Hola a todo el mundo, y bienvenidos! In this weeks Development Diary, we will be talking about the content that we have created for Spain and the different Iberian countries, mainly Castile and Aragon, as they are the top runners for its formation. First of all, for the redesign of Spains content for the upcoming DLC, we took a bit different approach than other countries that have been shown in the previous weeks, following this line of thoughts: - We thought that its mission trees did not need a major overhaul, as it was already quite developed in Golden Century, covering most of the Conquest & Colonization paths required as Spain; therefore, we aimed to redesign its structure, adding a few missions here and there to get some extra flavor, and to rework triggers and rewards, to update them in line with the other Great Powers. - We also decided to put more effort into adding more mechanical content instead. - On top of that, we also decided to add more unique content, linked to new game mechanics, but also to older ones, such as adding new Holy Orders for Golden Century owners, in order to keep adding more depth to the game as a whole. - I tried to add some not-so-known chunks of Spanish History to the content, because, you know, I have a previous background as Historian! That said, lets get started with the new content for Castile! When we started designing it, we decided that nothing could be more iconic that adding another civil war disaster:
Note: Effects and numbers are not final, as usual. The Infantes of Aragon were the sons of Fernando/Ferrn I, the first king of the Trastmara dynasty in Aragon, and therefore cousins of Juan II, king of Castile; his first wife, Mara de Aragn, was their sister. Early in the reign of Juan II, they tried to puppet the king, and seize power, leaning on their large properties in the country, and the support they had from a big sector of the Castilian Nobility. This is also portrayed by a new starting privilege for Castiles Nobility, which will cause the following disaster to progress:

A cursed start for Castile, I know, I know. What will happen after the disaster fires is that this event will be triggered, giving two different choices to the player:


The disaster will now be possible to be ended, and as you may have noticed, it will impact the outcome of a new mission:

The first path will reduce the effects of the Factionalist Nobility, making it easier to get rid of it earlier, apart from giving a temporary bust to Juan II, but also comes with a bunch of rebels. The second decision means that the Factionalist Nobility will be empowered, fewer rebels will appear, and it will give Castile early Restoration of Union Casus Belli on Aragon and Navarra, as it means the supremacy of the same line of the Trastmara dynasty over all the three countries. But, on top of that, the event Isabella of Castile wont be triggered if you decide to back the Infantes in their fight against the king, thus making it more difficult to have The Iberian Wedding event, and the peaceful unification of Spain. Its up to the player to decide which path to follow, with its own trade-offs: Back the king and face the Nobility early on, or side with the Infantes, and aim for an early military push to form Spain. Although the start of Castile will be troublesome, as there will still be the possibility of the 'Castillian Civil War' trigger, we wanted to make it rewarding to get out of it in any of the ways decided, and we also made a minor change in order that early game is a bit more bearable:
Enrique IV the 0/0/0 is nevermore a 0/0/0! Now lets move on to see what the new mission tree for Castile and then Spain looks like:
Note: As usual, the design and art of the tree are not final. You may have noticed a big change in the redesign, as we decided to leave the upper half of the tree as the Conquest & Government part of it, while the lower half will be for Trade & Colonization. There is a reason for this, which you will see later on the DD. For now, lets discuss the most important changes for the Castile path to Spain. The right-most part of the tree is designed around a new set of missions covering the evolution of the Modern State in Spain in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The first one is about the final appeasement of the Castilian Nobility:

This leads to Law and Order, which will give nice flavor bonuses to the provinces of Valladolid and Granada until the end of the game, being the seats of the two main courts of justice in the country, the Reales Chancilleras:

Related to these, although not connected to them, we have another set of 3 missions down in the mission tree that is about the Government of the Spanish Empire:
The first one will trigger the following event after completion:
The second is directly linked to the construction of the El Escorial monument. Meanwhile, the third one will lead to a new mechanic we are implementing for Spain, the System of Councils, based upon the historical Polysynodial System which will be unlocked by a Government Reform of the same name:

How is this mechanic working? It will open a new 0-100 progress bar, the Council Consensus, which will be slowly refilled depending on your Monthly Average Autonomy and Monthly Average Liberty Desire of your subjects. Numbers are still WIP, but our initial design is to make it so that the bar can be filled at 10 years the fastest, while not progressing at all if Monthly Average Autonomy and Monthly Average Liberty Desire are 100%:
Note: Ruler ability modifiers are placeholder ones to make the mechanic appear in the game, there is still some code support needed to make it fully work with the Monthly Average Autonomy and Monthly Average Liberty Desire that Ive mentioned. Also, take into account that the other numbers are also WIP. The Council Consensus will give an increasing escalating effect, giving you Monthly Splendor and Administrative Efficiency, but thats not its only benefit, as when you reach 100 Council Consensus, you may be able of spending that amount in one of the three Government Actions, tied to each of the monarch powers. After clicking the button, you will get +1 monarch power of the chosen type for 10 years, and an event similar to the Estate Agendas will trigger, upon which you might be able to pick one of the Councils of that branch to support for 10 years, getting an additional modifier for that period.




Note: UI is WIP, but in the last pic youve got the current design of the new buttons, for the Royal Council, the Council of State, and the Council of War, respectively. So, coming back to the new mission trees, lets go to the leftmost part of it. We have moved there the already existing missions for the Spanish Armada and Invade England, but we have added 3 more there, making it the Military Branch of the mission tree:
The first mission, Armies of Iberia, will unlock the Navy and Army paths of the branch. But the meaty new content is on the Land part, to be honest, as we have created a new government reform for the Spanish Tercios:

Which is, obviously, a new type of Land Special Unit!
Note: Grey color is provisional. This unit might be recruited from provinces of the Iberian culture group, and their availability will be increased by the Army Tradition that Spain has at the moment. So, that means that you will be able to recruit double the amount of Tercios if your Army Tradition is 100. About its combat performance, these units will have at the start the same modifier as Spains Tercios Age bonus, -30% Shock Damage Received (therefore, that means that we will change Spains Age bonus, although it is not yet decided, as we want to wait for a bit more to get results from our internal tests to give a proper new modifier). But wait, this is not the end of the (Spanish) road! There is another mission, Refine the Tercios, which will allow you to modernize your Tercios units if you have a fixed number of Tercios (right now is 60, but this may change), and either 75% Army Professionalism or 90 Army Tradition, giving them the following effects on top until the end of the game, allowing Spain to extend the dominance of Tercios on the battlefields for a longer period than historically:
Note: Again, numbers are provisional, and might be changed. This fits for us with the expanded Conquest missions of the tree:
Rein in France can be completed either by defeating or by allying with France, giving permanent Power Projection as a modifier.

The Spanish Road aims to connect your dominions in Italy with the rich (and maybe cursed) Netherlands, which will now grant a big reward if completed.

We have also reworked a bit the Austrian branch flow and links and added a stronger reward for completing it (again, numbers are not final).

If you manage to complete all the different branches of Conquest & Government, you will unlock a finishing mission for Spain, giving a reward to your now Universal Empire. OK, now were done with the Hegemonic Ambitions of Spain, so lets move to the lower part of its mission tree, devoted to Trade & Colonization. The first redesign we made covers the commercial expansion and the new maritime routes that were established at the Age of Discovery. By completing it you will get some nice commercial bonuses, but most importantly, you will unlock two new types of ships:

Here you have a new feature that we are adding to the upcoming DLC: Naval Special Units! A few countries will get them, on top of the 3 new special units that we have already presented (Samurai, Musketeers, and Tercios). And these are the Caravels and Galleons that are mentioned here:

After completing the Reales Atarazanas mission, you will be able to recruit as much as 10% of your Naval Force Limit as this type of special ship (again, numbers are provisional). This will help you with the Exploration branch, which we have not touched much, as it was already quite well developed. As you may have noticed, we have redesigned a bit the position and flow of the different missions, added a few different triggers and rewards here and there, and made a final mission after finishing the conquest of both Mxico and Per:
Here Ive got to say that we have not added more content to the Colonial Nations and America. To be honest with you, its in our backlog, but it fell outside of the scope of the upcoming DLC, so this will have to wait for a future moment. What we are adding, on the other hand, is more types of Holy Orders, which will be part of the free update for the Golden Century DLC owners, and which will be the following ones (this list includes the 3 older ones, Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans): Monastic Orders (ADM)

• Benedictines
  • -1 Local Unrest
  • +10% Trade Goods Size Modifier
• Carthusians
  • -10% Local Construction Cost
  • -10% Local State Maintenance Modifier
• Hieronymites
  • +10% Local Tax Modifier
  • -10% Local Governing Cost
• Jesuits
  • +1% Local Missionary Strength
  • +10% Local Production Efficiency

• Augustinians
  • +1 Institution Growth
  • -10% Local Missionary Maintenance Cost
• Carmelites
  • +20% Local Religious Conversion Resistance
  • +20% Local Religious Unity Contribution
• Dominicans
  • +1.5% Local Missionary Strength
  • +10% Local Institution Spread
• Franciscans
  • -1 Local Unrest
  • -0.05 Monthly Devastation

• Order of Calatrava (CAS/NAV)
  • +10% Local Defensiveness
• Order of Avis (POR)
  • +25% Local Sailors
• Order of Montesa (ARA)
  • +25% Local Garrison Size
• Order of Alcntara (LEO/AST)
  • -10% Local Fort Maintenance Modifier
  • -25% Local Construction Time
• Order of Santiago
  • +5% Local Manpower
• Order of San Juan
  • Blocks Slave Raids
  • -0.25 Local Monthly Devastation

• Buffed Spanish Naval Doctrine
  • Move the 'A Spanish Armada' Idea modifiers to the Naval Doctrine
• Ideas
  • Changed 'Devout Catholicism' name to 'Devout Christianism'
    • Added Church Power and Fervor in case of being Protestant or Reformed
  • 'Treasure Fleet' replaced by the Castilian Idea 'School of Salamanca'
    • Added +10% Reform Progress Growth (also to Castilian Idea)
  • 'A Spanish Armada' now gets:
    • +25% Naval Force Limit modifier from Treasure Fleet
    • +25% Available Marines
  • Changed 'Rein in the Cortes'
    • -5 Reduced Absolutism from Privileges
  • New Idea order:
    • Devout Christianism
    • Inter Caetera
    • School of Salamanca
    • A Spanish Armada
    • Casa de Contratacin
    • Siglo de Oro
    • Rein in the Cortes

Main Features

• Make your own decisions: Nation building is completely flexible and the possibilities are endless.
  
• Use your Monarch Power: Experience the new system of monarch power where your choices are influenced by the caliber of the man or woman you have at the top and will direct the ebb and flow of gameplay.
  
• Experience history coming to life: The great personalities of the past are on hand to support you as you make your mark on thousands of historical events.
  
• Turn the world into your playground: Enjoy hundreds of years of gameplay in a lush topographical map complete with dynamic seasonal effects.
  
• Experience the all new trade system: The trade system adds a new dimension to the great trade empires of the period. Gain control of vital trade routes and make the wealth of the world flow to your coffers.
  
• Bring out your negotiating skills in a deeper diplomatic system: Use coalitions, royal marriages and support for rebels and explore the possibilities of the new unilateral opinion system.
  
• Engage in Cross-platform Multiplayer: Battle against your friends or try the co-operative multiplayer mode that allows several players to work together to control a single nation with up to 32 players. Featuring improved chat and new matchmaking servers.
  
• Create your own history & customize your game: Europa Universalis IV gives you the chance to customize and mod practically anything your heart may desire and uses Steam Workshop.

• Processor: Intel Core i3-2105 / AMD FX 4300Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 / AMD Radeon HD 5850Video Memory: 1 GB RAMIDIA GeForce 9600 or higher. 1024MB graphics memory requiredHard Drive:6 GB HD spaceOther Requirements:Broadband Internet connectionAdditional:GLSL 1.3. OpenGL 2.1. Controller support: 3-button mouse. keyboard and speakers. Internet Connection or LAN for multiplayer

• Processor: Intel Core i3 3240 / AMD FX 8120Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 TiVideo Memory: 1 GB RAMHard Drive:6 GB HD spaceOther Requirements:Broadband Internet connectionAdditional:GLSL 1.3. OpenGL 2.1. Controller support: 3-button mouse. keyboard and speakers. Internet Connection or LAN for multiplayer