Le Quartier Général

A new train is rolling here at Paradox, and this one has "Heir to the Throne" painted on in big Gothic letters. This is the expansion we did not intend to make, but over time (and a few beers) the good ideas just kept piling up. Although, with the game already labeled "complete", we were in a bit of a pickle. So we asked you, our loyal and steadfast peons, ah, players, if you could stomach yet another EU3 expansion. It seemed you could, so now everybody is a winner! See how well these things always turn out? Now, since I am the Procurator of Paradox Expansions (or "POPE"), I'll be writing these dev diaries.

While this expansion is titled "Heir to the Throne" (more on heirs and dynasties in a later entry), perhaps the most central feature is the concept of war aims, which should make wars more interesting and counteract "blobbing". Casus Bellis are no longer generic, but divided into many different types, each one allowing a specific set of peace conditions. The resulting war will be named after the CB, so you will have the "Swedish Reconquest of Gotland", etc. Thus, while a nation may have sent you an insult, that does not really justify demanding half their country as recompense in the peace negotiations. (You still can, but it will give you mucho infamy/badboy.) Instead, taking gold or having them revoke core provinces will yield more prestige. Moreover, there are no longer any special stability rules for declarations of war; everything is now consolidated into proper (and easily moddable) Casus Bellis.

"What?", you say, "I want more land! Only provinces matter!" Well, if you want to expand rapidly, there are Casus Bellis for you too, like "Imperialism", "Nationalist Unification" and "Holy War". These are typically not available at the start, but require a certain level of government technology or a national idea. However, prestige will be not be anything to scoff at in "Heir" (another thing for a later dev diary.) In line with this, a new peace option has been added: "Concede Defeat". This is an alternative to White Peace which gives a prestige boost to the winner, and a corresponding loss to the loser.

That's all for now. I shall leave you with some screenshots to inspect and ponder.

Oh, and here is an example CB script for the modders among you:

# Nationalist unification
cb_nationalist = {

badboy_factor = 0.25
prestige_factor = 2
peace_cost_factor = 0.5

prerequisites = {

government_tech = 18
culture_group_claim = THIS

}

allowed_provinces = {

culture_group = THIS

}

po_demand_provinces = yes

war_name = NATION_WAR_NAME

}