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Colonization Rebalance (Spain/Portugal & Colonial Europe) (V2!)

Welcome to the Colonial Iberia/Europe Re-balancing Mod! I presume you’re tired of Portugal and Castile/Spain spam colonizing everything and every single game along with some unfixed issues being unresolved.

Version 2 is out! Thanks for reaching 150 subscribers (at a loss of only 5 people)! Glad to see this is useful




With the release of Domination, the colonial aspect of the game was ruined by the extreme buffing of Portugal and Spain who would both develop a large amount of colonies even colonial nations by 1500. I developed this mod to severely reduce the colonial speed of these nations along with other potential colonial candidates while making sure they at least have some colonies by the time the Institution spawns. The result should be more random and variety in colonization from various powers rather than it be just mostly those two.
(Unless you purposefully want a nerfed Portugal/Spain game, obviously don't run this mod while playing them)

I hope for some feedback if possible






Exploration Ideas: AI Nations will 98% of the time not take this idea group first to prevent the early colonial blobbing I mentioned. Portugal and Castile take exploration 2nd (sometimes 3rd) and other countries like France and England will potentially take it later. I still ensure they take it in order to allow colonialism to spawn in time and for Mesoamerican/Native players to be able to reform.

Expansion Ideas: Some nations like Portugal are barred or discouraged from taking Expansion Ideas and no one will take it until 1560-ish. Both countries taking both Expansion and Exploration first along with their buffs contributed to the blobbing. AI nations shouldn’t take it unless they did Exploration first with some exceptions.

Ideas: Portuguese Age idea is reduced from 50 to 25 Settlers to slow them down.
Castile's Final Ambition reduced from 25 to 15 Settlers
Expansion Idea "Faster Colonists" reduced from 20 to 10 Settlers

Increased Variety: Provided they meet the AI preference in a game (that influences AI choosing certain idea groups unless Idea is always pre-decided) various nations will take Colonial ideas. I have seen and been told Brittany, Dutch States, Scotland, Mamluks/Egypt, Jolof, Ming, Vijayanagar, and others have colonized in different (but never every) playthrough. The colonization race won't always be biased towards Europe in contrast to vanilla which pretty much makes colonial Euro-exclusive.

Colonialism Institution Revisions: Special thanks to LimonenZitrone for the assistance on coding this!
- Replaced the Exploration Ideas requirement (Quest for New World, etc.) with "1 colonist required" so nations with Colonists in their National ideas or Temporary Colonists can spawn it. (I'd like feedfack on this change if it's better or worse? It was either do this or make an and/or argument in the code)
- Changed the Center of Trade Level requirement from 1 to 2 (most players would have their ports upgraded to 2 by 1500)
- Increased the spawning chance per qualified province/state to 10% from 5%.
- Added Oceania (excluding Australia) to allow Institution spawning should Polynesian players colonize New World. Be warned most of Oceania is considered islands but strangely Hawaii, Fiji, and NZ/Aotearoa are not.




Colonization Rebalance (Map Rework Submod) (Colonial Region changes moved here)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3430159808
In short, allows NZ/Aotearoa to not be a colonial region, tweaked the California Nation. Didn't want it to interfere with other player's Colonial Nation mods in main mod based on feedback




If individuals have advice/suggestions on what to add to this mod, type up something in the discussion or comment.

- Nerf Local Organization (Augustinans from 0.5/month to 0.25/month)

- Further nerfing: Might work on nerfing colonial nations and their rewards. Find ways to further curb Iberia?

- Map redrawing: Since Paradox has yet to address the large wastelands like Great Basin not filling in, I might as well do it in the future by adding provinces and redrawing the boundaries. This will be the hardest part of the mod so I can't specify when I can do this. (Will likely be splitting this into an add-on for this mod)




- I am aware colonialism takes longer to spawn sometimes, I usually see it spawn in this mod around 1502-1506 about 70-80% of the time, even 1500 still happens a lot more recently especially with the institution rework. Delays are usually caused by the primary colonists falling behind in diplomatic points for the idea group or you not meeting the 10% per met province chance.
- Commercial Enterprises (EIC and VOC) will not be impacted since many players like when they help colonize and they can seize the land. AI also never makes these or Sunset Colonies so they won't be nerfed.
- I will not be altering nations outside of Europe due to how rare we see them colonizing.
- I have been asked about Norway; due to them getting a colonist and an exploration bypass in their ideas there is nothing I can do. They rarely do anything colonially due to their low income. (Eu4 isn’t supposed to be easy for you!)
- Please remember to spawn Colonialism you need at least one lvl-2 center of trade (lvl-1 in vanilla), coastal 12-dev province(s), with a colony in the New World with 1 colonist (or an Exploration Idea in vanilla) present. Each qualified province increases your chance by 10% each (5% in Vanilla)




Improved/Accurate Country Names:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3285088898
Development Increase Mod:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3255182763
Culture Core Expiration Extension Mod
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3324756144
SIberian Frontier for Teutons, Livonians, and others
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3424463990
Shinto Incident Rework: Coming Fall 2025
Project Cicero: 2026