All My Colonial Ideas (Lots of Reading)

[Troy003]

Before I start I want to ask that if you wish to reply to a specific section of this thread please reference it as follows - [Colony Types] [Colonial Charters] [Native Interactions and Missions] - in order to clarify which section of this thread you are replying too.

This is basically me putting all my previous and ongoing ideas in one thread so that everything is more clear and so you understand my ideas and that I have put a lot of thought into these colonization and new world ideas.
When I come up with new ideas, I will add a new post to the thread as a notification but will delete that post a few days after as to not clutter the thread.

Sections
Colonial Charters | Last Edit: 12/29/2016
Colony Types | Last Edit: 9/30/2016
Native Interactions and Missions | Last Edit:
Development of New World Provinces | Last Edit:
New World Important Centers of Trade | Last Edit:
Terrain Penalties for Natural Colony Growth | Last Edit:
New Trade System for New World | Last Edit: 10/8/2016


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Colonial Charters

So the current way that colonists work does not really reflect history. Instead of having colonists that the player controls, instead we should be able to spend colonists to create "colonial charters". The player would select an un-colonized territory and would select it to be made the main port of entry for a colonial company. The player would be prompted whether the colony would be a Royal colony or a Proprietary colony (colony types explained in next section). The territory would then begin being colonized and would immediately become its own colonial nation. each colonial company would be allotted "colonists" by the mother nation, each costing 2 ducats a month, and each colonist allotted to a colonial company, after the first, would not allow a colonial company to colonize more territories but instead grant higher settler increase and settler chance.

Also I want your input on the following idea-
I also think that while the initial colony is growing, There should still be a government, basically the colonial nation would exist, would collect monarch points (preferably each monarch category would grow each month equal to the overlord's relevant monarch stat divided in half, rounded down) and so when the colonial nation forms it would just dump those points in development or ideas (preferably development). The colonial nation would be collecting income from its one colony, little as it is, so that when the colony forms it can act.
Maybe this should only apply to Royal colonies? I just feel like CNs end up sitting there after they form because they don't have anything for so long and so they are kinda useless in terms of income, expansion, and defending themselves.

once the first territory is colonized by a colonial company it will become the "entry port" or the access point into the new world. Colonial companies would expand to the nearest province to their capital province where the calculated distance is modified by the terrain type- (special thanks to webknut for this idea)
0.5 for coast, river and similar
1 for plains, savanha, over sea and similar
1.25 for forest and marches and similar
1.5 for hills and similar
2 for mountains and similar
Also I believe it would be nice to add an additional modifier to the distance of terrain once a colonial nation has 10 coastal provinces - 0.75 multiplied to the distance of a province (after terrain multiplier) if that province belongs to a state that has been created by the Colonial Nation. (Special thanks to Metz - Metz's Thread)

Multiple colonial companies can be created in the same colonial region but will form their own colonial nations.
(while colonizing, colonial companies will prioritize the province closest to the origin of the colonial nation i.e. the capital, but will not colonize on an unconnected landmass even if it is closer that another province that is on the same landmass UNLESS you mark that unconnected province as a territory of interest in the diplomatic tab, and from then on all territory connected to that new territory will be considered as being on the same landmass as the colonial nation)

Once a colonial nation reaches 75 development they will gain a colonist. The player can remove colonists allotted to a colonial company to either start new colonial companies or to slow down a colonial nation's growth. There will also be an option whereby the mother nation can force a colonial nation to stop expansion in the interaction tab for an increase in liberty desire.

The reason they can grow on their own even after you take away allotted colonists, after the colonial nation has 75 development, is because it represents the natural growth of the population in the colonial nation. (of course they are not necessarily guaranteed to colonize just because they have a colonist)

I think the colonial company should always have control of the colonization effort (always auto-colonized), but perhaps the function where territories of vital interest are marked, could be used to communicate to colonial companies where you want them to spread towards as a way of influencing colonization.


I am also interested in a new function/mechanic being added whereby a country can "relocate" the religion of a province in the "homeland" to a colonial territory. Which basically means if the protestant reformation happened and England decided to become protestant, they could force Catholics in the British isles to leave and head towards colonies in the Americas. This would only be an option for a country that has a negative tolerance value of value the people they are trying to force migrate, that does not have humanist ideas unlocked, and that isn't a republic.


Colonial Regions (special thanks to Martin_Mortyry for this idea)
I also want to suggest a Change to Colonial Regions - Remove them. With my method there is no need for colonial regions. I also suggest that Colonial Nations can be formed anywhere, so long as the colonial nation is located on a different continent that has no land route to any province located within the continent that holds the capital of the colonizing nation (I.E. nations in the old world can only make CNs in the new world and Australia, and nations int the new world can only make CNs in the old world and Australia).

Thoughts on the replacement of Colonial Regions?
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Colony Types

Before i talk about the idea i had about colony interactions i would like to introduce the idea of a mechanic called "colonial tension", where when two colonies not belonging to the same country border each other they generate "colonial tension" based on the number of provinces bordering, claims, events, and based on the relations of the mother nations. When enough colonial tension builds up the colonies would go to war, drawing in the mother nations. This would replace a colonial nations ordinary ability to declare war, although mother nations could still use their interactions with CN's to force CN's to declare war.

I would like to see changes made to colonies. The idea being that there should be different types of colonies. In this case - Royal and Proprietary colony types.

Royal colonies would suffer a lower settler increase, would automatically have their official religion set to the mother country's religion (does not affect currently colonized provinces, but new territories colonized by a royal colony's charter company would have the same religion as that of the overlord), would maintain a fleet of heavy ships and full army force limit when possible even at peace, and they will even try to send forces to Europe when able, and they would generate more colonial tension than proprietary colonies. Finally royal colonies have 10% development cost reduction (the people in these colonies are attempting to make the new world look like the old one i.e. make their own London, Paris, etc..)

Proprietary colonies would see an increased settler growth and would not have an increased colonial tension, but would have -2% missionary strength vs non-pagans (or something like that), and each territory colonized by that colony's colonial charter company would have its religion determined at random based on the percentage of development per each religion that exists in your home country (Whatever is the religion of the first province colonized by the colonial charter company will be the colony's official religion), would not make heavy ships in its fleets, would not necessarily maintain full army force limit, and would not send troops to interfere in mother nation's wars unless the enemy nation had colonial holdings nearby. Also any province being colonized by a proprietary colony, where that province has a religion other than what is accepted by the overlord, will have an increase in settler growth equal to 5 * |(relevant tolerance value of overlord)|. This only applies if the tolerance is negative.


In addition to the before mentioned changes to colonies, I also think that if you have a royal colony you should be able to choose what ideas the colony takes, while proprietary colonies would have the ability to choose their own ideas


Also, Proprietary colonies MUST use every available colonist they have available whenever they are not in debt AND do not have a negative income (I am assuming they would just have their colony maintenance set to zero when they are in debt and have negative income), while Royal colonies do not necessarily have to use their available colonists. since I see colonies usually take expansion ideas (in this case proprietary colonies would be the only ones doing this since the player chooses a royal colony's ideas), this would further my goal to make the two colony types specialized for certain tasks (proprietary for expanding, royal for security, because of the difference of available funds for troops and ships).

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Native Interactions and Missions

So I was thinking it would be nice to add special interactions that colonizing nations can make with natives based on the native policy that nation takes.


For instance

co-existive policy: native integration - native nations can be vassalized even if they are not normally allowed because of technological group of native nation, if that native nation borders a colonial nation belonging to the colonial power interested in vassalizing the natives.

native trading: cultural exchange - when a colonial nation under your control comes in contact with a native nation, that native nation can westernize more easily, based on the number of territories bordering that colonial nation, but the border territories of the native nation will have its religion and culture converted to that of the colonial nation. This conversion will spread over time until 1/2 of the native nation's territory (measured by development and rounded up) have been converted in this manner.

Native repression: Exiled - when you or your colonial nation eliminate a native power through conquest, the culture and religion of the conquered provinces are automatically converted to your culture and religion. However all native forces will have a combat bonus against you and your subject's forces and for a 10 year period these conquered territories will yield lower tax income, trade power, manpower, will be more easily sieged, will have a higher development cost, and will have its autonomy automatically raised to 75% if it isn't already at 75%.


To add to the ideas of extra interactions with natives I would like to see the introduction of Missions. Not missions like "Go conquer such and such province from the Tuetonic order", but missions as in those set up by many spanish missionaries to convert the "heathens" and "savages".

This ability to set up missions would allow (presumably only christian) nations to convert natives that border territories that are already christian (maybe even allow this for use in Africa - Portugal). The effectiveness of this kind of conversion would be dependent on the native policy that nation has taken.

Native trading would allow for no penalties if there are a line of christian provinces (all of the same denomination) that directly connect the target province to a province controlled by the acting nation, otherwise there is a -0.5% penalty.

Native Co-existence would provide a penalty or bonus to conversion ranging from -0.5% to 0.5% depending on the relations between the target native nation and the acting nation.

Native Repression would give a penalty or a bonus to conversion ranging from -0.5% to 0.5% depending on the projected military strength of the native nation as compared to the projected military strength of the acting nation, where the projected military strength of the acting nation only considers those troops in the same colonial region as the target native nation and the troops in a territory adjacent to the target native nation.


Also I was interested in the way that territories in the new world are just converted to the religion of the colonizer when colonization begins, which I don't agree with. It is very convenient, but if a colony needs only 1000 people to become a city and the natives number 5000, how is the Catholic religion the religion of the province, let alone when there are only 20 people?

My suggestion would be to make it where the native policy you choose influences the religion the province has when the colony finishes (possibly before).

If native co-existence is selected then the province's religion will be converted to your religion once the colony's population matches the native's population.

If native Trading is selected then the province's religion will be converted to your religion once the colony reaches a population that is equal to half of the native's population.

If native repression is selected, then the religion of the province will be converted to your religion once the colony's population is equal to the population of the natives. However on this note I want to point that under a repressive regime the natives would probably not stay in the colony(except for a handful), so I want to suggest that instead of having the natives absorbed, perhaps have it so that when a colonizer has the native repression enabled, a percentage of the natives or all natives passed 1000 would relocate among the nearby uncolonized territories and would cause the aggressiveness and ferocity of these territories to rise.

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Development of New World Provinces
So the way that I understand it, the development level of new world territories, specifically uncolonized provinces, increases as the years pass by. Why? I get that each territory does have a population even though the territory doesn't actually belong to anyone, but the increase in development is supposed to reflect the wealth of a province, which is directly related to the population of said province. From What I have gathered scholars tend to gravitate towards the estimate of about 50 million people in all of the Americas before colonization, so how do these territories gain so much development over time to the point where i find 20 development territories around the Caribbean and the east coast of North America around 1600?

My proposal is that when a province is colonized in a colonial region, said colonizer's colonist will automatically develop the province as the population of the colony increases, until the province has increased its development by an amount equal to the average of the colonizer's technologies up to a maximum of 10 extra development. This amount would be modified by a province's terrain type, such that deserts, arctic, and jungle provinces do not progress so quickly. important centers of trade might also need to gain an extra 2 development in production.

This is to reflect that much of the wealth of new world provinces was brought about by the influx of Europeans into the new world, since the plagues brought about by Europeans killed as much as 90% of the Americas native populations in many areas.

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New World Important Centers of Trade
So I was playing a game the other day as England and I had started colonizing the American East Coast and it occurred to me that most of the important centers of trade in the New World are uncolonized. Why is that? In the new world, there should not be any centers of trade except for whatever native lands historically ended up being such, that start off being controlled by a non-migratory tribe.

Before reading my suggestion please read the "Colonial Charters" section. I would suggest that when a colonial charter is created and the "port of entry" is created for that colonial nation, that same capital province of the colonial nation becomes an Important Center of Trade so long as there aren't already too many Important Centers of Trade in that particular colonial region (the number would be based on the number of coastal provinces in that colonial region). This would reflect how colonization was how these Important Centers of Trade arose, instead of just marking uncolonized territories that would eventually become important centers of trade over 2 centuries later.

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Terrain Penalties for Natural Colony Growth
So I was reading a post about how the A.I. tends to steer clear of certain territories when colonizing because of the penalties to colony growth, specifically tropical regions like in South America. The other day my friend was playing a game as the Kongo and he got some sort of event where he no longer received penalties from colonizing in the tropical jungle provinces. It got me thinking, why isn't there a "Preferred Climate" for all nations?
When a nation like Norway colonizes the arctic, why do they get the same penalties as someone like France? Norwegians live extremely close to the Arctic circle (some people in Norway do), so shouldn't they be better acclimated to the colder regions? Likewise, Norway should have even steeper penalties for trying to colonize in arid or tropical jungle territories, whereas an African nation most likely will not.

My idea is that every nation will have a "Preferred Climate". A preferred climate is a terrain type, determined by whatever terrain type maintains the most development in your country. This would be desert, grasslands, woods, swamp, hills, mountains, etc.. each terrain type would be tallied based on development and be assigned a rating of either rough or clear, where clear is farmlands, grasslands, desert, etc., and rough would be mountains, hills, swamp, etc.. Depending on whether a nation has a dominant amount of rough or clear terrain types, that nation will receive a bonus to colonizing provinces of those terrain types, maybe 5%, and then receive a penalty to colonizing the other terrain types, again maybe 5%. So A country like France, which is dominated by farmlands and grasslands would receive a slight bonus to colonizing grasslands, farmlands, deserts, tundra, and etc. in the new world, but would would receive a penalty to colonizing any mountainous or hilly terrain.
Then there will be a second half to preferred climate - weather resistance. If a nations has a majority of its development with a certain climate modifier, then that climate modifier is ignored when colonizing. So for instance, so lets say that Iceland becomes independent and decides to colonize. They have a majority of their development in provinces with the arctic climate modifier. This means that when Iceland colonizes territories with the arctic climate modifier, the penalties will be ignored. Likewise if an African nation like Tunis decides to colonize, then they would receive no penalty to colonizing arid climates because most of its development is located in provinces with the arid climate modifier.
However, If a nation has a specific climate modifier they ignore and tries to colonize in a territory with a different climate modifier then the penalties from that modifier are doubled (or something like that). So for instance if Iceland tried to colonize an arid territory on the coast of Africa or something then the arid penalties to settler growth will be -20 settler growth rate instead of -10.

Finally, I believe that weather conditions should also affect natural growth of a colony. So for instance, mild winter should reduce a colony's size by 5 per month, normal should reduce a colony by 10 a month, and severe should reduce a colony by 15 a month.
However, a nation's preferred climate would come into effect and change these modifiers. So a nation like Iceland who has the arctic climate modifier as part of their preferred climate would receive no penalties from any kind of winter.
Also, whenever a majority of a nation's provinces (based on development) are experiencing a certain kind of winter, they may receive a less of a penalty from winter. (Winter value: mild = 0, normal = 1, severe = 2), where the loss of colonists in a colony is reduced by: (5 * winter value). So if the majority of a nation's provinces are experiencing a normal winter, then colonies experiencing a normal winter only lose 5 colonists per month instead of 10.
Any nation with the arid or tropical climate modifier would receive double the penalty from winters.

This is basically an attempt to get nations to colonize in regions more attuned to where their people would naturally feel comfortable. Maybe add special modifiers to nations like Portugal and Castile who historically colonized Africa and Mexico so that they still go for those regions, but basically this should make things more predictable as to where the A.I. will colonize and should create some more interesting conflicts between nations that share a common preferred climate (England and France or Catile and France maybe)

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New Trade System for New World
So before I begin I want to start by saying that I do not know all the ins and outs of the current trade system (719 hours of eu4 and im still a noob at trade ), but I think my idea might help improve the current system, by making it more interactive.


The main concern I have with the current system is that it is static. I understand that the point of the current trade flows are meant to represent what historically happened, but once we start the game, history gets thrown out the window, cause I am absolutely certain that Norway never created a colonial empire stretching across the Americas by 1600 like what i did. (hint: this is going to be something I talk about in another thread of mine), and Austria, Hungary, and Poland were never under a personal union with the Byzantines at the same time by 1445.
I just feel like the current trade paths and trade nodes restrict where we would want to settle

I am going to attempt to break up my idea into segments to try and make it more legible and to make my idea easier to follow.

OVERVIEW
Trade Zones
Trade Nodes
Trade Paths of trade nodes



Trade Zones
So first I want to talk about trade zones. A trade zone is another way of saying a region. Simply put, each "continental" region in eu4 will also be a "trade zone". Each trade zone will consist of X/20, rounded up, trade nodes (T), where "X" represents the number of provinces in the trade zone.

If you would like a visual for a better idea of what regions I am talking about - http://www.eu4wiki.com/images/1/16/Region_map.png

Trade Nodes
A Trade Node will work as it does in the current version of the game. A trade node covers a set of territories where the value of the trade node consists of the value of the trade goods produced in those territories plus the values of incoming trade goods.
A Trade Node will be created when 8 permanent adjacent provinces exist (basically migratory nations do not count), but colonies do not count until they are finished. Any territory that is not colonized cannot be made part of a trade node until it is colonized. when a province is colonized completely and it borders a province that already belongs to a trade node, the newly colonized province is added to that trade node. Trade nodes can only have a maximum number of provinces per trade node equal to X/T, rounded up.
There will be two types of nodes possible for every region with multiple nodes (so far there are 2 regions I could find that will only have 1 trade node). There will be lesser and major trade nodes. Lesser trade nodes automatically flow into major trade nodes, and major trade nodes are connected to each major trade node of every adjacent trade zone (adjacent by land connection or 1 sea zone away). A major trade node is defined as a trade node that has more trade power than the other trade nodes in the same trade zone.

Trade Paths of Trade Nodes
As we know, trade paths are the trade lanes that connect two trade nodes and let us know which direction the trade flows. When we are colonizing the new world, are greatest concern is "which nodes connect to Europe?" With this change, any nation that has access to colonists can use a merchant to connect a trade node in the new world to their home trade node.

As for how a major trade node flows into nearby major nodes, each pair of major nodes that are connected will have their trade powers compared to one another, and which ever node has the lower trade power will be the node that flows into the other. As far as I can tell there is no way for a circle to form using this method, so hopefully infinite looping of values won't happen.
Of course, this method does mean that connected trade nodes can change the direction in which they flow if one zone's major node gets more power than the node it is currently flowing to. As to when the game should calculate and make appropriate changes in the flow of trade between nodes, I think maybe having the game check every month or every year should be good.

 

[Andres1002]

we definately need to add more flavour to the colonization system.

up voted!

 

[luxfelix]

Looks good!




[Colonial Charters]

In addition to the entry port idea, I'd suggest the following to further increase the value of maps, exploration, and a re-purposing for the colonist character:




Colonial Claims

Since we have a new claim type (the "permanent claim"), likewise include an "add colonial claim" option (costing military points?) for un-colonized and non-western provinces (on a state-by-state basis?) upon exploration of colonial regions (coastal provinces by explorers present off the coast/inland provinces by conquistadors present in the region), even if currently settled by natives; however, colonial claims must eventually connect to a coastal province as in the entry port idea and only provide a CB against nations with competing claims. (Colonial claims can also be removed.)

Colonial claims remain even as natives migrate through claimed provinces, and competing claims by western nations can be resolved though war demands or diplomacy.

Colonial regions under Treaty of Tordesillas remove other catholic nations' colonial claims from the region (unless already colonized/being colonized); if a nation westernizes, the colonial claims are removed from their provinces.

Colonization occurs (as described in the original post of this thread) within colonial claim provinces, while native occupied colonial claim provinces will indicate those provinces as strategic interests for a colonial nation that spawns in that colonial region, making them more likely to declare war to conquer them/force them to migrate (if possible); colonial nations will follow the colonial claims set by their mother country (less border gore/easier to manage expansion), and they will be given significant discounts for coring provinces with colonial claims (costs would be increased for non-colonial nations while also worsening relations with the colonial nation and their mother country).

When colonizing in provinces with competing claims, the colonization process is slowed down (less so for first claimants and then scaled for each following claimant?), increases colonial tension with other claiming parties, and/or increases the chance of that province adopting the culture/religion of other claimants; they could also allow for the possibility of maroon/slave/pirate colonies forming amidst the chaos of competing claims (at least in the Caribbean?); these are all incentives to resolve competing claims, as well as slowing down the pace of mid-game colonization when improved colonial ranges allow for more colonizers.

Non-western nations can join the wars of colonial nations, offering valuable support in exchange for removing colonial claims on their lands (and gaining a tech/monarch power boost?); in this way, skillful native powers can play colonial nations against one another and/or their rivals, and since colonial claims do not provide mother countries with a CB against the native powers directly (and result in increased coring costs), non-western nations in colonial regions will presumably survive longer, even as colonizing powers bicker over paper colonies.




Colonist = Plenipotentiary

Before turning from the new world in the west to trade companies in the east, I'd like to suggest the following in addition to the original post suggestion for a "colonist manpower" pool (if I understood that right... ?):

-- New World --

The colonist (the character indicated by the yellow symbol at the top of the screen) could be re-purposed to represent a governor/viceroy/proprietor (etc.) instead of a colonist.

In concept, this means is that when sending them to form that port of entry for your colony in the new world, they would act as a direct representative of the king/nation/company that sent them with their charter; game-wise, after establishing the colonial nation, the character can be left their to manage colonial affairs (as a diplomat would be left to improve relations for example).

When present in a colonial nation, the character can allow the mother country to initiate colonial wars, directly develop that colony's provinces by spending monarch points, and directly control their armies/navies (they're the equivalent of crown colonies at this point); this would be at the cost of a bit of liberty desire after the colony reaches a significant threshold (while the character's continued presence would also slightly increase the rate at which liberty desire decreases over time).

Instead of limiting a nation to one colonial nation per colonial region, the mother nation can create multiple colonial nations (with a max limit?) and/or combine colonial nations, planning their expansion by setting provinces of interest for them within your colonial claims.

With the re-purposed colonist character present, either during a colony's founding or sent afterwards, the colonial nation's flag, name, and colony type can be changed, as well as the accepted culture(s)/religion(s)/native policy (etc.) if applicable.

-- Trade Companies --

For nations focused on eastward endeavors, the re-purposed colonist character establishes and manages your nation's trade company.

They can be sent to any nation with their capital in a trade company region (instead of a diplomat) to increase relations and acceptance chance for the purposes of purchasing a port province to establish the trade company base; various factors for acceptance will include things like distance, reputation, relations (etc.) and the price (lump sum and/or monthly cost) will likewise scale with the size of the nation you negotiate with. These provinces are leased (unless taken by war), giving a core to the buying nation that is lost if they end up at war with the selling nation (no relations impact for owning one of their cores during a lease of course).

As a bonus, while the character remains in that nation after you have successfully purchased a port (or secured a concession through force of arms), all of the provinces of that nation are included as being a part of your nation's trade company; protectorates (and directly held provinces chosen) will also be counted as a part of the trade company in that region. Also, the penalty for collecting from a foreign trade node will be reduced while the character is working in that region.

In this way, even if great empires stretch across the entire trade company region, access to their markets is still possible with some wheeling and dealing. (As a side note, I would love to have a Nippon trade company region for this. )

This is, of course, unless another western power sends one of their trade company representatives (re-purposed colonist character) and manages to make a better offer... This is where slandering merchants, impacting a rival's reputation, (etc.) will pay dividends, at first more to the native powers, and later to western powers as they begin to control more land and minor protectorates throughout trade company regions in Asia and Africa.

Colonial wars can also be declared on a western rival in the region to take their trade company port/concession (along with the responsibilities of paying that lease to the native power if currently owned as a lease).

-- Old World --

Last, but not least, the re-purposed colonist character could be used back in Europe (or whatever continent your capital is on since expansion ideas can be useful for non-western powers too).

Similar to colonial nations, when sent to a vassal/march/union, liberty desire is slightly reduced, their armies/navies can be directly controlled, and the nation's flag and/or name can also be changed. They will also reduce corruption in that country.

As a leader of a trade league, the re-purposed colonist character can be sent to a fellow league member to help reduce corruption, reduce tech cost for techs they are behind in, and improve trust; the character can also be sent to nations (in another trade node from your trade capital) in order to improve the acceptance chance of them leasing a port (similar to trade companies section above), and will likewise be susceptible to competition from competing trade leagues (etc.). The leased port(s) will not count toward the league-disbanding province limit.

As the emperor of the HRE, sending the re-purposed colonist character to an HRE member will improve the chances of them accepting an HRE reform and/or voting for you as emperor (if an elector) while the character remains with that nation.

 

[Troy003]

I definitely like the idea of repurposing the colonist, but I think it might be better to use diplomats for what you are suggesting or just special vassal/CN interactions. Perhaps make it so that you can pay a lump sum of cash and/or maintenance to establish an embassy in a vassal/CN so that we can control them the way that you suggest.

I am very interested in the concept of claiming territory you intend to take and then when multiple nations claim the same territory you end up with a contested zone of land. Also when you were talking about having each claim reduce the settler growth rate in a province, I think it might be better to make it so that it doesn't occur unless the province in question has a border (land or sea) with a competing nation's colonies. So if England and France both have a claim on the same uncolonized province, England will not receive the settler growth penalty for colonizing there unless France has a colony of their own that borders the province in question. This would represent the random attacks that would occur between settlers, skirmishes and such. Perhaps even add a feature where you can pay natives/equip natives(mil tech bonus) so that the natives can attack colonies/CNs.

On the part about trade companies, it sounds interesting but I don't ever use trade companies, never touched them before so I have no ideas I can put forth to expand on what you suggested.

 

[webknut]

Colonial companies would expand in a circular manner around this point and would be able to spread into other colonial regions without creating a new colonial nation.

Have it semi circular way. Distant from port have a modifier on provinsers so it goes further if along coast or river and shorter if over hills or mountains. So colony areas look more organic and less well unnatural.

ex for distant modifiers
0.75 for coast, river and similar
1 for plains, savanha, over sea(?) and similar
1.25 for forest and marches and similar
1.5 for hills, across rivers(?) and similar
2 for mountains and similar

"over sea" and "across river" is hard to judge what modifiers should be.
Amout of effort needed to transport whits boat on sea or along a river is easy but difficult to cross a river or a hill.

The french had it easy when they did have Mississippi to follow.

 

[Troy003]

I definitely have to say I like this. I am not sure how I missed this, but yes this is perfect for making colonies look more organic.
However, I think coast provinces should have an even greater distance modifier like maybe 0.5 or 0.6 just cause I remember that the coast was most often the first sections of land colonized and only when the entire coast was taken did people start moving inland.

This is a really good suggestion, maybe even make a mapmode where you can see where your CN intends to colonize next, and if there are multiple provinces that have an equal distance from the CN's capital, then the CN will prioritize what you have marked as a territory of interest, then prioritize whatever province is adjacent to an already colonized territory, then prioritize important centers of trade, estuaries, and development i that order.
Perhaps you could even mark territories of interest in order to motivate CN's to declare a colonial war (This would come in the form of colonial tension), where the reciprocal of the modifier for determining distance from the capital would be used to modify the amount of colonial tension generated if a territory of interest is taken by another colony/nation

 

[webknut]

However, I think coast provinces should have an even greater distance modifier like maybe 0.5 or 0.6 just cause I remember that the coast was most often the first sections of land colonized and only when the entire coast was taken did people start moving inland.

Well you have a point there. then maybe 0,5 is probable then bit on the high side to. Coastlines was by far most colonized in the beginning. True that. To make it more coast first maybe every lets say 40dev of colony the charter get a random new port open up and it's start calculate from each port that charter have. And that port also get a one time event that add maybe 1adm and/or 1dip to the new port provins.

 

[webknut]

One thing that current game don't have is that new free colony state that just got it's independence or colonys that bin running fore a while never fall in to a big civil war. The civil war could be about how the new country should be run republic, theocracy, monarchy or something else. Or a civil war that ends in the country splits in to 2 or more peaces. For exempel Colombia, ok that was after 1821. But should still be possible.

 

[Troy003]

One thing that current game don't have is that new free colony state that just got it's independence or colonys that bin running fore a while never fall in to a big civil war. The civil war could be about how the new country should be run republic, theocracy, monarchy or something else. Or a civil war that ends in the country splits in to 2 or more peaces. For exempel Colombia, ok that was after 1821. But should still be possible.

That might be an interesting idea, I am just not sure how something like that would be implemented, and I really don't know anything about civil wars in colonial nations so I am not sure how much I can expand on this, if at all.

Maybe create events where the colonial nation has a chance to change government types based on events occurring in the overlord's nation, modified by the size and stability value of the colonial nation? For example if the overlord has the religious turmoil disaster then there is a 0.05% chance each month that the colonial nation will ask their overlord to switch to a theocracy (the idea being that during religious turmoil, many of the "faithful" will try to create a new paradise for their beliefs or something like that in the colonies). You could either say yes or no, and saying yes might create some negative side effects like increased national revolt risk for that CN, and saying no might cause a rebel army to spawn. Similar things could be done for other disasters and maybe add some estate related events towards colonies, idk.

tell me what you think.

 

[webknut]

Maybe create events where the colonial nation has a chance to change government types based on events occurring in the overlord's nation, modified by the size and stability value of the colonial nation?

Never herd of a civil war in colony before independence, correct me if I'am wrong. I was thinking more about a civil war after a successful independence war. For ex US civil in 1861. Matter in fact was least 6 civil wars between 1800-1900. And if the colonial states was free earlier some of those wars probable would happen during 1700-1800. For that reson alone should be at least one civil war in each EU4 late game if there are nice group of independent colony. And some maybe will en in the state will fall in peaces.

Regarding what happens in ex overlord might influence a colony but should be LOW. Would guess that US could care little about what happens to GB in the late 1700 or early 1800.
In the case the colony that have a overlord there is no need for more instability or chants for freedom. If overlord is getting weaker then colony will try to break lose, and that already happens.

 

[Troy003]

Never herd of a civil war in colony before independence, correct me if I'am wrong. I was thinking more about a civil war after a successful independence war. For ex US civil in 1861. Matter in fact was least 6 civil wars between 1800-1900. And if the colonial states was free earlier some of those wars probable would happen during 1700-1800. For that reson alone should be at least one civil war in each EU4 late game if there are nice group of independent colony. And some maybe will en in the state will fall in peaces.

I think I may have been a little confusing. In my example I didn't mean to say that there would be a civil war, I just meant that I felt there could be special events whereby the colonies could somehow change government types and what that might look like.