TL;DR - Create two new mechanics that would allow players and AI the ability to trade Favors for cash (gifted or lent), or to ask someone who owes you a Favor to try to transfer that Favor to another character.
At the moment, apart from helping with Council voting, faction building or Invites to Court I haven't found much use for favors. At the same time, the whole mechanic currently feels very underused considering where it could be. Here are two suggested mechanics that could massively extend the usefulness of Favors, both to the players and to the AI.
First, introduce the ability to Sell Favors, either in return for a gift or for a (larger) loan that has a similar effect to a Jewish or Templar loan. In other words, an opinion penalty from the Church and the Lender and perhaps also from all members of the lender's dynasty. The player would simply right click on the target character and if various opinion, trait and current situation circumstances were okay then the option would come up to either be given a set amount of gold in return for a Favor (and maybe an opinion hit) or borrow an amount say triple the size, but with the same Favor and a bigger opinion hit. The option would also exist against characters who already owed you a Favor, in that case the existing Favor would simply be wiped but if a loan was requested then the opinion penalties would still apply.
Borrowing would be indicated by a flag on the lender that triggered a possible event every year or so asking when the money might be returned, naturally Greedy or Diligent characters would ask more frequently. Even if the Favor was repaid there would still be the outstanding opinion hit and annoying pop ups ("Where's my money ?") so it would be in the borrower's interest to pay the money back. On a separate topic there would of course have to be a mechanic to transfer the creditor flag to the lender's heir in the event of the lender's death.
The second suggestion is the ability to "trade" Favors. This would happen by right clicking on any character who owed you a Favor, then specifying a target character to influence. Depending upon your current Favorers Diplomacy skill, traits and relationship with the target the net result might be to gain a new Favor from the target character, regardless of success or failure your existing Favor would be lost.
This mechanic could be used to gain a Favor from a character who normally wouldn't give you one or who might be too expensive to bargain with. Even better, this could open up all sorts of opportunities for upgrading favors, converting a petty debt owed to you by a lowly count to a massive Favor owed to you by your strongest vassal or your worst enemy.
Even better, this system could be used as a kind of "Favor Factory". Imagine having a petty lowborn courtier with excellent Diplomacy and Intrigue skills who is also very well connected. You could spend the bare minimum to buy a Favor from him then send him off to upsell that Favor to more expensive and intractable targets. Whether they succeed or fail you could then buy another Favor and another, continually using them to intrigue and negotiate on your behalf. Of course since Favor trading would depend upon the agent's opinion of you, you may also have to keep giving your petty negotiator little gifts and honorary titles to keep them on your side.
I am certain that this could all be done with the current tools in the modding arsenal, in fact I have been planning on creating these mechanics for a while now. The two issues I have faced are a) making sure that your debts don't die when your creditor does and b) making sure that the AI can use these new mechanics, even if in a half hearted way. I reckon that it would be great to find out that thanks to AI shenanigans you now owe your scheming Duke a Favor that you never knew about, there should thus be a way to indebt that Duke in return and cancel out your debt.
At the moment, apart from helping with Council voting, faction building or Invites to Court I haven't found much use for favors. At the same time, the whole mechanic currently feels very underused considering where it could be. Here are two suggested mechanics that could massively extend the usefulness of Favors, both to the players and to the AI.
First, introduce the ability to Sell Favors, either in return for a gift or for a (larger) loan that has a similar effect to a Jewish or Templar loan. In other words, an opinion penalty from the Church and the Lender and perhaps also from all members of the lender's dynasty. The player would simply right click on the target character and if various opinion, trait and current situation circumstances were okay then the option would come up to either be given a set amount of gold in return for a Favor (and maybe an opinion hit) or borrow an amount say triple the size, but with the same Favor and a bigger opinion hit. The option would also exist against characters who already owed you a Favor, in that case the existing Favor would simply be wiped but if a loan was requested then the opinion penalties would still apply.
Borrowing would be indicated by a flag on the lender that triggered a possible event every year or so asking when the money might be returned, naturally Greedy or Diligent characters would ask more frequently. Even if the Favor was repaid there would still be the outstanding opinion hit and annoying pop ups ("Where's my money ?") so it would be in the borrower's interest to pay the money back. On a separate topic there would of course have to be a mechanic to transfer the creditor flag to the lender's heir in the event of the lender's death.
The second suggestion is the ability to "trade" Favors. This would happen by right clicking on any character who owed you a Favor, then specifying a target character to influence. Depending upon your current Favorers Diplomacy skill, traits and relationship with the target the net result might be to gain a new Favor from the target character, regardless of success or failure your existing Favor would be lost.
This mechanic could be used to gain a Favor from a character who normally wouldn't give you one or who might be too expensive to bargain with. Even better, this could open up all sorts of opportunities for upgrading favors, converting a petty debt owed to you by a lowly count to a massive Favor owed to you by your strongest vassal or your worst enemy.
Even better, this system could be used as a kind of "Favor Factory". Imagine having a petty lowborn courtier with excellent Diplomacy and Intrigue skills who is also very well connected. You could spend the bare minimum to buy a Favor from him then send him off to upsell that Favor to more expensive and intractable targets. Whether they succeed or fail you could then buy another Favor and another, continually using them to intrigue and negotiate on your behalf. Of course since Favor trading would depend upon the agent's opinion of you, you may also have to keep giving your petty negotiator little gifts and honorary titles to keep them on your side.
I am certain that this could all be done with the current tools in the modding arsenal, in fact I have been planning on creating these mechanics for a while now. The two issues I have faced are a) making sure that your debts don't die when your creditor does and b) making sure that the AI can use these new mechanics, even if in a half hearted way. I reckon that it would be great to find out that thanks to AI shenanigans you now owe your scheming Duke a Favor that you never knew about, there should thus be a way to indebt that Duke in return and cancel out your debt.
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