My caffeine fuelled suggestion; removing clicks not based in any reality that I personally do not find fun, and works within existing mechanics, goes like this:
Stability clicks should be removed, with 0-100 representing -3 to 3, stability cost modifiers changed to stability/stability decay bonuses Events affect it with smaller flat changes, with many of them switching over time modifiers depending on the nature of the event. Always moves towards 50 without any modifiers. Average devastation/prosperity should add significant modifiers to stability loss/gain, with this mechanic being expanded on later, so that in peacetime you will theoretically always be above 50.
Culture acceptance clicks should be removed, instead adopting a harmonisation-like feature, and can only be achieved once you have at least 15% development with no separatism. Makes it easy for smaller countries, terrible for large empires without significant development (arbitrarily gaining trust among those people). Same culture group will not speed up the actual harmonisation process but instead eliminate the separatism requirement.
Overseas cultures can never be assimilated like in real life. If you move your capital overseas you can only continue to assimilate the same culture group on your original continent, and any others will be removed. This rarely happens anyway.
Culture conversion now requires missionaries and works on the same sort of modifiers as religious conversion (still weak for non-tolerated religions), but with much larger negative modifiers. Impossible to achieve with high development provinces without religious ideas.
Remove all religious unity modifiers and replace them with tolerance buffs. Adds more gaminess in deciding between tolerance for heretics or heathens, or both with humanist. Also add a cultural unity modifier for the percentage of your country that has been culture converted or assimilated.
Religious Ideas:
1. Missionaries +2, -50% maintenance. (combine, buff to help with culture conversions)
2. Stability -2 Yearly Decay (change)
3. Missionary Strength +1% (big nerf)
4. TF Tolerance +1, buffs to all applicable religion-specific modifiers, such as papal influence now +4 (nerf + buff)
5. Yearly prestige +1, legitimacy +0.25 (buff)
6. Culture Conversion speed +2% (change for new mechanic)
7. Deus Vult CB (same)
Completion: -33% Development modifier on religious and cultural conversion (new mechanic)
Overall more diverse, instead of mass/instant converting everything with insane unrest modifiers from the process, is more focused on stability management with more balance between religious + culture conversion. We already get a ton of other buffs to religious missionary strength with decisions, policies, etc.
Humanist Ideas:
1. Tolerance of Heretics +3 (buff)
2. National Unrest -1, Religious Harmonisation Speed for Confucians +25% (nerf)
3. Years of separatism -5, Culture Assimilation speed +33% (nerf: you'll see why on 7)
4. Improve Relations +20%, Different Religion Diplomacy modifiers -50% (slight nerf as +Diplomatic Ideas policy boosts IR too much, mechanic addition to encourage international relationships)
5. Tolerance of Heathens +3 (buff)
6. Devastation effects on Stability -50%, state prosperity +0.50 monthly (change, more on prosperity below)
7. -10% Idea Cost (same)
Completion: Cultural Assimilation no longer requires separatism to expire for foreign culture groups (mechanic addition, probably made as completion as icon not necessary due to exclusive modifier)
Overall should be less about strict and instant unrest reductions and more accepting and looking after your populace to boost overall unrest and stability in the medium to long term.
Prosperity should also not require stability and chance based on ruler stats to tick up, instead having a base tick of +0.1/month (So 8 years for prosperity at 100%), with the bonuses from prosperity being scaled. Devastation and prosperity should be combined into one value that ranges from -100 to 100, with it ticking down a LOT faster, scaling with high prosperity upon occupation and not rising at all during war or disasters.
As already said this state modifier will have a large effect on stability, so that disasters, instead of being stopped with clicks, will occur largely depending on the prosperity & devastation that your people experience.
Stability gain or decay should also be affected by religious & cultural unity. Disasters will also negate these modifiers such as religious & cultural unity on your stability, allowing other minor separatist groups to take advantage of the situation on top of what the disaster entails. This results in large empire without a lot of cultural conversion having their stability tick down to near 0. Consequentially disasters will also not require a minimum amount of stability to go away but last 5-10 years of continuously crushing uprisings, and if achieved will result in +50-60 stability and an incredible crownlands & absolutism boost if applicable.
The ultimate goal is not just assimilate any province completely within 10 years in the early game and 5 in the late game, able to do in just a few clicks running at speed 5 in peace time, but to continually assimilate your people in the manner that you prefer. As a result mindless snowballing is less viable, and massively improves and encourages peace time for the player.
If this is managed properly should result in few issues as with any experienced paradox gamer, and given AI will still snowball, make it a fun way to crush AI with a full occupation war without taking much, only to induce a civil war through devastation. The AI deals with rebels and disasters fairly well so several wars will still be necessary. If a country is in the midst of a disaster and has war declared they may also gain half the possible revanchism (is it 50? I never lose wars in single player lol) in an instant to compensate. This also seems realistic as countries will often unify in the face of a common enemy.
I know this has a next to impossible chance of being implemented but hopefully with a better engine and technology for the next Europa Universalis, if they do indeed want to create a mechanically deeper and interactive game, I think this would be a decent idea. (I hope to god they dont remove idea groups they are the best part of Europa Universalis imo)
Stability clicks should be removed, with 0-100 representing -3 to 3, stability cost modifiers changed to stability/stability decay bonuses Events affect it with smaller flat changes, with many of them switching over time modifiers depending on the nature of the event. Always moves towards 50 without any modifiers. Average devastation/prosperity should add significant modifiers to stability loss/gain, with this mechanic being expanded on later, so that in peacetime you will theoretically always be above 50.
Culture acceptance clicks should be removed, instead adopting a harmonisation-like feature, and can only be achieved once you have at least 15% development with no separatism. Makes it easy for smaller countries, terrible for large empires without significant development (arbitrarily gaining trust among those people). Same culture group will not speed up the actual harmonisation process but instead eliminate the separatism requirement.
Overseas cultures can never be assimilated like in real life. If you move your capital overseas you can only continue to assimilate the same culture group on your original continent, and any others will be removed. This rarely happens anyway.
Culture conversion now requires missionaries and works on the same sort of modifiers as religious conversion (still weak for non-tolerated religions), but with much larger negative modifiers. Impossible to achieve with high development provinces without religious ideas.
Remove all religious unity modifiers and replace them with tolerance buffs. Adds more gaminess in deciding between tolerance for heretics or heathens, or both with humanist. Also add a cultural unity modifier for the percentage of your country that has been culture converted or assimilated.
Religious Ideas:
1. Missionaries +2, -50% maintenance. (combine, buff to help with culture conversions)
2. Stability -2 Yearly Decay (change)
3. Missionary Strength +1% (big nerf)
4. TF Tolerance +1, buffs to all applicable religion-specific modifiers, such as papal influence now +4 (nerf + buff)
5. Yearly prestige +1, legitimacy +0.25 (buff)
6. Culture Conversion speed +2% (change for new mechanic)
7. Deus Vult CB (same)
Completion: -33% Development modifier on religious and cultural conversion (new mechanic)
Overall more diverse, instead of mass/instant converting everything with insane unrest modifiers from the process, is more focused on stability management with more balance between religious + culture conversion. We already get a ton of other buffs to religious missionary strength with decisions, policies, etc.
Humanist Ideas:
1. Tolerance of Heretics +3 (buff)
2. National Unrest -1, Religious Harmonisation Speed for Confucians +25% (nerf)
3. Years of separatism -5, Culture Assimilation speed +33% (nerf: you'll see why on 7)
4. Improve Relations +20%, Different Religion Diplomacy modifiers -50% (slight nerf as +Diplomatic Ideas policy boosts IR too much, mechanic addition to encourage international relationships)
5. Tolerance of Heathens +3 (buff)
6. Devastation effects on Stability -50%, state prosperity +0.50 monthly (change, more on prosperity below)
7. -10% Idea Cost (same)
Completion: Cultural Assimilation no longer requires separatism to expire for foreign culture groups (mechanic addition, probably made as completion as icon not necessary due to exclusive modifier)
Overall should be less about strict and instant unrest reductions and more accepting and looking after your populace to boost overall unrest and stability in the medium to long term.
Prosperity should also not require stability and chance based on ruler stats to tick up, instead having a base tick of +0.1/month (So 8 years for prosperity at 100%), with the bonuses from prosperity being scaled. Devastation and prosperity should be combined into one value that ranges from -100 to 100, with it ticking down a LOT faster, scaling with high prosperity upon occupation and not rising at all during war or disasters.
As already said this state modifier will have a large effect on stability, so that disasters, instead of being stopped with clicks, will occur largely depending on the prosperity & devastation that your people experience.
Stability gain or decay should also be affected by religious & cultural unity. Disasters will also negate these modifiers such as religious & cultural unity on your stability, allowing other minor separatist groups to take advantage of the situation on top of what the disaster entails. This results in large empire without a lot of cultural conversion having their stability tick down to near 0. Consequentially disasters will also not require a minimum amount of stability to go away but last 5-10 years of continuously crushing uprisings, and if achieved will result in +50-60 stability and an incredible crownlands & absolutism boost if applicable.
The ultimate goal is not just assimilate any province completely within 10 years in the early game and 5 in the late game, able to do in just a few clicks running at speed 5 in peace time, but to continually assimilate your people in the manner that you prefer. As a result mindless snowballing is less viable, and massively improves and encourages peace time for the player.
If this is managed properly should result in few issues as with any experienced paradox gamer, and given AI will still snowball, make it a fun way to crush AI with a full occupation war without taking much, only to induce a civil war through devastation. The AI deals with rebels and disasters fairly well so several wars will still be necessary. If a country is in the midst of a disaster and has war declared they may also gain half the possible revanchism (is it 50? I never lose wars in single player lol) in an instant to compensate. This also seems realistic as countries will often unify in the face of a common enemy.
I know this has a next to impossible chance of being implemented but hopefully with a better engine and technology for the next Europa Universalis, if they do indeed want to create a mechanically deeper and interactive game, I think this would be a decent idea. (I hope to god they dont remove idea groups they are the best part of Europa Universalis imo)
- 1
