Paradox: please change the way of boosting stability!

[johnymathias]

I remember the EUII icon of stability visible on the capital of each country. When I saw red sky I knew that this country had a problems with stability and I considered attack it at that profitable moment. Now we haven't that useful icon, but not that is the point. The point is that even I will have that icon from EUII I will see EVERYWHERE the beautiful blue sky which symbolizes +3 or at least +2 stability. The reason is the way of boosting a stability. Of course the ADM power points are precious, but if you must to spend them for stability sooner or later is better do it right away and enjoyed the bonuses of high stability. Or for example if you wont to change the government and you must to lose more stability is very easy to stock more ADM power before and come back to +3 in this same day when you loose it. That have no sense. Also each event with -1 stability effect now is exactly this same like event with -100 ADM points effect. That also have no sense.

So I have 2 proposals how to fix it:

1. That is easier way: you can add to game a limit (f.e. a year) how often the stability could be boosted by ADM button. And the best will be if after loosing stab, country must also wait at least one year to first boosting.
2. This way implies major changes: the boosting of stab should be a process, so after click the boost button we must way (f.e. year) to finish that process, like doing core or converting province. That way is better because then you can add the 'stability time' factor and changing it via ideas, advisors or buildings etc.

In both ways you could make boosting cheaper (in ADM power) since the time is also important to recovery stab. Thanks this powers will be better balanced (now ADM power looks like is the most needed).

What do you think about it?

PS. Sorry for my English, I hope so that everything is understandable more or less...
PSS. The sky icon on each capital in EUII - that was really nice feature...

This same proposal was mentioned in this thread also for inflation and war exhaustion mechanic.
If you like to support this solution please write post in this thread!​

 

[Karabas1543]

I do agree, stability is way too easy at the moment. In my time playing the game, there's been very few occasions in which I was stuck at negative stab for more than a few days.

The worst that you could prepare for it. Westernizing? Max out your admin points, hit the westernize button, boost stab back to 0, sit back and relax.

 

[Filip de Norre]

I don't think stability is too cheap, especially not for republics. But loosing 1 stability is the same as 100 adm (without modifiers) and then it could just as easily be that effect instead. Perhaps a bit cheaper and then take a year or something like that.
Not a gamebreaker, but I concur that it seems a bit stupid as it is now.

 

[johnymathias]

I don't say that is too cheap. I just think, that the way of boosting is bad. With the time-consuming boosting, ADM points cost could be even a little bit lower.

 

[WolfWaffle]

I like the current system

Makes conversion possible now

Also, didn't there used to be an event that made the cost of Stability 3 pretty much ridiculous because this event would fire so often and take a point away?

I haven't seen it in a wh-
OH GOD!

 

[johnymathias]

But the current system changing the stability problems to adm power points problem. There is nothing comparing to Russian "Time of Troubles" in any country. Stability all the time is high. Did you see any country with -3 stability in the game? I never had stab less than 0 longer than one day, and even 0 usually for max few months. That system makes stability scale (from -3 to +3) useless, you can change it into adm power points penalty and will be looks exactly this same.

 

[stilgarpl]

Actually, EU3 was the game where you constatly was at +3, if you had good economy. If you were poor and you saw a comet...

Here, unless you play as Poland with Religious ideas and Nieszawa Privileges, raising Stability is quite expensive.

 

[johnymathias]

Yes, in EU3 sometimes recovering stability was also very easy, but even there that was taking at least few months. Here we have 'magic' power to rise even 3 stab levels in one day! I repeat once again - I do not say, that boosting stab is to cheap, I say that is to easy. In my proposal the ADM cost of boosting could be decreased about 20% and still that will be harder than current system.

 

[PeterHe]

No thanks
I don't want to play with peasant wars, wars of liberation, times of trouble or any of that sort so i do my best to ensure that i don't get forced into it, All of those changes might be fine for some but it simply turn eu4 into a game i have less and less interest in playing. i started playing it in 1.3 and for me 1.5 was the best since then its been going downhill.

 

[ChildeR]

The point is that even I will have that icon from EUII I will see EVERYWHERE the beautiful blue sky which symbolizes +3 or at least +2 stability. The reason is the way of boosting a stability. Of course the ADM power points are precious, but if you must to spend them for stability sooner or later is better do it right away and enjoyed the bonuses of high stability.

I never pay to boost stability past +1 unless running into the admin point cap. It's cheaper in admin points to wait for it to drop to +0 then boost back, plus you get less of some stability hitting events (like comets) if it is lower. I.e. keeping it in +1 is much cheaper than keeping it in +3.

That said, I'm not sure you are wrong in that it is too easy.

 

[JellyRev]

if stab is negative it should gradually return to 0 over time without adm point cost if you so choose.

does anyone even play with +3 stab?

honestly the game would be better without the mechanic. there are other ways the game could penalize a player.
stability and similarly in civ5 happiness are mechanics that games could do without. This type of mechanic is just a resource sink, nothing else.

 

[moscal]

Option 1 seems to be very interesting.

 

[Arizal]

I would rather like it if investment in stability would take some time to actually change stability, as it was in the others EU games. Linking it to adm points is okay, in fact one of the usage of those points I find reasonable (unlike constructing every buildings) but it shouldn't be an instant action.

 

[johnymathias]

No thanks
I don't want to play with peasant wars, wars of liberation, times of trouble or any of that sort so i do my best to ensure that i don't get forced into it, All of those changes might be fine for some but it simply turn eu4 into a game i have less and less interest in playing. i started playing it in 1.3 and for me 1.5 was the best since then its been going downhill.

I can't understand philosophy "the easier the better" in playing, but of course You have right to like it. But for players who like just conquers and no internal problems there is the Easy level option in game, for others hard level is still not enough.

I never pay to boost stability past +1 unless running into the admin point cap. It's cheaper in admin points to wait for it to drop to +0 then boost back, plus you get less of some stability hitting events (like comets) if it is lower. I.e. keeping it in +1 is much cheaper than keeping it in +3.

That said, I'm not sure you are wrong in that it is too easy.

I don't like do to much conquers, so for me is easy to keep +2 or +3 stability wit all bonuses from them. But of course everybody have his own tactic. Your tactic does not change the fact, that you also have 0 or less stab just for one day...

 

[IIWW]

I would rather like it if investment in stability would take some time to actually change stability, as it was in the others EU games. Linking it to adm points is okay, in fact one of the usage of those points I find reasonable (unlike constructing every buildings) but it shouldn't be an instant action.

gathering these points is the time consuming part of it.

 

[Oepfel]

at the moment stability is useless and an annoying adm point drain. one could replace all the stab events with -adm power events and nothing at all would change. stability is with a big margin the worst mechanics present in the game at this point.

 

[Utretch]

I would agree that the instant boost of stability, as well as the instant reduction of WE, are rather jarring from a realistic perspective, and really from a gameplay viewpoint as well, as it's quite annoying to watch a nation, fully blockaded, just constantly reduce war exhaustion. Even if they don't diplo-tech up for centuries it's an annoying sight. The same goes for nations falling into instability. What does spending Adm and Dip points represent in these mechanics? The government giving out assistance, rallying support, shoring up, and reorganizing civil structure? I would think these would take some time.

the mod VeF has used the policy system to represent this I am aware of, with policies reducing WE and raising stability over time. Personally I would like a move back towards EUIII's mechanics in this regard, with stability being based on your nation's provinces, and increased over time by focusing Adm points into a policy of raising national stability. At minimum a cooldown would be nice for all of the monarch dump mechanics. It's ridiculous to be able to go from -3 to +1 stability in the course of a day.

 

[Fumle]

Personally I think it would be a good idea to have stability increase over time. It would make it a bit harder to get out of the negative region, which is atm. far to easy. I think 1-2 years pr. stability point would fit nicely.

In fact I will take it one step further, and also change the 'decrease inflation' and 'decrease WE' buttons from instantaneous effect to a 'over time' effect. It has allways bothered me how easy it is to keep inflation down, and I also feel WE is a bit too easy.

Now what would it add to the game, to have stability, WE and inflation being increased/decreased over time instead of instantly? Well, I think it would enable players to cripple other countries more effectively, right now a country is easily able to recover from the most devastating wars, and significant events (westernization etc.) in only a few years. We all know how it is, to crush France over a long war of a decade, only to see them back on their feet after 1 year of peace. That would certainly not be the case, if WE took longer time to decrease and stability took longer time to increase. Ofcourse this cuts both ways, the player would then need to be very wary of long devastating wars.

Regarding inflation, it is currently next to impossible to increase it faster than decreasing it. Because it just takes 75adm points to decrease it by 2, instantly. It is usually much faster to get 75adm points, than getting 2 inflation, even for westernized inca/aztecs. However, if it now took several years to decrease the inflation by 2, then the inflation might grow faster than its decreasing, and it would actually be a problem, instead of another adm-sink.

Also, the player himself would be unable to simply ignore big event like westernization simply by preparing well enough. Rigth now you can fairly easily westernize, if you just save plenty adm points.

/Fumle

 

[jon_snow]

johnymathias's ideas are very interesting. Please, Paradox consider implementing that.

 

[Thrake]

I agree with you. I had more in mind a policy-like system, where increasing stab would just drain X ADM per month until 100 ADM (or any other amount) is reached, and then +1 stab. I would apply it to any other monarch point spending system (decrease WE, decrease inflation,...). It's both more interesting in gamplay point of view as it requires planning, and more realisitic ("Oh my god every one hates me!!" *press button* *press button* *press button* *press button* *next day* "Oh my god every one loves me!!").

I would say that any of your suggestion would clearly improve the actual system though.