It's time for another teaser! This time for a new module which will be included in the next release... (As usual, click the pictures for larger versions.)
We've been using a slightly updated and improved version of Waylit's old Dungeons and Sieges system for ages now. It served us well, but was showing both signs of age and evidence of some fundamental problems. It was producing too many prisoners, artificially shortening wars by allowing the easy capture of primary participants, and treating both looting and regular sieges as the same when for the most part they were not. I finally had enough and over the last few weeks I've written an entirely new EMF module: SIEGES!
While it's still based loosely on the old system, I've written it from scratch to avoid most of the old problems. The first thing you'll probably notice is that it now handles looting and sieges during warfare completely differently. During regular warfare the capture of nobles and their families is still fairly common, though less common than it was before. Those defending against a normal siege will still get to choose how to respond, but now families or other rulers who are present can try to escape on their own, though sometimes with reduced odds of success. The flavor for all this is also much improved, such as this event which changes depending how successful your family was in escaping:
Another change is that characters no longer hide at the siege but instead attempt to escape it altogether. If successful, the character will get the In Hiding trait, which carries all the same advantages and disadvantages of going into hiding from plots. If the character is unsuccessful, they will be stuck at the siege until it ends, whether by being occupied or because the enemy army breaks off. And unlike the old system you're not stuck with your choice. If you choose to stay and defend, or fail to escape, and then the enemy army breaks off for a while before returning and resuming the siege, you'll get another chance to escape.
Also note that primary participants in wars will be much more careful about preventing their own capture. No more blitzing the enemy capital and ending the war about half the time. It's still very much possible to win a war by capturing an enemy ruler in a siege, but it's now considerably less common.
But what about at the end of a siege? The owner of the occupying army will still get to decide the fates of anyone captured within. This is much the same as before, except that choosing to slaughter everyone present no longer includes the owner of the barony in the massacre and causes somewhat harsher opinion penalties. (Note that the AI is currently blocked from committing massacres, but that functionality will be restored in a future update.
And how do things change for looting?
During looting there are no defender events, as it's assumed that rulers and their families are relatively (but not entirely) safe from the raiders. There are also no choices for attackers at the end of the siege; instead, anyone who was captured at the scene is automatically taken prisoner. The odds of being captured also change: They're much lower if you're a ruler or a noble (have a dynasty), higher if you're lowborn, are a bishop of a religion different from the raiders, or are a woman and the raiders are Pagans or Zoroastrians. (That last one is consistent with vanilla, in case you were wondering.)
As you can see from that screenshot, there's also new mechanics associated with looting. Any player who is non-tribal and either not Pagan or reformed Pagan will lose piety (and the Zealous trait!) if they loot temple holdings of their own faith. Additionally, non-tribal looters who capture a bishop of their own religion will usually get asked to release that bishop and refusing to do so will cost a small amount of piety; the AI will always choose to release.
Some other items of note:
- Compared to the old system, there will be fewer prisoners taken overall, and much fewer when looting.
- All of these mechanics respect the In Hiding trait, along with all the pilgrimage traits. A character is also not counted as being present at a barony when they're a councilor on the job in the province.
- Most of the immediate trait gain or removal effects have been removed. There may still be consequences or rewards for behavior seen as especially notable, but they won't manifest immediately. (Obviously choosing to slaughter captured folks at the end of the siege is one of several exceptions.)
- Flavor text is now dynamically adjusted depending on many different circumstances.
- Numerous other bugs with the old system are fixed or avoided altogether.
Here: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...amp-Flavor&p=18003863&viewfull=1#post18003863 Are there any plans to put those into reality soon?
.png){kind=avatar}
