Should I as the Nation even get Money from looting?
Plundering and raping have been the legal sold of soldiers these days.
You might say if they loot i have to pay less to them, but spldiers and mercs expected both.
And yes it should increase influation. There is more money and gold in the circulation, prices rises, Inflation happens.
But the whole inflation and production system needs an overhaul i guess.
Given that historically the average army
was not paid at all in this era and the game has regular wages deducted for armies (along with a laughably poor ability to raise an army quickly and massive strategic disincentives to follow the mobilization frameworks of the era) this seems a bit silly. Soldiers literally signed up with no promise of regular pay, just a chance to loot on campaign. Given all the other ahistorical stuff, I'm going to go with absolutely yes it should go into the treasury.
War often resulted in a budget surplus in this era - Crimea basically fought every war this war, the Ottomans used a hybrid war strategy that was self funding in the early expansion era, etc.
Historically,
most of the expenses in the EUIV era were paid privately without going through the public purse. Virtually all transports and light ships were privately funded and impressed as needed. Virtually all trade buildings were privately financed. If we are going to bring all these private costs onto the ledger of the public purse, then it makes sense to bring looting in full onto the other side.
I'm sure the UI wouldn't be a problem. If looting would add inflation, you would put a new line in the inflation thingy in the budget screen, that's it.
And it is this type of thinking which is why I'm sure it will be a nightmare. In order for a punishment mechanic to work, you need to be able to predict the punishment. Trying to work backwards from a single line entry just goes back to the old hidden knowledge routine where players who do massive tests and read the boards gets access to secret knowledge while everyone else needs to use a spreadsheet to determine the values.
In order to make good cost/benefit analysis I need to know how much penalty comes from looting THIS province at THIS time (given that my income can change drastically during war when I suddenly have all my Baltic ports blockaded or when I remove said blockade). That is not something that works inline, it is too dynamic.
