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EU4 - Development Diary - 23rd of October 2018

Hello! We’ll finally reveal some features of the upcoming Immersion Pack coming with the 1.28 patch. However I need to warn you: HEAVY USAGE OF CODER ART INCOMING!

Our artists nor me have had time to get our hands on the new features yet to make sure the interface is up to par for user usage. So everything is just how the programmer left it. Terrifying thought.

We’ll start with a feature only available to the Catholic Iberians. Establishing Holy Orders. Keep in mind numbers are as usual up for tweakage!

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These are inspired by Jesuit Reductions in the new world but an Iberian nation can put them anywhere as long as the nation own the entire state and that it is fully cored and stated. The available orders are: The Society of Jesus, The Order of Preachers and The Order of Saint Francis.

When an order is selected for a state these following effects are applied to all provinces in that state.
  • Jesuit Order
    • +1 Tax Development
    • 1.5% Local missionary strength
    • -10% Local Build Cost
  • Dominican Order
    • +1 Production Development
    • Removes slaves if trade goods and replace it with something else
    • -30% Culture Conversion Cost
  • Franciscan Order
    • +1 Manpower Development
    • -3 Local Unrest
    • -0.05 Local Monthly Devastation
Each of these costs 50 monarch power to put in place, 50 of the type that order represents. Administrative for Jesuits, Diplomatic for Dominican and Military for Franciscan. As an overlord of a colonial nation you can still place these in their land. The AI will know if a player is involved and restrain itself from placing these orders themselves letting the player optimize their usage.

For the few that manages to recreate the Cremé Pheonix, an Andalusian Muslim, we'll see what we can do for you ;)



Next Feature is one for every colonizer which we have done together with trying to improve the Colonial Diversity, to try and prevent the Colonial AI to spend so much dip points on purging away cultures. Instead allowing the Americas to become the melting pot of cultures it was. Also yet again I warn you that everything you see is in a state of work in progress.

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With Expulsion of Minorities feature you can now tell those damned Puritans in East Anglia to head off to Plymouth Harbor and get on the Mayflower.

Using this costs you diplomatic points akin to how much it would take to culture convert in that province, but upon colony completion it both converts the religion and culture of the province while making the colony have the old religion and culture of home. Also upon completion you get some extra development in the finished colony based on how big the home province were for the minority you sent to live in the colony.

Besides the Culture conversion cost modifier reducing the cost to do this action, in Exploration ideas there is now an idea that will also reduce this cost if you own the Immersion Pack.



Now I’m going to hand it over to our beta who have helped us out with the map in this iteration and helped us overhaul the Spanish Main.

Hello, I’m Evie. You may remember me (as GuillaumeHJ) from old Dev Diary classics like “How to add provinces to Western Africa without getting bored” and “There’s no such thing as too many provinces in North America”. For those of you who joined us since Art of War: nice to meet you.

As you can probably gather, I’m here to talk to you about more map changes. After all, it’s one thing to add provinces to Spain, but much of Spanish history in the Europa Universalis timeline happened outside Spain, in the part of the world that would receive the apt name of “Spanish Main.”

Stretching from the coast of Texas all the way to the mouth of the Orinoco, across the Caribbeans, and back into Florida, the Spanish Main was the heart of the Spanish colonial empire, where the great Treasure Fleets sailed to gather the wealth of the New World. As a result, the “Spain” update also includes extensive additions to the region.

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Map-wise, the changes are extensive – upwards of eighty new provinces and twenty new tags in Mesoamerica, Central America, the Southwestern United States, the Caribbeans, Florida, Colombia and Venezuela. But Cuba and Hispaniola are now up to nine provinces. Colombia and Venezuela get a plethora of new provinces as well along the coast, bringing them much closer to the density found in Central America. The lion’s share, of course, goes to Mexico, especially the heart of Mesoamerica.

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The most important (and by far the most requested) of those provinces are, without a shadow of a doubt, the two we split off from the original Mexico province, representing Texcoco and Tlacopan, the two cities that (along with Mexico-Tenochtitlan) formed the Aztec Triple Alliance. Reducing the Valley of Mexico and the Aztec power base to a single province always felt wrong, so when the opportunity came to update the region’s map with smaller provinces, adding these two was the very first item on the list of changes that needed to happen.

More than new provinces, though, the heart of the update is the new tags. Nine in Mesoamerica proper, six in the Mayan regions, six in the deserts around the US/Mexico border, and one each in Central America and Colombia bring a great deal of depth to the region. Who are they? Read on to find out.

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Mesoamerica

Northwestern Mesoamerica, beyond Colima and the Tarascans, is often thought of as a void, but actually it was a Greece-like patchwork of cities. Representing them all is beyond the scope of this patch, but we’ve added two of the more significant local powers, Tonala and Xalisco, to bring relief to the area.

At the northern edge of Mesoamerica lived a plethora of people that the Aztecs collectively called the Chichimeca (roughly compared with the Greek “Barbarian”). Though they didn’t have the great cities of Mesoamerica proper, they played a fundamental part in regional history, and provided formidable resistance to Spanish expansion for half a century. For them, we’ve added three tags: Otomi and Guarames are two of the more significant people, while Chichimeca covers a variety of smaller groups.

Near the Chichimecan, we find a historical oddity: a Mayan group that wandered far from Yucatan and Central America, to the opposite end of Mesoamerica, the Huastec people.

Closer to the Aztecs, a number of additional states represent various regional powers of some note. To the south, Coixtlahuaca, a mixtec kingdom, fell early when their king defied the Aztecs. To the south-east, Teotitlan became a loyal ally of the empire. To the west, meanwhile, Matlatzinca served as a buffer between Aztecs and Tarascans - until the Aztec invaded it, precipitating war with their powerful rivals.

The South: Mayans, Central America and Colombia.

Further south, the Yucatan peninsula was home to about sixteen Mayan polities in this timeline. Having them all would, again, be impossible, but instead of just having the two rival dynasties of Cocomes and Xiu (whose rivalry dominated Mayan politics in the era), we’ve added two of the better known late post-classic city-states, in the form of Can Pech (Campeche) and Chactemal (Chetumal).

In south-eastern Mexico, a pair of additional Mayan tags add depths to the Tabasco and Chiapas regions. In the former, they’re the Yokotan (or Chontales), who claim descent from the ancient Olmec civilization. In the later, the Tzotzil, one of the more significant local group, serve a similar role.

In Honduras and Guatemala, the Kiche kingdom no longer can afford to get complacent – their perennial rivals (and erstwhile vassals), the Kaqchikel, are now in the game plotting to gain the upper hand, while further east, the Chorti people could also turn into quite the threat.

In Colombia, the Tairona, sister people to the Muisca (who are already in) form a new addition at the northern edge of the country, where the last of the Andes come to die in the Atlantic.

Last, but not least, we have our first non-Mayan Central America tag, based in the coastal jungles of Nicaragua: the Miskito people, who remained independent of Spain long enough to become a British protectorate instead.

The North: Pueblos and Natives.


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To the north, we find ourselves drawn to the upper end of the Rio Grande valley. There, the old Pueblo tag has been split in three to represent the various groups that together formed the Puebloan people. In addition to the old Pueblo tag (now limited to the Rio Grande valley itself), we now have the Keres tag (covering famous pueblos like Acoma and Zia, to the west of the Rio Grande), and the Zuni one, near the New Mexico/Arizona border.

Beyond the Rio Grande valley, our additions take the form of Native American tags. Adding depths to the Apachean people on top of the already-present Navajo and Apache tags, we find the Lipan and Mescalero ready to make trouble for colonizers in New Mexico and Texas, where they were a formidable obstacle to the Spanish historically. Further west, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, California finally get representation of its native people in the form of the Yokuts. Finally, in the deserts of north-western Mexico, the Yaqui people, who resisted Spanish then Mexican dominion into the twentieth century, join the fray.

Together, all these additions bring a lot more depth to the areas of the map that ended up being conquered by Spain.


Thanks Evie! Next week I'll be back to talk about more features, one of which that Sweden had quite an excellence of building ....
 
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Holy orders are as far from an interesting mechanic as you can get. Click + spend mana = get bonus = FUN.
...Hate to tell you, but it's just a boring design.

Melting pot of the New World will probably end in CN changing culture anyway (as they even culture convert accepted cultures).
Also there is this small problem of making very little sense. It's the heretics/other cultures which would like to emigrate, not the government that wants to throw them away. (in some way, it surely is beneficial to replace them in homeland, but you need people to replace them, so Yes for encouraging emigration, No for expelling them)
All features in EU4 make us believe Monarch Points are magic, but making entire population of Paris emigrate and be replaced by spawned from thin air Englishmen? Let's be more reasonable than that, okay?
On top of that it should be an automatic system with a way of encouraging it instead of this.

Totally not impressed.
 
Please change the name from the province Mexico to Tenochtitlan and add an event which changes the name. Also add a defensive modifier to the province to represent that the city is in a lake.
 
I got smeckledorfed by this DD, I've been working on a suggestion for months (a year? two?) and just as I was finishing the provinces in the Americas, I come to the forums to read this lmao. So I guess I'll take the time and ask questions.

Representing them all is beyond the scope of this patch

[...]
Having them all would, again, be impossible,

Why, exactly? In my suggestion I'd added a lot more provinces/tags in Mesoamerica, exactly to mirror a HRE-like experience. Was your scope decided on time restraints, or just because you don't think a billion people in Mexico would be a good idea?

Like, this is what I'd done in Mexico:

6NY1isk.png

Except for the flags, I've got everything else here (province name, tag name, culture groups etc) nailed down and was quite satisfied with it.

I'll probably still post my suggestion for Mexico if only for the cultures and province names, but I'm curious to your thought process.

In addition, there are 2 new colonial formable nations in the Americas: California and Texas.

Huhhh where's Texas in that picture?
EDIT-- nvm I can't read, Texas is a formable lol.

Holy orders are as far from an interesting mechanic as you can get. Click + spend mana = get bonus = FUN.
...Hate to tell you, but it's just a boring design.

Melting pot of the New World will probably end in CN changing culture anyway (as they even culture convert accepted cultures).
Also there is this small problem of making very little sense. It's the heretics/other cultures which would like to emigrate, not the government that wants to throw them away. (in some way, it surely is beneficial to replace them in homeland, but you need people to replace them, so Yes for encouraging emigration, No for expelling them)
All features in EU4 make us believe Monarch Points are magic, but making entire population of Paris emigrate and be replaced by spawned from thin air Englishmen? Let's be more reasonable than that, okay?
On top of that it should be an automatic system with a way of encouraging it instead of this.

Totally not impressed.

Gotta agree with Piotrzeci here. What's the point of the govt exiling minorities if the CN can just culture-convert them away? Why can't this be automated, even if the form of yearly pulse events? etc
 
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Unless the speed of colonization for Castile / Spain is improved, with the increase of the provinces in America it will be impossible to recreate the Spanish empire chronologically.
 
Unless the speed of colonization for Castile / Spain is improved, with the increase of the provinces in America it will be impossible to recreate the Spanish empire chronologically.
I find that early colonization (Hispaniola and Cuba) is quite slow, but the general pace seems to be alright. Take into account that in the maps, it also appears as Spanish territory those areas that were claimed by Spain, though not yet settled (like the North American plains and California). Plus the bulk of the Spanish empire is obtained by conquest (Mexico and Peru) rather than colonization. I'd rather change the way Conquistadors work and make the conquest of Aztecs and Incas more historical with some series of events.
 
Unless the speed of colonization for Castile / Spain is improved, with the increase of the provinces in America it will be impossible to recreate the Spanish empire chronologically.
It should be more about annexing Mexico and the Inca not about the speed self. Because it is easier to settle in high infrastructure regions than in nowhere.
 
So we get one more province in Portugal.. a few more buttons to push whenever available since they're so obviously good..

"the heart of the update is the new tags.".. I thought it was Iberia. The New World is god damn AWFUL to play in, and you throw more tags in there without fixing it in a dedicated patch (yes, I expect a patch since we already had two DLCs for that area..)?

..Those next few DDs better be reaally good.
 
How moddable is the Religious orders feature? Is it hard-coded for Iberia only? Can we add other orders (like the Hieronomites? or Elizabeth Anne Seton's Sisters of Charity?)
If it is hardcoded can you please make the Religious orders available to all Catholic nations, instead of just Iberia?

It seems strange that only Spain/Portugal get them, when the French used the Dominicans and Jesuits extensively in their American, African, and Asian colonies. And prior to the Reformation The English had a significant population of Franciscans and other relligious orders before the reformation. Plus if I were to play as Catholic Italy and colonize, why wouldn't i be able to use the Franciscans when they were founded in my own lands?
 
Oh god! But why would they do that? Why restrict CN if desired is their expanding?
Because whats the point of having colonial regions based on historical reasons if in the end CN are gonna expand in a horrible way causing border gore and making the CN formation system a pain in the ass.

"C'mon Carribbean CN, colonize your damn islands, fast!"

*5 minutes later*

"Ok, time to start colonizing Colombia and form my second Colonial Nation... oh, no, wait... WHAT ARE YOU DOING CARIBBEAN, I TOLD YOU TO COLONIZE YOUR BLOODY ISLANDS, NOT THE COAST OF COLOMBIA!"
 
Will you remove the ability to send/resend a colonist to change culture+religion in a province? If not that'd just be used to flip the expulsioned colony to the 'correct' religion+culture.
 
I mean, why does having a huge gigantic Brasil give you the same bonuses (merchant, force limit, etc) as a CN with 10 provinces in Alaska?

I really hoped the CN mechanic to get improved in this DLC...
 
Holy Orders are very underwhelming imho.. Just another button that cost X and gain X permament bonus in region.. No real gameplay in it... It was normal for Jesuits for example to go to uncolonized areas and establish jesuit outposts there and work on converting/settling the region...

I heartily agree. It would be wonderful if these were a replacement/augmentation for colonists, rather than a spend pool for resource points. For example, Holy Orders could allow you to use missionaries to establish/add settlers to colonies in the New World, and/or these territories *would* add to the Religious Estate's % of land/influence. And/Or Holy Orders could work like Trade Companies, but converting indigenous peoples around the world to your faith (remember, there were Jesuit Missionaries sent to the Far East as well as the New World). And/Or Holy Orders could be established in any province with gold much like a Library, that would serve as a safeguard against conversion from a reformation center.

I also agree that all of these should have flavor events...such as if a state changes religion against its holy orders, which would spike liberty desire.
 
Well.. iberian immersion.. with Americas and Portugal got only 1 province.. Well... Look to Brasil a litle bit pls.. Link Guaporá and Manaus pls... Remember the Islands of Fernando Noronha in the Atlantic, nowadays brazilian territory. Could "we get" Ascenção Island? Tristão da Cunha Island? would be a nice State with Santa Helena Island... Just an opinion :p
 
These orders were going to uncolonized land, spread christianity in noncatholic ireas like India, China and Japan. They were the most annoying thing about Catholics for nonchristian countries. And they were one of the main reasons why Christianity became the largest religion. Like them or hate them they are very important part of colonial history. And don't forget that in many cases the orders didn't like each other and competed with each other. It is quite boring to put them in game just for unimportant three buttons that aren't even conected with estate and pappal system in any important way.

Not to mention that these orders were actually the most irritating part of the Catholic countries that housed them too. Both the Spanish and Portugese governments regularly butted heads with all three of these orders, as they were seen as an encroachment on their state's sovereignty.

Honestly the way they are treated in this Dev diary, i dont understand why they don't just make theReligious orders a Cossackesque Estate, and let you grant estate territory to your colonies to make them happy (and piss off the colony itself).
 
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The legacy of my people, ladies and gentlemen :confused:



So special emphasis on the region, then, I assume you agree. : p

Yeah if I remember Correctly, there was a bit of "bootleggers and baptists" coalition-building with the 1808 Expulsion of the Slave Trade. American Plantation owners helped The Abolitionists abolish the African Slave Trade because they had a stable slave caste in their territory, while Brazil constantly needed more slaves to work the land before dying. The US made importing slaves a punishable by death in the early 19th century and the CSA kept that clause in their Constitution.