Lots of Quality of Life ideas

[Heiliges Thüringens Reich]

Hi!

I'd like to introduce some suggestions regarding quality of life improvements that would make the game more user-friendly and informative, in my opinion.

1. Near-death events
Everytime a ruler dies, it's so sudden that you are caught by surprise while doing something else. The main point of my suggestion is to have a 'Last Words of [ruler name]' event, which would spawn right before his/her death to inform the player what will happen in just one day - the end of that character's lifespan. Even better, there could be a event chain starting some weeks before, with the ruler nominating his will and the Regent could start the last rites ceremony (which would also be an event chain). Such near-death event would attract vassals and foreign rulers alike to testify the "The King is dead! Long live the King!" moment.

After all, outside the 3 factors I've listed in the next paragraph, the entire realm would react to the process and anticipation of their ruler nearing his end. Of course, that would only happen for natural and disease deaths; duels, assassinations and combat wouldn't give enough time for this to happen (although a funeral ceremony could be a great addition to the game, nonetheless!).

2. Top-screen icon warning about possible NAPs/Alliances
As our characters generate kids, the dynasty starts growing and most of them are used for Non-Aggression Pacts with vassals and neighbors (and might become Alliances). Within your first generation of descendants, managing such NAPs and Alliances aren't problematic, but later on... when your ruler relatives also start to make NAPs/alliances around, some of those are available to your character - but the game has no feature telling you that; you have to search one by one.

My suggestion boils down to this: everytime another character would have the 'Offer Non-Aggression Pact/Alliance' button in their right-click menu (either if it's greyed out or not), an icon would show up informing the player that. The pop-up could be the name of the person, his/her title and a 'Yes/No' column regarding their readiness to accept (basically, if the button is blued or greyed out). Left-clicking on the icon would make the Character window go through them just like the Weak Claim icon does.

3. Top-screen icon warning about vacant minor titles
There's already something like that - but only for Designated Regent, Commanders, Court Tutor and Court Physician. I'd like to extend it to all positive minor titles (Seneschal, High Almoner, etc).

4. Hotkey to (de)attach armies
Don't know why, but the Attach/Detach Army button has no hotkey - while all other army buttons (like Create New Unit) have. I'd like to have one for quick attaching/detaching my stacks with friendlies (this is really important on Speed 3+ and you have movement lock rule on!).

5. New option for the Join Court filter in the Character Search window
Nowadays, we have 3 options: 'All', 'Yes' and 'Any'. I'd like to break 'Any' into 'Maybe' and 'No', because I'm only interested in the 'Yes' and 'Maybe' folks. Having an option just for the 'Maybe's (when no good 'Yes' can be found) would speed up the process, instead of having to navigate the sea of 'No's.
Or, in another way, bring the 'Maybe's to the 'Yes' instead of the 'Any' (and rename that one to 'No')

6. Search for Culture/Religion in the Character Selection window
Whenever you click on a Council, Minor Title or Marriage button, the Character Selection (or whatever its name is) window appears. In such screen, we can use the search box to look for names and traits, but not religion or culture; only organize them by those 2 characteristics. I'd like to type 'catholic' or 'german' in the search box and the Character Selection window would show only people from those religions/cultures.
All those points would also count for the Character Search window as well.

7. Search for (not yours) Heirs in the Character Search window
If I want to search for heirs to marry my kids/relatives, I have to either manually look up the title and see the Sucession line or, in the Character Search, have to hover the cursor on each portrait to check out what they're an heir to. I'd like to type 'heir' in the search box and it would only show me people which will inherit a title.

8. Add control groups
Most, if not all, strategy games have the option of control groups: army stacks could be nominated a number from 1 to 0 using Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+0. This would speed up giving orders and general playthrough. Ships could also get those.

9. Visual modifier on character window regarding raiding blocking
I'm not usually a player of raiding rulers, but starting a Denmark 936 game brought to my attention something that I haven't ever heard before: if you lose a combat in a realm you're looting, you need to wait some time (I've read it's 5 years!) before you can raid the same realm again (and it counts for the uppermost title; being defeated at Paris means you cannot raid ANY FRENCH land for that amount of time). While I have nothing against such rule (because I've been raided a lot in the past and knowing that certainly brings relief to my mind), ther's no visual indicator of which realms I can't raid and how much time is left before I can do it again.

My suggestion is this: a modifier in the Character window (the same row of Malicious Rumors) with the Viking trait (but monocolor in bad modifier color) with the pop-up telling the player which realms he's forbidden from raiding and how much time is left before you can raid that realm again. The name of the modifier could be 'Raiders Defeated' and its flavor text could be something like this:
"Due to a defeat of your raiding troops to a foreign ruler in their lands, your troops cannot raid them for [x years/months]"

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So what do you guys think?

 

[Heiliges Thüringens Reich]

A new bunch of ideas, one from myself and others from reddit:

10. Visual modifier for Invite to Stargazing cooldown
I love to initiate my rulers as Hermetics and, thus, should invite Apprentices to stargaze from time to time to get tech points and even a friend. However, the game doesn't tell you WHEN you'll be able to invite someone again to stargaze... only a paltry '3 years' in the pop-up of the invite button when you right-click another Hermetic!
Thus, I suggest the addition of a relevant modifier in this matter to the modifier row in the Character window.

11. Kinslayer or similar bad trait to be forewarned before clicking on a button
Especially because of Burn the Apostate option, people get the Kinslayer trait not knowing it beforehand because the game doesn't tell you that. However, with Cruel, it does (when you want to castrate/blind). May we have this also added? Some red-colored words with the warning would be enough.

12. Razing each holding in a county with one-click
To speed up the process of razing stuff, an one-click option (perhaps being less effective than the more specific style of today) would be a lifechanger to nomads.

13. Choose your own realm color
We all know it: the duchy has a great color, but the kingdom... some of them look like vomit, others like radiation. The client state creation screen from EU4 might do the trick here.

14. Button/hotkey to select all raised armies at once
A simplification of my control group idea, there's interest in a button and/or a hotkey that would select all your raised levies/retinues/mercs in one go, instead of having to zoom out and drag a box. In the timespan of a campaign, that would save a lot of time!

15. Indication where the vassal is in the Vassal Transfer/Retract window
Whenever you want to retract/transfer a vassal, the game opens a window for you to select one. However, it doesn't show WHERE him/her is, sometimes causing problems as retracting/transfering the wrong one. It could also show some special kind of symbol/color of de jure vassals of the second party - thus, making it even easier for us to not make a mistake.

16. 'Go to Title' button in the Grant a Title window
When we grant a tile to someone, the game outlines the soon-to-be-given title area, but when this is far from your lands it isn't so useful. A button just aside of the title selection button (or, when you click on the title button, the game would take you there) would be neat.

17. Swapping titles with and between vassals
This is to combat bordergore and to reduce internal conflicts in your realm. A new option that would let you exchange a title of yours with one from a vassal - or even vassals exchanging between them (so, if the player is a vassal of someone, he/she could trade a county with another vassal of the same liege). However, to avoid confusion, this would only be permitted with de jure titles (i.e. the Duke of Milan cannot trade a county in France with the Duke of Spoleto if the later has no de jure title over the French county)

18. Invite everyone in your realm for Carousing
Well, inviting vassals/relatives/courtiers to your private parties is a laborious and boring task of right-clicking on EACH person to invite. A button to invite everyone in your realm would be really cool!

19. Defense map mode
This is to show you which counties are more and less defensable. The greener the color, the higher is the Fortification level of the county and, thus, less prone to be raided. Hills/Mountains/other geographic stuff could also show up in this map mode with some kind of symbol over the counties.

20. Add a 'My Bloodline' filter in the Character Finder window
As Bloodlines become more and more popular, it's a pain to find which of your relatives have the same bloodline(s) of your character. This option could go right below the 'My Dynasty' filter.

21. Alarm feature
This would be a programmable thing you'd tie to stuff like to Focus and laws change (i.e. when they're available). Another take on this is to create a top-screen warning on the same matters ('You can select a new Focus' and 'You can pass/vote for a new law')

 

[Tryvenyal]

21. Alarm feature
This would be a programmable thing you'd tie to stuff like to Focus and laws change (i.e. when they're available). Another take on this is to create a top-screen warning on the same matters ('You can select a new Focus' and 'You can pass/vote for a new law')

You have a lot of good Ideas here! This one is likely my favorite!

On the topic of top-screen notification, allow me to add:

22. Notification for where in line I am as Patrician
It´s a pain to hover you character every now and then to verify you are still first in line for the close call race to be the next Doge.
If you are currently the Doge, you atleast get the "Lost on succession" notification when your heir does not inherit the Doge- title.
The minimum could be a green flashing star or something when your current character are in line for a voted title(Same mechanism can then be used when vassal in ERE/HRE or any elective realm).

 

[Heiliges Thüringens Reich]

And up you go!

So, not so shameless bump: people shouldn't have to build the Hermetics' Laboratory EVERYTIME your new character joins it. You know, the one your predecessor built is still there! Perhaps it becomes a modifier in the capital's province (like the Trader's Route) and you have to pay for it's maintenance from time to time?
Of course, if the following character isn't a Hermetic, the Lab doesn't give any bonus and could be destroyed for money and piety, but lose prestige and gets a penalty with all Hermetics in the world.

Another suggestion: when you hover your cursor over someone imprisioned in your lands, in the Intrigue tab, a pop-up could show the reason of imprisionement - if one was captured in a siege, if it was a traitor ("Imprisioned for being the leader/a member of a plot to kill X"), satanist, revolted against his/her liege, etc. Basically, to remind the player why that person is imprisoned.

 

[Heiliges Thüringens Reich]

Another idea (multiplayer only): let us choose how much money we can send to another player. In my current campaign, a friend of mine is the King of Lithuania and I'm his vassal, High Chief of LIvonia. I make a LOT more money than he does, so he usually gets bankrupt form time to time with his wars. I usually send him money to cover expenses, but sending only 15g everytime is tedious.
With that in mind, I'd like to see a typeable box whenever I send money to a player, where I can type how much I want to send him/her. Of course, the maximum likeness is exactly the same as if I've sent 15g to the person (as it is now); all that changes is the value sent.

 

[Tryvenyal]

On the area of notifications. There is thread about kingdom title creation on Elective Gavelkind succession by @Oscaretti

Currently, you wont know what vassals you lose rulership over on succession, only what titles your heir won't inherit. I would like a new notice, these current vassals won't be your vassals on succession. Or as a minimum, a notice telling which titles will be created on succession(would only be applicable to Elective Gavelkind, I think, and is probably not tiny).

I know the idea of Elective Gavelkind is to create huge random-feeling schisms and thus preventing early blobs but a little notice for players to avoid the frustration of things suddenly happening without understanding or predicting it.