Dev Diary #11 - Bag of Tricks & Recent changes
Hello everyone, and welcome to another development diary, showing some of our recent changes and additions to the game.
This is the first DD of the week, and what a week! ModCon is just around the corner, and with it comes quite a lot of teasers, dev diaries, and exciting new content!
Don't forget to check out the website to know what mod teams will be part of ModCon, and what you can expect to find here:
modcon.xyz/
Today we'll talk about four of our recent changes. We'll start with new innovations, both general and culture-specific, then we will show how powerful and famous rulers in Tamriel can claim that Might makes Right, after that we'll see how the ruler of the Imperial Isle can benefit from its special buildings without having to hold them personally, and we'll finish with the Bridges of Leyawiin, and why the Potentate wanted them to be destroyed...
Innovations:
Tamriel is a magical place, both quite familiar and very different from our own world. To help give the world of the Elder Scrolls its own identity, we have to tailor the Innovations and Technologies so that they can show how vast and diverse the universe is.
As stated before, we kept the four technological eras, named 'First Era', 'Early Interregnum', 'Time of Pretenders' and 'Unification Wars'. We also have a 'primordial' technological era, named 'Merethic Era' where the nativity innovations (
see here for a refresher on what nativity regions are) are stored.
Each of these eras contains most of the vanilla innovations, as well as new ones symbolizing advances in magic and spellcasting, and adding some famous institutions that were born either during the late Second Era, as Tamriel was being united under Tiber Septim, or during the Third Era under the Septim Empire.
Note: You can see a "Master's Field" building in the War Magic innovations. This is part of an Academy holding that is meant to represent places of learning. More on that in a future dev diary.
Different cultures also have evolved unique ways of fighting. Most if not all cultures have at least one unique (or at least special) regiment as early as the First Era, and some also unlock more as time passes.
Might makes Right:
The world of Tamriel is filled with powerful warlords and rulers who didn't really abide by the conventions of their time. Why would an Emperor wait until the Unification Wars to attack and fully annex a kingdom that is part of their domain?
To solve this issue while still keeping the trend towards bigger wars as the game progresses, we allow very famous individuals to bypass some innovations requirements, with a concept named Might makes Right.
During the early eras, rulers are locked behind small de Jure casus belli and weak Crown Authority laws. While it allows for a progression towards bigger wars and increased centralization as time passes, it might not fit the Elder Scrolls universe. To this end, rulers with high enough levels of Fame can declare these wars or enact these laws, even if they lack the required Innovation. Getting the innovation later on will allow characters to use these actions, no matter their fame.
This allows for a smoother transition between a character and fame based gameplay as in Tribes and a law and rules based gameplay as in feudal realms.
Note: Succession Laws are still fully locked behind innovations. A succession acts, by definition, once you are dead, and as such your personal fame does not really matter anymore. You can still influence it by having a very high level of Fame and enacting the Absolute Crown Authority law and choosing your primary heir.
Some faiths also place a great deal of authority within codified rules and strict legal procedures. These faiths allow you to use Devotion as well as Fame in all of the Might makes Right requirements. While a Colovian that follows the Imperial Cult needs to be 'Exalted Among Men' to use a Kingdom-sized de Jure war, an Orc that follows the Code of Malacath can either be 'Exalted Among Men' or a 'Paragon of Virtue'. Same goes for laws, either fame or devotion is required to enact them.
Diplomatic vassalization:
Diplomatic vassalization now follow the same rules as Casus belli or Crown Authority laws. You will need specific innovations to ask a ruler to become your vassal, unless you have a high enough level of Fame or Devotion. House Heads can however always ask members of their House to become their vassal, and Dynasty Heads can always ask members of their dynasty to become their vassal.
Note: The 'Provincial Governor' special contract shown in the 'Provincial Governors' innovation will be further explained in a future dev diary.
Imperial Isle bonuses:
While designing the Imperial Isle building it became clear that some of them would most of the time be rather useless, as they may not be held by the holder of the Imperial City. The Arcane University, the Imperial Arena, and the Imperial City Harbor are in holdings that cannot be held by Feudal rulers, and the rest may be given to vassals.
To help make the buildings still useful even if you do not personally hold them, any ruler who has the Imperial City as their capital receives bonuses if they do not personally hold one of the Imperial Isle special buildings, as long as they are in their realm. These bonuses are smaller than if you were to personally hold the buildings, but at least the Arcane University is not entirely useless if you're Feudal.
The Imperial City Harbor also slightly increases the tax and development growth of the whole Imperial Isle if it is part of your realm... And as long as it is open.
The Bridges of Leyawiin:
A small piece of lore of the early Second Era is that the Potentate demanded that the Bridges of Leyawiin be destroyed, as they hampered the flow of trade along the Rumare.
To help represent that, Leyawiin has been given a special building that significantly increases the taxes and development of the city, and slightly increases the taxes of all the holdings in the duchy.
However, this building also disables the Imperial City Harbor and Port Hestra - two important buildings in the Imperial Isle, as well as the Tradeport building line all along the Rumare. One of the first actions of the Potentate or any ruler who seizes the Imperial Isle should be to force the ruler of Leyawiin to destroy the bridges.
To destroy the Bridges of Leyawiin, one must rule over the city while not holding it as its capital. If the city is held by a vassal, the vassal must have a very high enough opinion of you, have a high opinion of you and be scared of you, or you must have a strong hook over the vassal. After paying a prestige cost, the Bridges will be destroyed and after a month trade will once again freely flow along the Rumare.
Should you lose control of Leyawiin, its holder will be able to rebuild the Bridges, and once more restrict who can pass through the city.
This is all for me today! Tune it tomorrow for more exciting teasers, Wednesday for another development diary - this time focused on some recent map changes, and don't forget to check out ModCon on Thursday!
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