What are the weirdest inclusions/lacks of accepted cultures?

[Bunnytob]

I've been thinking a bit about all the accepted cultures as present in-game, and I'm starting to wonder what the weirdest accepted cultures in-game are, and, concurrently, the weirdest lack of accepted cultures as well.

If I had to give my two cents, I'd say that (Many of these are two-way dichotomies where one is true and the other is false):
+ Ruthenia's Ugrian is a very weird accepted culture (as Ruthenia has the Russian/Belorussian/Ugrian that Russia and Ukraine both have).
- On the other hand, Belarus lacks the rest of the set (most notably Russian - if Ukraine can accept Belorussian, why is Belarus monoculture?).
+ Belgium having a blanket French acceptance seems a bit weird and I'd definitely like to hear the reasoning behind it, as France does not get Flemish in return.
- Yugoslavia can end up lacking Slovene for some reason
- Why doesn't the Netherlands get Boer? It would make some sense, even if it's only via event.

But that's just what I think - is there anything glaringly obvious I missed? I'm interested to know what everyone else thinks.

 

[NicoPryuz]

I think you can mod accepted cultures to your likes

 

[Cypres]

There are tons of ways to group cultures together: history, language, religion,...
In the game itself one of the most driving factors was certainly language, the Boers beeing not accepted by the Dutch beeing an exception.
I hope from a potential successor that culture groups are clear cut as you would expect from a game about nationalism.

 

[TemporalAnomaly]

Re: History of Belgium

As a first approximation, the Belgian Revolt was an alliance between two factions.

• the Liberals, opposed to the absolutist king, lead by French speaking Industrialists from the south, who were also upset about Dutch insistence on Free-Trade
• the Clericals, Catholics unhappy with the anti-church policies of the Protestant king, Primarily drawn from the Flemish Peasantry. There was also the feeling that the insistence on standard Dutch was unfair to Flanders.

As, you might imagine the two didn't always see eye to eye, and the French generally got control of the newborn state.


So, in broad strokes, the V-II setup of French as primary, Flemish as secondary is pretty good.


You asked why BEL also kept French even after Walloon was split off of it. I am almost certain the answer is Luxenberg. LUX in game is NGerman/French and I am sure they meant to put LUX cores and French POPs in West Luxenberg - roughly Arlon province in game. I imagine they either ran out of time or that it caused other problems.

History side note:
The reason the modern state of Luxenberg was not overrun by the Belgians like the rest of the duchy was that it was the sight of the fortress of luxenburg, one of the finest of the post-Napoleonic world and garrisoned by international agreement by Prussian troops to help contain France. The revolutionaries were appropriately cautious.

History side side note:
Luxenberg under the Dutch king was part of the 'German League' created by the Congress of Vienna, a status very similar to Holstein under Denmark. With Belgian Independence, the German states complained that the League had lost territory. Limberg was added to the League as compensation.


I general I guess I am against the French/Walloon split. I feel excessive culture spiting causes a variety of gameplay problems, and besides France looking north across it's boarder with greedy lust is 120% historically appropriate for the period. If Walloon really needs to be split, it should at least be given a French Blue rather than a Dutch Orange.

 

[Bunnytob]

I'm guessing, then, from these replies, that I more-or-less hit the nail on the head with the rest of them and that most other sets of culture acceptance make sense.

 

[TemporalAnomaly]

The big one the causes trouble is Qing. I think most mods change it to Machu only.
China in general is a giant problem for game balance. Too strong and it runs away with the game. Too weak and whoever grabs a slice from them first runs away with it.

For Yugoslavia, considering both times it fell apart it was due to a Croat revolt - which can't happen with accepted cultures - you could argue it would best be represented by Serb only.

For the Netherland, it is not too hard to imagine it pursuing a policy that would keep the Flemish happy or one that would keep the Boers Happy. Both at once seems rather trickier.

The other big ones you could argue for are Polish for Austria. Concidering how heavily they relied on their Baltic aristocrats, giving the Russian Empire German seems natural.

 

[Bunnytob]

I mean... the whole point of Yugoslavia is that it is a South Slavic state. It can also be formed by non-Serb states, and I highly doubt a Yugoslavia with its government in Sofia would be Serbian/x.
But Polish for Austria? I'm intrigued...