'Dev Diary': The Ottoman Empire & Janissaries

[TornadoWatch]

Hi, everyone.

Just here to talk about some modding work I did over the past few days for a new feature that is going to be integrated into the mod. I asked Hash about it, and he said he'd put it in -if- I did all the work--I have, and here's what I came up with. Since this mechanic will probably be in our next game, I figured everyone should know what it actually does.

Traditionally, the Janissaries in EU4 haven't presented any meaningful choices to the Ottoman player. They are, more or less, a free modifier that gives huge bonuses for very little cost--It's not a question of whether you want them or not, it's just a question of how long you'll keep them before falling into Janissary decadence and pressing that button to get rid of them, again, for very little cost.

I've always felt as though the Janissaries represent an estate in EU4; a special-interest group that wants to hold land and must be managed. So I decided to make a mod to try to represent the Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire and the benefits along with problems they brought. The concept is to emphasize the Ottomans' early game strength and dominance while giving them serious internal challenges to overcome later on, simulating the historical stagnation and decline of the Ottoman Empire.

The Estate: Bonuses and Interactions

The Janissary estate is available to everyone in the Anatolian unit group. If their influence is sufficiently high and their loyalty is above 40, they'll give +20% manpower recovery, +5% discipline, and +10% infantry combat. If their loyalty is above fifty, then they give +30% manpower recovery, +5% discipline, +10% infantry combat, and +1 yearly army tradition.

When angry (Below 40 loyalty), they give you -10% discipline and -20% manpower recovery.

They have a base influence of 20%.

They demand 5% of your country's development to stay loyal, and are only available in heathen provinces. They increase manpower by a significant amount, more than the nobility.

Now, onto their interactions. See below.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/102853135247505550/89C896B04EC35867C53D8186FF3F44E7A36F1126/

The Janissary Estate has a lot in common with the nobility. You can recruit troops from them, and the interaction gives more manpower if they have their influence in a comfortable middling range (50-60ish)--It increases their influence by 20, and loyalty by 10. You can grant them a generalship for 20 influence, and give them a bonus (75% of your yearly income) for 15 loyalty.

You can also recruit a Commandant (discipline advisor) for reduced cost. The other major feature the Janissary estate has is the Curtail actions; I'll go over those more in depth later, but for now all you need to know is that you spend (Yes, spend) 250 monarch points in a category of your choice to reduce their influence by 10 for 10 years.

What makes them different/How does this work?

The Janissaries are not a typical estate. They are an estate that is strong in the early-game, but as the game goes on they will change and evolve. Initially, it will be simple to use their variety of useful interactions to buff the Ottomans. However, every 30-50 years, the Ottomans will receive a scripted event for the Janissaries.

The first event in 1450 will give a choice between giving the Janissaries a permanent 10 influence until the end of the game, or disbanding them (Which removes the estate). The next event will give a similar option, except it now costs military points and stability to get rid of them--This will continue on throughout the game.

In 1530, 1570, 1630, and 1685, the Ottomans will receive events related to the Janissaries. Each event offers a choice: Either give the Janissaries more influence (Usually, 15), or attempt to put the Janissaries back in line for massive penalties.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/102853135247543259/CA26F7D585F71B949AAF620519A9C27C587A231B/

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/102853135247539685/067A012C3F2C60D76A60CB164C5318EB76ED28B0/

The influence modifiers all stack, which means that if left unchecked the Janissaries will inevitably gain a completely disproportionate amount of influence in the Ottoman Empire. Their estate interactions, which give them significant influence, will have to be avoided to not trigger janissary decadence, meaning no more 'free' discipline advisors and manpower. By 1630, if their influence is not decreased, Janissary Decadence will begin ticking in a similar manner to the other Estate disasters. This means that the Ottoman player will have to either go through the disaster or will have to spend massive amounts of monarch points to keep the Janissaries under control.

If triggered, Janissary decadence gives -25% institution spread, +25% idea cost, +25% technology penalty, and -25% manpower. It CANNOT be stopped until after fifty years have passed, and when it does the Janissaries will be disabled.

My hope is that these changes will serve to give the Ottomans a more unique playstyle that incentivizes them to either play around their late-game weaknesses or to just avoid taking the Janissaries altogether, which isn't necessarily a bad choice.

Janissary Events

The final thing to address are the Janissary events. There aren't a lot of them; they can tick every 10 years, with a mean time to happen of 150 months or so. After one of them happens, again, another won't occur for a minimum of 10 years.

Firstly, the Janissaries may choose to support a below-average as the Ottoman heir; a practical puppet-King. If you accept their demands, your heir will be changed and they will gain 15 loyalty and 10 influence. Declining makes them lose 20 loyalty.

They may randomly demand pay if you aren't at war. This will either drain about half of your yearly income, cause the cost of infantry to go up by 20% as long as your current ruler is alive, or you can decline to give them anything and cause them to lose 20 loyalty.

The old event where the Janissaries were paid at the beginning of each ruler hasn't changed a lot, aside from now giving the Janissaries -50 loyalty if you refuse to pay them.

Finally, the most spicy event: Assassination. If the Janissaries' influence is above 50 and their loyalty is below 40, the Janissaries may assassinate your Sultan, giving you -10 prestige and, obviously, killing your ruler.

Thanks for reading and feel free to give feedback, and ask me questions if you want.

[GrenadierSchube]

this is the most bad ass feature I have seen yet. I have always thought the same an to be able to implement it finally is awesome.

[ptz]

sign me up for ottos next game yo !!!

[Didds]

why my pp hard