The lack of republics are one of the major shortfalls of Crusader Kings 2 at the moment. The introduction of republics will allow many more gameplay options for the player, some of which are historical for this period like Venice and Genoa, as well as some possibly ahistorical gameplay options. The fact is that republics were all over Europe in this period, as shown in the game through cities. But the problem is that republics are not playable, and are shallow. The good thing about implementing republics is that much of the work is already done by Paradox! My proposal for the implementation of republics is a heavy emphasis on a slightly altered factions system, coupled with plots.
First let us go over how Republics work, and how republics in this period work. The idea of a republic is that a representative votes in a senate (or congress/diet/parliament etc.) for laws based on who they represent. But we also know that republics often break up into factions to get things forward, there may be 100 people, but through informal agreements and political ties they vote in blocks and form factions, often making compromises to get things done. Now republics in this period were more specifically Ogliarchic republics. These republics did not give power to all people, but rather the rich families of the cities. Now the Doge, who was the ruler for life was selected by a council of the patrician families through their elaborate elective process, but it was still essentially the collective will of the rich. So essentially whoever gets the most families to go along with him can become the doge.
How this works into CK2:
The main things are already done in CK2, factions, plots and families.
First, you need to give the leaders of the families a vote, much like elective succession in monarchies. This should probably be done by giving the leader of any family who is either a mayor or a baron a vote for the doge. The difference is that you are not say who gets the properties, but rather who gets the leadership of the republic for the rest of their life. So personal desmesne would not really change, but the leadership of the main province would, as would who the lower ranked vassals would follow. To implement this you need to be able to track votes and to manipulate votes.
Factions are critical here to the success of a republic. MY idea is to use much the same process as the faction for usurping rulers. You can have a faction already to usurp the ruler and put a claimant onto the throne. The difference here is that anyone who has a property, outside of possibly the bishops, have a claim to be the doge (aside: I am including castles along with cities for this idea, much like muslims having temples and castles, for republics you would have cities and castles, but this is unimportant and could probably be changed) So the idea is to have a faction window for elections on the next doge, only this faction window will just have claimants, the strongest faction at the death of the doge would then get their candidate elected next. This window should be easily accessible as you will probably want to check it often, and could probably go where the laws go that show the heirs and pretenders.
So to get the AI to vote in these elections and chose a faction it would have to have several modifiers so they do not just choose themselves, as everyone would theoretically vote for themselves. Assume everyone starts with X likelihood to join a give faction. The chance for a voter to in a faction would then be YX, where Y is >1 for positive modifiers which would most be the candidate is the liege of the voter, more powerful than the voter, has good relations with the voter, is more senior in the family of the voter, older than the voter, number of people voting for the candidate etc. and the inverse Y would be <1. Also, if char A is voting for anyone other than themselves, no other char would vote for Char A, as that is not logical, but if A would vote for B, but B votes for C, then A would have a higher chance to vote for C as well.
Plots in republics would have to be expanded. Specifically, there would have to be plots for blackmail to force characters into certain factions, or plots to smear the reputation of a character so others are less likely to vote for them. Plots could also be used to make characters vote for who you want , like your heir if you already the doge, or to make a specific candidate seem better.
Gameplay changes
First off, the addition of republics should add a new gameplay element to everyone, as cities and mayors should become playable. Secondly, there should become new factions in non-republics to overthrow areas and set them up as republics, this could also be a goal of peasant revolts. Republics should have aristocrats who do the opposite, and try to implement a monarchy. The doge should also be able to implement a monarchy if they choose, but it would have heavy resistance and most likely start a civil war. This should add another level of strife in the game.
Republics in this time period were often focused on trade and naval supremacy, this is shown through the Casus belli on coastal provinces, but the lack of trade goods and trade routes can cause an issue with the dominance of the merchant republics in this period. I think the way to solve this would be to create the diplomacy idea of trade agreements. These could take the form of province tax modifiers, either positive or negative, as trade is already abstracted into tax revenue. So Venice, may get a trade agreement with Byzantium on Thrace for instance, Thrace gets a 15% Tax increase, but Venice gets a +2 tax cut. These trade agreements could be beneficial or harmful to a province, but always beneficial to the republic that implements them. As such, it could create a new casus belli to force someone into a trade agreement. These trade agreements, could then be modified based on Naval power, so some function based on coastal provinces and number of ships they can raise. More powerful the navy, the more money they can get from these agreements. Going after these agreements would also make any republics major rivals, which is historic, as they would then go to war with each other. This idea could also be expanded into naval combat, and possibly blockades, but I am unsure if Paradox wants to implement that.
First let us go over how Republics work, and how republics in this period work. The idea of a republic is that a representative votes in a senate (or congress/diet/parliament etc.) for laws based on who they represent. But we also know that republics often break up into factions to get things forward, there may be 100 people, but through informal agreements and political ties they vote in blocks and form factions, often making compromises to get things done. Now republics in this period were more specifically Ogliarchic republics. These republics did not give power to all people, but rather the rich families of the cities. Now the Doge, who was the ruler for life was selected by a council of the patrician families through their elaborate elective process, but it was still essentially the collective will of the rich. So essentially whoever gets the most families to go along with him can become the doge.
How this works into CK2:
The main things are already done in CK2, factions, plots and families.
First, you need to give the leaders of the families a vote, much like elective succession in monarchies. This should probably be done by giving the leader of any family who is either a mayor or a baron a vote for the doge. The difference is that you are not say who gets the properties, but rather who gets the leadership of the republic for the rest of their life. So personal desmesne would not really change, but the leadership of the main province would, as would who the lower ranked vassals would follow. To implement this you need to be able to track votes and to manipulate votes.
Factions are critical here to the success of a republic. MY idea is to use much the same process as the faction for usurping rulers. You can have a faction already to usurp the ruler and put a claimant onto the throne. The difference here is that anyone who has a property, outside of possibly the bishops, have a claim to be the doge (aside: I am including castles along with cities for this idea, much like muslims having temples and castles, for republics you would have cities and castles, but this is unimportant and could probably be changed) So the idea is to have a faction window for elections on the next doge, only this faction window will just have claimants, the strongest faction at the death of the doge would then get their candidate elected next. This window should be easily accessible as you will probably want to check it often, and could probably go where the laws go that show the heirs and pretenders.
So to get the AI to vote in these elections and chose a faction it would have to have several modifiers so they do not just choose themselves, as everyone would theoretically vote for themselves. Assume everyone starts with X likelihood to join a give faction. The chance for a voter to in a faction would then be YX, where Y is >1 for positive modifiers which would most be the candidate is the liege of the voter, more powerful than the voter, has good relations with the voter, is more senior in the family of the voter, older than the voter, number of people voting for the candidate etc. and the inverse Y would be <1. Also, if char A is voting for anyone other than themselves, no other char would vote for Char A, as that is not logical, but if A would vote for B, but B votes for C, then A would have a higher chance to vote for C as well.
Plots in republics would have to be expanded. Specifically, there would have to be plots for blackmail to force characters into certain factions, or plots to smear the reputation of a character so others are less likely to vote for them. Plots could also be used to make characters vote for who you want , like your heir if you already the doge, or to make a specific candidate seem better.
Gameplay changes
First off, the addition of republics should add a new gameplay element to everyone, as cities and mayors should become playable. Secondly, there should become new factions in non-republics to overthrow areas and set them up as republics, this could also be a goal of peasant revolts. Republics should have aristocrats who do the opposite, and try to implement a monarchy. The doge should also be able to implement a monarchy if they choose, but it would have heavy resistance and most likely start a civil war. This should add another level of strife in the game.
Republics in this time period were often focused on trade and naval supremacy, this is shown through the Casus belli on coastal provinces, but the lack of trade goods and trade routes can cause an issue with the dominance of the merchant republics in this period. I think the way to solve this would be to create the diplomacy idea of trade agreements. These could take the form of province tax modifiers, either positive or negative, as trade is already abstracted into tax revenue. So Venice, may get a trade agreement with Byzantium on Thrace for instance, Thrace gets a 15% Tax increase, but Venice gets a +2 tax cut. These trade agreements could be beneficial or harmful to a province, but always beneficial to the republic that implements them. As such, it could create a new casus belli to force someone into a trade agreement. These trade agreements, could then be modified based on Naval power, so some function based on coastal provinces and number of ships they can raise. More powerful the navy, the more money they can get from these agreements. Going after these agreements would also make any republics major rivals, which is historic, as they would then go to war with each other. This idea could also be expanded into naval combat, and possibly blockades, but I am unsure if Paradox wants to implement that.
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