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]

 

[Rinsukaze]

The new exploration system sounds useful, as it is how I usually would like to play it.

The Nahuatl religion... seems pretty fun! Eager to see the other two and to put them into action!

 

[Wizzington]

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.

The concept of 'Primitives' (CB and such) has been decoupled from religion and is now a factor of tech group.

 

[Freudia]

Because you know you did something wrong and your settlers are feared and so work slower

I'm fairly sure that, as a Catholic colonizer not part of the Treaty, I don't fear the wrath of my colonial rivals. I might only fear the Pope, but the Pope is weak on its own.

The concept of 'Primitives' (CB and such) has been decoupled from religion and is now a factor of tech group.

This might be my favorite single sentence I've read in the past 24 hours.

 

[Dragos22]

This looks great! Especially the Doom Mechanics.

 

[Haldan]

Doooooooom!

 

[IIWW]

The concept of 'Primitives' (CB and such) has been decoupled from religion and is now a factor of tech group.

Great news, especially since new meso and sotuh american relligions have some nice bonuses! I assume in "and such" there is also gold income.

 

[AdAstra]

Can we explore manually as used to or not?

 

[SignedName]

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?

This is not silly. The first Colonial Nations are probably going to be popping up around 1500, so that's before the reformation. It's an early-game boost (though your CN will be wrong religion once you convert). There really ought to be a mechanic to force subject nations to your religion (instead of annexing them and releasing them once you've converted their capital).

Also: Aztecs can still convert to Christianity, though, right?

 

[TheArchduke]

Ah, exploration missions instead of babysitting them province by province.

On my list since Eu2, ticked off.

 

[Castrolol]

Honestly not all that impressed. The whole Treaty of Tordesillas mechanic (which was the thing I was looking forward to by far) seems like it will only empower the Iberians who are already colonising at a ridiculous speed.

I might be skipping this one.

 

[SignedName]

Honestly not all that impressed. The whole Treaty of Tordesillas mechanic (which was the thing I was looking forward to by far) seems like it will only empower the Iberians who are already colonising at a ridiculous speed.

They are? I haven't noticed. They seem to colonize at reasonable speeds in South America (perhaps even too slow). I think the problem is that they end up colonizing North America too much/early for other nations to get a chance. There ought to be a way to make the AI prioritize certain colonial regions over others.

 

[Freudia]

This is not silly. The first Colonial Nations are probably going to be popping up around 1500, so that's before the reformation. It's an early-game boost (though your CN will be wrong religion once you convert). There really ought to be a mechanic to force subject nations to your religion (instead of annexing them and releasing them once you've converted their capital).

What's silly about it is that the only nations who should have any business even caring about the Treaty are those who established it. A Catholic France who's in the colonial venture business won't care in the slightest about the opinions of Spain or Portugal, nor should it have any reason to. The relation penalty is therefore incredibly silly. It also pretty much forces non-Treaty members out of Catholicism if they want to colonize without Treaty penalties, so I'm not sure how I feel about that.

 

[CNightwing]

Perhaps the treaty penalties don't apply to non-catholic nations? That would make sense. Really there ought to be a settler bonus for not being catholic, at least during the reformation, since that's when so many people fled Europe.

As for the doom track, when it fills up, do you have to fight Cthulhu?

 

[Vonboe]

Does this mean that with this DLC we will finally see a new colonization mechanic?

 

[frolix42]

Happy to see a new DLC. Take your time

 

[Intrinsic Folly]

Perhaps the treaty penalties don't apply to non-catholic nations? That would make sense. Really there ought to be a settler bonus for not being catholic, at least during the reformation, since that's when so many people fled Europe.

Even if non-Catholic nations don't get a penalty for settling a region claimed by a nation in the treaty, Catholic nations will still get that juicy +20 settler bonus making them the most valid religion to colonize as. To expand my previous question, will the bonus transition to the Overlords colonial nation?

 

[SignedName]

What's silly about it is that the only nations who should have any business even caring about the Treaty are those who established it. A Catholic France who's in the colonial venture business won't care in the slightest about the opinions of Spain or Portugal, nor should it have any reason to. The relation penalty is therefore incredibly silly. It also pretty much forces non-Treaty members out of Catholicism if they want to colonize without Treaty penalties, so I'm not sure how I feel about that.

It only applies to a single colonial region. It doesn't give a settler malus to other regions. It (hopefully) incentivizes other nations to settle in other regions (and Spain and Portugal to focus on one region at a time).

 

[bbqftw]

The concept of 'Primitives' (CB and such) has been decoupled from religion and is now a factor of tech group.

does this suggest that westernized pagans can make real $$$ off of gold?

 

[DC123456789]

That Doom mechanic is actually pretty good.

 

[hjarg]

Finally, proper exploration! Give the chaps some ships, send them to find route to India and then wonder how in the hell they ended up in Antarctica! Yes, yes, yes!