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.

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.

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.

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]

 

[Rubidium]

The Inca were a centralized Monarchy, with a class based bureaucratic system.

Yes, and they were somewhat notorious for uprooting conquered peoples and settling them elsewhere to prevent them from revolting.

On the other hand, they had plenty of interesting practices of their own (in addition to CK2-style incest); most notably the veneration of various emperors, each of whom had his own priests (who, needless to say, were often actively feuding with each other, while claiming to be merely passing on the commands of their own respective mummified emperors). I'm now envisioning converting England to Inti, and having the mummy of Henry VI continue to torment me from beyond the grave.

 

[Guthuk Gaming]

Nahuatl has +10% Land Morale and -2 unrest as its bonuses.

That seems odd to me. Wouldn't a reformed Aztec still remain about sacrifices and things like that? Why would it reduce unrest? Also, is that ALL it does? If so it's not going to be NEAR the strength of christian/muslim/hindu religions.

 

[IIWW]

That seems odd to me. Wouldn't a reformed Aztec still remain about sacrifices and things like that? Why would it reduce unrest? Also, is that ALL it does? If so it's not going to be NEAR the strength of christian/muslim/hindu religions.

They keep bonuses from religious reforms. So basically they won't be near the strengh of christian etc. Relligion will be much MUCH stronger than others.

 

[Freudia]

That seems odd to me. Wouldn't a reformed Aztec still remain about sacrifices and things like that? Why would it reduce unrest? Also, is that ALL it does? If so it's not going to be NEAR the strength of christian/muslim/hindu religions.

I'm fairly sure that's not counting the reforming bonuses you unlock. Stuff like a colonist, extra discipline, etc. Those are just the innate bonuses it starts with, like Orthodox's +ToTF and cheaper stability costs.

 

[ehecatzin]

That seems odd to me. Wouldn't a reformed Aztec still remain about sacrifices and things like that? Why would it reduce unrest? Also, is that ALL it does? If so it's not going to be NEAR the strength of christian/muslim/hindu religions.

You'll have to mantain various vassals and play agressivly, so the +10% Land Morale and -2 unrest is actually very useful. Managing to mantain the rebellious vassals in check you can enact reforms which grant additional bonuses, once you enact all 5 reforms you can reform your religion and improve your tech group, as well as allowing you to westernize. However we still dont know if the reform bonuses are mantained after westernization, hopefully they are, it would make it worthwhile.

 

[Guthuk Gaming]

If that's true then this expansion is added a definitely needed CK2 style "what-if" gameplay. Play for a hundred years as the Aztec, struggle along, and finally get your ultra powerful reformed religion as a reward, much akin to CK2.

That's one thing I definitely felt EU4 was lacking was more what-if gameplay. Besides say Prussia and the Manchu there weren't many countries that ended the game strong that didn't just start strong.

 

[Krajzen]

After El Dorado I really hope we will see a dlc devoted for South East Asia, eastern religions and peace mechanics

 

[MarkS00N]

You'll have to mantain various vassals and play agressivly, so the +10% Land Morale and -2 unrest is actually very useful. Managing to mantain the rebellious vassals in check you can enact reforms which grant additional bonuses, once you enact all 5 reforms you can reform your religion and improve your tech group, as well as allowing you to westernize. However we still dont know if the reform bonuses are mantained after westernization, hopefully they are, it would make it worthwhile.

My best thought right now is the religion reform will imprint the bonus from reform bonus to the empty space that for Catholic is used for cardinal or the piety bar for Islam...

After El Dorado I really hope we will see a dlc devoted for South East Asia, eastern religions and peace mechanics

I hope so...
With the coming of El Dorado, it is currently the worst (as in the most unpolished) region in the game...

 

[King Iapetus]

Since this expansion is focused so much on the Aztecs and Incas can we please get a color change for them? That green color is just ugly for the Aztecs. It should be changed to the CK2 color for the Aztecs 255 127 0.

Same thing for the Incas, the current color is really hard to look at. It should be changed to something like 158 133 76.

 

[Keioel]

Ha ha right!! The fact that all previous rulers continued to exert influence in the government means that if you did convert England to Inti Henry VI would indeed continue to torment you

Yes, and they were somewhat notorious for uprooting conquered peoples and settling them elsewhere to prevent them from revolting.

On the other hand, they had plenty of interesting practices of their own (in addition to CK2-style incest); most notably the veneration of various emperors, each of whom had his own priests (who, needless to say, were often actively feuding with each other, while claiming to be merely passing on the commands of their own respective mummified emperors). I'm now envisioning converting England to Inti, and having the mummy of Henry VI continue to torment me from beyond the grave.

 

[DmUa]

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.

- not sure i like this yet another "REFORMORDIE111" approach.

 

[nalfz]

How moddable will this Tordesillas be? Will there be a tag-scope command to add a claim on a specific colonial region?
What about methods for laying claim to regions for non-catholic nations?

 

[FLESH HUNTER]

However we still dont know if the reform bonuses are mantained after westernization, hopefully they are, it would make it worthwhile.

Wiz replied to one of my post saying you get to keep your reforms even after you westernize(Mostly because I was asking who would want a colonist for the doom increase)

 

[A Landy]

What if the Pope decides to colonize the new world? Does the treaty not apply to the Papal State at that point?

 

[ringhloth]

I'm going to play a Brandenburg game as the Nahuatl. It'll be fun. I wonder if I can get by without reforming the religion at all.

 

[IIWW]

I'm going to play a Brandenburg game as the Nahuatl. It'll be fun. I wonder if I can get by without reforming the religion at all.

This. First thing I do is replace catholicism with Nahuatl and cleanse the world with blood!

 

[cwg9]

These seem like some interesting new mechanics to make the exploration / colonization game more interesting. However, I'm wondering if the AI is going to be able to adequately handle these new mechanics? The doom mechanic in particular seems like something that's may lead to a lot of AI states collapsing in central america right around the time the Europeans arrive, which while historically plausible doesn't necessarily make for very compelling game play, if you are playing a European colonizer state.

 

[TheBoozehammer]

These seem like some interesting new mechanics to make the exploration / colonization game more interesting. However, I'm wondering if the AI is going to be able to adequately handle these new mechanics? The doom mechanic in particular seems like something that's may lead to a lot of AI states collapsing in central america right around the time the Europeans arrive, which while historically plausible doesn't necessarily make for very compelling game play, if you are playing a European colonizer state.

I have faith that Wiz will make sure the AI can handle any new features at least moderately well.

 

[Incompetent]

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.

I think the moral of the story here is that white people are magical and we need to obtain their powers for our gods by sacrificing them. Huitzilopochtli will be invincible once we've offered him up some Spanish soldiers and priests.

Regarding the Doom clock, is there going to be any implementation of the 52-year cycle?

 

[IIWW]

I have faith that Wiz will make sure the AI can handle any new features at least moderately well.

Authonomy? Sorties?
There is nice chance that AI would be able to handle it properly, but the concerns aren't unjustified.