Something many have voiced concerns about are the assimilation and conversion (“A&C”) mechanics and speed. Many of us have noticed from youtuber gameplay that a player priority becomes assigning the cabinet to assimilate/convert (“A&C”) areas, resulting in ahistoric, rapid, mass A&C.
The devs have done an amazing job of creating what feels like a realistic and immersive historical gameplay experience, complete with granular depiction of historical religions and cultures. Game mechanics mostly reflect historical mechanics. The cabinet A&C action thus sticks out like a sore thumb, as mass A&C promoted by central government did not exist for most of this period, and the amazing depiction of diverse historical groups stands to be quickly wiped away by mass A&C from cabinet. There was no mechanism by which the central government could rapidly change language or habits until mass schooling in the 19th century. There were mass conversions, though these often failed and normally ended in abandonment or mass emigration (emigration is another cabinet feature which is more grounded imo).
Cabinet A&C is unrealistic and causes a strange and likely unsatisfying gameplay loop where the player must focus on clicking the cabinet A&C button to do unexplained mass A&C in one area at a time, waiting roughly 20-30 irl minutes before they must go and click the button again. The faster cabinet A&C is made, the more it undermines the history/realism of the game, and the need for the player to manage diverse populations. The slower cabinet A&C is made, the more frustrating/useless it becomes. Since cabinet A&C undermines depiction of and interaction with religion/culture, and nerfing it would just be frustrating, it ought to be removed. Luckily, Paradox already has the framework for a great A&C system.
Infrastructure & Laws, a proposed alternative to cabinet action:
1) A&C should primarily take place through government investment in infrastructure like universities, courts, theaters, and churches/mosques. Paradox has already included such modifiers for buildings, so this is prime for replacing the cabinet as the main mechanic. A&C infrastructure would be more rewarding than cabinet A&C button because players would have to weigh A&C against other building goals, it would provide incentive to build cultural infrastructure that was historically important, and it would encourage the player to interact with locations on the map rather than the cabinet menu. "I built a grand church/theater in [location] so people there gradually converted or learned my language" is more engaging than “cabinet member used abstract method to change culture in [location].” A&C infrastructure would be more realistic because players would focus on densely populated areas first (where A&C happened historically) and infrastructure like churches/schools encourage A&C in an intuitive and historical way. This could simultaneously be more realistic and fun by scaling with technology and state capacity over the span of the game. By end game, the player may even be able to build a school system like the French did to achieve mass A&C.
As an example, building for A&C created a fun gameplay loop in Imperator Invictus with theaters and temples. It was probably overtuned though.
2) Laws could also possibly be an engaging way to change A&C, with things like "restricting right of X minority to ride horses/bear arms" or "special privileges to primary culture/religion." This would provide a less abstract mechanism for A&C, give extra flavor, and give the player an interesting tradeoff between unrest and furthering A&C. However, I do realize this would probably be extra work for the devs compared to the already existing building modifiers.
3) If the cabinet A&C mechanic must remain, then it should at least cost something and cause substantial unrest.
Other thoughts:
It ought to be said that the devs have done a great job with religion and culture mechanics generally, including control and cultural strength features. The devs have also done a great job of making managing diversity a core part of the game. Even other cabinet features, like immigration/emigration actions are more realistic, as government resettlement was more common historically and moving people is less abstract than a premodern cabinet somehow changing the language of masses of peasants in 20 years. Moving pops also presents the player with strategic tradeoffs and a tool to manage diversity, while somehow assimilating a whole region presents no downside.
In game A&C should be balanced to be realistically slow. We should normally still see minorities like Jews in Europe and Greeks in Anatolia in the end game. It should take ~200 years to fully wipe out the Old Prussians (wiped out around 16th-17th century irl). If balanced properly, my proposal could depict A&C at a realistic pace. My proposal would also engage the player by depicting A&C as a result of long-term investment in specific locations and laws, rather than primarily the abstract action of a cabinet member.
Any suggestions by the rest of the community are welcome.
The devs have done an amazing job of creating what feels like a realistic and immersive historical gameplay experience, complete with granular depiction of historical religions and cultures. Game mechanics mostly reflect historical mechanics. The cabinet A&C action thus sticks out like a sore thumb, as mass A&C promoted by central government did not exist for most of this period, and the amazing depiction of diverse historical groups stands to be quickly wiped away by mass A&C from cabinet. There was no mechanism by which the central government could rapidly change language or habits until mass schooling in the 19th century. There were mass conversions, though these often failed and normally ended in abandonment or mass emigration (emigration is another cabinet feature which is more grounded imo).
Cabinet A&C is unrealistic and causes a strange and likely unsatisfying gameplay loop where the player must focus on clicking the cabinet A&C button to do unexplained mass A&C in one area at a time, waiting roughly 20-30 irl minutes before they must go and click the button again. The faster cabinet A&C is made, the more it undermines the history/realism of the game, and the need for the player to manage diverse populations. The slower cabinet A&C is made, the more frustrating/useless it becomes. Since cabinet A&C undermines depiction of and interaction with religion/culture, and nerfing it would just be frustrating, it ought to be removed. Luckily, Paradox already has the framework for a great A&C system.
Infrastructure & Laws, a proposed alternative to cabinet action:
1) A&C should primarily take place through government investment in infrastructure like universities, courts, theaters, and churches/mosques. Paradox has already included such modifiers for buildings, so this is prime for replacing the cabinet as the main mechanic. A&C infrastructure would be more rewarding than cabinet A&C button because players would have to weigh A&C against other building goals, it would provide incentive to build cultural infrastructure that was historically important, and it would encourage the player to interact with locations on the map rather than the cabinet menu. "I built a grand church/theater in [location] so people there gradually converted or learned my language" is more engaging than “cabinet member used abstract method to change culture in [location].” A&C infrastructure would be more realistic because players would focus on densely populated areas first (where A&C happened historically) and infrastructure like churches/schools encourage A&C in an intuitive and historical way. This could simultaneously be more realistic and fun by scaling with technology and state capacity over the span of the game. By end game, the player may even be able to build a school system like the French did to achieve mass A&C.
As an example, building for A&C created a fun gameplay loop in Imperator Invictus with theaters and temples. It was probably overtuned though.
2) Laws could also possibly be an engaging way to change A&C, with things like "restricting right of X minority to ride horses/bear arms" or "special privileges to primary culture/religion." This would provide a less abstract mechanism for A&C, give extra flavor, and give the player an interesting tradeoff between unrest and furthering A&C. However, I do realize this would probably be extra work for the devs compared to the already existing building modifiers.
3) If the cabinet A&C mechanic must remain, then it should at least cost something and cause substantial unrest.
Other thoughts:
It ought to be said that the devs have done a great job with religion and culture mechanics generally, including control and cultural strength features. The devs have also done a great job of making managing diversity a core part of the game. Even other cabinet features, like immigration/emigration actions are more realistic, as government resettlement was more common historically and moving people is less abstract than a premodern cabinet somehow changing the language of masses of peasants in 20 years. Moving pops also presents the player with strategic tradeoffs and a tool to manage diversity, while somehow assimilating a whole region presents no downside.
In game A&C should be balanced to be realistically slow. We should normally still see minorities like Jews in Europe and Greeks in Anatolia in the end game. It should take ~200 years to fully wipe out the Old Prussians (wiped out around 16th-17th century irl). If balanced properly, my proposal could depict A&C at a realistic pace. My proposal would also engage the player by depicting A&C as a result of long-term investment in specific locations and laws, rather than primarily the abstract action of a cabinet member.
Any suggestions by the rest of the community are welcome.
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