Still no plans for a Ming mission tree. During the development of the Manchu patch I considered whether it would be worthwhile to create one, but ultimately decided against it in favour of allocating time for the Korean mission tree. My reasoning was that there's very little design space for Ming missions because they're already so incredibly large and they have Celestial Reforms fulfilling a very similar purpose right from the start. I stand by that reasoning. In addition, it's only me on content design right now and if a Ming mission tree is going to be made it should ideally be made by someone who actually enjoys playing as Ming - I do not.
Oh, come on. Where is the confrontation between eunuchs and generals-standard practice in the Chinese court? Where is the succession of dynasties, namely dynasties? Why does Korea have completely non-historical missions, they have majors, but the Ming Empire-the top 1 power-does not? It's just not fair.
The heavenly mandate is INCREDIBLY inconvenient, because tributaries are allied with each other and with free countries, and they are not much use. And when you take away the heavenly mandate, the tributaries remain with the old owner of the heavenly mandate. In fact, the celestial mandate should have its own special kind of subjects with its own special ways of interacting. And at the moment, ordinary hordes can do exactly the same and it is only their whim, the owner of the heavenly mandate - the need.
So after all, the sky mandate also has a stub of -1000 if there is no land border. EVEN by sea, you can't make a tributary. How then the Ming Empire has vassals in Oceania at the start is unclear from the point of view of the game's mechanics. The heavenly mandate used to be completely useless to anyone, today not too much has changed. The point is NOT that it decreased because of the border with free countries, but in the inconvenience of the tributaries themselves, who can not even be punished for disobedience, who may be allies of your enemy and fight for him, and to return the tributary back its status is possible only in a separate world for a fee of 200 diplomatic points.