@Bratyn
I've got more UK ideas that I wanted to put down somewhere, so I thought I could share them with you. Obviously most members on the team are about to be gone for Christmas break, so I don't expect a response anytime soon. Also, if we are just too late in development and you feel you don't have the time to put any of these in, feel free to just ignore this. I put some of the easier and more important ones near the top. I think the "Cosmetic Tags" section is the most important, but it would be the hardest to do probably.
Rhineland (Easy to do)
A simple thing to add as an option for the UK is another option for the Rhineland news event. Allow the UK to select another option other than issuing a diplomatic protest. Let it be something that allows the British to be more friendly and accepting towards the remilitarization. In a game where the UK player wants to become friends with Germany or never interact with them, they should be able to have a decision to not care about the remilitarization of the Rhineland.
"Commonwealth Ties" national focus (Easy to do)
I didn't catch this one when I was making balancing suggestions. I despise focuses that do nothing more than increase opinion for other countries. This focus deserves a very subtle buff, nothing too dramatic. What it needs to improve would be up to you. A great idea of how to give it a hidden buff is, once that focus has been taken by the UK, the dominions (and the British Raj) will always choose the appeasement paths in their trees (if they haven't chosen their political path yet). This is itself is not enough of a buff to the focus though because it will only be useful when the AI focuses are set to be random. This focus also isn't useful enough to help with the Imperial Conference because there are already many ways to improve the opinion of the commonwealth towards the UK. Overall, this focus is kind of nothing more than a roadblock in the tree.
Colors of the Puppets (Easy to do)
This one comes down to personal choice for you, the developer. When Ironclad releases, 4 out of 6 of the starting puppets for the UK will have a color of a shade of red. New Zealand and Australia will be the two outsiders. This isn't necessary, but a new color could be given to each of them to make them match the pattern. You could make the color just part of a cosmetic tag that would go away once they achieve their independence. Making them match the red shade pattern would truly represent the British Empire in a truly aesthetic way (without having to annex your puppets). This also kind of ties into the request many community members make of letting us have puppets that are the same color, but a different shade. It could be in the settings or a decision or something. That is a standalone issue though (it is something I support though). I'm not sure if the devs are aware of the color bug right now, but you should look into it. Weird large strips of color sometimes cast over a nation that is in a civil war or a nation that took the decision to form a nation. This bug started in Waking the Tiger.
Canada's Cosmetic Problems (Easy to fix)
The only current problems with Canada is that it becomes British North America when they are a democratic integrated puppet even if their master isn't Britain. It should also be a decision for Canada to chose if they want the maple leaf flag or the red ensign flag after they gain their independence as a democracy. The changing of the flag didn't happen in real life until the 60s, so it would be very controversial to change it in the 30s or 40s, the player should get the choice. The AI should also stick with the red ensign flag too for that reason.
British Malaya and Dutch East Indies Government
The ruling government of British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies should be changed to the non-aligned party to better represent their governments (Similarly to how the British Raj is non-aligned). Even if these countries claimed to have democratic governments, they would be phony democratic governments and the non-aligned party would better represent it. I feel that they were made democratic just because their masters are democratic. But, as we see with the Raj, this isn't necessary to do. The governments should better represent how they were actually run rather than mirroring their masters government at game start. If a good guy democratic UK wanted as many democratic friends as possible, they could just use the new system to make a puppet their own ideology (which we saw in the Bag of Tricks #3 dev diary). The other way you could do this is the way that the British Raj does it. You could make it so that British Malaya becomes democratic once they reach the autonomy level of dominion. But then again, how Malaysia gains independence may be revisited in the future, so what happens to their ruling party after WII could be left up to the player for now.
Cosmetic Tags (Harder to do, but a very good change)
I love cosmetic tags. They add so much immersion to the game and they can make ahistorical scenarios more realistic. I really like what was done with the different cosmetic tags that Canada has. This style of cosmetic tags should also be applied to the other puppets of the UK. South Africa staying as "South Africa" at every autonomy level is no fun and not very immersive. This goes for all of the other puppets too. None of them change their name based on autonomy levels besides Canada. Name changes and maybe even flag adjustments could be added for the changing level of autonomy of the puppets. This would add a lot of immersion, especially when the player is trying to form the Imperial Federation. My suggestions won't include names for the countries, just flags. Using a similar style of naming as Canada would be a good idea though. Obviously there would be some special cases though, so don't default to a generic naming system for every case. I think that cosmetic tags should be expanded across the entire game, but I will just stick to the starting puppets.
South Africa:
This was the last flag used for the country before they switched it in 1928 to the current one we have in game right now. They should switch to this flag once they reach the puppet or integrated puppet autonomy status. If South Africa gains freedom as a democracy, they should just use the current one in game because they didn't switch to their modern one until 1994. (South Africa should also have special cosmetic tags if puppeted by the Dutch, but this is about the UK)
Australia:
This flag is hardly different than the current flag of Australia, but this one was used from 1903-1908. It was approved by King Edward VII. Using an older and more royally connected flag would be great for a less autonomous version of the country. This would be great for the colony status. I could see why you would find that adding this one is not necessary though
This was the National Colonial Flag for Australia. This would be great for an Australia with the autonomy status of puppet or integrated puppet. Other historic or royal flags would be good too.
New Zealand:
Like the first Australia one, this one isn't very necessary either, but it could be used for the autonomous status of colony.
For the autonomous status of puppet or integrated puppet, New Zealand should receive any of the royal or viceregal flags. Any of those will do. This one is the flag of the governor of New Zealand from 1908-1936.
Australasia:
Once Australia and New Zealand both reach the autonomy status of puppet or integrated puppet, the UK should be able to take a decision to make the two come together to become Australasia. It would gain a cosmetic tag and cores on Australia and New Zealand. It should also gain cores on the other territory that would be associated with Australasia. (Please also make this a formable nation)
Australasia would use this flag for all autonomy statuses (unless you are able to find more), but the name of the country should still change based on autonomy status.
India:
This flag would be good to use for the integrated puppet autonomy status. The other flags work just fine for the other autonomy statuses. Like the others, the names need to change though. This is the Flag of the Viceroy of India. This flag could be used to show the Viceroy's total control of the country once it reaches the autonomy status of integrated puppet.
British Malaya:
I want to clarify that this may not make sense. How this colony is meant to be organized is very confusing due to the three different parts that made up the country. So if this flag doesn't make sense, it's because I don't fully understand the history.
This flag could be used for the colony and dominion autonomy status of the country.
My source for all of the flag images were on Wikipedia. "List of x-nation flags".
"Australasia" on Wikipedia for the Australasian flag.
"Federated Malay States" on Wikipedia for the Malaysian flag.
Fascist puppets of the UK: If the UK is fascist, it should use colonial flags or flags with the Union Jack in the canton for all nations below the autonomous level of satellite (or at least for the starting puppets). A fascist UK empire wouldn't try to please their puppets very much, so letting them express any kind of freedom in their flag would make no sense. Ex: Fascist New Zealand should not be called "Kiwi Empire" (which is just silly) and it should not have a flag with the silver fern in it. There are some situations where the UK should put a military general or a fascist from the UK in charge of their puppets. "Installing a Fascist Government" in your dominions wouldn't mean reaching out to a nationalist from said nation you are installing a fascist regime in. It would be much more oppressive and it wouldn't mean cooperating with political leaders who might hate the UK for having controlled them.
Monarchist puppets of the UK: These should generally use all of the same flags I posted the images to and the ones that are already in the game. I hope there are some good cosmetic tags and/or leaders for the loyalist uprisings you can stage when your dominions break away. I probably don't have to worry, but I don't want to see "Rod Hull" in charge of non-aligned Australia.
Communist puppets for the UK: These puppets were installed by the UK to give them more autonomy, so using a communist flag special to that nation alone would make a lot of sense. No changes would need to happen here. It is not necessary, but a USSR type style in a communist UK fashion could be used for the communist puppets like this:
As for the dominions, I do think they should use the USSR style flags in order to show that the UK is making them become communist. Not all of the UK puppets are just going to be ok with becoming communist. Having the communist British flag or a communist UK symbol somewhere in their newly communist dominion's flag would represent that they are forcing them to change.
"Consolidate the British Isles" national focus (Easy to do, but not necessary)
This focus gives a war goal on Ireland, but it lacks real incentive for the player to actually take it unless they want to take the "Unite the Anglosphere" focus. The small amount of industry Ireland provides isn't much. The focus should give cores on all of Ireland or allow for a decision "Integrate Ireland" to be taken which lets the UK get cores on Ireland if they own it (at the cost of political power). If you don't want them to gain cores on Ireland, then you could add some kind of other bonus to the focus. Another good way to indirectly make it better is to have "Unite the Anglosphere" give cores on Ireland.
Volunteers for the Spanish Civil War (Easy to do, but not necessary)
In real life the UK and France were both interested in what was going down in Spain once the civil war kicked off. Both nations did not end up getting involved, but they definitely considered it. I think a decision to send either Spain guns or fighters and a decision to send volunteers should be available. Supporting the Nationalists should maybe be locked behind the focus "A Change in Course." Sending equipment to the Republicans should definitely be allowed most of the time, but maybe the decision to send volunteers to the Republicans should be locked behind the "A Change in Course" focus.
The MacDonald Proposal (Not necessary, but not too hard to do)
In real life this was meant to be a promise that would be fulfilled
after WWII if Ireland were to accept. I think this should change to work like the Azores Lease in a kind of way. If Ireland accepts, they would join the Allies, and then after WWII an event would fire where the UK can return northern Ireland or chose not to (the AI should always return it). So Ireland should not be instantly given northern Ireland once they join the Allies during the war. "de Valera wrote to Chamberlain formally rejecting the plan, arguing that it ‘would commit us definitely to an immediate abandonment of our neutrality’ while giving ‘no guarantee that in the end we would have a united Ireland’."
https://bit.ly/2Ajt7rh. This isn't a big deal and I don't think anyone would care if it was changed, but it is more historically accurate and an easyish change.
Irish Free State (Not necessary and hardish to do, but historical)
This also isn't a necessary change, but Ireland, or the Irish Free State was still a dominion of the UK up until 1937. A simple way to do this would be to make Ireland a dominion at game start. Give them a cosmetic tag of the "Irish Free State" (which was their historical name). Have an event pop up on the day they gained their independence. The event would have two decisions, Ireland could break away or stay a dominion. In a historical game, the AI would chose to break away and lose their cosmetic tag. Ireland should also be able to stay a dominion. Realistically, this would upset the population, but this DLC isn't about Ireland, so I think you could just ignore the politics of Ireland and the consequences this would bring with it (Unless you wanted to add in a quick civil war months after they choose to stay a dominion (If you did, please give a nice color to the dynamic tag and not one of the defaults, they are mostly ugly)). If Ireland chose to stay a dominion, sometime in months or years later, they should be able to ask for northern Ireland back because they stayed loyal (AI democratic UK should almost always accept).
I hope you enjoyed some of the stuff in here, and merry Christmas!
STOP! COOKIE TIME