Buttons, Instant or Not ?

[Archinorf]

When you click on the button "imprison", the effect is instant. You succeeded or failed the very moment of this click. It took one day of in-game time.
It works similarly when you invite a noble to your court. Or even when you create a kingdom, or relocate your capital.

That is mostly how games work, creating balance between abstraction and story.
When the abstraction is too important, the player doesn't feel the bound that could connect him/her to the story.
When there is not enough abstraction, the story is less likely to emerge naturally from the game's mechanics and can be more artificial, lying only in the text written by the authors.

More and more we saw decisions or diplomatic buttons triggering chains of events rather than an instant effect.
Banquets, Festivals, Search for a Guru, Seduce are some among them. Plots are sophisticated ones, with the addition of a plotter mechanic. Plot to kill replaced its instant diplomatic version.

It is not hard to imagine a chain of event linked to Create a Kingdom, Marry Someone or Invit a Noble. Would that make better stories ? Would that be too much work in order make the player still feel free in its decisions ?

What would be the danger of making everything a chain of event and where goes your preference ? Instant actions or not ?

 

[Talq]

Interrupts. If there is a change in the game world outside of the event chain (eg somebody dies), the event chain needs to be able to handle it, which then starts bloating it out.

To take an example, I've had a mysterious crash just after the sequence of events in a kill plot (somebody plans to kill target, somebody blabbed the plot (separate event, sending a letter), she dies). Now the crash MAY be unrelated, but may also be due to it not handling the reveal plot to a dead person stage.

You can also have event chains terminating properly, but not in a way that terribly pleasant (eg feasts being abandoned after you've spent all the gold because some stupid peasants revolted somewhere)

Finally, event chains for common events can become repetitive (yes, I've just created my tenth kingdom, can we move it on now?)

 

[Archinorf]

In my opinion, chain events are what your ruler is focusing on for a short period of time, some kind of activity.
Just as Ways of Life are broader foci for a longer period of time. So they should fit more on your character and the choices you made.

I love chain of events, they are truly adding to your personal story. But you are right, they can become quite repetitive.
I am always wondering why my plots are not interacting with banquets or hunts-type chains of event.
Maybe adding more interaction with other elements of the game could make those events more dynamic and interesting.
Plotting to kill the king of Jerusalem and actually going to Jerusalem in a pilgrimage should have an obvious end. You are going to try to murder the king, or repent.

Add more interaction no only with plots, but with foci and ambitions, and most common chains should be great.

Another solution would be to add an unique interactive Event window (next to Intrigue, for example) during some chains of event, with buttons and choices.
Something like that:

Event - Great Hunt - Finishing in 40 days
Decisions available:
-Go after a prey, alone, to gain some glory.
-Look for the white stag.
-Try to murder somebody, pretending it is a hunt accident.
-Drink around a Campfire to learn some secrets from your friends.
-Go back to the castle, hunt is over.