Franconaute - For the Glory Carnet de développement 4

Aujourd'hui, à nouveau le jour de Mercure.
Vous connaissez la routine:

Citation:

Hello everybody, and welcome to our fourth development diary for ‘For the Glory’ (FTG).

FTG brings new interesting features for the interface and gameplay. Games will never be the same.
The first improvement was the support of all screen resolutions but this was just the frame. We already saw the general interface and the playable political map. Let’s see other important game improvements.

Notifiers
Here is the list of the reminders and warnings (notifiers):

When the country is likely to run out of money
When there are possible revolts in the country with a sorted list of the involved province and related revolt risk
When Domestic Policies can be changed
When the country is at half maintenance at war or full maintenance at peace
When the country is investing in a technology even though it is at the max level (*)
When a truce is expiring
When a Casus Belli is expiring
When the country is at war
When troops are in a foreign territory when at peace and without military access
When a loan is due date is approaching
When officials can be promoted with the list of possible provinces
When ships are sinking at sea because of naval attrition

(*) even with a possible unlimited tech tree, this reminder can still be useful.

I am playing Sweden and I can see where officials can be promoted. I just have to click on the flag and the map will be centered on the first province where I can promote one:

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2379/...lsnotifier.png

By the way, it seems I forgot to change my Domestic Policies and I am still paying full maintenance while Sweden is at peace...

Cores
Core provinces are an important feature in the Europa Universalis games. Cores show provinces that should be protected at all costs or conquered for the expansion of each country. In FTG, we have four different kinds of cores:

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2679/...alprovince.png
National province: this is the standard core with full effect (increased income, increased manpower, no nationalism and permanent Casus Belli against the owner).
National province cores have two symbols, a star above the Coat of Arms and a ribbon just under.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/418/claim.png
Claim: same effect as a national province, except nationalism is still active and no increased manpower. Targeted provinces are not national according to History but, if owned, income because of direct administration is increased.
Claim cores have only a star above the Coat of Arms.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2267/casusbelli.png
Casus Belli province: this core only gives a permanent Casus Belli against the owner, and no other effect if owned. This core is useful for colonial provinces in particular but not solely.
Casus Belli cores have a little star above the Coat Of Arms.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5402/tordesillas.png
Treaty of Tordesillas (ToT) province: provinces that give permanent Casus Belli against the owner if in the Catholic religious subgroup and if not a recipient of the treaty. Corresponding provinces can be taken by force by a recipient even if not at war with the owner. Any province can be part of ToT, even if also national, claim or Casus Belli.
ToT cores have a Catholic cross above the Coat of Arms

ToT cores are now displayed on the political map but only for settled provinces. Colonization mode is required for the display of all of them.

Political map mode:

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/820/totpolitical.png

Colonization map mode:

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/1723/totcolonization.png

There is no change to ToT rules but the model can be extended to any country tag now and not only Spain or Portugal (that can even be removed or tweaked in the devoted part of the database).

Of course AI takes cores in account with their different level of importance from national province to Casus Belli in descending order, ToT provinces having a special status.

Leaders
In FTG, you can find standard leaders as Generals, Admirals, Explorers and Conquistadors. The game added a new leader type: Privateer
A privateer is neither an explorer nor an admiral. He can appear in any owned port and even sea zones. At this time, he will give a temporary Casus Belli to all neighboring countries but this is not the same as commissioning privateers in a sea zone. A privateer can lead any fleet of the country, just like any Admiral. This is not a pirate (well...), even if pirates can have great leaders too.

Mercenaries, pirates, rebels and revolters
Pirates and rebels now have full morale when they appear. They use the most advanced naval or land technology in the world and with full corresponding naval or land Domestic Policy settings, respectively. Not easy to beat but still affordable.

With previous dev diaries, you know how much hiring mercenaries will cost. They also appear at full morale but, as regular units, will use the same land technology as the hiring country.

When a country appears as a result of a successful revolt, the Mother country is now in a defensive war with it and has a temporary Casus Belli against it. The revolter gets an army in its capital province according to the strength of this province.
Other rebels present in the provinces of the new country are converted to regular armies (no change to this rule).

And lastly, rules for defecting provinces have been reworked and all criteria refined.

Adjacencies
In FTG, you will find two new adjacencies.
The first one is a land connection. It can be a path through Permanent Terra Incognita between two or more provinces. The second one is a winter conditions connection between two adjacent provinces. If one of the provinces is under winter conditions, movement between the two provinces is forbidden and a little red cross appears on the map. Movement of armies that began before the winter conditions are then stopped if winter conditions are still present at the end of the required movement time.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/218/landconnection.png

Land connection between Kyzylkum and Uzbek

Some other game improvements
Many other “little” improvements are present in the game. For example, retreating armies no longer loot provinces. Conversion and colonization chances are computed at the end of the process, not at start (things can change with time). Many tooltips have also been reworked for more precise information... to be continued in a future dev diary.

The next dev diary will be devoted to the new script engine.

Un peu plus concret cette fois!