Guilds, Secret Police, and Other Stuff
Secret Police
I was once thinking how the presence of an agent such as a rake could help to quiet the civil unrest of some areas. A malicious, devious agent could be used to kill off revolutionary leaders and writers, spread rumors beneficial to the establishment, and generally speak truth to power. It then happened upon me that there could perhaps be some sort of intelligence headquarters built at the home capital that could organize such counterinsurgencies.
Is it possible to mod into existence a building that represents the nation's intelligence/secret police headquarters that, once built, gives rakes the ability to contribute a bonus to repression once garrisoned? For when a headquarters exists, there is an organized arm of government that will receive vital information about domestic affairs, and give out specific orders for the faction's covert agents.
How about also giving rakes the ability to cause gradually-increasing civic unrest when garrisoned in region capitals of factions of different government types? (if we cannot mod it by garrison, can we do it by presence in the region, like the effects missionaries have?) I think this could open up very interesting possibilities for defeating the enemies of the nation: the possibilities of inducing a rebellion can be very effective.
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Guilds
Is it possible to mod in guilds in the style of M2:TW? Built into the home capital, a chapter could make it so guild affiliations convey some bonuses to appropriate agents and/or ministers, or give the nation a bonus in trade or building rate. This, to me, is sensible as guilds would restrict membership to those of some outstanding achievement, which effectively lumps in the ministers and agents, as they would generally be from notable backgrounds and/or educated and/or very talented at their trade.
An assassins' guild could give bonuses to rakes; a scholarly society could give extra research bonus to gentlemen, as well as some competence boni justice, army, navy and heads of state ministers; a merchants' guild could grant a bonus income from trade, and perhaps have an effect on the ministers of America and India; a banking guild could provide a bonus to tax income, and to the treasury minister; the Freemasons would provide boni to construction and research rate, and a religious sect/society would have effects on the missionaries, as well as religious traits of ministers.
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Territorial Expansion
As a primarily Dutch player, I love going after America and India. Something that stifled me at first, though, was when I was at the height of my Indian conquest, which involves intense conflicts at times, was that nations would start getting on my back about territorial expansion. At that time, I had little money to spare on state gifts, because I was busy handling three to four full-stacks, reinforcing and re-recruiting for them. Things simply mattered more than diplomatic relations.
I was thinking, however, how it makes little sense that all of the world would care what I do in equal measure. For example, I believe that conquering in the European theatre should have more effect on public relations with European factions than conquering in India or America. Remember that back then, colonialism and slavery were not "uncool." It was actually a matter of prestige to have more colonies and milk the crap out of the indigenous populations to make more product. I think Indian nations should care more about what I do in India than European ones, and the same goes for the Americas. What should start riling up the Europeans is if I start going Barbarossa on their arse. In this case, however, should the Marathas really care? They're busy fighting the Mughals in India. So what if a European overtakes another?
I say, let us have a global effect on public relations in proportion to the size of one's empire and recent conquests. If I'm huge and am still gobbling up smaller nations, everyone should start fearing me and becoming distrustful of me. A second effect on diplomacy should be dependent on just my recent conquests. If I conquer in your theatre, you will not want to be near me. This effect has more drastic immediate magnitude which wears off after a few years, while the global effect sticks due to the size of my empire. So, slowly but surely, people will hate you as you get bigger, but they won't think you're Hitler when you only own four provinces and simply take a fifth.
