One of the weaker disasters in this game in my view is the Dutch Revolt. It generally starts off with a massive number of rebels, before having you simply wait 20 years for the disaster to end. This makes for a dull disaster and it almost never results in the Netherlands actually appearing on the map. As such I have a suggestion for how to overhaul the Dutch Revolt to make it more interesting, a bit more historically accurate, and to make it so that the Netherlands actually come into existence without player intervention.
Once the disaster starts, instead of having hordes of rebels appear, like what happens in essentially every other disaster, all owned provinces in the Lowlands region will be given to the Netherlands. They will become your vassal, but also receive a massive, but rapidly decreasing, boost in Liberty Desire. Initially starting at +100% LD, with an annual decrease of 5%. For the duration of the disaster, interactions like decreasing LD through deving subject provinces and Placate Local Rulers should be disabled, to prevent cheesing it. During the first year of the disaster they will be trying to get support from your rivals, and European major powers in general. Historically such support was very important in the early successes for the Netherlands, so representing this in-game would make sense. This support can be either in the form of ducats, soldiers, or supporting independence. During this time, your soldiers will be unable to enter the Netherlands.
After about a year, the Netherlands will declare it's independence war, generally supported by at least your rivals, but possibly also other (non-allied) majors. Your goal will be to retake the Netherlands as quickly as possible. After a two year grace period, a timer starts increasing every year. If you fail to retake the Netherlands within 5-10 years (this will need playtesting and balancing) they will be able to enforce their independence, they will automatically win the war and your disaster ends. Alternatively, if you manage to beat them they will return to being your vassal. They won't get the standard -50% Liberty desire from a failed independence war, and instead they will get an additional +10% LD per year that it took you to bring them to heel, -2% yearly, beyond the 2 years of grace, on top of whatever LD they had left from the +100% they got at the start of the disaster. You won't be able to take any land from them during this war, but are able to get cash and certain concessions. These concessions will over time start lowering the LD of the country, initially slowly, but over time it will start adding up.
The disaster will end when you have the Netherlands below 20% or 30% LD (this also will need balancing). This means that if you are very slow in retaking the Netherlands the first time, they WILL declare an independence war (with the same support options as in the first one) again, with the same possible outcomes. The idea here being that unless you can quickly squash the revolt, they will keep trying until eventually you have no choice but to give in. However, once you get them below the threshold, the disaster will end, you will reintegrate the Netherlands for free (This will only include provinces inside the Lowlands region. Provinces outside of them will be returned to the previous owner to prevent players abusing this mechanic to integrate vast areas for free.) and their cores will be removed. Dutch, Flemish and Frisian cultures will be added to your Accepted Cultures for free and that's it.
The idea behind this change is to make it an unique disaster that's actually challenging to successfully beat while also ensuring that the Netherlands become a bit more common in EU4. I would like to know what other players think of this proposal and hopefully one of the devs gets inspired by it.
Once the disaster starts, instead of having hordes of rebels appear, like what happens in essentially every other disaster, all owned provinces in the Lowlands region will be given to the Netherlands. They will become your vassal, but also receive a massive, but rapidly decreasing, boost in Liberty Desire. Initially starting at +100% LD, with an annual decrease of 5%. For the duration of the disaster, interactions like decreasing LD through deving subject provinces and Placate Local Rulers should be disabled, to prevent cheesing it. During the first year of the disaster they will be trying to get support from your rivals, and European major powers in general. Historically such support was very important in the early successes for the Netherlands, so representing this in-game would make sense. This support can be either in the form of ducats, soldiers, or supporting independence. During this time, your soldiers will be unable to enter the Netherlands.
After about a year, the Netherlands will declare it's independence war, generally supported by at least your rivals, but possibly also other (non-allied) majors. Your goal will be to retake the Netherlands as quickly as possible. After a two year grace period, a timer starts increasing every year. If you fail to retake the Netherlands within 5-10 years (this will need playtesting and balancing) they will be able to enforce their independence, they will automatically win the war and your disaster ends. Alternatively, if you manage to beat them they will return to being your vassal. They won't get the standard -50% Liberty desire from a failed independence war, and instead they will get an additional +10% LD per year that it took you to bring them to heel, -2% yearly, beyond the 2 years of grace, on top of whatever LD they had left from the +100% they got at the start of the disaster. You won't be able to take any land from them during this war, but are able to get cash and certain concessions. These concessions will over time start lowering the LD of the country, initially slowly, but over time it will start adding up.
The disaster will end when you have the Netherlands below 20% or 30% LD (this also will need balancing). This means that if you are very slow in retaking the Netherlands the first time, they WILL declare an independence war (with the same support options as in the first one) again, with the same possible outcomes. The idea here being that unless you can quickly squash the revolt, they will keep trying until eventually you have no choice but to give in. However, once you get them below the threshold, the disaster will end, you will reintegrate the Netherlands for free (This will only include provinces inside the Lowlands region. Provinces outside of them will be returned to the previous owner to prevent players abusing this mechanic to integrate vast areas for free.) and their cores will be removed. Dutch, Flemish and Frisian cultures will be added to your Accepted Cultures for free and that's it.
The idea behind this change is to make it an unique disaster that's actually challenging to successfully beat while also ensuring that the Netherlands become a bit more common in EU4. I would like to know what other players think of this proposal and hopefully one of the devs gets inspired by it.
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