On Sliders

[alhoward]

In EUIII, we had a system where the most important aspects of government policy were set by a system of sliders, representing how centralized a nation was, or how inclined to protectionist policy it was. These were changed at regular intervals, and had the effect of causing a one time bonus or malus such as the spawning of a small group of rebels, or an increase of stability. I was reading Machiavelli, and I was struck by his passage on centralized monarchs:

Now, all princedoms are governed in one of two ways: either by a sole prince served by ministers, or by a prince with barons who hold their rank not by favour but by right of descent. The Turk is an example of the first, the French king of the second. A state of the first kind is difficult to win, but when won is easily held, since the prince's family may be easily rooted out; but in such a state as France you may gain an entry, but to hold your ground afterwards is difficult since you cannot root out the barons.

Machiavelli is comparing a decentralized aristocratic state (France) with a centralized bureaucratic state (the Ottoman Empire). This got me thinking about sliders. Perhaps some manner of de jure centralization can be put in, with a system similar to the way cores are set up, where they are slowly assimilated over time to the level of centralization of the empire. A province with low centralization might have a much higher revolt risk in a highly centralized state, and vice versa. This would prevent a rush toward centralization in still semi-feudal Western Europe, and could do a lot more to address a significant balance between the two.

I think there's a lot that could be added to sliders, any other thoughts?

 

[Arizal]

So you would basically like that if the provinces would respond differently when you are trying to centralize them based on their similarity or difference from your oldest provinces. I'm all in.The Hapsburg tentatives to unify their diverse possessions would be much easier to bring in and such countries would be less frequent. It would be a step toward a kind of realism, I think.