So to lay my cards on the table: I like characters. I know a lot of EU players don't, and find them a bit cheesy and CK3, but I like them. I think they should be important, in the way they were important (in my view) in history. I also quite like the 3D models, at least the way they look now.
So where do characters currently appear in EU5? As rulers and cabinet members, probably leading armies, and maybe in some events. I think they promised us another as-yet-unrevealed use in the TT on characters, but I haven't seen any sign of that yet.
I think there should be other uses for characters, and I have a suggestion: estates. Now, I don't want CK3 style landed vassals, but picture this: each estate includes 3 or 4 "most prominent members", so for instance if its the (Catholic) clergy it would mostly be cardinals and archbishops, or just bishops in smaller realms, dukes and earls/counts for nobility, prominent merchants for the burghers, etc.
These would not by any means represent the totality of the estate's power, but maybe only 4 or 5% each, so collectively maybe 15–20% of the total.
What would be the advantage of this? Well, for one thing it would allow you to slightly tweak estate satisfaction without granting a general concession. Say for instance you're at 48% noble satisfaction and you need 50% to pass a reform. You don't want to grant a concession when you only need 2%. You see that one of the 3 most prominent nobles, with 5% estate influence, has an ambition to lead the army, so you give him command of your main force, or appoint him to cabinet with responsibility for overseeing the military, giving you a +40 opinion bonus with him. His 5% estate influence means overall noble satisfaction increases +2 and you can pass your reform. You could also bribe individuals, at a cost of corruption, whereas you can't bribe whole estates.
Characters might want specific things – the Archbishop of Trier might want you to construct a new church in Trier. A leading merchant might want you to lower the cost of wool on your market. Fulfilling these things could give you small but meaningful estate satisfaction bonuses, as well as giving you an incentive to award cabinet posts to less capable members of the nobility instead of more talented commoners.
I want to reiterate: I'm not talking about actual landed vassals. You'd only interact with them in the estate tab (though they could also be appointed to cabinet, army/navy command, etc) but I think it would add to the immersive sense that your realm is actually populated by living individuals who have individual influence and seek to achieve their own individual ends.
Lastly, these characters could be usefully connected to events – "a prominent noble has lost all his money at the gaming tables", "ministers urge us to tax a rich merchant's recent windfall" etc, meaning that in addition to the immediate cost in gold/stability, that pissed off / grateful individual is still in your estate tab, with a lasting opinion modifier affecting overall estate satisfaction.
Anyhow, those are just some notions. Any thoughts, or other potential uses for characters?
So where do characters currently appear in EU5? As rulers and cabinet members, probably leading armies, and maybe in some events. I think they promised us another as-yet-unrevealed use in the TT on characters, but I haven't seen any sign of that yet.
I think there should be other uses for characters, and I have a suggestion: estates. Now, I don't want CK3 style landed vassals, but picture this: each estate includes 3 or 4 "most prominent members", so for instance if its the (Catholic) clergy it would mostly be cardinals and archbishops, or just bishops in smaller realms, dukes and earls/counts for nobility, prominent merchants for the burghers, etc.
These would not by any means represent the totality of the estate's power, but maybe only 4 or 5% each, so collectively maybe 15–20% of the total.
What would be the advantage of this? Well, for one thing it would allow you to slightly tweak estate satisfaction without granting a general concession. Say for instance you're at 48% noble satisfaction and you need 50% to pass a reform. You don't want to grant a concession when you only need 2%. You see that one of the 3 most prominent nobles, with 5% estate influence, has an ambition to lead the army, so you give him command of your main force, or appoint him to cabinet with responsibility for overseeing the military, giving you a +40 opinion bonus with him. His 5% estate influence means overall noble satisfaction increases +2 and you can pass your reform. You could also bribe individuals, at a cost of corruption, whereas you can't bribe whole estates.
Characters might want specific things – the Archbishop of Trier might want you to construct a new church in Trier. A leading merchant might want you to lower the cost of wool on your market. Fulfilling these things could give you small but meaningful estate satisfaction bonuses, as well as giving you an incentive to award cabinet posts to less capable members of the nobility instead of more talented commoners.
I want to reiterate: I'm not talking about actual landed vassals. You'd only interact with them in the estate tab (though they could also be appointed to cabinet, army/navy command, etc) but I think it would add to the immersive sense that your realm is actually populated by living individuals who have individual influence and seek to achieve their own individual ends.
Lastly, these characters could be usefully connected to events – "a prominent noble has lost all his money at the gaming tables", "ministers urge us to tax a rich merchant's recent windfall" etc, meaning that in addition to the immediate cost in gold/stability, that pissed off / grateful individual is still in your estate tab, with a lasting opinion modifier affecting overall estate satisfaction.
Anyhow, those are just some notions. Any thoughts, or other potential uses for characters?
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