Do you play with mods or without?

[GAGA Extrem]

Once you have played PDM, there is no going back to vanilla. The only thing you could do is upgrading to my Divide By ZERO modmod.
[/shameless self-promotion]

 

[GAGA Extrem]

I beg to disagree.

Permission granted.
*equips monocle and sips on his tea*

What are the main things added by PDM and DBZ? How do they feel about design vs vanilla?

PDM adds a lot off stuff: New goods, new factories, new inventions, new reforms, new decisions, new events.
I think it adds a lot of immersion to the game and strikes a decent balance between historical events vs. sandbox.

As for DBZ, I made it to fix everything that annoyed me about vanilla and PDM.
For example, the event spam. All these tiny election events that have almost no impact were just breaking the flow for me, so I replaced them with country wide stuff and added a decision so you can toggle between the two.
Same for all the province improvements. Tired to click "Brilliant!" on 200 electricity events as Russia? Here, have a decision that enables events which apply the modifer in three steps (early, improved, advanced) to all provinces.
Hate the "Morale Crusaders" as USA? No problem, they are now a country event with decent impact and MTTH.

Apart from that - tons and tons of balance changes. More inventions and rebalanced invention effects. Infamy now hurts prestige, so you actually have to expand carefully during the early game. Rebels will improve their tech levels as the game progresses, making them less of a pushover. Liberal and reactionary pops can now lobby to remove social reforms. Prestige techs give permanent prestige and less shared prestige (so it's a bit harder for minors to become and stay a GP). A mechanic to keep the top 4 GPs from bloating their industry too much. Reduced immigrant attraction for the USA to allow other nations to get some of the migrating pops. Passing reforms now makes your pops angry, so you better give them what they want - and not you.

Some new stuff. New factories, like synthetic tropical wood and synthetic fabric. New events, like charismatic party leaders that boost party appeal or quarral and scandal events that reduce it. Some promotion help for AI nations to make them a bit more of a challenge. New inventions like "The Metro", "Improved Capitalist and Worker Promotion" or "Roaring Twenties".

Convenience stuff like factories sorted by good type and a decision to build level 1 forts everywhere.

Tbh, I don't even remember all the changes I made, it has been that long. If you want details, the full changelog (~500 lines) is listed in the mod thread.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

How do you do that? I've been asking how to do it for years!

# 555080 - Rebel Armament 1860
country_event = {
	id = 555080
	title = "EVTNAME555080"
	desc = "EVTDESC555080"
	picture = "Rebellion"
	major = yes
	
	trigger = {
		year = 1860
		not = { has_global_flag = rebel_armament_1860 }
	}
	
	mean_time_to_happen = {
		months = 12
	}
	
	option = {
		name = "EVTOPTA555080"
		set_global_flag = rebel_armament_1860
		REB = {
			activate_technology = post_napoleonic_thought 
			activate_technology = flintlock_rifles 
			activate_technology = bronze_muzzle_loaded_artillery 
			activate_technology = military_staff_system 
			activate_technology = army_command_principle 
		}
	}
}

# 555081 - Rebel Armament 1880
country_event = {
	id = 555081
	title = "EVTNAME555081"
	desc = "EVTDESC555081"
	picture = "Rebellion"
	major = yes
	
	trigger = {
		year = 1880
		has_global_flag = rebel_armament_1860
		not = { has_global_flag = rebel_armament_1880 }
	}
	
	mean_time_to_happen = {
		months = 12
	}
	
	option = {
		name = "EVTOPTA555081"
		set_global_flag = rebel_armament_1880
		REB = {
			activate_technology = strategic_mobility 
			activate_technology = muzzle_loaded_rifles 
			activate_technology = iron_muzzle_loaded_artillery 
			activate_technology = military_plans 
			activate_technology = army_professionalism 
		}
	}
}

# 555082 - Rebel Armament 1900
country_event = {
	id = 555082
	title = "EVTNAME555082"
	desc = "EVTDESC555082"
	picture = "Rebellion"
	major = yes
	
	trigger = {
		year = 1900
		has_global_flag = rebel_armament_1880
		not = { has_global_flag = rebel_armament_1900 }
	}
	
	mean_time_to_happen = {
		months = 12
	}
	
	option = {
		name = "EVTOPTA555082"
		set_global_flag = rebel_armament_1900
		REB = {
			activate_technology = point_defense_system 
			activate_technology = breech_loaded_rifles 
			activate_technology = iron_breech_loaded_artillery 
			activate_technology = military_statistics 
			activate_technology = army_decision_making 
		}
	}
}

# 555083 - Rebel Armament 1920
country_event = {
	id = 555083
	title = "EVTNAME555083"
	desc = "EVTDESC555083"
	picture = "Rebellion"
	major = yes
	
	trigger = {
		year = 1920
		has_global_flag = rebel_armament_1900
		not = { has_global_flag = rebel_armament_1920 }
	}
	
	mean_time_to_happen = {
		months = 12
	}
	
	option = {
		name = "EVTOPTA555083"
		set_global_flag = rebel_armament_1920
		REB = {
			activate_technology = deep_defense_system 
			activate_technology = bolt_action_rifles 
			activate_technology = steel_breech_loaded_artillery 
			activate_technology = military_logistics 
			activate_technology = army_risk_management 
		}
	}
}

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Doesn't seem to work on the Rebel tag, though, if the 0/30 displayed during battles is anything to go by

It works. I have successfully employed that fix in my mod and the numbers change according to tech level.

That DBZ stuff sounds fantastic. Is it stable with PDM? Especially the less pop-up spam, balanced USA immigration pull, and evolving rebels and AI help.
Also- Does that help avoid overs supply and autarky?

It is build on the last PDM build and should be 100% CTD free.
As for economy, oversupply isn't all that big of a problem. That is regulated by firing workers and closing factories or wasting money on subsides.
The bigger problem in PDM is the fact that the top powers can drain the whole world of ressources, starving everybody else. And unless I am mistaken autarky is impossible anyway, due to the way that the world market is modelled.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

To be fair, that is also the Clausewitz engine's fault. It really isn't good for supporting a multitude of smaller mods like, for example, Skyrim.
All the stuff is centralized in the files and if four mods make different changes to one file - have fun merging all that manually.

I'd love to offer my mods as a customizable experience, but it is simply not viable to create dozens of different versions as a modder.
I tried a modular approach with BGA for CK2 and it just became a giant mess after a few versions...