• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Europa Universalis IV - Development Diary 4th of March 2024 - Aztecs, Mayans and Incas

While the European kingdoms are leaving the Medieval period and starting their centralization to the modern states, the New World these soon-to-be colonizers will discover is already home to other empires. The heart of Mexico is settled by the Nahuatl empire of the Aztecs, led by the great Moctezuma I who aims to centralize the Triple Alliance and establish a realm that drives fear to the hearts of its enemies. The Mayans, once controllers of the jungles of Chiapas and Guatemala have retreated to the Yucatan peninsula. Their once great realm is now splintered into a series of city-states, not all too unlike the Italian domains. In the heights of the Andes reigns the many different Inti kingdoms. One of them, Cusco, will be destined to unify the region under the rule of Pachacuti and his descendants, forming the first Incan Empire.

Welcome to our newest Development Diary for the upcoming DLC. Today, we will take a look at the content for Central and South America - namely the Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Incas. As always, all values you see here are NOT final. So without further ado, let us get started.

First, we shall take a look at Mexico and a few setup changes there:
image_1.png

The Mexico Trade Node has received some additional Centers of Trade, as well as a new province modifier added to a few selected provinces that represent the mining of obsidian. This is, however, only limited to those of the Mesoamerican technology group:
image_2.png

Next are some changes to the country of the Aztecs. They now start with the Empire rank instead of the Kingdom rank and their starting ruler, Moctezuma I, also starts with the guaranteed “Legendary Conqueror” personality trait.
image_3.png

However, the Aztecs were never as centralized as EU4 can realistically depict it. Historically, they were more an alliance of the city-states instead, though Moctezuma I was on his way to centralize the state. As such, the Aztecs also start with a new privilege:
image_4.png

Now let us take a closer look at the mission tree:
image_5.png

Note: Mission icons are still placeholders and will be of course replaced with the proper images for the release.

The mission tree is separated into 3 big chunks. The first block at the very top is about dominating the Mexican region, and as such is the main bulk of your New World conquest. The biggest highlight of this part is the opportunity to buff your Moctezuma progressively more as you continue through your missions.
image_6.png

Note: We might add a Monarch Lifespan modifier to these rewards so your Moctezuma can enjoy his newfound powers for a little bit longer. We also might consider changing his starting situation as a general into an event to further increase his survivability.

The second subtree is all about your government and, of course, your blood tribute to the gods. Some highlights from this part are the following:
image_7.png

Now a few of you might have noticed that certain keywords such as “Blood” and “Mesoamerican Tributaries” have been mentioned. These are part of the new government mechanics the Aztecs will now start with:
image_8.png

image_9.png

image_10.png

image_11.png

Note: The art is still work in progress.

The “Demand Sacrifices” peace option always requires a 50% War Score and grants 10 Blood.
image_12.png

Next are the Mesoamerican Tributaries which is a new subject type available to all Mayan and Nahuatl countries. You establish them with a new peace treaty:
image_13.png

image_14.png

They act just like normal tributaries, though you can sacrifice their ruler and you can annex them. On that note, all of your conquest missions in Mesoamerica can be completed via these tributaries or vassals.

Last but not least, the final subtree is all about the economic and military affairs of the Aztecs. I should also probably mention here that there are no Jaguar special units and a tease for them was not intentional whatsoever. With that being said, here are some highlights of these missions:

image_15.png

Note: these missions are more long-term based as you will require some higher advanced technologies to complete them. Also, the Telpochcalli Academy will probably have its Possible Number of Buildings penalty replaced.

Before we move on to the next country, one quick note for all the non-Aztec Nahuatl countries: as there was time for only the Aztec mission tree itself, every Nahuatl country gets a decision to adopt the Aztec mission tree if they conquer the Aztecs and own the Mexico provinces themselves.
image_16.png

Moving on to the Mayans, every Mayan country gets a small mission tree at the start which helps you out for the formation of the Mayan Confederation:
image_17.png

Note: With “Venus” we mean the planet Venus. That was localized before finding the name “Chac Ek” or “Noh Ek” to use instead. Will be fixed before release.

Highlights of these missions are the “The Sign of Venus”, “Campaigning Season” and “Reforming our Society” which have evolving rewards. Every time you unlock a Religious Reform, these three missions get reset (in other words “un-completed”) which allows you to complete them again. Their evolving modifier gets upgraded whenever you complete the missions again.

Another change to the Maya formable is that you now need only 2 Mayan Religious Reforms instead of the full 5. However, forming the Mayas will still be rather painful as whenever you enact a new Religious Reform you get a 5 year penalty to your Manpower Recovery Speed (-10%) and your Harsh Treatment Cost (+100%) which also disables the ability to Increase Autonomy and manually decrease War Exhaustion. You also gain +3 War Exhaustion whenever you undergo a reform.

Once you form the Maya you get the following mission tree:
image_18.png

Note: we are aware of the mission title leaving the GUI here. Will be fixed before the release.

Similar to the Aztec mission tree, the Maya one is about unifying Mesoamerica under your banner, as well as focusing on the economic improvements of your empire.

I will focus now on mentioning some highlights of the mission tree which are the following missions:
image_19.png

image_19_5.png

image_20.png

With that, we finish the Mayans and will now take a closer look at the Incas. The first thing that needs to be mentioned is that the map of the Andes does NOT get any additional provinces or tags. This also means that there are no new wastelands too. There are, however, some small setup changes. Similar to the Aztecs, Pachacuti starts with the “Legendary Conqueror” personality trait but has been reduced to a 4/3/5 (down from 5/4/6). The missions Cusco has received are similarly structured to the ones of the Aztecs as they buff your starting ruler:
image_21.png

Some early highlights in the mission tree are the following:
image_22.png

The decision to colonize the provinces requires you to defeat the local tribes and have 50 Ducats ready. Using the decision will then start a Frontier Colony in said province, and this decision can go far along the Andes as you can see in the following screenshot:
image_23.png

Note: All the green-striped provinces are ones you can colonize via the decision.

Additionally, you also have access to the following estate privilege:
image_24.png

Once you form Inca you gain the following mission tree as a whole:
image_25.png

While you have the original Cusco missions about the conquest, you also get four additional, smaller subtrees that have their own focus.

The first small subtree is about the Mitma - a policy of forced resettlement of the border provinces. The highlight here is the following reward:
image_26.png

Another subtree is about the religious nature of the Inca, highlighted by the following reward:
image_27.png

image_28.png

image_29.png

You might now notice that “Regenesis of History” mentions “Mummified Rulers”. As you can see, the Incan religion has an interesting and unique quirk which is the fact that your dead ruler is de jure still alive. They get mummified and continue to participate in all of your governmental activities. To represent this in EU4 you will now always trigger the following event upon your ruler’s demise:
image_30.png

The third subtree is about gold, idols, and economy represented by the following mission rewards:
image_31.png

Finally, the last subtree focuses on developing your lands and your military, giving you the following rewards:
image_32.png

And with that, we conclude the Incan missions. However, we are not entirely done as all the aforementioned countries get one mission subtree which is all about the so-called Sunset Invasion:
image_33.png

These missions are always at the very bottom and follow one major theme which is the invasion of Europe and Asia by the American powers - both main culprits of colonizing the new world in many EU4 campaigns.

I won’t go too much into detail with those missions as they are mostly focused on large conquest campaigns. However, some rewards are worth mentioning:
image_34.png

Last but not least, Fatherlorris' comic:
DD Americas.png

That was it for this week. Thank you all for reading today’s Development Diary! My colleague @Big Boss will continue next week with a DD on the Netherlands, Venice, and Italy.
 
  • 68Like
  • 29
  • 28Love
  • 9
  • 1Haha
  • 1
Reactions:
I second @RMS Oceanic in having the obsidian modifiers for the High American tech group as well. Also, is it just me or do the Inca mission modifiers have more negative side effects than the Mayan/Aztec equivalent? For example, the dev cost penalty for non-highlands when you have the High Altitude Adaptation privilege VS no dev cost penalty for the equivalent privilege for jungle development for Mayans? Another example is the mummified rulers mechanic, which just punishes the player. I don't see anything similar for either the Aztecs or Mayans. I feel like the Incas got the short end of the stick here.
 
  • 4
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Unbenannt.PNG

Can we take a moment and talk about "American Frontiers"? What are they? How do they work?
 
The first thing that needs to be mentioned is that the map of the Andes does NOT get any additional provinces or tags. This also means that there are no new wastelands too.
Expected but still very disappointing. This is the one thing above all others that would make South America more enjoyable to play in, and people have been pointing out how far below in terms of quality the map of South America is compared to the rest of the world for years. Just a few wasteland provinces on the map would do more for the region than all of the content described above combined.

The devs are clearly aware of the issue as the first thing that's pointed out in the dev diary is that the map will not be updated. This is of course to address all the people who have been asking for a South American map update for years. I find it baffling that they're sticking to the "no map updates" policy in this particular case when the original argument for it was clearly BS ("we're tired of breaking old game saves when new patches drop").
 
Last edited:
  • 28
  • 4Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Two questions:

- If the mission trees still give the countries the ability to adopt High American technology, could the Obsidian modifiers allow H.A. technology group to benefit as well?
- One of the biggest annoyances in playing in Mesoamerica - and Australia tangentially - is being dependent on the AI deciding to colonise near you, and having to sit around and wait until they do. Do the mission trees or government reforms provide an alternate path to reforming, even if there are more benefits to reforming off a colonist?
Alternative reform mechanic would be great. Especially for mp :)
Also small tip for reforming in mexico. Dont colonize the estuary province in texas. Ai will avoid mexico for a while if that province is blocked and always starts colonizing from that province. So get near it but dont block it.
 
Last edited:
  • 2
Reactions:
I was surprisingly happy that there won't be any nonsense Sunset Invasion missions, but there they are at the end of the DD... I wish the time spent creating them could have been used for a small tree for Muisca. But otherwise, looking good.
 
  • 5
  • 4Like
  • 3
Reactions:
Alternative reform mechanic would be great. Especially for mp :)
Also small tip for reforming in mexico. Dont colonize the estuary province in texas. Ai will avoid mexico for a while if that province is vlocked and always statrs colonizing from that province. So get near it but dont block it.
It's a useful tip, yeah.

Another annoying thing that's happened to me sometimes is that while I've seen some conquistadors, my first ability to see a colonising country is when they declare on me for Mexico City.
 
Overall looks great! I will say I am worried by the impact on colonisers like Spain and Portugal. We don't want a repeat of Leviathan where the AI could never colonise due to the new world being so ridiculously OP and giving the player a very long and boring fight against 150K troops for 3 provinces (and it's still a problem today with federations). The player seems to have a lot of power to potentially stop the colonisers and even reverse the process, which is cool. As I mentioned in another comment it would be great to have maybe 4 or so missions about the potential conversion to Christianity and then westernisation, I personally think that would be cool, especially since we are veering FAR off the historical path with the "sunset invasion" missions.

Oh and obligatory vote for changes to colonial powers to accomodate some of these changes and improve the overall experience (IE option to enforce treaty of tordesillas on AI so it's impossible for Portugal (while allied to Spain/Castile at least) to colonise provinces that were given to Castile and vice versa).
 
  • 8Like
  • 3
Reactions:
can nations in the Andes also get Cuscu mission tree the same way any as any Nahutl nation can get Aztecs mission tree? and last question, dose all nations in the new world gets the sunset invesion tree?
 
  • 8
  • 3
Reactions:
That is not ideal. That would have been one of their best chances at holding off the Europeans long enough to cope with their arrival. Otherwise, the Europeans have the perfect excuse for attacking these heathens “look, they’re obviously demon worshippers, they’re practicing human sacrifice!”

It doesn’t have to be anything dramatic, but it absolutely should be an option. Just have some of the religious missions adapt for conversion to Christianity. Give a stability hit, conversion buff, and relation bonus with the Europeans. Heck, copy and paste it for the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans.

Of course, something more involved would be better, but that should be the bare minimum. Basically, give the native states the chance to establish friendly relations with a colonizer by converting. That should be enough.
 
  • 17
  • 3Like
  • 2Haha
  • 1
Reactions:
That would have been one of their best chances at holding off the Europeans long enough to cope with their arrival. Otherwise, the Europeans have the perfect excuse for attacking these heathens “look, they’re obviously demon worshippers, they’re practicing human sacrifice!”
Mmm not sure about this. How are they going to know about Christianity without the colonisers already being there? Sure some scripted events firing in 1490's would be great but having the option before even the basic interaction isn't the best way to do this I don't think.

Also having it as simple as a stab hit and conversion buffs etc is not great either. It needs to be a process that takes a lot of time and effort from the player, having a button to auto convert is a sure fire way to make a boring meta, we need to to be a real challenge and with a possiblity for failure and your empire falling apart. At least imo.
 
So Mapuche, Guaraní, Muisca, Carib and the Brazilian native tags will really remain with absolute zero content is what I'm concluding from these Dev diaries.

Why even keep them in the game if they're not supposed to be played? Just delete them and pretend it's terra nulius at this point. It'd be less disappointing.
 
  • 37
  • 4Like
  • 3
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
Mmm not sure about this. How are they going to know about Christianity without the colonisers already being there? Sure some scripted events firing in 1490's would be great but having the option before even the basic interaction isn't the best way to do this I don't think.
Obviously after interaction with the Europeans, which is in-game always far more gradual than Cortez’s conquest
 
  • 4
Reactions:
Obviously after interaction with the Europeans, which is in-game always far more gradual than Cortez’s conquest
Ah ok, yeah I must of read your comment slightly wrong, I thought you were implying having the option to convert there at 1444.

Also I updated the comment to reflect your comments on the conversion process.
 
I hope you add wasteland in the andes, just like the one in the alps.
Why though? Unlike much of the Alps the Andes were extremely important to the native people and their religion. Having control over certain mountains (see machu picchu) was a big deal. Also the Spanish later used it as a source of mining resources etc.
 
  • 1
Reactions: