Expanding the Client State treaty

Current situation : 

Metternich Update brought very interesting new gameplay with Independent Peoples (IPs), specifically with the Client State treaty, which allows a Major Empire, among other things, to gain a share of the cliented IP's science, influence, and money.

Particularly in early game (Ancient up to Medieval), this treaty is not only good for these substantial gains, but is also acting as a way to "preempt" an already built city that you will usually want to assimilate into your empire whenever you can afford it, city cap-wise.

Proposition : 

I'd like to be able to expand the IP's territory as a Major Empire, in order to secure the land around this IP, especially if a neighbouring territory offers strategic/luxury resources.

I figured this option would work as follows :

- Prerequisite : a signed Client State treaty ongoing with the IP

- After a determined amount of turns as a Patron of the IP, a Major Empire would be able to buy a neighbouring territory with influence (a new action button would unlock -- see below, enabling the Patron to use it on an unclaimed territory). The number of turns required to build the outpost would depend on the praising with influence level : standard speed, twice as fast, and 3 times faster.

- Secondly, the Patron would have to pay another influence fee to attach the new territory to the IP's city.

- Additionally, a new button could be unlocked to buy extractors with influence, if there are some strategic/luxury resources inside the newly attached territory (a bit like the Power Investor Merchant's ability).

Example draft of the "claim territory" button for cliented IPs :

Notes :

- IPs don't seem to build infrastructures at all currently, stability could become an issue for the IP when adding a new territory.

- I'd limit this territory claiming ability to only 1 additional territory to prevent a stability issue, as well as encouraging IPs to build stability's infrastructures in their cities.

- Obviously, when playing with Together We Rule expansion, cliented IPs do play a bigger role diplomatically, hence the need to assimilate them can be lower. Nonetheless, I feel that this addition to IPs gameplay would be as relevant with the expansion on than off. It all comes down to the player's choice after all !

- This would better incentivize Major Empires Patrons to protect and defend their cliented IPs, as suggested here by RedSirus.

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and upvote !

Cheers,

Waykot.