Crusader Kings 2 Redux

[garbon]

Hello everyone!

I'm Tobias Bodlund, Scripter on the Crusader Kings II team, and I bid you all welcome to this week's dev diary for Crusader kings II: Charlemagne.

Autumn is coming in Sweden but the birds are still singing, though sometimes out of tune.

Today we'll be discussing some new changes that affect how you rule your realm. Some of these things are obviously patch content, while some are locked to having the Charlemagne expansion.

The first thing we've done is to add a vassal limit. This is exactly what it sounds like -  a limit to how many vassals a ruler can have without receiving penalties. Every vassal of count tier or above will count against this limit. The vassal limit will be higher for rulers of higher tiers, and for rulers with higher diplomacy skill. Another factor that increases the limit is your dynasty's prestige. You can also affect your vassal limit by changing your Centralization Law (this touches on an important new law mechanic - more on this later in this dev diary).

So what are the penalties of going over your vassal limit? Well, you will immediately get a penalty to the taxes and levies for all your vassals. This penalty increases exponentially, and if you go far enough over the limit you will get no vassal taxes or levies at all.

The second danger of being over the limit is that when your ruler dies, there is a chance of any vassal simply becoming independent instead of swearing fealty to your heir. The risk of this happening increases the higher over the limit you are. Vassals who are geographically more distant from your capital are the ones who are most likely to declare independence.



We've also made a very important change to how laws depend on technology. Many laws are now unlocked by advancing your Legalism technology. Higher levels in this tech are needed to unlock higher levels of Centralization, Crown Authority, Levy and Taxation laws and Viceroy laws (again, just keep reading to find out more about this). This means that you will see a big difference in the tools available to organize your realm early game vs late game.

With these changes, Legalism no longer directly increases your demesne size limit, this modifier has been removed. Also, the short reign penalty modifier has been moved to the Majesty tech.

So, what does the Centralization Law do now? Well, firstly, it's a demesne law and so applies to your entire realm. Secondly, it has five tiers, going from fully decentralized to fully centralized. Lower centralization grants you a bonus to Vassal Limit, while high Centralization grants a bonus to Demesne Size Limit and a penalty to Vassal Limit. This presents the player with an interesting choice - do you want to focus on a larger, less centralized realm or on a stronger personal demesne but having a harder time of organizing your many vassals?

How legalism unlocks laws will be moddable to a large extent.

Now, to viceroys... With the Charlemagne DLC, it will be possible for a non-tribal emperor tier character to appoint viceroys to rule any kingdom or duchy titles that the emperor himself holds. This is effectively a lifetime governorship, where the viceroy becomes a vassal of the empire. Any landed vassal of count tier or above can be granted a viceroyalty.  However, the viceroy does not own the title, but rather rules in his liege's name. When he dies, the title goes back to the liege. For all other purposes, the viceroy functions as a normal vassal. One character can hold several viceroyalties.



The ability to appoint viceroys is unlocked by the Legalism tech, and kingdom viceroyalties are unlocked much earlier than duchy viceroyalties.

Viceroys will gain an opinion bonus to the liege who grants the title, so should usually be quite loyal. However, should a viceroy mount a successful rebellion or otherwise become independent he will gain the granted kingdom or duchy as a permanent title.

We have also made some changes to regencies. The essence of it is that a character's regent is now more of a conscious actor, and will not automatically act in the liege's interest. A regent who dislikes you will be somewhat likely to make things difficult for you, and certain types of personality traits will also be likely to cause problems. Diplomatic actions may be blocked if the regent does not approve, for example. A friendly regent is your best bet for getting things done your way, but there are also other considerations. Any regent is likely to prefer seeing you married to someone of their own religion and culture, for example.



Since choosing your regent has now become much more important, you will be able to name a regent beforehand, via "Award Honorary Title" in a character's diplomacy interface. Your Designated Regent is officially recognized as the one chosen to take the reins if a regency is required.

In addition to the things mentioned, there are a number of smaller changes intended to make ruling your realm more interesting, and some intended to just make it easier. One example of this is the possibility for a councilmember to help you assign recently acquired titles for you if you have a lot of them.

In the final dev diary next week we will be talking about the new tribal mechanics. See you then!

[garbon]

Viceroys strike me as a bit silly and I'm not sure why crown authority, centralization and viceroyalty all exist as separate laws.

Do like that you can appoint regents - though I wonder if that one will stay in place or if they will cycle out like they currently do.

[Zanza]

Viceroys strike me as a bit silly and I'm not sure why crown authority, centralization and viceroyalty all exist as separate laws.

Viceroyalty sounds cheesy. They increase the opinion penalty for vassal kings in one of the last patches and now they introduce an even more powerful tool for emperors to control their realm? There doesn't seem to be any downside to granting a viceroyal title for every vassal kingdom I control. At least before I had to make sure that my vassal kings didn't intermarry to create a super-vassal that could challenge me.

Do like that you can appoint regents - though I wonder if that one will stay in place or if they will cycle out like they currently do.

Yeah, that sounds like an interesting addition.

[Martinus]

Really excited about those changes.

[garbon]

How come? Viceroyalty really seems like an odd choice.

[Martinus]

Regency and the vassal limit (with losing vassals on succession) look like fun stuff. Viceroyalty also looks good - perhaps the name is not the most fortunate, but it seems like a way of giving titles to your favourites without having them start a dynasty.

[celedhring]

I like those changes too, I just wish Viceroyalty had something going against it versus appointing a normal vassal. It reflects a common practice of the time (in the Crown of Aragon for starters, where the term was actually coined), so I like that it's there.

[garbon]

Strikes me as a suspect addition for most CK2 states.

[jimmy olsen]

Viceroy's just don't seem kosher for a feudal state.

If the Byzantines rebound I could see it being appropriate for them, or perhaps for a centralized Islamic Empire or a great trade Republic, but not for a feudal state.

[Jacob]

I guess I better finish conquering the world completely in my current game, since it seems like they'll male it harder with the vassal limit.

[jimmy olsen]

It can't be that harsh a penalty if it allows Charlemagne to hold together is Empire at the turn of the 9th century.

[Razgovory]

The Viceroys don't seem like something you'd see in Western Europe, but in the Eastern Mediterranean region where feudalism don't quite apply.

[Martinus]

I guess we don't know whether there are now downsides to viceroys. Also we don't know if this is something available only with high Legalism.

[celedhring]

It was quite common practice in the Iberian peninsula I'd say from the XIV century onwards (so late game in CK2). Aragon and to lesser extent Castille had had trouble with dynastic vassals ruling over important territories, so it became customary for the King to concentrate the most important titles on his person and appoint viceroys to rule over some of those territories. Some of these "vice rex" were part of the king's family or powerful nobles, but they never held the title.

That custom was passed to the Spanish Crown, which is when the term became famous.

[garbon]

So not common for most Ck2 states in the time period?