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Dev Diary 11: Stopping The Snowball

Hey! So today we will talk about some mechanics we’ve added to make other rulers react to what happens in the world. We want to slow down the snowball and prolong the time it takes to conquer the world, so it shouldn’t be as easy to do. Snowballs are pretty evil, just like medieval rulers.

Just as with the shattered retreat mechanic we took inspiration from Europa Universalis 4 in our decision to add Coalitions. Our coalitions however are based on an Infamy value instead of Aggressive Expansion. You might recognize the name Infamy from our old games, but even though it shares the name it will work quite differently.

Infamy is limited to be within the range of 0 to 100% and will slowly decay over time based on how strong your max military potential is. When you hit 25% infamy, coalitions will be unlocked and AIs will start joining them based on how threatened they feel.Your infamy will serve as a hint on how aggressive and dangerous other rulers think your realm is. You gain infamy primarily by conquering land through war or by inheriting a fair maidens huge tracts of land.

The amount of Infamy you gain is based on the action you do, how much land you take and how large your realm already is. So for instance the Kaiser of the HRE declaring a war for Flanders and taking it is going to make the neighbours more worried than if Pomerania manages to take Mecklenburg.
capture(56).png


Coalitions themselves are mostly defensive in Crusader Kings, if any member gets attacked by the target of the coalition they will automatically be called into the war. If a member starts a war against the target they only get a normal call to arms which they can choose to decline.

For an AI to join a coalition they will consider the relative strength between the target and themselves, how threatened they think they are and how much infamy the target has accrued. You can view the current coalition someone has against them by the diplomacy field on the character screen.

capture(54).png


But it might not be the easiest way to view it so we also added a mapmode to more easily visualize Coalitions. A nation which turns up white is the nation you have currently selected, blue will be targetable for coalitions, yellow means they have a coalition against them and Red means they are members of the coalition against the currently selected one.

capture(55).jpg
 
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No. The 'distance raises revolt risk' makes even less sense... distant vassals mostly revolt less. Look at the HRE. For a short time the capital was in Naples. Which vassals did revolt? The ones in Italy. Some in Southern Germany. And Nothern Germany was very peaceful.

Mostly distant leads to less revolts because distance mean less controll for the ruler. Distance alone is NOT a reason for revolts.
I agree, but revolt less is probably pushing it too far, as it depends on other factors too, such as culture, crown authority, taxes, levies etc.
 
I agree, but revolt less is probably pushing it too far, as it depends on other factors too, such as culture, crown authority, taxes, levies etc.

Revolt risk in newly conquered provinces based on the difference in administration between the old realm and the new one, perhaps, with negatives having a bigger impact than positives.
 
I agree, but revolt less is probably pushing it too far, as it depends on other factors too, such as culture, crown authority, taxes, levies etc.

Yes. This factors all are more important than distance. Distance don't let the people start to revolt. It's not like 'The King is away let's revolt!' but more like 'The King is away! Let us do what we want while he isn't looking!'. Mostly of course ;)
 
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Yes. This factors all are more important than distance. Distance don't let the people start to revolt. It's not like 'The King is away let's revolt!' but more like 'The King is away! Let us do what we want while he isn't looking!'. Mostly of course ;)

Hmm, thinking about it, there should be a distance modifier, but not to revolt risk, it should be to levies and taxes.
 
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No. The 'distance raises revolt risk' makes even less sense... distant vassals mostly revolt less. Look at the HRE. For a short time the capital was in Naples. Which vassals did revolt? The ones in Italy. Some in Southern Germany. And Nothern Germany was very peaceful.

Mostly distant leads to less revolts because distance mean less controll for the ruler. Distance alone is NOT a reason for revolts.

Are you sure ? Northern Germany was only peaceful after it had been brought down before and still supported an Anti kaiser ..or was it anti-king(??) , anyway,
i find bold to say that northern Germany didn't make trouble here or there.
The kaiser/king being 'away' in Italy often played a role as far as i recall.
 
This used to be a thing?! I don't know why it was removed as I only started playing last week, but I would love for this to be in. Makes perfect sense.

Yes, and I really liked it a lot. It was simple and worked fine. For instance when I as Britannia won the crusade for Jerusalem it was impossible for me to keep it as a vassal. It also added some strategy for the location of your capital - since you wanted it to be centralized, not hanging out in a corner somewhere. If I as a human couldn't keep a distant kingdom imagine how the AI would be hampered.
 
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Another opinion modifier that could be implemented...

When my liege is attacked by an external war - that's when I'm looking to declare independence. So for the AI, the +75 opinion modifier should not apply to ambitious vassals.
 
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Another opinion modifier that could be implemented...

When my liege is attacked by an external war - that's when I'm looking to declare independence. So for the AI, the +75 opinion modifier should not apply to ambitious vassals.

The AI already does this... somewhat. If you're exhausted from a war, you can expect your rebellious lords to take the opportunity to rise up.
 
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Another opinion modifier that could be implemented...

When my liege is attacked by an external war - that's when I'm looking to declare independence. So for the AI, the +75 opinion modifier should not apply to ambitious vassals.
It only applies when they're foreigners or infidels. It does make things easier when you get attacked by some weak foreign infidels and can just keep that opinion modifier rolling. Usually they attack when you most need it too since that's when you're weak.
 
I don't comment much around here, and I know I'm painfully late to the party, but the more I think about it, this whole infamy thing could actually help solve some problems as well. Out of control AI blobs are a big annoyance, too (looking at you, 769 Khazaria), and if they are brought under control, that can only help the game. Perhaps better revolts would work even more, but an imperfect solution is better than none.

Actually, there's a question with infamy I haven't seen answered yet. Tribal rulers don't get levies from their vassals, but obviously, those vassals can join in wars. So, how do tribal vassals count for the army size portion of infamy calculations?
 
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Hey! So today we will talk about some mechanics we’ve added...



Does anyone ever see the AI blob anyway? I never ever see the AI forming, by itself, a larger empire than the Francias together at the Charlemagne start. They always just fall apart from civil wars and the map looks like crap due to weird borders after 200 years.

That makes me feel like this mechanic is going to restrict the player, and no one else...
 
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Does anyone ever see the AI blob anyway? I never ever see the AI forming, by itself, a larger empire than the Francias together at the Charlemagne start. They always just fall apart from civil wars and the map looks like crap due to weird borders after 200 years.

That makes me feel like this mechanic is going to restrict the player, and no one else...

Well, Blobbisids never go anywhere.
 
I didnt visit the forum quite for a while, so sorry for dumb question but i ask it anyways :D

This Dev Diary is for some upcoming patch somewhere in the future, right?

Yes, they are forcing AE on everyone even if we refrain from buying the new DLC.
 
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And no, Infamy stays over generations. You can't be a dick then die and think you will get away with it.

What?? That's not CK2 then. Nations are just the property of men in this game, not characters themselves. What France does isn't a thing in this game. And when Phillip dies, his transgressions must go with him. This is wrong.
 
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What?? That's not CK2 then. Nations are just the property of men in this game, not characters themselves. What France does isn't a thing in this game. And when Phillip dies, his transgressions must go with him. This is wrong.
It does make some sense, sins of the father and all that.

I will be exceptionally annoyed if its the full amount of infamy that transfers between succession though. There best be SOME bleed off.
 
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