This evening I played a 1700 start games, and it led me to two "big picture" ideas that I hope can be considered in future iterations of the mod:
1. European colonization in real life had two phases. The first was driven by the mercantilist search for profit and the building of trading companies with conquerors reflects this phase. But the second phase in the mid- to late- 19th century in Africa and around the periphery of Asia was eminently unprofitable -- the Belgians literally had to take hands in the Congo to turn a profit -- and is poorly represented in game. Having done significant research on this phase of French and German imperialism for my day job, it was driven by small but highly politically influential "colonial lobbies" within many societies.
Therefore, I was hoping that similar to how the "Trading Company" small wonders trigger the first wave of European imperialism in the Renaissance in India and Indonesia, a "Colonial Society" small wonder could be added in the industrial era at a specific tech (railroads?) to trigger a scramble for Africa/Asia. To build it a country would have to a. have its capital in Europe or North America and b. be ranked in the top-10(?) for score when it discovers the technology to build it. By default its bonus would be to produce +25% culture and +25 science w/ 1 or 2 statesmen slots, but 6 specific countries would receive conquerors or settle in historical city "areas" conditional on the positions not already being controlled by a civilization with their capital on the same continent (limit of 3 for human players):
a. UK 6 -- Alexandria (Egyptian settlement), Nairobi (Swahili settlement), Lagos (independent Edo added), Singapore^, Hong Kong (Chinese settlement), Mandalay (Burmese settlement)
b. France 4 -- Algiers (Normally Morocco), Dakar (Normally Mali), Timbuktu (Normally Mali), Saigon (Vietnam/Thailand in new map)*
c. Germany 3 -- Mombasa (Swahili settlement), Douala (sometimes Kongo / sometimes settled), Tsingtao (Chinese settlement)
d. Netherlands 1 -- Kinshasa (Kongo settlement)
e. Italy 1 -- Mogadishu (sometimes Ethiopia / sometimes Swahili / sometimes independent / sometimes does not exist and will be settled)
f. USA 3 -- Honululu (settle), Manilla^, Havana^
*French conquerors for the trade company wonder should be moved to one city on the Carnatic coast, so they and England can fight their Indian wars.
^Note that these are ~50% likely to be controlled by Spain; hence why the "same continent" condition on spawning conquerers is so important.
I presume Portugal / the Ottomans might block some of these (particularly for the British), but that's ok -- I'd consider it alt history. And the most likely political effects would be to collapse and/or vassalize almost all African and SE Asian states, which is historical. These suggestions were thought out planning for the new map civs.
2. Dynamic stability maps based on era. This one might not be practical, but it would prevent Prussian colonization of New Guinea in 1720 of every game and encourage European empires to expand and collapse in a historically accurate way.
1. European colonization in real life had two phases. The first was driven by the mercantilist search for profit and the building of trading companies with conquerors reflects this phase. But the second phase in the mid- to late- 19th century in Africa and around the periphery of Asia was eminently unprofitable -- the Belgians literally had to take hands in the Congo to turn a profit -- and is poorly represented in game. Having done significant research on this phase of French and German imperialism for my day job, it was driven by small but highly politically influential "colonial lobbies" within many societies.
Therefore, I was hoping that similar to how the "Trading Company" small wonders trigger the first wave of European imperialism in the Renaissance in India and Indonesia, a "Colonial Society" small wonder could be added in the industrial era at a specific tech (railroads?) to trigger a scramble for Africa/Asia. To build it a country would have to a. have its capital in Europe or North America and b. be ranked in the top-10(?) for score when it discovers the technology to build it. By default its bonus would be to produce +25% culture and +25 science w/ 1 or 2 statesmen slots, but 6 specific countries would receive conquerors or settle in historical city "areas" conditional on the positions not already being controlled by a civilization with their capital on the same continent (limit of 3 for human players):
a. UK 6 -- Alexandria (Egyptian settlement), Nairobi (Swahili settlement), Lagos (independent Edo added), Singapore^, Hong Kong (Chinese settlement), Mandalay (Burmese settlement)
b. France 4 -- Algiers (Normally Morocco), Dakar (Normally Mali), Timbuktu (Normally Mali), Saigon (Vietnam/Thailand in new map)*
c. Germany 3 -- Mombasa (Swahili settlement), Douala (sometimes Kongo / sometimes settled), Tsingtao (Chinese settlement)
d. Netherlands 1 -- Kinshasa (Kongo settlement)
e. Italy 1 -- Mogadishu (sometimes Ethiopia / sometimes Swahili / sometimes independent / sometimes does not exist and will be settled)
f. USA 3 -- Honululu (settle), Manilla^, Havana^
*French conquerors for the trade company wonder should be moved to one city on the Carnatic coast, so they and England can fight their Indian wars.
^Note that these are ~50% likely to be controlled by Spain; hence why the "same continent" condition on spawning conquerers is so important.
I presume Portugal / the Ottomans might block some of these (particularly for the British), but that's ok -- I'd consider it alt history. And the most likely political effects would be to collapse and/or vassalize almost all African and SE Asian states, which is historical. These suggestions were thought out planning for the new map civs.
2. Dynamic stability maps based on era. This one might not be practical, but it would prevent Prussian colonization of New Guinea in 1720 of every game and encourage European empires to expand and collapse in a historically accurate way.
better
