Realistic Conversion and Assimilation

"Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed saepe cadendo." — Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto
"The waterdrop hollows the stone not by force, but by falling often."

The EU5 devs put so much work into articulating the vast cultures of the world just to have them be wiped out by French & Czech halfway through the game. As it stands, I found the mechanics regarding cultural assimilation, religious conversion, and pop growth to be greatly unbalanced and unrealistic. The Pontic Steppe is Mongolian by 1400. Cyprus & Crete become Poitevin and Venetian respectively within a decade. Minorities such as Ashkenazi might as well not be in the game. In reality, cultural and even religious conversion happens much slower and is much less absolute. People have historically been much less willing to give up their entire identity that they and their forefathers have had for centuries than the game portrays. (Ex: Orthodox Greeks maintained a very large population in Anatolia into the 1900’s despite centuries of occupation by Sunni Turks). While this mod does not fix everything, it has curbed most of the fixable abuses that I noticed in an attempt to create a more rewarding and realistic game.

Realistic Conversion and Assimilation overhauls the culture and religion conversion mechanics of Europa Universalis V, removing passive drift and replacing it with a system where change requires deliberate, active effort. Converting and assimilating a population is not an administrative inevitability — it is a political project, and it should feel like one. All meaningful conversion and assimilation now flows from cabinet actions. If you are not investing political resources into changing a population’s culture or religion, that population does not change.
Geographic reality also matters. Flatlands and farmland are accessible and administratively penetrable. Mountains, deserts, jungles, and arctic terrain resist the reach of the state. A missionary in the Alps faces different conditions than one in the Loire Valley, and the numbers reflect that.

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CHANGES:

CONVERSION & ASSIMILATION CHANGES
– Passive assimilation and conversion is rebalanced.
* Core: +0.0001 assimilation / +0.00005 conversion
* Integrated: +0.00002 assimilation / +0.00001 conversion
* Conquered: -0.0005 assimilation / -0.002 conversion
– Advances that previously granted passive assimilation/conversion now grant an assimilation/conversion speed multiplier instead.
– Tribesmen cannot be culturally assimilated, they must be promoted to peasants first.

CABINET ACTIONS REBALANCED
– Vanilla cabinet action rates have been reduced to reflect realistic pacing:
* Convert Population (Promote Religion) is altered from 0.04 to 0.01.
* Assimilate Population (Promote Culture) is altered from 0.04 to 0.005.
* Assimilate Population of Area (Assimilate Area) is altered from 0.02 to 0.005.

TRIBAL PROMOTION REBALANCED
– Tribal promotion is slowed to no longer be instant, passively it has been altered from 0.5 to 0.1.
* Settle Tribesmen remains at +5.0, with this being the main tool to promote tribesmen without a passive rate.
* Literacy impact has been altered from +0.5 per 1% literacy to +0.1 per 1% literacy (Max of +10.0 at 100% literacy).
* Madrasa buildings add +0.25.
* Great Madrasa buildings add +0.5.
* Missionary buildings add +0.5.
* The Tribal Registry estate privilege has been fixed to prevent tribesmen from promoting across all cultures, not just the primary culture.

POP GROWTH
– Slave pops can now grow.
– Minority cultures can now grow in cores.

STATE RELIGION CHANGE LIMITS
– Christian, Muslim, & Jewish countries are restricted from changing their religion to another religion outside of their same religious group (Ex: Catholic states can change their religion to Lutheranism, but not to Sunnism or Shintoism).
* No more Orthodox Ottomans & Hindu Delhi!

DEMOGRAPHIC PRESSURE
– Countries whose primary culture falls below 5% of the national population will no longer be able to culturally assimilate, as you cannot assimilate others into a culture that barely exists in your realm.
– Countries with <5% primary culture will also suffer a persistent +1% monthly nationalist rebel growth until that demographic is restored — consider releasing vassals in high minority pop lands to govern in your place.
* This is to prevent places like Cyprus, Crete, or small player created vassal states from fully assimilating the native populations within their very small (and thus unnaturally assimilated) territory.
– Assimilation and Conversion rate effectiveness is also scaled down when the primary culture is demographically marginal:

– Tiers of Assimilation Rate Penalties:
* 10%-12.5%: -0.001
* 7.5%-10%: -0.002
* 5%-7.5%: -0.003
* <5%: Disallowed

– Tiers of Conversion Rate Penalties:
* 10-12.5%: -0.002
* 7.5-10%: -0.004
* <7.5%: -0.006

GEOGRAPHIC MODIFIERS:
– Conversion and assimilation cabinet actions are effected by a location’s topography, vegetation, and climate as follows:

– Topography:
* Flatland: x1.10
* Plateau: x1.00
* Hills: x0.95
* Wetlands: x0.90
* Mountains: x0.80

– Vegetation:
* Farmland: x1.075
* Grasslands: x1.05
* Sparse: x1.025
* Woods: x1.00
* Forest: x0.975
* Jungle: x0.95
* Desert: x0.875

– Climate:
* Mediterranean: x1.05
* Oceanic: x1.025
* Continental: x1.00
* Subtropical: x0.9875
* Cold Arid: x0.975
* Hot Arid: x0.95
* Tropical: x0.9375
* Arctic: x0.925

OTHER CHANGES
– Soldier, laborer, & tribesmen pops are now able to inherently migrate.
– The base cultural capacity is altered from 0 to 2.

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Compatibility:

– Should be compatible with most things that don’t completely alter the game, as I used injections for most changes!
– Any other mods used that alters or adds/removes assimilation/conversion will likely throw off my values, but it likely should still run.
– When using my other mods place as follows: RCA, COTL, Compatch.

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Inspired by the Conversion and Assimilation Overhaul mod.

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My Other Mods:

– Crimes of the Leviathan: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3686425341
* My other mod that adds other cabinet actions to manipulate pops with such as migrate, enslave, purge, & integrate.

– RCA + COTL Compatch: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3686426246
* Compatibility Patch for both of my mods. Load RCA, then COTL, then the Compatch.

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Feel free to drop your suggestions and findings in the comments below! I’m very open to new ideas or tweaks if people want them!

If you’d like to donate:
https://venmo.com/u/caden_harvey_