Redesigning increased coring cost

[Krschtschn]

I am not a fan of the increased coring cost modifiers, as are many other players. I would like to see those modifiers replaced, as they make conquest not harder or more difficult, but merely expensive in form of monarch points.

As i see it, coring cost modifiers are supposed to disincentivise would-be conquerors and protect the country by being an unattractive target. But there are other ways to this, other ways not related to monarch points. Because monarch points are the primary resource of this game and have a massive influence on both the pace of the game and the maximum expansion possible, i would like to replace these modifiers to increase the cost of conquest in other ways.

My goal is to make holding on to provinces of countries with these ideas difficult, expensive and certainly not lucrative. It should be something to be avoided, but not as harshly punished as with the current waste of MPs. I have multiple ideas, which can be mixed and matched according to one's preferences.

So i suggest the following to replace the increased coring cost:
1. Increased years of separatism
Increasing separatism means a longer time of policing action and more rebellions after conquest, increasing the cost in manpower and ducats. This presents mostly a short term problem.

2. Increased autonomy on conquest
Another short-term negative. Adding up to 25 autonomy would reduce the value of the conquered provinces for a short time. If it would add 35 or more autonomy, it could be used to increase the number of rebellions as well, as even provinces with claims would not be allowed to increase autonomy.

3. Increased overextension
Make a province count double for overextension. It increases overall revoltrisk and makes conquest slower, as you could not take as many provinces at once.

4. Hostile revolt risk +3
Permanent revolt risk increase for countries who do not accept the culture of the conquered. This presents a long-term problem, as new rebellions will form regularly, whenever warexhaustion or instability increase the revolt risk in the conqueror's country.

5. Reduced warscore/diplomatic cost for release of this country
Essentially a cheaper respawn, making it easier to lose the provinces again. Another incentive to stay away from countries with these ideas.

6. Stronger Rebellions
Make the game act as if the rebellion in question were supported by another country. More rebels means more manpower and money spent on keeping the provinces.

7. Separatism events
Adding some random events to add separatism in provinces with not-increased-coring-cost-anymore. Another long-term problem, but unpredictable, which i do not like all that much.

I think a country with these kinds of ideas would be a rather bad target and avoided by most players, unless there is an important strategic reason to go there, which is exactly how i would want it.

 

[Jomini]

The real problem with coring costs is that they are single path problem that amounts to a braindead timer. If you want to make cores a challenging strategic aspect their need to be fundemental choices you can make that have a real world impact. Adding a bunch of rebels and decreasing province net cost/benefit (which appears to be the net result of all your suggestions) doesn't do anything to make the game much more interesting. You do what you need to do to minimize the bad aspects (OExt, waiting our separatism, etc.)

What would make the game interesting and challenging is keeping high base costs, but having non-trivial tradeoffs that could lower it. For instance, give a 20% cost reduction if the province is of your religion (or you have heretic/heathen tolerance equal to tolerance of the true faith); thus you have a choice - pay upfront for quicker coring and lower OExt sooner ... or save points by converting first (and now Religious becomes more competitive with Admin and Humanism as well). Maybe allow you to use Mil points to core .... but if you do so you lose half the provinces development. Give a 10% reduction in coring costs for sharing culture, allow culture conversion without coring. Allow your diplomats to generate claims on your own uncored land (lose the diplomat-time, save on coring costs).

Much more intensive would be splitting up the aspects of coring (lowers OExt, produces increased revenue, lowers revolt risk, allows actions like HRE/Culture conversion, etc.) so we could have a set of statuses which provinces rise through where it is not obvious to go all the way to the top for each province. Maybe Seville needs maxed out coring so it becomes a fully integrated part of the realm ... but maybe Navarre just needs to be a border garrison with enough coring to let you build a big border fort without constant rebels, but not enough to collect full taxes or completely remove rebel potential. We could then even have some stuff that starts to work like autonomy - a slow tick to move up the ladder, but where you can spend points to fill it out faster.