Question re Brunei

[Saladin87]

The nation Brunei comes with a flag that is just... yellow. Is this as designed or could it be a bug / oversight? Personally I'm not from the region but I am really loving my run with them in 1.32. My only complain is that the flag looks too bland and boring, I think it deserves a flag that's more interesting.

Also can someone confirm, is there a way to colonize the surrounding areas using the Bruneian missions? Is there a way to colonize without taking the exploration / expansion ideas? Would appreciate any help.

 

[Kapi96]

It's accurate, that was their actual flag up until 1906 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Brunei#/media/File:Old_Flag_of_Brunei.svg

Haven't played them since Leviathan, but I don't believe there is any way to colonise without taking either exploration or expansion. That said IMO expansion ideas are worth it for the -10% autonomy in territories alone, so even more reason to take them with potential colonies right nearby.

 

[Terixis]

Brunei (and everybody else in Indonesia) sadly is stuck taking expansion+exploration every game because colonizing the spice islands is just too valuable and there are a LOT of provinces to colonize there. The free colonists from mission trees (e.g., Kongo, Kilwa) didn't start until Origins so the Leviathan trees missed out. Well I suppose you could skip Exploration which is awful since only New Guinea (and Australia) is undiscovered for SEA countries and it's the worst land. Expansion is definitely mandatory however but it's surprisingly decent but the opportunity cost of picking it as your admin idea group is signficiant.

 

[Saladin87]

Thanks guys. I saw nations like Ternate, Maniyla, Sulu, etc. have missions which allow event based colonization of their surrounding areas and wondered why Bruneian missions don't provide similar benefits. Perhaps it would make them very OP and break the balance in the region, in get that. Going for exploration and expansion then.

While you're all here, the Mandala Government System says it allows "Concentrate Develop" without loss, however when I try to do that to my territories or my vassals, there is still loss of dev. Is this working properly? I don't understand what "without loss" means in this case. I just conquered a neighbor and before coring them used concentrate, but it removed 5 dev from the provinces and added 2 dev to my capital.

 

[Kapi96]

While you're all here, the Mandala Government System says it allows "Concentrate Develop" without loss, however when I try to do that to my territories or my vassals, there is still loss of dev. Is this working properly? I don't understand what "without loss" means in this case. I just conquered a neighbor and before coring them used concentrate, but it removed 5 dev from the provinces and added 2 dev to my capital.

Sounds like an issue with the new system. It used to be just a straight 1 to 1 switch (at least with Mandala). The new system however converts the removed dev into monarch points and uses those to "buy" dev at your capital. So you suffer the + dev cost penalties of having high dev there. I assume it means there are no lost "monarch points" when converting so it's still more effective than concentrate without mandala, but since it's now done using background calculations it's impossible to tell for sure.

 

[Retrac910]

The free colonists from mission trees (e.g., Kongo, Kilwa) didn't start until Origins so the Leviathan trees missed out.

Not full colonists for 100 years like Kongo, but ternate/tidore get colonies to colonize the surrounding spice islands from their mission trees. A common opening strategy is to vassalize one and feed the other to it to colonize these areas for free.