okay Victoria 3 nerds, literally how tf are you supposed to prevent secessions?
Like I cannot fucking figure it out and since I'm BANNED ON REDDIT AGAIN I can't post on the one place where someone might actually answer this other than here or I guess the steam forums but fuck the steam forums.
Anyway, I have never, ever, in like hundreds of hours of gameplay, taken territory and not had a secession shortly after that I've had to crush. The turmoil in conquered territory is always >50% and it's basically impossible to build enough to meaningfully affect standard of living to reduce radicals before the secession triggers, especially because of the massive construction penalties from the turmoil.
Like I do not know what I, the player, am supposed to actively do aside from wait for the inevitable secession and crush it. Then it never happens again and the turmoil goes away.
Like am I supposed to just never conquer anything until I have 10000 construction points and can turn the conquered territory into a utopia in a few months? Because the timeline to secession is IMPOSSIBLY short.
but for real check your infamy, the higher it is the higher the percentage of radicals will be in newly conquered territory. if the primary culture of the state is discriminated in your country, then they get hit with the discrimination penalty which will reduce their wages which lowers their SoL thus more radicals. so try to either conquer somewhere where you won't get hit for discrimination, or change your laws to accept more people.
aside from that there's probably nothing else you can do but to watch the secession counter go up and crush them once they rise up, then incorporate them so they get less radical by your police and home affairs institutions, and your healthcare for easy SoL boost.
violent suppression decree also does not decrease the amount of radicals as far as i know, it just reduces the debuffs.
but im pretty shite at this game so there might be a better way to avoid secessions.
in my personal experience i haven't had that much trouble with secessions as you mentioned. it's definitely an ass mechanic but it doesn't trigger for me as much as you claim it does for you.
wait for incorporation, use decree for building and built stuff to reduce unemployement. also if you have giant delta in sol you are basically bonned (i.e. taking some gold producing country with 18 sol, and you have like 12, everyone is getting fucked on conquest)
Agreed, I don't think you really have enough time to stop it. The trigger is having over 50% turmoil and 33% population belonging to the ethnicity in question. I think going multiculturalism helps reduce turmoil because there'll be no discrimination against the newly-conquered pops, but it probably won't make that much of a difference. I don't remember if having cops or using the decree for suppression reduces turmoil itself or just the effects, but those are another option.
Avoiding secessions is very hard. As others have mentioned, multiculturalism and low infamy help. As will religious secularism, high welfare pay, and public healthcare, to avoid more discrimination and rapidly increase quality of life. You're also right that buildings will help, but often not soon enough. Consider subsidising local industries to avoid unemployment.
In my experience, the most effective tool to avoid secession is using authority for local edicts - violent suppression, social mobility and emergency welfare especially. With those, I have seen the secession progress bar reverse course.
Tldr spend a lot of time and money and effort in it, or just post soldiers nearby.
This is what I'm talking abt when I say videogames are antisocial and reactionary. Look at all the suggestions here on how best to subjugate people in Imperialism Simulator 3000 from people who are anticolonial leftists. Would you play Victoria III if it included images of all the charred corpses and starving masses your actions create? Stop allowing yourselves to be sucked into a skinner box designed to normalize evil.
This is what I'm talking abt when I say videogames are antisocial and reactionary. Look at all the suggestions here on how best to subjugate people in Imperialism Simulator 3000 from people who are anticolonial leftists. Would you play Victoria III if it included images of all the charred corpses and starving masses your actions create? Stop allowing yourselves to be sucked into a skinner box designed to normalize evil.