit bonus only really useful for small countries that are rich (from production or trade).
Small bonuses in many military fields represent the country's focus on developing and supporting a larger army.
Military Drill
Morale for land forces tends to be more important than for naval forces, making this more useful than its naval analogue, Superior Seamanship. This increases land morale, which allows soldiers to stay in formation longer. Most useful before land tech 20, when the relative size of the technology-based morale increases begin to surpass this idea's bonus.
As a side benefit, higher morale helps prevent complete annihilation of a country's troops if they're constantly under attack by enemies. Drill means constant practice, which means regiments can reinforce with greater ease and maintain unit cohesion with strict discipline.
Engineer Corps
This is a country's attempt to integrate a Corps of Engineers into its military - dedicated fortifications and logistical assistance in wartime, and manpower for building and maintaining infrastructure in peacetime. The French, English and Prussians all had pioneers to assist with field fortifications or demolitions.
Leader siege helps make sieges go faster. Each level of siege basically negates a fort level (so a leader with 1 siege attacking a level 3 fort is effectively attacking a level 2 fort with more defenders). Practically this bonus is more useful if the country must siege with a large force on the move, instead of destroying the enemy army and sieging every enemy province with smaller forces.
A dedicated engineer force also helps in civil construction projects and increasing fortification effectiveness.
Battlefield Commissions
“A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.”
-Napoleon Bonaparte - July 15, 1815
Lets a country maintain higher tradition, allowing the recruitment of better military leaders (like the naval equivalent Sea Hawks). Comissions also drive soldiers to fight harder and with more spirit, reducing exhaustion and increasing the impact on enemy forces.
Glorious Arms
Like the naval equivalent, Naval Glory. This time with people on land.
National Conscripts - Requries land technology level 7
Essentially the adoption of conscription for lots of cheap manpower. Good for small countries because they'll have more manpower to work with...good for large countries because they'll have more manpower to work with (...and can partially negate war exhaustion by having huge manpower reserves).
The large number of conscripts does - however - negatively impact unit discipline and morale.
The non-exploratory colonial option. If a country has adjacent empty land this idea will let them plant their few scarce colonists and let the colonists' libidoes do the rest.
Merchant Adventures
Lets a country send merchants for less money, increasing the number of merchants willing to go abroad. Support from the state also allows them to entrench themselves better.
Colonial Ventures - Requires trade technology level 16
Colonial aspirations intent on making use of newly discovered lands. This is the national idea best for providing additional colonists, but also makes them more likely to succeed abroad.
As in vanilla EU3, this decision also substantially increases the chances of getting the event that can give you 5 free colonists.
Shrewd Commerce Practices
Good for small nations with little infamy or high merchantilism (and less chance of being removed from a Center of Trade). Works well with the National Trade Policy idea, which lets merchants bring in more money. Also lets this country's merchants more easily break up monopolies.
Support from the state in Machiavellian trade practice also increase the chance merchants will be able to worm their way into centers of trade.
Vice Roys
Lets a colony owner actually receive more of a colony's wealth. A viceroy is an official who runs a colonial (or distant provincal) region in the name of the monarch. In essence they are the rulers of a colonial region that made sure distant regions followed the homeland's government...but in game they just get you more money.
Quest for the New World - Requires trade technology level 11
Allows the country to discover land to colonize, send merchants abroad, and circumnavigate the world. Since most colonizing happens overseas it also greatly increases colonial range.
Helps prevent enemy spy missions from succeeding. Cheaper, more efficient spies make spy missions less expensive and more likely to succeed.
Bureaucracy
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Bureaucracy has developed a bad connotation in modern times, but in earlier centuries it represented effective implementation of a government's administration throughout the land. Instead of random officials arbitrarily exercising power, bureacracy brought a hierachical organization and specialization of governmental agents. This allowed government to more efficiently implement the will of the state (the monarch in an authoritarian regime, or the people in a republic).
Practically, this idea increases money from census taxes by 5% (i.e. province base taxes), but doesn't affect trade or production taxes or tariffs. As such, it's more useful in the early game when the majority of taxes come from province base tax rates. It also makes advisors a bit cheaper (particularly useful for smaller nations that can barely afford to have them hold office) and helps countries accrue officials.
It was more useful before the introduction of decisions, since national union formation events were sped up by it.
National Bank
One of the major sources of inflation reduction. This is the go-to "I don't know what to pick!" idea. It lets you attempt to reduce inflation, or maintain 0 inflation while printing a decent amount of money. If you like to rack up loans the interest rate reduction may also help.
National Trade Policy
Increases revenue from merchants placed in COTs. As a side benefit, trade efficiency also increases merchant compete chance. This is like a 10 level jump in trade technology.
Espionage
The only way for many governments to actually get spies. Plutocratic and mercantile countries get spies, anyone else that wants spies gets to pick this idea. Gives more spy missions and makes them more likely to succeed.
Bill of Rights - Requires production technology level 7
Adaptation of the idea of the Magna Carta, the US Bill of Rights and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen from the French Revolution.
Slight reduction in revolt risk, which can be useful if a country has a bunch of heathen and heretic provinces, nationalism or roving rebels. The population's adoption of fundamental human rights also makes it easier to maintain stability. As a side benefit, the idea also gives this country CBs to liberate vassals from any country that can vassalize countries and has at least one vassal already.
Through much of EU3's timeframe culture and religion were nearly synonymous, which is why - despite the game listing this group as 'Culture' - many of these seem to focus on religion.
Ecumenism
Ecumenism is the idea of a unified Christian church - the removal of schisms for doctrinal or denominational differences. Practically in game, it increases tolerance for other religions in the same religion group (heretics); it also slightly decreases papal influence.
For innovative countries it's an alternative to using missionaries to convert the various heretics they may have in their lands. As a side effect, it decreases the chances of the cultural assimilation event (which gives a province your primary culture).
Church Attendance Duty
Going to church is mandatory in this country. Lowers stability costs, which is really only important for countries attacking without CBs, or which have a very difficult time investing in stability (large poor nations). Also makes it easier to convert provinces.
Has a variety of religion-related effects, including curtailing the spread of the Reformation.
Divine Supremacy
A means of getting more missionaries, or getting (slightly) closer to the pope. It can be used to have a positive number of missionaries in innovative countries. Like the Church Attendance Duty above, Divine Supermacy also decreases the chance of the Reformation spreading to the owner's provinces. It also affects some far eastern religious decisions.
Patron of the Arts
This is an alternative for taking Church Attendance Duty and its Gilded Icons decision. It basically trades the 33% stability cost reduction for officials (magisters) and a slight prestige boost. And a bunch of events that can give you prestige and slider moves - plus a much more useful event that can build a university or fine arts academy for 500 gold.
Unam Sanctum
This idea references Pope Boniface VIII's unam sanctum Papal bull, which established dogma for the necessity of a unified Catholic church (hence unam sancum, "one holy [church]"). He was talking about Catholicism, but any country can use this in an attempt to paint the world in their religious ideology.
In-game it lets a country declare war on any country with a different religion (separate CBs for heretics and heathens).
Humanist Tolerance - Requires government technology level 7
Basically the same as Ecumenism, except for heathens instead. Useful for countries that hold a bunch of heathen land. Brotherly love between everyone also results in slightly less revolt risk.
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Also note that Divine Supremacy also gives the Holy War CBs on heathens.
I would vote for Battlefield Commissions over Military Drill, useful throughout the game.
Seconded. I usually do Grand Army - want to see something different.
So I'm going to vote against war or centralized power in the hands of the King here and go with Patron of the Arts. Get that money into the hands of the people. And make neat stuff for our people to admire and be inspired by.
You know, that's not a bad idea. I vote we start with espionage. It might be an interesting change of pace to be influence peddlers instead of warlords for once.
I've also partially addressed the trend towards a liberal democracy. I think that may be a bit lofty for EU3 (considering the European powers that historically became democractic usually ended up getting beaten back and "fixed" into monarchies). I'm working on a series of events to lead our country towards enlightened depotism (think Prussia) or a constitutional monarchy (e.g. the UK). This would better allow us to flow into the world of conflicting autocracy and democracy (and later socialism and fascism) of Victoria. Although it's just as likely that we'll get picked to be the revolutionary nation.
I am partial to Constitutional Monarchy in the vein of the UK...as that lets us keep our fancy royal lineage. Which would basically be an anachronism by the time HOI rolls around, but we may at least have Karl XXII Karolinger as our figurehead king or something.
Hopefully various playtesters can get any outstanding issues to me soon. And then I can get an introduction to the world written up. And then a tutorial integrated into the first few years. And then onward to victory ...or lots of crashing and software problems.
Keep in mind that the ones requiring higher tech levels won't be available until at least our second idea.
1. National Bank
2. National Trade Policy
3. Military Drill
I am fully in support of the Constitutional Monarchy idea. I think it'd be a shame to totally lose our familial roots, and it seems like a good way to modernize/liberalize while still retaining that.
Also, does anyone know if the save game that gets passed around would be compatible with the Mac version of EUIII? It might be nice to take a turn, but I'm not sure whether or not I'd be able to, if the save and mod files are all compatible with the Windows version or not.
I think I played my turn some time last summer, even. Wow.
How does a shiny nickel, every fortnight, sound? You like it, yes? Good...
NOW GET BACK TO WORK!
Not to overwhelm people with choices, but we can either: set the succession order with challenges (e.g. "who can convert the most provinces to Judaism in 50 years" or "who can unify Sweden fastest"), or we can go the "first come, first served" route we used in CK).
Check the 4th post of the thread (here) for an up-to-date version of this post (with mod dowload link and checksums once it's available).
The mod requires Europa Universalis 3 with Napoleon's Ambition, In Nomine and Heir to the Throne (or EU3 Complete and HTTT) updated to Heir to the Throne's official 4.1 patch. Note that if you have the Steam version of Divine Wind installed over EU3-Complete you won't be able to downgrade to HTTT (if you plan on buying DW but want to play the mod then copy your EU3 folder with HTTT somewhere - the executables should still work).
enlightenedbum: support; province allocation; initial religion allocation
starkiller: playtesting; religion and Levant-area decisiion and mission ideas
Kayne Redrobe: playtesting; assorted content for Illyria, Scotland, Egypt
Phyphor: über playtesting; balance testing and suggestions
President Rex: anything else (particularly after ebum's computer exploded)
Everybody that played through CK for their write-ups for the persistence events.
1. Download the mod (which will be cleverly hosted at Google Docs)
2. Extract the ZIP
(which should have a Carolingian folder and Carolingian.mod at the root level) It should go in the mod folder in your Europa Universalis III folder. For example, my path is C:\Program Files\Europa Universalis III\mod
Default Steam EU3: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\europa universalis iii - complete\mod
(if the mod folder doesn't exist then create it)
3. Run the EU3 launcher
This is EU3.exe in the Europa Universalis folder. Steam defaults to launching eu3game.exe, so you will need go to your EU3 folder.
4. Select "Carolingian" in the drop down mod selection list and play
5. Acknowledge the launch through steam (if using steam)
If you haven't played EU3 before check out the basic tutorial in the Paradox thread (in parts one and two)
There's one game mechanic we're not using, and that is government changing via the Form of Government button on the Government overview tab (at least until my event chain completely fractures under pressure). Government changes are covered by a series of events (although feel free to enact the decisions that change the government if they become available during your reign). Otherwise don't expect to colonize until we get QFTNW or it's into the 1600s. And be wary of your reptutation due to the CB and infamy changes.
At some point a critical flaw is likely to reveal itself and then I will jump in to try to save the day (like some sort of Lex Luthor figure that intentionally sabotages his own work to look like a hero!).
The mod is intended to be played on Hard difficulty as Vermandois (BUR), which has the option of becoming The Frankish Empire (CRL). If you're interested in general changes to a variety of game aspects view the vast amount of information below.
For clarity I will refer to the LP country as BUR/CRL below.
The World
Poland, Scotland, Brandenburg, Norway and Lithuania are the only large European countries whose borders nearly match their EU3 Grand Campaign counterparts.
Bohemia's king is currently the Holy Roman Emperor, but he must contend with a growing Austria, an upstart Bavaria, expansive Brandenburg and the rock of CK Europe - Poland.
Byzantium currently controls something similar to historical Byzantium of the 13th and 14th centuries. But their position is just as precarious: they're having economic trouble and face competition from other major Greek states of Crete and Epirus, as well as the Bulgarian pretender kingdom of Illyria.
Castille and Léon share the Iberian peninnsula similarly to Aragon and Castille in vanilla EU3.
Denmark is fractured, although the core kingdom still exists.
Egypt has essentially replaced the Mamlukes (also they're Coptic).
England has recently reunified is on the warpath to conquering the British Isles. However, Scotland has been one of the sturdiest kingdoms in Europe and has a good chance of forming the Scottish Union as an alternative to England's United Kingdom.
France does not exist. This will likely be the largest change normal EU3 players will notice since France is a huge powerhouse. France consists of Aquitaine, Vermandois, Brittany and a collection of smaller countries.
Golden Horde is significantly smaller due to their terrible, terrible performance in CK. The usualy Tartar horde north of the Black Sea has been replaced by a variety of countries with Tartar's precursor culture: Cuman.
Karelia occupies a significant portion of Northern Russia, and has a good chance of being an alternative to the formation of Russia. At the moment they are still following their Finnish Pagan gods.
Makuria exists. By the 12th and 13th centuries the fairly civilized country of Makuria had been islamicized and was was being crushed between the emerging Funj people in the South and Muslim raiders in the North. Since our crusaders were incredibly successful Makuria stayed Oriental Orthodox (Coptic) and managed somewhat peaceful relations with Ethiopia and Egypt.
Ming has benefited from the Mongols' failed invasions of the Muslim and Christian sphers in the Far West. They're relatively stable and more prosperous - the smaller dynasty of Manchu may not manage to usurp control over China.
Sweden does not (yet) exist. Sweden consists of Scania, Dalecarlia, Goethaland, Svealand, Gotland and Jaemtland and Lappland - any of which can potentially reunite the kingdom (or it may fade into obscurity).
Zenata has - to a certain extent - replaced the Ottomans, they are aided by their partner Magreb Arab allies, Morocco. They are surrounded by lesser Muslim dynasties in the south and recent Cuman converts to Christianity in the north and will likely come into conflict with Byzantium or Egypt.
Colonisation
Colonisation is one of the most heavily affected gameplay aspects. The mechanics themselves have not changed (send colonists and build colonies), but getting colonists and starting colonies may be more difficult. Colonists - particularly in the early game - are much more limited. Colonization capability is controlled through 4 modifiers.
Colonisation falls into 4 groups:
Only countries on the Iberian peninsula, Morocco and Zenata have the potential to start with positive numbers of colonists. Otherwise countries must actively adopt colonisation-oriented ideas or be adjacent to empty land (e.g. Russian Steppe, Nubia). To offset the initial lack of colonists for explorers and conquistadors there are now events that provide them. Native hostility in African coastal provinces has been increased (except in the early-colonised region of South Africa)
BUR/CRL's National Ideas have not been set, but starts with the Tradtional Worldview.
The goal of this change is to limit the number of overseas colonizers and the number of colonies - particularly in Africa. The rationale is twofold: 1. historically - although Europeans had permanent trading posts in Africa beginning in the late 1500s - the true colonisation of Africa happened during the Age of Imperialsm better covered by Victoria; 2. the number of nation tags available in Victoria is (unlike EU3) limited, so making sure there isn't a vast patchwork of disparate cultural colonies will help in the long run.
Cores
Cores are not as freely given as vanilla EU3. Most missions do not give free cores and the border friction event is much less common. Cores are gained after 55 years and lost after 85 years (unless - like in vanilla EU3 - the province is of the same culture group).
BUR/CRL starts with cores on its owned provinces as well as Bar, Hainaut, Bourgogne and Franche Comté.
The goal of this change is to limit outlandish spread of countries. It should be difficult to hold land from another culture and 'core' land should be earned not given.
Government
There are now a series of events to lead BUR/CRL to either an Absolute Monarchy, Enlightened Despotism or Constitutional Monarchy. While some of these events are also available for other nations, their primary purpose is to direct the governmental changes of BUR/CRL. Each government form has a type of parliament - naturally more absolutist government can disregard the parliament completely - if desired. Enlightened Despotism does require at least one humanistic National Idea.
BUR/CRL's government should not be changed through the government tab. Decisions and events are designed to do it somewhat organically. All events impacting the government of the country are prefaced with red "Carolingian Governance" text. Repeatable parliament events are prefaced with red "Carolingian Parliament" text.
The goal of this change is to prevent one player from making a vast overarching change to the country that is difficult to reverse. The events are designed to fire 1 or 2 per monarch reign, with a minimum needed before the government can change (although with EU3's event system it's completely possible that one person may get substantially more or fewer events). Generally events have a absolutist and a democratic option - pick whichever you feel your monarch (or you) would want to do.
Event listing (actual spoilers inside)
Flags are Boolean states used by the game to check if something has happened. I.e. they are "yes this 'flag' has been set" or "no this 'flag' is not set." Variables are like flags that can contain an actual number value.
Holy Roman Empire
The HRE functions the same as it does in vanilla EU3 with 3 major changes:
BUR/CRL begins the game with some provinces as part of the HRE. Because Vermandois (the capital) is not part of the HRE, she is technically not a member.
The goal of these changes was to prevent the rapid expansion of the HRE to vastly ahistorical locations (an AI emperor tends to bring any owned province into the Empire). It also helps keep the HRE fairly cohesive (less in-fighting), yet weak (in keeping with the fairly weak state of Germany in CK).
Infamy
The infamy limit has been reduced. With a leader of average diplomacy the BB limit is approximately 20 infamy (infamy decay remains the same). Similarly, BB costs for many wars have been increased, meaning it makes more sense to meddle in others' affairs and prevent them from doing things than wantonly expanding. There are no longer casus belli that provide no infamy increases.
BUR/CRL also has a national decision where the king can abdicate for a reputation drop. Unlike CK infamy does not decay when a new monarch ascends to the throne.
The goal of this change is to prevent the globe from being painted one color by 1600 (I know Phyphor could probably still easily do it). The AI is similarly bound, and this helps prevent them from undertaking rabid expansion as well.
Missions
There are numerous missions at work to direct the AI towards certain objectives. Quite a few vanilla EU3 missions have been modified to accept more varied triggers (e.g. instead of having the Netherlands directed to colonize South Africa any Dutch or Hannoverian country of significant size can receive the mission).
BUR/CRL was built from Burgundy and many of those missions remain relevant (with altered descriptions). I specifically avoided making specific missions for Burgundy because I have no idea what people will want to do with it (conquer Europe? Colonize? Form merchant power? Crusading state? etc.).
The goal of this change was to give some order and direction to AI action (hence missions were mostly avoided for BUR/CRL.
Persistence
There are now a number of events that work off of events from the CK game. Some of them give choices, most of them are one-off events. There's one for each reign up to Ioannes. Each of them has a variety of triggers so it's completely possible some may not fire.
The effect on BUR/CRL should even out - there's a mix of negative and positive and neutral events. All events impacting the government of the country are prefaced with red "The Carolingian Dynasty" text.
The goal of this change is to offer persistence through the succession game. If I need to update the mod partway through the EU3 succession I hope to make additions to this referring to earlier events in EU3.
Event listing (actual spoilers inside)
Positive events are denoted with a +, negative events with - and neutral or variable events with / .
Religion
There are now 4 new religions: Cathar, Jewish, Sami and Coptic.
Cathar (Albigenisans/Waldensians) were generally considered Heretics in southern France and northern Italy and were annihilated in the Albigensian Crusade of the early 1200s. Our Cathari were a bit more successful due to a string of heretic Burgundian (Vermandois' kings) and a decentralized Papacy.
Jewish people had small enclaves throughout Europe, but our CK game saw the survival of the Khazar 'Empire.' In the 10th century Khazar nobility converted to Judaism and a portion of the population followed; CK models this by making them the only Jewish 'country' in CK. Their survival means there is a Jewish country at the beginning of our EU3 game (unfortunately there's barely enough territory to cover one territory, so they are pretty doomed).
Sami represents the various Finnish Pagan religions of Karelia and northern Finland that we have. Since Karelia has a decent chance of replacing Russia their religion is represented.
Coptic is an easier means of referencing Oriental Orthodox Christianity, and represents the faction of Christendom that broke from the (then unified) East-West church at the Council of Chalcedon. They were effectively under the Patriarch of Alexandria (compared to the Patriarch of Rome for Catholicism and the Patriarch of Constantinople for Eastern Orthodox). Egypt, Makuria and Ethiopia are Coptic.
BUR/CRL will likely be unaffected by the religion changes, although it's possible that the proximity to Catharism may lead to some Cathar provinces.
The goal of this change was to closer mimic the world of our CK game (the fact Ethiopia is now properly Oriental Orthodox is just a side benefit). Plus there will be an interesting challenge to see who can survive longest as a Jewish Khazar Empire.