Some questions

[Jim D Burns]

In my current game (1792 start as France on normal) I am doing quite well as France. Poland offered me a protectorate early when Russia attacked and I managed to keep her and win that war eventually, so this gave me a really strong start in my game.

I’ve spent a fortune however to sway the Bavarian government my way and now have 6,497 points in positive relations with them. My closest competitor is Austria with 3,193. Here’s a screenshot of the current situation:



What I want to know however is if there is a governor built into the game that outright prevents powerful countries from obtaining protectorates with minors.

I have 6-7 diplomats with goodwill orders in and around Batavia/Bavaria constantly influencing the area minors and all non-controlled minors left in that region have a French influence flag displayed.

But no one has offered me a protectorate in years and when I ran this past turn, Bavaria went to Spain! Spain with a -693 gets the protectorate and I’m out thousands in cash. So I re-ran the turn several times to see if it’s a fluke, but nope Spain got it twice more and Russia (-332) once.

Now I don’t mind game balancing at all, but I would at least like to know if it’s in there and if so what the parameters are. The money wasted on influencing Bavaria to the level of 6000+ influence is more than just a minor nuisance.

Also I would like to know if there is any limit to the number of regional bonus units that will be created. I’ve had several levies now of Duchy of Warsaw units and am starting to worry that they will never stop coming and will eventually bankrupt me (5 or 6 a year times 20+ years is a ton of units). I’ve stopped building French units until I see a non-levy year in Poland.

Finally is there any way to convert controlled/conquered provinces to protectorates? I mean can I liberate my own provinces somehow so I can form some of these other regional bonus areas?

Thanks,

Jim

[Joram]

In response to your first question, I seem to remember that there's a penalty if you are too far ahead but maybe that's just from the major powers?  Anyone confirm? Also, is it possible they coup'd it?
 
 

[gdpsnake]

I see this kind of nonsense all the time. I found it a complete waste of time and money trying to influence minors. I'll do as you have and watch the country swap all the time.
I don't waste my time with diplomats either except to propaganda enemies or charm allies.

As for regional bonus, that's why I hate protectorates. You have no control over their production, their mass unit production actually becomes a burden, you can't remove units from minor corps and you can't change provincial production. I let my protectorates get conquered by an enemy and then take them back and get control.

The complaint I also have with regional bonus issues is that ALL the provinces in a region have to be protectorates. That's BS. If I conquer all of the Rhine Confederation provinces, then I should be able to 'create' this entity NOT try to protectorate each one. No, there isn't a way to change from conquered to protectorate so the whole regional thing ends up being ridiculous and impossible to accomplish. As a sidelight, I think we should have complete control over ANY created Kingdoms as well. After all, Napoleon created many of these Kingdoms through CONQUEST not diplomacy. He took the areas then put one of his brothers in charge or someone else

[Mr. Z]

ORIGINAL: gdpsnake

I see this kind of nonsense all the time. I found it a complete waste of time and money trying to influence minors.

There do seem to be some runaway effects with minors and Attitude that I haven't had a chance to look closely at, so I don't quite understand it myself. I will try to prod Eric to have a closer look.

The complaint I also have with regional bonus issues is that ALL the provinces in a region have to be protectorates. That's BS. If I conquer all of the Rhine Confederation provinces, then I should be able to 'create' this entity NOT try to protectorate each one.
No, there isn't a way to change from conquered to protectorate so the whole regional thing ends up being ridiculous and impossible to accomplish. As a sidelight, I think we should have complete control over ANY created Kingdoms as well. After all, Napoleon created many of these Kingdoms through CONQUEST not diplomacy. He took the areas then put one of his brothers in charge or someone else

Minors unfortunately can't carry the burderns that players (and even the designers!) want them to bear, based on the game design. They should really be much more manipulable, but they just aren't. This is something we would change if we could do it all over again, but sadly we can't, and have to make do with the way things are.

Regional bonus units are indeed rather hard to acquire, and in some games they become impossible to acquire. I agree this is unfortunate. I like the notion that a "region" could be flexible, but any such change to the rule would probably have to wait for a features patch. It would take significant testing.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Joram
Also, is it possible they coup'd it?

Nope, only my diplomats are present, I expel all other competitors.

Jim

[ericbabe]

The attitude of minor powers is an important factor in determining what they do vis-a-vis asking for protectorates, but there are several other factors that are important as well.