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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!
 
Has Christmas vacation started already? I'm not so familiar with the Swedish work environment and my country (S.Korea) only has a single day off on Christmas day itself so I don't know how it works in Paradox.
If so, they could've told us so I can stop refreshing the forum.

EDIT: Found DD on the announcement header.
 
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