State edicts. Do you use them and when?

[Blackmoore]

I do use them, much more diligently in the beginning of the game.

Defensiveness -- very key for some starts (see Byzantium)

Development -- needed for Renaissance, for Colonialism and Printing Press -- particularly if you are not in Western Europe.

Advancement -- after you've spawned an institution in a province

Trade Power -- This is where my state edicts go to die.

Once I'm through Printing Press I switch all of the Development/Advancement edits to Trade Power and leave them there for the rest of the game. None of the other institutions are hard to get, and Global Trade is the easiest by far. I think that you could make a case for Manpower too, particularly in your capital province, but even still my intuition is that Trade Power is better in my 350+ development capitals.

 

[watchout86]

I do use them, much more diligently in the beginning of the game.

Defensiveness -- very key for some starts (see Byzantium)

Development -- needed for Renaissance, for Colonialism and Printing Press -- particularly if you are not in Western Europe.

Advancement -- after you've spawned an institution in a province

Trade Power -- This is where my state edicts go to die.

Once I'm through Printing Press I switch all of the Development/Advancement edits to Trade Power and leave them there for the rest of the game. None of the other institutions are hard to get, and Global Trade is the easiest by far. I think that you could make a case for Manpower too, particularly in your capital province, but even still my intuition is that Trade Power is better in my 350+ development capitals.

Trade power is useful if the node is valuable enough AND you don't have essentially full control over it. However, I feel like the TP edict is far less valuable if you either already have a (virtual) monopoly or if the trade node isn't valuable enough compared to the increase in maintenance.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

A thousand times this. I use the religious conversion one and the development one because there's a specific end I can remember around - otherwise I never use them because of the terrible UI/design that makes them effectively permanent.

Defensive edict is also useful in early game, usually to make it take longer to put down a level 3 cap fort.

Most obvious example of this is Byzantium. I tried their opening again yesterday, and was able to solo the Ottomans. They had a few forts mothballed in Anatolia, so I used alliance with Karaman to pre-position troops and take strait crossing fort, Selanik, and Ankara forts immediately. Unbeatable 30k stack sits on Cap fort with defensive edict, plenty of time to occupy lots of non-fort provinces and get a peace deal for some provinces even with Aq Qoyunlu in on their side too.

Pinning AI troops to a level 3 fort + carpeting it is broadly useful though. If you want, you can even use barrage (including immediate access to naval barrage in 1444 if it's a coastal fort) and some sweaty micro to avoid taking bogus casualties to the fort assault bug.

 

[Vohen]

In your capital, yes, always.
And by the mid game, when I have snowballed enough to be rolling in ducats, I also use it in every single state of mine, set by default to the manpower edict, but changing sometimes if I need something that fits the situation.

 

[SonofWinter]

I only use them in the beginning when I can be bothered to remember turning them off.

I BEGGED for an option to select to make them temporary but, Nooooooo, some whiners just can't handle the rest of us having quality of life options.

I mean God forbid that after every province has been converted, the conversion edict automatically turns off, nope, that would be too logical.

 

[bokorthedust]

I only use them in the beginning when I can be bothered to remember turning them off.

I BEGGED for an option to select to make them temporary but, Nooooooo, some whiners just can't handle the rest of us having quality of life options.

I mean God forbid that after every province has been converted, the conversion edict automatically turns off, nope, that would be too logical.

So you use one edict and it slips your mind you turned it on, and they all should automatically shut off after some time.

How about the rest? Dev reduction, should it shut off after you devved once, or should it last until you've spawned the institution? How about manpower, it should only stay until you cheesed the max out of slackening? Defensiveness only on until your fort fell because the scumbag AI cheats on sieges? Or should it turn off 6 months in, and then people are malding left right and center because their fort fell before they could relieve the siege?

The current system is QoL enough, you have a mapmode, you have the macro builder so you don't have to go state by state on the map, but I guess they should also code a feature which ties a knot so that people aren't absent minded and forget where that nice German doctor hid their armies.

 

[SonofWinter]

So you use one edict and it slips your mind you turned it on, and they all should automatically shut off after some time.

How about the rest? Dev reduction, should it shut off after you devved once, or should it last until you've spawned the institution? How about manpower, it should only stay until you cheesed the max out of slackening? Defensiveness only on until your fort fell because the scumbag AI cheats on sieges? Or should it turn off 6 months in, and then people are malding left right and center because their fort fell before they could relieve the siege?

The current system is QoL enough, you have a mapmode, you have the macro builder so you don't have to go state by state on the map, but I guess they should also code a feature which ties a knot so that people aren't absent minded and forget where that nice German doctor hid their armies.

The minimum is 1 year, no one asked for that to be removed, so that there wouldn't be any cheese.

All I ask for is that I have the OPTION to set it to turn off, AFTER 1 year. I get it, I have to pay for the dev, I'll pay the year's worth of fees for it but not 40 years because some is a sack of poo.

AGAIN, say it with me, OPTION to have a selected edict turn off after a year.

I don't think I should get a free ride, I just don't want to pay for the ride, for 40 years, if I only intended to ride 1 year.

So there is NO WHINING because you either set it permanently, or you set it for a 1 year timer, that should be the player's choice.

And with defensiveness edicts, an until the end of war timer (again minimum 1 year,) would be good.

Who needs a Defensiveness edict after the war is over? Who needs a Unity of Faith edict after everyone has been converted?

No one, only whiners want to punish the rest of us, for forgetting about some random edict, which is why I don't use them for most of my games because they are intentionally poorly implemented.

 

[Elite]

The manpower one is quite good, as Russia and other nations until you get going. Many players like to pick Quantity first as Russia, however I find they don't need manpower at all bar the first 50 years of the game.

 

[Vohen]

I only use them in the beginning when I can be bothered to remember turning them off.

I BEGGED for an option to select to make them temporary but, Nooooooo, some whiners just can't handle the rest of us having quality of life options.

I mean God forbid that after every province has been converted, the conversion edict automatically turns off, nope, that would be too logical.

Edicts are tied to a DLC, so I'm not really expecting them to take a second look at it.
That normally only happens when the mechanic is made free or when it's in a really egregious state, like in Leviathan and GC.

 

[SonofWinter]

Edicts are tied to a DLC, so I'm not really expecting them to take a second look at it.
That normally only happens when the mechanic is made free or when it's in a really egregious state, like in Leviathan and GC.

They made us pay for it, they should give us something usable.

I'd also like for the AI to use Unity of Faith Edicts on themselves, that would be nice.

 

[RMS Oceanic]

Defensive Edict is pretty important for the Byzantium Base Race strat
Religious Unity speaks for itself
Early game the capital gets trade power, late game it's enlistment
Increased autonomy is situational, like if you want your gold mine up and running faster
De Jure Law is nice in late Discovery Age if you've been lowering autonomy everywhere to ramp up your economy
Resist the Reformation used to suck, now my Balkan provinces get them a lot of the time
I've never used the absolutism edict. Forts do the job better.
Institution spread combos with share knowledge pretty well to save a few bob.
And yes, activating the dev edict is great for institutions, especially if you can stack modifiers.

One annoying thing is the state window (local, not macro) definitely used to tell you what date you turned the edict on, so you'd know exactly when you could change/turn it off. I dunno why that got removed, but I'd like it back.

 

[Vin55]

Really all the system needs is a popup that asks you after a year if you still want it, and has the options:

• Turn it off
• Ask me again in 1 year
• Ask me again in 5 years
• Ask me again in 10 years
• Don't ask me again

That would solve 90% of my complaints about the system.
(The other complaint being that the reformation edict doesn't have any meaningful impact.)

The reformation one does stop the reformation in the states now. So it is great.

 

[Vulkandrache]

There are quite a few situations in which they are nessecaery but it never feels good to use them.
Even with the macrobuilder there is far too much clicking overhead involved.

Especialy highly situational edict like the conversion one should be backed into other things.
There could be a checkbox in the Rel Tab that makes Missionaries slightly more expensive in exchange for the +1%.
Deving could be 10% cheaper automaticaly if there is no other edict active in a state.

This would have a minor impact on the mechanical side but make the game as whole much less annoying.

They made us pay for it, they should give us something usable.

I'd also like for the AI to use Unity of Faith Edicts on themselves, that would be nice.

Fun fact:
Before Ai conversion (esp vassals) got f'ed the AI WOULD activate the +1 edict if you started converting yor subjects provinces.

 

[bokorthedust]

Before Ai conversion (esp vassals) got f'ed the AI WOULD activate the +1 edict if you started converting yor subjects provinces.

It still does, I've seen it multiple times.

 

[namewhichisnottakenyet]

Depends on the situation. In the early game, I use them sparingly until I've stabilized my economy. If there's a state to religiously convert or an institition to develop, I generally use the appropriate edict and turn it off again once I don't need it anymore unless I forget to.

Once I have a reasonable income, I switch on manpower edicts everywhere (with the possible exception of trade edicts in trade heavy states) because I usually go for a quality based idea set and need something to boost my manpower pool. That's the setup I use for most of the game, although I sometimes switch to the institution spread edict in states bordering the new institution when I'm struggling to spread a particularly stubborn institition.

In the late game, when I'm drowning in money, manpower and mana, I often switch to development everywhere to efficiently invest my surplus mana.

 

[iClipse]

Generally in everything that's institution related: developing and increasing spread if it's coming from my neighbors. The defensive edict I find absolutely key in early game wars. Especially if you're siege racing where you both have 1 fort. Active edict, get fort advisor, have a spy network in them and you can easily win most siege races at the start.
The -5 unrest can be useful, as often -5 from troops + -5 from edict means the unrest is gone in newly conquered provinces, preventing quite a few rebels.

Manpower I've used once or twice during or after tough wars, and trade almost never. I also don't see the point in leaving an edict running all time in your capital. Even though it's cheaper there, that doesn't make it free, often paying 1-2 ducats/month, which is quite a lot early game, and by lategame the edict itself doesn't matter anymore.

 

[Xephos Demonslayer]

So I have been thinking about these lately as I have not really used them much.
I think I gave up on them when trying to use the resist reformation edict and realised it just didn’t work well.
I used to use institution spread but always forgot to switch it off after I adopted the last institution. That’s more my fault really.

But looking at them again I’m wondering how useful they can be to your game. State maintenance isn’t that high and there’s some good options.

Trade power is one that seems very useful and could pay for itself in the correct circumstances. Missionary strength seems like another.

So I guess I’m asking the community how much you use these and when and why. Am I missing some opportunity or are they very circumstantial? Any meta out there?

If I'm playing a very trade-heavy nation (Lubeck, Holland/Netherlands, Malacca, Genoa, Venice, etc) I basically try to have trade protection on as much as humanly possible on my states that have trade centers or esutaries. I also try to turn it on wherever I have a level 3 CoT, and if I build a canal (Suez, Kiel, Panama), I also turn it on there because they give a load of trade value. Same for the Nile Delta. I tend to use defensive edict a lot in my early wars, to give myself the slightest advantage against the AI, and even later in the game, I tend to pop it on any mountain or hill/highland forts that are getting sieged. I put the advancement edict on states with high dev provinces to push institution spread a bit faster, and if I'm in dire straits for manpower after a war, I'll try and slap the manpower edict on my high manpower states to recover my manpower pool a bit faster.

And I ALWAYS put the dev edict on a state I want to develop. Stacking dev modifiers is ridiculous, and with the edict, a university, a level 3 COT in the state, prosperity, economic ideas, and the quantity/economic policy, nevermind if the province has cloth or cotton, or is a farmlands or has a province modifier that decreases dev cost, you can develop a province for as little as THREE mana. Sometimes even less. And that price will stay less than 10 mana until you get to around 20 dev. So with about 600 mil and dip points, if you have those modifiers stacked, you can develop around two HUNDRED times. That's 10 provinces going from somewhere around 1/1/1 dev to 1/10/10. And that's a LOT of trade, production income, and manpower you get, nevermind what you can also get from slapping buildings on those provinces.

 

[SonofWinter]

It still does, I've seen it multiple times.

I played multiple games as Poland, and I've converted 80% of Lithuania's provinces in each game, since I increase my missionary %, and NOT ONCE in the last 4 games, has Lithuania ever activated the conversion bonus. I promise, it would have sped up the entire process for me by decades, I'd have noticed for sure.

 

[Jespoke]

In tall games, i used to only use the dev cost one, and once i got big and rich enough to not want to micromanage where exactly i made dev, i just kept it on in all my states forever.

Nowadays i usually set the trade one in my capital and sometimes other valuable states, the dev and institution ones when they are relevant, and when i hit low manpower in/after a war i set the whole country to manpower for a while. I am still bad about using the religious conversion one, because i usually manage religion exclusively from the religion tab without really registrering where in my country these heretic/heathen provinces actually are.

As others have said, having the state edict mapmode on the bar among the mapmodes i flip through regularly helps a ton.

 

[Runite Drill]

Very rarely.

I'll pop on the dev before any mass development (i.e. to get an institution) and occasionally I'll throw on the institution spread one.

Otherwise I don't use them simply because I forget about it. Like a couple of other things (e.g. trade node focus) they're hidden away behind windows and screens that I don't often look at and it's so easy to forget to turn them on.. or worse, off.

I also feel like int he early game the donuts are better spent elsewhere.