What to do with vassals?

[crusaderking]

I started playing as the Kingdom of Asturias in 867, and I united Spain and formed the Empire by 940. Now what? I can't expand into Barcelona yet, since West Francia is my ally, and his empire is not breaking up (I don't know if I want it to break up yet). I want to form the Kingdom of Mauretania too, but managing a few kingdom-level vassals itself is annoying. I love the new factions system, but I find it a little weird that vassals are pissed off with a new Emperor who was a King since he was 16 under the previous Emperor, and that they loved the old Emperor and knew who his successor would be for almost 30 years and still want to kick the new King in the Royal Arse the moment he places it on the throne. But what really annoys me the most is the lack of options (blame vanilla CK2) when it comes to interacting with vassals. There's nothing much I can do to placate my vassals other than bribe them, hold a few hunts/feasts and hope for the best. It would probably be better if members of the factions came forward to the liege with requests/fears, etc and that would give the liege some option of diplomacy and intrigue.
I want to be able to have a meaningful relationship with my vassals, where traits and skills can influence the way interactions go. That possible?

 

[Kalista]

When it comes to factions the easiest way to placate them is to do the things said faction wants. Court faction among other things desires to have its members on consul positions, Princely wants the laws to favor them over the crown ect ect ect. Opinion plays apart in it but its possible to have a hostile faction even if they love you by doing everything else they hate. Remember just because your vassals loved your previous ruler they will still view the new comer with some distrust ( will he be a tyrant? will he further erode the vassals power on their lands? ect). Faction vassals will make some demands of you from time to time and may even come bringing gifts as well.

Lot of the other points you bring up I would like to also see when the devs workload gets better.

 

[schwarherz]

Lot of the other points you bring up I would like to also see when the devs workload gets better.

Go ahead. I'd rather go in knowing what all we want to do than to get half way done and get a really cool idea.

 

[Kalista]

Go ahead. I'd rather go in knowing what all we want to do than to get half way done and get a really cool idea.

I know but I also know how damn complicated this mod is ( I use to carry a personalized version of this mod for self use back in the SOI days and even then the thing was a PITA to change) and know how overworked you guys are atm with what you already got planned. But when a good idea comes to me I'll let you guys know.

 

[Miaow]

Reworking factions is on the to-do list anyway, so you might as well speak your mind before it's done.

 

[Kalista]

Reworking factions is on the to-do list anyway, so you might as well speak your mind before it's done.

K off the top of my head far as factions go that I don't remember being said that its on the to do list or hasn't been brought up multiple times in the past. A Faction that can form to take one of your secondary kingdom titles ( say your primary is england and you pull a longshanks and grab scotland) a faction can form from the vassals in that de jure kingdom to swipe the throne and go independant with some events that fire if they suceed to pick who among them gets the crown. If they split down the line could possibly result in a civil war with one "faction" who supported duke x in a war against the other "faction" supporting duke y war of the roses style ( yes i know that war happend just outside this games timeframe but its not impossible for that to happen within it).

Faction thats manned by Landed Family members who may not like that their inheritance is threatened due to Sucession laws ( would need to be disabled or lessen the chance of it happening for the HRE unless u want it fliping Primo-gavelkind all the time).

This one ignore if its not already in since I have never even seen this faction before but make it where the republican faction will get overly pissy if theirs competing trade posts in your land and your not doing anything about it. I'd also make this faction form more often perhaps making it less about just republics and more about the greedy bastards that want to corner all the gold in the realm what to name it i have no clue.

Slant on the Seperatist where wrong religious vassals ( say christains under a muslim lord) attempt to band together to get free with the ability to call in near by same faith powers to aide them with the appropriate modifers on them giving a yea or nay.

And just ingeneral giving more options on how as a top leige to interact with your factions and factions interacting with other factions that may have similar goals and more inter faction interactions.

(disclaimer I do play this as an RPG first Grand Strat second so anything ingeneral that adds immersion I'm 1000% for)

 

[Miaow]

Actually, I'll throw out an idea of my own for discussion.

The faction I really think the game lacks is a Royal Service Faction—minor nobles and mayors who want a centralised state that will give them opportunities for advancement, and protection against the abuses of the big barons. Think of the knights and burgesses in the English House of Commons, or the Armagnacs of France's civil war (and their predecessors, the Marmosets of Charles V). This would actually make civil wars hard to avoid, because one the player starts raising CA the Royal Service faction should start gaining steam and pushing for more centralisation while the Princely Faction will push for the exact opposite. Either you pick a side and start a civil war, or try to maintain the status quo and you'll have two unhappy factions that might support pretenders. Also, an unhappy Royal Service Faction would make for alot of bad events, as the players depend on these guy to run their demesne.

 

[Kalista]

Actually, I'll throw out an idea of my own for discussion.

The faction I really think the game lacks is a Royal Service Faction—minor nobles and mayors who want a centralised state that will give them opportunities for advancement, and protection against the abuses of the big barons. Think of the knights and burgesses in the English House of Commons, or the Armagnacs of France's civil war (and their predecessors, the Marmosets of Charles V). This would actually make civil wars hard to avoid, because one the player starts raising CA the Royal Service faction should start gaining steam and pushing for more centralisation while the Princely Faction will push for the exact opposite. Either you pick a side and start a civil war, or try to maintain the status quo and you'll have two unhappy factions that might support pretenders. Also, an unhappy Royal Service Faction would make for alot of bad events, as the players depend on these guy to run their demesne.

Take your idea add in a dash of my faction alliances idea ( where factions with common self interest agree via event to support the other in a revolt with the ever present chance they go back on their word ) and suddenly easy faction management gets awhole lot more interesting.

 

[Nivve]

Just my two cents:
I have altered the rebellion once where vassals will be less likely to choose independence when they have large neighbours. It would be nice to also have this influence factions. So when byzantium is the neighbor the factions would have opinion penalties against a liege with martial of 6, while bordered by city-states they would have negative opinions when diplomacy is low. This would replicate some importance to the surroundings of the realm (especially vassals at the borders) and not only the vassal/liege relations.
Just a quick proposal, I sadly don't even know how it currently works exactly...

 

[Akuthia]

I think the thing I'd like to see in factions is opposites, sort of related to what @Miaow said. Something that will indicate how much support you have against a faction, so if there's a "Lower Crown Authority" faction, there's a "Keep it the same!" faction, and so on.