Nations

Nations on Earth serve as battlegrounds for the aliens' designs on Earth and are sites of both political and military conflict. Human factions, using councilors and armies, will compete to control nations in order to make use of their resources to fulfil their objectives.

Most nations in Terra Invicta correspond to a single real-world Earth country, although in several cases adjacent groups of small nations are aggregated into a single nation so they have more relevance to the scale of the game, and any inter-nation issues between within these generally take place below the scale of the simulation. Factions function as something like covert investors in nations, and with enough focus they can take control over the nation's economy and foreign policy.

National Stats
The prosperity and stability of Earth's nations, already tenuous in many places, has been thrown into doubt in light of the alien arrival. Different events throughout the game may alter the qualities of a nation significantly. These circumstances are tracked and made visible to the player, who can take various actions to modify them.

Government
A nation's Government score measures the amount of democracy in a country, which represents things like civil liberties, popular selection of leaders, press freedoms, and rule of law via an independent judiciary. This impacts many things, including national stability and cohesion, research production, corruption, economic growth and the effectiveness of the military in controlling unrest.

Government increases by 0.005 per 2 Investment Points in the Knowledge priority. It changes by -0.001 per 2 Investment Points in the Unity priority.

The Government score impacts the Cohesion score. A low Government score increases the Cohesion resting point, a middle score lowers the Cohesion resting point, while a high score draws the Cohesion resting point towards a central value of 5, and simultaneously increases research production. A higher Government score also lowers the Spoils priority requirement to keep the national elites happy in order to avoid resetting of CPs by coup d'etat and boosts economic growth. A lower Government score increases the effectiveness of the military priority and armies at reducing unrest.

Goverment score ranges from 0 to 10:

Population
Nations have populations measured in millions. Throughout the course of the game these populations will grow or shrink based on various factors. The following section discusses population growth.

Developed countries have at least two regions or are a fake union in the game (Benelux, Alpine States, etc), and have the following be true: education + democracy + (gdp per capita / 4000) >= 25. Therefore, Norway is not a developed nation, but France is. The Baltics can be developed if the country improves, without expanding, because it's a fake union.

(regional per capita GDP / 30 000) + min(((10-education)^2)/10, ((10-democracy)^2)/10, 3.5) + (IF DEVELOPED: 5 - |5 - cohesion|) + popGrowthModifier - xenoforming/200 - 4*nukings.

The game also does not let you shrink by more than 95% annually.

WHAT THAT MEANS:

1. More GDP per capita = faster population growth (+1% per 30k)

2. If Education or Democracy (whichever is highest) is above 4.08, growth is reduced (+3.5% -> 0% at 10 education or democracy. It's not a linear drop, and accelerates as you approach 10.)

3. If the country is developed, per the conditions outlined earlier, it will grow faster at 5 cohesion. (+5% at 5 cohesion and 0% at 0 or 10 cohesion)

4. Every nation has a pop growth modifier, which is defined in plain text in TINationTemplate.json in the game files (ranges between -1% and +1%)

5. Xenoforming reduces pop growth (-1% per 200 levels of xenoforming. For reference, the highest level is at 75, and xenofauna spawns at 100.

6. Nuclear bombs reduce pop growth (-4% per nuking)

This number is then used monthly to calculate pop growth;

(1 + popGrowth + (random number between -0.005 and 0.005))1/12

If the population decreases, Education does too. If you lose more than 5 million (no, it does not scale with total population), you get the maximum reduction of -0.005. This is only from natural growth, not nukes or other events.

Unrest
The Unrest score represents violent resistance to the political, economic or cultural status quo in this nation. High unrest hampers the economy and may result in a coup or revolution, which will transfer or clear many or all of the nation's Control Points at once. Unrest is fed by low Cohesion and low quality of life (per-capita GDP). Military spending and armies can reduce it, especially in non-democratic nations.

Unrest is decreased by  per 3 Investment Points in the Military priority.

Its resting point is increased by having low cohesion, low Per-Capita GDP, or unification with another nation. Unrest can be increased by councilor Increase unrest and reduced by stabilize nation assignments. It is also reduced by military priority and armies, both of which work better in nations with lower government score.

Unrest changes relatively quickly (0.25 per month, and even +1 per month if cohesion=0) if it is not at its resting point. It's generally better to reduce unrest resting point before reducing its value with councilors and military priority, otherwise it will grow back naturally and quickly. With the most totalitarian Government(0), it would take an investment of 7.5 IP per month to stabilize Unrest below its resting point. This grows exponentially: to 15 IP/month at 5 Government, 25 IP/month at 7 Government and 75 IP/month at 9 Government.

Base Unrest
Base unrest is calculated as  and then reduced by armies. For each allied army present within the nation, if that army's owning nation's base investment points are positive, the base unrest is modified by that army's base unrest modification value.

An army's base unrest modification value is. So it scales from 100% to 0% applied as democracy goes from 0 to 10. It can then further be altered by that army's owning faction's  value, as may be applied from various effects (defined in TIEffectTemplate.json); however there don't appear to be any defined with an   context at the time of writing.

For the Alien Nation, the base unrest is then further reduced by.

Naturally occurring coups and revolutions can happen at high levels of unrest; the Alien Nation cannot experience a coup but it can experience a revolution. The chances of coups and revolutions are checked every four days, with each nation assigned to one of the four days in the cycle. Revolutions will always occur if  when checked. A naturally occurring coup will never happen if  and  ; otherwise the   is checked.

The daily chance of coup is. The elites' unhappiness is zero if the spoils priority weight percentage matches or exceeds the nation's corruption or if one faction owns all the nation's control points and that faction's ; otherwise it is   as value from 0.0 to 1.0.

So natural coups can be countered by lowering unrest and increasing cohesion, democracy and spoils (up to the corruption level). The spoils priority may often be ignored if the level of unrest in a country is sufficiently low and the democracy/cohesion sufficiently high, even if the indicator appears red (but note that elite happiness or unhappiness will still be a modifying factor in the chance of targeted coups).

Unrest score ranges from 0 to 10. Every 0.1 point of Unrest above 2 will decrease Investment Points by 1%, capping at 80% at 10 unrest.

GDP
A nation's GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, is a measure of its annual economic output in U.S. dollars adjusted by its purchasing power parity. The nation's GDP determines how many Control Points a nation has, how many Investment Points it produces, and how difficult certain missions are.

GDP is not directly influenced by economy priority, which affects PPP instead. It must be noted that a significant economic growth in a nation may also carry negative consequences to the planet's climate stability. Unification combines both nation's GDPs. Climate change has a negative effect on GDP based on the following states.

-4.032% for every degree C below pre-industrial levels

-1.344% for every degree C above pre-industrial levels

Every completed iteration of the Economy investment priority with raise GDP by 2.5 base, +1 per resource region, +1 per economic core region, +0.2 per democracy, +0.2 per education, +2.5 for cohesion = 5, tapering off to 0 for cohesion = 0 and 10.

This means that for maximum GDP growth, you want more resource regions, more democracy, more education, and middling cohesion, as well as as many economic regions as possible.

Per Capita GDP
A Per Capita nation's GDP its its Gross Domestic Product divided by its population. It represents the economic conditions for the average citizen of this nation. Nations with low per-capita GDP will face higher unrest while the people's needs are not met.

Putting investment points into the Economy priority can increase GDP. Conflict, population loss, and climate change are among the things that can cause it to decrease.

GDP Per Region
When distributing GDP to regions within a country, the game distributes them based on economic modifiers. It pretends regions with colonies have 50% the people who actually live there, and that resource and core economic regions have 125%, then distributes GDP evenly based on that modified population. This effectively means that regional GDP per capita is higher in core economic and resource states than in "regular" regions, and are lower in colonies. This has a great effect on population growth as described in the first section, as the GDP per capita calculation in that section is per region.

Development
Development represents how much monthly Funding, Research, Boost, Mission Control and Investment Points a nation will provide to factions owning Control Points.

Monthly Investment Points
These represent the nation's economic surplus that can be distributed by factions with Control Points in the Priorities tab. The value is set by the nation's GDP and reduced by the number of armies it fields and by high levels of unrest. The overall formula is.
 * The base value is equal to.
 * Unrest decreases Monthly Investment Points by 1% for every 0.1 point of Unrest above 2, capping at -80% at 10 unrest.
 * Navies decrease Monthly Investment Points by 0.5 per navy.
 * Armies stationed in their home regions decrease Monthly Investment Points by 0.5 per army.
 * Armies stationed in another region decrease Monthly Investment Points by 1 per army.

Miltech
A nation's Military Technology value represents the capability of the nation's armed forces. Each tenth of a point in Miltech represents a 10% improvement in combat capability.

Miltech is increased by 0.00375(1 - min(10*unrest, 1 - 0.1 * democracy)) per 3 Investment Points in the Miltech priority. It takes 800 Investment Points to advance 1 Miltech level in the best case.
 * Any country with 0 unrest will gain the maximum possible 0.00375 Miltech.
 * If there is any unrest, the Miltech gain is scaled linearly by Government level.
 * The more Democratic(higher) the Government level, the more Miltech it gains.

Unification between two nations balances the Miltech score between the two nations. Miltech applies to both army strength, which changes together with national Miltech level, and regional defence power.

Miltech score ranges from 2 to 8. The Miltech age also determines the visual appearance of armies.

Initially the Miltech score is capped at level 5, which can be increased by 0.5 with each of the following global research technologies:
 * Tech info icon.png Cybernetics
 * Tech info icon.png Applied Artificial Intelligence
 * Tech material icon.png Next-Generation Aerospace
 * Tech material icon.png Diamondoids
 * Tech military icon.png Terrestrial Military Science
 * Tech military icon.png Networked Global Defense
 * Tech military icon.png Coilguns
 * Tech military icon.png Trans-Interface Warfare
 * Tech military icon.png Future Tech: Military Science

Navies
A nation's naval score is calculated by the number of navies it has attached to its armies multiplied by the nation's military technology score.

There are three possible navy states:
 * No Navies: No army has any navy attached.
 * Freedom of the Seas: At least one army has a navy attached and there are no enemies with a higher naval score.
 * Blockaded: At least one army has a navy attached and there are enemies with a higher naval score.

Strategic Nuclear Barrages
The number of strategic nuclear barrages that may be launched from this nation. Each barrage will devastate a single region and cause massive environmental damage globally. Nuclear strikes are directed by the faction in control of the executive control point.

Nuclear weapons can target any region belonging to current war enemies, or owned regions with enemy forces present. Note that advanced defenses will prevent any attack.

Education
A nation's Education value is scored based on the average years of schooling of a citizen in this nation. Nations with higher education scores produce more research and are more resistant to extreme propaganda but gain less cohesion from the Unity priority.

Education increases by 0.005 per 2 investment Point(s) in the Knowledge priority.

Education is one of the largest factors influences national research output aside from population.

A) Base of 7.5 + Education Score

B) Scales polynomially with population in millions: 0.00225 × 0.794331.1

C) Scales linearly from 15k to 48.75k GDP per capita, with a floor at 15k and a roof at 48.75k (ie: a country with 30k GDPpc produces 2x science as one with 15k, but one with 60k does not produce 4x as much, as it caps at 48.75k. Similarly, a country with 15k gdp per capita produces the same amount as one with 1k.): GDP per capita / 15000, min: 1, max: 3.25

D) Scales by education squared (country with education level of 10 produces 100x as much as one with a level of 1): Education2

E) Scales by the fifth root of Democracy, with a floor of Democracy = 0.1: Democracy0.2, (min value 0.63, max value 1.58)

F) 75% efficient at 10 and 0 Cohesion, scales linearly to 125% at 5 Cohesion.

G) 20% efficient at 10 unrest, 100% efficient at <2 unrest. Linear relationship. Same as IP efficiency.

H) n% increase from science advisor bonus: 1% per science of first advisor, 0.5% per science of second advisor. 0.25% from 3rd etc

These elements are combined as following: (A + B × C × D × E) × F × G × H

This is, I think, the only value in the country interaction screen that scales directly with the population of a country. And boy does it scale.

Cohesion
A nation's Cohesion represents the level of unity or conflict among the people of the nation. This includes cultural, ideological, ethnic and religious similarities and differences. High values describe a unified society that brooks little deviation or dissent. Middle values represent a diverse society that has both internal conflict and a healthy, creative counterculture. Middle-low values represent a high degree of political polarization, and the lowest values mean the nation's people are fragmented or even tribal.

Cohesion changes by 0.01 towards the value of 5 per to Investment Point(s) in the Knowledge priority.

Cohesion moves 0.1 per month towards its' resting point. This is rapid enough that it is usually better to move the resting point rather than trying to fight the tide: it would take 20 Investment Points per month in Knowledge priority, or roughly 4 in Unity priority to stabilize Cohesion above its' resting point. The resting point can be increased by decreasing inequality with the Welfare priority.

Cohesion score ranges from 0 to 10:

Cohesion is lowered by:
 * Medium government score
 * High inequality score
 * Low Per Capita GDP
 * Population
 * Regions
 * Loss of armies
 * Difference between public opinion and the faction controlling the control points

Cohesion is centered by:
 * High goverment score
 * Knowledge priority

Cohesion is raised by:
 * Low government score
 * Unity priority
 * Wars (max 5)
 * Rivalries with nations with a 1 control point difference at most (max 5)

Base Cohesion
This is a long one.

Base cohesion depends on inequality, GDP per capita, population, number of regions, rivals, wars, ideological distance between the public and elites, and democracy.

Base cohesion is 20.25.

This is reduced by 3.25 for every level of inequality, and a further (inequality - 4.5)2 if inequality is above 4.5.

It is further reduced by 1 for every 1000 GDP per capita below 6000.

It's also reduced by (population in millions)0.15. 10 billion people would be a reduction of 4, 100 million would be -2, etc.

It's also reduced by 0.25 for every additional region above 1.

It's increased by 0.5 for every peer rival (More, equal or 1 fewer control points) up to a maximum of 5 Base Cohesion.

It's increased by 1 for every war you're in, for a maximum of 5.

It's lowered by the distance between the Elite and the Public's ideologies, as described above, multiplied by 2.

Finally, Democracy comes into play. It's slightly more complicated.

If Democracy <= 3.5:

Base Cohesion is increased by 3.51.5, and lowered by Democracy1.5, for a net gain of 0 at Democracy = 3.5.

If democracy > 6.5:

Base Cohesion approaches 5 by 0.5 per level of Democracy.

If democracy > 3.5 and <= 6.5:

Lower Base Cohesion by 3 at a Democracy score of 5, scaling linearly to 0 Base Cohesion at 3.5 and 6.5 Democracy: 2 × |5-Democracy| - 3.

Public Opinion
The is the public opinion in the nation towards the aliens. Support for a particular ideology grants an influence income to the corresponding faction, and the faction receives bonuses when attempting to gain and maintain control of the nation.

The Public Campaign councilor mission will shift opinion in favor of a faction. Committing atrocities will shift it away from a faction.

For public opinion, the game does the same thing - but with percentage of support instead of discrete control points. 67% resistance, 33% servants would be equivalent to the example above, but it's more continuous.

Ideology distance is calculated by normal means; good old pythagoras.

Inequality
A nation's Inequality score is a measure of how wealth and income is distributed in the nation. High values mean the nation doesn't have much of a middle class. Inequality grows by a little as a product of normal economic activity (the Economy Priority) or by a lot because of corruption (the Spoils Priority). Resource regions in a nation can contribute to inequality as well. High inequality reduces Cohesion as the nation divides into haves and have-nots.

Inequality changed by -0.005 per 1 Investment Points(s) in the Welfare priority.

Inequality score ranges from 1 to 10:

Corruption
Corruption is a hidden value which determines what percentage of the economy the elites want diverted to spoils. If this is not done then other factions will gain bonuses to coups and purges against this faction. The inverse is also true if the elites are satisfied.

corruption = (max(100 - 4*education - 6*democracy, 0) * (1 - max(cohesion - 7, 0) / 5))%

Meaning less educated, less democratic elites demand more spoils. maxing out education and democracy will pretty much remove the demand. completely.

A nation united in the fight against the aliens will also see a reduced demand for spoils by the elites. Very high cohesion (>7) will lower the demand for spoils (as calculated depending on education and democracy) by up to 60% at maximum cohesion (10).

Priorities
The settings in the Priorities tab control the distribution of Investment Points, which represent surplus economic capital generated by the nation.

The owner of each control point may direct a share of investment Points into any number of priorities, either by selecting a present in the dropdown menu or setting them directly by clicking a spot in the grid.

Investment points are distributed by setting weights (0,1,2 or 3) for each priority, and the amount of investment going to a particular priority depends on the total number of weights set for a particular control point.

Investment Points gradually fill buckets for each priority; once filled, the nation receives the effects of that priority, and in most cases it may be filled again.

Some priorities will be highlighted red if they are considered critical to the nation.

Direct Investment
Direct Investment allows a faction to purchase Investment Points in a certain priority with Money and Influence. The cost increases with the nation's GDP. If the nation was conquered in war its new owner will not have to pay Influence. Only 200 Investment Points may be purchased each year in any nation.

Elites
Each nation requires a certain percentage of Investment Points to be put into the Spoils priority. Failing to provide enough Investment Points into Spoils, shown by the priority becoming red, increases the chance of a coup d'etat. The percentage required is reduced by high scores of Government, Education and Cohesion.

Nations with completed Spaceflight Program priority
The following nations at start have completed at least one Spaceflight Program priority:

Nations with completed Nuclear Weapons priority
The following nations at start have completed at least one Nuclear Weapons priority:

Control Points
Control Points represent key nodes of political and economic power in a nation. The number of control points is set by the size of the nation's economy. The faction that owns a control point has loyal followers in positions of authority. Control points grant their faction a portion of the nation's critical resources, control over the nation's armies, and the ability to direct economic priorities.

Certain powerful policies, such as joining and leaving federations and merging nations, require Consolidated control of the executive, which means the executive faction either gained control of the nation through war or revolution, or must have held continuous control of the executive point for 180 days.

Once a faction has accumulated a sufficient amount of control in multiple nations, additional control points cost influence per month to maintain, and Crackdown and Purge missions against the faction's control points will receive a bonus. The cost increases with the more control points a faction owns, and the size of the economy of each nation the faction owns control in. Control points that have sustained a Crackdown do not cost any influence to maintain.

Every nation has between 1 and 6 control points, depending on their GDP. The "cost against cap" to hold each control point is equal to the monthly investment points of the nation.

Control points come in a variety of types. Their type depends on the national government and other conditions, and provides a related bonus for the faction controlling it.
 * Executive: Enables the Set Policy mission as well as modifying foreign relations. Requires control of another control point first unless it's the only one.
 * Legislature: Bonus to Purge missions in the same nation if the Executive control point is controlled by another faction. Bonus to Purge defense in the same nation if the Executive point is controlled by the same faction.
 * Party: Bonus to Purge missions in the same nation against all control points except the Executive one.
 * Security Apparatus Bonus to Assassinate, Crackdown, Detain Councilor and Extract Councilor missions in the same nation.
 * Bureaucracy: Bonus to Control Nation missions in the same nation.
 * Identity Blocks: Bonus to Increase unrest missions in the same nation.
 * Mass Media: Bonus to Public Campaign missions in the same nation.
 * National Industries: Bonus to Hostile Takeover missions in the same nation.
 * Oligarchs: Bonus to Coup d'Etat missions in the same nation.
 * Regional Authorities: Bonus to Stabilize Nation missions in the same nation.
 * Aristocracy: Bonus to Money gained from the Spoils priority in the same nation.
 * Financial Sector: Bonus to Money gained from the Funding priority in the same nation.
 * Religion: Bonus to Public Opinion gained from the Unity priority in the same nation.
 * Corporations: Orgs based in the same nation cost less money.
 * Trade Unions: Orgs based in the same nation cost less influence.
 * Defense Sector: Owned armies in the same nation repair faster.
 * Warlords: Large bonus to "Increase Unrest" missions in the same nation.

Besides CP specific bonuses each faction will also receive a fraction of funding, research, boost, mission control and spoils money produced by the nation. That fraction is equal to a proportion of controlled CPs versus all CPs of a nation.

If there are armies controlled by the nation, getting control of CP may also grant you direct control of said armies. CPs with armies attached to them are shown with yellow star in a green hexagon symbol next to them. If there is more than one army attached to a control point then the number of attached armies is shown over the symbol.

To gain control over a neutral CP one must perform a successful Control Nation mission with one of their councillors. Under normal circumstances, in nations with over 1 CP, executive CP can only be controlled if you already have a point in a nation and it is the last CP to be taken. If every nation has all of their CPs controlled by factions, Control Nation mission becomes unavailable. In that case you would need to perform a successful purge mission on an enemy controlled CP. To increase purge chances, it is recommended to conduct crackdown on these CPs first. Another alternative to Control Nation is Coup d'Etat. It can either be performed with your councillor or happen naturally. Successful Coup d'Etat missions will turn all the CP from that nation to your faction, while Coup d'Etat happening on its own will reset all of CPs in the country to neutral; this allows every faction to conduct Control Nation missions. Coup d'Etat is a lot more likely to be successfully performed or occur in nations with high unrest, so boosting chances often needs Increase Unrest missions beforehand.

Policies
Policies are actions the executive faction of a nation can take to dramatically alter the course of the nation. A councillor can use the Set Policy mission to enact policies. Certain policies require the target nation to accept them, the success rate depending on how similar the two nations are. Such policies are always acceptted if the same faction has executive control of both nations. Possible policies are: A symbol of a hand casting a ballot, found in the top right corner of overview screen, prompts a tooltip in which the available national policies are listed. Here one can also find cooldown periods for countries, with whom diplomatic actions may become available after the timer expires.

Federations
Federations are groupings of closely aligned nations that are pledged to provide mutual defence and share space program funding and boost. They are led by the predetermined member with the most significant international ambitions.

At the game start date there are two federations:
 * Flag European Union.png European Union: France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Benelux, Alpine States, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Northern Balkan States, Baltic States, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece
 * Flag Eurasian Union.png Eurasian Union: Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan

When a federation or unification is created it will have the name and flag of its initial nation. However certain nations will create federations or unifications with unique names and flags.

Unification
If the capital region of an absorbed country (Kazakhstan inside Russia, Tigray inside Ethiopia, etc) is not claimed by the absorbing nation (e.g. EU with extra claims absorbing Russia), there's a chance the country becomes a breakaway, like Taiwan is at game start. The chance is 75% if the absorbed nation has 0 cohesion, scaling to 0% if the absorbed nation has 5 cohesion. This chance applies per region that happens to be a capital, and creates a breakaway state that takes all claimed regions with it.

For instance, if the EU absorbed a Russia that had absorbed central asia, there are five regions they do not have claims on that happen to be capital regions; kyrgyzstan, tajikistan, uzbekistan, turkenistan, and nur-sultan. If Russia has a cohesion of 3, that means every one of these regions have a 30% chance of creating a breakaway. Kazakhstan would Almaty along for the ride. If the EU had a democracy score lower than 7, any armies stationed in breakaways would be destroyed. A democracy score higher than 7 means there is no breakaway state; the country just becomes independent.

Claims
Some nations have claims on regions that aren't theirs. These are the regions they may acquire through warfare or secession movements. Several social science projects can unlock new claims during the campaign.

Completing certain research projects will increase the number of claims. The following claims exist at the start:
 * Flag France.png France has a claim on every member of the Flag European Union.png European Union
 * Flag Russia.png Russia has a claim on every member of the Flag Eurasian Union.png Eurasian Union
 * Flag Czech Republic.png The Czech Republic has a claim on Flag Slovakia.png Slovakia
 * Flag United Kingdom.png The United Kingdom has a claim on Flag Ireland.png Ireland
 * Flag Bosnia and Herzegovina.png Northern Balkan States have a claim on Flag Serbia.png Southern Balkan States
 * Flag China.png China has a claim on Flag India.png India
 * Flag India.png India has a claim on Flag Bangladesh.png Bangladesh
 * Flag Russia.png Russia has a claim on Flag Ukraine.png Ukraine
 * Flag Australia.png Australia has a claim on Flag New Zealand.png New Zealand
 * Flag Indonesia.png Indonesia has a claim on Flag Papua New Guinea.png Pacific States
 * Flag South Korea.png South Korea has a claim on Flag North Korea.png North Korea
 * Flag Ethiopia.png Ethiopia has a claim on Flag Somalia.png Somalia
 * Flag Guatemala.png Guatemala has a claim on Flag Belize.png Belize
 * Flag Sudan.png Sudan has a claim on Flag South Sudan.png South Sudan
 * Flag Venezuela.png Venezuela has a claim on Flag Guyana.png Guyana

Foreign Relations
The Relations tab describes the relations between different nations.
 * Allies are nations that will support this nation when attacked, and may hold a policy vote to join a war started by this nation. Allies may host one another's armies as well.
 * Rivals are nations with which this nation may go to war.

Changes in relations between nations are accomplished by policy votes, which may be initiated by a councilor or by the nation itself. Actions that improve relations also trigger a cooldown between the nations for improving relations again.

There are a few restrictions on who can ally and become rivals. Two nonadjacent nations with only one or two control points may not form alliances or rivalries unless one also has a navy. Nations allied with breakaway nations cannot ally with the breakaway's parent nation, and vice versa.

Improving relations requires the consent of the targeted nation. This can be skipped by controlling the executive control points in both nations.

Hovering over the alliance option will also show the detailed requirements for federation and unification.

Breakaway Nations
Nations that secede from another nations become breakaway nations. Breakaway nations are always Rivals with their parent nations and cannot declare wars, join wars or join federations. Allies of breakaway nations are also always Rivals with the parent nation. This state can be ended by either the breakaway nation using the Declare Independence policy or the parent nation using the Grant Independence policy.

When the game starts there is only one breakaway nation - Taiwan.