Am I missing something or are merchant republics incredibly weak?

[master_kong]

If anything i think they should buff the trade posts to make them like mini trade companies. You should be able to build trade posts in foreign lands without owning it and there should be some investments attached. Like trade companies it should benefit the owner of those provinces. This was the case in history as well AFAIK. And this change would make them viable without expanding much.

Of course to build trade post in a province, there should be some requirements like money, great relations or alliance etc.

 

[Steel_atlas]

Absolutism does have downsides. You need to pay close attention to the relevant parameters (legitimacy, religious unity…), some actions are straight up not good anymore (raise aut, accept rebels, assign parliament seat…) because they lower your absolutism. And the usual route is to go through the very painful Court & Country disaster, which cripples your country for a while. Yes, it's good and effective, but it's certainly not for free.

Comparing the benefits of absolutism to the benefits of MR isn't fair imo, because you get MR benefits straight away, you have to work for a while to get absolutism running. And the fact that it is known how to do so, and thus it's very smooth for an experienced player isn't an argument either.

Im saying there is no real downside to have maxed out absolutism.

But I agree, the province cap is not that bad you just need to rely off of marches more and taking the best provinces and releasing OPMs or creating them.

Even with absolutism your losing 1% Disc and 6% admin effeciency since you can still get 75 absolutism with court and country.

 

[klingonadmiral]

6% admin effeciency

Which is a lot.

Maxed out Absolutism and tech has 70% AE, meaning coring only costs 30% of the original cost.

Merchant Republics are capped at 64%, meaning they core at 36% cost.

That's a 20% increase in coring cost.

 

[mechanical_Critter]

Im saying there is no real downside to have maxed out absolutism.

I love when someone, when presented with facts contradicting his opinion, doesn't even try to argument, but instead states his opinion once more.

 

[I'm gaming]

I’m okay with state limit itself. MRs considered their oversee provinces as colony, so forcing them to have limited states seems reasonable.

However, that limit comes together with corruption from territory. As MRs are forced to play with massive territories, the corruption should be nerfed for them.

Estates.. They are OP and losing them is great nerf unless a faction is equally great like RR. Thankfully, estates system will be rehauled at 1.30. We will see how it will affect MR.

 

[hunter02]

The goods production bonus is pretty good. If you control the entire trade node, a +50% bonus to goods production is a +50% bonus to trade income there. And it scales up to that level. And it's multiplicative with trade efficiency not additive as well.

 

[covya]

The goods production bonus is pretty good. If you control the entire trade node, a +50% bonus to goods production is a +50% bonus to trade income there. And it scales up to that level. And it's multiplicative with trade efficiency not additive as well.

and 50% bonus production income

 

[Laurent1944]

Max absolutism for a Merchant Republic is 45:
Base value 65
Merchant Republic -50
Great Power +5
Golden Era +5
Religious Unity +5
Empire +5
Consolidation of Power +10 (longer term for elections)

If you choose Frequent elections, the one giving the best rulers, it is 25 (you lose the +10 for Consolidation of Power and have -10 for Frequent Elections)

In both case, you will never be able to fire Court & Country (that requires 50 absolutism to start).

There is a reform that gives + 25 to max absolutism but it is a tier 10. I am not even sure that this will be reached before 1821 by most republics, but still it is unlikely to have it before the end of the Age of Absolutism.

Still, I don't feel that absolutism is so required for a late merchant republic. Trade control is what you're after, not conquest of huge lands.