Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #32 - Colonization

[neondt]

Will the Congo have extra events attached, like the congo conference or will it follow normal colonisation?

There will be content for the exploration and colonization of the Congo, but that doesn't replace the normal colonization mechanics. At no point is anyone awarded "free" colonial states.

Are there Journal Entries that 'encourage' you to colonize?

We have a Journal Entry called "Scramble for Africa"!

I assume colonization of the two Americas will be far easier then Africa?

Large portions of Africa are very difficult to colonize due to malaria etc, so for the most part decentralized nations in the Americas are much easier to colonize.

Ah, so this is where split states come into play, then!

Anyways, are there any laws you can pass to reduce Tension growth or increase decay? There were advocates for an "ethical" colonialism at this time, such as the Liberal Imperialists of Britain; will their policy preferences be represented?

Colonial Resettlement improves your tension decay compared to Colonial Exploitation. We also have some content for the EIC and Dutch East Indies inspired by historical attempts to do, with heavy quotation marks, "ethical colonialism", but that's not related to the mechanic of colonizing decentralized nations.

Is it correctly understood that 'growing a colony' is practically expanding it to more provinces within said state?

And what is the economic costs to expanding a colony? Could I make one with let say Lübeck?

Can you give us some estimate how expensive colonizing and maintaining colonies is? Do you need large/medium size economy to do that, or is it feasible for minors as well?

That's correct, colony growth is based on province-by-province expansion into a state region.

The economic cost is represented by the cost of maintaining the Government Administrations that generate the Bureaucracy used to invest in the Colonial Affairs Institution. This is scaled to your population, which is good for small countries because they can invest about as easily as a large country, but also bad because the impact is also scaled to your incorporated population, meaning small countries ultimately still colonize at a slower rate.

Do military expeditions play any role in colonial expansion? They absolutely should

The military role of colonial expansion is represented partially by the need to respond with force to native uprisings in decentralized nations, and partially by invasions of the centralized countries in Africa. More on which countries are which next week!

What limits are there on how many colonies you can start at once? Is it cost restricting it or some sort of hard cap number?

You can start as many colonies as you like, but your total growth will be split between each colony. So starting a large number of colonies will make each one grow painfully slowly, which increases the time until you're able to add the state to your national market, increases the chance of generating tension, and leaves more time for your rivals to start up a competing colony.

 

[Wizzington]

Right, I'm going to jump in with some clarifications about Colonial States here (and my bad for missing this when reviewing the DD internally): The old design worked exactly as @neondt outlined, but we recently made some changes. Specifically, we unified the concepts of Colonial and Unincorporated States (as the line between colony and territory is more than a little blurry) and we made it possible to Incorporate any State, though with a varying amount of time and resource investment based on cultural ties (while a State is being Incorporated, you pay all the costs for it and receive only partial benefits). Sorry for the confusion!

 

[Wizzington]

Thanks so much for clarifying this! But is it still like in dev diary that any colonial state with land connection to incorporated one becomes unincorporated state immidiately? Like, if Ottomans annex Egypt (i hope possible to do at once in Oriental Crysis) then Egyptian Sudan immidiately becomes unincorporated state?

There's no longer a distinction between Colonial State and Unincorporated State, so no, this isn't a thing. Whether an Unincorporated State is more of a colony or more of a loosely administrated territory depends on the country's policies.

 

[Wizzington]

Sorry if I'm a bit backwards with states dev diary - does it mean then, that if I conquer, lets say, Belgium as France (Belgium probably becomes unincorporated state) I receive no taxes and my institutions don't apply to Belgium unless I incorporate it? Same situation like with Madagascar?
Edit: partially answered through edit in original comment

Correct, though it should be significantly faster to Incorporate Belgium than to Incorporate Madagascar.