POP Demand - Colombia not applying for statehood, WTH?

[Sargon1]

Hi, I'm playing POP Demand as the USA and I just got the Brits to release Columbia, de-puppet their dominion Canada, which was in my sphere at the time the war started, and shovel over some colonies. Prior to the war, I already owned all of Rupert's Land, which I had them release in a previous war, and which applied for statehood properly. As soon as the second war ended, Canada applied for statehood, but Columbia just sat there. I waited for a month, then saved, loaded as them, and took a look at the decisions, only to find out that the "Apply for Statehood" decision isn't even there, which makes pinpointing the cause all that harder.

When I tested with a completely different 1870's save, started as the UK, released Columbia with the same provinces, and played as them, the decision was there, only the requirements weren't met. I could just load an old autosave, rewar, and demand colonies instead of releasing, but... meh, it's suppoded to work with releasing and applying for statehood. So what is going on here; how comes Columbia doesn't even have the decision available for whatever the hell reason? Any way to check for all the potential requirements of the decision? They're not visible normally.

For reference, this is the code for the modded decision I checked and everything seems to be in order.

apply_for_USA_statehood2 = {
picture = apply_for_USA_statehood
potential = {
exists = USA
USA = { government = democracy }
OR = {
tag = NEW
tag = MRU
tag = COL
tag = MTC
tag = RPL
AND = {
tag = CAN
NOT = {
owns = 13
owns = 22
owns = 30
owns = 36
}
}
}
any_owned_province = {
any_neighbor_province = { owned_by = USA }
}
OR = {
government = democracy
government = hms_government
}
NOT = { has_country_flag = usstatehood_we_have_applied }
}
allow = {
war = no
OR = {
is_vassal = no
vassal_of = USA
}
USA = {
war = no
is_sphere_leader_of = THIS
NOT = { truce_with = THIS }
}
relation = {
who = USA
value = 175
}
}
effect = {
set_country_flag = usstatehood_we_have_applied
random_owned = {
limit = {
owner = { tag = CAN }
}
owner = {
any_owned = {
limit = { is_core = QUE }
remove_core = CAN
}
}
}
USA = {
country_event = 16400
war_exhaustion = -20
}
}
ai_will_do = {
factor = 1
}
}

 

[alxeu]

I'm not going to check in game for you, but those four province ids, if you check them via the console (the tilde key followed by typing in provid) you can see if those four province ids, which specifically have NOT= in front of them, are part of Columbia.

NOT = {
owns = 13
owns = 22
owns = 30
owns = 36
}

These are the ones I am referencing. Look for these provinces in Columbia. If they have them, they can not join you.

Is Columbia a HM's govt, or Democracy?

Do you have a truce with Columbia? The coding seems to be that you can't have a truce with them.

 

[Ekyman]

I'm not going to check in game for you, but those four province ids, if you check them via the console (the tilde key followed by typing in provid) you can see if those four province ids, which specifically have NOT= in front of them, are part of Columbia.

These are the ones I am referencing. Look for these provinces in Columbia. If they have them, they can not join you.

The rest is accurate, but they only can't join if Canada owns those provinces:

AND = {
   tag = CAN
   NOT = {
     owns = 13
     owns = 22
     owns = 30
     owns = 36
   }
}

If Colombia owns them they should be able to join just fine, as long as the other requirements are met.

 

[Sargon1]

Those provinces are somewhere in Rupert's land, which I already own entirely from a previous war(If Canada has them, they won't be able to apply for US statehood, and the Canadian minors also won't, they will instead have a decision to join Canada. That's why I took Rupert's land first). I forgot to mention that above. I did a load of testing to figure this mess out before I started the US game. I also own Canada, as I already mentioned, but I don't see how that could influence the availability of the decision to join the US.

What baffles me that if I load an autosave from the year before the war, start as UK, release Columbia, and play as them, they have the decision available, it appears in the decision list. They just can't take it yet, because they are still in UK's sphere, instead of USA's. In my afterwar save on the other hand, where Columbia was released by the US in a war, it doesn't even see the decision. What gives?

UPDATE: Solved it, but don't know why. I reloaded and fought the war with the British again, this time demanding the following: Release Columbia, Concede British Alaska(Russians sold it to them, I already owned the other part), Release Newfoundland, Free puppet Canada, Concede Carribean Islands. Immediately after they accepted, I kicked Canada out of my sphere. After I unpaused, Columbia applied, but Newfoundland didn't budge. After I re-sphered Canada, Newfoundland applied for their statehood and Canada applied for mine in turn. And so ends the saga of getting a bunch of North American minors to apply for US statehood.