As I understand it, disasters were implemented as a system for severe internal challenges in a country. The user interface gives the impression that they're bad and you want to avoid them, with the 'disaster' name and the menacing red popup that appears when they start ticking down. Most of them are indeed dangers you want to avoid. But with a couple of disasters it feels like the game designers are intentionally misleading the player on this score. I'm not talking about advanced disaster management, where you e.g. engineer a civil war as a last-ditch way of killing a bad king and recovering legitimacy, or use a lesser disaster to block a greater one. I'm talking about two 'disasters' that even novices should know how to use to their benefit.
Court and Country: This one is ridiculous. It gives your country a straight-up buff for the rest of the game, a major one at that (+10-20 max absolutism), at the cost of some mild discomfort for 10 years (a bunch of rebel events at the start, but after that the main disadvantage is a temporary penalty to max absolutism, which is pretty harmless if you pause your blobbing and save up points for the inevitable rampage when the disaster ends). What makes it worse it that it's a reward for having high absolutism in the first place, so it ends up being a mindless 'rich get richer' mechanic for absolutism and a further kick in the teeth to Republics and Constitutional Monarchies. I'd really rather see it removed from the game, as it serves no interesting purpose and is too generic to represent any sort of historical immersion. But if it does stay in the game, it's so beneficial, and so easy, that it should be a *mission* with high weighting to fire the disaster if you haven't done it already and/or to secure the best ending. (IIRC, from a design perspective, the rewards are a bit of fluff, but main purpose of missions is to give beginners and the AI some nudges towards sensible/'historical' goals.) The game should pretty much tell you 'Hey, you haven't fired Court and Country yet! Better do that pronto for the tasty Absolutism bonus!', like how it nudges you to recover from negative stability or high war exhaustion. When it's on course to firing, it should have a separate yellow popup, rather than the red 'danger! fire!' popup.
Revolution: This one at least makes sense as a 'disaster': it represents a historical cataclysm that should come with a great deal of trauma, and there are situations where you don't want it. But still, the aftermath is incredibly beneficial for the average player once you sorted out the disaster itself. The 'Revolution Target' buff is insane, as is the CB. Maybe it's more questionable in MP (due to the fact that it literally makes you a target), but even so, it's clearly a power move rather than an unfortunate accident. I'd suggest the Revolution Target buffs should be toned down and more of the benefits shifted to the Revolutionary governments, and the disaster should be designed so you actually have to suffer for a few years, and can't just end it instantly by letting rebels take the capital. At the same time, it should be possible to have multiple lesser Revolutions with some sort of contagion, and to actually spread the revolution (rather than that just being the name of a generic 'better than Imperialism CB'). The Revolution Target still gets a benefit for being the *first*, but they're not necessarily the only pro-Revolution country. Also, Revolutionary countries should be in danger of a counter-revolution disaster.
Court and Country: This one is ridiculous. It gives your country a straight-up buff for the rest of the game, a major one at that (+10-20 max absolutism), at the cost of some mild discomfort for 10 years (a bunch of rebel events at the start, but after that the main disadvantage is a temporary penalty to max absolutism, which is pretty harmless if you pause your blobbing and save up points for the inevitable rampage when the disaster ends). What makes it worse it that it's a reward for having high absolutism in the first place, so it ends up being a mindless 'rich get richer' mechanic for absolutism and a further kick in the teeth to Republics and Constitutional Monarchies. I'd really rather see it removed from the game, as it serves no interesting purpose and is too generic to represent any sort of historical immersion. But if it does stay in the game, it's so beneficial, and so easy, that it should be a *mission* with high weighting to fire the disaster if you haven't done it already and/or to secure the best ending. (IIRC, from a design perspective, the rewards are a bit of fluff, but main purpose of missions is to give beginners and the AI some nudges towards sensible/'historical' goals.) The game should pretty much tell you 'Hey, you haven't fired Court and Country yet! Better do that pronto for the tasty Absolutism bonus!', like how it nudges you to recover from negative stability or high war exhaustion. When it's on course to firing, it should have a separate yellow popup, rather than the red 'danger! fire!' popup.
Revolution: This one at least makes sense as a 'disaster': it represents a historical cataclysm that should come with a great deal of trauma, and there are situations where you don't want it. But still, the aftermath is incredibly beneficial for the average player once you sorted out the disaster itself. The 'Revolution Target' buff is insane, as is the CB. Maybe it's more questionable in MP (due to the fact that it literally makes you a target), but even so, it's clearly a power move rather than an unfortunate accident. I'd suggest the Revolution Target buffs should be toned down and more of the benefits shifted to the Revolutionary governments, and the disaster should be designed so you actually have to suffer for a few years, and can't just end it instantly by letting rebels take the capital. At the same time, it should be possible to have multiple lesser Revolutions with some sort of contagion, and to actually spread the revolution (rather than that just being the name of a generic 'better than Imperialism CB'). The Revolution Target still gets a benefit for being the *first*, but they're not necessarily the only pro-Revolution country. Also, Revolutionary countries should be in danger of a counter-revolution disaster.
