Welcome to the very first development diary for El Dorado, the fourth major expansion for Europa Universalis 4. To kick things off, we’ll be talking about the new Nahuatl religion that El Dorado adds in Central America and also about how the expansion changes exploration and colonization.


Nahuatl
One of the centerpieces of the expansion is the new Nahuatl religion. A number of Central American states, most famously the Aztecs, believed that the world was destined to end and that only the strength of their Gods could prevent it from happening. For the Gods to have enough power to prevent Doomsday, they needed sacrifice - human sacrifice. The Aztecs would go to war to secure captives for these sacrificial rituals, all in the name of keeping the universe together.

In El Dorado, this is represented through a mechanic we call Doom. All Nahuatl states have a ticking Doom value that increases every year based on the number of provinces they own. High Doom increases technology costs and idea costs and should the value ever reach 100 the Nahuatl state will be forced into taking drastic measures to avert Doomsday. The ruling family will be sacrificed, killing your ruling monarch and heir and replacing them with a 0/0/0 ruler. In addition, all of your monarch power is lost and any and all subject states break away as the nation descends into chaos. As if that wasn’t enough, if the doomed state has gained any religious reforms, up to two of these will be lost (more on that below).

To avert Doomsday, Nahuatl states have a few options. The ‘Flower Wars’ Casus Belli gives them the ability to declare war on their neighbours freely while occupying provinces and winning battles will result in Doom being reduced as they secure captives to send to the Gods. If just warring with your neighbours isn’t sufficient, Nahuatl states can also sacrifice ruling monarchs and adult heirs in their vassal states. Doing so will reduce Doom by an amount equal to the total skills of that monarch or heir, but will anger all subject states and make them more likely to seek independence.

If you wish to get out of this cycle of war and sacrifice, you will need to reform your religion. Each of the three new religions (more on the other two in a later dev diary) has their own reform track, and their own unique requirements for passing a reform. Nahuatl states have five reforms they can pass, giving benefits such as colonists, war exhaustion reduction and more diplomatic relations. Enacting a reform requires having at least 5 vassal states, no rebels, positive stability and less than 50 Doom. When enacted, Doom will increases by 25 and all subject states will declare independence, forcing you to go to war to bring them back into the fold. Once you have passed all five reforms, the ‘Reform Religion’ button will be available as soon as you border a Western neighbour. This brings you up to 80% of that Western nation’s technology level and allows you to Westernize. It also permanently disables the Doom mechanic.

Exploration
Exploring the New World can be very rewarding, but also a bit tedious, as you have to manually control your explorers and conquistadors while they seek out new land for you to colonize and conquer. In the El Dorado expansion we’ve added new systems for both land and sea exploration, but we’ll leave the land exploration for a later dev diary and instead talk about naval exploration.

Those with the El Dorado expansion will have an ‘Exploration Mission’ button in the unit panel that opens a list of possible missions that their explorers can undertake. These include exploring a sea, charting a coastline and even circumnavigating the globe. When you send a fleet on a mission to explore a sea or chart a coastline they will head towards that province and automatically uncover it, along with surrounding provinces, before returning to port. Charting coastlines can also result in a variety of events as your explorers make landfall and encounter the native population of other continents. Fleets on an exploration mission do not suffer from attrition but you will not be able to divert them from their course and you can’t send a fleet exploring unless it is in port. Furthermore, exploring can no longer be done with a single ship - you need at least 3 Light or Heavy Ships (or a mix of both) to be able to explore.

Nations that have Diplomatic Technology level 9 can follow in the footsteps of Magellan and attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Doing so will send your fleet on a trek from the Straits of Magellan to the Cape of Good Hope. The fleet will take attrition as normal on this mission, but if it makes it all the way around the globe without sinking, you will have successfully circumnavigated the globe. Being the first nation to circumnavigate the globe will give you 100 prestige, while other nations who do so later will gain 10 prestige for a successful attempt.

Treaty of Tordesillas
Colonization of the Americas wasn’t a free-for-all. The Pope divided the world into Spanish and Portuguese influence spheres that determined who had the right to colonize a given part of the world. In the El Dorado expansion, Catholic nations will be able to gain a similar sanction for their colonization by being the first nation to create a colonial nation in a colonial region while having positive relations with the Papal States. The first nation to do so will be given a ‘Papal Grant’, which speeds up the growth of settlers for them by +10 in that colonial region and slows down the settler growth of all other Catholic nations there by -20. A Catholic nation that violates a Papal Grant also gets -50 relations with both the nation that has the grant and the Papal States.

That's all for today, but there will be a dev diary every Thursday up until release, so stay tuned!

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado - Expansion Announcement Teaser
[video=youtube;vYDn6JhHEuw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYDn6JhHEuw[/video]

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado - Dev's Play 1
[video=youtube;kaq97WPCpiI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaq97WPCpiI[/video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaq97WPCpiI

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado - Dev's Play 2
[video=youtube;bK53EcmWp1o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK53EcmWp1o[/video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK53EcmWp1o

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado - Dev's Play 3
[video=youtube;Ftx_sbEJEF8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftx_sbEJEF8[/video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftx_sbEJEF8

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado - Dev's Play 4
[video=youtube;qAWOuwVTTQw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAWOuwVTTQw[/video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAWOuwVTTQw

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado - Dev's Play 5
[video=youtube;8a9rbt-9mho]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a9rbt-9mho[/video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a9rbt-9mho

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado - Dev's Play 7
[video=youtube;83FrD4ZMfmg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83FrD4ZMfmg[/video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83FrD4ZMfmg

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado - Dev's Play 6
[video=youtube;DWHAEspX4W8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWHAEspX4W8[/video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWHAEspX4W8[URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK53EcmWp1o"][/URL]

 

[josh127]

That's why this mechanic is so silly. Because if IRL the Aztecs didn't do enough blood sacrifice, maybe some peasants would be pissed at the ruler and think he's bad, but otherwise nothing would happen! It's not like the Nahuatl gods are real.

They might as well introduce an event for Christian nations where Jesus swoops in and establishes the Millennial Kingdom. That's about how historical this thing is.

So no good on the Ghostbusters reference then?

It's a lot more interesting to consider whether the costs are worth the benefits. 10% morale, -2 unrest aren't bad baselines. Wiz said that you keep the reforms when you westernize, this is unlike native councils and provides the faith a substantial advantage. The symbols also lead me to believe that in the beta you have reforms impacting discipline, war exhaustion, and the stated colonist as well. Depending on what you can see, the combination of the post-reform benefits and the tech boost on reform might make Aztec more viable than previously, depending on how it's balanced.

I'm not sold that it would be Paradox's plan to let you keep all those reforms the entire game with no further strings attached. If that's the case, I'll rethink my position, but I just can't picture that.

 

[DC123456789]

Has Mesoamerica been shown on the stream? If not, I suspect that they might end up adding more provinces and states to make the Doom mechanic more viable; this also looks likely since the first picture seems to have suspiciously scrolled away from Mesoamerica.

 

[moscal]

" - AI does not get naval attrition. It does avoid going too far out of range with most of its naval operations though, to somewhat simulate it."

From - http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?713856-AI-Cheats-Facts-and-misunderstandings

Thus, the AI will lose this cheat in the mission "travel around world"? Or modernized AI that does not need this cheat?

 

[Golladan]

Has Mesoamerica been shown on the stream?

Mesoamerica has been show in the stream.

 

[ehecatzin]

Mesoamerica has been show in the stream.

didnt they just show the Zapotec and Mayan area? there's plenty of nations they could add to central and western Mexico.

 

[Mauer]

Still, I think that most American cultures or religions should have a "no annexation" attached. Only confederations, alliances or vassalizations. I don't think direct conquest without vassal kings had ever been done in America before the Europeans arrived. The Cahokia hegemony system in the Mississipi valley relied on a network of subsidiary chiefdoms and the Triple Alliance had its myriad of vassal tributary kings. I don't know about the Inca empire, but it would surprise me if they didn't have a more or less decentralised rule base.

As long as they get unlimited vassals or at least a couple more diplomatic relation slots it would be a great idea, as well as switching to regular vassal mechanics after reformation of course.

 

[DominusNovus]

Another thing: Given that Castille and Portugal already have ideas, missions, and events that boost both their influence on the Papacy and their colonization efforts, will those two tags be modified to take into account the Papal Grant mechanic? For Castille, at least, Inter Caetera should be removed or nerfed (and renamed, most likely).

 

[Keioel]

The Inca were a centralized Monarchy, with a class based bureaucratic system.

I don't know about the Inca empire, but it would surprise me if they didn't have a more or less decentralised rule base.

 

[Finnway]

I really like the new "Papal grant" mechanic. It adds some more politics to colonizing the new world instead of simply being a rush for land.

 

[Jokolytic]

"Arbitrary religious beleif" you mean the core feature of the aztec religion? youre right, why have a pope for catholicism, its just an arbitrary part of the religion

Don't get so butthurt, the few people on Earth who still have remnants of that faith probably aren't playing this game.

I wonder, is there any Catholic-Mesoamerican pagan syncretism today? Besides that La Muerte saint in Mexico.

 

[ehecatzin]

I wonder, is there any Catholic-Mesoamerican pagan syncretism today? Besides that La Muerte saint in Mexico.

The "La Muerte Saint", known as La Santa Muerte is actually syncretism from Santeria roots that got really popular amongst cartels and its narco culture. As for syncretism between catholicism and mesoamerican religion, there's a substantial amount, from the Guadalupe virgin, to dances, food, language, etc. pretty much every latin american culture is the result of that syncretism. As for more direct mixing of beliefs, many modern Mayans practice a Catholicism that uses ancient Mayan rites, like ancestor worship and peregrination to underground caves. There are also indigenous groups that mantain a strong component of their religion but with catholic influences here and there, like the Wixarikas (Huichol).

 

[Wildcat_PL]

Any word about that button? We already have privateer mission so what that might be? Pirate hunters perhaps?

 

[Saintlukas]

Many Good suggestions

most of these can be represented through Events that only that religion triggers, much like the Muslim Piety events and the orthodox events dealing with Patriarchy authority

 

[Xinkc]

Sounds like El Dorado will warrant me attempting a MesoAmerican playthrough.

 

[Meeg]

you mean how brazil is far to the west of the line, how theres these big non spanish post colonial states in north america and south of the border at various times too?

litterally nobody but spain cared about the treaty

I remember being taught in school that the Pope slipped up and moved the line in the Americas for Portugal further West than was intended. Maybe that was just what the Portuguese said?

 

[Granite]

I just hope that to balance this out, Aztecs start out with at least one or two vassals, or else, DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!(God that's fun)

 

[LordLoko]

With the new naval exploration, you can still send manual commands, right?

 

[TheDarkMaster]

Is there a limit on how many CN zones that you can get Catholic control of? Will a catholic nation that has the statute in restraint of appeals ignore the treaty bonuses and negatives?

 

[Freudia]

I'm not sold that it would be Paradox's plan to let you keep all those reforms the entire game with no further strings attached. If that's the case, I'll rethink my position, but I just can't picture that.

I assume the drawback is you lose them all if you flip to another religion, including a Christian denomination, and staying as Nahuatl will make getting any alliances with the Old World pre-1650 a chore, if not a nightmare.

Also not being able to luck into PU magic too.

 

[ehecatzin]

I just hope that to balance this out, Aztecs start out with at least one or two vassals, or else, DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!(God that's fun)

Well by the start of the game Moctezuma I just got the throne and the Triple Alliance was limited to the Anahuac valley, we wouldnt start with any vassals, but thats part of the fun, the Aztecs were the new kids on the block anyway, much more fun to go on a conquering spree.