How does PDS decide which tags to add?

[Wizzington]

Wall map.

Darts.



(I'll let Trin Tragula chime in with a serious answer, but roughly what WSnova said)

 

[Trin Tragula]

Hi, I am wondering why PDS chooses some tags to add to the game but not others. For example, siberian tribes are in the game. But very important pacific kingdoms are not such as Tonga. In the americas the the Tupinamba are added but not the Tairona or Zenú which were much more populated and important.

There isn't a written down process as such but basically something along these lines:

1. Who were the important actors in this area historically? Who would anyone familiar with it expect to see here. What tags are needed for the area to play out in a way that is about "right" historically? An overall approach is taken here but with a lot more emphasis being placed on the first 100 years or so than on the 18th century. If the tag is not present at start there ought to be some way for it to show up during the course of the game (yes this is not strictly true for all current tags but we're aiming to fix that over time).
1.5 What tags are needed for the area to play out in a way that's actually fun to play (this may reduce the number of tags a bit in some cases, the Mayan setup for instance has fewer and more powerful tags than would be strictly historical).
2. If it's not necessary to be in because of point 1-1.5 will this tag be different enough from other tags to be in (a few similar ones are ok, but there's a limit). Will other content make having more of these tags a good idea?
3. Is this tag already covered by something else (this is where requests for the Safavid Empire fails when we have Persia). If so what would be the gain of adding the new tag?
4. Is there something really unique about this tag that would make it a worthwile addition (kind of related to point 2, this is the category Habsan and Ichma fits into) and if so was it really important enough to get its own tag.

And to be clear I consider all of the below to be covered above:

-¿How many people would play this?
-¿Will it be fun, how can we make it fun?
-¿How does it affect the Tags nearby?

Those numbers are not strictly in order of priority though it's close. For instance tags on the pacific islands are sometimes requested but adding such tags without giving them anything to do at the same time is not really a good idea which means it fails even before criteria 1.

As for why we have the Tupinamba. We have a few different Tupi tribes in the game because they are quite iconic to the story of the early settlement of Brazil. The Tupis interacted with the Europeans, some intermarried with them and joined forces while others formed a coalition against them (which there is events for).
Eu4 is to a great extent a game about relations between states which means that entities that where conquered or assimilated without much friction such as the Tairona or Zenu you mention are given lower priority as basically the method of Spanish conquest was a lot more like what in game colonization is than a war. The Americas is a place where drawing that line can be a bit tricky however and just because something isn't in doesn't mean it couldn't be, as long as there's a compelling reason for why it should be there.
Generally when you want to have more tags added (something the suggestions forum is the right place for) I would advice to not start out by listing those in the game you feel should be taken away. If you argue for each inclusion based on its own merit the chances of acceptance is a lot better.