I would hardly call myself an EU4 expert, so if something along the lines of this suggestion is already possible, do please let me know how to do it. This is a long post, so prepare yourself.
Let's say you have a few vassals, and one in particular is becoming rather uppity. Liberty desire is above 50%, the taxes have stopped flowing in to your coffers, and their soldiers suddenly become 'rather tired and must rest for a while' whenever you enter a war. "Unacceptable!," you declare. Except, you cannot really declare any such thing. They are your vassal, they stopped paying you, they stopped helping you, and there is nothing you can really do about that.
I thus propose an overlord be able to do something about it:
When a vassal has liberty desire of 50% or greater and the overlord has a diplomat available, a new subject interaction called 'Demand compliance' becomes available. Upon selecting that action, an event will pop up informing the player that they have begun demanding compliance from their vassal, and "only time will tell if they will accept our rightful demands of continued compliance." Choosing the single option of this event will also give an opinion malus to all of the player's vassals for "aggressive negotiation." It will stack if done to multiple vassals at the same time. The diplomat will be occupied in the meantime.
This will start an event chain for the player. The next event pop-up will come in one year. During this year, all vassals with a liberty desire of at least 50% (including vassals who attain 50% mid-way through the year) will more aggressively seek out alliances and other independence-related support, in preparation for a possible war. If the vassal is player-controlled, he will receive an event popup that just informs him the overlord is demanding resumed compliance, and suggest the player ally in preparation for war.
The overlord can cancel this action at any time to immediately free their diplomat and cancel the event chain. However, the opinion malus will remain.
At the end of this year, a few possible options might occur:
1, If the vassal in question now has a liberty desire of less than 50%, an event popup will inform the overlord that a "change in the popular opinion of our vassal has swayed its leaders to our viewpoint." The player then has two options:
a, "Great news!" Nothing happens, and this ends the event chain.
b, "Press the issue and send an ultimatum." This will cost some diplomacy monarch points and give an opinion malus to the target subject for 'ultimatum received.'
2, If the vassal in question still has a liberty desire of at least 50%, an event popup will inform the player that negotiations have failed, and he may have to send an ultimatum. He will have a few options:
a, "A wasted effort!" Lose some diplomacy monarch points. The vassal receives an event popup in which they gain some diplomacy monarch points. Nothing else happens, and this ends the event chain.
b, "Send an ultimatum." This will cost some diplomacy monarch points and give an opinion malus to the target subject for 'ultimatum received.'
If the overlord sent an ultimatum, the vassal receives an event popup, "Ultimatum received," with two options:
1, "Accept demands," wherein the vassal's liberty desire is reduced by 50, as if their overlord won an independence war against them. This also creates a truce for 10 years.
2, "Refuse demands," wherein nothing immediately happens to the vassal.
The next month, the overlord will receive an event popup informing him of the vassal's decision. If the vassal chose "refuse demands," the overlord gains a 'Enforce Compliance' casus belli against the vassal. This allows the overlord to declare war on the vassal and ignore all penalties associated with declaring war on a subject.
If the overlord chooses to declare war, his other subjects will behave as they normally would in a standard independence war.
During a peace resolution, the overlord may only demand money, demand a concede defeat, or demand compliance; the vassal may only demand money, demand a concede defeat, or demand independence.
Well, this was a long one. What do you all think? The specifics might need tweaking, but what do you all think of the general structure of this event chain and options it gives the player? I think this provides a meaningful option to any overlord nation to better control their subjects. If their subject is over 50% liberty desire, but the overlord believes he could beat the subject in a war, the overlord should be able to demand the vassal behave and help him in wars. If, however, the subject thinks otherwise, he can refuse the demands. Then, a war can determine who was actually right.
I think this option still strikes a nice balance in terms of being costly for an overlord. Aside from wars being costly in their own right, the overlord loses some diplomacy points to acquire this casus belli, a diplomat is occupied for a year, and he suffers an opinion malus with all his vassals, which might make these other vassals rise above 50% liberty desire, themselves. All in all, vassals below 50% liberty desire are still preferable to an overlord, and maintaining a lower liberty desire in rebellious vassals might require a war every now and again. For this reason, I think an AI vassal should consider accepting the demands of the ultimatum if he feels he would lose in a fight against the overlord after considering his and all his likely allies' forces.
It seems rather misplaced that a vassal can act rebellious (50%+ liberty desire), and if the overlord is 'too strong' and the vassal refuses to actually fight for its independence, there is nothing the overlord can do to bring the vassal back in line.
I would also add that it is entirely possible for a vassal to be at or above 50% liberty desire when their opinion of their overlord is at 200. Improving relations in these cases would make no difference. This would be targeted more at an overlord who is militarily superior (this is possible because vassal liberty desire from development is absolute and not relative to the overlord) and wants to keep a useful vassal (a large march, for example), but the vassal's liberty desire makes it useless in war.
Now I, an overwhelmingly superior overlord, can tell my vassal (who has a rather large amount of development, but a comparatively tiny army), to either obey me (accept ultimatum), or witness my military superiority (refuse ultimatum).
Let's say you have a few vassals, and one in particular is becoming rather uppity. Liberty desire is above 50%, the taxes have stopped flowing in to your coffers, and their soldiers suddenly become 'rather tired and must rest for a while' whenever you enter a war. "Unacceptable!," you declare. Except, you cannot really declare any such thing. They are your vassal, they stopped paying you, they stopped helping you, and there is nothing you can really do about that.
I thus propose an overlord be able to do something about it:
When a vassal has liberty desire of 50% or greater and the overlord has a diplomat available, a new subject interaction called 'Demand compliance' becomes available. Upon selecting that action, an event will pop up informing the player that they have begun demanding compliance from their vassal, and "only time will tell if they will accept our rightful demands of continued compliance." Choosing the single option of this event will also give an opinion malus to all of the player's vassals for "aggressive negotiation." It will stack if done to multiple vassals at the same time. The diplomat will be occupied in the meantime.
This will start an event chain for the player. The next event pop-up will come in one year. During this year, all vassals with a liberty desire of at least 50% (including vassals who attain 50% mid-way through the year) will more aggressively seek out alliances and other independence-related support, in preparation for a possible war. If the vassal is player-controlled, he will receive an event popup that just informs him the overlord is demanding resumed compliance, and suggest the player ally in preparation for war.
The overlord can cancel this action at any time to immediately free their diplomat and cancel the event chain. However, the opinion malus will remain.
At the end of this year, a few possible options might occur:
1, If the vassal in question now has a liberty desire of less than 50%, an event popup will inform the overlord that a "change in the popular opinion of our vassal has swayed its leaders to our viewpoint." The player then has two options:
a, "Great news!" Nothing happens, and this ends the event chain.
b, "Press the issue and send an ultimatum." This will cost some diplomacy monarch points and give an opinion malus to the target subject for 'ultimatum received.'
2, If the vassal in question still has a liberty desire of at least 50%, an event popup will inform the player that negotiations have failed, and he may have to send an ultimatum. He will have a few options:
a, "A wasted effort!" Lose some diplomacy monarch points. The vassal receives an event popup in which they gain some diplomacy monarch points. Nothing else happens, and this ends the event chain.
b, "Send an ultimatum." This will cost some diplomacy monarch points and give an opinion malus to the target subject for 'ultimatum received.'
If the overlord sent an ultimatum, the vassal receives an event popup, "Ultimatum received," with two options:
1, "Accept demands," wherein the vassal's liberty desire is reduced by 50, as if their overlord won an independence war against them. This also creates a truce for 10 years.
2, "Refuse demands," wherein nothing immediately happens to the vassal.
The next month, the overlord will receive an event popup informing him of the vassal's decision. If the vassal chose "refuse demands," the overlord gains a 'Enforce Compliance' casus belli against the vassal. This allows the overlord to declare war on the vassal and ignore all penalties associated with declaring war on a subject.
If the overlord chooses to declare war, his other subjects will behave as they normally would in a standard independence war.
During a peace resolution, the overlord may only demand money, demand a concede defeat, or demand compliance; the vassal may only demand money, demand a concede defeat, or demand independence.
Well, this was a long one. What do you all think? The specifics might need tweaking, but what do you all think of the general structure of this event chain and options it gives the player? I think this provides a meaningful option to any overlord nation to better control their subjects. If their subject is over 50% liberty desire, but the overlord believes he could beat the subject in a war, the overlord should be able to demand the vassal behave and help him in wars. If, however, the subject thinks otherwise, he can refuse the demands. Then, a war can determine who was actually right.
I think this option still strikes a nice balance in terms of being costly for an overlord. Aside from wars being costly in their own right, the overlord loses some diplomacy points to acquire this casus belli, a diplomat is occupied for a year, and he suffers an opinion malus with all his vassals, which might make these other vassals rise above 50% liberty desire, themselves. All in all, vassals below 50% liberty desire are still preferable to an overlord, and maintaining a lower liberty desire in rebellious vassals might require a war every now and again. For this reason, I think an AI vassal should consider accepting the demands of the ultimatum if he feels he would lose in a fight against the overlord after considering his and all his likely allies' forces.
It seems rather misplaced that a vassal can act rebellious (50%+ liberty desire), and if the overlord is 'too strong' and the vassal refuses to actually fight for its independence, there is nothing the overlord can do to bring the vassal back in line.
I would also add that it is entirely possible for a vassal to be at or above 50% liberty desire when their opinion of their overlord is at 200. Improving relations in these cases would make no difference. This would be targeted more at an overlord who is militarily superior (this is possible because vassal liberty desire from development is absolute and not relative to the overlord) and wants to keep a useful vassal (a large march, for example), but the vassal's liberty desire makes it useless in war.
Now I, an overwhelmingly superior overlord, can tell my vassal (who has a rather large amount of development, but a comparatively tiny army), to either obey me (accept ultimatum), or witness my military superiority (refuse ultimatum).
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