AHD and colonization

[HappyBanker]

I am coming back to this forum after sometime on the Pride of Nations's. I am very excited about the AHD extension (railroads and goods's screen are quite a teaser) but I cannot find any indication that the colonization system will be improved in the extension.

This is sad because this is in my opinion one of the most overlooked part of the game. At present time this is just a horse race and kind of a game of go. No subtility, no colonial wars, colonization in 1 click (NF - wait - and it is done). This is especially surprising in comparison with Pride of Nations where the colonial system is really fun and interesting.

So did I miss something or won't this be improved in AH ? Any information ?

 

[safferli]

We have no information on if the colonisation aspect will be worked on in AHD.

Note, I am just a volunteer mod here on the forums, and have no internal Paradox information whatsoever.

 

[HappyBanker]

We have no information on if the colonisation aspect will be worked on in AHD.

Note, I am just a volunteer mod here on the forums, and have no internal Paradox information whatsoever.

That's what I thought...

Hope that this is kept for another expansion ! (let's be positive). IN any case I would advice to get ideas from the PoN system with the colonial penatration thing and many possible and interesting decisions. And this could give technlogy a new level of depth as colonial decisions would be somehow linked to research. Vic 2 with a PoN kind colonial system would be so much more flavourish and interesting.

 

[Soulstrider]

The PoN colonization system is great, I hope they take some inspiration from it. Even if it's just adding flavor events to the colonization which could delay/speed the process. I also would love the ability for more than 1 nation being able to compete to colonize a single area.

 

[HappyBanker]

I agree. There is no competition with the current version : first to place the NF is the winner. But I suspect that this is clearly simplified and put aside for a possible dedicated extension... (very optimist but still...) If not ... then... they should think about it !! (I would buy it no question !).

 

[unmerged(196344)]

If I understood the DD3 right, the existing colonisation system is so good, that even casus belli in AHD will be produced the same one click way.

 

[HappyBanker]

Well this feels different to me. The new "war justification" system seems interesting as it had depth to the game, and very flavourish events too I think. And it integrates a "long term strategy" principle that I like. Morever it is part of a diplomatic whole that is allready quite complex, so this does not seem "too simple" for me. Just fine.

This is not the case for colonization where the system is way too simple and anything would be wellcome. Actually it is even simplier than at release where you could at least improve your odds by stationning troops. This is not the case anymore.

 

[zonkie]

Colonization in Victoria 2 is very weak. Especially as it is a game based on colonialism.

 

[Kung Zog]

What AHD needs is African states and a set of decisions/events regarding them. Influence, send expeditions, open tradeposts along the Kongo river, offer protection to specific states will make the colonisation more interactive and fun.

 

[WeissRaben]

If I understood the DD3 right, the existing colonisation system is so good, that even casus belli in AHD will be produced the same one click way.

It's different. There's no competition, in establishing a CB, isn't i? The problem with colonization is, if you started before - it's yours.

 

[EGaffney]

Historically speaking, much of the colonial game should be taken away from governments, anyway.

An interesting alternative would be a tragedy of the commons. All Great Powers get some of the benefits of free trade while states are uncolonised. (How do you handle this, though?) Only the owner gets the benefits when states are colonised - but the benefit is smaller, as colonial companies start to take monopoly profits and mess with the local people.

 

[enf91]

Could colonies be handled with an event chain? Deploy NF onto a state, and events start to trigger that advance the colony meter a certain amount.

 

[1alexey]

basically i`m not opposed to NF->colony thing.

The only two things lacking are the need to compite somehow, and the need to have enought forse to back your claim.
So that would be the aspect i would like to see.

As such the NF is such a valuable accet, that the worth of colonizing with it is allready in place.
Now add the competition and it would be a choise to wether colonize but have a chanse to waste efforts, or put resourses ellsewere.

 

[Cinéad IV]

It would be nice if there were even a few more African states.

The problem is (and this is something we found with VIP), the game mechanics don't handle very well the sort of military expeditions which brought Africa into European rulership.
In real life, there were no thirty-thousand-strong British armies marching across Sokoto to bring the Emir to heel: it was more like 250 men and a couple of machine guns. The only campaigns I can think of which saw the deployment of thousands of European troops were those in Dahomey, and the Zulu Wars. Everything else seems to have been general variations on a theme of 'three Europeans officers, eighty natives with repeating rifles, and a Maxim.'

Something that would be good would be if there was some way of representing these tiny <1000 men, 'spearhead' units. Short of this, there isn't really any way to represent military activities in Africa accurately. It would be a super way to represent military penetration of places like the Sahara or the Congo, where sending 3000 soldiers simply wouldn't be feasible.

The present system, clumsy though it is, works fine for genuinely acephalous regions where there was no central authority, or where the highest authority was at village level. But places like Dahomey, the Toucoleur Empire and Ashanti should really be represented.

 

[HappyBanker]

Well I agree that the current game mechanics does not allow for correct representation of the historical reality. That is why an extension which would improves it by creating a new colonial system (once again Pride Of Nations introduced something realllly good ideas on that: colonial penetration and colonial status) would be delightfull . Following your idea (and VIP way of doing it) more states would be good too but won't help much unless a real new level of depth is added.

But actually my real point is a lot more basic : the current "sytem" is not fun to play. It has no interest because it is way too simple.

 

[EGaffney]

The Pride of Nations system - not having played it, myself - looks waaay too complicated. Cut it down by about 90% and you have something that would work in V2.