I was playing Crusader Kings and thinking about the way you create a claim on a title. You basically pay prestige points in exchange for a claim on any title you want. This makes the game boil down to growing your prestige enough to be able to afford to 'buy' a title, declare war and then repeat once you've nicked it.
Instead, how about you have to spend time and money manufacturing a claim. You spend gold and resources creating evidence, perhaps by setting a focus like the espionage feature in HOI 3. So say I'm the Duke of Connaught, I can set my focus on building a legitimate claim on the county of Meath. The more effort you put into the claim the more other rulers will accept it. You could still go the quick and dirty route and just announce yourself the rightful ruler but this would give you badboy and damage your relations with everyone.
Claiming a King's title should all but impossible unless you possess some of the land that comprises that kingdom. Even then other rulers should hate you for it.
Talking of Kings titles, what if any Lord in a realm could proclaim themselves King. Obivously the real King would get an automatic Causus Belli against them. But for every rival who calls themselves King the the value of the title decreases, so two Kings of England would only get a quarter of the monthly prestige each for example, this would give the true king an incentive to act quickly. This would allow for proper civil wars where a powerful Duke decides he could do a better job than the present King.
Instead, how about you have to spend time and money manufacturing a claim. You spend gold and resources creating evidence, perhaps by setting a focus like the espionage feature in HOI 3. So say I'm the Duke of Connaught, I can set my focus on building a legitimate claim on the county of Meath. The more effort you put into the claim the more other rulers will accept it. You could still go the quick and dirty route and just announce yourself the rightful ruler but this would give you badboy and damage your relations with everyone.
Claiming a King's title should all but impossible unless you possess some of the land that comprises that kingdom. Even then other rulers should hate you for it.
Talking of Kings titles, what if any Lord in a realm could proclaim themselves King. Obivously the real King would get an automatic Causus Belli against them. But for every rival who calls themselves King the the value of the title decreases, so two Kings of England would only get a quarter of the monthly prestige each for example, this would give the true king an incentive to act quickly. This would allow for proper civil wars where a powerful Duke decides he could do a better job than the present King.
