Norrefeldt said:
I think you have done a great job and most of what is done I'm fine with.
Some things could still be tweaked further, however I'm not the only one to say yes or no to your proposals, but I'll give you my view of it.
All good ideas. I didn't remember since it was not in the submissions post, sorry.
I think the event is too good (a option is), the mine valuable enough as it is (Isaac Brock said the same IIRC). I'm not convinced it was actually a colony, but rather a fortified TP. I can let that slip since it's important for POR and fortified TPs doesnt exist in the game.
I dont think it was more than a TP, and agree with the vanilla campaign (its a TP lvl 3 both 1492 and 1617). This is the thing I feel the strongest about. It wasn't a very big thing this colony and comparable to many other colonies/TP's in the game that doesn't have events at all. Therefore the effects shouldn't be too favorable IMHO.
I share Isaac Brocks concerns here, that a player will not colonize it at all since he'll get a free ride if he just waits. However it's not a too big thing. Delaying it a few years might be good.
Same thing here as Arguin event. If we do this event, we should do event for all colonies and all states. We should begin with to make this province triggered since any effects for POR should be the same for any other colonizer. The event could otherwise go into that package of Daywalkers optional special AI help events that has been discussed.
OK.
I don't think the case was strong enough to have theses provinces protected in a special way. The chances anything will happen to the Portuguese colony aren't to big anyway. Removing the province from Ashanti is fine with me.
Silly over-deterministic events if you ask me, havent noticed them before. Should the core be removed in 18019? I don't care what happens with these events really, so anything goes.. (I'm not too fond of granting cores on colonies.)
The reason why I made these 4 events is that I've studied this topic heavily and heavily relyed on the sources in this study. I then thought what were the most important points in Portuguese colonial history during the 15th century and then decided there ought to be events in the game to reflect that. Gameplay or personal desires were not my premise in the creation of these events, with the exception of the Azores event which I'll explain later. Anotherwards I tried to make the game bend to history not history to the game.
It has occured to me that someone else not reading what I have read on this subject might very well think I'm overstating or exaggerating the siginificance of each of these events. Therefore in as a restrained a manner as possible I'll explain why they are indeed big events both in Portuguese as well as world history and therefore rightly deserve to be made into game events.
Event 260049 represents the Portguese settlement in Arguin. Admittedly this settlement was a fort that traded. It did not have a large Portuguese population. Eventually it did have a mulatoo populations near by. But the main thing about Arguin is that it was the first Portuguese settlement in Africa south of the Canaries. The trans-saharan trade was exclusively in muslim hands until it reach coastal cities in north Africa where italian merchants would then trade for commodities coming from this route and bring them to europe.
The Portuguese figured that if they could build a fort on the African coast they may be able to divert some of this trade into their hands. The king then councilled with his court on this matter and not everyone in Portugal thought it was a good idea. Anotherwards it was a gamble that payed off huge. A good portion of the trade of the trans-saharan trade route then went into portuguese hands. The Portuguese then realized that it may very well be a good idea to build more settlements like Arguin further south along the Africa coast.
The implications of Arguin on Portuguese as well as world history are immense. Arguin was the first fort on the African coast south of the Canaries and therefore it holds a very special place in the mind of a Portuguese historian. If it was 1 of many forts and had no special significance I would not waste anyones time, myself included, in making it into an event. However this is not the case. Arguin was the death sentence for the muslim controlled trans-saharan trade route. If Arguin had been a failure Portuguese exploration much farther south would likely have never happened or happened at a much later date, Da Gama's voyage to India would probably never have happened, Portuguese rise to a postion of the wealthiest nation in europe well before Da Gama's voyage would almost certainly never of happened, and the atlantic slave trade would undoubtedly never of happened. Millions upon milions of lives in world history were systematically effected by a seemingly insignificant trading fort at the mouth of an insignificant river just south of the Canary Islands. All of Portuguese exploration, settling, and trade of Africa south of the Canaries hinged on the success of the trading fort of Arguin. And as such it holds a place of tremendous significance in world history.
Obviously a TP or colony can't perfectly represent what Arguin was. If a player, human or AI, TPs Arguin they will probably make it into a colony as well, at least at some later point. Therefore I do not exclude colonial status from being a necessary trigger for an event for Arguin. Fort building was a very key element of Portuguese colonial strategy, yes even to a greater degree than other europeans later. This is why I made the Arguin event as it is. I think it would be a shame to leave out this key piece of world history simply because it doesn't fit perfectly like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle into the EU2 engine. Many other events that are considered to be important, aren't on the same level of significance as Arguin and the game engine is worked around for them. Why should the Arguin event be descriminated against? Why should the line be drawn with Arguin?
Event 260048 represents the settlement of Elmina. Elimna was the most important settlement that Portugal had until probably Goa. Elmina resided in a heavy gold producing region. When king Joao II took the throne of Portugal 1 of the first things he decided to do was build a settlement in the region of Leone. He sent Diego da Azambuja with many laborers and soldiers with most of the supplies for building with them. Anotherwards it was such a big deal to Joao that he sent almost the entire fort in a dismantled state by a large fleet right to the spot of Azambuja's choosing so that a strong fort could be assembled with lightning speed. This single settlement made Portugal extremely rich. It was hotly deabated in Portugal whether or not it should be assembled in the first place, just like Arguin. And it was a gamble that payed off big just like Arguin.
When the dutch arrived they correctly recognized the high value of Elmina and attacked it several times before successfully taking it.
I realize that Elmina may not fit perfectly into everyone's perception of a colony in EU2. However it does fit perfectly into a perception of a colony from a world history perspective. King Joao II after all did grant it city status 4 years after it's founding.
Because of it's great significance as the single most valuable colony of Portgual's for so long a time. I think it warrents an event to reflect this. Option A is too good but there is no Elmina event if the Canaries are not ceded back to Spain by the time of the treaty of Alcocovas. Or did you not realize that was part off the setup Norrfeldt?
Event 260051 represents the settlement of Sao Tome. This settlement holds a very special place in world history. This was where the refined model of a plantation worked by black slaves used in the new world was invented. If it were not for the settlement of Sao Tome the atlantic slave trade would have developed to it's highest extent at a much later date or not at all. Many of the settlers mentioned in the event description were in fact the inventors of this style of plantation. After a slave uprising took place on Sao Tome some of the plantation owners moved to Brazil and took their techniques with them and forever changed the world history of both Africa and the new world. Sao Tome was also vey profitable. Much trade in slaves at Elmina as well as other provinces like Douala and Kribe were largely dependant on Sao Tome as a purchaser of these slaves.
Because of this I think it warrents an event. The event doesn't exactly give Portugal a ridiculous advantage either.
Admittedly event 260050 is of much smaller significance from a world history perspective but at least it was very significan to Azoreans. The primary purpose of this event is to fix gameplay problems. What happens with the Azores is that it doesn't get the +5% bonus growth rate that other colonies get. neither do the Canaries. In addition to this plagues often hit the Azores reducing it's slow growing population even further. I have seen Tago have 200,000 pop and the Azores bearly break 5,000 at this time and this is with me putting both my first refinery as well as my first governor on the Azores. It is then aslo surpassed in pop by other colonies that started at roughly the same size as the Azores. This is unrealistic. The Azores were heavily populated right off the bat. The event is desined to fix this problem.
The complaint of Isaac's that no one will colonize it is, no disrespect intended to Isaac, pure and total nonsense. The math proves him wrong by far. Let's analyze this shall we.
Each colonist for the Azores costs 20 each. It will require 10 colonists. occasionally 1 will fail. So for the sake of argument let's assume 1 does. This brings a total of 220 ducats to fully colonize the Azores. In addition to this 50 ducats are spent for a baliff. Now let's analyze how much money a Portuguese player can make by doing this before the 1471 event.
A fully upgraded Azores with level 2 Infra tech on level 3 stability produces 14 ducats annually and 21 ducats trade. In addition to this it produces 4.7 ducats annually with a census tax. We'll begin our calcualtions starting with january 1422 as this is usally when all the colonizing and baliff promoting is completed by. We are of course ignoring all income it made prior to this as well as the additional income it would make if level 3 infra is achieved before 1471 and it usually is acquired before then.
Portgual recieves roughly 25% of the trade of the Azores. So for 21 trade well round it off to 5 ducats annually. 1471-1422= 49 years. 5 times 49 = 245 ducats from trade alone by 1471.
Now let us analyze it's income which is located to the left of the sugar icon. It is 14 ducats annually. 14 times 49 = 636 ducats.
In adition to this in 1452 Portugal get's an event that gives the Azores +1 tax. We'll calcualte it as of 1453 incase the event triggers a bit late. With +3 stability this of course makes it +1.2. So we'll times 1.2 by 18 years and it equals 21.6 ducats.
Now let us consider it's census tax income. which is 4.7 annually beacause of the baliff and the +3 stability 4.7 times 49 = 230.3 ducats.
In addition to this the +1 tax event gives 1.2 additonal ducats to this as well. So it is figured the same way giving an additional 21.6 ducats.
nowlet's add all this together.
245
636
21.6
230.3
21.6
=1154.5
Now we'll minus the 270 invested which brings our total net profit to 884.5 ducats. This is how much profit is made from the Azores by colonizing it on squedule and not waiting for my event to kick in to get city status for free.
251.9 ducats come from the inflation free income alone. This in itself almost pays for the investment.
As you can see not getting 884.5 ducats by 1471 would be a very foolish option to choose. An AI of course will colonize it well before 1471 so it is a mute issue for them. We really only need to consider whether a human player will be given an unfair advantage.
So Isaac's reason for protesting this event as you can see here, no disrespect intended, is pure baloney.