Colonial Expansion

The main issues this mod will aim to fix are:
Mass immigration to colonial deserts rather than historical cities
Little to no control over provincial colonial affairs
Inability to distinguish or designate settler colonies from economic colonies
Historically inaccurate levels of migration to colonies without large costs to the state

The principles of the proposed fixes are:
Colonies should be expensive and net unprofitable unless they are specifically developed to make money or full of settlers or full of rare resources.

Settler provinces should be large in population but few in number (for historical examples, extensive italian immigration to the cities of libya and somalia took place, but few Italians set themselves up in the countryside. Settlement patterns elsewhere were in general similar).

Settling large numbers of people in the colonies should be difficult, expensive, and time consuming. Settler colonies should be able to progress without massive state support, but will progress much more slowly, and have a chance to regress. Economic colonies will be easier to manage, and colonies that are backwaters or loosely controlled should not become industrial paradises or be heavily settled.

Due to limitations of the engine and game, the colonial status of each province will be set through flags. This does not mean that event spam will be necessary to allow more interaction.

These changes will not apply to any colonies controlled by American or oceanic nations, in order to avoid bizarre outcomes.

Problems to Solve:
Make the AI use the new system in somewhat believable ways.
Don't crash the world economy with the new colonial costs.
Let Russian/Westernized African countries not suffer from new system- Current proposed temporary fix: exclude countries with African capitals and russia for now.

Proposed New Province Flags:

Not all flags are completely superior to their predecessors. For example, the opportunity to transition from direct rule to economic exploitation of a province will provide the player/AI with more of a sidegrade than an upgrade



     ---> Small Settler Presence ---> Struggling Settlement (Not always required) ---> Growing Settlement ---> Settler Colony
None
     ---> Indirect Rule ---> Direct Rule ---> Economic Exploitation

    ---> Colonial Backwater ---> Indirect Rule (Low probability of upgrade chance from Colonial Backwater)

Flags Explained

When new colonies are acquired, and the flags are enabled through the decision only available to non-American/Oceanic countries, after a short while a province event will fire for each province (short MTH). The event will present 3 choices: attempting to found a settlement, attempting to co-opt enough locals to rule indirectly, or to ignore the province as a colonial backwater.

Backwaters are the simplest, in that the province flag will moderately reduce RGO output/throughput, massively reduce immigration attraction to that province, and provide a militancy and consciousness lowering effect. Provinces like jungles or inhospitable deserts are the most likely candidates for this status, as it will allow the player/AI to effectively ignore them, much as in real life. Designating a province as a backwater will cost nothing, and has a 100% chance of placing the flag if chosen in the option.

The indirect rule path is a bit more complicated, and is about the tradeoff between profit and stability. Choosing the indirect rule option will cost a small-moderate amount of cash up front, and the flag will have a high chance of being placed. If the flag isn't placed by the event, you will have to pay the cost again when the event pops up, representing the difficulties in setting up this system. Indirect rule lowers militancy moderately and slightly increases consciousness over time. In addition, it provides a small penalty to rgo output/throughput. Direct rule and economic exploitation both have the effect of increasing rgo output/throughput and increasing militancy and consciousness. The effects are more dramatic with economic exploitation. All of these flags will provide a pretty high reduction in immigration attraction.

The settler path is the most expensive and difficult of the three, and takes the longest time. Setting up the initial settlement is a less than 50% chance in the original event, meaning you could have to pay the not insignificant cost 2-4 times before it works. Settlements will be very expensive to fully support, but if you opt in the following events to provide little or no support, there is a possibility of the settlement turning into a struggling settlement, which has much larger penalties to rgo output/throughput, militancy, and consciousness than the small presence. At the end of the path, the settler colony provides bonuses to all categories, with the exception of consciousness which is still raised over time. Each level of the settler track increases the province's immigration attraction dramatically, with struggling settlement having the lowest effect, and settler colony having the highest.