Dev Diary #148 - Administrative Government (Part I)

[chaddling]

If there is no limit then, is there a reason why you wouldn’t have your estate in Constantinople for the for the family power score?

One of the main reasons among (a few others) is that you get an Appointment bonus to the Governorship where your estate is located

 

[chaddling]

Will there be new holding graphic or terrain type for Constantinople?

I'll discuss new holding graphics in the future DD on Byzantine flavor!

 

[chaddling]

Oh my... this is definitely going to be the second Sephere of Influence DLC of this year.

This player notices the highlighted text "State Faith" on the UI, which is most likely a new game concept.

Is that a unique setting for admin realm? Are we separating personal faith from state faith?

It is indeed! I'll talk about this more in the DD next week, so stay tuned.

 

[Servancour]

I also wonder how administrative government will work for the actual (barony) holdings on the map: Will individual cities/castles still be republics/feudal? How will this work with theocratic temples? Can I also work to spread my house to barony-tier holdings, or just to full duchy-tier governorships?

What happens if the emperor or one of the holders of themes inherit a title outside the empire?
If the emperor inherits the kingdom of France does that realm change to an administrative government henceforth?
Will one of the theme holders become a feudal vassal if they inherit a duchy in, say, Croatia while they are landed within the empire?

Dear Paradox Staff, given that an Admin realm can have vassals that are not Admin, I find it strange that an independent ruler who swear fealty to the Byzantine emperor become a part of the Byzantine emperor's bureaucracy instantly.

I see a lot of questions like these. So let me take a moment and go a bit more into the nitty gritty details and explain how these type of situation works and clear things up.

Admin rulers can have vassals of any government type. Just like how feudal rulers have republic or theocratic vassals, so too can admin. On a barony level, we stick with the regular governments for the corresponding holding types. Meaning that temples will be held by theocratic rulers (unless you have lay clergy), cities by republics, and castles by feudals. There aren't any real major changes here.

Admin characters are allowed to hold both castles and city holdings without penalties, however, which allows you to freely revoke these holding types and keep them to yourself, or grant them to an admin character and have them rule over the holding instead. You can do however you see fit here. Arguably, it might be worth it to replace feudal or clan barony rulers and replace them with admin (because you will have more favorable obligations that way), while keeping theocratic and republic rulers for temples and cities.

As for how we manage titles. If an admin character inherits a title, that title will become a part of their "domain" if you will, and the ruler will keep being admin, but any vassals that go along with the succession will keep their governments as is. Rulers won't change government automatically. So let's say you inherit a feudal title (which could potentially happen but is very unlikely), the title itself will start using the ruler's new succession law, effectively making it a new theme (or governorship), assuming the tier of the title allows it. Counties won't really be affected by this, since we only treat duchies and kingdoms as "governorships". Only those titles will have access to the new mechanics of being a governor.

A similar behaviour applies to the swear fealty case mentioned previously. If a ruler swears fealty, they will retain their current government type when they become a vassal. Again, we don't change their government automatically. It's only if they already were to be admin that they instantly become a governor. Do note that an admin liege, will have tools at their disposal to manage vassals of other government types, and make them admin. But more on that in the next DD.

 

[chaddling]

Will estates be available only with Administrative Government or they will be available to any kingdom/empire tier country?

Estates are a type of Domicile. Estates are only available to characters with Administrative Government. Adventurers get another type of Domicile called a Camp. More on that after summer!

 

[Servancour]

Themes were military districts, first and foremost. What can you tell us about how the military of a Theme works?

Next DD will go into details about the military. Stay tuned!

There are different style for the 2D art of the house estate if a player upgrades the state into ad administrative realm in different regions than the Mediterranean?

I'll just leave this right here.

 

[chaddling]

Will the emperor be able to hand out  pronoias instead of themes as well?

Asking this again as it may have been overlooked in the myriad of responses to your DD
Historically they became ever more important specially in the Komneninan period.

As a fellow enjoyer of Byzantine history, I feel the desire to have pronoia, but alas we want Administrative Government to work in a myriad of places and not be bogged down with edge cases. That's not to say that this functionality can't come in the future, but we do not have plans to implement pronoia for Roads to Power.

 

[chaddling]

I am also likeminded with others that not allowing feudal realms to join the Empire as feudal is a mistake. Acquiring and maintaining feudal vassals is basically the entire reign of Manuel Komnenos the emperor of 1178. There was many regions on the Empires borders and insider them that were deliberately left as feudal vassals to serve as buffers or not deemed viable/desirable enough to directly administer but still important that they maintain fealty to the Empire.

Just to clarify, feudal realms do join the Empire as feudal. IIRC in a previous post, I was discussing a scenario where another admin kingdom swears fealty to an admin empire, in which case both remain admin. But if a feudal king swears fealty to an Administrative empire, they will remain feudal until they choose or are forced to convert to admin

 

[chaddling]

So admin kingdoms are a thing then? Interesting.

EDIT: Or can be a thing.

Yes, independent Admin realms have to be either Kingdom- or Empire-tier. Kingdom-tier admin realms will be rare. We'll go into this more next week!

 

[Servancour]

So counties won't be administrative?

They can be either really. Normally, these will be administrative though. They will retain some functionality of a governor (which are limited to duchy and kingdom tiers) but won't have access to every new mechanic. Internally, we tend to refer to these as "sub-governors". Essentially low ranked officials appointed by a governor (though emperor can do so as well if he has counties to give away of course).

We'll go into details regarding governors in our next DD.

 

[Servancour]

3) btw, any chance to add a game rule for Byzantium to be named the "Eastern Roman empire" if the player wants so?

Funny you should mention that...

This doesn’t really have anything to do with the administrative government, but are there any plans to redo the map of Anatolia? I’ve always felt that western Anatolia has been poorly represented on the map, especially concerning the terrain map mode.

Anatolia has indeed gotten a terrain update! Featuring a better (and more accurate, imo) set of hills, mountains, etc. We've adjusted the impassable mountains a bit as well, adding in the famous Cilician Gates.

How are new noble families added to an administrative government?

We don't generate any new families automatically. This will be handled dynamically as the game progresses. Whenever a character becomes a governor for example, they will become a fully fledged noble family, with their own estate and family title. Assuming that they don't belong to a house that is considered a noble family already. Appointing a lowborn character also makes that character get a house, becoming a noble family. Similar to how you can land a lowborn character as a feudal ruler.

You're not an admin character, if you're not part of an admin realm. Having an estate is tied to being part of such a realm.

But yes, landless characters are playable, the product description of the DLC is pretty clear about that:

A Life of Adventure: Freely roam the map, untied to any realm or holding, going wherever the winds of fortune blow you. Fulfill contracts as a landless adventurer, even through the generations, building up a reputation of your own. Earn gold, prestige and fame traveling the globe until you decide to settle down and claim land you have earned through merit.

You might not have gotten this impression, but just to err on the side of caution, let me clarify how landless works.
You will not be able to play as any landless character. There are technical limitations we need to keep in mind, and every landless character that is playable must, like we explain for playable noble families, have a designated title that allows them to remain playable. The difference compared to regular rulers is that they simply do not need to hold any land next to their "landless title". We'll go deeper into adventurer gameplay in a DD after summer.

Will there be any interaction between the estate and the barony it's located in? E.g. are they affected by sieges or raids? (I'm wondering if admin family members are immune to becoming captive / losing artifacts).

Yes, estate are very much affected by raids and sieges. Family members can be captured as you would expect. With many estates being located in Constantinople, I'm sure you can imagine the potential ransoms you'll be able to collect.

Tourmarches in the Byzantine flavor, perhaps?

You are on point. This is exactly what we call them within Byzantium.

 

[Servancour]

Really odd niche question but:

Currently the Doge’s Palace in Venice can only work if the title holder is a republic.

Will administrative governments be able to run this special building?

Mostly asking for dreams of a Venice playthrough.

Not something I've thought of actually, but I like the idea. I'll update the building so it can be held by administrative as well.

 

[chaddling]

3) btw, any chance to add a game rule for Byzantium to be named the "Eastern Roman empire" if the player wants so?

Will there be any (implicit) incentives to appoint eunuchs to various court or councillor positions rather than just appointing powerful families to appease them, as also happened in contemporary bureaucracies, including Byzantium?

all this makes me wonder if Greek traditions will be altered to tie in to the administrative gameplay. Legalistic and Byzantine Traditions seem prime candidates

This doesn’t really have anything to do with the administrative government, but are there any plans to redo the map of Anatolia? I’ve always felt that western Anatolia has been poorly represented on the map, especially concerning the terrain map mode.

In CK2 the Catholics could eventually target Byzantium with a crusade. Will that also be a thing at some point in CK3?

Yes to all the above. I won't say too much on these now, since I'll be going into more depth on Byzantine flavor additions later on this summer. BUT Yes to the game rule for renaming Byzantium. I'll also say that we have definitely updated eunuchs, Greek cultural traditions, terrain in Anatolia, and more.

2) i guess succession in Byzantium will be covered in the next DD but will we be able to create a landless custom character and walk him through the path of guile and treachery to become the emperor?

Indeed you shall be able.

Will the influence mechanic apply to non Byzantine administrative empires/kingoms ?

Yep. Influence is tied to Administrative Governments, not Byzantium specifically.

 

[chaddling]

and I have a second thought, will there be something new, like interactions or flavour for the Varanguian guard?

We've indeed done some changes to the Varangian guard, which I'll discuss in the future DD about Byzantine Flavor

 

[chaddling]

Does that mean that, even under the new system, Haesteinn can become the rightful Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire?

Should theoretically be possible, if you have the cunning and mettle to make it so