Heir to the Throne - Dev Diary 3

New week, new diary. Since the last entry, 1,082,875 people have died in the world. Why do I mention this? Well, granted, I am slightly morbid, but also, the topic for today is death. And not just any kind of death, but the death of Kings.

While EU3 is not, and should not primarily be, a game of characters and noble houses, succession could be a lot more interesting. Thus, monarchs now belong to a dynasty. Countries with monarchs from the same dynasty get a bonus to their relations growth and may experience a variety of dynastic events. Monarchs can also have a legal heir. To keep things simple, the heir only has a name, an age, and a strength of claim (weak, average or strong.) In the tragic event of the monarch dying, a legal heir will ensure a minimum of fuss.

Long live the King, but should God in his mercy lift him up to Heaven, the worldly results are now predictable and shown in a handy tooltip. For example, an underage heir will result in a regency. An heir with a weak claim might encourage a Pretender to rise up, and the absence of an heir will cause a change of dynasty, the country getting inherited, or the formation of a personal union.

Apart from a more predictable succession, the new system allows players to manipulate the outcome. The "Claim Throne" diplomatic action has been revised to make more sense: it can only be used against countries that have no heir or an heir with a weak claim. Claimants have priority to form personal unions and dynasty changes. The downside is that only claimants can get dragged into Succession Wars... In the absence of claimants, Prestige determines which royal marriage can cause personal unions and dynasty changes.

Until next week!

An example heir script:

Oh, and the court view graphics will get a slight retouch, so don't worry about the old background.

 

I'm excited...now succession wars will have a more realistic feel to them. Keep it up!

edit; first

 

At last Claim throne is useful!

 

Sounds great, but erm.... how does this work when using "historical leaders" where the line of succession is already set??



Thorin

 

This was the feature I wanted more than any other, the whole royal line and marriage area's were a little under-detailed so this is fantastic. I love roleplaying with my Kings, generals etc so this will be brilliant

 

Oh bugger, that's very awesome! Finally a use for Claim Throne besides a CB!

Can't wait for this expansion!

 

This is a great feature, and one I've longed for. No more Göran Love I, son of Gustav Vasa!

 

Awesome ! Exactely what i wanted to hear

 

Nice, can't wait for it to come out!

 

Are the heirs automatically generated?

 

How will republics be handled? Is it the same old system, or are there "political heirs" that can raise a fuss if the same party sin't elected in the next election? And will there be modifiers based on government type, so that heirs in a despotic monarchy have stronger claims from the outset than those in feudal monarchies for example?

Looking good, though!

 

Very nice Would love to know a bit more about the dynasties themselves though. Are they predefined or can new one's be created randomly by the game (a cultural name pool like exists already for advisors, etc could take care of the naming part). Can events check for specific dynasties (ie can I check if someone is an heir of Timur for instance?).

 

Yes and no. There will be scripted historical heirs, and if you play with historical monarchs those are the only ones that will be used. Otherwise, new ones are spawned semi-randomly.

 

Does this mean that with the new system it is possible to increase chances of personal union beyond just doing more royal marriages?

Also, in IN 3.2, Union events are very hardcoded, and an event that kills a king does not result in a chance of union or inheritance. In other words, unions are related to deaths not controlled by players (or modders), according to my understanding. Is this changed? Can players like me increase the chances of unions, while others, like Ubik, decrease them?

 

Republics will work as before (when it comes to heirs and dynasties...)

 

When a local noble succeeds to the throne, a dynasty name is chosen from a pool of names defined per culture group.

 

Will this mean some changes to tribal succession crises are planned as well?

 

Having thought more about it: If "Karamanese noble" can indeed be set to be the successor then I suppose the game _can_ create new dynasties...

EDIT: Got beaten by an actual reply.

Nice, will the local noble be chosen from the primary culture or the one in a nation's provinces? I'm asking for all those countries where the nobility was from an entirely different place than the general populace (ie India which during the first 100 years was ruled mostly by persians and afghans and any new dynasty would be from those foreign amirs).

 

Yes. Maintain a high prestige and try to claim thrones.