(EU5) My only previous game is CK3 so I'm not familiar with this particular set of mechanics, what makes colonies and exploration actually worth it? It was a lot of money to rush to the Azores for some shitty fish RGO nodes. Not only that, but my viceroyalty literally hasn't built a single new building in decades, I was forced to invest in their first marketplace, etc. Is it only the new world that's 'worth' colonizing or is there a way I can extract money from colonies that I'm not seeing.
Also are transport ships fundamentally broken for the AI? Half of Europe is at war with various North African countries and yet everyone is sitting with their raised levies next to a stack of ships in their capitals, noone's sailing their stacks through to siege. Is it because the transport capacity is less than their merged stack's strength and the AI is too retarded to split them first? I got caught up in one of them, tried to just sit it out and the way I realised something's up was through getting the "Have a war without any ongoing conflict for 2 years" Cold War achievement popping up.