Crusader Kings II - Dev Diary 18 - The Council

[Doomdark]

Folks, prepare yourself for another monologue by yours truly!

Last time, I promised to talk about Crusader Pandas, but that would be silly, so I won't. Instead, I'll inform you about the workings of the Council. Just like in Crusader Kings, the Council consists of five characters who serve as your advisers; the Chancellor, Steward, Marshal, Spymaster and Lord Spiritual. Their primary attribute is added to your own for purposes of government. (E.g. the Diplomacy skill is the primary attribute of the Chancellor.) To make it more balanced, characters now have an additional attribute called Learning, which is the primary attribute of the Lord Spiritual. Also unlike Crusader Kings, you can appoint your direct landed vassals to your council, not just your courtiers. Women can normally not serve as councillors, although the spouse and mother of the ruler can be Spymaster.

The main new Council related feature in Crusader Kings II, however, is the ability to send your councillors on various jobs (three per councillor) out in the counties. Many of these jobs are very powerful if used correctly. The chance of a good outcome is dependent on their skill. To give some examples:

Head Local Inquisition (Lord Spiritual):
The Lord Spiritual converts a province or local character to his religion.

Train Troops (Marshal):
The levies replenish faster and can grow beyond their normal max size.

Fabricate Claims (Chancellor):
Chance that you get a claim on a local title.

Oversee Construction (Steward):
The build time of improvements and new holdings is much reduced.

Study Technology (Spymaster):
Chance that a tech level spreads to your capital.





Ponder this until the next dev diary.

[InboxMadness]

It's still called Lord Spiritual?

[Leprechaun]

Excellent!

[Meanmanturbo]

Nice

How long will the Marshal effect on the levy last? Will it be at the increased size until it suffers loses or will the effect disappear after a set time?

[A_Dane]

But I wanted Pandas :/

Crusader states next time, please?

[Doomdark]

Nice

How long will the Marshal effect on the levy last? Will it be at the increased size until it suffers loses or will the effect disappear after a set time?

It will persist as long as he's in the province. If the levy is raised, it will also persist for the raised levy.

[Doomdark]

It's still called Lord Spiritual?

Well, I lobbied for "Papa Smurf", but was voted down.

[Suirantes]

Crusade mechanics would be nice for the next DD .

[Jaol]

Looks great!

Do the names for the councilors have to be the same everywhere, or can we mod them to vary by culture? For example, if I'm playing as a Byzantine noble, can I have a "Megas Domestikos" instead of a "Marshal" and a "Megas Logothetes" instead of a "Chancellor"?

Also, will modders be able to add in more jobs? I see room for more buttons to the left of the existing ones.

[keynes2.0]

So if you have heathen provinces, you just appoint some vassal to run them and he'll probably make a high priority out of converting them to your religion. Seems like a recipe for religiously homogeneous empires.

[Doomdark]

Looks great!

Do the names for the councilors have to be the same everywhere, or can we mod them to vary by culture? For example, if I'm playing as a Byzantine noble, can I have a "Megas Domestikos" instead of a "Marshal" and a "Megas Logothetes" instead of a "Chancellor"?

Also, will modders be able to add in more jobs? I see room for more buttons to the left of the existing ones.

The council position names can be modded by culture, religion, etc.

It is easy to mod in new jobs, but it might require some interface modding as well.

[Romtos]

It is easy to mod in new jobs, but it might require some interface modding as well.

I'm impressed it's moddable at all!
Can one mod scroll menus in the interface? You could add a large number of council positions that way.

[Jia Xu]

Good DD. Thank you! If you wouldn't mind, could you answer a few questions?

1) Are councils kingdom level only or will counts and dukes have them too? If vassals do have them and they're a different religion than your ruler is, will their lord spirituals be converting provinces to their religion and away from yours?

2) Is it safe to assume that Lords Spirituals need ecclesiastical educations, like diocesan bishops did in CK1? Will it be easier to get courtiers who have this trait if it's still needed? I found that in CK1 I always had trouble filling the court Bishop's job simply because I rarely had courtiers with the necessary religious education.

3) When you say women "normally" can't serve on the council, does that mean there are certain odd cases where they can be the steward or the others? If so, when and how?

Thanks again for the interesting DD.

[PdoxLP]

1) Are councils kingdom level only or will counts and dukes have them too?

I would think so. If not non-kings will have a huge penalty to governance.

[Kalmar8]

Study Technology (Spymaster):
Chance that a tech level spreads to your capital.

I find this rather strange. The middle ages weren't some kind of technological cold war anyway!

[Jia Xu]

I find this rather strange. The middle ages weren't some kind of technological cold war anyway!

Which is probably why it's study technology and not steal technology. It's probably less sneaking into the castle like a medieval James Bond to steal the plans for the new siege weapon and more like organizing an effort to travel to a foreign province and learn about something by simply asking local experts how they do things. The spy part probably has to do with simply keeping your employer a secret while you're asking these questions.

[Jaol]

The council position names can be modded by culture, religion, etc.

It is easy to mod in new jobs, but it might require some interface modding as well.

Better and better!

[Doomdark]

Good DD. Thank you! If you wouldn't mind, could you answer a few questions?

1) Are councils kingdom level only or will counts and dukes have them too? If vassals do have them and they're a different religion than your ruler is, will their lord spirituals be converting provinces to their religion and away from yours?

Counts and above have councils, and yes, they will attempt to maintain their own religion.

2) Is it safe to assume that Lords Spirituals need ecclesiastical educations, like diocesan bishops did in CK1? Will it be easier to get courtiers who have this trait if it's still needed? I found that in CK1 I always had trouble filling the court Bishop's job simply because I rarely had courtiers with the necessary religious education.

Lords Spiritual do not, in fact, need an ecclesiastical education.

3) When you say women "normally" can't serve on the council, does that mean there are certain odd cases where they can be the steward or the others? If so, when and how?

Not really, I just meant the some women can be spymasters, but we might still tweak the rules a bit. (It's all fully moddable, btw.)

[eliphas8]

I'm impressed it's moddable at all!
Can one mod scroll menus in the interface? You could add a large number of council positions that way.

Could it be possible to have the possitions be elected? that could work well if someone wanted to make a republic mod.

[Doomdark]

I'm impressed it's moddable at all!
Can one mod scroll menus in the interface? You could add a large number of council positions that way.

If you add new council positions, a scroll bar will appear, but it will probably require some interface mod work to make it look good.