Progress Report 43: Uniquely Generic (Generic Trees)
Hello, and welcome to Progress Report 41 for Calm Before the Storm. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the
Generic Trees.
These trees have been made by myself and Basileios55, so we will both be describing the trees, depending on who made them.
Generic trees are placeholder focus trees that nations without their own focus trees will use.
All nations without trees in 0.1 will have generic trees. Our generic trees are also
Modular, meaning that they will take into account a nation’s ideology, geographic location, and economy. As such, there are many combinations of tree sections.
Nations cannot change ideology through these trees. Parts of the trees are also sometimes locked to certain ideologies, even within the group. Full tree pictures will have the most recent icons.
Politics:
Far-Left: s_team337
The
Far-Left Generic Tree will only be used in
Leninist and Revolutionary Socialist Nations. This means only
Mongolia and Tannu Tuva will start with it. Both are Leninist.
Each political tree has three sections:
Government Policies (Civil Service, Internal Political Relations, etc),
Social Policies, and
Economic Structure. Of course, no tree is specifically bound to this structure, but that is the general idea.
As I have said, nations are locked to certain decisions based on ideology. As Mongolia and Tannu Tuva are Leninist, they are
locked to certain Leninist options. Revolutionary Socialist nations are more
free to choose.
Despite these restrictions, we have endeavoured to keep the amount of focuses available to each ideology equal.
The Civil Service Section of the tree starts off with a
Purge. Revolutionary Socialists are free to dismiss those who are deemed ideologically unfit, whereas Leninist nations are locked into more fierce purges. After that, they will be allowed to
crack down on ideological enemies. After Improving the Secret Police, Leninist Nations will continue (or begin if puppeted) to politicize the judiciary, whereas the
Revolutionary Socialists can keep it mostly independent.
In the middle we have
Government Structure and Social Policy. Obviously,
“Follow Lenin” is exclusive to Leninism, and “Our Own Path” is exclusive to Revolutionary Socialism. Leninist Government Structures will
always conform to the Soviet Model. Although
we are aware that the Dictatorship of the Proletariat is a Marxist term that in theory does not necessarily mean a totalitarian state, that is what it meant in Practice, and is thus used to differentiate the Soviet Form of Government from other forms.
Revolutionary Socialists, on the other hand,
have a choice between a Centralized Dictatorship (
which is intentionally more vague than the Leninist Option) and a Decentralized Democracy that relies on the Workers’ Councils. After dealing with Social Reactionarism/Progressivism, Far-Left nations would be able to
choose their stances on nationalism. Afterwards comes some focuses on militias and political education.
The
Economic Structure tree provides the expected option between Soviet-Style Planned Economies and Vague Non-Soviet Systems. As before, Leninist nations are locked into Command Economies and Forced Collectivization while
Revolutionary Socialist nations are free to choose After these and some public works, the nation will be ready to decide their
policy towards unions.
Democracies: Basileios55
The
Democratic tree covers all nations that start as Social Conservative, Liberal Conservative, Market Liberal, Social Liberal or Social Democrat. The tree also supports Democratic Socialists or Authoritarians if they come to power democratically.
The “
Negotiate with the Opposition” branch deals with the stabilization of the country, and while the first 3 focuses are always available, “Stabilize the Country” and beyond requires the nation to have less than 80% stability. As usual, some options are blocked for certain ideologies. For example, Market Liberals can’t negotiate with the workers, and Social Conservatives can’t implement progressive ideas. All options give a bonus but also a debuff, so there’s a bit of strategy here.
In the center we can find various choices that are usually not ideology-locked and give various buffs to research, resources, law cost, political power, etc. These buffs are all temporary though, so some planning is required to optimise them.
The last tree is the Economic Policy section, with the two usual choices: Laissez-Faires or Interventionism? Market Liberals can’t pick intervention, while Social Democrats and Democratic Socialists can’t liberalise. They basically give different kinds of economic bonuses, that are mostly temporary like many bonuses granted by the generic trees.
Far-Right: s_team337:
The
Far-Right tree covers the
Remaining Authoritarians, Western Autocratic Despotists, and all Far-Right Authoritarian and Fascist countries.
The
Civil Service section features a purge, then
campaigns against ideological enemies. Authoritarian nations are able to
tighten their control over the courts, while Fascists are able to go further and establish special courts specifically for show trials. As you can see, AutDes and FarAut nations can do either.
The
Ideology Section is a little bit more complex. Essentially, as you move from left to right, it gets more totalitarian. After this, the nation will have to make a choice between
standard Reactionary Traditionalism and the more radical Reactionary Modernism:
Traditionalism, as the description says, looks to emulate the political systems and values of the Pre-WW1 Empires.
Reactionary Modernism, on the other hand, seeks to emulate pre-modern values using modern systems and terminology. For example, a 17th Century Absolute (European) Monarchy has a King or Emperor that derives their right to rule from an alleged mandate from God. A Fascist State in the 1920’s and 1930’s features a Supreme Ruler that derives their right to rule from an alleged mandate from their own strength (a personality cult). This is a key component of Fascism. For more information, see Shenfield’s
Russian Fascism: Traditions, Tendencies, Movements.
The nation will then be able to continue on other
ideological and bureaucratic changes.
The
Economics section comes with a choice between
Pro-Market and Regulatory Policies. “Empower the Corporations” means that the government moves back on regulations and intervention to allow a laissez-faires system to govern. This grants the state some Political Power (government resources can be used elsewhere) and the economy gains increased efficiency, but the state has fewer factories at its disposal and stability is hurt. “Control the Corporations” moves the government in a Corporatist direction, where the state should generally be able to make decisions in cooperation with other sectors of the nation (in this case the private sector as the laborers were generally not consulted under Authoritarian Corporatism). Such government interference in the economy gives opposite effects to the former option. These lead naturally into
Deregulation and Coordination. Hopefully, these speak for themselves.
This follows into the next choice. Now, it might not make much sense for the Anti-Corporation Path to allow Privatize Services, but this happened historically in Fascist Italy and National Socialist Germany. However, both nations nationalized some industries at times. Ergo, both choices are available to all ideologies in the Group.
Eastern Absolute Monarchies: s_team337
Non-Western Absolute Monarchies will start with their own
Absolute Monarchy Tree. This tree is based off of eastern nations’ (mainly Afghanistan and Iran) efforts to modernize during the early 20th century.
The
Civil Service section mainly involves a choice between
Western-Style Reforms or Traditional Systems. The nation will purge those who are not willing to support the monarch’s positions, which will allow the monarch to restructure the bureaucracy the way they see fit. At the end of the tree, the Monarchy, as an institution, will have been
properly prepared for the modern era.
The
ideology tree is not locked between different ideologies, since the only valid ideology for this tree is Autocratic Despotism.
It is a simple choice between modernizing political life by centralizing political activity around the Monarch and their Cabinet (while enacting social reforms) or basing it around the traditional institutions of the Nobility and Clergy. Curtailing the old institutions will give you more ability to act politically, but slightly decrease your authority in the long-term, while
empowering generally has the opposite effect. (We are aware that none of the countries with this tree are Christian; the icon is a placeholder that has since been replaced, as the full tree shows).
The economic section follows a similar theme:
do you wish to introduce modern industry, or leave the economy with a traditionalist agrarian structure? If you choose to industrialize, you must choose whether
to engage in economic dirigisme, or allow the free market to grow your nation: Meanwhile, maintaining the Traditional System
will grant you more stability, but will also force you to rely on the West for modern weapons.
Economics: Basileios 55
One problem with the vanilla generic tree is that it is too strong for some countries like Nepal or Oman and too weak for countries like Spain. We aim to fix that problem in 2 ways:
First, we have two different economic trees. One economic tree for Europe and the Americas, and another one for Asia and Africa. ( As usual, China is not included ). This allows to have more flavor in the trees, and better adapt its effects.
Second, the trees have more restrictions, meaning nations with few factories will miss out on the best bonuses, adding some balance to the game.
So let’s start with the “
Developed” Economy tree, for the Americas, Europe, Australia and NZ. The first part deals with a problem that almost all countries with this tree faced: the Great Depression. It also provides access to the 4th research slot, provided the country has enough factories. After completing that tree, then some more significant reforms and projects can be started, with many research buffs and the 5th research slot awaiting countries with enough factories (more factories needed than in base game). Military factories are here too, in the same number as vanilla.
The “
Underdeveloped” Economic tree is bigger, to reflect that countries with this tree will need more time and effort to build a strong economy. As you can see, it is divided into 3 parts. The first part is open for all countries and grants very weak bonuses: 2 infrastructure, 1 civilian factory, stability, etc. Those countries that build enough factories can gain access to the 2nd part, that gives better and more varied bonuses, like a research slot ( the 3rd, usually ), construction buffs, and factories. Finally, those who manage to build a lot of factories can gain access to the 3rd part, with very strong focuses and the 4th research slot.
Military: Basileios55
The Military tree is shared by all countries in the world. It is divided into 3 branches, as usual: navy, air force and army. Let’s start with the
airforce tree (Screenshots taken playing as Sweden). Military trees are usually very straightforward and don’t need a lengthy explanation: it gives research bonuses in the chosen fields, with some airbases and air xp thrown in. A final choice allows countries with a coastline to beef up their naval aviation, while those who don’t have coastline can get rockets instead (provided they have enough factories).
The
Army tree is very flexible and has trees for all 4 land doctrines. They are however blocked by factory count and manpower, with Grand Battleplan open for everyone. As usual, it has research bonuses, army experience, and a military factory.
Finally, we come to the
Navy tree. It mostly provides research bonuses and experience (no surprises here) with a final choice to be made between more dockyards or doctrine research bonuses. The entire tree is blocked, as you might expect, for landlocked nations.
Foreign Policy:
Foreign Policy in a generic tree? Yes, that’s right. It will be very basic, but it will allow generic countries to align with a great power and, if applicable, join a faction and enter the fight! They are regional, with trees for Europe, Americas, Asia and finally one for colonial states like Jordan, Newfoundland or Syria.
Europe: Basileios55
The **
European foreign tree has 3 paths:
Peaceful Neutrality gives economic bonuses (temporary, as you must know at this point) while Armed Neutrality gives military bonuses, a permanent buff to division defense in core territory and mobilization speed. However, if you want to enter the big fight (without being attacked, that is) you have to take a side.
Approaching either power will improve their opinion of you and will also facilitate trade. The military tech bonus received after completing “Military Cooperation” is also determined by the great power you pick.
Finally, some countries will have special decisions to join factions, and those will demand to take a side and do it for the chosen faction. That way, generic countries are actually playable!
Americas: Basileios55
The
Americas tree has also 3 branches: Peaceful and Armed Neutrality we have already seen in Europe, and the “Ties with the USA” section. Basically, countries under the Monroe doctrine can choose to align with the USA at the cost of your people being angry at you for giving up sovereignty (stability losses) and the US becoming more and more influential in decision-making, with the final focus removing the possibility of refusing American demands to join the Allies, for example. However, it also gives several bonuses, and if you plan to join the Allies anyway it can be a good choice. Here we have the tree.
Asia: s_team337
Asian nations will get a nearly identical tree to the Europeans, with Far-Off Germany swapped out for Japan:
Colonial Nations: s_team337
Colonial nations will use the
Colonial Foreign Policy Tree. It comes in three sections. The option on the left is to draw closer to your overlord in order to get military and economic bonuses from them at the cost of autonomy. The option in the center is to keep the status quo for stability bonuses. The option on the right is to try and gain autonomy
(Dominions cannot go down this path). While it gives more autonomy, it comes at the cost of
military and economic maluses. The end of each tree will give the nation more
parties in their coalition.
British Colonies get a
slightly different tree. While the general idea is the same, the effects are of a
somewhat different magnitude.
Release Date: s_team337
We know that many have been waiting patiently for over two years now as CBtS has been in development. In that vein, have been working as much as we can to deliver. However, there must come a time when we should actually deliver something. That is why we would like to
announce that the release of the first Beta Version of CBtS will drop in August, 2020! The exact date will remain private in case a situation arises where we cannot physically upload the mod and thus need a couple more days.
The
First Release will be a Hard Release, meaning that whatever is done will be in the mod. Incomplete nations will be given a generic tree. This means, as an example, that the German Civil War and Leftist Germany will not be in until the Second Major Version, as we will simply not have time to make it.
