Penalties growing with number of provinces?

[Mingmung]

The British Empire was gigantic and was relatively well-administered (so, arguably no real autonomy changes the further away from the capital).

Not all empires are like each other, stop forcing unfun mechanics folks.

 

[Heindrich]

The British Empire was gigantic and was relatively well-administered (so, arguably no real autonomy changes the further away from the capital).

Not all empires are like each other, stop forcing unfun mechanics folks.

There was no history of rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies right?

The British Empire really ballooned after the time frame of EUIV, and even then in EUIV terms, autonomy was very high in India with near constant rebellions that eventually forced the British government to take control of the British East India Company. ALL the early colonial empires suffered major reversals due to the constraints I have described earlier. The true great colonial empires of the EUIV timeframe are Spain and Portugal, and their empires all crumbled in the latter years of the EUIV period.

Anti-blobbing constraints don't need to be "anti-fun", and nobody is "forcing" anything on anyone.

Edit:

Spoiler: Royal Navy

Oh yeah, a big part of the reason why Britain was able to maintain a global empire with relative success in the Victoria 2 era was that improvements in technology enabled the British Empire to dominate the oceans in a way no previous empire had. Britannia Rules the Waves helps a lot to put down revolts and collect taxes from colonies on the other side of the world.

 

[Heindrich]

(I put "realism" in quotes because people advocating for some particular piece of realism that would serve their objectives often seem to get quite upset when you ask them if they want a somewhat related piece of realism that would inconvenience their objectives.)

To be fair, those sort of people tend to be just screaming for buffs to their nation, or nerfs to their obstacles, rather than making any educated suggestions on immersion and realism. To me there is a clear difference.

"My country X beat country Y in the amazing battle of Blah Blah! We were outnumbered 10 to 1 and crushed them! Why the hell does Y have more military ideas than X?! Nerf Y!" ... doesn't count as a suggestion for historical accuracy/immersion in my books.

I am Chinese and I keep asking for "nerfs" to Ming (large empires in general) and buffs to the steppe hordes because a more challenging game and more realistic game is more fun to me.

 

[Thorin]

The main problem with this is how to implement it without making it unfun. How would you make it an engaging, challenging mechanic to fight against, instead of just a frustrating one?

(I'm actually asking; I have no idea)

This one is hard, even more since we dont get paid to find the solution for it.
But here are some way (not best or only option, just few ideas):

Cultures and relegion: Conversion dont go in one big chunk per province, but smaller steps (like one pop/development), some are automated (coring gives you some your cultures pop, since you send your own nobles and a few local convert to the new regime) some are forced (conversion action) and some are event based, so a 20+ development province will take dacedas to fully convert, if you press the issue, or even centuries if you wait for the free options, this also gives chance for mixed situations, a province which changed ownership multiple times could end up with several religion and cultures.

Time: Implement timedelay, yes, your DoW against the natives will arrive 6 month later than issued, add territories or theaters, where the governor can start local war against the nativas or locals, and the locals can declare war on the theater, which will not be known to the palyer for some time.

Size: Add true corruption and governors, the east india company did not increaed the incoma of their country, but decreased the governing problem of those areas. Far away areas and territories are not effective or beyond some point even profitable.

Internal integritiy: Take ideas from CK2, the council needs to agree in some stuff, when the noble in the council will only agree for the war, if you have a claim for it, then claim creation is not a stupid system, but a nice option, when the burgers agree only if it seems profitable (COT and so), then blobbing has a reason, instead painting the map, when the clergy wont agree on samerelegion, then it is more important to choose your side in the reformation, and you get a reason for colonization, since the catholic south has no good option to expand othewise.

 

[Canute VII]

Internal integritiy: Take ideas from CK2, the council needs to agree in some stuff, when the noble in the council will only agree for the war, if you have a claim for it, then claim creation is not a stupid system, but a nice option, when the burgers agree only if it seems profitable (COT and so), then blobbing has a reason, instead painting the map, when the clergy wont agree on samerelegion, then it is more important to choose your side in the reformation, and you get a reason for colonization, since the catholic south has no good option to expand othewise.

This actually seems to be a pretty cool idea!

 

[OnyxShadow]

the whole idea of WC in the EUIV timeframe is absurd.

Absurd? Not really. Unlikely? Absolutely. I mean...there were single leaders throughout history that conquered massive amounts of the known world in a single lifetime. England at the height of their power controlled an awful lot of the world. Same thing with Rome, The Ottomans, Mongolia, Spain, Greece, etc. The issue is always that ruler ability varies tremendously from generation to generation. What usually happened was that a brilliant monarch would build a colossal empire, and his successor would @#$% it all up. Theoretically, if you had brilliant, highly motivated rulers every generation for a couple hundred years there wouldn't be much of the world they wouldn't control by the end of it.

 

[Cagliostro]

I think the biggest constraint on real empires was the fact that they ended up often eating fully realized nations. When massive empires fell apart they tended to fracture on cultural lines. Granted they also tended to be administrated on cultural lines, for obvious reasons.

One thing I would suggest along those lines would be to reduce the cost of sponsoring nationalist rebels - as it is the cost is either prohibitively expensive (if you are not a giant empire) or totally meaningless (if you're rich). I think a mid-sized nation ought to be able to at least somehow help if you've eaten, like, Persia.

As it stands this is handled by a bunch of country-specific things, like Timurid and Mughal events for specific cultural uprisings.

Another side suggestion would be to perhaps make rebel management a thing for giant cultural or religious blocs even if you have zero unrest. As it stands it is perfectly possible to eat, like, India, or Germany, and after a few decades never really worry about them again. Suppose if a cultural bloc of 300 development had an automatic, like, 1% chance of increasing rebel risk by 10%.

That's not a well-thought out idea, but you get the point.

 

[Liquid Sky]

I remember in the board game that you couldn't discover the new world unless your explorer made it back home to tell people. Now that was communication.

Fort Mackinac in Michigan fell in the war of 1812 because the garrison didn't know they were at war with Canada yet.

So a real world WC would probably be some king looking at a map and thinking he actually owns territory that in reality he doesn't because word hasn't gotten back to him yet.

 

[AKronblad]

Another side suggestion would be to perhaps make rebel management a thing for giant cultural or religious blocs even if you have zero unrest. As it stands it is perfectly possible to eat, like, India, or Germany, and after a few decades never really worry about them again. Suppose if a cultural bloc of 300 development had an automatic, like, 1% chance of increasing rebel risk by 10%.

That's not a well-thought out idea, but you get the point.

I really like this idea!

 

[Cagliostro]

So a real world WC would probably be some king looking at a map and thinking he actually owns territory that in reality he doesn't because word hasn't gotten back to him yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans

 

[wingren013]

I really want them to just grab MEIOU and Taxes Communication Efficiency system and slap that in the game.

 

[grommile]

I really want them to just grab MEIOU and Taxes Communication Efficiency system and slap that in the game.

MEIOU and Taxes is, if you like the sort of thing it does, a wonderful game. If you don't, it's a considerably worse game than EU4.