[Suggestion]: Treat colonial range like force limit

[Bragi]

Hi there

I'm a person who don't like magical barriers in EU4. Therefore it came to my mind: How about treat colonial range the sime kind as force limit?

It would still be increasing with tech and ideas, but like force limit, it would be a soft limitation now.

You have a colonial range of say 420 and the colony lies in the 430's, so you are able to colonize it, but with additional cost (like going over the FL), representing your struggle for supplying this colony properly. During your advances in technology and your country's development (aka ideas), you increase that limit and are thus able to support colonies over a larger distance without penalties.

It is clear that rich nations, if the choos to colonize, have an advantage over the poor ones, but since NI's, ideagroups and the geographical situation still applies, it could be balanced properly.

What do you guys think?

 

[Sorenzo]

It makes sense. It's annoying being 3 units short of in being in range, having to get another two diplomacy techs just so your ships can reach another few kilometers. I've started many a no-CB invasions just to boost my colonial range.

I'd probably extend the principle to stuff that's in range too. Anything between 50% of your range and 100% of your range should cost more than stuff that's next door. Makes getting a foothold in another region all the harder, but more rewarding.

Really, when it comes to travel, every added meter one has to go takes exponentially more resources than the previous one. You have to bring along extra supplies to feed the crew, and then you need a bigger boat so you need more crew, and thus extra supplies. This effect is doubled if you have to bring supplies for a return trip. Not to mention that the fatal risks - getting lost, being attacked by pirates, or caught in a storm - get more and more likely the further you go.

Anyone who's played KSP knows all of this too well. Well, except for the stuff about pirates.

 

[Bragi]

I'd probably extend the principle to stuff that's in range too.

Yes, a lot more limitations would make sense as soft cap and not hard cap, therefore beeing extended due to technical progress or ideas or modifiers.

Even Warcore. Eat it, if you think you can handle it. Probably not, but hey, that's my problem!

Uh, it's super expensive maintain a colony outside my (obviously acknowledget by my civil society and economy) "green" range, but hey, that's my problem! If I am capable to pay it due to smart play: very rewarding!

 

[Emre Yigit]

Or you could make them less likely to grow, given the extra distance and dangers involved. In fact, why not make this applicable throughout? So that you, say, get an extra 20 colonists per tick if the colony is next door, on a sliding scale down to (I dunno) -20 if at 100% of colonial range, and -40 thereafter. Or something like that.

 

[Nadrak]

What would be point of colonial range? Right now, it is supposed to stop some nations from colonizing before they are able to. With this suggestion, everyone could pay more for 1st colony out of their range, but then they will not pay more because of colonial range from your new province. I do not miss Ulm colonizing together with England before colonial range was introduced.

 

[Freudia]

I do not miss Ulm colonizing together with England before colonial range was introduced.

Ulm does not even have a coastline, so how would it be able to colonize?

 

[Nadrak]

Ulm does not even have a coastline, so how would it be able to colonize?

Ulm can get powerful, because it is full of secret Masons, I tell you!

 

[Bragi]

With this suggestion, everyone could pay more for 1st colony out of their range, but then they will not pay more because of colonial range from your new province.

Yes, there is a flaw in my logic. Perhaps a change in this would require more tweaks to the system, e.g. alter the process of becoming a full grown colony. Or add a step between "wow, 400 inhabitants" and "wow, my own and genuine province with BT 4, like Champagne!".

 

[Xara]

I kind of like the idea, but in practice it's just a buff to large rich nations, most of whom are the prime colonizers anyway.

 

[unmerged(291783)]

Yes, there is a flaw in my logic. Perhaps a change in this would require more tweaks to the system, e.g. alter the process of becoming a full grown colony. Or add a step between "wow, 400 inhabitants" and "wow, my own and genuine province with BT 4, like Champagne!".

The most straightforward solution is to prevent overseas colonies from extending colonial range at all. It would make sense thematically too given that the people and material required for colonization mostly originate from the homeland anyway.

I kind of like the idea, but in practice it's just a buff to large rich nations, most of whom are the prime colonizers anyway.

Small nations usually have an advantage in monarch power however, so balancing features could be implemented around that. For example, a button on each colony to recruit investors/colonists for diplomatic power could lower the maintenance cost and increase settler numbers for each colony.

 

[Xara]

Small nations usually have an advantage in monarch power however, so balancing features could be implemented around that. For example, a button on each colony to recruit investors/colonists for diplomatic power could lower the maintenance cost and increase settler numbers for each colony.

Portugal, Castile, France, and England are all lucky. They get thousands of extra monarch points. They're also all rich.

 

[Bragi]

The most straightforward solution is to prevent overseas colonies from extending colonial range at all. It would make sense thematically too given that the people and material required for colonization mostly originate from the homeland anyway

Yeah, especially when thinking of the fact that you lose your cored province foothold wenn a CN forms (which is super-weird, unless that changed and I didn't notice).

 

[AurochsAway]

Instead of additional cost, it could be balanced somewhat with a malus on settler growth/chance. The further it is from your colonial range (which say represents an abstraction of good supply lines), the less settlers arrive per month. As you get further away, there'd be fewer and fewer settlers. This means if it's just 3 extra range away you could still colonise with less malus than further away. Furthermore, they'd still cost more, as they'd have to be colonies for longer, and exploration focused countries which get settler number boosts would still do better.

 

[Morik]

How about this.

For colonies beyond colonial range:

Over range malus = some_coefficient(colony_distance / colonial_range)
(For some_coefficient, maybe something around 5? This would mean at 20% over range, the malus is 2.)

Support cost = base_cost ^ over_range_malus
Settler Chance = base_chance ^ -over_range_malus
Settler Growth = base_growth ^ -over_range_malus

So at 20% over range (coefficient of 5), support cost is squared, settler chance is square rooted, and settler growth is square rooted.
At double range, support cost is raised to the 10th power, and the 10th root is applied to settler chance and growth.

Alternatively, keep support cost as above, but
Settler Chance penalty = some_other_coefficient * over_range_malus
Settler Growth penalty = yet_another_coefficient * over_range_malus

some_other_coefficient maybe 3-5? (At 20% over range, a 3 there would give -6% settler chance, a 5 would give -10%)
yet_another_coefficient maybe 5-10? (At 20% over range, a 5 gives -10 growth, a 10 gives -20 growth)

 

[grommile]

The most straightforward solution is to prevent overseas colonies from extending colonial range at all. It would make sense thematically too given that the people and material required for colonization mostly originate from the homeland anyway.

Oops, you just shut the Iberians out of the Philippines.

 

[unmerged(291783)]

Portugal, Castile, France, and England are all lucky. They get thousands of extra monarch points. They're also all rich.

They will get thousands of extra monarch points over hundreds of years, but that is not enough to completely overpower a small nation that has nothing but technology to sink its monarch points into.

Oops, you just shut the Iberians out of the Philippines.

If Spain wants to colonize the Philippines, then it will have to invest in diplomatic technology to extend its colonial range until the extra costs are bearable. It goes without saying that if the colonization system were to be overhauled, then the colonial range granted by technology and ideas would have to be adjusted as well. There is no reason to conclude that this would shut the Iberians out of the Philippines.