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Welcome back to a new Dev Diary! I am Aldaron and I am the other new Content Designer in Paradox Tinto. Happy to be here with all of you, adding a bit more information to that which my colleague @skingrado shared last Tuesday.

During the last Dev Diary there were two questions that were repeated a few times and that hopefully I will be able to answer today:

  • What about Western America?
Well, we cannot just add everything we have done to a single dev diary, but do not worry, because today we’ll show you a bit more, this time devoted to this area of North America that you people asked for.

  • Will there be any work on the rest of America?
The focus of this expansion is not the rest of America, but as a matter of fact, we added a mission for those nations with the Religious Reforms feature.

So without much preambles, and before we start, I would like to remind everyone a last tiny thing. As my colleague said last Tuesday, we have divided North American Natives into 6 of the 9 cultural areas that are normally used in anthropology when studying these people. Dividing them in cultural areas has given us the opportunity to group several TAGs into a common core and at the same time add diversity to the area.

MISSIONS:

As you might know, one of the less fun things when playing natives was the mission tree. You had the general mission tree, but you could not fill it due to the limitation natives have! Well, no more. As part of the work on natives, we have created a new general mission tree adapted to Natives, with some interrelationships between several of the missions and the addition of some new ones to make them more engaging. This mission tree is available to every native nation, from the Northwestern Pass to Tierra del Fuego.

1606204192958.png

(Notice that all icons are still placeholders).​

Besides, as you can see in the previous image, we have added a small mission (Reform our Religion) for the three more advanced native groups (Aztec, Inca and Maya) to deal with their mechanics, despite them not being the focus of the expansion.

1606203947425.png

Continuing with last week’s trend, here we have the specific regional mission tree for those natives whose living developed in the Great Plains of North America. This group includes the several Sioux tribes (such as Lakota or Dakota [Sioux ingame]), the Shoshone or the Wichita. This group’s focus revolves around hunting bison and would evolve to a horse riding culture after contact with the Europeans. Without any doubt the most iconic Native American group of people.

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Gathering all that available food from the wild that will improve your economic power.
  • Befriending those around you will help you with your federations.
  • Capturing those horses from the Europeans will greatly improve your capacity to combat over them.

1606203975409.png

If Plain Natives were a rather peaceful people before contact, Northwestern ones were pretty much the contrary. Raidings were a constant in the life of these people and would bring their canoes to capture slaves as south as California. But war and slavery were not the only thing Northwestern natives would focus on, they had a complex social culture that involved showing wealth of to their own people or to foreigners as a way to celebrate their power (the Potlach Ceremony) or showing respect to ancestors or shaming enemies with their elaborate totems.

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Remembering the ancestors and their deeds to unite your people under your rule.
  • Boasting about your wealth to bring your allies closer to you.
  • Showing your strength and using that fear against your enemies.

NATIONAL IDEAS:

Pretty much as with Mission Trees, we have divided National Ideas into Regional National Ideas that will fire for TAGs belonging to certain regions.

In this DD I will present two of the six regional sets.

Since California was forgotten in the previous section, I will start with them.

California is the smallest cultural region in North America but with a very pronounced personality. Despite being mostly sedentary people, living in a very rich region, Californian Natives did not rely much on agriculture and despite their population density (it is estimated it was the biggest in NA) they were not very warfaring. Their NIs relate to their own development and diplomatic expansion.

Code:
california_native_ideas = {
    start = {
        autonomy_change_time = -0.25
        same_culture_advisor_cost = -0.5
    }
   
    bonus = {
        years_of_nationalism = -5
    }
   
    trigger = {
        primary_culture = yokuts
    }
    free = yes
   
    division_as_a_strength_cf = {
        num_accepted_cultures = 1
        promote_culture_cost = -0.25
    }
    basketweaving = {
        production_efficiency = 0.05
    }
    tribelets = {
        diplomatic_upkeep = 1
        stability_cost_modifier = -0.10
    }
    forest_gardening = {
        development_cost = -0.10          
    }
    kuksu_cult = {
        religious_unity = 0.5
    }
    rock_art = {
        prestige_decay = -0.01
        global_unrest = -2
    }
    medicine_men = {
        land_attrition = -0.10
    }
}

Back to the Northwest, these people had a different angle on how they saw life and their NIs are more devoted to warfare and expansion.

Code:
nw_native_ideas = {
    start = {
        development_cost = -0.10
        heir_chance = 0.5
    }
   
    bonus = {
        army_tradition_decay = -0.01
    }
   
    trigger = {
        OR = {
            primary_culture = athabascan
            primary_culture = chinook
            primary_culture = haida
            primary_culture = salish
        }
    }
    free = yes
   
    raid_warfare_nw = {
        infantry_shock = 0.5
        rival_change_cost = -0.2
    }
    brother_salmon = {
        tolerance_own = 1
    }
    potlatch = {
        improve_relation_modifier = 0.2
        global_unrest = -2
    }
    mother_and_father = {
        female_advisor_chance = 0.1
    }
    totem_poles_nw = {
        prestige_decay = -0.01
        stability_cost_modifier = -0.1
    }
    canoe_people = {
        leader_land_manuever = 1
    }
    division_as_a_strength_nw = {
        num_accepted_cultures = 1
        promote_culture_cost = -0.25
    }
}

EVENTS:

Different regions will have access to different events, and some common ones. This week we will show a few of these regional events and we’ll call it a day for now.

1606204499094.png

Californian Natives had their own secret cults that should you pay the price for them would bring you some wellbeing.

1606204635645.png

Diplomacy in the Plains is not always easy.

1606204707435.png

The Potlach was a massively important ceremony for the Northwestern Natives. Choosing to celebrate it or not could have consequences.

You might have noticed that both my colleague and me have shown a small selection of missions for you. After the release you will have the chance to discover the other two regional mission trees (SE and California) and several TAG/culture specific ones, find some Easter eggs here and there and several other goodies. Stay tuned and see you next week!
 
If Plain Natives were a rather peaceful people before contact, Northwestern ones were pretty much the contrary. Raidings were a constant in the life of these people and would bring their canoes to capture slaves as south as California.
In that case, maybe the Northwestern natives should be able to raid coasts as part of their ideas? Or, given that natives can't build ships in the current build, have some other idea relating to raiding?
 
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infantry_shock +0.5 is the equivalent to Spain's Artillery Fire +1.
it might look half as good on paper, but considering your tech 6 infantry only has 1 or 2 Shock-Fire pips, this is basically a +25% or +50% infantry combat ability by the time you unlock it, which is insanely OP, but falls off really fast.
By tech 8 its already only a +10% IC, which is alright.
By tech 12, its only +5% IC, which is very weak.
And it only gets worse from there.
Is that really how that modifier works? As in, depending on unit pips? I thought it would increase the UmAtk in this formula. At tech 5, this would be +77% Inf Shock Damage (0.65 -> 1.15) or +50% ICA in total (1 -> 1.5 if you add fire and shock values together, although fire phase coming first changes the math a bit).

At tech 11, it would be +43% Inf Shock Damage (1.15 -> 1.65) or 26% ICA (1.95 -> 2.45).
At tech 28, it would be +23% Inf Shock Damage (2.15 -> 2.65) or 12% ICA (4.25 -> 4.75).
At tech 31, it would be the same value for Inf Shock Damage, but only +9.5% ICA (5.25 -> 5.75)

It still degrades over time, of course, but if I'm not mistaken, it's still a decent modifier at the very end of the game.
 
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it might look half as good on paper, but considering your tech 6 infantry only has 1 or 2 Shock-Fire pips, this is basically a +25% or +50% infantry combat ability by the time you unlock it, which is insanely OP, but falls off really fast.

Shock fire has little to do with pips.

+0.5 infantry shock starts out as a 250% increase at tech 0, becomes a 43.5% increase at tech 11 and ends a 23% increase at tech 32.
 
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Welcome back to a new Dev Diary! I am Aldaron and I am the other new Content Designer in Paradox Tinto. Happy to be here with all of you, adding a bit more information to that which my colleague @skingrado shared last Tuesday.

During the last Dev Diary there were two questions that were repeated a few times and that hopefully I will be able to answer today:

  • What about Western America?
Well, we cannot just add everything we have done to a single dev diary, but do not worry, because today we’ll show you a bit more, this time devoted to this area of North America that you people asked for.

  • Will there be any work on the rest of America?
The focus of this expansion is not the rest of America, but as a matter of fact, we added a mission for those nations with the Religious Reforms feature.

So without much preambles, and before we start, I would like to remind everyone a last tiny thing. As my colleague said last Tuesday, we have divided North American Natives into 6 of the 9 cultural areas that are normally used in anthropology when studying these people. Dividing them in cultural areas has given us the opportunity to group several TAGs into a common core and at the same time add diversity to the area.

MISSIONS:

As you might know, one of the less fun things when playing natives was the mission tree. You had the general mission tree, but you could not fill it due to the limitation natives have! Well, no more. As part of the work on natives, we have created a new general mission tree adapted to Natives, with some interrelationships between several of the missions and the addition of some new ones to make them more engaging. This mission tree is available to every native nation, from the Northwestern Pass to Tierra del Fuego.

View attachment 655365
(Notice that all icons are still placeholders).​

Besides, as you can see in the previous image, we have added a small mission (Reform our Religion) for the three more advanced native groups (Aztec, Inca and Maya) to deal with their mechanics, despite them not being the focus of the expansion.


Continuing with last week’s trend, here we have the specific regional mission tree for those natives whose living developed in the Great Plains of North America. This group includes the several Sioux tribes (such as Lakota or Dakota [Sioux ingame]), the Shoshone or the Wichita. This group’s focus revolves around hunting bison and would evolve to a horse riding culture after contact with the Europeans. Without any doubt the most iconic Native American group of people.

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Gathering all that available food from the wild that will improve your economic power.
  • Befriending those around you will help you with your federations.
  • Capturing those horses from the Europeans will greatly improve your capacity to combat over them.


If Plain Natives were a rather peaceful people before contact, Northwestern ones were pretty much the contrary. Raidings were a constant in the life of these people and would bring their canoes to capture slaves as south as California. But war and slavery were not the only thing Northwestern natives would focus on, they had a complex social culture that involved showing wealth of to their own people or to foreigners as a way to celebrate their power (the Potlach Ceremony) or showing respect to ancestors or shaming enemies with their elaborate totems.

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Remembering the ancestors and their deeds to unite your people under your rule.
  • Boasting about your wealth to bring your allies closer to you.
  • Showing your strength and using that fear against your enemies.

NATIONAL IDEAS:

Pretty much as with Mission Trees, we have divided National Ideas into Regional National Ideas that will fire for TAGs belonging to certain regions.

In this DD I will present two of the six regional sets.

Since California was forgotten in the previous section, I will start with them.

California is the smallest cultural region in North America but with a very pronounced personality. Despite being mostly sedentary people, living in a very rich region, Californian Natives did not rely much on agriculture and despite their population density (it is estimated it was the biggest in NA) they were not very warfaring. Their NIs relate to their own development and diplomatic expansion.

Code:
california_native_ideas = {
    start = {
        autonomy_change_time = -0.25
        same_culture_advisor_cost = -0.5
    }
   
    bonus = {
        years_of_nationalism = -5
    }
   
    trigger = {
        primary_culture = yokuts
    }
    free = yes
   
    division_as_a_strength_cf = {
        num_accepted_cultures = 1
        promote_culture_cost = -0.25
    }
    basketweaving = {
        production_efficiency = 0.05
    }
    tribelets = {
        diplomatic_upkeep = 1
        stability_cost_modifier = -0.10
    }
    forest_gardening = {
        development_cost = -0.10          
    }
    kuksu_cult = {
        religious_unity = 0.5
    }
    rock_art = {
        prestige_decay = -0.01
        global_unrest = -2
    }
    medicine_men = {
        land_attrition = -0.10
    }
}

Back to the Northwest, these people had a different angle on how they saw life and their NIs are more devoted to warfare and expansion.

Code:
nw_native_ideas = {
    start = {
        development_cost = -0.10
        heir_chance = 0.5
    }
   
    bonus = {
        army_tradition_decay = -0.01
    }
   
    trigger = {
        OR = {
            primary_culture = athabascan
            primary_culture = chinook
            primary_culture = haida
            primary_culture = salish
        }
    }
    free = yes
   
    raid_warfare_nw = {
        infantry_shock = 0.5
        rival_change_cost = -0.2
    }
    brother_salmon = {
        tolerance_own = 1
    }
    potlatch = {
        improve_relation_modifier = 0.2
        global_unrest = -2
    }
    mother_and_father = {
        female_advisor_chance = 0.1
    }
    totem_poles_nw = {
        prestige_decay = -0.01
        stability_cost_modifier = -0.1
    }
    canoe_people = {
        leader_land_manuever = 1
    }
    division_as_a_strength_nw = {
        num_accepted_cultures = 1
        promote_culture_cost = -0.25
    }
}

EVENTS:

Different regions will have access to different events, and some common ones. This week we will show a few of these regional events and we’ll call it a day for now.

View attachment 655366
Californian Natives had their own secret cults that should you pay the price for them would bring you some wellbeing.

View attachment 655367
Diplomacy in the Plains is not always easy.

View attachment 655368
The Potlach was a massively important ceremony for the Northwestern Natives. Choosing to celebrate it or not could have consequences.

You might have noticed that both my colleague and me have shown a small selection of missions for you. After the release you will have the chance to discover the other two regional mission trees (SE and California) and several TAG/culture specific ones, find some Easter eggs here and there and several other goodies. Stay tuned and see you next week!

So from what I understand the California natives and NW natives got a nerf in their ideas if we compare it to the generic native idea set.

I guess I'd rate it on the same level as transport combat ability. Jokes aside I agree and it would make more sense if at least it also increased the number of possible advisors. The second most useless idea in the game.

At least transports actually get into combat incidentially.

Female advisor chance is LITERALLY just flavor. It like giving Sweden the Swedish infantry pack as an idea. 100% just art.

@Carnicero de la Estepa

They usually do some bug squashing every patch. But honestly if you are waiting on EU4 to be entirely bug free just give up on buying EU4. It has never been bug free and has never been without people pointing them out.
 
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Besides, as you can see in the previous image, we have added a small mission (Reform our Religion) for the three more advanced native groups (Aztec, Inca and Maya) to deal with their mechanics, despite them not being the focus of the expansion.
Some chance for the religious reform mechanic become separeted of the primitive status? In my opinion primitive status of mesoamerican and andean nations should work like primitive status of native councils in north America and south America, a problem that you solve through government reforms, the association between primitive status and unreformed/unorganized religion is weird in my opinion and creates and unecessary limit for modders and custom nations.
Thanks for the reworked native mechanics, this will be a great improvement.
 
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Any chance we can see both this and the mission tree shown in the diary have less empty space (and by that I mean move some missions so that the players will have to scroll less)?

Look at the French mission tree for comparison.
 
You misread again.
It's neither +5% Infantry shock or +50% infantry shock, its quite literally +0.5 infantry shock. Its a static modifier.

land_shock +0.5 and land_shock_recieved +0.5 would be the equivalent of Spain's "Shock Defense" Age bonus (except +50%, which would be very OP, about +15% Discipline by the early game, but still around +10% Discipline by the late game)

infantry_shock +0.5 is the equivalent to Spain's Artillery Fire +1.
it might look half as good on paper, but considering your tech 6 infantry only has 1 or 2 Shock-Fire pips, this is basically a +25% or +50% infantry combat ability by the time you unlock it, which is insanely OP, but falls off really fast.
By tech 8 its already only a +10% IC, which is alright.
By tech 12, its only +5% IC, which is very weak.
And it only gets worse from there.
Ah. In that case, yeah, I like it for the uniqueness and the flavor, but I really hope the tribes will get some other military bonus to compensate for the lost morale and discipline. I want to challenge the Europeans with Chinook like I attempted to in my very first game of EU4, but this will make it a hell of a lot harder.
 
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So from what I understand the California natives and NW natives got a nerf in their ideas if we compare it to the generic native idea set.
Which is a real shame. I hope they reconsider that, or at least tweak the values to make the new sets stronger.
 
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What I wonder is what name will you use for this DLC. I mean you guys focused on SEA with North America as side project.
The huge spread, SEA, sikhism, zoroastrianism, (judaism?), north america, makes me think this may be like holy fury was for ck2 a mop up patch where the things they wanted to do but never got around to getting a proper DLC for, before they announce the next generation of the main game. Yeah I'm thinking Eu5.
That said I could be wrong and this could all because of Covid.
 
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This is just great, i just hope that the Pacific Northwest tribes can have missions and events as well to be better represented.

EDIT: I didn't note the Chinook tree at all, which i have to assume is that.

BTW, is that a Nirvana reference?
 
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The huge spread, SEA, sikhism, zoroastrianism, (judaism?), north america, makes me think this may be like holy fury was for ck2 a mop up patch where the things they wanted to do but never got around to getting a proper DLC for, before they announce the next generation of the main game. Yeah I'm thinking Eu5.
That said I could be wrong and this could all because of Covid.
Well i think that Johan once said in iterview that after Emperor DLC there will be more DLCs to come/work. What makes this one unusual is they've focused on SEA and NA so that's why i asked for name. As for Sikhism and Zoroastrianism rework its all welcome. As for Judaism why not, if Zoroastrianism got some love i don't see reason Judaism not to get some love, even tho its minor religion. What i would like to see is Animist rework, since all major religions got some tweaks.
 
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What I wonder is what name will you use for this DLC. I mean you guys focused on SEA with North America as side project.
I have a feeling that all the North American stuff will be a free patch under the classical paradox EU4 dev model and then the SEA will have more content that hasn't been touched on yet (including Aboriginal nations) that is revealed after they wrap up the NA stuff. All this stuff for NA pre contact civilisations is really nice but it doesn't feel as in depth/focused as the SEA stuff, and a lot of it has already been said to be free so I suspect this will be a little update similar to the Korea and Manchu patch we got before Emperor.
 
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I have a feeling that all the North American stuff will be a free patch under the classical paradox EU4 dev model and then the SEA will have more content that hasn't been touched on yet (including Aboriginal nations) that is revealed after they wrap up the NA stuff. All this stuff for NA pre contact civilisations is really nice but it doesn't feel as in depth/focused as the SEA stuff, and a lot of it has already been said to be free so I suspect this will be a little update similar to the Korea and Manchu patch we got before Emperor.
Now that you mention it, it would make sense. Because honestly i can't see what are the conections betwin NA and SEA. I agree with you on this one, i also think that NA will be some sort of free patch or perhaps it will be a part of free 1.31 update.
 
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Assuming that the "Sunset Invasion"-mission has you invading Europe, surely it should be called "Sunrise Invasion" instead, since you will be invading the land from which the sun rises? A Sunset invasion from the American perspective would be going after Japan or China, no?
 
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Not to be at all difficult but where did they get what looks like a pig for the potlach in the event artwork? Pigs aren’t native to North America and even now feral pigs haven’t really made it up to the Pacific Northwest.

I know it’s nitpicking, plus I think they preferred salmon for those. Been awhile since I’ve been to one though.
 
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