Hello, absolutely love the mod, however I have some gripes with the way feudalism is represented (thanks to CK2 not the mod!), that I think the mod could easily re-evaluate laws, demesne limits and vassal limits to create a much more realistic government system. I have been modding and altering myself, with great results, however a lot of my ideas are going beyond my own simple capabilities and I think the team would be in a better position with their experience to implement. My ideas come from being an historian and studying all kinds of civilisations and governments and wondering how to create the mechanics of them in a game like CK2.
Firstly, rework demesne limits and vassal limits. Demesne and Vassal limits represent the capability and availability of a character to manage vassals. The two should really be rolled together into one thing, however we have to work with CK2's mechanics. This is the fundamental idea behind feudalism and management in general: delegating work to vassals because as a person you cannot manage everything yourself. Thus the game needs to make the demesne and vassal limits of a character match exactly what real people of the time and situations would have been capable of managing. This generally means the more things you are managing, the worse a job you will be doing at managing each of them. Thus is makes absolutely no sense that an Emperor would be directly administrating and taxing 10 different holdings spread out across his Empire with maximum efficiency for all of them. With every new holding he has to manage, it would eat into his time and ability to manage other holdings and other vassals, thus reducing his taxation and levy abilities.
Thus I propose the base demesne limit for everyone being 0, with demesne limit being based entirely on Stewardship level. No more increases just because you have a more prestigious title; just because you are King doesn't make you better at managing tax accounts. The base of 0 means that people who are truly horrendous at stewardship will be over their demesne limit even with one holding and will be tax and levy inefficient. Only capable stewards will be able to manage multiple holdings.
The same applies for vassal limit, have the base at zero, remove title multipliers and only have diplomacy skill decide how many vassals a Liege can manage. This ofcourse requires balance in adjusting variables to accurately represent how much demesne and vassals a feudal society would have been able to manage. Vassal limit needs to be equated to demesne limit in a conversion (how many vassals could a liege have managed compared to managing a city/barony), I imagine about 10 vassals to 1 demesne is a good conversion, and has worked well in my tests. Generally a realm ends up with about a 30 vassal limit, which requires them to delegate, and gives them management issues as they try to reduce their vassals. The centralisation law has been surprisingly useful as a way of converting Vassal limit into Demesne limit, or vice verse and is important to let the two limits be interchangeable.
Secondly Laws! Now the laws are supposed to represent the gradual change of feudalism towards the more centralised states and absolute monarchies that came later. However with every law introduced that reduces the autonomy of a vassal, it also reduces your capability of managing your vassals as you are forced to take a more direct role in the state. The kings peace for example means that the King has to spend a lot of time ensuring no vassals wage war, thus it should be represented in a vassal limit malus to show he can't take on as many vassals due to his preoccupation enforcing a law. A liege that doesn't have Kings peace for example would be able to have many more vassals simply because they are autonomous and run themselves without his input, leaving him time to do other things.
So every law that curtails the freedom of vassals must have a vassal limit malus to go with it to represent the management required to enforce that law. To give examples: free investiture means you are appointing bishops yourself rather than leaving it to the pope, thus you are spending time doing that, have a vassal limit malus. Or, revokation law: you are spending time revoking titles rather than letting your vassals control what they keep, have a vassal limit malus. I would also suggest fully separating each and every law like HIP has started to do. Thus minimum vassal levy should be separated into its own law, as well as maximum vassal levy, and tax level for each class. I would also suggest allowing max and min levy % to go all the way to 100% in the law slider to represent the levels of conscription absolute states would later be able to achieve. Likewise with tax, allow it to eventually reach 99% of vassal income to represent how vassals became salaried members of a civil service and ceased to be governments in their own right. These levels of laws would ofcourse be very difficult and take many years to achieve, like they did in history and would rely on technology to facilitate this change.
Thirdly: Merchant republics. They are represented badly in CK2 and are OP. I recommend removing the family manors of each patrician family as it basically just conjures holdings out of thin air and makes Merchant republics unfairly superior to dukes. Without them, patricians have to get money by controlling holdings like everyone else. This means the max republic limit and patrician tax modifier can be removed as Merch republics become just like feudal vassals except they can create trade posts. (optimally I would remove merch republics altogether and just allow all gov types to create trade posts, but alas hardcode, so we make do).
Fourthly: Holding types. The holding system makes no sense and is ahistorical having specialised castles, cities and bishoprics, especially as Cities are vastly superior to all other types. The most historical way to represent holdings would be to balance each holding so they are equal although specialised and give the ability to destroy holdings. This solves the issue of some dumbass count filling Brugge with baronies, thus irreversibly reducing your realm's ability to make money.
Fifthly: Standing armies: Get rid of retinue cap and let players manage how much retinue/standing army they can afford. There is no such thing as a standing army cap in history, it is only money that decides a nation's ability to raise a standing army, which won't really be possible until a realm has centralised its tax revenue streams just like in history.
I have many many more ideas and ways of accurately portraying reality and history in this history simulator and would be very happy to help if the mod team think they like the sound of these ideas and would like to implement them.
Thanks
Firstly, rework demesne limits and vassal limits. Demesne and Vassal limits represent the capability and availability of a character to manage vassals. The two should really be rolled together into one thing, however we have to work with CK2's mechanics. This is the fundamental idea behind feudalism and management in general: delegating work to vassals because as a person you cannot manage everything yourself. Thus the game needs to make the demesne and vassal limits of a character match exactly what real people of the time and situations would have been capable of managing. This generally means the more things you are managing, the worse a job you will be doing at managing each of them. Thus is makes absolutely no sense that an Emperor would be directly administrating and taxing 10 different holdings spread out across his Empire with maximum efficiency for all of them. With every new holding he has to manage, it would eat into his time and ability to manage other holdings and other vassals, thus reducing his taxation and levy abilities.
Thus I propose the base demesne limit for everyone being 0, with demesne limit being based entirely on Stewardship level. No more increases just because you have a more prestigious title; just because you are King doesn't make you better at managing tax accounts. The base of 0 means that people who are truly horrendous at stewardship will be over their demesne limit even with one holding and will be tax and levy inefficient. Only capable stewards will be able to manage multiple holdings.
The same applies for vassal limit, have the base at zero, remove title multipliers and only have diplomacy skill decide how many vassals a Liege can manage. This ofcourse requires balance in adjusting variables to accurately represent how much demesne and vassals a feudal society would have been able to manage. Vassal limit needs to be equated to demesne limit in a conversion (how many vassals could a liege have managed compared to managing a city/barony), I imagine about 10 vassals to 1 demesne is a good conversion, and has worked well in my tests. Generally a realm ends up with about a 30 vassal limit, which requires them to delegate, and gives them management issues as they try to reduce their vassals. The centralisation law has been surprisingly useful as a way of converting Vassal limit into Demesne limit, or vice verse and is important to let the two limits be interchangeable.
Secondly Laws! Now the laws are supposed to represent the gradual change of feudalism towards the more centralised states and absolute monarchies that came later. However with every law introduced that reduces the autonomy of a vassal, it also reduces your capability of managing your vassals as you are forced to take a more direct role in the state. The kings peace for example means that the King has to spend a lot of time ensuring no vassals wage war, thus it should be represented in a vassal limit malus to show he can't take on as many vassals due to his preoccupation enforcing a law. A liege that doesn't have Kings peace for example would be able to have many more vassals simply because they are autonomous and run themselves without his input, leaving him time to do other things.
So every law that curtails the freedom of vassals must have a vassal limit malus to go with it to represent the management required to enforce that law. To give examples: free investiture means you are appointing bishops yourself rather than leaving it to the pope, thus you are spending time doing that, have a vassal limit malus. Or, revokation law: you are spending time revoking titles rather than letting your vassals control what they keep, have a vassal limit malus. I would also suggest fully separating each and every law like HIP has started to do. Thus minimum vassal levy should be separated into its own law, as well as maximum vassal levy, and tax level for each class. I would also suggest allowing max and min levy % to go all the way to 100% in the law slider to represent the levels of conscription absolute states would later be able to achieve. Likewise with tax, allow it to eventually reach 99% of vassal income to represent how vassals became salaried members of a civil service and ceased to be governments in their own right. These levels of laws would ofcourse be very difficult and take many years to achieve, like they did in history and would rely on technology to facilitate this change.
Thirdly: Merchant republics. They are represented badly in CK2 and are OP. I recommend removing the family manors of each patrician family as it basically just conjures holdings out of thin air and makes Merchant republics unfairly superior to dukes. Without them, patricians have to get money by controlling holdings like everyone else. This means the max republic limit and patrician tax modifier can be removed as Merch republics become just like feudal vassals except they can create trade posts. (optimally I would remove merch republics altogether and just allow all gov types to create trade posts, but alas hardcode, so we make do).
Fourthly: Holding types. The holding system makes no sense and is ahistorical having specialised castles, cities and bishoprics, especially as Cities are vastly superior to all other types. The most historical way to represent holdings would be to balance each holding so they are equal although specialised and give the ability to destroy holdings. This solves the issue of some dumbass count filling Brugge with baronies, thus irreversibly reducing your realm's ability to make money.
Fifthly: Standing armies: Get rid of retinue cap and let players manage how much retinue/standing army they can afford. There is no such thing as a standing army cap in history, it is only money that decides a nation's ability to raise a standing army, which won't really be possible until a realm has centralised its tax revenue streams just like in history.
I have many many more ideas and ways of accurately portraying reality and history in this history simulator and would be very happy to help if the mod team think they like the sound of these ideas and would like to implement them.
Thanks
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