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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.
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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.

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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.
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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]
 

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Any mechanic to replicate the arrival of European diseases in America?

Can you capture any conquistadors to sacrifice to the Gods?

Will there be any further development on Orthodoxy, Miaphyte and Coptic? I'd really like a development of some Russian/Ottoman rivalry over the Balkans should Byzantium collapse.
 
Any mechanic to replicate the arrival of European diseases in America?
Yes, yes, let's add an event to lower Native American province manpower by 80% when they meet Europeans. Permanently.
That sure sounds like fun! (It doesn't.)
 
Yes, yes, let's add an event to lower Native American province manpower by 80% when they meet Europeans. Permanently.
That sure sounds like fun! (It doesn't.)

So it's better that the game instead portrays the regions as if they've already lost 80% of their population in the first place?
 
Dude all I'm saying is that the Aztec religion should be implemented in such a way that it isn't just one big gimp. The Mesoamericans are already among the most difficult in the game, and this just makes them harder. You are just repeating over and over "But that's historical!"

Aztec religion starts with good bonuses & after reforming it will give even more bonuses & remove the doom mechanic. Doesn't sound bad to me compared to let's say Animism.

Secondly those playing as Meso-Americans are already looking for a great challenge. This isn't Age of Empires where every nation needs to be balanced perfectly. Aztecs were historically doomed basically due to their bad treatment of vassals & belief in superstitions such as Quitzacotl so the mechanic is quite fitting. Had Montezuma attacked Spaniards when he had the opportunity his empire might have survived for a bit longer.
 
Authonomy? Sorties?
There is nice chance that AI would be able to handle it properly, but the concerns aren't unjustified.
I would not be surprised if AI gets a bonus reducing the rate of Doom growth, just to reduce the associated problems.

On the other hand, hopefully it can at least be made to be less likely to annex vassals, and it will probably blob much less than a human would, so less doom for that.

But yes, the AI is probably still Doomed.
 
Is it a good idea to have every nation on two continents be functionally dead?

Honestly, it would be fun to have you start as relatively prosperous, and then gradually (although still relatively quickly) getting hit with murder events.
 
Any mechanic to replicate the arrival of European diseases in America?

That works both ways. Whoever discovers the Americas first brings back Syphilis, which then spreads across the world with manpower, morale and production efficiency damage until the end of the game (the disease did not become treatable until the early 20th century).

Edit: more generally, I think the other horsemen of the Apocalypse should have a bigger influence in the game. I'd say we got War down, but Pestilence (diseases) and Famine are woefully underrepresented.
 
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I'm hoping for some improved Civil War mechanics or internal mechanics for nations.

When a Civil War flares up between Royalists and Parliament; I want the annexed Scotland or Ireland to become actors somewhat (like in history).
 
Your idea about the new religion is not bad but honestly playing those south american civs... you may play them once but not more...

About totesillas i think it's really not well designed, you can do way better than a +10 -20
 
So, the dev diary says that completing the reforms will allow you to westernize. Does that mean that these nations will be completely unable to westernize unless they jump through a (completely made up, highly convoluted, and slightly silly) series of hoops? I'm not sure I'm in favor of that.
 
So, the dev diary says that completing the reforms will allow you to westernize. Does that mean that these nations will be completely unable to westernize unless they jump through a (completely made up, highly convoluted, and slightly silly) series of hoops? I'm not sure I'm in favor of that.
I mean, North American natives and hordes have a similar requirement of something before westernization.
 
I mean, North American natives and hordes have a similar requirement of something before westernization.

Hordes and NA natives are only comparable in that they involve the word "reform", it stops after that.

This one is something else entirely too, and depending on how it is to keep doom reasonable they won't be nearly as gimpy and pathetically over-nerfed without justification as hordes.

Native councils pay in 2500 points/category for some temporary bonuses, then their "reform" is basically just a tech vault. When they're getting 6+ techs/category, they're actually teching for less significantly less MP investment than being western, with the tradeoff being a window of vulnerability, the fall-behind of westernizing at huge expense, and catching back up again. The reform aspect of this is almost purely positive, in stark contrast to hordes. Aztec is something in between, gaining a number of bonuses in addition to hoops. Depending on how it works in practice, you can look at that as an improvement, unlike every change made for hordes in the past year which has not only nerfed them, but made them progressively less fun and interesting to play as they've had flavor events siphoned away or nerfed and unique choices removed.
 
I'm not convinced there needs to be a requirement that religion be reformed to Westernize.

The Nahuatl reform bonuses are so powerful that converting to Christianity during Westernization (I would argue that these bonuses are even better than Reformed with all three focuses running) would be insanity unless you wanted to play PU/HRE games. Though I guess I am making an assumption that such an option would still be presented during Westernization.

I think giving some choice in the matter - common Westernization path now (convert to Christianity - besides hoping you don't get dunked by colonial conquest its a fairly 'safe path'), or the much more risky but high-reward reform path - wouldn't necessarily be bad.