Dev diary 56 - Upcoming government eligibility changes
As part of 14.0.0, the eligibility for various Tianxia governments will change a bit. Work has not begun yet, so there might be some changes during development, but barring something turning out to be unfeasible the overall plan should not change much. It's possible there will be a dev diary (possibly even several) dedicated to government changes prior to 14.0.0's release when things have been set up properly, but we'll see how necessary that is down the line.
A large number of the upcoming changes will mean a loosening of restrictions, though there will still be restrictions in place, and some things are a bit more restrictive than previously, primarily due to various undesirable side-effects. Though some of you might wish otherwise, the plan is not -- and has never been -- to make various governments (e.g. Chinese Imperial) particularly widely available, and this is not something that is open for debate. If you want something else, you can deal with enabling it on your own, including various things that will get messed up due to safe assumptions being rendered unsafe.
Religion/culture and government eligibility:
The current game rule governing Chinese Imperial eligibility will be removed (it creates a bunch of problems), but for the most part culture will not matter.
- Taoists and Confucians (and Neo-Confucians, should they be added as a separate religion rather than a religious branch) will be eligible for Confucian Bureaucracy, Chinese Imperial, and Eastern Imperial (more on this below) regardless of culture
- Shinto characters will be eligible for Japanese Bureaucracy (more on this below), Japanese Feudal, and Japanese Monastic Feudal regardless of culture. The Tenno will still be restricted to Japanese Imperial.
- Chinese (Han, Yue, Bai, etc.; every culture in the Chinese culture group), Mongol, Koreanic (Korean and Jeju), Viet, Kaifeng, Jurchen, and Khitan Buddhists will be eligible for Confucian Bureaucracy, Chinese Imperial, and Eastern Imperial. Tangut Buddhists will be eligible for Chinese Imperial, but will use Monastic Feudal by default (and you'll thus get Monastic Feudal vassals if you give same culture same religion characters land). Japonic (Japanese, Yamato, etc.; every culture in the Japonic culture group) Buddhists will be eligible for Japanese Bureaucracy and Japanese Feudal and will lose access to Chinese Imperial and Confucian Bureaucracy, seeing as it is far too much trouble to have them be eligible for both sets of governments (it easily undermines the historical setup in Japan, for one thing). All other Buddhists will be ineligible for anything but Feudal (or Monastic Feudal, if in the Tibetan group). Aside from the changes to the Japonic group, this is unchanged from how things work with the current default setting for the culture game rule.
- Unreformed Shenist, Muist, and Thanist characters will be eligible for Confucian Bureaucracy, Chinese Imperial, and Eastern Imperial regardless of culture. With HF they will be able to reform in a fashion that lets them retain eligibility for some or all of these. Any new Chinese pagans will likely also be in this category, though if it turns out some of them should have inherent features incompatible with some or all of the governments (or the Grace system) they will be given those features rather than the government(s).
- Unreformed Ryukyuans will probably (it's possible they'll be left as regular Feudal, but I'm leaning towards not doing that) be eligible for Japanese Bureaucracy and Japanese Feudal (and maybe Japanese Monastic Feudal) regardless of culture, with historical rulers (and placeholders) likely scripted to start as Japanese Feudal. With HF, reforming in a fashion that permits access to the governments will be an option, and there will be a way to reform in a fashion that gives you a special government (provisionally named Divine Imperial) working roughly like Japanese Imperial (more on this below). They will be unable to get Chinese Imperial or related governments, seeing as having someone eligible for both systems causes issues.
- If the Shugendo religion is added (it's very possible it won't be, for reasons elaborated on in the previous dev diary), it will have access to Japanese Bureaucracy and Japanese Feudal regardless of culture (since the Shugendo religion is big on syncretism, Japanese Monastic Feudal -- which sort-of has religious revocation -- would not be reasonable).
But what about...?
I predict that there are questions about a number of religions not listed above, so I'll go over the ones I think people are most likely to ask about.
- Ainu pagans might be reasonable to give the same treatment as Ryukyuans, but as the Japanese governments are a bit of a mess I am not entirely sure it's reasonable to extend the system to yet another religion, and since the Ryukyuans historically did some things similar to Japan while the Ainu were less similar the Ryukyuans will get priority. It'd be necessary to check Warrior Lodge stuff carefully before making a decision, should it be deemed to be feasible with regards to scripting difficulties.
- Manchu/Jurchen pagans might get access to Confucian Bureaucracy, Chinese Imperial, and Eastern Imperial, and if so certain reformations will also unlock the governments. However, seeing as the plan is to give them a WL -- which no currently eligible religion has -- and possibly other flavour that may or may not be compatible, it is impossible to say at present, and if it is a choice between fitting flavour and the governments they'll get the flavour.
- Unreformed Tengri won't get any of the governments. It's possible reforming into Confucian Bureaucracy, Chinese Imperial, and Eastern Imperial could be an option, and maybe a few cultures could be eligible prior to reformation (similar to Buddhists, most likely), but considering 15.0.0 likely will result in changes to the Tengri religion it is prudent to delay the decision until it is clear what we want to do with the religion in other regards, seeing as it'd be preferable to not end up having to remove something.
- Nestorians might be feasible to give Confucian Bureaucracy, Chinese Imperial, and Eastern Imperial. However, they are likely to be worked on in 15.0.0, so delaying until then would be prudent, particularly as a ton of things checking for "religion_group = christian" will have to be looked at.
- Other Christians have various undesirable mechanics (the potential to get multiple holy orders, Crusades, autocephaly, Divine Blood, etc.). They won't be getting any of the relevant governments.
- Though there were some famous Muslim people holding government positions in China the various Muslim religions have a lot of problematic mechanics (Decadence, polygamy, secular rel heads, Jizya, and Jihads, off the top of my head). It's not reasonable to give them any of the relevant governments.
- Manicheans might be feasible to give Confucian Bureaucracy, Chinese Imperial, and Eastern Imperial under rules similar to Buddhists. However, it is prudent to delay the decision to 15.0.0, seeing as the religion might be worked on at that time.
Eligible pagan reformations:
Things will change quite significantly here, and will mostly become a lot less restrictive. For starters, a new Nature will be required to be eligible for any of the governments (in addition to a valid base religion). This is a consequence of Cosmopolitan having some issues that are desirable to deal with and some of its features being disabled by various governments anyway.
Tentatively called Tolerant (it will possibly be renamed, though Cosmopolitan was already taken...), the Nature will have roughly the following features:
- +1 piety/month when at peace (might be cut).
- No holy wars or Great Holy Wars (already blocked for the relevant governments, and this both makes it clearer and handles a possible exploit created by some other changes).
- No raiding (unless enabled by culture (or government; none of the relevant governments enable it)).
- The same intermarriage setup as Cosmopolitan (i.e. you gain intermarriage with neighbouring religions if you don't already have that, and keep whatever you already have on top of that).
- Able to ask for religious conversion if permitted by government (most of the governments discussed here will forbid it).
- Characters and provinces are harder to convert.
- No religious title revocation law.
- AI characters only convert provinces if Zealous, regardless of religion group.
This Nature will be an option when reforming religions not eligible for any of the governments, but the AI will most likely be scripted to never pick it when reforming a vanilla religion (if you feel it'd be very suitable somewhere, let me know and I'll consider making an exception).
When it comes to Doctrines, there will no longer be a strict requirement to have something requiring Meritocracy and something including Stability, but there will still be some restrictions.
- Astrology is permitted. It's a bit weird to have western zodiac traits, but it's not really causing any problems.
- Haruspicy is permitted.
- Bloodthirsty Gods is not permitted. It's not remotely historically relevant, and it gets really weird when peaceful(ish) co-existence is supposed to be the idea.
- Divine Marriage is not permitted. Aside from somewhat infrequent marriages involving half-siblings where one of them was (the future) Tenno, it's completely irrelevant, and -- though we can't model it and there were historical exceptions -- marrying someone with the same surname was and is frowned upon in China/etc. (even if it seems to have happened from time to time), and it'd also break both the Grace system and mechanics relevant to Divine Imperial.
- Polygamy will make you ineligible for Chinese Imperial (the Grace system would break) and Divine Imperial (relevant mechanics would break). It'd be permissible as far as other things go, though it'll make Eastern Imperial a bit worse (since the number of spouses won't be increased (and concubines don't work with polygamy)).
- Meritocracy is permitted.
- Equality will make you ineligible for Chinese Imperial (it breaks the Grace system). It'll be permissible for everything else.
- Unrelenting is permitted. It's a bit odd, but it doesn't break anything.
- Animistic is permitted.
- Sea-Bound is permitted. It's a bit odd (particularly for China), but it doesn't break anything.
- Enatic Clans will make you ineligible for Chinese Imperial (it breaks the Grace system). It should be fine otherwise, though Open Succession will not be an option for Divine Imperial and may or may not be something to disable elsewhere (though as we already are making large concessions regarding hereditary titles in bureaucratic realms it might be something that's kept).
- Agnatic Clans shouldn't cause any issues, though Open Succession will not be an option for Divine Imperial (and -- as mentioned above -- might be something that's disabled elsewhere too).
- Ancestor Veneration is permitted.
- Monasticism is permitted.
- Syncretism is permitted.
- Religious Tax is not permitted. It'd not be very tolerant.
- Daring is not permitted for Confucian Bureaucracy, Chinese Imperial, or Eastern Imperial, seeing as vassals gathering men to increase their personal power would be frowned upon. I'm currently leaning to it not being an option if you want Japanese-style governments either; it'll likely depend on whether the The Three Mountains Doctrine ends up being locked to more aggressive Natures or not.
- Pyramid Creation is permitted. It's a bit odd, but harmless.
- Self-Improvement is permitted.
- Any relevant unique Doctrines will be as restrictive as the Doctrines combined within the unique Doctrine, though might be blocked for other reasons (see what I wrote about The Three Mountains above).
Additionally, it is possible the unique Doctrines for Shenists, Muists, Thanists, and Ryukyuans will change a bit; for one thing, I'm considering maybe swapping some of them to have Self-Improvement instead of something else, to better show Buddhist influences (this might also end up happening when it comes to the unique Doctrines for non-vanilla religions that aren't eligible for any of the special governments). The Confucian Principles Doctrine will at the very least be removed from Ryukyuans (seeing as it was meant to help them get Chinese Imperial, which they'll be ineligible for), and might be removed entirely since it'll be a lot less relevant with Meritocracy + Stability not being a strict requirement any longer.
With regards to Leadership, two new Leaderships will be added, tentatively named Spiritual and Divine Ancestry.
- Spiritual will be effectively the same as Hierocratic minus Excommunication and claim grants (they'll get something else instead, tentatively the ability to get a temporary +1 in any stat for piety (giving them versatility over Autonomous but making the benefit weaker)) and will be restricted to Peaceful and Tolerant reformations (with the AI generally not picking it for vanilla religions). This Leadership is meant to make it possible to have Ancestor Veneration (which can't be picked with Autonomous) without access to Excommunication and claim grants (which are undesirable to have as mechanics for the relevant governments). This is obviously a permissible choice if you want the relevant governments. I don't feel creating an Autocephalous equivalent is particularly necessary, though if it's desirable it can be added as a low priority addition. AI pagans will probably be scripted to avoid picking this for all vanilla religions, but if there are any you feel it'd be relevant for I might consider exceptions.
- Divine Ancestry will give you a bloodline granting +5 opinion from people with the reformed religion (comparable to Saoshyant Descendant and Amaterasu Descendant, even though those will remain traits), passed on regardless of gender/marriage type/etc., in addition to making you the religion head. You'll not gain a reformer artefact, however (not even when we get around to adding those for our pagans). For Ryukyuans, assuming they haven't made themselves ineligible in some other fashion, this results in the rel head gaining the Divine Imperial government and a special succession law similar to the one the Tenno has, while all other Ryukyuans would be eligible for the Japanese governments if it is picked. I'm currently leaning towards this Leadership being permissible if you want Chinese Imperial/etc., though I feel it'd be a bit odd to not be able to ask for conversion as a rel head. This will also be available for vanilla pagans, though most will be set to not pick it in AI hands (I'm leaning towards making Zunists potentially it, as it seems appropriate), and it will be treated as Temporal when it comes to potentially becoming a High God (which requires a bunch of things that make you ineligible for the new governments).
With regards to vanilla Leaderships, this is how things will work:
- Autonomous will be permitted. It'll prevent you from getting Divine Imperial as a Ryukyuan, seeing as you'll explicitly need Divine Ancestry for that, and it can't be picked with Ancestor Veneration since that one requires you to have a rel head.
- Temporal will be permitted for Ryukyuans wishing to get the Japanese governments (they'll not get Divine Imperial if they pick it). I'm leaning towards permitting it for Chinese Imperial/etc., as the main obstacle (Cosmopolitans with rel heads getting GHWs) will be a non-issue, but I'll have to check how much work it'll be (as the current assumption of "You aren't a rel head if you have this government" will be rendered invalid), and it'd be a bit odd to not be able to ask for conversion as the head of a religion (though I suppose vanilla does that with Cosmopolitan already...).
- Neither Hierocratic nor Autocephalous will be permitted. Both come with Excommunication and claim grants, which are undesirable.
It's likely tooltips will be added when reforming a religion (that potentially could be eligible) with something like "This will make you eligible for [governments] if all other picks also say this", which hopefully should alleviate some of the confusion as to what is and isn't allowed.
The new governments:
- Eastern Imperial will basically be a slightly fancier version of Confucian Bureaucracy for emperors that haven't gone as far as to proclaim themselves pretenders (or the true emperor of China), meaning China won't automatically refuse you the honour of sending Tributes (and receiving Boons). It'll give you some extra concubines (probably not as many as Chinese Imperial, since there's no mechanical reason to have that many) and probably Council Eunuchs, but not the Mandate of Heaven, CBs related to reconquering Chinese land, or the like.
- Japanese Bureaucracy will basically be the same as Confucian Bureaucracy, but split to make it clear that someone with this government will be able to switch to Japanese Feudal (and possibly Japanese Monastic Feudal) and to make it possible to adjust some things in Japan and in e.g. China separately.
- Divine Imperial is effectively Japanese Imperial, but separated for scripting reasons. I currently don't believe it to be feasible to give Ryukyuans the shogunate mechanics since it'd be messy with a duchy-tier rel head that could end up a vassal of a vassal (and making them have a king-tier one would cause other issues), but giving their rel head a Permanent Regent is likely an option, a similar succession law, and perhaps some other things the Tenno has (even though some of those things might make things harder for the rel head, which likely will be the player...).
That's all for this dev diary. Dev diaries will likely be infrequent for a while, seeing as the work that'll be getting done in the immediate future mostly involves optimization/polishing/etc. of existing stuff (which is not going to be a small amount of work) and thus won't be particularly interesting to show off unless something changes in a major way.
