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]

 

[moscal]

Modernize "New World generator"? Now the non-mobile Indians may be the polar circle, surrounded by the Indian mobile and more mismatched elements.

 

[Jolt]

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 it?

I'd imagine that the whole ToT mechanic would be far more ambitious than coding two events and scripting a bonus for the two Catholic countries to create a colonial nation first, and a scripting a malus for other Catholic nations colonizing in the Americas.

 

[Golladan]

That's it?

I'd imagine that the whole ToT mechanic would be far more ambitious than coding two events and scripting a bonus for the two Catholic countries to create a colonial nation first, and a scripting a malus for other Catholic nations colonizing in the Americas.

I don't think you understood how the mechanic works...

 

[loup99]

I don't think you understood how the mechanic works...

Well, atleast no CB is described in this DD.

 

[Apollyonna]

I just wish the new DLC would add in a tremendous penalty to countries going over their force limits.

The Spanish Armada had 150 ships around 1588 (includes some from Portugal and Naples), yet to see Spain AND Portugal each with 400 to 600 ships patrolling is not uncommon by that time.

I know the AI does not get naval attrition but maybe it is high time this is introduced. Then you could add 50% additional naval attrition for going over the force limit by 10% or so. This might stop the ridiculous spawning of ships everywhere.

It might also change the trade balance a bit again as it has been said over and over before, the trade income for some countries is ridiculous, allowing them to go over both naval and land force limits easily. I noticed once Portugal with a land force 100% over their limit yet they were still happily earning money. It reduces the balance of the game.

While you are at it, going over any force-limit should have a non-linear penalty. For example 10% over = 50% additional maintenance cost, 20% over = 75% additional cost, etc.

 

[Apollyonna]

And when will ships be able to attack cities from the sea (destroying some buildings maybe) and coastal cities be able to attack ships ?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

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

Let's be realistic. A handful of bonuses is not what you need when it comes to WC. All of that is crapper territory compared to uniting the HRE and grabbing a PU, even for Aztec.

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...

Making a fast run there as Catholic is no gimme, but just as importantly deus vult makes taking provinces in a colonial region cost 0 DIP per if you're running cleansing heresy, meaning that their Catholic bonuses to colonies can ultimately become yours as soon as you've set up a CN in the region; your CN will almost certainly wind up with that culture accepted and CN ideas add +conversion strength large enough to convert any accepted culture new world province in the game.

That does of course assume that subject nation religious conversions work and stop freezing to the point where even easily converted provinces aren't attempted due to a longstanding bug, and that's a big assumption. Because that bug dissipates on reloading the game, a bug report save probably isn't particularly useful (though I've given them twice anyway) and it would be pleasant surprise to see it finally gone.

 

[Golladan]

Well, atleast no CB is described in this DD.

Dev Diaries tend to leave stuff out (patch notes too ). There may also be a CB. Maybe a hit to papal influence as well.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

I know the AI does not get naval attrition but maybe it is high time this is introduced.

Not a bad idea actually. Hopefully AI naval attrition will be back with this DLC.

 

[G_Morgan]

Any indication on whether Restraint of Appeals will affect the Treaty of Tordsillas. Seems unlikely a nation that has told the Pope to get out would care about his silly treaty.

 

[ParadogsGamer]

Let's be realistic. A handful of bonuses is not what you need when it comes to WC. All of that is crapper territory compared to uniting the HRE and grabbing a PU, even for Aztec.

But it would be fun

 

[xyzt44]

Is this expansion going to be fully compatible with the random new world feature from COP?

 

[Phalanx300]

If you have the Aztec religion and are a vassal, will the doom counter keep counting?

 

[Sunbro BigBoss]

I just wish the new DLC would add in a tremendous penalty to countries going over their force limits.

The Spanish Armada had 150 ships around 1588 (includes some from Portugal and Naples), yet to see Spain AND Portugal each with 400 to 600 ships patrolling is not uncommon by that time.

I know the AI does not get naval attrition but maybe it is high time this is introduced. Then you could add 50% additional naval attrition for going over the force limit by 10% or so. This might stop the ridiculous spawning of ships everywhere.

It might also change the trade balance a bit again as it has been said over and over before, the trade income for some countries is ridiculous, allowing them to go over both naval and land force limits easily. I noticed once Portugal with a land force 100% over their limit yet they were still happily earning money. It reduces the balance of the game.

While you are at it, going over any force-limit should have a non-linear penalty. For example 10% over = 50% additional maintenance cost, 20% over = 75% additional cost, etc.

I think that numbers are not meant to be historical.

 

[Casus_Belli]

So, the Treaty of Tordesillas will just allow one Iberian to colonise huge amounts of one colonial region?

 

[Labrynian Rebel]

This looks really interesting. The only thing I think that getting and losing 5 vassals 5x would get tedious and annoying. Other than that the DOOM mechanics look really interesting, can't wait to see what the other two new religions get! Also I'm looking forward to the exploration event chains.

 

[PhroX]

So, the Treaty of Tordesillas will just allow one Iberian to colonise huge amounts of one colonial region?

Unless I've completely misunderstood it, it applies individually to each colonial region. So for each region, there is one "rightful" owner - the first catholic nation to get a CN there - who get the bonus within that region.

 

[juckil]

Great, Catholicism is now even more op!

 

[Bijeli Kamen]

Now even more important to shut down the other one as early as possible when playing castille/portugal

 

[niallmcfc]

So, the Treaty of Tordesillas will just allow one Iberian to colonise huge amounts of one colonial region?

As opposed to what happened irl, which was of course entirely different.