I guess so. Here's a secret: I rarely actually 'play' the game.
You and me both.
Though I do have occasional regular games in order to see if there's anything I should change. Haven't had time for that since 1.08 though-
Same here. Haven't "played" for longer than a decade or two since I've really started work on VIET. ALthough I did have an opportunity to for a bit during winter break. So maybe that doesn't count. I do want to play a nice game of VIET soon. Well, PB + VIET.
Ancona is in game as a county, and should be a republic. Split is Ragusa, and should be a republic under the Croatian crown. (Probably should call it Dubrovnik instead of Split, which is attested to in the historical record.) I doubt Gaeta will make it, since it would require some modding to the map between Capua and Rome, or a titular title. Someone made an Amalfi mod, which I think could be integrated (and maybe duplicated for Gaeta?).
Of these, Amalfi and Ragusa should honestly be in. Especially Ragusa. The proximity to the oak-rich Garganos meant that they had the resource capital to outbid the Venetians for east Adriatic trade and they existed in some form or another until 1808. Amalfi was a powerhouse until the Normans took them out of the game in the 1130s. On a more province-laden map, you could add Noli as a possible (maybe titular) Republic from the mid 1200s. Novgorod and Pksov shouldn't be Republics until the mid 1200s. Siena should start a theocracy and hopefully convert to a Republic mid-1200s. Okay. I think I should stop now.
The problem with Amalfi (and Gaeta, and Trapani, and a few others) is that either you'd have to remove existing counties and duchies (Salerno in Amalfi's case), or make titular duchies that don't actually hold their own county but hold various barony-level titles in the map, which would be really confusing and in my opinion pointless - I think that's the solution the Amalfi mod is going towards, which I frankly would not prefer (well, that's just me).
But you are right about how there's so many possible Republics. Originally I thought I was only going to add two for VIET (Iceland and Yemen). Now I will minimally be adding at least eight with historical or semi-historical justifications (Iceland, Yemen, Hormuz, Somalia, Ragusa, Ancona, Hamburg, and Novgorod), and almost certainly even more as I learn more and folks make more Republic mods I can
steal integrate. Frankly, I'm a little sad that they didn't just bother to put in some of these in vanilla to begin with - they could have just focused on the five big ones, sure, but there's plenty possible, and it's a good thing that PB will add some of this (and my silly little VIET mod too, and almost certainly many other mods as well)
