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Conclave Dev Diary #3 Homeschooling

Greetings!

Today we’re going into the details of some features from the expansion. Just like last week the team has cooperated in writing this diary. First out @The Witch-King and @markuso will give you the details on how we changed the life of children.

In Conclave, we have made a major rework in how young characters develop in terms of upbringing and education. Basically, non-adult characters now go through two phases, younger childhood (0-11) and adolescence (12-15), and for players who own Conclave, new childhood and adolescence events have replaced the old trait related events. Although these effects will primarily be felt when playing as a young ruler, other characters near children and adolescents will also occasionally be presented with various events affecting trait outcomes for the young ones, taking a part in their story and affecting how they develop.

From the age of six, all children will have an Educator. Just as before, you have the option of appointing a guardian to act as Educator for your child, but otherwise the Educator may be a parent, liege or regent. You can also choose a Childhood Focus to guide the direction of the child’s development (see below). Note that the Educator’s traits will now very rarely affect the child’s development - this is a major change to how it worked before. Also, a young character’s attributes now grow randomly with some genetic influence from the parents - but is no longer affected by the Guardian’s or Educator’s stats. The reasoning behind these changes is that a child’s everyday interactions are primarily with nannies and tutors, while the guardianship is more of an honorary function used for diplomacy.

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Educating a child left, and choosing focus on the right.


Childhood Focuses
A Childhood Focus will impact the likelihood of certain trait outcomes and with the Heritage or Faith focuses also religion and culture assimilation.

Childhood Traits
The new traits that children receive are different from the regular adult traits. These new traits are defined more as childish personalities and tendencies, and each Childhood Trait has the possibility of maturing into one of several adult traits during adolescence. The Childhood Traits are gained through a set of new events in Conclave.


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Childhood Trait: Curious


When a child reaches the respectable age of twelve they are considered an adolescent, this is the start of a new era, Education.

Education Focuses

Focuses are conveniently color coded to resemble their adult counterparts. Focuses cannot be changed once set and will guarantee that the character receives an education trait of that category on reaching adulthood. The tooltip for an Education Focus indicates which traits increase or decrease the chances for a higher level education outcome from that particular Focus. You may still select any Education Focus you want, but some children have more aptitude for war, for example, and will prosper more if you send them down that path.

The childhood and education focuses are set by the liege of an unlanded character and by the child itself if landed. As a liege you can ask a vassal to switch the childhood focus of a child in your care to heritage in order to change their culture and religion.

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Diplomatic Education Focus

Now @Groogy will go deeper into a subject we touched upon in the last dev diary and tell you more about how councilors vote.

So today I am going to talk a little about the decision making behind the councillors when they vote on your council. First I will say that the system is fairly automatic except when it comes to voting for laws so you won’t get a thousand of pop-ups during your playthrough just because your liege want to check with you if it’s okay if he presses your claim to some county. In laws you can yourself decide if you want to vote with a “Fo sho” or “Aw hell naw” but when it comes to the everyday matters you choose a position to adopt which will set what kind of attitude you will have on matters. This also makes interaction with the AI on matters more transparent as they play with the same rules as the human and you will be able to easily see why they vote as they do by simply hovering over the voting reason icon in the voting window. The AI will act on the council based on their own agendas and pick positions that suits them.


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There are five different positions that a councillor can adopt. Loyalist, Pragmatist, Glory Hound, Zealot and Malcontent. The Loyalist and Malcontent are the polar opposites of each other where the Loyalist will be loyal to the Crown and vote accordingly while the Malcontent will refuse anything their liege proposes. The Glory Hounds concern themselves with the greatness of the realm and wants their King to prove that their Kingdom is the greatest on the surface of the Earth while the Pragmatists are more concerned with stability and low risk. The Zealots main concern of course is that the holy scripture is followed and that the realm does not deviate from the will of God. But as you can see in the picture these various positions are not absolute and some can be swayed if given the right incentive….

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@rageair now will present the changes we’ve made to laws and how ambitions have changed.

Greetings, loyal Lords and Ladies of the realm! I’d like to show you how we’ve redone the laws for the upcoming Conclave DLC. We’ve aimed to break down the formerly rather uninteresting laws in order to present you with more choices in how to run your realm. Many laws, i.e. Crown Authority, have been broken down into their constituent parts and in some cases completely reworked. Your council will also have varying opinions about these different laws, some might approve of you Centralizing the realm while others approve your right to revoke titles from Heretics, but it’s going to be a hard to find a council that’ll let you pass any law you want. This means that it’ll be more of a challenge to pass laws than it used to be, but hopefully it’ll also feel more interesting and useful to do so!

Inheritance

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The Inheritance screen is mostly the same, except for the obvious facelift. This screenshot is of the Duke of Breizh in 1066 and as you can see it’s possible to see most of the succession laws without having half of them hidden in a scrolling list. We’ve also extended the pretender list to show more characters, which I find especially useful in elective realms. We had some spare room, so we decided to add in a flavorful image and text to represent the realm you’re ruling. There’s a lot of these to discover, so try mixing & matching laws, religions, cultures and capital locations to find some of the more exotic ones!

Realm Laws

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The Realm Laws tab contains most of the laws you’ll recognize from pre-Conclave. In this screenshot I’m playing as the nation I run in the Developer Multiplayer; Jardarus. As you can see I’ve not had much time to change my Realm Laws, although my main focus from now will be to outlaw out-of-realm inheritance which is one of the few Crown Laws still in the game (as indicated by the Crown next to the name).

It’s in this screen that you’ll be able to manage the new laws derived from the old Crown Authority laws, such as Controlled Realm Inheritance, Title Revocation and a new Administration law called ‘Late’ which enables the late-game succession forms (i.e. Primogeniture). You’ll also find old friends such as the Centralization and Viceroyalty laws, along with the new addition of Status of Women (which is harder to pass than Imperial government in many cases!). While the early steps of the Status of Women gradually open up job titles for landed women, female dynasty members and nuns, the later stages enable Absolute Cognatic (equal inheritance for men & women) as well as being able to use women as generals in your armies!

As Crown Authority is gone, most laws will be unlocked by a combination of Technology and Council approval.

Obligations
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Obligations replace the old tax/levy laws. Obligations represent a balance in what a certain type of vassal has to provide you, their liege, with. The scale is a range of tax and min/max levy size, with each vassal type preferring one direction over the other (with the exception of Temple vassals, they want to stay in the center!). Vassals always provide you with tax and levies unless you’re at the very edge of the scale, so it’s mostly a matter of your personal preference. I myself like taxing the Bourgeoisie and getting my levies from the Gentry, although they tend to disagree with me...

Absolutism/Empowered Council

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There’s two very different ways of ruling your realm - ruling together with your Council (to varying degrees) or with an Iron Fist as an Absolute Ruler. In the screenshot you can see the various Council Laws as they are set for the Holy Roman Empire at the start in 1066. The Holy Roman Empire has a fully empowered Council, which means that the Council gets a say in everything they do. Though if you start as a Muslim ruler at the same date, the situation looks different. They start with no Council Laws enabled, which means that they rule with an Iron Fist and get all the bonuses from doing such (i.e. being able to change laws at a whim, albeit with a longer cooldown), though this is obviously not appreciated by their vassals who will most likely start factions to increase the power the Council gets. Naturally, the most common thing to see is a healthy middle ground - a constant struggle between the Ruler and the Council.

This works differently for Tribal and Nomadic rulers, where Tribal rulers enable Council Laws by increasing Tribal Organization in order to Feudalize, and Nomads always have all of the Council Laws enabled.

Ambitions
For Conclave we’ve decided to remove most of the the largely insignificant old ambitions in favor of new ambitions with a bit more player agency and weight behind them. This means that you won’t be seeing any ‘Get Married for +5 prestige’ ambitions, but rather ambitions that actually alter the flow of gameplay in a significant way!

First off, the ‘Become King’ ambition has been changed slightly. Having the ambition now allows a slight chance of successfully fabricating a claim on a kingdom, and having it also reduces the cost of creating a new kingdom. Now on to the new ambitions!


Ask for Council Position

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If you feel like having a say in how the business of the realm is run you can now take the ‘Become Councillor’ ambition, which replaces the old similar ambitions. With this ambition active you’re able to manually ask your liege for a position on the council. As you can see in the screenshot, it’s not always an easy thing to get on the council of your liege - but if you build up enough opinion and/or invite your liege to plenty of private feasts you might just sway the odds in your favor! Vassals with this ambition who have a favor on their liege tend to use it to guarantee themselves a spot on the council!

Ask for Land for an Unlanded Son

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If you’ve got plenty of sons but too little land it might be a good idea to ask your benevolent liege for some more! With the ‘Gain Land for Unlanded Son’ ambition it’s possible to ask your liege to give land to a second or third son of yours, increasing the influence of your dynasty in the realm. This is a tall order for just anyone of low status to ask of their liege, but if you’re lucky and/or have friends in high places it might just work out!

Ask Liege for Title

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If you’re really brave you might dare to ask your liege directly for land. Now this might not please your liege too much, but if you’re influential enough your liege might just cave to your demands! Just beware so that you’re not impressed by vague promises...

Build a War Chest

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If you find yourself lacking money for that war you’d really like to wage, you can choose the ‘Build a War Chest’ ambition in order to prepare! When you choose this ambition your vassals will gain the ability to send you donations in order to fill the War Chest, though they often have ulterior motives for doing so. You might occasionally receive a donation offer from a vassal that you can choose to accept in exchange for a favor - a powerful alternative currency that’s been brought up in another Dev Diary. Though if you’ve got no patience for your vassals you can always choose to ‘Extort your Subjects’!

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By choosing to do this morally dubious action you can raise vast amounts of money in a short amount of time, but at the cost of Tyranny and general opinion. You’ll be able to extort the pathetic peasants residing in your demesne provinces, the wealthy characters of your court and the greedy clergymen who do nothing but sit on their riches. You’ll effectively be sacrificing long-term gain for short-term gain, a choice that’ll be yours to make.

Finally, as promised in the last dev diary, @Servancour will present you with a new business opportunity!

Dynamic Mercenaries
Since we enjoyed the Dynamic Mercenaries mechanic added in Horse Lords, we decided to expand upon them further. With Conclave, lords and doges alike will be able to create a Mercenary Band of their own! Unlike nomads however, who sends off their sons to gain fame and prestige, these Mercenary Bands are assembled to increase the wealth of its creator. Whenever the band is hired by anyone else, you will gain a percentage of the band’s income.

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Before you can create a band, you need to have an eligible courtier that has a military education available (you can also not already have a band under you service, since you are limited to a single one). The band itself is created through a targeted decision on the character you want to appoint as its captain. Though you’ll have to pay the new captain a small fee of 50 gold before he can get started.

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The sizes of the created Mercenary Bands will vary depending on your own levy size. The band will look at your personal demesne and use a percentage of your levies to decide how large the band will be. Thus created bands will come in many different sizes and will be ranging from just a few hundreds all the way up to two or three thousands. Potentially though, they may end up with much more than that. The most common size will probably be in between the nomadic mercenaries and the smaller pre-existing Mercenary Companies. Even if you don’t create a band yourself, these will be good for filling in the gap in situations where you will want to have a few hundreds of additional soldiers to guarantee victory against a slightly weaker or equally strong opponent. Rather than paying a hefty sum for more soldiers than you’ll need.

Maintaining these mercenaries comes at a cost however, so you will not always want to have a band active. When you assemble a band, all of your demesne holding will be affected by the “Maintaining Mercenary Band” holding modifier. This will lower your levy sizes for as long as you control the band. You will be able to dismiss the band whenever you want though to remove the modifier, as long as they aren’t being hired by anyone else.

Finally, all mercenary captains will eventually grow more ambitious when granted the opportunity to lead troops of their own. They will start asking you for more troops to reinforce the band with and possibly even ask for more money! If grown too ambitious, they will even be able break away from your control. To prevent this, you will be able to replace the captain through a targeted decision with a suitable replacement. This will reset the ambitious level of the band and you will be free to continue to enjoy your extra income.

That’s it for today! We hope you’ve all enjoyed this dev diary and we’ll see you on the release a week from now.
 
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Again I disagree, it was Roger who had no official powers, especially in the early stages of the regency, he did all of his work through Isabella. Roger was merely a minor baron who technically had had his lands confiscated, it wasn't until he had Edward make him the Earl of March that he finally stopped pretending not to be in power.
Right can't really argue with that point, however, just to keep in context, your argument is that he was the power behind the throne, and then just became the power overtly on the throne. So at what stage was Isabella the actual ruler? So even if she was the "official ruler" she certainly wasn't a powerful one.
 
Right can't really argue with that point, however, just to keep in context, your argument is that he was the power behind the throne, and then just became the power overtly on the throne. So at what stage was Isabella the actual ruler? So even if she was the "official ruler" she certainly wasn't a powerful one.
What made me originally interject was when you said
She was not a ruler, certainly not in her own right.
She was a ruler in her own right, she wielded and used considerable power, although Mortimer used it far more effectively and far more shrewdly, to say she was not a ruler would be plain wrong in my opinion.
 
But you said:

Yet now you're saying whilst Isabella may have been the figurehead of the regency (which I do not deny), it was Mortimer as the puppeteer, which was my original argument, although she certainly wielded far more power than a mere figurehead and frequently used this power it was definitely Mortimer who was the main antagonist in the regency. I merely contend that he had to do so through Isabella, at least until he had managed to be granted (or grant himself) some legitimate power.

There's far more that could be said about the execution of the Earl of Kent depending on what you believe but what you outlined was broadly true, although it certainly wasn't the only reason Edward III 'rebelled' against Roger.
He rebelled for lots of reasons, but that might be considered the tipping point if you will. But the point of that example was that it was Mortimore who readily abused the power at his disposal, but primarily because he was the wielder of said powers.

Also considering this regency only lasted three years, Mortimore didn't rely on Isabella for not very long at all (he became Earl of March in 1328 if I'm not mistaken, so within the year of doing away with Edward II). Ultimately it is my contention that Isabella cannot be considered a powerful ruler in her own right because Mortimore was the de facto ruler during the regency, even though yes she would have had powers herself in capacity as regent.

Thus to bring it back to the game, I argue that the notion that the status of women could change after the long and capable rule of a female ruler is a bad premise to introduce this game mechanic, because there are so few real examples of such women. It does strike me as driven not by historical happening, but modern sensibilities, and I don't support that. Ultimately, for whatever reason it's happening, it is happening and I accept that, but I don't think for the right reasons.
 
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He rebelled for lots of reasons, but that might be considered the tipping point if you will. But the point of that example was that it was Mortimore who readily abused the power at his disposal, but primarily because he was the wielder of said powers.

Also considering this regency only lasted three years, Mortimore didn't rely on Isabella for not very long at all (he became Earl of March in 1328 if I'm not mistaken, so within the year of doing away with Edward II). Ultimately it is my contention that Isabella cannot be considered a powerful ruler in her own right because Mortimore was the de facto ruler during the regency, even though yes she would have had powers herself in capacity as regent.

Thus to bring it back to the game, I argue that the notion that the status of women could change after the long and capable rule of a female ruler is a bad premise to introduce this game mechanic, because there are so few real examples of such women. It does strike me as driven not by historical happening, but modern sensibilities, and I don't support that. Ultimately, for whatever reason it's happening, it is happening and I accept that, but I don't think for the right reasons.

I suppose it is merely a disagreement over definitions as opposed to anything else, which I concede is entirely subjective.
In terms of the game is it not to be used more for Basque cultures and the Cathar heresy?
 
I suppose it is merely a disagreement over definitions as opposed to anything else, which I concede is entirely subjective.
In terms of the game is it not to be used more for Basque cultures and the Cathar heresy?
Ultimately yes, this probably is little more than differing use of definitions.

I'd not object to its use for Cathars and Basque culture if that was the case, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it applied to everybody. Just looking at the image it appears in, I note that it's fourth on the list of laws, with a scroll bar aside it. Why feature so high on the list, if it's a unique law for two minor groups? Also, it's surely a brand new feature - no law like this existed before, and for Cathars women's rights (if you can call it that) was a religious feature, not a legal one.

Also alot of people have been asking about Muslim / Republics and how they'd be affected by this, and haven't seen any answers yet, so I'd be amazed if this is Cathar / Basque only.
 
I disagree - the world needs more castrati - they make wonderful chamber singers when I have foreign dignitaries come to visit . . . :p

STUPID IDEA # 7316 ! Give children who are castrated the Castrati trait which gives them a Diplomacy and General Opinion bonus. . . :D

That is awful and immoral and cruel.


...after all, one does not use the highborn for mere entertainment!
 
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Ultimately yes, this probably is little more than differing use of definitions.

I'd not object to its use for Cathars and Basque culture if that was the case, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it applied to everybody. Just looking at the image it appears in, I note that it's fourth on the list of laws, with a scroll bar aside it. Why feature so high on the list, if it's a unique law for two minor groups? Also, it's surely a brand new feature - no law like this existed before, and for Cathars women's rights (if you can call it that) was a religious feature, not a legal one.

Also alot of people have been asking about Muslim / Republics and how they'd be affected by this, and haven't seen any answers yet, so I'd be amazed if this is Cathar / Basque only.

I suppose it depends on what each one does, maybe full cognatic succession is purely Basque/Cathar but some of the lesser laws aren't? We already have restrictions on laws because of technology and currently you need Basque/Cathar for that succession law so it wouldn't be too surprising, although I'm definitely not expecting that.
Ultimately though I assume you can simply ignore it and have it set to tradition which is where I'm guessing it will be at in all starting dates, unless there are factions which try to improve the status of women then I don't see why you can't just pretend those laws aren't there.

I'm far more interested in the 'late' administration that we saw a few weeks ago but got no explanation on here. Is it at the bottom of that scroll bar or have they done away with it already?
 
Why "Bourgeoisie" ?

Why a word from the 19th century ?

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Doesn't sound medieval to me ?
It's a bit long ago since i read original material, but i can't recall "Bourgeoisie".
I immeditely think of 19th century and..."Victoria III confirmed !"..if you know what i mean.
In short, wtf ? Is this like the Hedgehog jokes ?
Or was "Bourgeoisie" used and if then also outside of France as a word for the upper middle class ?
Not that i know.


Even if the word was used, a Bourgeoisie in India (or anywhere really) ? Ouch.
Immersion killer ? Big time.

Apart from that, great DD.

It is.



Hopefully.

Burgher would be more neutral regarding different cultures, more fitting the time period(s) and...well i don't think "Bourgeoisie" was even used or existed back then*.


* Don't any nitpicker dare to argue with me about words in game and the ones used in medieval times.
It's simply atmospherically completely anti-medieval.

Agreed:

bourgeoisie (n.)
1707, "body of freemen in a French town; the French middle class," from French bourgeois, from Old French burgeis, borjois (12c.) "town dweller" (as distinct from "peasant"), from borc "town, village," from Frankish *burg "city" (see borough). Communist use for "the capitalist class generally" attested from 1886.
bourgeois (adj.)
1560s, "of the French middle class," from French bourgeois, from Old French burgeis, borjois "town dweller" (see bourgeoisie). Sense of "socially or aesthetically conventional" is from 1764; in communist and socialist writing, as a noun, "a capitalist" (1883).It is better to be a good ordinary bourgeois than a bad ordinary bohemian. [Aldous Huxley, 1930]

Source

The origin of the word is well outside the timeframe of the game, and it carries overtones that make people think of a very different time period.

@Birken, please change this, if for no other reasons than it is French, while the rest of the game is in English, the meaning of its general use has shifted and gained very specific connotations relating to the communists' use of the word, to the point where the word is very rarely used outside of what they used it for. Quite simply, even though the precise definition might fit, the word does not fit well in the game, and seems as if it would be rather immersion breaking.
 
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My guess to make things easier for the AI, whi would under the old system always use the standard laws.

That's true, I don't think I've ever seen any AI character use anything other than tax exemption for nobles.
 
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That's true, I don't think I've ever seen any AI character use anything other than tax exemption for nobles.

Not only that, but when I handed out a kingdom with a noble tax the AI got rid of it like a week later.
 
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lol another discussion about word choice in a DD thread :p

However, the bourgeoisie discussion has a lot more merit than favor/favour because it's a valid point that bourgeoisie has developed a very particular context that might be misleading for a medieval game. It's not immersion-breaking to me, but it's also something that takes like 2 seconds to change so why not. Burgher works and is already in-use elsewhere in the game.
 
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I approve of pretty much all of the gameplay stuff.

I'm quite disappointed, though, that there's still only one set of portraits for minors... instead of special infant and adolescent portraits...
 
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This all seems pretty cool to me.

Something that would fit in the theme of this DLC that I'd like to see is some sort of Gavelkind distribution tool. Something that allows you to pick the titles such that the realm is broken up more reasonably instead of the weird piecemeal that it does now. It would be great if there was some way we could have something that has all the titles on the left and then you pick an heir and then select the title to move over into another column. The titles available could be subject to the restrictions that are in the game, such as having been granted certain titles making you exempt from a certain round of inheritance. It would seem that there would be an easy way to make some sort of round based title distribution that you have options for as you go through each round. You could also have a little notifier that would let you know that you have titles available for inheritance distribution whenever you get new titles. It would seem that this is a must since you have to unlock "late game" inheritance laws now. I don't need total control of the how the titles are distributed, just enough to get the realm to break up in a more reasonable fashion.

Just a thought.
 
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HOLY GOODNESS THIS DEV DIARY IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! :D :D :D

Finally, CK1 EDUCATION RETURNS!! :D

...Alright, now that I have calmed down, I must say, it really is awesome. Finally we have a real council to participate in instead of disposable playing cards that it was before. And we even have sorts of "factions" or "parties" with these groups like zealot, glory hound etc.

The education system itself sounds awesome too, especially that now we can educate kids properly like in CK1.

I really love the new council laws, they are the best thing of this entire DLC. Now it will be worthwhile to be a councillor. I wonder how 'democratic' will merchant republics be now, especially since Venice had a 'senate' of mostly 12 members.

Who knows, now that proto-democracy is already in, one day we might see the real Senate of EU-Rome 2! Imagine the possibilities in future games on this engine, and their mods! :eek:

I have a few questions:

1) What if we don't assign a guardian to a child? Or don't assign a childhood and education focus at all? Will they still gain random traits and education once they turn 16, like now?

2) Will you create more types of councillors in the future please? This feature looks awesome and should be really expanded upon.

3) Is the council UI window moddable to be expanded? Game of Thrones sometimes has around 10-12 council members (depending upon who you play) and they cannot fit into just 8 slots.

4) Is it possible to create unique council positions for cultures or religions? For example, the office of Amatya and Rajpurohita was universally among the most important courtly offices in every Indian empire. And ERE can have unique council positions too.
 
Meta-idea here - could you use a Favor to ask a fellow Councilor to convert from the Zealot party to the Glory party, or to use his Favor with the King to ask him to do your bidding ? Could the AI do it ?

It could be fun watching the AI try to bend all the other councilors to the Malcontent mob while you try your dangest to keep them talking to you, alternatively it would be great trying to sniff out people who have the King's ear and get THEM to do your grovelling for you.

And yes there would be lots of opportunities for abuse, but that's why it would be so much fun - track down the King's boyhood chum, throw some cash his way and use the newly bought Favor to ask for "just five minutes of the King's time . . .". It would certainly make Favor trading a lot more dynamic.
 
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Regarding Education. To increase game challenge I let the AI choose the child's Educator - I just go with the default character option. Will I be able to let the AI choose the child's focus?
 
With coalitions will I be able to make one with other religions?

For ex: Can I form a coalition against the Nomads with the varying religious groups in the east?
( I hate when the Nomads spill into the east, it makes playing there really frustrating :mad:)
 
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