When you take a mission to "conquer X", you usually aren't too concerned with the +5 prestige or whatever bonuses it gives you. Instead, what you're really after is the claim it gives you. Similar with "Subjugate X" and many of the other war-oriented missions. However, for most other missions, the only reward you get is the small boost at the end.
While it may seem like both ways of doing things are essentially doing the same thing, giving incentives for you to do what they tell you, they do it in different ways. For a conquest mission, usually your thought process is, "This helps me conquer X, which is something I want to do, so I'll take this mission." On the other hand, for an improve relations mission, your thought process is usually more like, "I can do this easily, so I might as well get the bonus."
The former seems like a much more natural and fun way for missions to work, doesn't it? Have you ever been excited about taking a mission to integrate a vassal, or make an alliance? Probably not. The rewards are nice, so you'll do it occasionally, when it lines up with what you're already doing, but it's a very different feeling from the conquest missions.
So, what if other missions gave bonuses that helped you accomplish them? For example, what if the Improve Relations mission gave you a +10% bonus to relations over time? The bonus would last the duration of the mission, plus a few years after, for example if the mission has a 10 year time limit then the bonus might last 15 years (even if you finish the mission early). If you fail the mission (either running out of time, or if your relations fall too low), then you lose the benefit.
This creates a very different dynamic for the mission. You don't pick this because you can do it easily and it gives you monarch points, but because it helps you do something that you want to do: improve relations. This is the perfect mission to choose just after you finished conquering someone, and your efforts of good will towards one country helps improve the image of your country to the rest of the world as well.
You could do the same thing for other missions: Integration missions could give +1 dip rep, recover our manpower could give +10% recovery speed, claiming provinces could give +5% spy offense, religious unity gives +1% missionary strength, etc, etc.
The important thing here is that the bonus needs to help the player accomplish whatever goal the mission is telling you to accomplish, and the bonus should stick around longer if you finish the mission successfully, making it so the player wants to finish the mission, and quickly so that they can take another mission that gives another small bonus.
While it may seem like both ways of doing things are essentially doing the same thing, giving incentives for you to do what they tell you, they do it in different ways. For a conquest mission, usually your thought process is, "This helps me conquer X, which is something I want to do, so I'll take this mission." On the other hand, for an improve relations mission, your thought process is usually more like, "I can do this easily, so I might as well get the bonus."
The former seems like a much more natural and fun way for missions to work, doesn't it? Have you ever been excited about taking a mission to integrate a vassal, or make an alliance? Probably not. The rewards are nice, so you'll do it occasionally, when it lines up with what you're already doing, but it's a very different feeling from the conquest missions.
So, what if other missions gave bonuses that helped you accomplish them? For example, what if the Improve Relations mission gave you a +10% bonus to relations over time? The bonus would last the duration of the mission, plus a few years after, for example if the mission has a 10 year time limit then the bonus might last 15 years (even if you finish the mission early). If you fail the mission (either running out of time, or if your relations fall too low), then you lose the benefit.
This creates a very different dynamic for the mission. You don't pick this because you can do it easily and it gives you monarch points, but because it helps you do something that you want to do: improve relations. This is the perfect mission to choose just after you finished conquering someone, and your efforts of good will towards one country helps improve the image of your country to the rest of the world as well.
You could do the same thing for other missions: Integration missions could give +1 dip rep, recover our manpower could give +10% recovery speed, claiming provinces could give +5% spy offense, religious unity gives +1% missionary strength, etc, etc.
The important thing here is that the bonus needs to help the player accomplish whatever goal the mission is telling you to accomplish, and the bonus should stick around longer if you finish the mission successfully, making it so the player wants to finish the mission, and quickly so that they can take another mission that gives another small bonus.
