Peculiar Cultures

[Slavick3000]

I think, especially since this is an alternate history mod, that we are giving a bit too much thought to "realism" and what culture "represents", rather than its gameplay effect.
One effect of culture is to increase revolt risk and war exhaustion in non-culture provinces. Another is to make religious conversion more difficult. Finally, all income from that province, and things based on it like troop recruitment, is lower.
So I think we should assign cultures to provinces and nations based on that. Culture is EU's form of "conquest friction" - every non-state culture province conquered is worth less than a state-culture one, limiting the areas where conquest is cost-effective. (Speaking generally of course - if a player is going for a WC, such a thing won't stop him.) Furthermore, places that should be more difficult to hold on to for certain empires should be differently cultured.
Places where this is done well (in my opinion):
France - the combination of French, Breton, Occitan, and Burgundian clearly limit France's and the French minors' expansion.
Iberia - Occitan and Iberian both keep the northern area an annoyance for Al-Andalus, with the Iberian states revolting quite a bit when Al-Andalus gets in trouble.

So cultures should be placed to 'guide' the AI in its expansion, as well as to give players interesting choices (such as Brittany's parliament event lines).

 

[unmerged(15247)]

I think, especially since this is an alternate history mod, that we are giving a bit too much thought to "realism" and what culture "represents", rather than its gameplay effect.

i agree in general especialy on game play effect, since the long term results are often ignored(most people play only the 200 years or so)

but with regards to culture, even an ahistorical mod must preserve the historical seetings GIVEN when a game starts for example. as it has been stated in the original objectives of this mod, the accent is put on the nations that often vanished in the real history. "what if..." is a question that has way too many answers.

 

[unmerged(95243)]

What about we give two Canadian provinces Romanian culture instead?

"What if..." Romanians got to rule Canada... in 1419...

 

[unmerged(95243)]

On a more constructive note... Why not make culture claiming optional and event based? As in WATKABAOI, when OE conquers the Bulgarian capital it gets Bulgarian as a culture, same with Belgrado and Serbian.

It could be a B or C option, to avoid AI's from getting it. I believe this mod should try to offer the broadest of possibilities to the player, with ultimately a fully cored and cultured world conquest for each Major.

 

[MattyG]

What about we give two Canadian provinces Romanian culture instead?

"What if..." Romanians got to rule Canada... in 1419...

Once spomeone writes events for Wallachia, Moldova and a formed-Romania to give it explorers and conquistadors, these states can go explore canada and colonize it: hey preto, candian provinces with Romanian culture!

 

[MattyG]

On a more constructive note... Why not make culture claiming optional and event based? As in WATKABAOI, when OE conquers the Bulgarian capital it gets Bulgarian as a culture, same with Belgrado and Serbian.

It could be a B or C option, to avoid AI's from getting it. I believe this mod should try to offer the broadest of possibilities to the player, with ultimately a fully cored and cultured world conquest for each Major.

An interesting idea, and some states effectively have events like this for specific cultures for historical and alt-historical reasons.

More could be written into the mod, as long as they (drum roll ... ) make sense.

I am not writing for 1.08 any longer and have passed the torch to whomever wants to take over the mod, so I can only speak for Interregnum up to 1.08, but the purpose of the mod is alternative history, and not generic game-play.

Alt-history shouldn't be read to mean 'fanstasy'. Certainly not in Tolien sense of fantasy and not in the sense of 'fantastical'. It means that history has had different outcomes, but that historical processes remain in-tact.

Think of it as a history version of the earth evelving differently: the laws of physics are not altered, but the continents moved differently and different creatures eveloved. They may look strange, but the processes that have driven their evolution are the same, and so they are believable at their core.

So, if you want to maintain the 'spirit' of Interregnum, you need to craft events that acknowledge and reflect human needs and motivations. Having generic events that offer a player an option to gain a culture when you take a capital will quickly seem 'gamey' rather than historical. Unless, of course, you have crafted a believable storyline to 'justify' it.

I may not have always acheived this in Interregnum, but that has been the gold standard.

My 2 cents.

 

[Toio]

An interesting idea, and some states effectively have events like this for specific cultures for historical and alt-historical reasons.

More could be written into the mod, as long as they (drum roll ... ) make sense.

I am not writing for 1.08 any longer and have passed the torch to whomever wants to take over the mod, so I can only speak for Interregnum up to 1.08, but the purpose of the mod is alternative history, and not generic game-play.

Alt-history shouldn't be read to mean 'fanstasy'. Certainly not in Tolien sense of fantasy and not in the sense of 'fantastical'. It means that history has had different outcomes, but that historical processes remain in-tact.

Think of it as a history version of the earth evelving differently: the laws of physics are not altered, but the continents moved differently and different creatures eveloved. They may look strange, but the processes that have driven their evolution are the same, and so they are believable at their core.

So, if you want to maintain the 'spirit' of Interregnum, you need to craft events that acknowledge and reflect human needs and motivations. Having generic events that offer a player an option to gain a culture when you take a capital will quickly seem 'gamey' rather than historical. Unless, of course, you have crafted a believable storyline to 'justify' it.

I may not have always acheived this in Interregnum, but that has been the gold standard.

My 2 cents.

You do realize that you can have the province one culture and the government another culture ( even for a 1 province state). AGCEEP use this method for FRI.......... its just handicapped in its tax and men.
So, as an example , for the HRE, you create a new culture called HRE, and give austrian lands HRE in both province and government and then every german prince of other states that is coherced to being a "good little german" with the HRE will get a government change to HRE while its province remains german.

 

[MattyG]

You do realize that you can have the province one culture and the government another culture ( even for a 1 province state). AGCEEP use this method for FRI.......... its just handicapped in its tax and men.
So, as an example , for the HRE, you create a new culture called HRE, and give austrian lands HRE in both province and government and then every german prince of other states that is coherced to being a "good little german" with the HRE will get a government change to HRE while its province remains german.

An interesting idea.

I will mull this over as the possible culture for Germania, which is what will form if the HREmperor gets big enough.

Higher revoltrisk, fewer taxes and lessened manpower ... sounds like the right balance.

It will be left for others to convince me otherwise, now!