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Good morning! I’m skingrado, one of the new content designers for EU4 at Paradox Tinto, nice to meet you all! To begin with, I think it’s very important that you know that my favorite castle is Loarre, that’s my main personality trait, so I hope that gives you an idea of who I am (and, as you can imagine, I’m also a big fan of GSGs, and I used to play a lot of CK with my dad). But today I’m here to show you some of the things we’ve been working on for the North American Natives, since a lot of you asked for more content after the reveal of the new mechanics (nothing to do with castles, I’m afraid).

We’re creating completely new native mission trees (since until now they mainly had the generic missions) and we’ve started by designing six new geographical mission trees available to all tribes, according to their localization and culture at the time of contact (i.e. very close to the start of the game). You’ll notice that some of the traditional cultural areas have been merged into one single tree (Northwest Coast + Plateau, for example), more on this to come next week. I’ll be now talking about some that I’ve done:

NE.png

(Notice that all icons are still placeholders).

The Northeastern Woodlands extend from the Atlantic Coast to the eastern Great Plains, going slightly above the Great Lakes in the north and bordering the Southeastern Woodlands in the south, roughly including the present Mid-Atlantic states. People from this region generally lived in villages with a few hundred inhabitants and used wigwams and longhouses for shelter, as well as canoes for traveling, fishing, trading and warfare. These villages were often placed near their crops, since the so-called Eastern Agricultural Complex was their main source of food, characteristic that they shared with the nearby Southeastern Woodlands.
Their social organization was based on clans, which were often named after some relevant animal to the area, such as wolf or bear (you’ll see more on clans in the events).

Some highlights of this tree include:
  • Building tall and preparing for war with the missions Wigwams and Longhouses and Raising Palisades will grant you permanent claims in the Great Lakes, apart from local defensiveness and manpower modifiers.
  • Conquering the Northeast after conquering the Great Lakes will grant you a +5% to the morale of your armies.
  • I have talked before about the importance of the Eastern Agricultural Complex, so having 3 irrigation canals and a total of 50 development will improve your production efficiency and grant you some extra gold.

SW.png


Then we have the North American Southwest, which mainly includes Oasisamerica and borders the Plains-Great Basin to the north. People from this region farmed as a complement to their hunter-gatherer economy (in the case of Aridoamerica tribes) or even had a truly agricultural society in the case of the Oasisamerican tribes. They also cherished precious minerals, like turquoise and cinnabar, and had some interesting ancestors that we will address now on some of the missions:
  • “Against the Desert” and “Taming of the Sands” compensate the player’s concern for devastation and development, since the Chihuahuan Desert is home to some of these tribes and its harsh living conditions are rewarded with claims in the region that will provide a tool for the spreading of such knowledge to neighboring provinces.
  • Yucca Palm Trees were used as food and as the base material for the making of baskets or even “shampoos”, so controlling their province of production will also increase the local production efficiency and boost the economy.
  • Turquoise Mining will require owning provinces with gems, salt or gold, in which mines could be created, and will also boost production and prestige, since turquoise was a valued trade good.
  • Lastly, Paquimé was the ancestral home of the Mogollon people, and includes a series of archeological ruins that were burnt around the year 1340, prior to the start of the game. Owning the province and helping rebuild it will decrease the construction and development cost by -10%.

Now moving to the part that is slightly more fun, we have designed mission trees specific to some of the best known native tribes. Today, I’ll be focusing on the Iroquois:

iroquois2.png
Iroquois.png


As you can see, culture groups in Native America have been changed, and these missions will be available to those that have “iroquois” as their primary culture. These tribes are mainly known for the famous “Iroquois League” or “Iroquois Confederacy”, which was established prior to European contact and granted these nations security and protection, as well as a saying in the Great Council that ruled over them, much like how the new Federation mechanic is going to work. The focus of this tree is to form said Confederacy and extend its power:
  • The Great Peacemaker will require you to have a longhouse in which an assembly can be met, and a reduced local autonomy. This will grant you a theologian named The Great Peacemaker himself, who is the legendary founder of the Confederacy and will lower your unrest.
  • After gaining some allies through Haudenosaunee, and annexing the five most prominent nations of the League, your duty will be to protect the eastern coast from European explorers, specially French, since the League engaged in the decades-long Beaver Wars against them in 1609.
  • False Faces will require you to have a spymaster and a spy network of at least 25 in any other country, as well as some diplomatic power. False Faces Masks were used during ceremonies to conceal one’s true nature and completing the mission will boost your spy power and spy detection by +25% each.
  • Wampum Shells were the main currency used in these nations, so building a storehouse to hoard them will increase your mercantilism.
And, of course, we have also added some events. Some are generic, others will be linked to the totemism “rework” and a few will be specific to certain tribes as well. In this case, the Iroquois culture group gets a new event chain called “The Mourning Wars”.

mourning wars.png


Mourning Wars were fought when some of the tribe’s warriors were killed in battle and the spiritual balance of the village had to be restored. For Iroquois nations, grief did not come only for the loss of a loved one, but also for the loss of harmony. Thus, they would try to compensate for it, and that compensation came in the form of mourning wars. Now, a series of events will let you decide whether you should kill in revenge for the killing (which will lead to some nasty consequences, since it goes against the spirit of the war), or maybe take some captives in replacement for the dead members of the tribe.

Expect more information on this matter next week! Thank you for reading :)
 
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Nice.

A question: what happens when you have no CoP DLC? Right now, without it natives are permanently stuck in native council, since they don't have government reforms, and don't have their unique reform mechanic. Will some of their unique reforms (including those to become republic/monarchy) be available even without DLC?

I ask because Emperor update broke Shintoist incidents if you have MoH but no Emperor DLC's.
 
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Cool. I was living in a fear of having to play North American without new mission tress. Now the devs have not only have swallowed no update for Totemist but also mission tree for the First Nations. Thank you!
 
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Oh yes! Great to see a first Impression of the work the tinto team is doing and that you heared the Community. I think it is very important to use the research you did for the Mission trees to reflect in events for the natives, as missions are often just clicked. Hope that there are a lot of events.nice that you wrote some! They really immerse the game. Thank you
 
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As time goes on I need to remind myself how huge this update is. Religion, NA, and SEA. I cant really find a common theme, so I wonder what they will call the expansion.
 
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@skingrado Fantastic work, thanks! North American tribes were the first tags I played as when I was starting to lean the game, so I can’t wait to revisit them after this update.

With that in mind, do you think you might end up reworking the Pacific Northwest after all, since it seems like you guys have decided to give North America some additional focus (both in terms of tags/flavor and some new provinces and sweet, sweet strategic impassable terrains)? Now that everything east of the Rockies has received much-needed attention, the Northwest will be the only part of the continent that will feel barren. I remember a dev saying in an earlier diary that they were skipping it partially because they didn’t think there was much known about the history of the region, but having worked with and studied various local tribes, I can say that there’s a fantastically rich historical/archaeological record to draw from.
 
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Will mission trees involve European powers in any way?
I think events regarding that would work quite better. Events when the first europeans are seen on the coast; the first colonies (and colonial nation), the first war against a native nation. Events regarding horses, new weapons, ships and the plagues the europeans got. As well an Eventchain about the missionarys and the church
 
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Incoming Aragon buff...?

Are we finally getting the Iberia update? The Pirate Republic update was cool and all, but we're still excited for the supposed update that Iberia was supposed to get; can't wait!
One can hope.

Interesting DD, I have little to no knowledge about North American tribes but it's always good when a zone gets researched and receives proper attention.
 
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Nice. How many new mission trees will there be?
As time goes on I need to remind myself how huge this update is. Religion, NA, and SEA. I cant really find a common theme, so I wonder what they will call the expansion.
The expansion elements (as opposed to free content/changes to old DLC) announced/suggested so far were general or focused on SEA, so I would wager that SEA will be the source of the title.
 
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Not really concerning the content but will Natives get boats again when they reach a certain point?
 
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@skingrado you wrote:
  • Yucca Palm Trees were used as food and as the base material for the making of baskets or even “shampoos”, so controlling their province of production will also increase the local production efficiency and boost the economy.
What do you mean by that? Will there be a new trade good "Yucca Palm Trees" or will it be done differently?

PS among Iberian castles I personally fancy
Castillo de Turégano, Segovia

pobrane (1).jpg
 
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