More Meaningful Education Systems
This is a very lightweight mod that only modifies the school system laws and institutions to make them more meaningful while staying compatible with all other mods (if you’re playing with another mod that modifies these laws, you either want this one to overwrite it, or you just don’t want to use this mod at all).
All this mod changes is what you can see in the images above, adds some small changes within the laws to make the AI more inclined to pass education laws, and finally, it makes all laws be unlocked with rationalism, so you can stop reading if that is all you care about. This is a rough first try, probably needs some more tweaking to be balanced.
First of all, I create this mod because I believe education is one of the most important, if not the most important, development during this era. Public, modern schools are what vertebrated the nation-states that we know today, creating a singular, unified identity for the different peoples of the world; and yet the game simply slaps an education access modifier to each law and very little more, like extra clout to IGs that magically disappears as the law is changed, as if that unmade the education received by the people.
Second of all, I wanted to create a very lightweight mod that could be introduced or removed from any playlist, even mid-game, so journals, events, modifying universities or adding schools as new buildings was out of the plate. This mod only affects the 4 laws within the school system laws, no more, no less.
I believe institutions are an incredibly lazy and uninspired way to deal with the rise of education, but it is what we have, so I try to make do with it.
- These changes make modernisation very rough for underdeveloped states that start with no schools. Expect these countries to have little to no literacy until they pass an education law, which they should if they get a leader with an appropiate ideology or from an specific IG (for example, the devouts will try to pass religious schools, and market liberals will try to pass private schools, in both cases without waiting for a popular movement to appear). The qualifications malus on top of the low literacy will make it very hard for these countries to make use of any sort of advanced production method (Note: Laborers require nothing, shopkeepers require 5 wealth, machinists require 10+ literacy, engineers require 20+ literacy). Any education is better than none, so don’t wait around on no schools until you can pass public schools (which is very expensive anyways) while you could be on religious or private schools (which are very cheap to get going). Tip: Use the innovation decree and build universities in 1-3 states that you want to industrialise if you don’t have schools.
- Religious and private schools are very cheap because I’ve made use of the new modifier introduced in 1.7 to make them cost only a quarter of the bureaucracy they normally would, while also making it four times slower to increase or reduce their level, to represent the limited influence the state would have over these. On the other hand, public schools are three times as expensive as any other institution would be, but can be increased or reduced at regular speed.
- All systems have negative education access when enacted, but better scaling, having a single level will roughly get you were you would be without the mod, and the difference between having your children work the mines with max education level 3 or implementing compulsory schools with max education level 5 will be very noticeable. Countries that don’t have the resources to expand their education will lag behind, while those that can, flourish.
- The change from IG political strength to pop attraction will make the political effects of these laws build up slower but be more long-lasting, as pop attraction sets a balance point (much like education access) to which a value approaches, so staying for a long time on a well-developed education system will have a deep and long-lasting effect on the political landscape (or at least it should, let me know if it’s ♥♥♥♥ lol), even after you’ve swapped your education system, as people who were, for example, educated by nuns and priests, don’t so readily forget their experiences.
- All school systems have both assimilation and conversion, although to different degrees, which should help somewhat with performance (not the main objective, just a side effect). Countries with a well developed public school system should look a lot more homogeneous, and countries with state atheism will actually be able to actively convert their population.
- If you’re wondering why on Earth would you want over 100% education access, it increases the growth speed A LOT, which is useful both for your pops to actually hit 100% rather than just getting close to it and for newly acquired pops (via conquest or immigration).
Let me know if you have any ideas on how to improve this mod (remember, everything must work within the 4 laws, no modifications outside of that). I probably should buff public schools further, although I am unsure (maybe a little bit of +enact chance because the population is more pliant?)
Feel free to change, repost, steal, or do whatever you want with this mod. Take parts of it, take it whole, integrate it within another mod, do as you like, don’t ask for permission, just do it, no need to credit me either (this is a very simple mod anyways, with nothing fancy).
