In curent EU4 development is an arbitrary number increased on demand with respective buttons, which serve a cause for gameplay. But a natural growth mechanic is lacking. We have events, but those feel like instances, not like progress. Therefore i propose a growth system utilizing states.
States represent an adiministative division of your country. This means they have their own administration, represented by the state maintenance cost.
The general concept: Autonomous state administration:
States have their own maintenance cost, which is basically the funding they get from their country to administrate their state. In effect, that means that if we understand each state as having their own treasury, this is their monthly income. In general i propose to triple the state maintenance cost (m_s) but replace the „no edict“ by a standard „forward taxation“ edict reducting maintenance by 2/3 and make all edicts free. Also remove the encourage development edict (i know it hurts dev boosting) and replace it with an „autonomous administration“ edict. This essentially means that we can assume three times as much money at hands for the state administration. This money can and will be spent now according to the following list by priority:
0. Pay edicts
If any edicts beside „Autonomous Administration“ is active thes state administration will pay the edict. The cost is 0.5*m_s, it represents the financial cost it takes the administration to perform the task given by the government.
1. Pay local administration
The local administration needs to be payed. Since higher developed land needs more administrators it makes sense to also make this a fraction of the maintenance cost. I propose 0.2*m_s.
2. Remove devastation
The state administration will use as much money as available, up to 1 ducat a month to remove devastation in its state. This translates directly to removed devastation in the state (so at 1/month a state with 4 devastated provinces would reduce devastation by 0.25 a month in each province, if 5 provinces are devastated by 0.2 a month).
3. Develop state
The state administration will use the remaining funds to develop local provinces. To get one development a state needs to invest m_s*current development ducats. The limit on how much money a state can invest in each province per month is gates by culture, religion and autonomy:
True faith and accepted culture: max 1*(1-local autonomy)
True faith and same culture group: max 0.8*(1-local autonomy)
True faith and not accepted culture: max 0.6*(1-local autonomy)
Heretic faith and accepted culture: max 0.8*(1-local autonomy)
Heretic faith same culture group: max 0.6*(1-local autonomy)
Heretic faith and not accepted culture: max 0.4*(1-local autonomy)
Heathen faith and accepted culture: max 0.6*(1-local autonomy)
Heathen faith same culture group: max 0.4*(1-local autonomy)
Heathen faith and not accepted culture: max 0.2*(1-local autonomy)
The distribution of funds between the provinces is weighted the same way. To determine what type of development point will be added the ruler comes to play. For example a 4/2/4) ruler would have a 40% chance to either get a tax or manpower increase and a 20% chance to get a production increase.
Since this would only be a complicated way to produce a growth mechanic without player input the player needs to have interaction with this system. Also the investment caps of states is much higher than their actual maintenance cost. A 5 province state in with true faith and accepted culture without autonomy can spent up to 5 ducats a month in growth, but has at most 0.8*m_s available, usually less than a ducat.
Because of this it is necessary that states have a treasury. Each state in their interface would have a button to manully add gold to their treasury, of in a case of economic turmoil take it back (at the cost of unrest). This way the player can directly influence where to develop his country stronger, while still retaining a natural feel.
To add a little flavour there are 2 more linked mechanics i want to suggest:
1. I‘d like to include a punitive modifier for absolutism. Absolutism consolidates the power in the hands of the monarch, reducing the influence of local administrations. Therefore i would like to make the local administrations work worse in highly absolutistic countries and am open for suggestions on where to implement that.
2. If a country has a parliament it should be a valid parliament demand to change the state edict of the respective state with the parliament seat to „autonomous administration“
States represent an adiministative division of your country. This means they have their own administration, represented by the state maintenance cost.
The general concept: Autonomous state administration:
States have their own maintenance cost, which is basically the funding they get from their country to administrate their state. In effect, that means that if we understand each state as having their own treasury, this is their monthly income. In general i propose to triple the state maintenance cost (m_s) but replace the „no edict“ by a standard „forward taxation“ edict reducting maintenance by 2/3 and make all edicts free. Also remove the encourage development edict (i know it hurts dev boosting) and replace it with an „autonomous administration“ edict. This essentially means that we can assume three times as much money at hands for the state administration. This money can and will be spent now according to the following list by priority:
0. Pay edicts
If any edicts beside „Autonomous Administration“ is active thes state administration will pay the edict. The cost is 0.5*m_s, it represents the financial cost it takes the administration to perform the task given by the government.
1. Pay local administration
The local administration needs to be payed. Since higher developed land needs more administrators it makes sense to also make this a fraction of the maintenance cost. I propose 0.2*m_s.
2. Remove devastation
The state administration will use as much money as available, up to 1 ducat a month to remove devastation in its state. This translates directly to removed devastation in the state (so at 1/month a state with 4 devastated provinces would reduce devastation by 0.25 a month in each province, if 5 provinces are devastated by 0.2 a month).
3. Develop state
The state administration will use the remaining funds to develop local provinces. To get one development a state needs to invest m_s*current development ducats. The limit on how much money a state can invest in each province per month is gates by culture, religion and autonomy:
True faith and accepted culture: max 1*(1-local autonomy)
True faith and same culture group: max 0.8*(1-local autonomy)
True faith and not accepted culture: max 0.6*(1-local autonomy)
Heretic faith and accepted culture: max 0.8*(1-local autonomy)
Heretic faith same culture group: max 0.6*(1-local autonomy)
Heretic faith and not accepted culture: max 0.4*(1-local autonomy)
Heathen faith and accepted culture: max 0.6*(1-local autonomy)
Heathen faith same culture group: max 0.4*(1-local autonomy)
Heathen faith and not accepted culture: max 0.2*(1-local autonomy)
The distribution of funds between the provinces is weighted the same way. To determine what type of development point will be added the ruler comes to play. For example a 4/2/4) ruler would have a 40% chance to either get a tax or manpower increase and a 20% chance to get a production increase.
Since this would only be a complicated way to produce a growth mechanic without player input the player needs to have interaction with this system. Also the investment caps of states is much higher than their actual maintenance cost. A 5 province state in with true faith and accepted culture without autonomy can spent up to 5 ducats a month in growth, but has at most 0.8*m_s available, usually less than a ducat.
Because of this it is necessary that states have a treasury. Each state in their interface would have a button to manully add gold to their treasury, of in a case of economic turmoil take it back (at the cost of unrest). This way the player can directly influence where to develop his country stronger, while still retaining a natural feel.
To add a little flavour there are 2 more linked mechanics i want to suggest:
1. I‘d like to include a punitive modifier for absolutism. Absolutism consolidates the power in the hands of the monarch, reducing the influence of local administrations. Therefore i would like to make the local administrations work worse in highly absolutistic countries and am open for suggestions on where to implement that.
2. If a country has a parliament it should be a valid parliament demand to change the state edict of the respective state with the parliament seat to „autonomous administration“
- 2
- 1
- 1
Upvote
0
