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CK2 Dev Diary #81 - Cleaning up the Map

Greetings!

The last few Dev Diaries have had you visit the Cartographer’s office to look at several reworked areas of the map - while there are more, we don’t want to show them all in a row, lest we risk you getting bored of them!

Today we will instead take a look at a minor free feature, an optional new Game Rule that might just help those of us that really can’t stand irregular borders! Like the map changes, this change will arrive in the free update that will accompany the next expansion. This feature is a pet project of mine, and an attempt to cure situations such as these:
Bordergore_example.png

As you can see in this example, Scotland holds a province in mainland Anatolia. There’s no logical way for them to control this territory - there’s no land connection, it’s not connected via ports, and it’s not part of their De Jure area.

The Game Rule is called ‘Exclave Independence', and aims to do just that - set exclaves independent. Being an optional Game Rule, it’s very modular, and is mainly intended as a tool for increasing immersion.
Exclave_GR.png


The Scotland example pictured previously is really the worst case scenario, and would be covered by any of the settings. As the ruler of Scotland dies, the game will try to identify any ‘exclaves’ and take appropriate action. If there are rulers whose land is completely situated in an exclave, they will be set independent, otherwise a peasant leader will seize control of the land. In this case the result will look like this:
Bordergore_cured.png


I can tell you that, if you’re like me, the difference playing with this Game Rule is like night and day. After a few hundred years you’ll no longer have a map that makes you want to claw your eyes out! As I mentioned earlier there are many different settings, and here is a full list of them:
Added the ‘Exclave Independence’ Game Rule, with the purpose of eliminating disconnected land on succession. As long as the new ruler during a succession isn’t at war, their exclaves should be set independent according to the setting. If the AI is at war during succession, they will try to remove exclaves once every year until such a time they are no longer at war (does not apply to Players). Settings:
  • Off - The default option, no removal.
  • Limited - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless they are connected to the Capital area with gaps no larger than one County, via a naval path or part of the characters primary De Jure territory.
  • Limited (Naval) - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless they are connected to the Capital area with gaps no larger than one County, via a limited naval path (1000 distance units) or part of the characters primary De Jure territory.
  • Significant - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless they are connected via a naval path or part of the characters primary De Jure territory.
  • Harsh - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless as they are connected via a limited naval path (1000 distance units) or part of the characters primary De Jure.
  • Total - Exclaves of Independent Rulers at peace will be removed on succession unless as they are connected via a limited naval path (1000 distance units). Disables Achievements.

To show a more tangible example, I loaded up an old save and added the Game Rule to it. It looked like this:
Exclave_ex2.png


After the death of the ruler of the Mongol Empire (the light blue spots) the result produced this:
Exclave_cure_mongol.png


And after the death of the King of Bengal:
Exclave_cure2.png

As you can see, the two Mongol provinces were overtaken by Peasant Leaders as they were much too far away from their steppe overlords. Bengals land, on the other hand, simply had the vassals declare independence, as they held no land in non-exclave land.

I hope this small feature will be of interest to some of you, in the next DD we will return to the cartographer's office with another exciting update!

Please note that the time between Dev Diaries will be irregular, as we’re still early in the development cycle.
 
Will they still be Nomadic, or become Feudal?
Depends on the county - if it's empty it'll become nomadic.

One of the stray baronies that comes to my mind is the Church of Axum in 1066. It's held by a vassal of the Zagwes, but is in Duke Gideon's capital county. How would this be handled under the new system?
It borders an Abyssinian province, which in turn is not more than one county away from the mainland, AND it is part of De Jure Abyssinia. It'd not get removed on inheritance under anything but the 'Total' version of the game rule.

I hope the range can be configured as for example inside the HRE enclaves were not unheard off.
Vassals can have as many exclaves as they want within their realm. It's only independent characters that are affected by this.
 
Depends on the county - if it's empty it'll become nomadic.


It borders an Abyssinian province, which in turn is not more than one county away from the mainland, AND it is part of De Jure Abyssinia. It'd not get removed on inheritance under anything but the 'Total' version of the game rule.


Vassals can have as many exclaves as they want within their realm. It's only independent characters that are affected by this.

You've effectively fixed the 867 start - after 100 years of gameplay the Karling borders will no longer look like death. I cannot tell you how many games I've just quit because the HRE ends up with five exclaves in France and England and Denmark and even the Rus.
 
What about situations where say, the King of France rules from a barony in disconnected Orleans and is cut off by more than one province from the rest of France by Lotharangia? When he dies, does the entire rest of France go independent?
 
What of the HRE, has anyone thought of the HRE?
 
Let me start by saying this s a brilliant idea and will be a great addition to the game. My one gripe is that the "Total" setting disables achievements. I fail to see the logic behind that decision.

What's the 'default' setting going to be for some of us that have long ongoing games? Will it change to a new non-bordergore mode for old saves?

The patch is going to change the structure of the map (see previous DDs) so you might wishto finish your game on 2.8.1.1 before upgrading anyway.

How does this interact with Gavelkind succession? I own an exclave will I end up with an independent son owning the exclave, or will it be seized by a peasant?

This system does not interact poorly with Gavelkind, I tested it quite a bit to make sure. You won't end up with new rulers getting everything insta-removed, as that would have made for a poor experience.

I imagine the way it would interact with Gavelkind is that first everything gets divided by Gavelkind as usual and only then does the script check for exclaves. So in most cases exclaves would be inherited by junior heirs who then become independent. Is that correct?
 
What about situations where say, the King of France rules from a barony in disconnected Orleans and is cut off by more than one province from the rest of France by Lotharangia? When he dies, does the entire rest of France go independent?

Several of the the rules listed seem to have an exemption for "in your De Jure Area", meaning if you're King of France you couldn't lose any land in the "Kingdom of France" (except under the Total setting I think), but you could lose disconnected land in Aquitaine or Brittany (unless you got crowned Emperor)
 
This is a really cool change. I can see this making it a lot more difficult to reform faiths, especially for those faiths where you really want to hurry because of problematic succession laws.
 
What about situations where say, the King of France rules from a barony in disconnected Orleans and is cut off by more than one province from the rest of France by Lotharangia? When he dies, does the entire rest of France go independent?
The King of France won't lose any of De Jure France if that's his primary title.

Let me start by saying this s a brilliant idea and will be a great addition to the game. My one gripe is that the "Total" setting disables achievements. I fail to see the logic behind that decision.
With 'Total' you can make realms collapse very easily by taking a choice selection of counties, thus allowing for much easier conquests.

How far away is 1000 sea units approximately?
It's a very generous distance, basically the entire mediterranean. This means you can hold things in, say, Greece and Spain, but not Greece and England or Finland.
 
Excellent idea !

It's a very generous distance, basically the entire mediterranean. This means you can hold things in, say, Greece and Spain, but not Greece and England or Finland.

Will the Silk Road be handled as a bunch of maritime provinces in that regard ? It would make sense, in a strange kind of way...
 
Please tell me the next expansion will fix Africa. I can't stand seeing Muslim bedouins shit all over Abyssinia anymore.
East Africa did already see some changes with Jade Dragon. It turns Makuria, Aydhab and Suakin into permanent tributaries of Egypt. They becomes buffer states that prevent Egypt from expanding south immediately.
 
Yes, exactly - this is something I've been wanting myself for absolute ages, and it works great in practice. As an added bonus it also makes converting the game to EU4 produce much better borders.

might want to force this event on eu4 conversion. IIRC there's already on_action for it.
 
Thank you great Para-gods for answering are preyers!