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Oceania Expanded is a mod I developed for Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy title Europa Universalis IV. Right from the start, I wanted this to feel more like an expansion than a simple mod, so I took inspiration from Paradox’s own expansions and made an effort to emulate their scale and direction. The mod would aim to expand the Oceanic continent and populate it with playable countries, new game mechanics, and new mission trees.
I added a total of 70 countries, all of which had either unique or shared “national ideas”; a system in Europa Universalis IV which gives passive bonuses as well as extra historical information and flavour to the country. I had to research a lot into the cultures and histories of these countries to fill in these national ideas and it was really a joy to look into these cultures and find information not only to flesh out the national ideas, but also translate into game mechanics.
I converted the Polynesian idea of “Mana” into a game mechanic. Mana is the measurement of someone’s soul in the Polynesian religion, and one great with Mana is a worthy and prestigious individual, but someone who is wicked and weak is seen as being weak in Mana. In Mana mythology, it is said that a priest powerful with Mana is able to ask the gods for favours to change the weather, cause storms, and create miracles. So I made Mana a resource in the game and made it something of a balancing act; a high Mana stockpile would greatly benefit the nation’s stability, but spending Mana would grant temporary powerful bonuses. Spending Mana too frivolously would lead to civil wars and instability in the nation, but not spending it at all would make players miss out on powerful bonuses.
I also added unique mission trees for the Maori and Hawaiians to further translate Polynesian history into game mechanics. I stayed close to the Polynesian traditions of exploration and migration for these trees. In the Maori missions, I gave players the option to either unite New Zealand and grow into a colonial empire, or abandon their old home and become voyagers searching for a new place to call home. This was very much to emulate the sedentary vs migratory nature of Pacific societies. Some tribes would migrate thousands of miles to discover and settle new lands, so I felt that should be something the player should be able to do.
Although I developed this mod entirely independently, I tried to keep it in-line with Paradox Interactive’s own vision for the game. I compared my work on these nations to how Paradox developed Native American countries; weak and relatively powerless next to the Europeans, but with massive potential for greatness in player-hands. I made sure the challenge of forming powerful nations was out-of-reach of the AI players, but still left open the possibility for players to become great powers as Polynesians and Aboriginals.
Everything in the mod was developed by myself or sourced from history. I coded the whole thing, designed the GFX, and designed the new game mechanics and mission trees.
I also practiced a little marketing and promotion with this project; publishing Developer Diaries on Reddit nearly every week for the mod. Several people mistook my work for official Paradox content during this time, which I found both flattering and amusing. The reception was very positive, and the feedback I received shaped some of how I made the mod. Here is a link to the final developer diary on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/eu4/comments/bomzcs/oceania_expanded_dev_diary_14052019_feature/
I built up a sufficient following for the mod that it got to the front page of the Steam Workshop within an hour and a half, and got a thousand downloads within 24 hours. As I write this, it’s been gaining between 500-1000 downloads every day. If you own Europa Universalis IV and would like to check the mod out for yourself, here is the link to the workshop file https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1741317323