How are going to implement 'inlanrd republics'
Inland republics will be "false" merchant republics. We can make republics playable without this but it doesn't as much interest without the 5 families/factions system.
Since they will inland, they won't get trade post. So it have to be a bit creative to have this worth playing. Being a pseudo merchant republic also induces to be duke tier.
The feature is a bit far from being designed ATM but i can say it will get a lot of inspiration from Swiss history. It is also linked to some changes I am planning for L3T in regard to how cities work, to integrate the concept of urban developement and emancipation that occured during the period (and definetly not in 769/867/ or even 1066 like vanilla !).
Mind that Swiss confederacy wasn't very peacefull, it fought -military speaking- a lot for its indepenpancy, was a conqueror of some sort. Try googling "when swiss was badass".
So here are various ideas.
Diplomacy :
The swiss confederacy was a bunch of alliances of various types that make it grew and consolidate over time. This alliances system, as a diplomatic feature will be a nice part IMHO, and a headache for opponments
This could lead to other confederacy or leagues emerging dynamicaly, like some did historicaly (Elsass Decapolis f.e. ).
This alliances concept is quite advanced in terms of design and I lead some testing already, I'll give you a dev diary about it when fully fleshed.
Specificities :
Republics will have some distinctions with various governement types and/or laws pushing play style in various directions.
For example awar-oriented state will be allowed various specific CB. On the opposite, it could restrict CB. For exampl, if applied to vanilla merchant republics, it would limit them to coastal city conquest, not allowing them to conquer further the province. This illustrates the degrees we can have here.
The families, when technicaly staying families (no real alternative here sorry), could incarnate in some way a faction like a job corporation or commercial "company". I've also imagined a sort of pirate/bandits city but it would be hard to achieve i guess.
Trade could still be a possiblity if i implement static roads à la silk road, but i am not decided yet about it for LCDA.
All in all, the scheme could be to have a republic-style or focus for each main attribute.
With those two main aspects it should give a viable system that i hope will bring some freshness in gameplays.
I'd love to hear your ideas by the way
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