Use new Semi-Ownership System for Improved Colonization Mechanics

[Dingens]

Current issues:

• Colonization speed is ahistorically quick. In ordinary games, most of the Americas is fully colonized by early to mid 18th century, while this was not the case in reality for another century.
• A 5 year old, just finished colony with 8 development is treated exactly the same as a province with 8 development in the center of Europe, India or China, despite lacking centuries or millenniums of economical and infrastructural development growth. There is no intermediate step between empty land and fully developed province, except for the short time of colony building (during which, however, the province does nothing for the owner except cost money).

My proposed solution:

Use the concept of semi-ownership of a province introduced in Dev Diary 10 for the upcoming patch 1.31 to also revise colonization mechanisms.

How could this look like?

• All empty provinces start with 1-1-1 development.
• Any country with a colonist can, instead of directly building a colony, command to set up a "Colonial Outpost" in an empty province, using the same rules as before. Timings can be similar as they are for colonies right now.
• The colonial outpost represents one or a few first permanent settlements in the area, including for example a port, a small military garrison, and a few villages. Most of the province is still uninhabited or inhabited by natives, and there is still a lack of government oversight, manpower and infrastructure necessary to claim and utilize the province in its entirety.
• A province with a colonial outpost is claimed for the country that built it. The province is, however, not a full territorial core yet. Like native tribal ownership, foreign armies can still pass it without demanding military access, and the province contributes no or only very little manpower and taxes. It does, however, contribute a large fraction of its production to local trade value and power, representing the ability to trade local goods due to the permanent presence in the province. For all achievements, it's considered as "owned", and it receives religion and culture of the owner. Troops and ships can be stationed, but not recruited there.
• A colonial outpost province can be demanded in wars just like a regular province, for a very low war score cost.
• From when the colonial outpost is finished, it will very slowly grow into a regular colony. This should take a long time (decades), and over this time development randomly grows each year. Each year has a chance for a development tick, depending on local conditions, current development and total duration (smaller duration means higher chance for dev tick to compensate). Each province which is allowed to grow costs some maintenance each month. When the process finishes, the province is converted into a full territorial core.
• The total duration of the process depends on local conditions as well. Rough climate makes it longer, fertile land shorter. The most important modifier, however, is the surrounding. A colonial outpost with a port grows much quicker than an inland outpost. A river connecting an inland province downstream to an existing colony however increases speed significantly (could be implemented as permanent province modifier). Neighboring fully finished colonies also have a high impact. This leads to an organic growth of colonial land from the coast into the land, following directions set by the colonizer by setting the groundwork for settlers to arrive and build, with natural and historical expansion pathways such as major rivers being favored.
• The process can be shortened by manually developing the province using monarch power (maybe at a discounted rate), so that if you really want a finished colony quickly, you can get it at a cost.
• A colonial nation still forms when there are 5 fully colonized provinces, and sets up with its capital in the highest development one. This will consequentially happen much later into the game, if this is not wanted one could reduce the number of necessary provinces (e.g. just one full colony and at least 4 additional semi-owned provinces). I, however, believe this leads to a more historical time line.

What are the advantages?

• Colonization is slower and more historical
• Especially early on, trade is by far the most important gain from building colonies, as it's unlocked already with just an outpost present.
• The player can still claim all provinces in time to achieve current and upcoming achievements, such as one faith.
• The lack of a governmental control over large fractions of the new world up to the very end of the game's time line is captured.
• Development in the new world grows organically, instead of somehow popping up when a colony finishes based on arbitrary values set at game start.

Thank you very much for reading this far. Obviously I'm not a game designer, so putting numbers on all of this to balance it out is something I can't really do. However, I'd be really happy if somehow this concept of semi-ownership of land would be used for more than just natives, and I think it's a unique and likely the best opportunity to rework colonization we ever got.

 

[Sete]

I like it, but I have something to add.
You mentioned a colonial outpost
"a port, a small military garrison, and a few villages."

I would prefer the choice to make a Trade Post aswell, and that should be quickest way of settling on a place, lets say 6 months to build a factory (in reality could be a lot quicker).
No tax, no manpower, just goods production and trade value.
And that would not evolve from a trade post unless you declare war or get rid of the native in the area for example, you have to deliberately make the choice to expand it.
This way you can have Portuguese/Dutch trade empires, or the Spanish/English territorial empires.

 

[AirikrStrife]

[new world] colonialization is already struggling to be worth the investment unless you have colonial ideas in your national idea set

Howeever I like the general idea and would love a rework of how colonization works but it would need to make sure it's still worth it