Colonize a province in 3 steps - how it may be more interactive / less no brainer

[Spartan042]

Imho one of the main interesting mechanics is the colonization. But at the moment it lacks of variety and the colonization of each region / area remains almost the same (just some minor penalties, bonus for adjacent colony,..).

Therefore I want to present an idea I came up which splits the colonization of a single province into three major steps (each may consist of 500 settlers, so for a full province you need 1500):

Step 1 - Gain self-sustainability:

• The most money-intense step for the colonizer; the money scale could just work like it currently is, the aim of the colony is to get along with the natives, to feed themselves and get proper housing and fulfill their basic needs
• The terrain, climate, the presence of a river and if it’s a coastline should have an impact of the duration / events; difficult terrains (e.g. deserts, jungles) should have setbacks for the first couple of provinces, so that the decision where to install the first colony is more challenging.
• Events around this topic (bad harvest season, low share of food resources e.g. in the desert) would spice this up a bit
• In this step the colony also gets the information which trade good will be available in this province
• If there is an adjacent province (no colony), the costs may be much cheaper
• After this step is finished, the province still won’t have any production or tax income

Step 2 - Develop resources:

• In this step the colony will focus their effort to make use of the trade good of the province.
• The colonizing nations should evaluate more critically how much money is necessary to spend; the self-sustaining colony could develop the resources by themselves but which could take a while, but it would cost the colonizing country almost no money; the more valuable the trade good is the more money the colonizing country should invest
• Events depending on the trade good, natives (which may attach mines), on changing trade goods (gold vein) and on the base production value may spice this step up as well
• After this step is finished, the province will have a production income

Step 3 - Develop wealth

• In this step the colony will focus on increasing the wealth of the province by increasing the city and economy
• The colonizing nation should evaluate how much potential the province shows, indicators can be terrain (farmlands and grasslands as very supporting), climate compared to your capital’s climate and/or natural harbor. Based on this information you should evaluate if you want to spend money for this step to increase speed or let it finish itself
• Events dealing with the natives (e.g. raids) which lead to and increasing or decreasing of the base tax value should spice this up as well.
• After this step is finished, the province will have a tax income and a manpower value

Once all 3 steps are completed, the colony is fully completed with tax, production and manpower.


General additional points to this idea:

• It is possible to build a fort in exchange for manpower and the building costs (fort stays at the province after it is finished and increase the base manpower value); the fort makes sense when e.g. you have a gold province where you don’t want to loose any development due to native events and/or you have a high native aggression
• At the time where you decide to colonize a province you can determine the order of the three steps while gaining self-sustainability should always be number one (except if high chance for gold?), otherwise you have to pay the costs for step 1 (self-sustainability) until it is finished. However if you first develop resources or wealth first it may be wise if you expect a great trade good or have promising land (natural harbour + farmlands) and you have money available.
• You should always be able to reorder the remaining steps if they have not started yet, e.g. in step 1 it is discovered gold as trade good, you can reorder and start with develop resources first (maybe small penalty)
• The cost ratio of the steps should be about 4 / 1 / 1 (e.g. 20 ducats, 5 ducats, 5 ducats), but until you have not finished step one you have to pay for this step anyway (25 ducats if you start with step 2); with an adjacent province the ratio could be 2 / 1 / 1

I’m open for any criticism, that’s just an idea which in my opinion would bring more personal evaluation and variety into the colonization game due to more factors being relevant (terrain, trade good, order of colonization steps, ..) and a slight portion of luck necessary (native behavior, trade good).

Please don’t take the ducats I mention above for serious, it should just show an example. The balance of this idea should be discussed later in case it would be considered. Same with the number of settlers necessary.

Thank you for your attention

 

[Tricubus]

good