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]

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You get to keep the reforms after you reform your religion.

Haha, wow. I'd not have guessed that one. You made Aztec + co even more volatile than hordes, but that's some pretty serious compensation in return.

 

[Sunbro BigBoss]

Fleets on an exploration mission do not suffer from attrition

Does that mean that there's no risk to lose the expedition? That sure reduces micromanagement, but it doesn't add much fun, IMO (of course I've yet to see how will this work).

Also, from what I understand the destinations of those quests are quite predefined.

I'd say that for earlier dates, exploration should feel more like a bet than a true investment: Paying to begin the expedition, Setting a general direction for the exploration and not knowing when, how, where or if the explorers returned, sometimes discovering nothing,or a new random land, and sometimes bringing home some precious treasure. That, at least for me, would be more fun and (I think) a more accurate version of how these kind of expeditions worked out.

 

[grommile]

Also, since you're looking at slowing down naval exploration; can you do something about colonial range? Like make it so that distant overseas provinces don't count towards it.

And yet another person fails to do their sums regarding colonial range.

Historical fact: Spain colonized the Philippines in 1570. They did so using an expedition launched from the west coast of Mexico.

Mechanical fact: If you increase colony range as of 1570 to the point that Spain can reach the Philippines without colony-hopping, you end up completely defeating whatever purpose you might be seeking to achieve by removing colony-hopping.

 

[Ralepozozaxe]

You get to keep the reforms after you reform your religion.

So after reforming the Nahuatl religion would be

1. -revolt risk
2. +morale
3. -stability cost
4. free colonist
5. +discipline
6. + dip slot
7. reduced war exhaustion over time

Doom seems harsh, but if you get all this it is worth it.

 

[Kraxis]

You get to keep the reforms after you reform your religion.

But you still need to go over Dip Rel to even get into reforms right?

 

[ParadogsGamer]

Haha, wow. I'd not have guessed that one. You made Aztec + co even more volatile than hordes, but that's some pretty serious compensation in return.

Next goal:
World conquest with new world tribes? ;-)

 

[Panzerschiffe]

So there's some kind of incentive to stay catholic. It's hard to judge exactly the importance of it at this point though. Maybe converting to protestant or reformed won't be such a no brainer for smaller nations anymore...

 

[winsingtonIII]

Should try to queue up movement orders sometime. That's a good way to not get your fleets sunk due to forgetfulness.

You can't queue up move orders into multiple terra incognita provinces, because you technically don't know there are provinces there.

 

[Kipperian]

I like having the Treaty of Tordesillas back into the game. It should also grant permanent claims/cores in the colonies that other powers can establish in the land (colonial nation area) which was granted to you by the pope.

 

[Kraxis]

So there's some kind of incentive to stay catholic. It's hard to judge exactly the importance of it at this point though. Maybe converting to protestant or reformed won't be such a no brainer for smaller nations anymore...

Isn't it exactly the opposite? Most small nations won't be first to a colonial region. I can only think of Brittany and the Irish where it is reliable. By pressing the issue you can also do it as the north coast HRE minors. But for any other wanting a piece of the New World, chances are that they are even better off going for Prot. or Reformed.

 

[Targor]

German Version: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...geb%FCcher&p=18752731&viewfull=1#post18752731

 

[comp]

But you still need to go over Dip Rel to even get into reforms right?

They will probably get a new government type with +dip relations like Shogunate or +dip relations in their NIs.

 

[SignedName]

You get to keep the reforms after you reform your religion.

Is there actually any incentive to go Catholic then? Is it even possible to become Catholic?

 

[kralex]

As a European nation, will I be able to give the Aztec my king in a peace treaty for sacrifice duty? (His name is Enrique, btw)

 

[Camarada78]

I ask again Will we have Non-Agression Treaties, like the London Treaty of 1518, which prevented war between major european powers and avoided blobs in Europe?

 

[josh127]

You get to keep the reforms after you reform your religion.

Seems like a big point to skip.

So if you westernize are you still going to have the Catholic events repeatedly pop up if you want to stick with your newly reformed religion? Or are they getting cut down so that maybe you get one opportunity for it and then it's gone?

 

[anomer]

Nahuatl and automatic explorations sounds cool.

However I am not sure about Treaty. It fits from historical perspective, but for gameplay... I think that the more varied and crowded New World is, the more fun it is. Changes should aim to increase rivalry within same regions instead of discouraging it.

 

[Granatenwerfer]

@WIZ
Regarding colonising you mentioned the word 'tedious'. It is indeed a little bit tedious that my colony-garrison, consisting of 2k - 3k troopers, is attacked by aggressive natives up to 6 times a year. All attacks were unsuccessful and hence Paradox could think about such steadily repeating procedures.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

@WIZ
Regarding colonising you mentioned the word 'tedious'. It is indeed a little bit tedious that my colony-garrison, consisting of 2k - 3k troopers, is attacked by aggressive natives up to 6 times a year. All attacks were unsuccessful and hence Paradox could think about such steadily repeating procedures.

Ahh yes the Native rising!
Can we please get rid of that?

 

[jdavis86]

Sad to see how paradox work in things like "doom" instead of improving Political, diplomatic and economical aspects of the game (basically more things to do in peace times).

I really didnt see anithing in this first DD that exited me.

This completely.

Would rather see the addition of more depth to important systems instead of flavor for relatively inconsequential countries.

I do like the exploration bit. That is a welcome piece of immersion and a good QOL improvement.