Click here for the Forum post. Good afternoon! I am once again eschewing the traditional Swedish summer vacation, this time because Id prefer to wait until I can safely travel rather than taking a dull staycation in my Stockholm apartment. What that means for you lovely people is that you get summer content dev diaries! Lets get right into it!
Those of you who know me even slightly will be aware that I love all things South-East Asia (SEA). After 2.5 years on the project, I finally have the opportunity to create the SEA map rework of my dreams. Shown above is Mainland SEA. Burma/Myanmar is excluded from the map rework as I feel that the treatment I gave it during the development of Dharma still holds up. There will certainly be new content for nations in that region however, including what another dev fondly described as the Shan mission stick when we played MP this weekend. The country setup has not been radically altered. The only new additions to the 1444 setup are the tribes inhabiting what is today the Central Highlands of Vietnam. I have, however, added many new provinces and increased the total development of the region significantly. According to the logs, the indo_china_region now contains 64 provinces with 542 total development. Note that these numbers, like all numbers presented in dev diaries, are not final. Im especially satisfied with how Lan Na fits into its 5-province state, bordered on its west by impassable terrain. Speaking of impassable terrain, the Annamite Range now separates Vietnam from much of Laos, making Dai Viet a drastically more defensible nation. A design goal for Mainland SEA nations in the 1.31 update is to emphasize vassal play and the development of capital super-cities. Well talk about various ways that this will be achieved another time, but one prerequisite for the goal is having nations to vassalize:
Several releasable nations now have cores on territory held in 1444 by Lan Xang and Dai Viet. These nations actually already exist in the game files, but are very rarely seen in 1.30 due to their lack of cores. Unfortunately there arent really any sensible ways that Ive found to divide Ayutthaya or Khmer, though in Ayutthayas case Sukhothai can still serve as a vassal to which you can feed your Thai provinces.
Ive also taken a look at culture groups in the region. Central Thai and Northern Thai are now simply Thai, which belongs to the Siamese culture group that it shares with Lao and Shan. Countries in this culture group are able to form Siam, though Ayutthaya can only do so via its new mission tree. The Indochinese culture group is admittedly fairly arbitrary, but does serve to encompass regions of natural Vietnamese expansion on their nam tin (southward advance). Cham has been moved to this group to reflect that we no longer equate culture and language.
Next week well take a similar look at Maritime SEA - modern Indonesia and Malaysia. In terms of scripted content you can expect plenty of historical events, mission trees, disasters, government reforms, estate privileges, and more from the 1.31 update. Well get to these in later weeks, but for now thats all I have to say. Until next time, have a good week!

Main Features

• Make your own decisions: Nation building is completely flexible and the possibilities are endless.
  
• Use your Monarch Power: Experience the new system of monarch power where your choices are influenced by the caliber of the man or woman you have at the top and will direct the ebb and flow of gameplay.
  
• Experience history coming to life: The great personalities of the past are on hand to support you as you make your mark on thousands of historical events.
  
• Turn the world into your playground: Enjoy hundreds of years of gameplay in a lush topographical map complete with dynamic seasonal effects.
  
• Experience the all new trade system: The trade system adds a new dimension to the great trade empires of the period. Gain control of vital trade routes and make the wealth of the world flow to your coffers.
  
• Bring out your negotiating skills in a deeper diplomatic system: Use coalitions, royal marriages and support for rebels and explore the possibilities of the new unilateral opinion system.
  
• Engage in Cross-platform Multiplayer: Battle against your friends or try the co-operative multiplayer mode that allows several players to work together to control a single nation with up to 32 players. Featuring improved chat and new matchmaking servers.
  
• Create your own history & customize your game: Europa Universalis IV gives you the chance to customize and mod practically anything your heart may desire and uses Steam Workshop.

• Processor: Intel Core i3-2105 / AMD FX 4300Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 / AMD Radeon HD 5850Video Memory: 1 GB RAMIDIA GeForce 9600 or higher. 1024MB graphics memory requiredHard Drive:6 GB HD spaceOther Requirements:Broadband Internet connectionAdditional:GLSL 1.3. OpenGL 2.1. Controller support: 3-button mouse. keyboard and speakers. Internet Connection or LAN for multiplayer

• Processor: Intel Core i3 3240 / AMD FX 8120Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 TiVideo Memory: 1 GB RAMHard Drive:6 GB HD spaceOther Requirements:Broadband Internet connectionAdditional:GLSL 1.3. OpenGL 2.1. Controller support: 3-button mouse. keyboard and speakers. Internet Connection or LAN for multiplayer