Greetings folks,As we are are wrapping up the work for the year, this week's DD will be a rearview mirror glance at 2017, on what we have accomplished and the team behind EU4.With that said, if you know yourself to be a ‘dev diary purist’ in the sense that you only want to read about what’s going in to the next expansion, then read no further.This is not the DD you are looking for.The year kicked off with an Asian focus, where Mandate of Heaven and its Ming patch saw the light of day early April. Closely followed by the Hungary patch, where we could enjoy some extra content in that area.When I joined the team end of April, things were already moving along quickly for Third Rome - our first stab at creating a new kind of expansion. With the Immersion Pack, we wanted to provide something that focused more specifically on a certain area, while still offering some new and invigorating gameplay. And we wanted to see if we could do it faster than a regular expansion (which apparently, we could). It’s fair to say we got some mixed feedback, but most importantly some great input on what we could do better.It was early summer when work started in earnest on this year’s big expansion, and now mid-November we could finally celebrate the release of Cradle of Civilization! Not only did it live up to our expectations of what a great expansion should offer the players, but it actually delivered hotjoin and cross-platform MP back to the people (after no little efforts from the team, it should be noted).And as we gently pushed out the Japan patch last week, I do believe we’ve all earned a well deserved Christmas break.Not uncommonly, the team has seen some changes through the year; we were joined by @Groogy (roughly at the same time as I took over from @Anona ) and after the summer @mikesc joined the team as a programmer as well. There were also losses; @Gnivom @Ihki have both moved on, and @Johan is now spreading his time and experience across all PDS titles (both present and future).This means that @DDRJake is now officially shouldering the role as Game Director, and as an end-of-year bonus we managed to re-enlist @Chaingun for some extra AI love (which you can see first hand in previously mentioned Japan patch).Of course we still have our other seasoned team mates that have continued to contribute with code ( @r_lazer ), content ( @Trin Tragula ), art (@TheRealTimor) and testing ( @StarNaN @Imse Vimse ).And our game wouldn’t be what it is without all the great help from supporting members of central teams and other dev teams - a special VIP mention goes to @Alexivan for his incredible work on multiplayer!We do have some interesting changes to the team next year - we will get some sparkling new additions for both code and content, and someone ‘old but new’ will be stepping into the designer shoes.And on the topic of changes and things to come - this so happens to be my last week with the team, as I am confidently handing over the torch to @millenss , who will carry on the project leadership for EU4 into the new year.But depending on your dealings with other PDS titles, you may still see me lurking in the CK2 corridors in 2018…So until then - have a fabulous and playful Christmas & New Year!//Fogbound***Hello community!Big thanks to Fogbound for the introduction and for allowing me the opportunity to work with such a fantastic team. I’m really excited for all the cool new stuff we will be bringing your way next year, but until then, have a great holiday everyone.//millenss