The Edict system needs an overhaul.

[Less2]

I'm sure we all love the Estate rework. It was done for (as I see it) two reasons:

- Estate decisions usually didn't require any strategic decision making, instead it only required that the player remembered to use them constantly. Pushing a button to gain mana every 20 years, for instance.
- The amount of Estate micromanagement scaled with the size of the nation, quickly becoming cumbersome.

Now let's look at Edicts:

- Edict decisions overwhelmingly require even less strategic decision making. When do you want -10% dev cost on? Always when you are devving. When do you want +33% fort defensiveness? Always when you are in danger of being sieged. When do you want +1% missionary strength? Always when converting. Even worse, you also need to remember to turn the edict off or you are punished with losing money, even if the edict is doing absolutely nothing for you!
- Edicts also scale with the size of the nation. Start a war as Russia? Hope you know the hotkeys so that it only takes you a minute or two to toggle defensiveness on all your forts. Want to use the macro development screen to develop all of your lowest cost provinces? Well you can't, instead you find a single province you want to develop in the list, then hit f and search for the province, then turn on the -10% development edict, then develop it. Totally cumbersome, and you then need to remove all those edicts later.

Given that estates were changed, it seems there is no reason that edicts shouldn't be changed for the exact same reason. I suggest that the edict be changed into a nation-wide system where each nation can choose an edict to run across all provinces at no additional cost. Perhaps also add a way to run multiple edicts at some cost, and make it have a longer cooldown (e.g. 5 years) so the player has to plan ahead more. Really just copy the way Stellaris does it basically.

 

[Avalanchemike]

Honestly I'm mostly happy with edicts the way they are but if we're talking changes I'd like it if the game just allowed for me to decide to be prompted when edicts on certain states can be revoked. Some edicts I might want to set and forget, like whatever I decide is most useful in my capital region. But when my war is done I want to remember my border regions have extra defensiveness I'm paying for.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Honestly I'm mostly happy with edicts the way they are but if we're talking changes I'd like it if the game just allowed for me to decide to be prompted when edicts on certain states can be revoked. Some edicts I might want to set and forget, like whatever I decide is most useful in my capital region. But when my war is done I want to remember my border regions have extra defensiveness I'm paying for.

If we keep edicts as they are, they need a massive UI update so that the interaction isn't so tedious. Same still applies to religious conversions and granting provinces to subjects too.

 

[Vegtamskvitha]

Would it be worth a thought to make edicts a buff that builds up over time?

I always considered it a bit silly that the king shouting "I hereby command this fortress to withstand all attacks!" immediately made the local defenses better. But an edict running for decades, starting at 5% and scaling up to 30% (or more with Ideas and policies) sounds more believable. Enacting an edict and keeping it would increase the value over time, punish bad planning, and could be tied into other mechanics on a low level (like the odd event here and there maybe - running Defensive Ideas and sitting on a defensive edict? Get an event to take Burghers' money to get an extra +5% immediately and lose some loyalty with the Burghers!).

Just a random thought. Overall I agree - edicts are boring, tedious and best ignored.

 

[Less2]

Another idea: just get rid of edicts as they are. Instead have a set of policies granting similar bonuses which are available without needing idea groups. Secondary benefit is that the player is no longer weirdly incentivized to pick specific sets of idea groups in order to get policies to fill out 1 in each of the 3 slots.

 

[darth254]

If we keep edicts as they are, they need a massive UI update so that the interaction isn't so tedious. Same still applies to religious conversions and granting provinces to subjects too.

very much agreed. streamlining the bloat/micromanagement hell like they did with estates would be very much appreciated.

 

[FrogCrusher]

I suggest that the edict be changed into a nation-wide system where each nation can choose an edict to run across all provinces at no additional cost.

I mostly agree with you, however I wanted to say that what you are proposing in the quote is mostly called orthodox religion ^^
One of the problem we have with the game now is that it's so feature bloated that it is difficult to not copy paste an existing system. We saw it with Hussite religion which is basically a mod to protestant with different bonuses to choose.
I like the idea of state-based modifier that comes with edict to be honest. At least it's something quiet unique (with addition to pasha and metropolitan). I agree there is no strategy involved though.

 

[Me_]

Given that estates were changed, it seems there is no reason that edicts shouldn't be changed for the exact same reason. I suggest that the edict be changed into a nation-wide system where each nation can choose an edict to run across all provinces at no additional cost.

We already have such systems. At least two, in fact: decisions and policies. Edicts were meant as a way to focus certain areas on certain aspects. Yes, it didn't work out well, but if the system were to be improved, it shouldn't be by adding a third of the same.

I know Johan ordered all modifiers to be either purely positive or purely negative, and I understand that it makes for faster decision making, but I feel like this decree should not apply to edicts. If edicts were to be changed while maintaining the core principle that brought them to life (making some areas within one's empire different), they should feel meaningful in that aspect like e.g. making a region focus on trade at the expense of manpower or focus on focus on manpower at the expense of lees goods produced. Then the decisions could feel meaningful. The game has so many "currencies", yet the devs nowadays only use money or mana, forgetting that X at the cost of Y is also an option.

 

[holyvigil]

I think for edicts a sliding scale for the duration you want the edict to last near edict ui would be best.

 

[EarlKonrad]

Something as simple as a toggle which automatically disable all edicts as soon as possible would be appreciated.

The biggest problem with the edits is the amount of micromanagement that they introduce and the way they are designed it would be difficult to decrease the micro they require without having them reworked.

 

[Cancerofthehead]

Something as simple as a toggle which automatically disable all edicts as soon as possible would be appreciated.

The biggest problem with the edits is the amount of micromanagement that they introduce and the way they are designed it would be difficult to decrease the micro they require without having them reworked.

I would like two things:

1) Allow me to see and apply edicts from the province screen (in general rework the UI to get rid of the entire state screen and make it part of the province screen)

2) Instead of locking you out of cancelling an edict for a year, lock you out of selecting a new edict.

That isn’t to say there aren’t other improvements that can be done, but those are the minor changes to give a huge improvement to the current system to me.

 

[wielkiciensteam]

Development edict could give for example, instead of -10% dev cost, X% yearly chance for each province in state to increase its development by 1 - the mechanic is already in game with putting colonist on normal province to encourage growth. Overall I think that whole development system should be "automated" (each normal -% of dev cost would be replaced with +% yearly chance of growth or CK3 dev system) - it would solve a lot of issues.

 

[Deliberus]

Given that estates were changed, it seems there is no reason that edicts shouldn't be changed for the exact same reason. I suggest that the edict be changed into a nation-wide system where each nation can choose an edict to run across all provinces at no additional cost. Perhaps also add a way to run multiple edicts at some cost, and make it have a longer cooldown (e.g. 5 years) so the player has to plan ahead more. Really just copy the way Stellaris does it basically.

I haven't really played Stellaris so I can't exactly comment on how well it does there. I would agree that edicts should be a nation wide system but it should also be left for those who want to micromanage it.

While some edicts should be left as situational I think that others should be changed to where they benefit you the longer you have them turned on.

 

[wielkiciensteam]

I know Johan ordered all modifiers to be either purely positive or purely negative, and I understand that it makes for faster decision making, but I feel like this decree should not apply to edicts. If edicts were to be changed while maintaining the core principle that brought them to life (making some areas within one's empire different), they should feel meaningful in that aspect like e.g. making a region focus on trade at the expense of manpower or focus on focus on manpower at the expense of lees goods produced. Then the decisions could feel meaningful. The game has so many "currencies", yet the devs nowadays only use money or mana, forgetting that X at the cost of Y is also an option.

There actually is a downside or "negative modifier" to edicts - increased state maintnance. But I of course agree with you - policy that everything is either purely good or bad is giving a lot of problems and concerns to players. But, I guess, it's done this way to help AI - AI needs to think simply - mercantilism is good, inflation is bad, etc. while IRL or in our imagination and a lot of overhaul mods - each mechanic has bonuses and maluses.