This article has been verified for the current version (1.30) of the game.
Power projection is a mechanic which rewards nations for acting aggressively towards their Rivals and demonstrating their strength. It encourages nations to have long-lasting feuds and to work against worthy adversaries. Aggressive acts include embargoing, declaring war, taking provinces, subsidizing enemies of rivals, and sending privateers. Its value is capped at +100.
Power projection is gained through static effects that last until cancelled and event modifiers which decay over time. All event modifiers decay at a rate of −1/+1 power projection per year and are counted for each rival separately (Insulting a rival is the only notable exception here). Event modifiers do stack, but are capped at a maximum value. Everything exceeding this value is lost.
Example: 23 power projection is left from eclipsing rivals. Eclipsing another one would add another 10 power projection, potentially resulting in 23 + 10 = 33 power projection. However the value is capped at 30, so 3 power projection is lost and the value is set to 30, decaying at the normal rate of −1 power projection per year.
↑ 1.01.1If there are fewer than three eligible countries that are not allies, the extra empty slots don't contribute to the penalty.
If a rival is replaced, completely conquered or ceases to be an eligible rival, all static effects gained against that rival will be lost; except for replacement, the loss power projection is generally compensated by the other factors that apply (conquest, losing provinces, vassalizing, and eclipsing). Power projection resulting from event modifiers is not lost, and continues to decay normally.
Having positive power projection provides several scaling bonuses. There is no penalty for having negative power projection; it cannot go lower than 0. For each point, the following bonuses are given:[1]