Exploration Idea change suggestion

[Mr Tex]

The Exploration ideas first three unlockables are
1) +1 colonist
2) QFTNW
3) 50% more colonial range

However in my opinion these are a little backwards in terms of gameplay and logic. For the European historic colonial nations (and nations wanting to be colonial powers) they only have western Europe, North Africa, part of the Middle East, and East Europe explored at the start. However none of the locations are empty and ready to be colonized, so why start the idea off with a colonist? Even the text to describe it says "enables us to send more colonists to uncharted lands" but what uncharted lands? As far as my England or France is aware of there is no such thing as a North or South America.
While the QFTNW allows for the possible exploration and discovery of these places, without which your colonist is absolutely worthless until you get 400 more dip points to sink into it. So during the time between waiting to gain your next 400 points why not allow us to explore and begin to plan on where to colonize, for example with the RNW generator itd be nice to explore and find out just what places are goin to be close to you.

Now we can look at it maybe from a semi historic view point. Spain did not send out Columbus to colonize, but to explore and find a route to India which upon returning they then began to send out more explorers to find out more. Then later on down the road they sent out men to colonize bits and pieces of the new found land.
They never prepared people to colonize these unheard of lands then sent out Columbus to find the lands for these people to settle.

So I suggest that it be changed to
1) QFTNW
2) +1 colonist
3) 50% more colonial range

Now for those who play Asia they still have to explore the spice islands and Oceania before they even have use of that colonist, and the same with those in Africa. The only people who not benefit from this change are those in North America who start out with the continent basically explored.

So what do y'all think is this a good suggestion or just a half baked idea I didnt think through properly?
I apologize for the mistakes or the unclarity of what im proposing, I am not very good expressing myself and likewise ideas. So if y'all would like me to edit this post to try and make my point more clear just ask

 

[Mauer]

Portugal gets explorers at game start and Spain gains Colombus as explorer via event.

 

[gdj]

I wouldnt say its a half baked idea, but many countries start with explored but uncolonized provinces next to them. Most African tags do, China can colonize Taiwan, Brunei can colonize Borneo or the Philippines etc., nothing of this has anything to do with a quest for a new world...

 

[Mr Tex]

Portugal gets explorers at game start and Spain gains Colombus as explorer via event.

Yes except neither England nor France gets explorers at the beginning or through events, and leaves a player a sitting duck until they pop out the 800 dip points to both colonize and explore. Which is what my contention is, through a game play stance it would make sense for the explorer to come first before the colonist. Because as England, Scotland, Denmark, France, or any other potential colonizer it leaves them with a colonist with no where to go. Its like a dead atheist all dressed up with no where to go.
However by allowing them to have an explorer they go and explore say Canada and the North Eastern U.S. and not be stuck with nothing to do with that one colonist. Not only that but you cannot colonize until you get that 50% extra range anyway, meaning you are seriously wasting some good exploration time by being forced to have an unusable colonist, followed by an explorer, still being unable to colonize.

But with my proposal itd be first explore, then a colonist, followed by the 50% extra range. Still leaving the colonist unusable until you pop the third idea however still allowing you to chart out the new lands.

I wouldnt say its a half baked idea, but many countries start with explored but uncolonized provinces next to them. Most African tags do, China can colonize Taiwan, Brunei can colonize Borneo or the Philippines etc., nothing of this has anything to do with a quest for a new world...

Except as an African nation you would still be wanting to move to Brazil with your colonialism due to the fact that all the provinces in Sub Saharan Africa 5K+ natives with very high aggresiveness and high ferocity, compounded with your tribal government,high revolt risk, and hostile neighbors dedicating your army to guard a colony which will most likely produce slaves or grain isnt really worth the trouble.
Its true that the Asian nations start with Taiwan, the Phillipines and parts of the spice islands explored, a player wanting to become dominant in the region really needs to go with expansion, which gives an explorer as the first idea, it also gives the free CB against all asian nations with lower tech than yourself. Which compared to the CB against all native American nations which by the time you get to the Americas are likely to have been conquered by the Europeans.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Portugal gets explorers at game start and Spain gains Colombus as explorer via event.

And other nations where OP's considerations are relevant get:

...

That said it's true a lot of nations can colonize something visible immediately, especially in ROTW.

 

[Mauer]

I was just stating a fact, I don't care either way. It's the first two ideas in the group so you can just save the points beforehand and pop them at the same time when you hit level 5 ADM, and if you don't then it's just 3 to 5 years of saving them.

 

[gdj]

Yes except neither England nor France gets explorers at the beginning or through events, and leaves a player a sitting duck until they pop out the 800 dip points to both colonize and explore. Which is what my contention is, through a game play stance it would make sense for the explorer to come first before the colonist. Because as England, Scotland, Denmark, France, or any other potential colonizer it leaves them with a colonist with no where to go. Its like a dead atheist all dressed up with no where to go.

Sure, this is probabaly intended to be so, after all England and France arrived in the New World long after Spain.

Anyway, im not opposed to your idea, it will probably not make that much of a difference anyway since settler growth is initially extremly low..

 

[BrokenSky]

As i understand it the point of this is to give Spain and Portugal a head start on colonizing, as well as to slow down how quickly it happens generally.

 

[Mr Tex]

It's true that its to give Portugal and Spain a head start, however they can both colonize easily before dip tech 7 whereas the other well suited Europeans can't start till tech 7 or later. However by allowing us to at least explore these areas we can at least plan on where to colonize. (Especially if using the RNW generator)

So its more of a matter of helping the player by allowing us something to do and look at.

 

[keytium]

Having the colonist be first is actually a buff for late game colonizers to let then catch up. If you pick exploration as your fourth idea group then at diplo 14 you can normally see plenty of uncolonized provinces, so getting your colonist right away is a bonus.

Also if you let all the other Europeans get there explorers earlier then the world would be colonized even faster. The colonization of the world currently occurs at a reasonable rate(I still think its a little fast, but compared to previous versions I enjoy the current balance). You speed up European colonization even a little and the effect snowballs. If France and GB get their first colonial nation twenty years early then they get the colonial nation colonists and merchants earlier meaning the New World and African coast is gobbled up too quickly. If this happens too fast then Europe becomes a powerhouse with no good easy colonies sites to choose, which leads to the scramble for Africa occurring early and Europeans conquering most of China. Of course your one change probably wouldn't have enough of an effect to throw it off THAT far, but I think I illustrated why speeding up early game colonization is not a good idea as a general principle.