• 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.
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.
attachment.php



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.

attachment.php

attachment.php



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.
attachment.php



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]
 

Attachments

  • eu4_1.png
    eu4_1.png
    1,5 MB · Views: 57.851
  • eu4_2.png
    eu4_2.png
    2,4 MB · Views: 57.783
  • eu4_3.png
    eu4_3.png
    2,1 MB · Views: 57.178
  • eu4_4.png
    eu4_4.png
    2,4 MB · Views: 57.698
Last edited by a moderator:
Really curious about doom. Wondering if this makes it easier or harder to do Sunset invasion, and whether the ai can manage it. Especially the increase due to number of provinces makes it scary. But constant war == fun! I'm going to sing the doom song now.
 
The new exploration is great, but it could perhaps be tuned a bit more, something that I will either mod, or let a modder do it! Good that it is a bit slower too.

Everybody complaining about the treaty are people who go protestant ASAP. What you people complaining need to remember is that this was a treaty between two catholic countries and their religious head, which for protestant is irrelevant as you plunder with pirates and ignore catholics anyway. I think that it is good, but the catholic player should get a bigger malus when ignoring it/ a free CB against them.


 
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?

Pretty sure it gives CB to the claim holder too, like the Inter Caetera idea does for Castile/Spain at the moment - Inter Caetera was the Papal bull that divided the New World between Castile and Portugal, and the Treaty of Tordesillas ratified it between the two crowns.
As for the reduced colony growth, the way I interpret it is that basically less people would be willing to settle the colony if they know they're defying the Pope/God, which in turn is why it's only for Catholics. Obviously Protestants and Reformists aren't going to give a shit if they're encroaching on Spain's precious Pope-granted lands.
 
Pretty sure it gives CB to the claim holder too, like the Inter Caetera idea does for Castile/Spain at the moment - Inter Caetera was the Papal bull that divided the New World between Castile and Portugal, and the Treaty of Tordesillas ratified it between the two crowns.

We'll have to see about the CB, but Spain's ideas could use a rethink if that's the case. Or either way, I guess.
 
Hmmm... The whole Doom bit sounded really interesting, but then a comment on the previous page made me re-read one part in more detail.

If you wish to get out of this cycle of war and sacrifice, you will need to reform your religion. [...] Nahuatl states have five reforms they can pass, [...]. Enacting a reform requires having at least 5 vassal states, [...]. 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.

That sounds veeery repetitive... Grab 5 vassals, reform, see them break free, and all this times 5? Is there really no better way to do this?
 
Really curious about doom. Wondering if this makes it easier or harder to do Sunset invasion, and whether the ai can manage it. Especially the increase due to number of provinces makes it scary. But constant war == fun! I'm going to sing the doom song now.

I doubt the AI will be able to get five vassals and then win wars to keep them in the fold five times, along side the other doom mechanics.
 
Tordesillas has made a division of whole world. Why this only works in America?? If it to work for entire world, I can prevent someone to colonize sub-saharian africa and ensure that the route to india is mine. -> The real historic mean of tordesillas treaty

In new world it can work with Colonial regions
In old world it can work with company regions.
 
5 vassals... does this mean the Nahuatl states need to over over their Dip Rel limit? Unless they pick Diplo, Expansion or Influence as soon as possible? Or are they free from that in regards to vassals as long as they aren't reformed?

Overall the Doom mechanic appear interesting, but wholly too hard. We will never see any AI nation with more than 1 reform (they will lose the vassal war, and likely get knocked down with a 100 Doom afterwards).
 
That sounds veeery repetitive... Grab 5 vassals, reform, see them break free, and all this times 5? Is there really no better way to do this?

As I understand it, it will just be an independance war. Still might feel a little convoluted in terms of cause-and-effect, though.

The doom mechanic seems a bit bad...And why would anyone want a colonist? I saw from one of the images that for every province you own the faster the DOOM increases

Doom can get removed permanently, though, in a method similar to Westernisation (after passing all reforms.) Colonising can allow easier Westernisation, although it's not really that helpful for a Mesoamerican nation.

In any case, I'd presume that vassal provinces don't count toward it, so feeding would be an option.
 
As I understand it, it will just be an independance war. Still might feel a little convoluted in terms of cause-and-effect, though.



Doom can get removed permanently, though, in a method similar to Westernisation (after passing all reforms.) Colonising can allow easier Westernisation, although it's not really that helpful for a Mesoamerican nation.

In any case, I'd presume that vassal provinces don't count toward it, so feeding would be an option.

But then you would have stronger vassals that you eventually have to fight.

Also like you said, the colonist will be useful for after you've passed all your reforms to make your way to the closest European to westernize.
 
That Doom mechanic is... shockingly bad. It was hard enough controlling all of Mesoamerica before the Euros came as it was. All that hassle with vassals breaking off, just to get the same free tech boost like the Native Councils get? Totally not worth it. Glad I started my Sunset run before this...

Also, since you're looking at slowing down naval exploration; can you do something about colonial range? Like make it so that distant overseas provinces don't count towards it.

Despite that I'm a cynic, for this one I'll say don't be so quick to judge. While getting to 100 doom is an utter screw-job on the order of being worse than bankrupting, it shouldn't be too hard to put together 5 OPM vassals and bash on them repeatedly for reforms, lowering doom by occupying them and sacrificing their dudes and taking missions that taper well with doing that.

The baseline bonuses Johan says of 10% morale and -2 unrest are decent (the latter opens up some opportunity to lower autonomy manually similar to what we have with animist right now with its +1 TTF, -1 unrest, and -1 decision). I do worry about conversion strength since it's generally untenable for 1.9 pagans, but with the re-work we'll see.

To me, the most odd thing is the cross-purpose balancing. You want more land so you can bash vassals on reform, but more land gives more doom. You can get a colonist, but that also gives more doom (though depending on how much more, potentially worth it). You want to get that western border so you can reform, which means ADM 4 for exploration...but that's inefficient compared to using the 80% catch-up bonus from the religious reform. What does Aztec see at the start...same as before or more? That could be a hidden factor with real impact on how your choices play out.

Based on what Wiz wrote, the initial impression is for that this religion you just want to go full aggro to pick up small vassals and work down doom constantly, passing reforms to get into more wars and keep lowering doom, probably annexing your vassals after the final reform :p.

It is true that the AI will be completely useless with doom mechanic, though the AI is completely useless right now in the new world too.
 
Sad to see how paradox work in things like "doom" instead of improving Political, diplomatic and economical aspects of the game (basically more things to do in peace times).

I really didnt see anithing in this first DD that exited me.
Indeed, they should completely overhaul the current military and administrative system. Warscore/AE/sieges/battles/oe/ae all need to change.
 
I didn't find it fun, but I did like the control I had over it. I could also press my limits and if I got greedy I could attempt to discover that one last square before turning home. Now it's always a "go out and find this exact square, then come home" kind of deal, and I'm not sure if I like it.
From what I'm reading I think we still have the option to explore the old fashioned way, it just requires 3 ships to do it. On the other hand the auto-explore will go out to a specific area and will uncover everything along the way, so, in theory it can be more valuable since you're guaranteed to uncover everything.

I could be misinterpreting it, but I'm pretty sure it's another option for exploring, not a replacement.

it shouldn't be too hard to put together 5 OPM vassals and bash on them repeatedly for reforms,
That's not what the Dev Diary says. It says you can sacrifice your vassals leaders and declare flower wars on other countries. Sacrificing their leaders is a limited commodity, and when you do, do they get 0/0/0 leaders too? So basically, after sacrificing one you're done? War with the other nations means you need to not only keep them alive, but keep them large enough to keep producing units. Meanwhile, while you're being told to keep everyone alive, every other nation in the game is encouraged to go out and conquer.

What does Aztec see at the start...same as before or more? That could be a hidden factor with real impact on how your choices play out.
The doom screenshot shows you that it's the same. Doom is just another "reform or die" except, in this case there's really nothing fun about the way you're going to die.
 
Last edited:
But then you would have stronger vassals that you eventually have to fight.

Also like you said, the colonist will be useful for after you've passed all your reforms to make your way to the closest European to westernize.

Obviously you'd need to keep the bulk of them (or at least the better ones) for yourself. If you can beat the first round of reforms, it's safe to say that you'll be able to beat them the other four times (assuming Spain and Portugal haven't arrived yet.)
 
The doom mechanic seems a bit bad...And why would anyone want a colonist? I saw from one of the images that for every province you own the faster the DOOM increases

You get to keep the reforms after you reform your religion.
 
Interesting implementation of the Treaty. The first thing that comes to mind is what this could do to the frequent Tri-Alliance of Doom (France, Spain, and Portugal). How likely is the AI to pay attention to the treaty? Maybe they'll go along at first when there's other good colonization options, but at some point they're going to step on each other's toes and collapse alliances. I hope.
 
Given that you need to create a CN to trigger the Treaty of Tordesillas, is it now possible to form CN's in sub-saharan Africa? Portugal signed the treaty with the intention of protecting their route to India and their possessions and trade posts along the African coast (some say that they also signed it to guarantee a little bit of the new world by pushing the meridian far enough from Cape Verde so that Brazil would stay within the portuguese sphere), so it makes sense that you can trigger the ToT in the African region.