elective succession... maybe i wont play CK2 after all!

[Gunnarr]

I have heard that at some point, the developers made it so elective succession is commonplace in many kingdoms after some time passes. I assume this is from conclave mechanics?

Is it a real problem or not? I hope that succession follows the historical route when I play CK2, but if the case is that the developers have made mistakes and allow elective succession to be the END ROUTE for law, then I think I should stay away from CK2 until they find some sense.

Can anyone give input as to any problems related to this? Is it actually common in CK2 now?

 

[--M--]

I haven't noticed anything spectacular in this direction, but I'd assume your conjecture to hold for large AI realms; my deduction runs something like this:

As soon as the king/emperor cannot control his vassals anymore, they can either oust him, declare independence or force elective succession on him.
A new emperor does not change much, but both successful independence declaration and forcing elective make the realm more stable:
Either the emperor now has less vassals which he must control or they are more happy and less likely to rebel.
So elective realms simply are more stable -- no wonder many players like it for their own realm.

 

[thevmag]

There very likely will be a point where all your major power neighbours will have Elective Succession. This is due to how easy it is for factions to push it, either by demand or by ousting their liege. It can be annoying, when every single person you want to conquer by marriage is Agnatic Elective and all you can snag are daughters with weak claims.

However, it's not the end state of succession. Given time, any number of those same neighbours can switch back to primo. When they're elective, it feels like they're elective forever; but they're just as likely to switch back.

 

[klopkr]

Why so dramatic? I've never seen it as an issue yet but i guess i've also never really paid attention to the succession of other realms.

 

[Vaximillian]

My current game is as a count turned duke turned king in the HRE. The emperor has been see-sawing from elective to primogeniture and back for a while now.
It all depends on whether the ruler is strong enough to force his will and the vassals strong enough to force theirs.

 

[mudcrabmerchant]

I do find Elective to be too common as the game goes on. It's especially annoying in the Byzantine Empire, which had it's own messy traditions for succession and should be a bit more stable, IMO, in its default succession law in comparison to other Europeans. Unfortunately, in almost every game, I see the ERE go elective and stay as a Greek HRE.