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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.

cm_dd_3_laws_2.png

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.

cm_dd3_viceroy.png

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.

cm_dd3_regent.png

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!
 
So you can use the viceroy mechanic to temporarily reduce the number of vassals counting towards your limit? Nice.

Is the revoke penalty the same?

I think it should be easier to revoke them. It's your title they just manage it for you.
 
well i guess i was thinking of the ERE where it would have to be conferred again. perhaps an event on the death of a viceroy and an opinion penalty for not giving it to someone who thinks they "deserve" it because they are a brat (which could be an issue if he inherited other titles) but i wouldn't call it a claim

Let me put it this way, what exactly is a claim? A claim is basically an argument that says you should be the ruler of this area and why. Majority of claims go something like this, my (name distant relative here) use to rules these lands and it was so much better under him, it will be better again if you make me king. This more or less still what the character is doing, My father was viceroy here for decades wouldn't these lands be better ruled if I ruled over them like my father did?
 
The change of vassal limit and the current rebellion/adventurer mechanic will impact a lot of the fun I get out of the game. As it is, there is too much time spent dealing with unlanded rebellion/adventurer game play that has no real impact than to waste my time or force me to juggle battles. It may make playing as King/Emperor too frustrating. With the vassal limit mechanic, you need to lower the unlanded rebellion/adventurer risk.
 
These changes sound nice, but I do have a few questions:

1) Will an AI sovereign assign viceroyalties?

2) Will there be a means by which a vassal can request a viceroyalty from his or her liege?

3) Will there be a means (a faction, a plot besides murder, or a casus belli) for vassals to depose unpopular viceroys?

4) How much power can a viceroy have?

4a) Can a viceroy raise the levies of all the vassals assigned to his or her viceroyalty wherever he or she makes war?

4b) Can a viceroy revoke the titles of the vassals assigned to his or her viceroyalty?

4c) Can a viceroy raise or lower the crown authority within his or her designed region?
 
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Viceroys, centralization, and regents -- finally something substantial! Looking guessed to these features for the ERE.
 
Let me put it this way, what exactly is a claim? A claim is basically an argument that says you should be the ruler of this area and why. Majority of claims go something like this, my (name distant relative here) use to rules these lands and it was so much better under him, it will be better again if you make me king. This more or less still what the character is doing, My father was viceroy here for decades wouldn't these lands be better ruled if I ruled over them like my father did?

I do not think they have an argument that they can go to war over it (which is what the claim is) because no one thought of it as hereditary to begin with. Who is your daddy and what does he do? let's pretend you said he's a neurosurgeon, and let's pretend that you're an investment banker. when he dies you should stay as an investment banker and not just become a neurosurgeon because your father was so good at it. You'll say, "but that's how we think now!" and I'll say "yes, and that's how they thought then in places like the ERE. the title was conferred and no hereditary nonsense was thought to come with it". maybe some insolent brat thinks that he is owed something because his father kept him with a silver spoon in his mouth but that doesn't mean that he has any real claim on the title.
 
What will be the starting Legalism level in Constantinople? The ERE should be able to appoint at least king-level viceroys from the get-go, but that might be a tad overpowered...

Also, viceroys might be op but they'll not be next retinues. Retinues have no real substitute, while viceroys can be replaced by normal kings and dukes - your life will be harder, sure, but it won't be impossible.
 
Still no answer if viceroys are dlc only?

Well, if you read the viceroy part carefully, you'll see this:
Now, to viceroys... With the Charlemagne DLC...

Though I hope those with LoR and SoI could get the viceroy mechanic for Byzantine and Muslim ruler because how viceroy could represent their non-feudalistic government...
 
- How will vassal revolts/wars against the viceroy work?
- Any other quirks to relationships between a viceroy and his vassals?
- Will the viceroy want to be granted the kingdom outright (and plot/faction/demand accordingly)?
- Are there any eligibility requirements for viceroys (holds a ducal title in the de jure, for instance)?
- What's the actual numerical range for vassal limits?

I think there's enough fertile ground there for viceroys to have a catch, particularly if claimants can press their claims against the viceroy rather than the top liege. I'd think twice about giving France to a viceroy if a claimant could take it away then announce that he was king and I wasn't getting it back when he died. Or if the viceroy had a penalty with his vassals because he's not the real king, so that I get less taxes/levies than I would from a vassal king and revolts are more likely.
 
Well, if you read the viceroy part carefully, you'll see this:


Though I hope those with LoR and SoI could get the viceroy mechanic for Byzantine and Muslim ruler because how viceroy could represent their non-feudalistic government...

This didn't mean much... ;) It could also mean the patch with the dlc. And DLC only would mean it would be impossible to make them in the history files. I see no reason for them to be DLC only... The devs are angry that the retuines are DLC only... And now they would make this? And it's a crown law. It would be the first DLC only crown law...
 
There should be a plot to usurp regency.

This, absolutely this! A plot like that would really make internal dynamics of a kingdom really interesting and fun. Scheming and conniving vassals vying with each other for favour and power in order to get viceregal titles from the king, delicious!
 
How much of the new regency mechanics can the player actually participate in? Or will it be the same as it is now and be effectively meaningless? I just want more things to do as a vassal since it is my favorite way to play