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Dev Diary #137 - Machinations of a Clan

Salutations!

It’s been a while since I last wrote a DD, so a quick (re)introduction might be in order. I’m Emil, aka “Servancour”, one of your resident CK3 game designers. I’ve been on the project since way before release, and tend to mostly focus a lot on game mechanics and systemic features. Which, in fact, brings me to why I’m here today. When we settled on Persia as the focus for our upcoming Flavor Pack, we soon came to realize that this would be an excellent opportunity to revisit the Clan Government and give it a much needed update.

Clans, as you currently know them, are very similar to Feudal. There are only two real points of difference between them. Opinion is a major factor in their obligations, meaning that a vassal’s opinion of their liege affects how much taxes and levies they will give to their liege. Secondly, they have access to and utilize vassal contracts, albeit in a slightly stripped down version, with less available options than their Feudal counterparts.

This begs the question; How can we make Clan Government stand out? We’ve already identified one aspect above, so our first action and problem to solve is this - How do (or should) Clans manage their vassals? Secondly, and perhaps much more important, is what does a Clan actually represent? What does the name mean for gameplay?

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the first question, shall we? And have a look at Clan obligations.



Tax Jurisdictions and Tax Collectors

While we knew we wanted to add something new to Clan obligations, we had to ask ourselves how we wanted to make it different. As with all things Crusader Kings, adding a new element that makes use of characters felt like a natural fit, to give obligations some personality if you will. Meet the Tax Collector.

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You’ll have access to a limited number of Tax Jurisdictions. To which you assign your Clan vassals as Taxpayers, allowing you to gain both taxes and levies from your subjects. A Jurisdiction requires a Tax Collector to function however. So before you can collect any taxes, you need to appoint one of your courtiers as a Tax Collector for each Jurisdiction.

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With Tax Collectors, you won’t manage the obligations of your vassals directly. Instead, you manage them through your Tax Collector. Similar to a Court Position, a Tax Collector uses their aptitude to set the obligations of the vassals assigned to them. Higher levels of aptitude means that you’ll get more taxes and levies. Aptitude is primarily based on their skills, with Learning being the more important one, but their opinion of you also plays a significant part. To maximize the use of your Tax Collectors, you’ll want to find and appoint a skilled character, and then put the sway scheme to good use in order to squeeze as much gold from your subjects as possible.

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While your Tax Collectors act as your intermediaries, you are still able to exact a certain degree of control of how they should manage your vassals. This is where Tax Decrees come into play. A Tax Decree is essentially how you want your vassals to be taxed, changing the obligations and providing an assortment of additional benefits.

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With the introduction of Tax Decrees, it made perfect sense to move over some aspects of vassal contracts to this new system instead. For example, this is where you’ll find Iqta, Ghazi, and Jizya to use as you see fit. While you won’t have to bother with decrees if you don’t want to, they do give you opportunities to min-max in different ways. Decrees change the obligations of your vassals, either increasing or reducing them, in exchange for other boons. Take Iqta as an example. Iqta is a great option if you find yourself with vassals who are slightly upset, just enough for you to start taking notice, and if you also finds yourself being at war frequently, as Iqta provides you with increased Men-at-Arms Damage based on the number of assigned vassals alongside an opinion bonus.

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One thing to consider is that the modifiers applied to the obligations occur on the level as set by your Tax Collector. Which makes Decrees more or less powerful depending on the Tax Collector in question. Again, looking at the effects of Iqta, -20% to both taxes and levies won’t be very noticeable if your Tax Collector has a terrible aptitude. This makes Iqta very rewarding for the price you pay, since the gained benefit is pretty good. If your Tax Collector is excellent on the other hand, you’ll feel the impact of those 20%.

That about sums it up for how Tax Jurisdictions, Collectors, and Decrees work. With obligations out of the way, let’s go back and answer our second question!



House Unity

As the name suggests, Clans should be all about the clan itself and its members. Something that we really don’t represent at the moment. Nor does it have any real impact on how you play the game. To solve this, and put a significantly larger emphasis on your House when you are playing as a Clan, we are introducing House Unity.

Unity represents the overall state of a House. Essentially the internal relationships between its members and the attitude they have towards each other. In many ways, Unity is the result of how you choose to interact with your fellow House members. We show everything regarding Unity in each Clans House view, allowing you to easily inspect your own Unity, and the Unity of other Houses.

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We measure Unity on a scale between 0 and 200, divided up into five distinct ranges, or levels. Each level comes with a set of impactful rules and trade offs that may have a noticeable impact on how you play the game. By default, most Houses start in the middle. Essentially a “neutral” level. From there, they’ll be able to actively increase or decrease their Unity.

The levels are as following, listed from lowest to highest level of Unity:
  • Antagonistic
  • Competitive
  • Impassive
  • Friendly
  • Harmonious

Thematically, having a high level of Unity means that you’ll enjoy internal stability and have House members that (generally speaking) adopt a friendly attitude towards each other. But you’ll pay for it with a reduced capability to wage wars as efficiently. CBs become more expensive to use, and you can no longer use the Invasion CB. A low level of Unity provides you with the opposite. You’ll gain a great deal of military might, allowing you to more easily conquer large swathes of land, but pay the price of reduced internal stability. Depending on your playstyle, you might enjoy a particular direction more than the other. Regardless of your own preference, having either low or high levels of Unity is meant to be equally viable.

Instead of having me ramble about the effects of each level, here are some nifty screenshots showing you what they look like:

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Other than the passive effects, you also gain access to a set of unique decisions. Most of which are available only to the House Head, as they provide powerful boons for the entirety of a House. The primary currency for these decisions is Piety. Since most Clans belong to an Islamic faith, this felt like a natural fit. Besides, Piety is generally more difficult to get than Prestige, making you consider where and how to spend that hard earned Piety.

Some of these decisions make use of a completely new type of modifier; a modifier that scales on the number of landed House members. If you are like me, and like to utilize nepotism to the fullest, these modifiers can become incredibly powerful. Be mindful that the Piety cost will increase accordingly.

For all you modders out there, you can use scaling modifiers in every place you use regular modifiers. You simply feed it a value for how you want it to scale.

Let’s look at an example. If your House is Antagonistic, you can use the decision “Reinforce Army with Loyal Officers”:

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Last, but certainly not least, Unity directly affects the outcome of your succession. Each level has an impact on the outcome of how titles are inherited, and the succession changes automatically as your House’s Unity changes. They all maintain a variant of Partition, meaning that titles will always be split to some extent. When you are Antagonistic, all eligible children inherit equal shares. If you are Harmonious, the primary heir inherits the majority of the titles (at least two thirds). With varying degrees in-between. At worst, this means that you don’t have to deal with Confederate Partition, and at best, you have an easier time accessing a superior version of High Partition. The drawback? While you can try to get a single heir succession law, such as Primogeniture, it will be more difficult and expensive to do so.

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Now that we know what Unity does, let’s explore how it’s impacted by gameplay. As mentioned previously, Unity is all about the members of a House and how they interact. This will become apparent as you start interacting with your family members. A lot of existing interactions have been updated to also have an impact on your Unity in different ways. Whenever you are playing as Clan that is. Taking what we call “divisive” actions, such as Revoke Title or Imprison, against fellow House members will naturally reduce your House’s Unity. Meanwhile, “unifying” actions, such as Negotiate Alliance or Offer Ward, will increase Unity. Unity is therefore really a byproduct of how you and your fellow House members interact with each other.

With that said, the House Head enjoys a number of additional actions, giving them a greater degree of control in how they want to direct the Unity of their own House. The foremost of these is a decision in which the Head actively takes a stance and chooses a direction to steer their Unity. Then we also have two new interactions the Head can use on members of their House, both of which act as a double-edged sword and have some clear advantages and drawbacks.

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There are of course many more interactions, far too many to list all of them here, which will have an impact on your Unity. Worth mentioning is that the immediate impact of these interactions is fairly small, but they stack up over time, especially when you are not the only one within your House who will be using them.

Rest assured that you’ll have plenty to explore as you get your hands on the updated Clan Government later this year, which will be included with the free update launching alongside Legacy of Persia!
 
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We could of course have opted for a solution closer to what you and others have suggested, where you want to keep and maintain a high level of Unity at all costs, or face the consequences should you fail. Neither approach is right or wrong. It's a about offering a particular gameplay experience. In the end, we opted for one where you as a player can feel that you have a choice and agency over your house. We want to give you the choice of pursuing a particular level of Unity, affecting the way you play the game in the process. Which, in the grand scheme of things, fits well into the overall CK3 experience.

With that said. Feel free to agree or disagree with the decision, but I hope the reasoning at least is a bit clearer with that in mind. Or maybe it isn't, I might just be rambling at this point.
I think your decision is the best of two worlds : if i would have liked indeed a more "you fail, your kingdom broke" mechanic, the truth is that in terms of gameplay evolution, a "bar to keep at maximum" mechanic is often becoming "a bar always at maximum" and the penalties of failure are only applying to people that are already struggling with the mechanics. A good analogy would be the EU4 disasters system, where the penalties are usually hitting people already in deep trouble, while "normal" playthrough are never experiencing them.
Meanwhile, this choice here of "two gameplays, each with rewards and double edged swords" means that there is always something you trade for the bonuses, and not just a bar you keep at maximum and forget.
This is the way to go, just like crown authority : the more bonuses you want to exploit from the mechanic, the more side effects you will experience.
 
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Perhaps the main problem is Paradox decided to call the CB invasion. If it is called "adventure", it may be easier to understand, at least easier for players to persuade themselves.
 
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I notice the tax options shown are all distinctly Islamic. What, if anything, does this mean for the Clans of Scotland? Will they be feudalized, or have different tax options? Or at least just different names?

(I have to admit, the main clans I've played are the Minnesotans in After the End, who would be similarly affected...)
Unless something is changing on the way Clan governments are formed, they are ALWAYS Islamic. Christians, Jews, Eastern religions, and Pagans all reform to Feudal.

What I really want to know is will the "No Alliance as a Powerful Clan Vassal" be removed? It's almost tempting not to lock into 1.10.X JUST so I could maybe play as clan in this, but if you have to waste children on useless vassal alliances, definitely a pass from me.
 
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Unless something is changing on the way Clan governments are formed, they are ALWAYS Islamic. Christians, Jews, Eastern religions, and Pagans all reform to Feudal.

What I really want to know is will the "No Alliance as a Powerful Clan Vassal" be removed? It's almost tempting not to lock into 1.10.X JUST so I could maybe play as clan in this, but if you have to waste children on useless vassal alliances, definitely a pass from me.
I still would like to know who can be Clan under new system, and if that opinion penalty still remains.
 
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If you look at Unity less as a scale of how much your house members agree with each other, and more as a measurment of how much the members respects the current status quo and how opportunistic they are, I think you'll have a better idea of what we want to represent in terms of gameplay. A harmonious house will want to focus on keeping the realm as it is and to ensure a safe succession. An antagonistic house on the other hand, wants to expand at every opportunity, and replace the house head in the process if need be. It's really about what type of opportunities you seek. Do you want to expand and conquer everyone else in your pursuit of glory and power? Never quite satisfied with what you have? Or are you and your fellow members happy with the realm you've built, and want to keep it that way?
If that's the case, then is clan unity influenced by the amount of Courtly and Glory Hound vassals you have within your house? Because it seems like both axes are oriented towards the interests of one type or the other, with the middle representing Parochial vassals maybe.
 
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I think this was answered previously, but to iterate. A house may have members of any government type, but only those who are clan will be able to affect Unity (as in their actions may increase or decrease Unity, for example if they revoke a title from another house member, who also has to be clan). And only clan will gain the effects of Unity/the active Unity level.
Any chance we'll see at least a lite version of unity for other government types, at least in a future update? It would make some sense for feudals as well and at the very least tribes should get it, especially considering they can't go create cadet houses. Also, any plans for Dynastic unity that just regulates the relations of house heads?

Apart from succession changes, challenging to be house head etc. can unity also effect claimant factions? Say if a house has low unity, members will be more likely to start or support a claimant faction?

Finally, while this is something not relevant to the mechanics of this dlc, it is relevant to the region, is there any plans to add more struggles? I really feel like the entire struggle mechanic's potential is wasted being just relevant to a single region while many other regions could benefit from such a mechanic.

Asia Minor between the Byzantine Empire and Caliphate can perhaps benefit from it. It'd really be interesting to see some peaceful outcome there, marriage alliances between the two huge empires or one side totally annihilating the other, or some smaller players carving themselves a place between the two etc.

Balkans could also definitely benefit from it, especially in 867 start considering constant wars and peaces and alliances between Bulgarian Khanate/Empire and Byzantine Empire for hundreds of years, Simeon's ambitions regarding the Byzantine Empire(intention of a marriage between his daughter and Constantine VII, trying to capture Constantinople) when Basil II finally subdued Bulgaria and even then members of the ruling family of Bulgaria (Kometopuli, possibly descendants of Krum's dynasty) being integrated into the empire, gaining high honors and important positions within the empire and there are also other things such as Byzantine empire regaining portions of Dalmatian coast, Serbian-Bulgarian wars and alliances etc.

Italy, or rather the region that is kingdom of Sicily in game could also benefit from it in both starts with in 867 the Lombard rulers, Byzantine Empire, Kingdom of Italy, Aghlabids and Sawdanids and in 1066 Byzantines and Normans (Byzantine Empire lost it's last possessions there in 1071) who even crossed the Adriatic
 
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Finally, while this is something not relevant to the mechanics of this dlc, it is relevant to the region, is there any plans to add more struggles? I really feel like the entire struggle mechanic's potential is wasted being just relevant to a single region while many other regions could benefit from such a mechanic.

Balkans could definitely benefit from it, especially in 867 start considering constant wars and peaces and alliances between Bulgarian Khanate/Empire and Byzantine Empire for hundreds of years, Simeon's ambitions regarding the Byzantine Empire(intention of a marriage between his daughter and Constantine VII, trying to capture Constantinople) when Basil II finally subdued Bulgaria and even then members of the ruling family of Bulgaria (Kometopuli, possibly descendants of Krum's dynasty) being integrated into the empire, gaining high honors and important positions within the empire and there are also other things such as Byzantine empire regaining portions of Dalmatian coast, Serbian-Bulgarian wars and alliances etc.

Italy, or rather the region that is kingdom of Sicily in game could also benefit from it in both starts with in 867 the Lombard rulers, Byzantine Empire, Kingdom of Italy, Aghlabids and Sawdanids and in 1066 Byzantines and Normans (Byzantine Empire lost it's last possessions there in 1071) who even crossed the Adriatic

Asia Minor between the Byzantine Empire and Caliphate can perhaps also benefit from it.
This is literally the second flavor pack after the first featuring a struggle region, making two out of three flavor packs have struggle regions in them. That alone should clue in that it's not a one-off, and IIRC the devs have plainly stated that it's a vehicle for multiple region-specific conflicts. It's safe to assume there will be more.
 
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"Since most Clans belong to an Islamic faith"
Under what conditions can a non-Muslim dynasty have Clan government? Reformed Pagans?
The Ghurid ruler in 867 is clan despite being a Buddhist. Yet the Persian Zoroastrians around the Caspian Sea are feudal. Seems inconsistent, perhaps decided upon scripted setup.
 
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Will Unity affect how frequently branches come about?
I would assume a super harmonious house would be significantly less likely to be divided.
Addition:
I would think it makes sense for the opposite, too.
That an antagonistic house is incredibly likely to branch off if the person splitting off is far removed from the house head and is also in no position to challenge them. Taking your close relatives and yeeting off to do your own thing seems to be a very fitting thing to do, given that an antagonistic house is meant to have very opportunistic attitudes. If there is no way up within your house, you make your own.
 
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This is literally the second flavor pack after the first featuring a struggle region, making two out of three flavor packs have struggle regions in them. That alone should clue in that it's not a one-off, and IIRC the devs have plainly stated that it's a vehicle for multiple region-specific conflicts. It's safe to assume there will be more.
Agreed. For example, here’s CK3 Game Director, rageair, on FOI:
The Struggle, a central mechanical core surrounded by flavor, struck a balance that was enjoyed by many - a winning formula that we’re more than likely to follow in the future.
This has been repeated by a number of other devs. If I run across any more relevant quotes before I have to log off, I’ll edit some more in.

edit: typo, and added emphasis.
 
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I wanted to ask why the fact of a house having a Higher unity will limit there ability to perform invasion. isn't that supposed to be the opposite. I speak with the concept of assabiya in mind because I suppose that is what the clan system is supposed to represent. Thanks in advance for your answers.
 
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*Sigh*

More broken modifiers.
Just what we needed.

The highest damage I've achieved with every single one of my units was 420.
Needless to say, literally every single battle I've had was a stackwipe, with the highest unit # difference being my 8k of Crossbowmen vs an army of 43k.
I wonder what will it be when I have all my vassals on the Iqta Grant.

"But you'll be losing 20% of your income"

First of all, with the way Paradox does these Court Positions, I guarantee that if you have Tax Collectors with Good or Excellent aptitude, you'll be making more money than you would before this update.

Second, in the mid and late game, you can literally win any war with just your MaA, so you won't be losing money from raised levies.
In my last run, I had ~10k MaA constantly raised, just for shits and giggles, and still made over +200 gold per month.

This is just Iqta btw, who knows what other broken OP stuff will also be in this patch.
 
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You can correct me if I'm wrong but you don't have to answer right away.

If I have to guess, the primary heir minimum share for each Clan succession law are the following:

Antagonistic: none
Competetive: 1/3
Impassive: 1/2
Friendly: 3/5
Harmonious: 2/3

So, did I guess it close enough?
 
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If you look at Unity less as a scale of how much your house members agree with each other, and more as a measurment of how much the members respects the current status quo and how opportunistic they are, I think you'll have a better idea of what we want to represent in terms of gameplay. A harmonious house will want to focus on keeping the realm as it is and to ensure a safe succession. An antagonistic house on the other hand, wants to expand at every opportunity, and replace the house head in the process if need be. It's really about what type of opportunities you seek. Do you want to expand and conquer everyone else in your pursuit of glory and power? Never quite satisfied with what you have? Or are you and your fellow members happy with the realm you've built, and want to keep it that way?
With this in mind, I'd suggest to rename the mechanic from "House Unity" to sth like "House Attitude", to reflect that it isn't supposed to represent internal strife inside the family but rather its overall mood and goals. To avoid further misunderstandings, you could then rename the five levels into something along the lines of the following:
* Competitive
* Opportunistic
* Impassive
* Obliging
* Harmonious

If you are a Clan Ruler with a Feudal Vassal, you cannot place them into tax slots, you will have a feudal contract with them.

If you are a Feudal Ruler with a Clan Vassal on the other hand, you get a Tax jurisdiction to be able to handle your clan vassals. (and ofc, you need a tax collector)
Hmm, shouldn't it be the other way around – Clan rulers relying on tax collectors to gather income from the diverse array of vassals, and Feudal rulers relying on the contract between the ruler and the vassal?

Also, can a Clan ruler Jizya tax a feudal vassal?
 
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Hmm, shouldn't it be the other way around – Clan rulers relying on tax collectors to gather income from the diverse array of vassals, and Feudal rulers relying on the contract between the ruler and the vassal?

Also, can a Clan ruler Jizya tax a feudal vassal?
The guy said that there can both be a tax collector set for jizya and your vassal under the tax collector can have jizya vassal contract with you
 
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One problem i've noticed with Jizya / Religious protections in general is that if the top liege is Islam or Catholic, they will eagerly still send there sons to swap to a religion that is considered evil and intermarry and then force that entire area to the same religion.

Are there any plans to look at this? I've always found a full Christian Mongolia / Persia etc (Or in my games reformed pagan) Religion randomly on the map and a kingdom due to a heir or someone randomly swapping religion and forcing the entire area into that one religion.
 
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