Hello, I'm posting the changes in this update to a discussion post as the changes made require a longer word limit.

Mechanics changes:

I decided to mess around with devastation. In vanilla, devastation is very binary, and prosperity is more or less an inevitability. To make it more interesting, I’ve added extra ways of raising and lowering it.

- War Exhaustion now inflicts 0.04 global devastation per point, the logic being the diversion of war materials and growing civil unrest.
- Following the logic of unequal treatment and internal division, brother/unaccepted cultures inflict 0.02/0.04 local devastation, and intolerance inflicts a scaling penalty of 0.02 per point.
- Since accepted culture and tolerance is calculated for the province controller, occupation now only inflicts 0.15 devastation instead of 0.2.
- Devastation now reduces itself, and revanchism reduces devastation 50% faster than vanilla. This is so a country entering a death spiral doesn’t reduce their land into a Mad Max set piece.
- Continuing with the logic of unequal treatment, republican suffrage grants -0.01 devastation.
- To make them less of a catch-all answer to devastation, forts now reduce devastation at a quarter of their vanilla value - for reference, that’s -0.05 devastation per fort level.

In practice, these changes make single-digit devastation a more common sight, and widespread devastation the result of bloody wars that slingshots back into healthy ranges after a few years. Prosperity is also harder to achieve, it can be secured with fort spam, but forts cost money and could still be overpowered with sufficient war exhaustion.

Devastation now lowers Mandate at quarter strength, this is so the Khet aren’t ♥♥♥♥♥♥ when they get EoC mechanics. This will be re-evaluated once Sarhal is updated.

While this change has been playtested to my satisfaction, I understand that it may not be what others are looking for in Homebrew. As of now, these changes have been moved from the main mod to a smaller mod available through the "Homebrew and Homebrew Accessories" collection to allow player agency.

Building changes:
- All vanilla changes have carried over
- Temples are currently being re-evaluated, and may be reverted to their vanilla +40% tax modifier if I feel it’s appropriate.
- Mage Towers have had their dev cost modifier reduced to -10%, but in return their one-per-state restriction is removed.
- Ramparts no longer grant +1 fort level on bonus trade goods
- Mage Towers and Ramparts have their state maintenance penalty reduced to 25% each.

Advisor changes
- Army organizers now grant +15% forcelimit instead of +20%
- AI chances have been updated

Military changes:
- War Exhaustion has been made more serious. Every point now inflicts -2% land/naval morale, -1.5% defensiveness, and 0.5 more unrest. Furthermore, the cost of manually reducing war exhaustion is 50% more expensive while at war, and passive reduction from ideas/policies/hegemony have reduced magnitudes.
- All naval units now cost ~25% more sailors to use. This change was made to make your sailor pool more important, increasing the usefulness of sailor modifiers and the frequency of situations where you may be running a sailor deficit.
- I’ve decided to mess around with the new breakthrough mechanic (% chance of pulling artillery to the front row after a frontline unit is gone), giving infantry 10% breakthrough and cavalry 30% breakthrough. This should both slightly nerf artillery as well as make cavalry armies more relevant lategame. The exact numbers are suspect to change.
- Professionalism has been slightly changed. Having under 50% professionalism now inflicts a scaling penalty of up to -50% drill gain, the intention behind it to make drilling armies more expensive in the earlygame. Furthermore, professionalism gives a scaling debuff of up to -0.3% yearly professionalism, mimicking the decay rate of army tradition and helping make professionalism slightly more scarce and slightly less static - it should add up to ~6-8% less professionalism.
- Lastly, drill modifiers have been tweaked. Fire and shock defense have been decreased from 25% to 10%, but in return you also gain 10% morale damage and defense. This change makes it harder for high-quality armies to mitigate any manpower losses, but also rewards them with a force multiplier - making battles bloodier and reinforcing the point behind reducing base manpower.


Idea group changes:
In general, some modifiers were tweaked in strength to adjust for vanilla, and most bonuses that belong in mismatching mana categories are tweaked to be weaker than a matching bonus/mana idea (ex: AE impact from admin ideas now have a base strength of -10%, while AE impact in diplo ideas is -15%)

- Innovativeness: Expanded Policies have been added, instead of +1 free policies you get +1 possible and free adm policy.
- Religious Ideas: Is now a mutually exclusive choice with Elven Supremacy, for anyone with Elven Administration (and not following The Jadd). The reduced AE from the religious cb has now been properly scaled for wars against heathens.
- Espionage: The added covert actions have been suspended, as I personally felt it resulted in cheapening the player experience. In its place, you gain the rebel support efficiency and relations impact modifier that espionage gets in its vanilla ambition. Agent training has been reverted to its vanilla modifier of an extra diplomat, and efficient spies now grants the +10% siege ability espionage ideas got in vanilla.
- Diplomatic: Their PU cb and shock damage has been replaced with +1 possible and free dip policy
- Offensive: ICA has been replaced with +1 land maneuver and attrition reduced from -20% to -15%, in exchange receiving +10% forcelimit
- Defensive: Land Maintenance has been cut from -7.5% to -5%, and gains a scaled vanilla buff of +0.5 max attrition
- Trade: the extra burgher loyalty from vanilla has carried over, and the tc upgrade discount has been replaced with a promote mercantilism discount
- Economic: Since -10% dev cost is the new standard in vanilla, -7.5% is the new standard here and in general.
- Exploration: the two vanilla buffs, exchanging expel cost for settler chance and treasure fleet income, has carried over
- Maritime: flat naval tradition, sailors, and ship recruit speed has been replaced with ship cost, fleet movement speed and naval tradition from protecting trade
- Quantity: Since +25% manpower and land forcelimit is the new standard in vanilla, +20% is the new standard here and in general
- Expansion: Slightly nerfed by removing its +5% settler chance
- Administrative: Adaptability has been shifted a few slots further into the group, and its magnitude has been slightly reduced. However, prosperity growth has been replaced with devastation reduction, which should make up for the loss
- Tolerance: Harmonization speed has been added from vanilla
- Influence: In exchange for losing ae impact, they get back their vassal income modifier from vanilla, and Puppeteer now grants an extra -5% LD instead of giving -5% LD directly to dominions. Soft Power has now also been replaced by Blackmailing, with reduced magnitude

- Jurisprudence: AE impact has been reduced from -15% to -10%
- Monarchy: AE impact has been reduced from -15% to -10%
- Plutocratic: Diplomatic Relations has been reduced from 2 to 1
- Horde: Claim duration has been replaced with stab cost
- Centralism: State maintenance reduction has been reduced from -33% to -25%, and dev cost has been tweaked to match overall changes. Central Planning has been changed to instead grant +5% goods produced and +10% manpower per EI level, due to both engine changes and my own incompetence the admin power refund has been changed to refund 50 adm once per province. Goods produced has been replaced with -2.5% dev cost modifier.
- Decentralism: Manpower/sailors have been replaced with an extra merchant.
- Infrastructure: dev cost has been tweaked to match overall changes, Rural Industries once more grants construction cost in affected provinces, Mining Regulations no longer reduces event modifiers for damestear/relic spawning, but is now limited to provinces with up to 10 base production.
- Elven Supremacy: Is now a mutually exclusive choice with Religious, for anyone with Elven Administration (and not following The Jadd), manpower recovery speed reduced from 20% to 15% and drill gain increased from -25% to -20%

- Assimilation: Manpower reduced to 10%, in exchange for granting +10% manpower in accepted cultures
- Nationalism: Manpower in true faith changed to manpower in culture group, hcc has been changed to defensiveness
- Society: State maintenance reduction has been reduced from -25% to -20%, and Wildcard’s modifiers have been adjusted to match overall changes
- Propaganda: Manpower reduced from 20% to 15%, yearly absolutism has been removed, and siege ability has been replaced with war exhaustion cost reduction
- Imperial Ambition: dev cost has been tweaked to match overall changes
- Imperialism(not to be confused with Imperial Ambition): ccr has been shifted further down the idea group, and a new dominion upgrade lets you remove their relation cost at the expense of +50% LD
- Highseas: Privateer efficiency increased from 25% to 50%
- Magocratic: Diplomatic relations replaced with improve relations, merc discipline replaced with unlocking the war wizard event (at a high mtth, decreased when used with battlemage academies), chance to become a powerful mage replaced with slight bonuses gained from achieving legendary skill, and an added institution embracement cost
- Monstrous: Promote culture cost replaced with autonomy change, and privateer efficiency replaced with separatism
- Imperial(not to be confused with Imperialism): vassal forcelimit replaced with reasons to elect


- General Staff: Leader shock has been replaced with discipline, and professionalism has been reduced from +0.5% to +0.2%
- Standing Army: Drill decay reduction has been reduced from -25% to -20%
- Heroism: AE impact has been reduced from -15% to -10%. The base cost of all special mercenaries have been increased by 0.2 (~25% increase), and company modifiers have been adjusted in too many ways to make a cohesive list of.
- Conscription: War taxes discount has been replaced with a decision to burn manpower in exchange for rushing the production of any normal (found in the builder ui) buildings, please don’t look under the hood it was a mess to implement. Morale has been replaced with morale defense, and manpower/forcelimit have been tweaked to match overall changes.
- Weapon Quality: Goods produced, aca and discipline have been replaced with production efficiency, morale damage and shock damage respectively
- Fortress: Defensiveness has been increased from 15% to 20%, Attrition has been reduced from +2 to +1, in exchange for also granting +0.5 max attrition. Level 5 advanced fortifications now grants +1 defense roll instead of army tradition
- Tactics: Has been renamed to Strategic. Overall idea set has been overhauled to be centered around non-combat military bonuses. Its highlight is a decision that lets you build temporary forts in occupied land.
- Serpentspine: Is now a mutually exclusive choice with Strategic for anyone with their capital in the Serpentspine, and Defensiveness has been increased from 15% to 20%.
- Legionary: Is now a mutually exclusive choice with Strategic for anyone with their capital in Bulwar, mercenary modifiers have been replaced with a mechanic that grants manpower when converting land (300 manpower per development) and some extra missionary strength

- Industrial: Interest reduction has been reduced from -2 to -1, and dev cost has been tweaked to match overall changes
- Artificery: Infantry Shock has been reduced from 0.35 to 0.15, and army drill decay reduction reduced from -15% to -10%


Policies:
- The base possible policies have been reduced from 4 to 3, and the maximum number of policies active reduced from 12 to 9. This is done to make the policies slightly less cluttered, and increase the value of potential policies.
- Values have been adjusted to match changes seen in ideas
- My efforts for writing up a comprehensive reference sheet has been delayed, please understand

Events:
- Idea Variation events have readjusted values for add_years_of_income and add_republican_tradition.
- The Chief Artificer events now occur less often.
- The War Wizard for hire event now costs less cash, but its mil cost is unchanged.
- Racial minorities no longer get an event to migrate to a dominion.
- Damestear’s conditions to receive a price drop have now been changed from a player owning 10+ provinces with Mining Regulations to just 5+ provinces.
- A new generic event now fires once you embrace Global Trade, where you either take some debt or suffer a trade debuff. The purpose of this event is to serve as an anti-snowball without modifying anything that might make the earlygame economy unbearable. The lump sum cost of this event scales with your trade income %, so hopefully some nations like dwarves aren’t screwed over more than they should be.

Bugfixes/QoL:
- A problem with Homebrew not correctly overwriting Anbennar has been resolved.
- Dwarven Citadels has been changed to update itself in the same event that Advanced Fortifications does, this should fix problems regarding the modifier sticking around after a fort is destroyed.
- Melting Pot has been changed to automatically update itself, meaning there are now no more passive ideas that need to be manually updated. Please understand that there is a delay between converting a culture and the modifiers updating.
- The Middle Castes estate’s loans have been adjusted to match the 2% loans that other estates offer.

Backend:
- I’ve made several changes to the scripts, most notably the on_actions and scripted_effects files.
- Several unnecessary files have been cut.