What's the point of Imperial Fiefdom origin?

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HornetCZ

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Your overlord always collapses after roughly 55 years through hardcoded events. There is absolutely no way to prevent this collapse from either the player or the AI side. So what exactly is the point of this origin?

I thought it was supposed to be a convenient way to play as a vassal, especially in multiplayer, where you and others who picked the origin all start as vassals to the same overlord. Then perhaps be loyal to your overlord or try to fight for independence or something. But since that overlord is guaranteed to collapse anyway, it seems to be completely pointless.

After 50 years, through no effort of your own, you end up in the same situation you would be if you started independent and with a massive bordergore right on your doorstep.
 
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Well, if you want to stay a vassal, you have 55 years to find a better Overlord with Secret pledge

But I agree that the Overlord should only collapses in certain circumstances (maybe it's the case)
 
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It'd be nice if you could fight in the name of a claimant/successor - not just yourself - sort of like the recent HBS Battletech game's plot.

It might be cool to have an origin as an exiled monarch, maybe forced to take rulership over some backward primitive planet or colony world & forced to rely on mercurial forces - now that mercenaries are actually a thing.
 
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I am annoyed that there is no gurantee that the vasalls spawn close to the overlord. Whats the point having an overlord that is supposed to protect you if they are spawned at the opposite side of the galaxy? The KI vasalls start next to the overlord, but for players it is completely random.
 
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I am annoyed that there is no gurantee that the vasalls spawn close to the overlord. Whats the point having an overlord that is supposed to protect you if they are spawned at the opposite side of the galaxy? The KI vasalls start next to the overlord, but for players it is completely random.
I think it might depend on your planet % settings? I'm running 1.25 and they started right by me (and again in the prev test before this game with 2x planets)
My overlord has the Gmail icon.
1652388547233.png
 
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It seems to be the point to show off the special vassal types and then give players an escape hatch because being a vassal is so limiting.

That said, it is disappointing because I wanted to see how far I could go as the power behind the throne.
 
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It seems to be the point to show off the special vassal types and then give players an escape hatch because being a vassal is so limiting.

That said, it is disappointing because I wanted to see how far I could go as the power behind the throne.

Same! I’d hoped that the collapse was just one option. Having it definitely happen so early into the game is such a shame. I’m confused why they hyped “can you break free” as a goal given that the player doesn’t have to do anything.
 
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It looks like the old favors + Eminent Diplomats trick works for getting your Overlord to release you. Favors are EXPENSIVE with the Indolent Overlords, since they have 25% trade acceptance. But it seems to value Loyalty, which you can offer to them, VERY highly.

I tested that with Console Commands, just as a quick proof of concept, but it does mean that if you want to get out of vassalage early, there seems to be a way to do it without war.
 
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The Origin actually seems to offer quite a lot of potential power, if you’re able to seize control of the fractured empire.

The Overlord’s capital planet is a Size 30 Gaia World with 70 pops. Their other two starting planets have 40 and 30 pops each. Each of their other 3 starting vassals has 25 pops. That’s a total of 215 pops right on your doorstep, potentially the “Backstab Your Hegemon Suboordinates” strategy on steroids.
 
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I am annoyed that there is no gurantee that the vasalls spawn close to the overlord. Whats the point having an overlord that is supposed to protect you if they are spawned at the opposite side of the galaxy? The KI vasalls start next to the overlord, but for players it is completely random.
I tested 3 different saves to see what the spawn conditions are like and it seems pretty consistent that you spawn 2-5 systems away from your overlord's borders. I believe it's by design so that the player has some breathing room to actually get some territory before all the AI vassals that spawn hugging the overlord.
 
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I tested 3 different saves to see what the spawn conditions are like and it seems pretty consistent that you spawn 2-5 systems away from your overlord's borders. I believe it's by design so that the player has some breathing room to actually get some territory before all the AI vassals that spawn hugging the overlord.
A few jumps away is okay, but it was way further away for basically anyone in my mp test game. Literally the other side of the galaxy. Thats really disappointing considering how they talked about this special multiplayer interaction for the fiefdom origin.
 
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A few jumps away is okay, but it was way further away for basically anyone in my mp test game. Literally the other side of the galaxy. Thats really disappointing considering how they talked about this special multiplayer interaction for the fiefdom origin.
Yeah any of my tests either with more than one fiefdom origin empire caused me to spam on the wrong side of the galaxy, when it was just me it was fine
 
It'd be nice if you could fight in the name of a claimant/successor - not just yourself - sort of like the recent HBS Battletech game's plot.

It might be cool to have an origin as an exiled monarch, maybe forced to take rulership over some backward primitive planet or colony world & forced to rely on mercurial forces - now that mercenaries are actually a thing.
could be good have a player only event fire at collapse to either go ones own way or to reaffirm loyalty to the "true heir" to fight a succession war. would give the player an option to play as a vasel long term while also not making every game dominated by ai overlords that happen to spawn.

as it is having an ai start with the vasal origin sort of negates the "no advanced ai" starting option
 
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Dang. So it's a "turtle for 55 years" Scion origin ? Well, it makes sense, since you can't technically win the game as a vassal. And I'm sure you can betray your Overlord way earlier than that with the appropriate strat anyway.
 
I think to answer the thread title question, it’s the ‘Dune’ origin.

I guess it could be a fun challenge if you set all empires to have this origin to see how it pans out.
 
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I think to answer the thread title question, it’s the ‘Dune’ origin.

I guess it could be a fun challenge if you set all empires to have this origin to see how it pans out.

The Corrino empire in Dune lasted 10,000 years though; the stories are set in one of the few interesting bits of history, as opposed to the millennia when basically nothing changed. It's like Warhammer 40k in that respect, a galaxy of stagnant societies that basically don't change at all until some cataclysm forces them to.

Stellaris is not that sort of game, because the pace of colonization and tech progression means that things are changing all the time, unless we're talking about outright Fallen Empires. I don't think that should translate into a guaranteed "fall of the Imperial Liege" timer, though; that it happens at all should be likely, but when it happens should be unpredictable.
 
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The thing that disappoints me most is I can't pick the species of my Imperial Fiefdom overlord? Seems weird considering Stellaris' wealth of customization options.

Yet for some reason on some origin paths, we can pick who our subservient species consists of, such as Necrophage and Syncretic Evolution, so why is that not an option with Imperial Fiefdom?
 
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I don't think that should translate into a guaranteed "fall of the Imperial Liege" timer, though; that it happens at all should be likely, but when it happens should be unpredictable
It certainly could be better. An mtth event only rising in chance after midgame would work, when combined with adding an espionage operation to trigger it sooner via attempts to destabilise that (specific to the origin) overlord and exploit fractures in their Imperial family, or something like that.
 
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