(Long Post)
This is an idea that has been floating in my head for some time now. I wanted to do a mod and upon researching how to do that and looking at the other HRE mod on Steam for some inspiration, I read that the stuff I wanted to change is hardcoded and I can’t change it inside a mod, so maybe the developers will see this and might (probably not, since bugs) add the proposed mechanics.
Well, enough talking, let’s get into the juicy parts.
1. Imperial Authority (The points to pass reforms)
As many of you know, the HRE is very decentralised, which in the current form is shown that the tags are individual nations, its ok even if it isn’t entirely historically accurate.
A key feature that has been missing till now is the power of the princes and the electors that opposes the emperor. In its current form only, the emperor can choose which reforms are done and when etc. furthermore most reforms either give bonuses to the princes/electors AND the emperor or gives bonuses to ONLY the emperor. Both the centralised and the decentralised path makes the emperor stronger, which for the decentralised path at least is stupid.
My idea was that next to the imperial authority window there will be an additional 2 windows. One of them is for the electors and the other one is for the rest of the princes.
So right now, there are 3 authority gain windows (emperor, elector, princes).It could ofc also be done with only 2 windows, so the one for the emperor and the second window for the princes and electors in one window. But there should at the very least be a power that goes against that of the emperor.
(The actual historical power distribution is far more complex, but I think this is a good simplification)
2. Reforms
Now you might ask the purpose of the additional windows for power gain. Well, they will serve the same function as the Imperial Authority did till now, so passing reforms.
But the reforms will need to be categorised anew. With the same categorisation as the power windows, there should be reforms for the electors, the princes, and the emperor. Each group can only choose from their own category, because the ai is stupid.
Each reform should give additional modifiers and later powers. Example for the emperor, the ability to give and take the ability of the electors to vote.
2.1 Voting for Reforms
The voting process for the emperor should stay the same mostly. The voting process for the electors and princes needs to be a bit different. Since these 2 groups are made up of more than one nation the developers will need to somehow model this, they could use the same mechanic they used for parliaments or maybe the one from the pope when voting on the stance to kill heretics or not, otherwise they could maybe do something with events and then counting the votes.
2.2 Voting probability
The amount of votes a reform gets should be done with probabilities. Each reform will get a weight of choosing (same as the voting of ai for event options already works) that will be made up from the date it was proposed historically + how powerful it is.
Example, the ability of the emperor to give and take the ability to elect from certain nations. I don’t know if there is a historical precedent, so let’s say probability of choice is 0. Now the reform is powerful, so 1000 à 0 +1000 = 1000, now depending on the weight of the other reforms its probability to be taken earlier is higher or lower.
This should make the choice of reform that are taken not scripted, but also at the same time make it so that powerful or historically accurate reforms are taken first.
2.3 Locked reforms
Giving and taking the power to elect is something only a powerful emperor can do, so the empire needs to have some centralisation already. Hence the notion of locked reforms, these reforms can only be enabled and voted upon, when other reforms have already been taken, be it that a minimum number has already passed, or when a more specific reform has already been taken.
2.4 Disabling reforms
When as an example the electoral faction takes the privilege “stronger electoral rights” (I came up with it), the emperor shouldn’t be able to take the reform that gives him the power to remove and reassign the electoral powers, hence the reform for the emperor attacking this “right” should be disabled.
The same also applies to the electors or princes, when the emperor took something that makes his power bigger, the other faction can’t strengthen these privileges with their own reform.
So, when faction A takes a reform, it could hinder faction B from taking a reform.
2.5 Revoking reforms
Since there are ways of locking and disabling reforms, there should also be a way to revoke already passed reforms, so that the ai or player continue its path to dominate even if they were a bit slow.
The first option is with the authority of the faction (will get into authority gain a bit later). The faction will need to use its own authority to revoke a reform of another faction (authority loss later).
The way this is handled, is that upon reaching 50 authority (the point a faction can decide to pass a reform) there will be another option: “don’t pass a reform and revoke a reform” (only enabled if the other faction has already passed a reform). The probability of the ai taking this, is also weighted against the others, but the stronger the reforms passed get, the higher the chances rise of the ai taking the “revoke reform” option.
Upon taking this, the decision which reform should be revoked will wait till the ai gains more authority (my idea was maybe 70 or 80 authority). After reaching the authority point of being able to revoke, the same procedure as always starts, its weighted which reform is the stronger one and that will have the highest chances of being revoked.
So, simplified:
Authority is 50:
The emperor also gets a special casus belli against any of the electors or princes. But upon declaring war upon the faction, it doesn’t matter if the nation that gets declared upon is allied to other electors/princes or not, all of the members of the faction + allies get a call to arms (similar to coalition mechanic), the only ones that wont join are the ones in the emperor’s sphere of influence (more upon this later). The call to arms doesn’t force nations to join as in a coalition, but gives them more reasons to join, so technically all the nations of a faction might join, or none, because all of them are bankrupt.
Additionally, against the emperor, nations outside the HRE should also be able to revoke reforms, but this time the emperor’s allies gets a slight boost for the allies to join.
3. Sphere of influence
The sphere of influence is only something the emperor has (historically it’s the south). The nations that belong to this sphere will gain a very small prestige debuff and a very small (-5 or -10) opinion modifier towards nations that don’t belong to the emperor’s sphere. Vice versa, they will gain a slight boost towards other nations of the emperor’s sphere of influence and a slightly bigger boost of the emperor’s opinion about them. If these nations are allied to the emperor or not and get attacked by an outside power (causing the emperor to get a call to arms), the emperor will have more reasons to defend them. For what the sphere of influence is also good will be my next point.
But who is in the sphere now is the question, personally:
4. Authority gain
Let’s start with the emperor.
Electors: (counts for each elector)
Princes: (counts for each prince)
So, what do you think about my ideas to change the HRE?
This is an idea that has been floating in my head for some time now. I wanted to do a mod and upon researching how to do that and looking at the other HRE mod on Steam for some inspiration, I read that the stuff I wanted to change is hardcoded and I can’t change it inside a mod, so maybe the developers will see this and might (probably not, since bugs) add the proposed mechanics.
Well, enough talking, let’s get into the juicy parts.
1. Imperial Authority (The points to pass reforms)
As many of you know, the HRE is very decentralised, which in the current form is shown that the tags are individual nations, its ok even if it isn’t entirely historically accurate.
A key feature that has been missing till now is the power of the princes and the electors that opposes the emperor. In its current form only, the emperor can choose which reforms are done and when etc. furthermore most reforms either give bonuses to the princes/electors AND the emperor or gives bonuses to ONLY the emperor. Both the centralised and the decentralised path makes the emperor stronger, which for the decentralised path at least is stupid.
My idea was that next to the imperial authority window there will be an additional 2 windows. One of them is for the electors and the other one is for the rest of the princes.
So right now, there are 3 authority gain windows (emperor, elector, princes).It could ofc also be done with only 2 windows, so the one for the emperor and the second window for the princes and electors in one window. But there should at the very least be a power that goes against that of the emperor.
(The actual historical power distribution is far more complex, but I think this is a good simplification)
2. Reforms
Now you might ask the purpose of the additional windows for power gain. Well, they will serve the same function as the Imperial Authority did till now, so passing reforms.
But the reforms will need to be categorised anew. With the same categorisation as the power windows, there should be reforms for the electors, the princes, and the emperor. Each group can only choose from their own category, because the ai is stupid.
Each reform should give additional modifiers and later powers. Example for the emperor, the ability to give and take the ability of the electors to vote.
2.1 Voting for Reforms
The voting process for the emperor should stay the same mostly. The voting process for the electors and princes needs to be a bit different. Since these 2 groups are made up of more than one nation the developers will need to somehow model this, they could use the same mechanic they used for parliaments or maybe the one from the pope when voting on the stance to kill heretics or not, otherwise they could maybe do something with events and then counting the votes.
2.2 Voting probability
The amount of votes a reform gets should be done with probabilities. Each reform will get a weight of choosing (same as the voting of ai for event options already works) that will be made up from the date it was proposed historically + how powerful it is.
Example, the ability of the emperor to give and take the ability to elect from certain nations. I don’t know if there is a historical precedent, so let’s say probability of choice is 0. Now the reform is powerful, so 1000 à 0 +1000 = 1000, now depending on the weight of the other reforms its probability to be taken earlier is higher or lower.
This should make the choice of reform that are taken not scripted, but also at the same time make it so that powerful or historically accurate reforms are taken first.
2.3 Locked reforms
Giving and taking the power to elect is something only a powerful emperor can do, so the empire needs to have some centralisation already. Hence the notion of locked reforms, these reforms can only be enabled and voted upon, when other reforms have already been taken, be it that a minimum number has already passed, or when a more specific reform has already been taken.
2.4 Disabling reforms
When as an example the electoral faction takes the privilege “stronger electoral rights” (I came up with it), the emperor shouldn’t be able to take the reform that gives him the power to remove and reassign the electoral powers, hence the reform for the emperor attacking this “right” should be disabled.
The same also applies to the electors or princes, when the emperor took something that makes his power bigger, the other faction can’t strengthen these privileges with their own reform.
So, when faction A takes a reform, it could hinder faction B from taking a reform.
2.5 Revoking reforms
Since there are ways of locking and disabling reforms, there should also be a way to revoke already passed reforms, so that the ai or player continue its path to dominate even if they were a bit slow.
The first option is with the authority of the faction (will get into authority gain a bit later). The faction will need to use its own authority to revoke a reform of another faction (authority loss later).
The way this is handled, is that upon reaching 50 authority (the point a faction can decide to pass a reform) there will be another option: “don’t pass a reform and revoke a reform” (only enabled if the other faction has already passed a reform). The probability of the ai taking this, is also weighted against the others, but the stronger the reforms passed get, the higher the chances rise of the ai taking the “revoke reform” option.
Upon taking this, the decision which reform should be revoked will wait till the ai gains more authority (my idea was maybe 70 or 80 authority). After reaching the authority point of being able to revoke, the same procedure as always starts, its weighted which reform is the stronger one and that will have the highest chances of being revoked.
So, simplified:
Authority is 50:
- Takes option 1: pass reform
- Decides which reform should be passed
- Takes option 2: revoke reform
- Waits till authority (70 or 80)
- Decides which to revoke
- Waits till authority (70 or 80)
The emperor also gets a special casus belli against any of the electors or princes. But upon declaring war upon the faction, it doesn’t matter if the nation that gets declared upon is allied to other electors/princes or not, all of the members of the faction + allies get a call to arms (similar to coalition mechanic), the only ones that wont join are the ones in the emperor’s sphere of influence (more upon this later). The call to arms doesn’t force nations to join as in a coalition, but gives them more reasons to join, so technically all the nations of a faction might join, or none, because all of them are bankrupt.
Additionally, against the emperor, nations outside the HRE should also be able to revoke reforms, but this time the emperor’s allies gets a slight boost for the allies to join.
3. Sphere of influence
The sphere of influence is only something the emperor has (historically it’s the south). The nations that belong to this sphere will gain a very small prestige debuff and a very small (-5 or -10) opinion modifier towards nations that don’t belong to the emperor’s sphere. Vice versa, they will gain a slight boost towards other nations of the emperor’s sphere of influence and a slightly bigger boost of the emperor’s opinion about them. If these nations are allied to the emperor or not and get attacked by an outside power (causing the emperor to get a call to arms), the emperor will have more reasons to defend them. For what the sphere of influence is also good will be my next point.
But who is in the sphere now is the question, personally:
- Needs to be in the HRE (either one of these being fulfilled counts as being in the sphere)
- Is allied
- Has royal marriage with emperor
- Is Vassal/March/PU/Tributary or any other type of subject
- Has opinion higher 50 (or maybe 75, nations can use the +25 opinion privilieg)
4. Authority gain
Let’s start with the emperor.
- He will gain authority the more nations are in his sphere. If an elector is also in the sphere, the emperor will get 1.5 as much authority gain from that nation (each nation gives power).
- If an elector is a subject 2x the power + a modifier that gives “controlled elector” (opinion malus with all other electors, rises the more electors are subjects to the emperor)
- The more free cities the more authority gain (historically, free cities directly under emperor)
- The higher the development the more power (till a limit)
- Being the biggest nation in the HRE
- Having the biggest army
- Being the richest nation in the HRE
- Being curia controller
- Modifiers from reforms
Electors: (counts for each elector)
- The higher the development the more power (till a limit)
- Being the bigger than the emperor
- Having a bigger army than the emperor
- Being the richer than the emperor
- Being curia controller
- Modifiers from reforms
Princes: (counts for each prince)
- The higher the development the more power (till a limit)
- Being the bigger than the emperor/any elector
- Having a bigger army than the emperor/any elector
- Being the richer than the emperor/any elector
- Being curia controller
- Modifiers from reforms
So, what do you think about my ideas to change the HRE?
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