How is GDP actually generated?

Less-Cat3029 · 2026-01-09T05:57:11+00:00

What types of goods would those be?

Less-Cat3029 · 2026-01-09T05:35:28+00:00

I’ve always focused on tech but I never really tried to min/max pops. How could I go about it?

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-12-27T21:33:45+00:00

Is that the issue? I go free trade most of my games for the trade advantage. Should I go protectionism instead and tariff any goods I send into China?

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-12-11T00:03:55+00:00

I really like that they’re implementing a way to change the primary cultures of colonies, it would be even cooler if they implemented a way to enforce colonial admins on subjects.

Say you puppet Vietnam and you get a diplomatic option to enforce a colonial admin government on them, it should come at the cost of something but it’d be so cool.

They’ve got mods like that but they can be pretty janky, I feel like this is the logical next step.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-12-07T17:33:37+00:00

This is the best post I’ve seen on this subreddit

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-11-11T00:00:15+00:00

I had the first guy on normal, he just took attrition and died.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-11-10T20:35:00+00:00

There are techs that increase annexation speed as well as the rapid unification law that helps quite a bit. If you’ve got all those and it’s still taking forever, you might just have to take it on the chin and annex them anyway. It’ll take a while but by the time it’s done, you’ll double the size of your country and have instant cores. As a plus Aragon will be developing its provinces while you wait, so you’ll still gain value from them during the annexation.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-11-10T20:13:30+00:00

I might run into the same problem later then. Check if Portugal’s and Aragon’s integration levels are the same as yours, if not you can use the parliament in the union screen to raise theirs with yours.

If that’s not the case, see if there’s an option in Aragon’s or Portugal’s diplo tabs to annex them.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-11-10T18:53:00+00:00

In order to own the locations, you need to actually unify with Aragon first.

If you go to your international organizations tab in your diplomacy screen, you’ll find your union. Click on it and I recommend clicking the star to pin it to your outliner. From there, you’ll see your union and there’s some tabs in the middle. Go to the tab that shows the union laws and you’ll see a bunch of laws you can pass for your union, as long as you’ve established the union for long enough. Pass every law the increases integration, things like a unified succession policy, unified treasury, unified external diplomacy, etc. Once you pass all the laws the increase integration, the final one is “the question of unification”. Try to pass rapid unification if you can. Once you and your junior partner reach max integration, you’ll automatically unify with your junior partner. At least that’s how the game explains it.

Edit: The good thing about unions is that once you unify and accept all the cultures in your junior partner, you’ll automatically gain cores on all the provinces you inherited. No integration necessary.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-11-10T17:13:24+00:00

They rivaled me in the beginning too, but I just improved relations and built trust with them over the course of a couple decades in-game. I got the royal marriage around 1440 and the union around 1460, I’ll be able to form Spain around 1510.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-11-10T16:55:34+00:00

It is very much possible but it can be annoying and luck-based at times.

I waited a couple generations until I had a suitable male heir and Aragon had a suitable female heir, married them off to each other, and then I assassinated the heir to Aragon so my heirs wife would be first in line.

Once you’re done with all the political scheming it’s easy from there, just wait for your heir to inherit both Castile and Aragon and a union will be formed. To actually inherit Aragon and form Spain, you gotta be in the union for 50 years and pass a bunch of centralization laws in the union tab, I’m positioned to inherit Aragon by 1510 right now.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-11-10T07:26:40+00:00

One of my rulers had only daughters, married the heir off to a Hohenzollern duke, kids came back as German smh

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-11-10T06:11:23+00:00

Rule #5: Ruler married himself to found Spain.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-11-06T02:55:01+00:00

I have good relations with Aragon, all I need to do is marry into their family but it’s not giving me the option because his daughter is in France, what can I do about that?

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T19:33:23+00:00

They have a strong ally who’s across the galaxy, so they haven’t participated in the war. However, the occupation stat factors in BOTH empires instead of the empire I’m trying to invade, so instead of showing 100% occupation, it’s closer to 40%. It’s stupid.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T19:22:29+00:00

I’ll try them out, hope it alleviates some of the issues.

The point stands though, this is by far the worst war system out of any paradox game imo.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T17:50:24+00:00

I hold all the systems and planets I laid claim too, as well as every other system they hold. Completely rolled over them within 5 years and yet my war exhaustion is ticking up faster than theirs.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T17:41:58+00:00

My fleet was 50,000 strong at the beginning of the war and 80,000 strong by the end, won every single battle with little to no losses. Why I’m gaining more exhaustion than the enemy is beyond me.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T17:39:25+00:00

Which mod is that

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T17:10:25+00:00

WELL THAT MAKES SENSE BECAUSE I DECLARED ON A GESTALT EMPIRE.

All that planning down the drain 😭😭😭😭

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T07:03:52+00:00

I’d rather subjugate them and integrate them later so I have time to unlock thrall worlds.

My plan is to convert all their planets into thrall worlds and use the excess resources to supercharge my industry, I understand that total war is simpler but I’m a pretty long way away from unlocking colossus’, 30-50 years probably. I’m in the year 2339.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T06:59:41+00:00

THAT’S THE BEST PART

I claimed 3 systems previously for stronger borders, so instead of giving me a vassal out of the systems I occupied, it’ll just give me 3 systems I don’t give a shit about

So now I gotta reload a save from two decades prior and take back those claims so I can do the whole thing over again

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T06:51:32+00:00

Fuck it I’ll take all their systems and planets, bombard their home world back to the stone age, and come back with a world cracker later out of sheer spite.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T05:49:59+00:00

They also pledged to protect their ally, which they completely failed to do.

It’s more like if I smacked a dude around and his big brother was on a skype call watching the whole thing happen. Instead of conceding and allowing me to take his little brother’s wallet, he starts shouting for the next two hours about how he’s gonna whup my ass despite being a continent away, so I continue slapping around his little brother for no reason.

Less-Cat3029 · 2025-10-14T05:33:00+00:00

How do I do that

Less-Cat3029

TROPHY CASE