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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.
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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.

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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.
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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]
 

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Great! I really like all of these features, especially auto-exploration. It was so freaking tedious. Also, finally we have a bonus for circumnavigating the globe.
EDIT: Will the reformed Nahuatl relligion be treated as "Pagan" (CB, increased hostile missionary strenght)? It would be nice if there was an option to start a new "top tier" relligion.
 
I... don't know how I feel about the new naval exploration.

Sounds... slower.

Doom sounds hilarious though, and a lot of fun. The Treaty, though, likely will have zero impact on how people play the game unless they're playing a nation that already stays Catholic (ie Castile). Most nations people colonize with are likely to switch out of being Catholic as soon as possible, so it sounds sort of silly. -50 relations with the Treaty nations and the Pope is laughable though. 100% ignorable. -10 growth isn't ignorable, but also doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why does violating the treaty make your colony grow slower?
 
Intresting. I'm looking forward to this expansion.

Two questions: will we still be able to explore manually and will the AI generally respect the papal grants? The relations hit and the settler growth don't seem too punishing.
 
Seems great !

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.
is the -50 in relation each time you violate the grant ? (meaning for each colony) or do you have a -50 when you do it the first time but once they understand you don't care about their claim they will ease up ?
and also will it affect papal influence ?

anyway keep up the good job guys !
 
Do the other new religions have doom, or do they have a different system?
 
Why does violating the treaty make your colony grow slower?
Because less people will be willing to go to the colony knowing it is against their faith.
 
Do the other new religions have doom, or do they have a different system?

They have their own systems that will be the subject of future dev diaries.
 
I've said it before, but Nahuatl as a name for the religion just doesn't feel right. Doubt there's much a chance of it being renamed after this diary, but it just doesn't seem consistent with the naming of the Inca religion. Inti was the main god of the Inca pantheon, and Nahuatl is just a name ostensibly meaning "of the Nahua", that is usually used as a name for the Nahuatl language rather than a religion. Either the Inti religion should be changed to be consistent with that naming scheme, or Nahuatl and Mayan should be changed to match Inti, with names being perhaps Teotl, Huitzilopochtli, or some other important god for the Mexica, and maybe Kukulcan for the Maya, although I'm not as familiar with their pantheon of gods.

Also, are there any plans for adding the Mayapan League? It was either on it's last legs by 1444, or already gone, but it seems like its presence or legacy should be represented in some way.

Other than that, the dlc is looking great.
 
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How will the papal grant mechanic work with the colonial nations such as Castile, Portugal, England and France? Won't these already powerful nations become even more powerful? I'm all for realism but Castile and Portugal already have huge advantages geographically and technologically.
 
Exploration missions sound way cooler than the current 1 lightship micromanagement. However, is it something you can chain (like currently using patrol for port visits) or do you have to pick a new mission whenever the previous one succeeds? If the latter, I hope there's a notification with a simple way to pick a mission without having to: find navy, select, open menu, choose.

> A Catholic nation that violates a Papal Grant also gets -50 relations with both the nation that has the grant and the Papal States.

Does the AI honor papal grants? Also, what counts as violation? Forming a colony for sure, but how about conquering natives? How about CNs DoWing into a claimed area?
 
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.
Please tell me that you're nerfing prestige gain if you do this. Especially prestige gained from battles.

Right now I only care about prestige for 3 reasons:
1. Keeping a PU.
2. Completing the mission that grants 1 stability for 50 prestige.
3. Getting an extra bit of morale for combat early game.
2 & 3 are absolutely useless when your nation stops being a minor.
For the Castile and Portugal examples you've mentioned there's a huge chance that they will be locked at 100 prestige anyway, 50-60 years into the game. So that bonus is useless.

If prestige actually becomes a valuable resource, then the reward actually means something ;)
 
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not sure what the land exploration change is going to mean for exodus strategies :/

rest is looking interesting though. Adding more obstacles to Westernization will make Aztec and neighbors quite interesting. I assume the religious reforms are lost upon conversion to Christianity - however, if the bonuses are strong enough it might justify keeping the religion.
 
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I feel that the Treaty of Tordesillas is a interesting mechanic for Catholics, but there might be a balance issue when it comes to non-Catholic nations.

On another note, how will this factor into mid-late game when colonizers switch from Catholism to a Reformed faith? Will the treaty still be in effect for say protestant Spain? If this is not this makes staying Catholic un-historically essential as colonizer. If the Americas are my focus I have no reason what-so-ever to go a Reformed faith.
 
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I really like the Treaty of Tordesillas mechanic, especially if the AI can adapt to use it.

The exploration looks interesting, especially if it slows down exploration. In the current game, you can discover most of the Atlantic seaboard with a single explorer if he is reasonably long lived.
 
"Stranger in a Strange Land"
I see what you did there.:cool:
 
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.
 
Interesting, so exploration will be slower, since you have to go to and fro for each new province, but has no chance of failure. Do you think you could put a variable in for that for modding..?