Fun and Balance minimod for EU4 1.6.1

Here's updated version of the Fun and Balance minimod. 1.6.1 introduced a lot of changes to the game, unfortunately also breaking it in half. Here I'm trying to salvage whatever is good about it while fixing the rest as much as possible.

The goal of this minimod is not to make any sweeping changes - just do the least necessary to make the game balanced and fix unfun mechanics.

I sometimes feel I do more balance playtesting of my minimod than Paradox does of their patches (as in - some is more than zero).

Download link.

New changes in this version

• Coalitions - previous versions of the mod removed them, but I'm going to keep them this time. AE levels got totally rebalanced, and they seem to be much less excessive, so it might be worth a try. If they turn out to be still broken, AE could be tweaked, or they could just go away completely again.
• Free relations increased from 4 to 8 (previously 6), all bonuses which got nerfed from +2 to +1 in the patch back to +2. Even increased it was pretty low, and the patch makes acquiring and keeping vassals more expensive than before.
• Diploannexation costs reduced from completely ridiculous 15/bt to 1/bt
• Cost to move primary trade port reduced from 300 to 100 dip, mostly because so many countries start with misplaced trade ports (and moving capital is only 200 adm)
• No diplovassalization base tax cap - since penalty is quadratic in size, it's very hard to abuse this.
• Muscovy/Russia does not get free colonist from national ideas. They got massive boost by annexing Perm a lot faster, which ends up in them colonizing all of Siberia much earlier than in previous patches. This somewhat balances that out, but even with the nerf Muscovy is still way too strong way too early.
• You don't need any idea groups to reform tribal government, just 200 adm, 90 legitimacy, and +3 stability. Forming Mughals / Qing / Persia also reverted to not require reformed tribal government. It was already extremely hard for AI to do that.
• Pirates who annoyed me so much are no longer there, replaced by the new privateer system! (well, if you have all the DLCs at least)

What I couldn't fix about the new patch

I wanted to make diploannexation to take longer (that why I want it cheap and with high limit - so you keep more vassals longer instead of mass annexing them ASAP), but that's hardcoded. This isn't really a huge deal, and if annexing vassals turns out to be too easy vassal annexed diplomatic penalty can simply be tweaked higher to make things right.

I also wanted to allow wider selection of rivals, but that's hardcoded as well. I really like power projection system, the only problem with it is how narrow and forced rival selection is. If you could choose from more potential rivals, it would be really good, but right now it only gets halfway there.

Previous changes

Detailed explanation in older posts - 1.5.0, 1.5.1.

• Buildings level 1-4 not destroyed on change of ownership
• Important religious center penalty reduced from -5% to -2% missionary chance
• Steppe Horde bonuses increased to +100% manpower, +100% land force limit, -50% land maintenance.
• Non-accepted culture penalty increased from +2RR to +4RR - this might be too much with new nationalism system
• Can't reduce war exhaustion while at war
• No naval attrition due to time at sea at any tech
• Cleansing of Heresy CB doesn't allow any province taking, but allows forced conversion at 25% cost
• Imperial Ban CB only generates 10% AE for illegally held provinces
• EU3 style republican elections (3 random candidates + incumbent, no skill changes or tradition loss on reelection)
• No Burgundian inheritance events
• High OE events increase with OE smoothly instead of massive cliff at 101% OE
• Foreign rebel support increased to 6% (3% in old patches, 4% in current patch)
• Accepted culture gain/loss thresholds both 10% for greater predictability
• Monarch point pool increased to 1500 to reduce tech micromanagement
• Culture change cost reduces from 25/bt to 10/bt
• Cores and claims last twice as long
• Coring time does not depend on size (supposedly new patch already does it)
• No protectorates, can vassalize anyone
• Vassals allowed to fabricate claims
• Vassals will buy provinces from overlord if they would as independent countries (it seems new patch already has that)
• Vassals will buy provinces up to 50% OE just like independent countries (limit was bugged in previous patch and they'd buy at any OE)

Enjoy. I fixed what I could, but for truly balanced experience we'll need a lot more modding support from Paradox.