Can someone explain Threat level mechanic?

[PrinceOfWales]

So, the last 3-4 hours real time has been really unproductive, all because of the stupid Threat level mechanic.

I don't mean to whine, but I think I'm justified.

Basically, I have been waiting for my Threat level to decline so I can invade France. It got from 100% down to 45% then my ruler died. Checked my Threat level and it increased to 65%. I was annoyed, but carried on. Got the level back down to about 45% AGAIN, then my ruler died, AGAIN. Checked my Threat level and it increased to 65%, AGAIN! At that point it annoyed me so much I turned the game off.

Why is this happening? It isn't fun sitting at the computer screen waiting for your Threat level to go down in the first place. But when BS like this happens it makes the game really frustrating.

Is this a bug or just another piece of evidence showing the flawed game mechanic?

 

[Bernard95]

If you're familiar with how Victoria 2 had that 22 or 25 infamy limit and after that point you were inviting trouble, it's the same idea. Pretty much if you just pace yourself and do one war at a time, then break for a year or two your threat will just burn off. Once you get past 50% you're stuck waiting for a good ten years for it to burn off plus pacts can form across religious groups. If you persist and hit 100%, then basically the world is going to pact against you.

If you have blobbed hard enough though, then just blitz your next target before any backup can arrive. After a certain point, the threat will just be a number you can ignore. Until you hit that point however, pace yourself and time your wars accordingly. Threat and also the burn - off I believe is scaled by realm size and possibly the amount of threat you already have, hence why again you really can't afford to hit 50+ too early.

Inheritances contribute to your threat as well, so I'm assuming upon succession you had a landed heir to keep racking up threat. Should threat become a problem you can't solve, remember you can also grant independence to even just a count or two and that should take off some of the burden. Additionally, mods can easily remove or alter threat- whether it be a mini mod off of the Workshop or one of the big overhauls such as CK2+ and HIP.

 

[Jia Xu]

A lot of people are taking threat too seriously. If you have 20K+ army, you can probably fight a gigantic coalition and win. Don't worry about it and do what you want to do. The AI is terrible at coordinating with other AI allies. A big stack can easily ruin many small stacks. Just focus on getting the war goal and then smash enemies until you get to 100%.

 

[Camtheman]

It's just as bad as EU IV's coalition system tbh, waiting followed by war followed by more waiting until eventually you're so big you can vape the coalition or (in EU IV's case, the ai stop coalitioning you).

Doesn't seem to really work as intended in either case, it's like an early game speed bump.

 

[Thorkel the Tall]

Doesn't seem to really work as intended in either case, it's like an early game speed bump.

I disagree. I am not a particular gmer type, but still like to expand, and in both early and mid game it gave me more of a challenge: as larger neighbourgs didn't join most pacts (or just neighbourghs rougly my size or even just not extremely much smaller), I was more tempted to go for the equal challenge and not just keep fighting small pointless wars against single counts/duchies.

Even in a game with relatively rapid expansion (forming ruthenia and subjugating Gardarike in one genertion) I didnt have any issues.