The Problem with Real-time in Grand Strategy Games

Grand strategy games like Europa Universalis 5, Victoria 3, and Crusader Kings 3 suffer from a "nothing is happening" problem. Not every week, month, or even year is interesting. However, because those games run in real-time, a problem emerges: what should happen during the downtime?

What can the player do in times when nothing happens?

The simple solution is to make something happen regardless of meaning, depth, or interest. All modern Paradox games suffer from a problem of "event spam"—meaningless events that pop in your face, forcing you to interact with them. Most options are a flavor of "pay X to get Y modifier." You pay less to get a negative modifier, or pay more to get a good one (or lessen the effects of the bad one).

This mechanic is arguably the genre's worst habit. These events exist primarily to pad playtime and simulate activity. If we were to strip away the random noise—leaving only the historical event chains or character-specific narratives—what would actually remain of the gameplay loop?

A Possible Solution?

A possible solution could be interleaving real-time with turn time. What do I mean with that? We could end a turn and forward 30 days and should something important happen in the meantime (like a war declaration) we would end the turn prematurely at lets say 14 days (day of declaration) instead.

This would still allow for war to play out in hours. But would remove the need to pad out 14 days with random events that do not really matter.