I can't send a colonist back to his own colony? - Why are province colonization rules so arbitrary?

[Blazingflame]

So I've mostly learned the detailed rules as to which provinces can be colonized and which can't by trial and error, there's surprising little easily-accessible information on this, including on the wiki. Within your colonial range it's coastal provinces, non-coastal provinces adjacent to another province you own, or non-coastal provinces adjacent to your colonial nation's provinces - but only if that colonial nation itself has a coastal province and that coastal province is contiguous with the province that is adjacent to the province you want to colonize (I learned as an 'error' within that trial and error I did that this 'colonial nation's province must have a direct path to the coast' doesn't apply across colonial nation borders, even if they're both your colonial nations, which seems strange and arbitrary given that you don't get to choose where those intra-colonial borders are).

However recently I've come across another random inexplicable quirk that really makes me wish these rules were more rational and less random. I literally can't send my colonist back to a colony he founded! No, it isn't because some other factor has changed in the meantime, all that has changed is that it was an uncolonized province, and now it's a growing colony. This has happened with two colonies - both founded by the same colonist, and he can't go back to either of them for some reason. He can found a new colony in adjacent uncolonized provinces which are in exactly the same situation as those colonies (in terms of where they are, what they border etc) which shows that the only changed variable is that they are now growing colonies rather than uncolonized provinces.

It's annoying because I don't want to use the colonist to found another colony as I already have too many (and am losing ducats because of it). After being surprised by the seemingly arbitrary nature of the rules in the past (the example about intra-colonial nation borders I gave earlier) being surprised again by this new arbitrary rule that for some reason I can't send a colonist back to a colony he founded just exemplifies the inscrutable nature of the rules regarding colonization of provinces. Surely this one must be considered a bug? Why shouldn't I be able to send a colonist back to the colony he founded? It would be nice if Paradox would release an update to clarify and rationalize the rules regarding colonization of provinces. I'm going to post screenshots to demonstrate what I'm writing about here, see if you can see the logic in this:

First the two established colonies which I can't send the colonist who established them back to ("New Switzerland" is a colonial nation):

Then, adjacent uncolonized provinces in the same situation that can be colonized (just as I could send a colonist to these colonies to create them):

Finally I'll upload two screenshots to illustrate the issue with intra-colonial borders I mentioned earlier. I can't colonize a province I would be able to colonize if there was a path from it through one of my colonial nations to the coast, but because it's through two of my colonial nations, it doesn't count, even though they're both my colonial nations (this was especially annoying since I wanted there to be a path through one colonial nation to the coast, but if you have two colonial nations in a colonial region you don't get to choose which one to assign a newly finished colony to, which tends to lead to strange exclaves like in the following image):

Surely these rules could use a fix or clarification? Am I missing some logic that makes all of this make sense? What experiences have others had of the strange rules regarding colonization - what other quirks are there? Felt compelled to make this post because it really annoyed me in this game haha but really the way this works is bizarre

 

[CaesarVincens]

Not being able to send a colonist back to a province that was otherwise valid definitely seems like a bug.

As for your second scenario, as you note, you have two colonial nations in the same colonial region. While this is a perfectly valid game scenario, it wasn't intended as the usual outcome, and so as you've found, this creates some issues. That is to say, it is most likely working as designed/intended. I'll note that it's also possible to have the intended one colonial nation per region and still encounter this (colonizing from Canada or California into Louisiana, for example), so it might be worth changing, but it's typically going to be rare.

 

[Blazingflame]

Not being able to send a colonist back to a province that was otherwise valid definitely seems like a bug.

Yeah I can't find any other explanation. It's really strange because the game should just treat uncolonized provinces and developing colonies identically with regard to sending a colonist.

I'll note that it's also possible to have the intended one colonial nation per region and still encounter this (colonizing from Canada or California into Louisiana, for example), so it might be worth changing, but it's typically going to be rare.

I actually had exactly this problem in a relatively recent game even with only one colonial nation per region. Expanding a Louisiana colony into the far north of colonial Mexico (the rest was already taken). I'm expanding Louisiana, then I'm expanding into colonial Mexico until a new colonial nation forms, then I can't expand anymore because the new colonial nation is landlocked, and all the coast in colonial Mexico is taken. There was a direct path to the coast of course, but only through my Louisiana colony. It seemed really weird and artificial that I had to stop expanding because of that, it would probably make more sense if the path to the coast could go through multiple colonial nations.

Another idea would be to allow the player to reassign a province from one of their colonial nations to another of their colonial nations that that can core it. To prevent this from being abused it could come with costs and requirements, like that the colonial nation must be loyal, it adds +5% liberty desire per province development (the same as for the already-existing "Seize Land" interaction for vassals and marches) to the colonial nation that loses a province + a monarch power cost. Then you could correct strange colonial exclaves like the one in the images I posted.

 

[FrogCrusher]

Did you use expel minorities? If I recall correctly, a colonist cannot be sent back to a colony when it was founded by expelling.

 

[Manwe_Sulimo]

Did you use expel minorities? If I recall correctly, a colonist cannot be sent back to a colony when it was founded by expelling.

But in that case you can't remove it before the colony is finished without stopping the colony altogether IIRC.
Did you try that on coastal provinces too? I remember that at least used to be possible, might be a bug that requires it to be inland and recolonized.

 

[FrogCrusher]

But in that case you can't remove it before the colony is finished without stopping the colony altogether IIRC.
Did you try that on coastal provinces too? I remember that at least used to be possible, might be a bug that requires it to be inland and recolonized.

You're right, however it can be remove if it is occupied during a war.

 

[AvengedK1ng]

You're right, however it can be remove if it is occupied during a war.

Which is such a pain when doing free colonies

Yeah I can't find any other explanation. It's really strange because the game should just treat uncolonized provinces and developing colonies identically with regard to sending a colonist.

I actually had exactly this problem in a relatively recent game even with only one colonial nation per region. Expanding a Louisiana colony into the far north of colonial Mexico (the rest was already taken). I'm expanding Louisiana, then I'm expanding into colonial Mexico until a new colonial nation forms, then I can't expand anymore because the new colonial nation is landlocked, and all the coast in colonial Mexico is taken. There was a direct path to the coast of course, but only through my Louisiana colony. It seemed really weird and artificial that I had to stop expanding because of that, it would probably make more sense if the path to the coast could go through multiple colonial nations.

Another idea would be to allow the player to reassign a province from one of their colonial nations to another of their colonial nations that that can core it. To prevent this from being abused it could come with costs and requirements, like that the colonial nation must be loyal, it adds +5% liberty desire per province development (the same as for the already-existing "Seize Land" interaction for vassals and marches) to the colonial nation that loses a province + a monarch power cost. Then you could correct strange colonial exclaves like the one in the images I posted.

Theres the event, which I'd prefer to stay as event to allow for organic borders as Brazil's borders are very much ignoring Tordeisallas and also Zaragoza I think
West indies CN expanding from the carribean to the north coast of Columbia feels logical
British Columbia is always funny to see in SA

 

[Blazingflame]

Did you use expel minorities? If I recall correctly, a colonist cannot be sent back to a colony when it was founded by expelling.

Nope, just founded in the usual way with the colonist.

Theres the event, which I'd prefer to stay as event to allow for organic borders as Brazil's borders are very much ignoring Tordeisallas and also Zaragoza I think
West indies CN expanding from the carribean to the north coast of Columbia feels logical
British Columbia is always funny to see in SA

Yeah I've seen that event that allows you to adjust intra-colonial borders in one location before. The event could remain even if colonial borders could be adjusted without the event. You can adjust the colonial tariff manually but also by event, with the manual adjustment having the downside of an administrative power cost, a similar thing could be done with adjusting intra-colonial borders, if you do it manually you must use a little administrative power.