Hi all.
As you know, Crusader Kings 2 is really fun game to play, no matter which goverment is of your liege's, nor culture or religion... and really, every aspect of game gots huge amounts of so-called "flavour", those small things that make things unique and making CK2 still fresh. From decadence of sultans and restoration of Rome, to great houses of martitime republics, ending on pagan rituals and secret societies or cults or even councils, those small details really make experience really interesting to play. However, with newest addition to DLCs list that's Holy Fury, I think that, well, you can form new political entities, ranging from grand duchies of Germany to declaring Swiss Confede- wait, but why it's feudal and not really that much of "confederation" ? Well, I can say that Paradox selects things to be polished (like Merchant Republics, that became playable after "The Republic" DLC), but other ones, those really, really tiny and most fascinating ones got very little attention from devs. Why ? Well, in short, CK2 from beginning was not really intented to be what it is today, but fans wanted more, so they gave them more... and we need to still pay for DLCs released... I dunno... few months after release of CK2.
But really, this thread isn't rant about how Paradox still wants us to pay for small DLCs that should be out-right integrated into game, but rather about my earlier point, which this point was about new things that can really, really add bit of a fresh air to that old game.
In game, there are a lot of potential 'what-if' scenarios, for example united Slavic kingdoms under Slavic Union or christian empire of Outremer, so it wouldn't be that really odd to add things that were, I dunno, historically many centuries later on. First one and most basic stuff to talk about is Noble Republic/Democracy, because that can be really easily implemented to game, and from historic perspective, isn't that odd or out of place at all. Firstly, we need to explain concept behind "Noble Republic". It's a type of goverment where actual power is in hands of nobles, and monarch is reigning, but not ruling. In short, political system of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. You may ask "it sounds familiar" because it is. In short, fundaments for Nobles' Democracy is elective feudal one. However, things take turn because, as king in Noble Republic, you literally have no power whatsoever over laws or taxation, that's job of parliament (which is composed of nobles) after all... even army must be raised by aggrement of all. Basically, NR is elective feudal hardcore mode, because:
1. You don't have power, beside diplomacy, improving (and bulding) provincial objects and leading armies. Hell, you don't have even ability to call ad hoc parliament, this is regularly called on matter of few years (well, regularity of parliaments is that one thing you can change)
2. Nobles have absurd amount rights of privilieges after long time, so you are just obligated to keep those pesky fat bastards happy or content with your reign. If NR is in state of it's infancy, you can still revert this all madness by using last bits of your authority and remove all those things that caused adopting NR, returning back to normal feudal goverment, but, really, you must have a lot of allies in nobles' ranks to do that maneuver.
How NR can be adopted ? Well, it's a very long process and has it's actual cause. Cause of slow losing of your power is your vassals having too much power, so authority and centralization laws actually have some sense to adopt at all. If higher centralization and authority, then there is smaller chance of your vassals wanting to gain more privilieges, but, if they chose to, it randomly makes your authority or centralization smaller. But when you adopt it, things like totally decentralized HRE can be actually pretty fun thing to watch, literally becoming Game of Thrones adaptation, where all nobles are trying to get as much wealth and influence as possible. Hell, even as to make it more close to reality, nobles can adopt laws as liberum veto (well, that one is pretty obvious) or allowing to elect kings from foreign dynasties.
The next suggestion is propably the oldest suggestions of CK2 community's ever asked, but this time, it tooks different shape than usual and is more described, instead of being a inland merchant republic rip-off, but rather it's own thing with it's own challenges to overcome. Swiss Confederation, that odd-ball of Middle Ages in Alpes in CK2 comes in two different options: one, make your own Switzerland (most likely as a feudal) or non-playable, republican (why ?!) one available in one of later dates. Then... why just not make two Swiss states related ? In, I dunno, goverment ?
Swiss Confederation shouldn't be "monochromatic", being present in only one colour on Goverments map mode, but rather mix of Theocracy (Bishoprics), baronies and republics, all united under single banner of Helvetia. In short, to make it work, it should have it's own... alright, it's starts to get boring. In short, a merchant republic where great houses are replaced with baron/count/duke/king-level vassals, you can have capital inland, you have no ability to built trade posts and, if you have nerves to work with mixed bag of different characters, make it actual (in all but name) democracy, and by that I signal that there will be lots of bills to pass and laws to regulate.
The last part is peasants' republic, which is basically Dithmarschen earlier on.
Alright, after this long talk about nothing... I herebly welcome all of CK2 fans to talk about ideas, what can be removed or improved, or why you don't just disagree with me (but, geez, use good argumentation about why those ideas should not be picked by devs) or have different opinion on how those things should work.
As you know, Crusader Kings 2 is really fun game to play, no matter which goverment is of your liege's, nor culture or religion... and really, every aspect of game gots huge amounts of so-called "flavour", those small things that make things unique and making CK2 still fresh. From decadence of sultans and restoration of Rome, to great houses of martitime republics, ending on pagan rituals and secret societies or cults or even councils, those small details really make experience really interesting to play. However, with newest addition to DLCs list that's Holy Fury, I think that, well, you can form new political entities, ranging from grand duchies of Germany to declaring Swiss Confede- wait, but why it's feudal and not really that much of "confederation" ? Well, I can say that Paradox selects things to be polished (like Merchant Republics, that became playable after "The Republic" DLC), but other ones, those really, really tiny and most fascinating ones got very little attention from devs. Why ? Well, in short, CK2 from beginning was not really intented to be what it is today, but fans wanted more, so they gave them more... and we need to still pay for DLCs released... I dunno... few months after release of CK2.
But really, this thread isn't rant about how Paradox still wants us to pay for small DLCs that should be out-right integrated into game, but rather about my earlier point, which this point was about new things that can really, really add bit of a fresh air to that old game.
In game, there are a lot of potential 'what-if' scenarios, for example united Slavic kingdoms under Slavic Union or christian empire of Outremer, so it wouldn't be that really odd to add things that were, I dunno, historically many centuries later on. First one and most basic stuff to talk about is Noble Republic/Democracy, because that can be really easily implemented to game, and from historic perspective, isn't that odd or out of place at all. Firstly, we need to explain concept behind "Noble Republic". It's a type of goverment where actual power is in hands of nobles, and monarch is reigning, but not ruling. In short, political system of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. You may ask "it sounds familiar" because it is. In short, fundaments for Nobles' Democracy is elective feudal one. However, things take turn because, as king in Noble Republic, you literally have no power whatsoever over laws or taxation, that's job of parliament (which is composed of nobles) after all... even army must be raised by aggrement of all. Basically, NR is elective feudal hardcore mode, because:
1. You don't have power, beside diplomacy, improving (and bulding) provincial objects and leading armies. Hell, you don't have even ability to call ad hoc parliament, this is regularly called on matter of few years (well, regularity of parliaments is that one thing you can change)
2. Nobles have absurd amount rights of privilieges after long time, so you are just obligated to keep those pesky fat bastards happy or content with your reign. If NR is in state of it's infancy, you can still revert this all madness by using last bits of your authority and remove all those things that caused adopting NR, returning back to normal feudal goverment, but, really, you must have a lot of allies in nobles' ranks to do that maneuver.
How NR can be adopted ? Well, it's a very long process and has it's actual cause. Cause of slow losing of your power is your vassals having too much power, so authority and centralization laws actually have some sense to adopt at all. If higher centralization and authority, then there is smaller chance of your vassals wanting to gain more privilieges, but, if they chose to, it randomly makes your authority or centralization smaller. But when you adopt it, things like totally decentralized HRE can be actually pretty fun thing to watch, literally becoming Game of Thrones adaptation, where all nobles are trying to get as much wealth and influence as possible. Hell, even as to make it more close to reality, nobles can adopt laws as liberum veto (well, that one is pretty obvious) or allowing to elect kings from foreign dynasties.
The next suggestion is propably the oldest suggestions of CK2 community's ever asked, but this time, it tooks different shape than usual and is more described, instead of being a inland merchant republic rip-off, but rather it's own thing with it's own challenges to overcome. Swiss Confederation, that odd-ball of Middle Ages in Alpes in CK2 comes in two different options: one, make your own Switzerland (most likely as a feudal) or non-playable, republican (why ?!) one available in one of later dates. Then... why just not make two Swiss states related ? In, I dunno, goverment ?
Swiss Confederation shouldn't be "monochromatic", being present in only one colour on Goverments map mode, but rather mix of Theocracy (Bishoprics), baronies and republics, all united under single banner of Helvetia. In short, to make it work, it should have it's own... alright, it's starts to get boring. In short, a merchant republic where great houses are replaced with baron/count/duke/king-level vassals, you can have capital inland, you have no ability to built trade posts and, if you have nerves to work with mixed bag of different characters, make it actual (in all but name) democracy, and by that I signal that there will be lots of bills to pass and laws to regulate.
The last part is peasants' republic, which is basically Dithmarschen earlier on.
Alright, after this long talk about nothing... I herebly welcome all of CK2 fans to talk about ideas, what can be removed or improved, or why you don't just disagree with me (but, geez, use good argumentation about why those ideas should not be picked by devs) or have different opinion on how those things should work.
