So, with 1.5, we don't get coring range from fleet basing rights anymore. This, I think, was intended to stop people from getting to the New World too quickly... but it also prevents pretty much all Asian expansion for any non-colonisers until late enough in the game as to make no difference.
This is because the colonising range you receive from diplomatic technology is overtaken by the rate at which Portugal and Spain colonise the African coast very quickly -ie, if I was playing as the Netherlands, even if I had the range to colonise a portion of Africa in order to be a pit stop on the way to the rest of Asia, most of Africa would have already been colonised.
This means that you have to take Exploration ideas for the 50% colonial range, to make any meaningful progress in Asia before the game's end.
If Paradox are already fiddling with idea groups in 1.6, a way to make it possible for powers such as the Netherlands, England, and other non-coloniser nations to get their piece of Asia would be to put a coring range bonus into Expansion ideas - possibly a replacement for the ship building time, or the small settler increase. A 100% range increase would allow small bases to be set up in Asia, whilst still preventing these nations from having enormous colonisation range.
(Of course, the entire dynamic of Asian expansion might be changed (hopefully) by WoN, so this entire post would be moot.)
So, thanks for reading. Just an idea
This is because the colonising range you receive from diplomatic technology is overtaken by the rate at which Portugal and Spain colonise the African coast very quickly -ie, if I was playing as the Netherlands, even if I had the range to colonise a portion of Africa in order to be a pit stop on the way to the rest of Asia, most of Africa would have already been colonised.
This means that you have to take Exploration ideas for the 50% colonial range, to make any meaningful progress in Asia before the game's end.
If Paradox are already fiddling with idea groups in 1.6, a way to make it possible for powers such as the Netherlands, England, and other non-coloniser nations to get their piece of Asia would be to put a coring range bonus into Expansion ideas - possibly a replacement for the ship building time, or the small settler increase. A 100% range increase would allow small bases to be set up in Asia, whilst still preventing these nations from having enormous colonisation range.
(Of course, the entire dynamic of Asian expansion might be changed (hopefully) by WoN, so this entire post would be moot.)
So, thanks for reading. Just an idea