HNN, GXC, CHI, YUN - Integrating the KMT and faction into gameplay (especially with Hunan)

[Qpwoalskq]

Describe the change you would like:

I was recently playing through as Hunan, and I decided to side with the Left KMT. Unfortunately for me, CHI (which had won the LEP uprising) managed to get defeated. This left me as the only LKMT state in China (since Liangguang did not go KMT either). In a previous playthrough of mine as Liangguang, I remembered I was in a similar situation. I had chosen to go with the LKMT, the CHI was defeated. In that playthrough, there was actually a procedure in place to anticipate this situation. In the case CHI has been defeated, and Liangguang finds itself as the main LKMT state left - it assumes the leadership of the faction and tag switches to CHI (although this option has been temporarily taken out, it's because CHI is undergoing a political update. This work is also why I'm bringing this up, so it's while things are already being worked on here)

This makes sense, as the gameplay and narrative of any run with the KMT depends heavily on the RoC tag + mechanics. And by the time the decision is relevant, there is already no chance that the KMT can take power anywhere else, so there's no worrying about priority issues. Playing through as Hunan, I was unable to access those, which left the game in a really weird position. Without those aspects, the gameplay was left feeling disconnected from the game itself. Even though I was nominally the KMT, the only way I could interact with anyone else was either manual justification, or a defensive war. And while I could eventually declare the Republic of China, just like any other Han tag, it's essentially just a name switch and a flag change. There is no change on the map or in the politics of the country, and it keeps everything else identical internally. It is no different then the declaration would be for any other warlord unifier. There's nothing to reflect that, supposedly, this is a China that has been united by a government that is the Kuomintang.

The same is also true for the path that Hunan has where it can align itself with the Right Kuomintang. If both Liangguang and Yunnan have not gone R-KMT, or have been eliminated, there's the same sense of chunkiness. Supposedly you're a Kuomintang government - but you do not have access to anything (except the provincial focuses) to actually represent that. It leaves the entire run with a feeling of emptiness. The only issue I could see is if the LKMT is already established in CHI or Liangguang, they might have enough legitimacy that Cheng Qian wouldn't risk contesting legitimacy, even though Li Zongren might. But the majority of times, that isn't a factor. The focuses for the RoC in Yunnan are pretty specific to the province. But the focuses for the RoC in Liangguang legitimately seem built for this type of general use.

However, I felt really really bad about the prospect of bringing this up, but shifting all the work of actually doing anything on someone else lol. Especially since implementing this would involve work across multiple folders, and involves dealing with the narrative and gameplay repercussions. I legitimately just felt guilty bringing something larger like this up :( :( :( :(. So I made a version of the most recent patch with this implemented. Please know this is just to demonstrate how these ideas would be done. And also that if anything has to be changed in any way to fit, I'd be fully willing help to do so.

Describe the change you would like:

1: Added the way for Hunan to assume leadership of both Left and Right Kuomintang

2: Added appropriate focuses for these decisions, so Hunan would have all the proper focuses. Split the Hunan focus file so that focus trees would only appear after a decision was taken.

3: Added modified scripted effects needed for the decisions

4: Added modified events needed for the decisions

5: This is part of the narrative repercussions mentioned earlier. Unlike Li Zongren and Zhu Peifu, Cheng Qian doesn't just come from the former National Revival Army remnants, who are actually committed (to varying levels) to Chiang Kai-Sheik idea that democracy must be sacrificed "temporarily" for China's "political guidance". Cheng Qian actually actively spent years underground with the LKMT in Fujian, and was actually sent by them into Hunan in the first place. He also came to power in Hunan completely democratically. Which means that unlike Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi (who takes power after Zhu dies), which both set up fake elections, that might not be the case. I don't know if Chen Qiang in charge would mean real elections. But since it might be needed, I created an event for that circumstance (using the adapted names of Hunan's former political parties)

6: I noticed that whenever either Hunan or Liangguang formed the LKMT Republic, it ended up unintentionally kicking out Madame Soong. This is because Soong is the Social Democrat leader for CHI, however, both Cheng Qian and Chen Mingshu become Social Democrats in their respective LKMT routes. The game usually adopts the target tag's political leaders, but in the case of the leader, it'll make them the head for their respective ideology. I figured it'd be best narratively to explain this shift, and for the play to have a choice. So I created an event for whenever the Social Democrats lose the election, that gives the choice between Cheng/Chen and Soong for future political leadership.

7: This addition was essentially done by accident, when I added a way for the RoCs to integrate Hunan lol. Then I realized this was unnecessary, since China's factions already have a way to integrate all members into the leadership. However, I notice the text for the events was very barebone (it was literally just "Integrate __"). I added some text to make the decision more flavorful. This text can also be easily modified to fit all factions, if needed

These additions function fine when running the game, as can be seen below.

I have also attached a media fire download link containing the version of the mod I made these changes on - which should be able to work if anyone wants to see how everything works or test anything. And there is a screen shot showing all the files modified compared to the original base version of the 1.4.2 patch

http://www.mediafire.com/file/sa2fowet3o6203g/1521695605.zip/file

[Flamefang]

If everyone else thinks this can be integrated seamlessly I have no objections.

@Qpwoalskq If this is the kind of thing you enjoy, you should consider signing up for the team.

[ghost]

The Left Kuomintang already has a planned entire rework of their exile system so I would say ignore adding HNN's ability for them to form the LKMT (Unless you want to make your current work into a submod!) as it would just end up getting removed, eventually. That said if you feel confident in your programming skills ( I can't read the screenshots with their current resolution sorry) which from the looks of it, you do, then I would suggest applying to join the team as Flame recommended. Most dev's are focused on other areas so someone extra working in China would be a welcome sight, whether you want to help me on the KMT or work somewhere else on the mod as a whole is your choice :)

[Flamefang]

I'm going to close this since I think we've essentially resolved it. The matter should be sorted out via the KMT rework.

Thanks for the detailed report, even though we couldn't quite read the screenshots! Once again, you should consider applying as a coder if this is the kind of thing you enjoy!