Hello everyone and welcome back to yet another development diary for Europa Universalis 4. Today's topic is once again a few more new features in The Cossacks. We'll also be going over some changes coming to Claims and Zones of Control in the free 1.14 patch.

Improved Espionage (Expansion Feature) One thing we often hear is that the Espionage idea group is too weak and not worth taking. With that in mind, we've decided to strengthen it up with a couple more espionage actions: Study Technology and Agitate for Liberty.

Study Technology Study Technology lets you send a spy to a more technologically advanced country. For each category where they are at least 2 technologies ahead of you, you get +1 power each month. However, sending spies to multiple countries will only help if they are advanced in different categories: You are capped at +1 in each of ADM, DIP and MIL no matter how many spies you have sent out. [​IMG] [​IMG]

Agitate for Liberty Agitate for Liberty lets you send a spy to the subject of another nation to raise their Liberty Desire, useful if they just got a brand new personal union over a powerful nation, or you're looking to break up their colonial empire.. The Liberty Desire of that country will increase by +1% per month, up to a maximum of +25%. Multiple countries agitating in the same nation will not stack up beyond +25%. [​IMG] [​IMG]

Distribute Spoils (Expansion Feature) Another small feature coming in The Cossacks expansion is a change in the way money and prestige is given out in peace deals. Previously, all money and all prestige would go to the warleader, regardless of how much his or her allies had bled for him. For those with the expansion, this will now change to be based on war contribution, with each member of the winning alliance getting a share of the gold and prestige relative to their contribution. For example, if England and Castile go to war against France and England racks up 30% participation while Castile racks up 70%, 70% of the gold and prestige gained in the peace will go to Castile, despite the fact that England is war leader. [​IMG]

Zone of Control Changes (Free Feature) The fort rework in 1.12 added a much more strategic element to warfare, but with it came some complicated rules and confusion over what exactly forts were and were not allowed to block. To simplify the system and make it more intuitive, we've decided to make the following changes: - Forts that have been captured by the enemy will now have a Zone of Control and block movement for enemies of controller. - Forts now have Zone of Control over any country's provinces (but can only flip control back over your own owned provinces) meaning they can block enemy movement through friendly & neutral land. Movement through a country's own provinces cannot be blocked if a fort from that country is protecting those provinces. - Provinces can now be in the Zone of Control of multiple forts. - Moving through Zones of Control should now result in fewer unnecessarily long paths.

What this means is that forts should behave more intuitively, and act the same everywhere regardless of whether they are enemy-controlled or whether you have a single neutral province next to your own fort. [​IMG]

Permanent Claims (Free Feature) As anyone who's ever formed Qing knows, the 25-year timer on claims can be a bit limiting: It's difficult to conquer all of China in only a quarter of a century. To address this issue, we've added a new type of claim that is gained ONLY from nation forming: Permanent Claims. As the name indicates, Permanent Claims are... permanent, and lost only if revoked through war or if the claiming nation is annexed. They also give a -25% cost reduction on core creation, instead of the -10% from normal claims. [​IMG]

That's all for today! Next week we'll be talking about the subject of subjects.