More ways to rule

[SweArdaia]

I think some people misunderstood the concept. I would not want an OP mechanic where I can imprison vassals without concequenses, but an additional mechanic where you can play the game without trying to be the kindest man ever to live.

Imagine you set your heir up for an inheritance, and his mother died too early, making him the king of X controlled by the AI. In a few years he will have reverted all the good traits you taught him and he will become wroth, craven, abitrary etc. Wouldn't it be good to acually make something about it instead of the entire realm mass revolt on the guy becuse of his traits.

Let's say some nobles revolted, and you defeated, imprisoned and punished them, your craven vassals will gen an opinion boost called "is afraid of liege" or something like that.
A bit in a rush, so I couldn't write anything lengthy

 

[ASPGolan]

You mean the "suppress revolt" marshal action?

That's just localised... You can only do this in a single region. It has nothing to do with it. If you rule with an iron hand peasants won't revolt in entire duchies, not just a county, until an opponent lord comes along.

But I do agree that most of the logic is playable already. Am not in it for the sake of debating.

 

[MrWeRD]

This limitation is probably why most people quit after they've reached a certain point. If you want a successful ruler, there's really only one style to rule.

Once you've firmly established your family's power in the realm, it's basically repetition of how you've played for the past two hundred or three hundred years, only there's no more goals other than simply survive.

 

[Iron Chariots]

I still disagree with the premise that there's only one way to play or that tyranny doesn't work in CKII. If anything, it's too easy to step all over your nobles' rights without fear of uprising. I mean yeah, if you just do it blindly you'll face issues, but if you pay a bit of attention tyranny is immensely profitable.

In my view, the reason the game gets boring once you're established isn't because of a lack of variation in possible playstyles, but because after the first century or so, no matter who you start as, there isn't anybody who seriously threatens you.

 

[Wallain]

How about a fear-meter? 0-100. 0 and the AI is laughing at you, 50 and it is quite scared of you, 100 and it is pissing its pants.

 

[Kimberly]

In my view, the reason the game gets boring once you're established isn't because of a lack of variation in possible playstyles, but because after the first century or so, no matter who you start as, there isn't anybody who seriously threatens you.

This is probably true, yes. But...name me a grand strategy game where this isn't the case.

On the main topic, I agree with some of the others that it would be good to split up opinion and respect/fear. A kind ruler should get a lot of respect, represented by positive points, while a tyrannical ruler engenders a lot of fear. At zero, vassals neither respect you nor fear you, and hence you want to make a choice and stick with. The higher you are on one end of the scale, the more points it costs to go in the other direction. (E.g. banishing a vassal unjustly means a lot of negative points if you are well-respected, but not quite so many when you're already feared.)

With this system, you could actively campaign for the loyalty of your subjects, or keep them in line through force. If you do neither, you are worst off, as it should be. Switching from being well-loved to being feared includes a period where you hover around zero fear/respect, causing a lot of instability as people question their loyalties, which makes sense.

On a side note, I think people's opinion of children should depend on their opinion of their parents, at least in part. When your son takes over as king, he should get a "liked your father" bonus to help him ease into his reign, or alternatively a "hated your father" malus to encourage a crisis. This would, to some degree, help combat tyranny exploits.

 

[yezhanquan]

On opinion as it is now, ever notice how you, as a liege, only has to take care of how your vassals see you, and not how you see your vassals? I should think that you having a negative opinion of the vassal will affect how the vassal sees you, a modifier like "Liege likes/hates me", giving addition positive/negative opinion.