As has been noted many times, colonialism in EU4 really only represents one form of colonialism: the settler colonies of the English, French, and Dutch in North America. It also allows part of the Spanish and Dutch-East Indies colonial model—conquer a bunch of nations—even though the AI seems oddly reluctant to do it.
Since you released one colonialism-related DLC (Conquest of Paradise) and are already working on another, I'd be surprised if you're able to incorporate new suggestions at the time. On the other hand, a thread which wished for one thing that will be implemented in El Dorado before El Dorado was announced got me thinking about what I'd like improved in the colonial game. I posted that posted that as sort of a musing, and now I'd like to post a rethought and reworked version of my suggestions for consideration here.
Some of my ideas are variations on the same theme, so I'll post them in three lists.
In this first list the first three and last two form sets which are sort of dependent on each other to work, while all five together would work even better.
Historical colonialism in temperate climates
Tropical colonialism mechanics
Miscellaneous wishes
So that's my wishlist. Aside from number nine, I don't know if any of these have been proposed yet, I just know that this is how I would improve the colonial mechanic. I hope you'll consider at least some of them for a future DLC.
Since you released one colonialism-related DLC (Conquest of Paradise) and are already working on another, I'd be surprised if you're able to incorporate new suggestions at the time. On the other hand, a thread which wished for one thing that will be implemented in El Dorado before El Dorado was announced got me thinking about what I'd like improved in the colonial game. I posted that posted that as sort of a musing, and now I'd like to post a rethought and reworked version of my suggestions for consideration here.
Some of my ideas are variations on the same theme, so I'll post them in three lists.
In this first list the first three and last two form sets which are sort of dependent on each other to work, while all five together would work even better.
Historical colonialism in temperate climates
- New colonist action: Build outpost
Most of New France, The Hudson's Bay company, and most of Russian Siberia were all essentially strings of fortified trading posts. To simulate this, it would be nice to allow colonists to build outposts. Ideally these would be a mix of city and colony. They wouldn't change culture or religion, and would be built a lot faster than colonies, but would have zero BT the only buildings you can build are forts. Like colonies, they could be seized or burned during times of war. They'd have a high revolt risk, and if natives manage to take them over they will always raze the outpost. Outposts will not count as cores for the purposes of colonization or coring, and would cost some small amount to maintain.
- - New colonist action: Build mission
To simulate the other part of the Spanish colonial strategy, and that of the Dutch in stateless parts of the East Indies, you could build missiones. These would be between outpost and city in both function and settler time. Religion would be changed on completion but not culture, they'd have a BT based on the native population only. They could also be seized or razed. Razing would revert to uncolonized state with a reduction in native population and aggressiveness. Native rebels won't raze missiones on capture, but if there's a country with no cores in their culture group they will form it. Missiones would not count as cores for purposes of colonization or coring, but would be free to maintain.
- - New colonist action: Upgrade to city
Complimentary to the first two actions, colonists could go back at a later time to an outpost or a mission and upgrade it to a city in less time than uncolonized land for the individual action but more in total than if they'd colonized the land directly. Upgrading to a city would change culture, add the BT bonus that the province missed all (outposts) or part of (missiones) initially.
- - Reduce global settler chance and colony growth speed
Right now, colonies seem to grow at a rate intermediate between the rate settler colonies would have grown and countries would have build missiones (or whatever the Dutch called their system in the Moluccas) and outposts. If you add these two actions, the growth speed for settler chance and colony growth should be reduced so that colonies grow about as quickly as historical settler colonies, namely New France, New Netherland, the northern part of British North America, and the Cape Colony.
- - Religion to increase settler chance
The growth of the English colonies in New England, the Mid Atlantic, and the Tidewater was largely due to religious refugees. (Well, political refugees in the Tidewater, though they were Anglicans fleeing a Calvinist government). The same is true for the Dutch in New Amsterdam and the Cape Colony, though those were mostly refugees from other countries. It would be neat if religious decisions affected settler chance. For example, the French revoking the Edict of Nantes would offer Protestant and Reformed countries an event where religious refugees an increase in settlement chance, with the number related to the BT of French heretic provinces. Countries might also get an opportunity (either through misison or decision) to send the heretics abroad, which would increase the probability of "heretics grow the colony to a city and convert it" events dependent on heretic tolerance and unrest and BT of heretic provinces.
Tropical colonialism mechanics
- Malarial provinces
OK, I'm being euphemistic here. Even though Paradox isn't shy about slavery, I still didn't want to call this section "slave provinces." Malarial provinces (subtropical and tropical lowlands) had economies mostly based on slavery. This tended to create a high risk of slave revolts and required a constant import of new slaves. To simulate this, regions provinces where the economy was mainly based on African slavery would get a "malarial" modifier, which would mean a much higher revolt risk and require a permanent maintenance fee, something like "garrison upkeep," which would still be less than production/trade value.
- - Dynamic culture generation
Like I said, colonies in tropical and subtropical areas (such as Louisiana and South Carolina) were prone to malaria, which meant that Europeans generally only settled in those areas as administrators and traders, and the hotter and more malarial things got the fewer Europeans there were. Anywhere from the majority to the vast majority of the inhabitants of tropical colonies were slaves, with a small middle class composed of the children of white men and black women. This tended to generate new, hybrid cultures, such as Brazilian, Haitian, and Cuban and it would be neat if the same dynamic which applies to colonial nations would generate new "colonial cultures." The same could also apply in colonial nations with large numbers of native cultures, to simulate the development of Mexican and Colombian identities, in the latter case slowly converting both Spanish and Indian provinces.)
- - Slave revolts
Like I said, slave revolts were a huge problem where slavery was an institution. Especially in the early phases of slavery, the vast majority of slaves were men who were being literally worked to death. They had nothing to lose, so uprisings were frequent. Though only one slave revolt actually succeeded (Haiti), it succeeded spectacularly, and several others came close. "Slaves" should be a new rebel type in malarial provinces. Their goal will be abolitionism, which will drop the "malarial" modifier from a colony, but result in a large production decrease and small tax decrease across a colonial region. However if they enforce their demands they will create a new country, based on lands the slave revolt has taken (all that will be required to enforce demands is to hold one province for five years). This country will include all lands the slave rebels took, across colonial regions and national borders (as happened in Haiti), though land will only be taken from nations other than the primary once they've held at least once province for five years.
Miscellaneous wishes
- Flexible colonial regions
Right now, I can mod the colonial regions in the map to be slightly more realistic than the current ones but you still have colonial nations which have three cantons, who of which border other colonial regions. My first choice would be if colonial nations either worked like client states, and you could choose when to create viceroyalties together with which provinces to give them. However I know people have been asking for something like this ever since they were introduced. My second choice would be for colonial nations to be more flexible. For one thing, you could sell them adjacent provinces outside their colonial region. For another, when colonial nations form, they would check to see if the nation is contiguous (even by a sea zone), and if it's not, only the chunk with the highest BT would become a colonial nation. A similar check would take place before adding provinces. Thus, for example, when I conquer Quito and my Colombia, lacking a Pacific coast, can't core it, I could sell the provinces to my Peru instead, rather than have them immediately get the provinces and then have them sit there, uncored.
- - Imperialist AI
Right now, the AI does not pursue the same strategy as the Spanish or Dutch did, and when they incorporate a "primitive" nation into their empire, it seems to be either because they've run out of land to expand via colonialism. Having at least some nations,. possibly "colonialist" AIs start wars against native states that neighbor their colonies and annex them wholesale would be more realistic, and make the AI a stronger competitor in the New World and East Indies.
So that's my wishlist. Aside from number nine, I don't know if any of these have been proposed yet, I just know that this is how I would improve the colonial mechanic. I hope you'll consider at least some of them for a future DLC.
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