User Guide

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from your treasury to reach the next level a lit-
tle more quickly, but the rate of return is only
half the investment.
As we saw in the previous section, there are
also a number of advisor types that will contrib-
ute to your monthly investment in a particular
field of research. The exact amount depends
on the advisor’s skill level, and will be invested
even if you have allocated nothing at all from
your monthly budget. You ruler will also con-
tribute a “free” investment amount each month,
as determined by his attributes.
The budget allocation slider’s tool tip may
also report that you are receiving a “neighbour
bonus”. This is another mechanism in the
game that simulates the involuntary spread of
technology across international boundaries. If
another country in the region has achieved a
higher level of technology than you, some of
that knowledge will gradually seep into your
nation and be added to your investment. This
doesn’t deduct any income from the other
country, nor will you lose any income if anoth-
er country is benefiting from your own techno-
logical progress.
There is one additional factor that may af-
fect your advancement in technology: your
country’s technology group. This is part of the
game’s design that helps to produce a more re-
alistic overall outcome. Nations that are part
of a particular technology group will receive a
modifier that alters the total amount that must
be invested to reach the next level of achieve-
ment. This helps to ensure that countries tend
to develop at approximately the same rate that
they did historically and prevents implausible
things from happening such as having your
16
th
century French explorer in North America
encounter an army of Iroquois that are armed
with advanced artillery pieces. Technology
groups are not intended as disparagement to
the nations assigned to “inferior” groups and
are only incorporated to provide more immer-
sive game play. Details of the exact modifiers
can be found in Appendix D.
Stability Investment
The sixth slider allows you to divert a portion
of your income into improving your country’s
stability. You may do so at any time unless
you are already at the maximum stability level
(+3). As you’ll recall, high stability reduces the
chance of provincial revolts and also increases
the production revenue that you can draw from
a province. Think of this investment as a defer-
ral of taxes to make your public more content.
The cost of improving your stability by one
level depends on a variety of factors:
• Large realms will require a larger invest
-
ment, while small countries with only a
few provinces will require much less.
• Countries with a greater diversity of pro
-
vincial cultures are more expensive to
please, particularly when some of the prov-
inces' cultures are not currently accepted
on a national level.
• The number of provinces that do not share
your country's national religion will also
increase the cost.
• The type of government currently in place
in your country may have either a positive
or negative effect on the cost.
• The administration attribute of your ruler
will automatically contribute towards re-
gaining stability.
• Hiring an artist as a court advisor will con
-
tribute to the monthly investment. The ex-
act amount of the investment depends on
the artist's skill level.
• Countries that are part of the Holy Roman
Empire will receive a small monthly bonus
to their stability investment. The Emperor
receives an additional bonus for each coun-
try that is part of the Empire.
• Each of the curia's cardinals that support
your country will contribute an amount to
your country's stability investment. The
current controller of the Holy See gains an
additional large bonus.
It would be hard to overstate the importance of
maintaining a fairly reasonable level of stabil-
ity. It might be very worthwhile to allocate a