It's only when playing USA that the pop-ups are unbearable, with other nation you do get some but it's much more manageable and actually fill its role in my opinion.
Questions about pop management
- Thread starter jhhowell
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I tried something last night just on a whim. Not sure if the result was because of what I did, or something else entirely, but just in case...
I needed soldiers.
So, I subsidized *everthing* in the factory tab. I kept everything subsidized until I had full employment. I let that run for awhile. Then I dropped the poor folks tax slider to about 20% of the slider (not effective tax rate), raised my soldier pay slider to 100% and ended all subsidies of factories.
Within a year, my regiments available went from 32 to 96.
I needed soldiers.
So, I subsidized *everthing* in the factory tab. I kept everything subsidized until I had full employment. I let that run for awhile. Then I dropped the poor folks tax slider to about 20% of the slider (not effective tax rate), raised my soldier pay slider to 100% and ended all subsidies of factories.
Within a year, my regiments available went from 32 to 96.
Ugh. Game over, killed by popup hell.Tried fast-forwarding to the extent one can through the blizzard of popup spam, Dred Scott finally happened in late 1861. Looking at my population screen, I think all the states have fairly high average consciousness, but maybe there are large-ish pops that didn't catch my eye that were actually dragging the average down.
If that's the case, I guess my critical error was passing some voting rights reforms back in the 1840s - figured why not, slightly more immigrants, and there was a fair bit of demand for it. But that dropped some con by passing, and it looks like con is the key trigger for Dred Scott and John Brown. I did not use any of the decisions that reduce con (Kansas-Nebraska, House Gag Rule, etc.) but I guess the voting reforms must have been too much on their own...
Are there other countries that are unplayable due to >1/day popup spam, or is it just the US? Are there mods that make the US playable without changing the game mechanics too much? My wish list would be:
1. No popup spam!
2. Civil War happens on a plausible time scale. If one only admits free states, it should happen earlier than 1861, while historical choices should lead to the historical timing.
Thought about going with the 1861 start, but that sacrifices about 500 prestige, 25 years of diplomatic influence, and cores on Cuba in exchange for impossibly advanced tech. Plus that Civil War would actually be a war, instead of the "finally, let's get this over with so I can mess with Spain and various other countries already!" that I was preparing for.
I'm playing a USA campaign with Concert of Europe, and I don't know if it (or PDM or Divided by Zero) scaled down the amount of events, but I think the civil war events averaged out to about 1 per month, which I found very acceptable. They are a bit repetative though as there is little variety. The only time I was really annoyed by them was when I got 3 cooperheads in a month.
I don't it really changes the triggers for the civil war, but it does include an alternative civil war chain (which I don't know anything about). Also, if found the whole affair quite enjoyable as I played as if I didn't know the war was coming (i.e. I invested quite heavily in the south). At one point I pretty sure I had lost the war. Also, I play at 2 or 3 speed, and don't pause (unless at war or I need to read some descriptions). That seems to help when playing as the US.
My biggest problem with the US though is that it is completely unmanagable. You have so many states, that it is impossible to keep track off. You have too many factories and too many POPs. General events also seem to be quite pointless. Your country is so big that if a few states get conciousness or militancy here and there, it barely influences your game.
*Very* nice! Though I found that the US has full employment all the time - capitalists build factories much faster than pops can fill them (even with most focus points helping), and the RGOs are all under 10% capacity. But the basic idea should certainly work anywhere. Just pick sacrificial factories that don't make particularly important or profitable goods (probably cement, clippers; oddly lumber and steel don't seem to do so well either) but do have a significant work force employed, and manually close those factories. At least I think Interventionist can do that.
Thanks, I will have to check that out. Once 1860 came around and increased the event rate yet again, I typically got such events every other day, usually several at once (avg. slightly greater than 1/day). Incredibly annoying! Three per month sounds positively leisurely.
I typically play at speed 3, dropping to 2 if there's a war involving enemy troops (1st Mexican War, basically). On that tangent - I don't suppose Concert of Europe tweaks anything about Mexico or their northern provinces to allow the US to gain them all in a single war like we historically did?
One more unrelated oddity about V2 - shouldn't the Gold Rush events actually encourage migration to those provinces? IIRC V1 had them push up the province life rating by 5-10 for a few years. The California gold rush did nothing beyond turning Mariposa's RGO into precious metal, and during my fast-forward to see if Dred Scott/John Brown would ever fire the Pocatello event did the same thing. Yet I read a California AAR and there the gold rush really was a massive wave of immigration - is this something else that has changed between various versions of the game?
I had a look at the code of PDM, and indeed it significantly increases the MTTH for civil war events. Usually by about 20%. But most importantly, it changes a number of events from province event to country event. The cooperheads for example. It was a province event with a MTTH of 100 months, means once a month if you have 100 provinces (and the US has more than 100 provinces...) In PDM it is a country event with a MTTH of 30 months (i.e. once every 2.5 years)
PDM also increases the immigration attract from gold rush events.
So as usual, mods save the day
PDM also increases the immigration attract from gold rush events.
So as usual, mods save the day
Excellent! I focus very closely on the economics factors (which drives so very much!). It depends on the country, but with more industrialized countries, what you mentioned is almost exactly what I do. I keep subsidizing the factories (unless they are really unprofitable, or I have a system that doesn't allow that, which is less than ideal for growth early on). By ensuring people have money in their pockets, the economy as a whole seems to run quite a bit more stable. I inch down the tax rates bit by bit over time, capitalists having the lowest rate and the poor having the highest (lol bad, but it works), middle class inbetween the two. Depending on the situation, you can see a big jump in daily surplus as soon as more people have more money to spend on their "needs". Keep inching down the tax rate for all three until you get to a comfortable daily profit. You'll know when you hit that because the last day's tax cut will have made the daily amount dip below what you wish. Raise it a tiny bit and there you are!
I often have fat, happy populations with a nice fat national budget in very little time using this method. The only time I have ever had to borrow as a nation is if I get into a disastrous war where I am over powered, or a massive revolution. Other than that, keeping your people flush with money keeps everything running nicely. Keynesian economics 101.
Oh, I forgot to add that for sectors of pops that I need, whether it be soldiers, bureaucrats, priests, or anything else that I can control using government budget measures, are MUCH easier to get after the economy is humming along nicely using the above generalized method. Perhaps this is what you noticed in the difference? Extreme decisions and measures tend to cause an economy to lurch in unpredictable and sometimes undesired results.... yet another reason why this game reflects real life in beautiful fashion!