LightSpectra
me autem minui
I've mentioned many of these changes in other threads, so I thought I'd compile them all here. A few forenotes:
One, I don't expect CA to hear any of these suggestions. I'm hoping some modder will like my idea and implement these if some overhaul is being developed. Two, basic crashes and bugs won't be mentioned, because these are one-dimensional issues that should be fixed without question. Three, feel free to add more suggestions, or critique mine.
New Features that Should Be Added
1. Monarchs should be allowed to abdicate (leaving the throne for the next heir), absolute monarchs should be allowed to sign a constitution, and perhaps also immediately transition into a republic (though I'm not sure how that would be done). Coup d'etat should also be an option to transition to absolute monarchy without a revolution (perhaps it would be some kind of function where there's a probability of success; if it fails, your popularity drops a great deal).
2. Absolute monarchies have to deal with royal families, republics should have to deal with political parties, and constitutional monarchies should have to deal with both. For royal families, you should be able to view all of the people in your family and marry them off to other nobles. Political parties should be something like this: there's a "pro-war" and a "pro-peace" party, suppose. When you're at war and your political party is in control, you have an increase in loyalty. If the other party wins the election, then every region takes a drop in happiness until you settle for peace. The opposition party could also demand signing a constitution, or both parties could if your popularity is very low. Or, like in U.S. politics, a pro-French and a pro-British party. One party could be happier at lowering nobility taxes, whereas the other is happier at lowering peasantry taxes. Though this might be too ambitious; still, I'd like to see a greater difference between the systems of government.
3. Peaceful annexation. If a one-region faction is "very friendly" with you, or is in a war with another nation and has very few troops, the option to peacefully join your empire should be available.
4. Conversely, you should be able to grant independence peacefully to regions. This would make other factions happier, perhaps, and the pro-peace political party in republics/constitutional monarchies happier; whereas it might make your own party or absolute monarch's popularity drop. This is useful since you'd be able to retain good relations with that region without having to either invade it or let it revolt and be in a state of permanent war with you; further, it also means that an enemy faction would have to declare war on somebody entirely different in order to acquire said region.
5. Being able to join rebels, and not just the ones when your capital revolts. Plenty of people would like to play as Mexico, Ireland, Belgium, etc.
6. On the same train of thought, it would be nice to be able to play as Denmark, the Mughal Empire, the Natives, and various other smaller factions.
Gameplay Fixes
7. I think upkeep costs should be slightly raised, whereas recruitment costs should be drastically lowered. This is how it is in real life. Standing armies were typically very small, but when big wars (such as the War of Spanish Succesion) came up, they would immediately conscript almost their entire military. This should be counter-acted by the fact that the more troops you raise, the more unhappiness you ferment in your nation. This happiness should rise with victories and lower according to how many casualties you take. Wars should automatically become unpopular with your population as time goes on, no matter how successful you are (this would also help the fact that the AI never wants to sue for peace, sometimes). This would simultaneously solve the absurdity where they'll send on one unit at a time to burn your farms; when you slay all of their harassing units, the war becomes vehemently unpopular for their faction. I suppose that war weariness should lower, though, in the case that their country is invaded.
8. If a gentleman is located in another faction's capital, diplomacy should be more effective with that faction. Generals who sit inside colleges and schools should increase the advancement of military technologies.
9. Auto-resolve battles need to be fixed. Badly. It's random chance in some cases (I once had a decisive, AR'd victory of 300 v. 1200), and sometimes it's completely fixed (1000 French vs. 800 Natives always failed, for some reason).
10. The one-turn delay when moving to other theaters is ridiculous. It should only take one turn to go from Europe to America. Because of how long it takes to load ships, I feel like the prospect of contrafactual scenarios is too drudging. I would like to try and colonize South America as Austria or invade Cuba as the Ottomans, but it can take six or seven turns just to move your troops there; not even counting the danger of just having your navy sunken on the spot. It's more realistic this way, too.
11. Troops on foreign continents should cost twice as much upkeep, or at least much more. This gives further incentive to grant independence to foreign regions. It's also more realistic; European wars generally had tens of thousands of troops at every battle, whereas it was rare for battles in the American Revolutionary War to exceed more than 2,000 troops for each side.
12. Riflemen should have a "order to fire" button where the moment you press it, every soldier fires at the enemy, even if they're not in rank (though if this is the case, it would be less accurate). This would fix the extremely frustrating bug where they'll take upwards of 30 seconds to fire, even when the enemy is well within range; and also add a new element of attacking-and-retreating, like the Battle of Cowpens.
13. Get rid of the "armed citizenry." Turn them into militiamen so that it's harder to take regions, and can't be done with only a single unit. This is far more realistic: for instance, Quebec only changed hands once in the entirety of its military history, despite being attacked five separate times. As it is now, if you're facing a faction that doesn't garrison many troops in its outer regions like Spain or the Ottomans, you only need five or six units to acquire several of their regions, due to the fact that armed citizens are unrealistically useless. Just the same, taking capitals should be significantly more difficult than it is now; which it would be, if those eight or nine armed citizens were actually useful troops.
14. Fire-by-rank shouldn't have to be researched. I'm almost positive that it was common sense not to have only the front line use their rifles.
Changes to the AI's Behavior
15. Allies need to be better at actually aiding you. The Road to Independence campaign keeps bugging you to ally with France, though there doesn't seem to be a point in it because they don't do anything. At the very least they should send out their navy to blockade enemy ports or guard your regions. Or perhaps, in another gameplay addition, they should be automatically financially aiding you until the end of the war (perhaps something like 500 gold per turn) if they're not able to see any combat themselves; this way, they have an incentive to break their alliance and drop out of the war if it gets prolonged, giving further reason not to have infinitely long wars.
16. Furthermore, I am of the opinion that the factions in the game should try to be closest to their historical paths. That is, they only declare war once every 20 or 30 years, and each war shouldn't last more than 10 years itself. They should only go to war if it's in their interest to do so.
17. AI-controlled factions need to be better at settling for peace. If a war is bankrupting them, or their army/navy has been decimated, or they've lost regions with no hope of gaining them back, they should immediately sue for peace; as opposed to going Hirohito on you.
18. Factions should be more sensitive about how they spend their money. It seems as if blockading their ports or burning their farms and factories has no effect on them. They shouldn't demand 1000 gold just for trade agreements, too; they should be quick to trade with you, provided that you're not one of their enemies or military targets. Financially aiding one of your allies, as well, seems like a waste of time and resources.
19. Alliances shouldn't be permanent. You should be able to offer a ten-year alliance (or coalition against another nation or entente) that's renewable if the other nation wants it. Furthermore, they should be based more on what serves the interests of the AI's faction, not just who they like and dislike. Britain was at war with Prussia in the War of Austrian Succession, and they joined forces only a few decades later in the Seven Years' War. But on the other hand, they should almost never break or trespass on an alliance without attaining serious ire from every other faction in the game.
20. In the same vein, AI factions should be less rigid about trading things. If they're terribly short on funds, they should be very willing to sell their less useful regions and their technologies. Whereas, if they have a strong excess of money, they should attempt to buy off colonies from other factions.
One, I don't expect CA to hear any of these suggestions. I'm hoping some modder will like my idea and implement these if some overhaul is being developed. Two, basic crashes and bugs won't be mentioned, because these are one-dimensional issues that should be fixed without question. Three, feel free to add more suggestions, or critique mine.
New Features that Should Be Added
1. Monarchs should be allowed to abdicate (leaving the throne for the next heir), absolute monarchs should be allowed to sign a constitution, and perhaps also immediately transition into a republic (though I'm not sure how that would be done). Coup d'etat should also be an option to transition to absolute monarchy without a revolution (perhaps it would be some kind of function where there's a probability of success; if it fails, your popularity drops a great deal).
2. Absolute monarchies have to deal with royal families, republics should have to deal with political parties, and constitutional monarchies should have to deal with both. For royal families, you should be able to view all of the people in your family and marry them off to other nobles. Political parties should be something like this: there's a "pro-war" and a "pro-peace" party, suppose. When you're at war and your political party is in control, you have an increase in loyalty. If the other party wins the election, then every region takes a drop in happiness until you settle for peace. The opposition party could also demand signing a constitution, or both parties could if your popularity is very low. Or, like in U.S. politics, a pro-French and a pro-British party. One party could be happier at lowering nobility taxes, whereas the other is happier at lowering peasantry taxes. Though this might be too ambitious; still, I'd like to see a greater difference between the systems of government.
3. Peaceful annexation. If a one-region faction is "very friendly" with you, or is in a war with another nation and has very few troops, the option to peacefully join your empire should be available.
4. Conversely, you should be able to grant independence peacefully to regions. This would make other factions happier, perhaps, and the pro-peace political party in republics/constitutional monarchies happier; whereas it might make your own party or absolute monarch's popularity drop. This is useful since you'd be able to retain good relations with that region without having to either invade it or let it revolt and be in a state of permanent war with you; further, it also means that an enemy faction would have to declare war on somebody entirely different in order to acquire said region.
5. Being able to join rebels, and not just the ones when your capital revolts. Plenty of people would like to play as Mexico, Ireland, Belgium, etc.
6. On the same train of thought, it would be nice to be able to play as Denmark, the Mughal Empire, the Natives, and various other smaller factions.
Gameplay Fixes
7. I think upkeep costs should be slightly raised, whereas recruitment costs should be drastically lowered. This is how it is in real life. Standing armies were typically very small, but when big wars (such as the War of Spanish Succesion) came up, they would immediately conscript almost their entire military. This should be counter-acted by the fact that the more troops you raise, the more unhappiness you ferment in your nation. This happiness should rise with victories and lower according to how many casualties you take. Wars should automatically become unpopular with your population as time goes on, no matter how successful you are (this would also help the fact that the AI never wants to sue for peace, sometimes). This would simultaneously solve the absurdity where they'll send on one unit at a time to burn your farms; when you slay all of their harassing units, the war becomes vehemently unpopular for their faction. I suppose that war weariness should lower, though, in the case that their country is invaded.
8. If a gentleman is located in another faction's capital, diplomacy should be more effective with that faction. Generals who sit inside colleges and schools should increase the advancement of military technologies.
9. Auto-resolve battles need to be fixed. Badly. It's random chance in some cases (I once had a decisive, AR'd victory of 300 v. 1200), and sometimes it's completely fixed (1000 French vs. 800 Natives always failed, for some reason).
10. The one-turn delay when moving to other theaters is ridiculous. It should only take one turn to go from Europe to America. Because of how long it takes to load ships, I feel like the prospect of contrafactual scenarios is too drudging. I would like to try and colonize South America as Austria or invade Cuba as the Ottomans, but it can take six or seven turns just to move your troops there; not even counting the danger of just having your navy sunken on the spot. It's more realistic this way, too.
11. Troops on foreign continents should cost twice as much upkeep, or at least much more. This gives further incentive to grant independence to foreign regions. It's also more realistic; European wars generally had tens of thousands of troops at every battle, whereas it was rare for battles in the American Revolutionary War to exceed more than 2,000 troops for each side.
12. Riflemen should have a "order to fire" button where the moment you press it, every soldier fires at the enemy, even if they're not in rank (though if this is the case, it would be less accurate). This would fix the extremely frustrating bug where they'll take upwards of 30 seconds to fire, even when the enemy is well within range; and also add a new element of attacking-and-retreating, like the Battle of Cowpens.
13. Get rid of the "armed citizenry." Turn them into militiamen so that it's harder to take regions, and can't be done with only a single unit. This is far more realistic: for instance, Quebec only changed hands once in the entirety of its military history, despite being attacked five separate times. As it is now, if you're facing a faction that doesn't garrison many troops in its outer regions like Spain or the Ottomans, you only need five or six units to acquire several of their regions, due to the fact that armed citizens are unrealistically useless. Just the same, taking capitals should be significantly more difficult than it is now; which it would be, if those eight or nine armed citizens were actually useful troops.
14. Fire-by-rank shouldn't have to be researched. I'm almost positive that it was common sense not to have only the front line use their rifles.
Changes to the AI's Behavior
15. Allies need to be better at actually aiding you. The Road to Independence campaign keeps bugging you to ally with France, though there doesn't seem to be a point in it because they don't do anything. At the very least they should send out their navy to blockade enemy ports or guard your regions. Or perhaps, in another gameplay addition, they should be automatically financially aiding you until the end of the war (perhaps something like 500 gold per turn) if they're not able to see any combat themselves; this way, they have an incentive to break their alliance and drop out of the war if it gets prolonged, giving further reason not to have infinitely long wars.
16. Furthermore, I am of the opinion that the factions in the game should try to be closest to their historical paths. That is, they only declare war once every 20 or 30 years, and each war shouldn't last more than 10 years itself. They should only go to war if it's in their interest to do so.
17. AI-controlled factions need to be better at settling for peace. If a war is bankrupting them, or their army/navy has been decimated, or they've lost regions with no hope of gaining them back, they should immediately sue for peace; as opposed to going Hirohito on you.
18. Factions should be more sensitive about how they spend their money. It seems as if blockading their ports or burning their farms and factories has no effect on them. They shouldn't demand 1000 gold just for trade agreements, too; they should be quick to trade with you, provided that you're not one of their enemies or military targets. Financially aiding one of your allies, as well, seems like a waste of time and resources.
19. Alliances shouldn't be permanent. You should be able to offer a ten-year alliance (or coalition against another nation or entente) that's renewable if the other nation wants it. Furthermore, they should be based more on what serves the interests of the AI's faction, not just who they like and dislike. Britain was at war with Prussia in the War of Austrian Succession, and they joined forces only a few decades later in the Seven Years' War. But on the other hand, they should almost never break or trespass on an alliance without attaining serious ire from every other faction in the game.
20. In the same vein, AI factions should be less rigid about trading things. If they're terribly short on funds, they should be very willing to sell their less useful regions and their technologies. Whereas, if they have a strong excess of money, they should attempt to buy off colonies from other factions.
