On peut donc concentrer ses efforts sur une province, si je pige bien. Je ne vois pas trop l'intérêt.Apparently, there has been a lot of speculation concerning the two different crowns in the diary screenshots. Now, while I am not one to needlessly spoil a pleasant surprise, it is not my fault if you actually read these crazy developer diaries. So, don't come crying to me when you sit there on the floor, surrounded by a heap of torn Christmas paper with a big black void in your soul where all that magical, glowing anticipation used to be. Are you still ready to know what the extra crown is?
It is, of course, the Crown of the North, our previous masterpiece, where your subjects can enjoy many hours of unadulterated fun in front of their screens, lowering the revolt risk in the province at the cost of less taxes... Pardon my little awareness check there; just trying to confuse you with Comic book style abuse of the bold typeface. No, let us speak no more of old crowns, but the brand new one, which is your National Focus. The national focus is exactly what it sounds like (to me anyway - to you it might sound like "cheese sandwich"); a region of particular interest to your country at the current time. You plunk it down - much like moving your capital - and then it starts to affect that province as well as its neighbours. It will increase factors like tax rates, population growth, colonial growth, missionary success chance and similar, as well as having less obvious effects, such as the chance of special events occurring. The national focus is now required if you plan to create a new Center of Trade; a limiting factor to be sure, the upside being that it will now allow you to create a CoT in a province that already trades through one of your other centers. Can I move the national focus whenever I wish, you wonder? No, you cannot. There is a relatively long cooldown, affected by the administrative efficiency of your government type. It is our hope that the national focus will be an even more successful crown than the Crown of the North!
I have one more present for you today, before I go home to relax in front of the fire with a glass of eggnog and the heart-warming certainty of having brought good cheer to our faithful players (at least, those of you not busy writing us death threats about the Hansa being a playable country.) Over to Johan:
One of the main problems with balancing combat in EU3 has always been the fact that, as technology gets better, weapons cause more and more casualties, meaning that ping-pong and long chases after retreating armies were very common early in the game, while battles turned insanely bloody in the later part of the game. What we have done for Heir to the Throne is to rebalance the entire concept of land combat by introducing a new concept for land battles called "military tactics", which decreases damage taken. This basically corresponds to the same level as the sprites are, and will make the amount of casualties in battles more even throughout the different EU3 eras. Now the outcome of battles between armies at a similar tech level, regardless of the era, are more like those of the early 17th century. Infantry and Artillery now also get a basic fire value from the start. This, together with making battles last for at least 12 days, with 2 rounds of shock and fire each, has made battles far more decisive. Also, units that are caught with zero morale will always surrender, no matter the size of the enemy.
Back to me, your friendly POPE. I would only add to the above that all unit types should now be of comparably quality to Western ones, as long as they are of a similar tech level. (So that if you succeed in westernizing, you will no longer be stuck with inferior troops.) And with that, I bid you farewell.
Until next week, compadres
Par contre, c'est bien ces changements dans les combats.
