This suggestions stems from this discussion thread.
The OP was complaining that Crown Authority is based on your character, and not on a per-title basis, so inheritance messes up Crown Authority in all kind of wild ways, sometimes setting you back for no good reasons.
The suggestion is the following :
Make Crown Authority an aggregate of the average Feudal Contract Scores of all Vassals in the realm
Feudal Contract Score
Feudal Contracts are comprised of 3 elements, most having an impact on the vassal opinion :
- Levy Obligations, ranging from Exempt (0% Tax, +10 Vassal opinion) to Massive (25% Tax, -25 Vassal opinion)
- Tax Obligations, ranging from Exempt (0% Levies, +10 Vassal opinion) to Massive (50% Levies, -25 Vassal opinion)
- Rights : there are 7 different rights, that are either granted or not. 5 of them have a +/- 5 Vassal opinion associated with them, depending if they are granted or not, 2 do not (Coinage Rights and Fortification Rights).
Let us assume that both Coinage Rights and Fortification Rights could also provide a +5 Vassal opinion modifier when granted, as they are more beneficial than not to the Vassals.
Here is the comparison between the maximum and minimum cumulated Vassal opinion modifiers associated with Feudal Contracts :
(Nb : I have renamed a couple of rights, because at the moment, some have a positive opinion modifier when enacted, whereas others have a negative opinion modifier when enacted, which is a bit confusing. Renaming some ensures that they work the same way : positive opinion when granted or negative opinion when not granted, but never the other way around.)
That gives us a total range of +/- 100 Vassal opinion between the most beneficial contract possible, and the least beneficial contract possible. Well that's a handy scale for sure !
Feudal Contract Score would follow the following simple formula, and would range from 0 to 100 :
Feudal Contract Score = - (sum of Vassal opinion modifiers - 40)
Aggregate Crown Authority
Crown Authority would no longer be something you arbitrarily modifiy at the press of a button. Instead, it would be automatically determined depending on the weighted average Feudal Contract Score of the realm, the weight of each Vassal depending on their number of provinces :
Feudal Contract Weight = Vassal Realm Size / (Liege Realm Size - Liege Domain)
So using Feudal Contract Scores, and Feudal Contract Weights, we can determine the average Crown Authority of the realm, which would translate to the actual Crown Authority levels as it reaches certain thresholds.
Crown Authority effects
Since you would need to modify your Vassal's contracts to gradually shift your Crown Authority, and those already heavily impact Levies, Taxes and Vassal opinion, Crown Authority would no longer have any global effect on those.
Feudal Contracts rights supersede Crown Authority and are inherited, but Crown Authority levels would still grant different Obligations and Rights by default for newly created Feudal Contracts. It would specifically be used :
- as the default contract when you grant a title to an unlanded character
- as the default contract when your vassal's own vassal gains independance
- as the contract reset when losing or caving in to a "Lower Crown Authority" faction (on a per vassal basis, rights not specified in the following table wouldn't be modified as a result of Factions)
Other effects of Crown Authority would remain unchanged (changing Inheritance laws, Vassal retractation, Imprisonment rights for refusing Vasssal retractation and Title revocation if applicable, Title inheritance outside the realm).
Related changes
- The Liberty Faction, which aims to lower Crown Authority, would result in practice in the modification of the contracts of all Vassals involved in the Faction instead (which should result in a drop in Crown Authority levels, but might not systematically, depending on who participates, their Contract Score, and their Contract Weight prior to the change).
- Vassal Contracts could still only be modified once per Ruler and per Vassal, but maybe it should allow for 2 or 3 Tyrannical changes (a detrimental change without a beneficial change to compensate). At the moment it only allows for 1 uncompensated detrimental change, whereas going from a 25 Contract Score to a 50 Contract Score takes at least 2 changes.
- Opinion modifiers for granting land would not stack but reset. So you'd get the same modifier from granting 1 county than for granting 10, and you'd have to grant a higher-tier title to get a better modifier. This would avoid gaming the system too much, and stacking modifier to be able to renegotiate the contract aggressively.
- Since there wouldn't be any Prestige cost associated to raising Crown Authority, maybe there should be a Prestige cost to renegociating contracts instead, the cost being higher for negotiating with a higher-tier title, but not exponentially so => it would be cheaper to negotiate with a Duke holding 5 counties, than to negotiate with 5 Counts.
Benefits
- Crown Authority would be more organic and less arbitrary than it is now, which in my book is always a good thing.
- Crown Authority would still change when you inherit new titles (or when you die and your Primary Heir already had vassals of his own), but not as dramatically, and either way it wouldn't change the dynamics of your realm so as much as it does now, and throw your realm in chaos.
- It would have players engage with Feudal Contracts a lot more. They are a neat idea on paper, but at the moment I don't much care for them, and they can be totally ignored for the most part.
- It would give an incentive for the player towards decentralization of power, instead of hoarding as many counts (and later dukes) as possible and always beeing at max vassal limit, to avoid making managing Feudal Contracts a chore, and to avoid paying an obscene amount of Prestige to renegotiate with everyone
- Reaching higher Crown Authority would be facilitated by landing the Player Character's close relatives instead of random lowborns, for the added opinion bonus (usually, if you're not a total d*ck to your relatives =P), to be able to renegotiate more easily. So structural nepotism would correlate with higher Crown Authority, as it should I guess ? I'm not sure, but either way, any incentive to land the ruler's relatives is also good gameplay in my book, so I'm all for it.
So here goes, hope you all like that !
Please do comment if you don't, or if you'd add things. I'm sure I missed some implications of the whole thing =)
The OP was complaining that Crown Authority is based on your character, and not on a per-title basis, so inheritance messes up Crown Authority in all kind of wild ways, sometimes setting you back for no good reasons.
The suggestion is the following :
Make Crown Authority an aggregate of the average Feudal Contract Scores of all Vassals in the realm
Feudal Contract Score
Feudal Contracts are comprised of 3 elements, most having an impact on the vassal opinion :
- Levy Obligations, ranging from Exempt (0% Tax, +10 Vassal opinion) to Massive (25% Tax, -25 Vassal opinion)
- Tax Obligations, ranging from Exempt (0% Levies, +10 Vassal opinion) to Massive (50% Levies, -25 Vassal opinion)
- Rights : there are 7 different rights, that are either granted or not. 5 of them have a +/- 5 Vassal opinion associated with them, depending if they are granted or not, 2 do not (Coinage Rights and Fortification Rights).
Let us assume that both Coinage Rights and Fortification Rights could also provide a +5 Vassal opinion modifier when granted, as they are more beneficial than not to the Vassals.
Here is the comparison between the maximum and minimum cumulated Vassal opinion modifiers associated with Feudal Contracts :
Max opinion modifier | Min opinion modifier | |
Tax Obligation | + 10 | - 25 |
Levies Obligation | + 10 | - 25 |
Religious Rights | + 5 | 0 |
Title Revocation Protection | + 5 | 0 |
War Declaration Rights | + 5 | 0 |
Succession Rights | 0 | - 5 |
Coinage Rights | + 5 | 0 |
Fortification Rights | + 5 | 0 |
Total | + 45 | - 55 |
(Nb : I have renamed a couple of rights, because at the moment, some have a positive opinion modifier when enacted, whereas others have a negative opinion modifier when enacted, which is a bit confusing. Renaming some ensures that they work the same way : positive opinion when granted or negative opinion when not granted, but never the other way around.)
That gives us a total range of +/- 100 Vassal opinion between the most beneficial contract possible, and the least beneficial contract possible. Well that's a handy scale for sure !
Feudal Contract Score would follow the following simple formula, and would range from 0 to 100 :
Feudal Contract Score = - (sum of Vassal opinion modifiers - 40)
Aggregate Crown Authority
Crown Authority would no longer be something you arbitrarily modifiy at the press of a button. Instead, it would be automatically determined depending on the weighted average Feudal Contract Score of the realm, the weight of each Vassal depending on their number of provinces :
Feudal Contract Weight = Vassal Realm Size / (Liege Realm Size - Liege Domain)
So using Feudal Contract Scores, and Feudal Contract Weights, we can determine the average Crown Authority of the realm, which would translate to the actual Crown Authority levels as it reaches certain thresholds.
Crown Authority effects
Since you would need to modify your Vassal's contracts to gradually shift your Crown Authority, and those already heavily impact Levies, Taxes and Vassal opinion, Crown Authority would no longer have any global effect on those.
Feudal Contracts rights supersede Crown Authority and are inherited, but Crown Authority levels would still grant different Obligations and Rights by default for newly created Feudal Contracts. It would specifically be used :
- as the default contract when you grant a title to an unlanded character
- as the default contract when your vassal's own vassal gains independance
- as the contract reset when losing or caving in to a "Lower Crown Authority" faction (on a per vassal basis, rights not specified in the following table wouldn't be modified as a result of Factions)
Other effects of Crown Authority would remain unchanged (changing Inheritance laws, Vassal retractation, Imprisonment rights for refusing Vasssal retractation and Title revocation if applicable, Title inheritance outside the realm).
Weighted Average | Crown Authority Level | Default Tax | Default Levy | Title Revocation Protection | War Declaration Rights |
0 | Autonomous Vassals | Exempt | Exempt | Granted | Granted |
25 | Limited Crown Authority | Low | Low | Granted | Granted |
50 | High Crown Authority | Normal | Normal | Not granted | Not granted |
75 | Absolute Crown Authority | High | High | Not granted | Not granted |
Related changes
- The Liberty Faction, which aims to lower Crown Authority, would result in practice in the modification of the contracts of all Vassals involved in the Faction instead (which should result in a drop in Crown Authority levels, but might not systematically, depending on who participates, their Contract Score, and their Contract Weight prior to the change).
- Vassal Contracts could still only be modified once per Ruler and per Vassal, but maybe it should allow for 2 or 3 Tyrannical changes (a detrimental change without a beneficial change to compensate). At the moment it only allows for 1 uncompensated detrimental change, whereas going from a 25 Contract Score to a 50 Contract Score takes at least 2 changes.
- Opinion modifiers for granting land would not stack but reset. So you'd get the same modifier from granting 1 county than for granting 10, and you'd have to grant a higher-tier title to get a better modifier. This would avoid gaming the system too much, and stacking modifier to be able to renegotiate the contract aggressively.
- Since there wouldn't be any Prestige cost associated to raising Crown Authority, maybe there should be a Prestige cost to renegociating contracts instead, the cost being higher for negotiating with a higher-tier title, but not exponentially so => it would be cheaper to negotiate with a Duke holding 5 counties, than to negotiate with 5 Counts.
Benefits
- Crown Authority would be more organic and less arbitrary than it is now, which in my book is always a good thing.
- Crown Authority would still change when you inherit new titles (or when you die and your Primary Heir already had vassals of his own), but not as dramatically, and either way it wouldn't change the dynamics of your realm so as much as it does now, and throw your realm in chaos.
- It would have players engage with Feudal Contracts a lot more. They are a neat idea on paper, but at the moment I don't much care for them, and they can be totally ignored for the most part.
- It would give an incentive for the player towards decentralization of power, instead of hoarding as many counts (and later dukes) as possible and always beeing at max vassal limit, to avoid making managing Feudal Contracts a chore, and to avoid paying an obscene amount of Prestige to renegotiate with everyone
- Reaching higher Crown Authority would be facilitated by landing the Player Character's close relatives instead of random lowborns, for the added opinion bonus (usually, if you're not a total d*ck to your relatives =P), to be able to renegotiate more easily. So structural nepotism would correlate with higher Crown Authority, as it should I guess ? I'm not sure, but either way, any incentive to land the ruler's relatives is also good gameplay in my book, so I'm all for it.
So here goes, hope you all like that !
Please do comment if you don't, or if you'd add things. I'm sure I missed some implications of the whole thing =)
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