Claiming the Mandate is Weaker
I was slightly annoyed at the ease at which claiming the mandate resulted in a shattered China instantaneously reunifying into a restored, thriving empire, at the snap of a finger, thus, the following changes:
Taking the "Claim the Mandate of Heaven" decision no longer automatically vassalizes every shared-heritage ruler in the de jure of China. You get the Hegemony title and the other rewards, but that’s it. Anyone with a Kingdom of Empire already isn’t going to just give up their claim, be it merely their crown or their own aspirations to the Mandate. Your tributaries also stay independant as hegemonic tributaries, so do keep that in mind if you were intending to absorb them. I’ve also re-added (and increased) the penalties to kings and emperors in China’s de jure accepting vassalage for similar reasons as to why they don’t get vassalized automatically. Again, better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of an ox, as I think it goes in the Zhan Guo Ce.
However, you now only need 33% of China’s de jure to take the decision. 33% is about 125 counties, which I feel was in line with some of the other big empires present on the map in the various start dates. Keep in mind that this places you well below the 50% threshold (190 counties), below which you’ll be suffering from the unchanged annual +100 push towards tension/division catalyst. You’ll also be precariously close to the 30% threshold, below which will trigger the unchanged catalyst that’ll instantly send you to back to division.
