Dominion: British Imperial relations mod

[chann]

Pictured: Prime Ministers at a reception at Lancaster House for the 1926 Imperial Conference. From left to right: W.T. Cosgrove (IRE), J.B.M. Herzog (SAF), W.L.M. King (CAN), S. Baldwin (ENG), S. Bruce (AST), J.G. Coates (NZL), W.S. Monroe (NEW).

DOWNLOAD VERSION 1.3: Rapidshare | Strategy Informer

Version 1.2 (1.2 compatible):
Rapidshare | Strategy Informer

Version 1.11 (1.2 compatible): Rapidshare
Version 1.0 (1.1 compatible): Rapidshare

Dominion adds events and decisions relating to governmental changes within the British Empire, as well as modelling the evolution of the relationship between the UK and the "settler colonies" from satellite state to de facto independence.

Install notes and compatibility:
Extract the zip into your V2 base folder, or use JSGME to install. Delete the files to uninstall manually.

Dominion is compatible with all other mods provided you take note that common\event_modifiers.txt may need to be altered. It will overwrite changes made by mods that add new country modifiers. Merge the changes manually by copying and pasting the final block of the file marked ### DOMINION ### from this mod's event_modifiers.txt to that of the mod you're using.

Changelog:

v1.3

Prestige required for Independence decisions halved
To declare independence you must have fascists, communists or anarcholiberals in control of the Upper House. (I assume reactionaries are basically high-and-mighty imperialists). You still need sufficient liberals to petition for independence.
Balfour Declaration altered: it is now enabled once a dominion petitions for independence. Not entirely historical, but I'm open to different suggestions The triggers I had put on it did not seem to be working.

v1.2

Redesigned the mod's satellite-breaking mechanic. The initial "independence or reform" event only fires if your country is already independent, thus only rebel-induced collapse will trigger it.
Declare Independence/Petition for Independence decisions now work for ANY satellite country
Great Powers should now not get exile event more than once (don't know what happens if all 8 refuse though)
Reconciling as a dominion (the final event you get after the end of an exile) will now reform your government to a monarchy again
Some of the event text rewritten

v1.11 (Victoria II 1.2 compatible)

Fixed the war of independence having its war goals switched around. Good luck trying to Annex United Kingdom!
Added New England as a possible dominion
Fixed localisation problems and an accidentally duplicated description
Changed the Allegiance event from triggered to MTTH to fix the AI quirk where every recipient nation chooses the same option en masse
UK now loses 100 prestige if the monarchy is overthrown. Harsh, but the UK always has thousands of prestige points to throw around!
Added a few extra checks to the seeking exile event, including differentiating the "loyalist" and "republican" dominions, and ensuring they don't go straight back to Britain just because it is a GP :S
Issue: If you annex a country hosting monarchy in exile, they will "disappear" from the game but the non-existent country will still have the modifier (and it will be properly cleared upon The British Restoration). I don't know how to clear such modifiers upon conquest.

v1.1 (Victoria II 1.2 compatible)

Reconfigured event so any vassal of the UK in the British culture group, Neo-European culture group, or India (special case) are counted as dominions. Thus the new South Rhodesia now counted as a dominion.
CSV made "multilanguage" (copied English across all languages)
event_modifiers.txt updated to 1.2 version
The new "release and play as" feature in 1.2 will leave you as an independent HM's Government if you use it on Canada/South Africa/etc. I added a cleanup event that checks if you are in the right culture groups, and have the default government, in which case you get asked once whether you are a dominion (go back to vassal) or independent (become a democracy). The AI will always choose democracy, in case a release puppet war goal is used against it or something.
Fixed typographical errors

v1.0 (Victoria II 1.1 compatible)
Initial release.

Credits:
Grandmasta, for demonstrating exactly how to write a decision that removes a country from an SoI
Cainrae, for Declaration of Independence events
Jamie, for the Victoria 2 Validator

[chann]

Description
The core of the mod is the special events that British satellites receive if 1) their government is overthrown in a revolution or 2) if the British government is overthrown.

Satellites the mod applies to (including the ones that didn't exist...)

• Canada
• Columbia
• Quebec
• Newfoundland
• India
• South Africa
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Ireland
• Scotland
• Southern Rhodesia
• New England

Decisions:

• The Balfour Declaration (1926): frees all British dominions but leaves them in the UK's sphere of influence (albeit too late in the game to really make a difference to the player). Represents the fact that the dominions could now conduct foreign relations, but were legislatively still tied to the British Parliament and were oh so loyal to them.
• Statute of Westminster: will be passed a few years after the Balfour Declaration is made. Dominions can adopt the Statute of Westminster at any time. It acts as a "leave sphere of influence" decision. Represents the formal break between the dominions and the British Parliament.
• Declare republican independence and free yourself of being a satellite, at any time, provided UK
  influence/relations are low enough (expect a fight!)
• British Empire Games: flavour decision for Canada (or whoever owns Hamilton) that adds prestige for you and for Imperial dominions/Britain

Types of events

Revolution in the Colonies

• Independence or Reform: the satellite will have the option of either declaring independence or reforming its government in line with Britain's. ENG will receive an option to declare war or normalise relations with the rebellious satellite.

Revolution in London (monarchy -> non-monarchy)

• Declare Our Allegiance: Satellites have to decide between staying loyalist, seizing the opportunity for independence, or aligning themselves with the new British regime.
• Kingdom in Exile: If Britain loses its monarchy, the British royal family may try to establish a kingdom in exile in a loyalist state (you can refuse) or if unable to, another great power. This would be dependent on distance from London and prestige. (For example, the King will sooner flee to Ireland if it is prosperous enough. Plus, Scotland is right across the border...) Naturally the exile will impose some domestic strains - I'm taking note of the excellent backstory to the Kaiserreich mod for HoI2 as I write this. If the monarchy is ever restored, dominions that remained on good terms with them have the chance to reconcile.

Other events

• Ideological Differences: if both Britain and the satellite have dictatorships, the satellite may declare independence over ideological differences (small chance if the dictatorship is the same type, and a far higher chance if it's different; happens sooner if relations are very low)

AI factors:

• A non-monarchical ENG should harder time holding on to the dominions without the legitimacy of the Crown
• Dictatorships/Absolutists/Jingoist parties more likely to go to war or try to re-annex dominions
• Democracies/HMS Govt/Pacifist parties more likely to let the dominions go (it should be exceedingly hard for Britain to re-centralise power once the dominions have representative government)
• Dictatorships and democracies more likely to go independent if ENG's government is toppled
• Absolute monarchies more likely to change to the new British government (the Governor already wields absolute power, so what difference does it make to him?)
• Dominions will be more likely to assert their autonomy as time goes on

Future ideas:

• Reunifying Britannia: Britain may try to forcibly re-incorporate dominions in the right circumstances: 1) takeover of an ailing dominion government, as per Newfoundland 2) Dictatorships, especially fascists
• Diplomatic Tensions: between different types of monarchy (e.g. Absolute vs. HM's govt) to represent 1) colonial resentment at British interference in the colonies or 2) British concerns that some backwater Governor or Prime Minister is offending their constitutional sensibilities
• The Imperial Federation League and ideas for this reform, symbolised by a Two Per State upper house reform (The idea is it would delay colonial desires for self-government, but such event chains are outside the scope of this mod for the moment)
• An option to designate conquered ("white") territories as new Dominions
• British citizenship policy
• The question of Imperial Defence (colonial navies)
• The London Declaration (1948): activated when a dominion becomes a Republic and comes within ENG's SoI, and ENG has advanced tech: allows ENG and the former dominion to remain on good terms. Removed for 1st release as a) obviously it's a little before its time; b) I can't think of good effects/triggers for it. Can YOU?

[Phalanxia]

Looks good.

[anomanderus]

Glorious Britannia!

[Valentin the II]

This looks great! Just don't make it to deterministic.

[MrTaxman]

Killer idea!
Now I just hope that the mod folder gets fixed ASAP

[jamhaw]

This is a capital idea! I especially like the Imperial Federation elements (although until we get some later start-dates in the game I cannot see myself using it very often). Have you considered the possibility of the Dominions providing monetary support to the Royal Navy? I understand that the Canada modification is including that (for Canada at any rate) and it would seem a useful thing for London to be able to request.

[chann]

This is a capital idea! I especially like the Imperial Federation elements (although until we get some later start-dates in the game I cannot see myself using it very often).

Yeah, I don't want to get too ambitious at the start, for now if I include anything it will just be minor events that push for the reform.

Two Per State factors ever so slightly into a satellite choosing to reform its government rather than breaking free (because it believes it will have a say in the new regime).

Have you considered the possibility of the Dominions providing monetary support to the Royal Navy? I understand that the Canada modification is including that (for Canada at any rate) and it would seem a useful thing for London to be able to request.

Interesting idea, I'll keep a tab on the Canada mod for now.

Edit: OK, after doing some reading on the topic and looking at the event system, the limited event system (no provision for naval limits or adding ships as far as I can see) and the unpredictable AI means any naval defence arrangement will simply involve the colonies sending money one-way to Britain. There's no guarantee that the ships will be built and/or stationed nearby. May not be very fun to play...

You can use events/decisions to build naval bases though, so maybe the system could be simplified to just decisions: build a high-level naval base in your (coastal) capital in return for concessions to Britain? Needs more brain-time.

[atmafox]

Definitely keeping an eye on this, chann. If it ends up not going particularly deterministic, I'm likely to ask to, ah, borrow it for PDM. Like I noted in the ANZIM thread, I do have an idea for the formation of most of the dominions though rather than starting them at game start.

To keep from making people surf to another thread, it follows but with a different example:
Canada would start with cores on Quebec (Upper Canada), Ottawa (Lower Canada), and New Brunswick (Which includes the other Maritimes). Through events based on various conditions they could gain cores on British Columbia (or not, in which case it may go its own way) and potentially even Newfoundland. I think this might work very well with your system for determining when to release a dominion, as that's a part of the puzzle I had not quite worked out yet. Should make for a more organic, less deterministic formation of the dominions in the long run. Like a South Africa without the boer republics, potentially. Or a balkanized 'Canada', where Quebec, a rump Canada, Columbia, and Newfoundland are all independent. Or a Greater Canada with New England and Alaska in addition to historical borders for an ahistorical conquest by the UK.

-Atma

[Leviathan07]

Have you considered the possibility of the Dominions providing monetary support to the Royal Navy? I understand that the Canada modification is including that (for Canada at any rate) and it would seem a useful thing for London to be able to request.

Does not sound like a useful feature in the game, to be honest. Money is a total non-issue for Great Powers like the UK, so it's not something a UK player cares about. Canada will just build whatever navy it considers important...

[chann]

Definitely keeping an eye on this, chann. If it ends up not going particularly deterministic, I'm likely to ask to, ah, borrow it for PDM.

I'm not sure where the determinism concern comes from, guys. Rebels are incredibly NON-deterministic!

And of course I'd love to have my work incorporated into PDM. I'm not just a contributor, I'm also a player.

Like I noted in the ANZIM thread, I do have an idea for the formation of most of the dominions though rather than starting them at game start.

To keep from making people surf to another thread, it follows but with a different example:
Canada would start with cores on Quebec (Upper Canada), Ottawa (Lower Canada), and New Brunswick (Which includes the other Maritimes). Through events based on various conditions they could gain cores on British Columbia (or not, in which case it may go its own way) and potentially even Newfoundland. I think this might work very well with your system for determining when to release a dominion, as that's a part of the puzzle I had not quite worked out yet. Should make for a more organic, less deterministic formation of the dominions in the long run. Like a South Africa without the boer republics, potentially. Or a balkanized 'Canada', where Quebec, a rump Canada, Columbia, and Newfoundland are all independent. Or a Greater Canada with New England and Alaska in addition to historical borders for an ahistorical conquest by the UK.

-Atma

This mod would make a nice complement to those ideas as it stands now because I haven't touched the creation of the dominions at all, only their interaction once they exist (figuring other people like you were already working on those areas). I think I will limit the scope of the mod to just that, relations, so as not to over-extend.

If you need some more factors that could affect how soon a dominion is created (or gains cores over a new area), here's some I came up with:
* Level of provincial infrastructure
* Level of industry
* The economic modifers from PDM (worse economy, no go)
* Majority of population is the colonial culture, e.g. "### = { culture = anglo_canadian } ")
* Not a penal colony
* Techs/inventions: Nationalism, Imperialism, National Fraternity, Biased Multiculturalism etc

Colonial POPs issues:
* Jingoism or Pro-Military (simulating Imperial vs. colonial defence debate)
* Lim. Citizenship/Residence
* Moralism (expanding under the guise of protecting missionaries)

Also I saw something odd in my game today - "South Africa Petitions for Annexation" (i.e. the event normally reserved for Texas, German minors etc). Interesting, but may have to do something about that.

[atmafox]

Chann: Add to that neighboring an existing cored province, so we get contiguous spread. You seem to know a bit more about the british empire, which future dominions should start the game with cores and where? I know Canada fairly well, I've studied it -- but I'm not sure if there was even a concept of Australia as a united country in 1836.

-Atma

[Baldamundo]

Edit: OK, after doing some reading on the topic and looking at the event system, the limited event system (no provision for naval limits or adding ships as far as I can see) and the unpredictable AI means any naval defence arrangement will simply involve the colonies sending money one-way to Britain. There's no guarantee that the ships will be built and/or stationed nearby. May not be very fun to play...

You can use events/decisions to build naval bases though, so maybe the system could be simplified to just decisions: build a high-level naval base in your (coastal) capital in return for concessions to Britain? Needs more brain-time.

Sweden gets a decision after it researches cruisers which takes away some money from a bunch of POPs and spawns a cruiser in a certain Swedish province. Could that help?

[jamhaw]

Does not sound like a useful feature in the game, to be honest. Money is a total non-issue for Great Powers like the UK, so it's not something a UK player cares about. Canada will just build whatever navy it considers important...

If it was possible (which at the moment it appears that it is not) it could be fairly useful. Historically Britain asked the Empire for aid during the dreadnaught race and a number of Royal Navy ships were payed for by the Dominions. It was a major political issue at the time, with some feeling that they should subsidise the Royal Navy to protect their coasts and others wanting the Dominions to build their own seperate navies. I hope that Paradox will consider this for the expansion.

[chann]

Sweden gets a decision after it researches cruisers which takes away some money from a bunch of POPs and spawns a cruiser in a certain Swedish province. Could that help?

Very much so! I can see now that you can spawn units with the sub_unit command. You can also add and remove resources from the stockpile so that could be another way, but...

If it was possible (which at the moment it appears that it is not) it could be fairly useful. Historically Britain asked the Empire for aid during the dreadnaught race and a number of Royal Navy ships were payed for by the Dominions. It was a major political issue at the time, with some feeling that they should subsidise the Royal Navy to protect their coasts and others wanting the Dominions to build their own seperate navies. I hope that Paradox will consider this for the expansion.

Yeah, the game really needs an expansion to flesh out the range of ship types - and also possibly allow this sort of naval arrangement. I can't think of a compelling way to model this between player and AI, but if anyone else can, please add your contribution.

I'll put "Imperial defence" in the future ideas pile as my main concern for now is government types and satellite status.

You seem to know a bit more about the british empire, which future dominions should start the game with cores and where? I know Canada fairly well, I've studied it -- but I'm not sure if there was even a concept of Australia as a united country in 1836.

I've really only familiar with Australia too (writing what I know of course) and I'd say it was between 1850 and 1860 when the idea of Aussie unification was first mooted. Prior to that, the continent was just too underdeveloped and underpopulated. However, the idea was only taken seriously from ~1880 onward and politics/depression probably then delayed the movement another 10 years.

In 1836? Perhaps AST would only have "cores" on everything except Western Australia, i.e. the then-territory of NSW and Tasmania. AST would gain cores on the state of WA once it was settled - the southeastern parts first if they produce gold (to represent Goldfields separatism) and then the rest of the state.

[chann]

Version 1.0 uploaded. The basic framework is in place now. I'm looking for feedback on making the AI act better (and less deterministically) and also better effects and triggers for some of the decisions, and the exile events of course (which works VERY basically for now). For instance, the Balfour Declaration is tied to the Mass Politics tech so it doesn't happen too early but that could be handled better.

A couple of issues I'm aware of in 1.0:

Hanover is not affected by the government changing events, so I hope you don't have a revolution in the first 2 years ().

The 'seeking exile' event may trigger for countries more than once if too many dominions and GPs refuse to accept the royal family.

The decisions for independence may need adjustment on both AI use and triggers. I used the values suggested by Cainrae but doubled the prestige because lots of released dominions in my games hit 100-150 prestige rather early. Too bad there's no way to simulate British loyalty!

[jamhaw]

Just downloaded, I am not perfectly sure how to properly install modifications for Clausewitz games though. Do you place the files in the mod folder?

[chann]

Just downloaded, I am not perfectly sure how to properly install modifications for Clausewitz games though. Do you place the files in the mod folder?

The best thing to do is to follow this tutorial. I use the same tool (JSGME) without any problems - just install it straight into the Victoria 2 directory.

Extracting the contents straight into the Victoria 2 folder works too - just make sure that the file in \events goes in \events, \decisions goes in \decisions, etc. - but using JSGME results in less clutter.

[jamhaw]

Great mod, I've really enjoyed it.

[chann]

Great mod, I've really enjoyed it.

Thanks for the feedback, hope you experienced nothing unusual .

New version for 1.2 is out (was waiting on the SI mirror to bump the thread). Actually I managed to get two new updates done while the forum was down. The latest version fixes a few anomalies I spotted, and should now cover all the situations under which a potential dominion can be released including the new Release and Play As, Release Puppet CB, etc.