Fixed factions

[Hackworthy]

If you're too awful at politicking in CKII to manage factions then that's not PI's fault. Factions are pretty annoying it's true but I rarely find them able to out-maneuver me. You just have to play the field -as has been said- with gifts, titles, scheming and imprisonment. Save assassinations as a last resort and remember that if you have a high enough CA you can brand someone a heretic and take everything away from them.

 

[dr eng1ish]

To actually contribute positively to the thread, these faction ideas are great, specifically how factions have more to do than just revolt or not, and the way personal relationships play a bigger role. I second the idea to release it as a standalone (so it could work with AGOT, for one), but also understand that Wiz might prefer to keep it all in his mod; he did do a lot of work on it after all. This will definitely have me try ck2+ again.

 

[Gulluoglu]

From what I can tell, this looks like it will give the Faction system more depth, which I feel can only be a good thing. As it stands, Factions in vanilla felt like a bunch of yahoos who could only build towards whenever they would declare war on me, which the AI understood and was why I figured they were always imprisoning their members pre-1.08. This looks like it will attempt to make Factions a lingering presence that are always around, with more outlets to pleasing or upsetting them.

I like that Paradox is very mod friendly, though, so people can add as much depth as they want and tinker with the base game. Some people won't like these changes, others will. I fall in the latter and look forward to playing around with Wiz's work.

 

[Alexander Seil]

Sometimes, keeping it simple is best. There are plenty of established way to interact with your vassals in the game (marriage, titles, money, supporting their claims, law changes, etc.). There doesn't need to be a huge event chain for absolutely every single thing that ever happens in the game.

A better way to improve factions would be for Paradox to rework the AI so that instead of seeking a purely military advantage, leaders of factions seek to impose their will using other means (basically, special plot types for faction leaders [with faction backers enrolled automatically] and AI using assassinations/marriages/etc. to achieve its faction goals).

 

[Velorian]

so you want a list?

- 'Shattered World' scenario with the world divided into independent counts, featuring over 500 new playable characters.
fun to do once or twice
- AI Mercenary system that makes the AI actually spend its money on winning wars rather than horde it as they are being wiped out.
meh. in my expierience rich realms(like genoa or the pope) hire mroe than enough mercs already.
- Rebalanced levies and laws that reduce the military capabilities of large kingdoms with weak authority (like France or the HRE).
while most nerfs to the big grey blob are welcome, this makes catholics EVEN MORE underpowered against the muslims early game, considering the fact that muslims only need piety to change a law and the large ones are much more stable.
- Reworked difficulty system: Instead of giving flat economy bonuses to the AI, higher difficulties means slower expansion, slower and costlier warfare and more dangerous plots and revolts for the player.
i didnt really play with this, but generally difficult doesnt matter much anyway. im for no bonusses for the AI or player.
- Martial and Learning are no longer useless stats for rulers, as the former will affect the size of your levies and the latter determines your chance of spreading your culture and religion to your provinces.
was this really needed? sure, learning is a tad useless but i havent heard of priest-kings anyway. learning is something for the clergy. it also fails to simulate the fact that kings useally let it be done for them.
- Reduced fertility/health and altered attributes for old characters: 80-year olds will no longer have a new child every year while leading their armies from the front, and characters that live to very old ages are suitably rare.
sure, biological correct, but imo not really needed. part of the fun of the game
- New tyranny system that assigns reasonable but noticeable penalties for imprisoning, banishing and executing characters and allows for more leeway in dealing with traitors.
you go try and fix something, and just keep the old system with other penalties. why not alter it completly if your busy anyway and make a fear-hate system.
- New education system. Children's attributes now matter in how well they take to an education (so a high martial child will do better in a martial education), and characters will not simply always end up having the exact same education trait as their tutor.
already in vanilla
- Crusades can result in independent Crusader states with a special truce that makes them able to survive their first few years. A Crusade for Jerusalem will now much more closely mirror the historical First Crusade with an independent Jerusalem being created.
good!
- Holy Wars cost piety to fight, so that the general rate of expansion in Iberia and the Middle East is slowed. Overseas Holy Wars cost a large amount of piety, and the AI will largely avoid fighting them. Crusades/Jihads are not affected.
NOOOOOOO! whats the point of a HOLY war if you NEED to be pious to fight one?
- More lethal diseases and battles, making medieval life the violent and uncertain existance it should be.
why was this needed? yes, the middle ages were violent, but not that much. historically courts were much larger as well, so imo it imulates it fairly well. in vanilla
- It is now more difficult but also more rewarding to raise your crown authority.
current system is fine.
- Tweaked succession laws to make it possible for non-Basques to use Absolute Cognatic. Authority requirements for other succession laws have also been eased.
BAD! this makes initially lands be divided amogst children and only towards mid game primogeniture comes around. the AI switches too fast to it anyway.
- Women of your dynasty can hold some council positions under Cognatic or Agnatic-Cognatic laws.
ok, but not really that important.
- Many more ambitions and plots.
so i get even more nagging I WANT TO MARRY I WANT A DAUGHTER I WANT TO KILL MY BROTHER? no thank you.
- More provinces and sea zones.
meh.
- Many minor and major balancing tweaks for a more challenging and enjoyable experience.
meh, imo only balancing needed ATM is iberia-HRE-fatamids-byzantine empire anyway.
- Many more Kingdoms and (Titular) Empires to create.
we already got plenty, and ifyou really wat a new one its easy to create one yourself. also, scotland is super ugly yellowish now.
- More mercenaries and holy orders.
there were plenty in the civilised world already
- More cultures.
we already got plent. i dont want to monitor that a educator is the correct culture even more.

You are free to like or dislike any mod for whatever reason you like, not everyone are looking for the same things. I'd just like to point out that many of these arguments seem like you are intentionally finding faults, as if a new feature should be opposed simply because it is only a minor improvement, nothing special. It's my belief that many small improvements make for a greater whole, but whatever I guess.

It's also plain you didn't play the mod for long, or perhaps an old version, because stuff like clamoring for Fatimid balancing and you criticizing a feature for making Catholics even more underpowered isn't based in fact. When you do an off-hand play on a CK2+ game the Fatimids don't conquer half of Europe like in vanilla and the Christians usually do just fine in Iberia, Byzantines don't expand like in vanilla either. Whether or not you find it exhaustively explained in the feature-list or not it has been rebalanced.

At any rate, I believe the discussion was about a single feature in ck2+ and whether the core game could benefit from taking inspiration from it, not about the rest of the mod.

 

[Ortwin]

You are free to like or dislike any mod for whatever reason you like, not everyone are looking for the same things. I'd just like to point out that many of these arguments seem like you are intentionally finding faults, as if a new feature should be opposed simply because it is only a minor improvement, nothing special. It's my belief that many small improvements make for a greater whole, but whatever I guess.

It's also plain you didn't play the mod for long, or perhaps an old version, because stuff like clamoring for Fatimid balancing and you criticizing a feature for making Catholics even more underpowered isn't based in fact. When you do an off-hand play on a CK2+ game the Fatimids don't conquer half of Europe like in vanilla and the Christians usually do just fine in Iberia, Byzantines don't expand like in vanilla either. Whether or not you find it exhaustively explained in the feature-list or not it has been rebalanced.

At any rate, I believe the discussion was about a single feature in ck2+ and whether the core game could benefit from taking inspiration from it, not about the rest of the mod.

I agree.

I am looking forward to the new faction system, because it aims to be more consistent than the vanilla one. And it will definitely improve the role-playing aspect of the game.

 

[ASPGolan]

At any rate, I believe the discussion was about a single feature in ck2+ and whether the core game could benefit from taking inspiration from it, not about the rest of the mod.

The game could actually benefit from it actually. CK2+ is full of other stuff that make completely no sense to me. I don't want to add a mod just to change myself the entire history part with that of the game.

 

[snoopdogg]

I already think the factions are a huge improvement, not to say that these changes aren't good ideas. But revolts are both more rare now and a bigger deal, which solved my 2 main problems with them and brought me back to the game. Played about 150 years or so as Byzantium. Only had one revolt so far, at the very start of the game which I did put down, but it was actually hard and I thought I might lose for a moment, which never really happened back when they went off one at a time, and it's been smooth sailing since.