Magna Mundi

This article is accurate for the latest versions of EU3, Napoleon’s Ambition, In Nomine and Heir to the Throne 4.1b.
Please help update this page to include information on the DW expansion.

Magna Mundi Ultimate
Basic Info
Mod name	Magna Mundi
Website	Magna Mundi forum
Mod version	MMU 1.2, released Jul 09 2010
Game version	HTTT 4.1b
Mod Type
Mod extent	major overhaul
Mod focus	Gameplay, Realism, Map

Magna Mundi (current version: Magna Mundi Ultimate 1.2^[1]) is one of the the most complex mods for EUIII, focusing on gameplay, historical plausibility and detail. This article is about the free mod—it should not be confused with the standalone Magna Mundi game,^[2] currently in development. You can also check the site of the full game^[3]

During December '09 Magna Mundi won a poll held at Paradox forums ^[4] that showed more than 40% of the sample played Magna Mundi, versus the 8% of the second most popular mod (Whole World mod)). Even more astonishing was the fact that Magna Mundi came strongly ahead of the original EU3 version who scored about 30% of the sample. Coupled with more than 1.000.000 downloads (as of June 2011), this clearly points to the mod incredible popularity among the game fanbase.

Introduction

From the mod's general manager and lead designer, Ubik:^[5]

Magna Mundi is an effort to lead the game through historical processes allowing it to flow freely within the constraints faced historically, thus, and in part contrary to the vanilla experience, creating plausible alternate realities.

We achieve this by coding complex event pools that are not targeted at the most tangible elements in the game, the countries, but instead at the virtual environment the engine generates: Religion, certain geographic regions, certain political entities, all the colonial environment, etc.

Beyond this we turn the game mechanics much deeper to spice up the game trying to allow the player to feel a living, breathing world, while hidding the raw mechanics that define the game system. Expect a detailed National Ideas system, Vassalization system, Personal Unions system, Modernization system, Warfare system, Covert Action system, Trade system, etc.

Taking advantage of the latest designs of IN, we use decisions to open new strategies to gameplay, instead of prizes to be achieved after some game mechanic was "beaten", the path taken in vanilla. This means decisions are now really dilemmas the players face. Is it worth it to finance a smuggler operation in a neighbour province? Is it worth it to build a great arsenal? Is it worth it to protect your traders? Is it worth it to fund public schools? Is it worth it to take drastic measures against the plague? Is it worth it to stage hiring fairs to have bigger chances of getting the dearly needed advisor? Is it worth it to sacrifice part of the civil population and local political strength to have a chance to recover a rebel province without sending a single men there? Is it worth it crippling a bit the long term economy to recover faster from chaotic stability? Is it worth it to sacrifice centuries of policies in order to eventually modernize? Is it worth it to pay dearly to fund an expedition to the new world? ... the list goes on and on... and on.

Our goal is to give you, the man behind the curtain, the tools to pursue your objectives with myriads of different strategies and immerse you in a new reality.

Your challenge is to take the best decisions and decades, if not centuries later, look back and be proud of the decisions that shaped your nation's destiny.

Major features

For more details, see the Magna Mundi Main Page. It's a bit outdated, unfortunately.

One of the most important changes is to National Ideas. These not only have more dramatic effects than in vanilla, they now have a major influence on the character of your nation. Even building a navy may be impossible without naval ideas, for instance. Every country starts with 3 NIs, and while it is still possible to swap them, it's now very painful and expensive, causing social disorder (rebellions, stab hits, etc.) in your country for decades as your society adapts to the new order.
Overhauled trading system now requires a lot more attention. Basically, it gives trading bonuses to small traders while handicapping countries with a lot of placed merchants. You can overcome some of the penalties with appropriate Ideas and policies.
Lots of changes to religion. There's a pretty extensive web of events that make the Protestant Reformation a lot more interesting—if you're lucky you can even get major conflicts like the Thirty Years' War. Magna Mundi provides for minority religions, so a province can be majority Sunni with Hindu and Jain minorities, for instance, which will have different effects based on how tolerant your country is. There's also a bunch of new religions, including Judaism which is modeled by Jewish communities in cities that can be integrated, tolerated, or even expelled from the country. These changes, coded and tested internally during Magna Mundi development, can also be experienced as a stand alone mod called Dei Gratia released by Dharper, the designer and coder of this system.
Reputation is now a lot more difficult thanks to the infamous Framed! event, which fires most often when you're near your badboy limit, giving you 10 or more badboy points, for good times! Just remember: you're not a bad person, Ubik just hates you.
If your blood pressure wasn't high enough, try the Berber Piracy events that affect every country with a port around the Mediterranean. These events can be devastating to countries that don't prepare for it with NIs and decisions to combat piracy, or anyone who pisses off the Muslims in general. On the other hand, it is possible for any Christian country with a seaport in range of the pirates to covertly work with them to reap great rewards, at the risk of enraging the rest of Europe... As with the rest of the mod, planning the right approach is paramount to increase dramatically your chance of success. Intuitivvely, check if you have Espionage and Internal Security National Ideas, Diplomats or Spymasters and a high DIP on your ruler for maximum effect.
Lots of little changes to warfare, generally making it more expensive and challenging. For instance, a "cavalry tax" severely penalizes countries that rely on cavalry armies, and sieges now take a lot longer because every level 1 fort has been bumped up to 2000 men. There's a lot of changes to the naval side too, making it imperative to maintain a strong fleet if you've got any overseas interests.
Governments now have a number of ranks, so you can rule a county, duchy, kingdom, or empire depending on how rich/powerful/influential you are. Your government gets an "administrative efficiency" ranking based on government form, NIs, policies, monarch ADM, etc. which sets the number of provinces you can capably rule, with terrible penalties for countries that overextend themselves. I'm not even sure a world conquest is possible in Magna Mundi, thanks to this addition.
Modernization is now a lot more complicated. Magna Mundi replaces tech group penalties with country modifiers representing contact with other countries, socio-economic complexity, and attitudes toward diversity and change. A skilled (and lucky) player can eventually overcome a lot of these penalties, putting primitive countries on par with the advanced ones. Still, playing Creek is going to be very, very hard.
Very complex Holy Roman Empire. This makes internal HRE politics very important—electors now have the ability to pass all kinds of laws affecting HRE members. It's possible to unify the HRE or destroy it, but there are now severe penalties for making war within the Empire. These changes, coded and tested internally during Magna Mundi development, can also be experienced as a stand alone mod called Sacra Romanum Imperium released by Helius, the designer and coder of this system.
A very detailed system for the Sengoku Jidai—the fractured state of Japan into many fiefdoms, with no real central authority. (Historically the shogunate was consumed by a succession war in 1467, leaving no one in charge.) For anyone playing a Japanese clan, the challenge for at least a century will be to gradually unify the tribes to form a unified Japan once again.
Colonialism is more detailed and fun. Only a few countries can easily colonize the Americas, and they'll have to specialize to do it. If you can afford the really expensive explorers and colonists, you'll have a lot of interaction with the natives who can range from helpful to hostile, depending on your colonial policy. In the late game, developing colonial cities have a lot more concerns (economic rights, quartering of troops, demands for expansion) than in vanilla, and there's a well-developed system for protests and revolutions to occur. Portugal is a good choice for a colonially-oriented game.
A Dynamic Core System that turns province coring times dependent on several province and global stats while adding an element of randomness to it. Instead of the fixed 50 years to core a province, in Magna Mundi a province can core in less than 10 years or more than 300.
An Advanced Building System that adds depth to the internal country management and provides character to each province. This system is not about building everything everywhere, but carefully picking what to build where.
Overall, the mod is more difficult and realistic than the sandbox of vanilla. Income from all sources is lower, province taxes are lower, stability is more expensive and plays a more important role, buildings are usually more expensive and less beneficial (but there are around 80 to be built instead of the basic 6 of the original game), and so on. I think it's more fun, but also more frustrating. This being said, difficulty depends mainly on risk judgement. If the players don't try to bite more than they can chew, Magna Mundi is not that difficult. If the player overreaches...

There is also a Magna Mundi version for the latest EU3 installment, Divine Wind, which can be found here: (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?622221-Bringing-Magna-Mundi-to-Divine-Wind)

In the end, the huge popularity of Magna Mundi should be used to gauge its quality and lasting appeal.

More features

List of more pro-eminent features (in no particular order):

Plagues
Civil Wars
Discoveries
Colonial formation
Colonial policies
Colonial independence
Country formation
Trade goods (49 in all)
Trade rankings
Trade policy
Succession wars
Imperial politics
Imperial power
Imperial diet and voting
Imperial demesne
In-depth religion (the world extensively covered)
Religion conversion
Berber pirate policies
Berber pirate consequences
Berber pirate hunt
Covert Action (60 spy missions)
Modernizing through foreign contact
Modernizing socio*economic structure
Sengoku Jidai (hugely detailed civil war in Japan)
Land Warfare
Naval warfare
Static Defences
Attrition
Special army maintenance
Reputation
War Exhaustion
Prestige
Advisors
Rebels
Stability mechanics
Inflation mechanics
Vassalization
Personal Unions
Map provinces
Map graphics
Province data
Country data
Diplomacy Data
Army data
Navy data
Ship types
Army types
Policies
Radical policies
War of the roses
Jews
Knights of Saint John
Jesuits
Status Quo
Government systems
Government efficiency
National ideas content
National ideas specialization
New national ideas
Balance of power
Historical AI
And much more... this list is very far from complete and most items include many subitems.

Developer diaries

A new version of Magna Mundi was released on 2 of October, 2009. Here are some of the previews for features added to that version:

The Magna Mundi team

The Magna Mundi Team has been comprised over the years of extremely talented and hardworking indiduals who devoted more than 20.000 hours of their life to a project they want to make as special as their talent allows. Their efforts have been rewarded with an entry into the competitive world of professional game development, as they are presently developing a game based on the mod's design approach.

Here is a list of some of Magna Mundi Team most proeminent members with some of their accomplishments:

Alvya - Arguably the most brilliant element ever on the team, he is considered one of the Big Four (the core team that brought Magna Mundi from a most promising mod into something truly exceptional). His work has been varied but very influential at low level mechanics: Noble Oppositions, Civil Wars, Upstanding army modifiers, the detailed South American conquests event pool and a host of smaller but very well crafted changes, like using fort levels dynamically that was later taken advantage by Ubik on his Land Warfare system, were some of his contributions to the mod. Last but certainly not least, Alvya was also the one that designed the central concept of Administration Efficiency.

Berto - Above all he was the one which brought Quality Control to the table over the development of Magna Mundi Platinum 2. Possessing a mind attentive to the smallest detail he was invaluable in spotting bugs and systematically ensuring the team would address them.

Dharper - Another of the Big Four and the only Clausewitz scripter that can measure up to Helius in technical prowess, the legacy of Dharper to the mod has been immense. He was solely responsible to develop the entire Religious System of the game (in its latest stages released as a mod of its own called Dei Gratias), the Modernization System and Sengoku Jidai implementation (this one inspired by an older and much smaller mod whose author is Sakura). On top of this Dharper possesses an encyclopedic knowledge, which means his word often acts as a counsellor to most of the teams implementations, in terms of realism. He was also the author of most of the icon changes and additions of the mod (modifiers and religious icons).

Ese Khan - A scripter with great talent and a great personbality he fleshed out and delivered the entire Nomads System and brought a new life into a gameplay void called the Asian plains.

Helius - The third of the Big Four, he is the best scripter ever to work on the Clausewitz engine. Helius work has been astounding. He is the sole author of all the Holy Roman Empire system of Magna Mundi (in its latest stages released as a standalone mod called Sacra Romanum Imperium), Parliaments System, Personal Union's System, part of the Trade system and the whole Hansa System, among other smaller implementations like Emigration, for instance. A true expert in History - he is a world recognized scholar - his contribution to the mod, since April 2007, has been huge. Last but not least, Helius is the author of the only significant sized mod that is integrated into Magna Mundi coming from external development: Ad Infinitum.

Isca - The first beta tester of the mod, Isca also contributed extensively with his unique writing skills. Most of the mod's beautiful event texts are from his authorship. His influence during all of 2007 was huge.

Sharpalignment - One of the two starters of the mod, his contribution up to April 2007 was immense and it can still be experienced in the Knights of St. John special implementation in the game. You play the Knights, you'll have a truly unique experience. Its overall value can be judged by the fact that it remains almost unchanged since then.

Strannik - He is the one that delivered that beautiful piece of art that is the Magna Mundi map. Sometimes, single liners tell volumes.

Ubik - The last of the Big Four he is also the founder of the mod, its lead designer, public face and general manager. Ubik's work is varied and all encompassing both at design and scripting level. Ubik is the author of the Pirates of the Barbary Coast system, the Espionage system, the Country Policies System, the National Ethos System, the Vassalization System, the Reputation System (beware being Framed!), the plague system, co-authorship of the Trade system, Colonization System (except the part that deals with abstracted natives), Exploration System, Factions system, Stability System, the Dynamic Core system, Land Warfare system, Naval System and most of the general balance of the mod performed on the static, event and triggered modifiers files. On top of this he also manages the team's output into a unified and balanced design.

Wiz - Wiz is a talented coder that brought the Colonization system much further by providing means of interacting with the abstracted native tribes, thus adding a new layer of depth to the colonization game.

External links

References

↑ MMU 1.2 download
↑ Forum for Magna Mundi, the Game
↑ Oficial Game website
↑ How do you enjoy EU3, poll at Paradoxplaza
↑ Ubik's profile

[1] MMU 1.2 download

[2] Forum for Magna Mundi, the Game

[3] Oficial Game website

[4] How do you enjoy EU3, poll at Paradoxplaza

[5] Ubik's profile

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