[MOD] The Bishop's Gambit

[crownsteler]

The Bishop's Gambit

With the Church you usually have the choice between a knave and a queen -Bernard Woolley​

The goal of The Bishop's Gambit is to create more interesting gameplay surrounding interest group leaders. Overal this means authoritarian states (with the Autocratic or Oligarchic power structure) will be able to influence the leadership of various Interest Groups depending on their Economic System laws. While the leadership of Devout Interest Groups can be influenced as a result of not having the Total Separation (of Church and State) law. Deviating from this, the Pope/Papal States gets the ability to meddle in the internal affairs of Catholic states by choosing the leadership of the Devout IG.

In practise this means:

• Authoritarian monarchies can pick the new leader of the Landowners IG;
• Authoritarian states with an Agrarianism economic system can pick the new leader of the Rural Folk IG;
• Authoritarian states with an Interventionism economic system can pick new leader of the Industrialist IG;
• Authoritarian states with the Command Economy economic system can pick the new leader of the Trade Unions IG;
• Theocracies or non-catholic states without the Total Separation law can pick the new leader of the Devout IG;
• The Pope/Papal States can pick the new leader of the Devout IG of a catholic state without the Total Separation (of church and state) law;

Of course this isn't free. Any appointed leader is naturally less popular than one which wasn't choosen (randomly generated). The hit to popularity being decided by the Free Speech laws, with more loose Free Speech laws offering more opportunity for criticism of the authoritarian process and thus impose a greater hit on popularity. While it will cost authority to keep an appointed leader in the saddle against the wishes of the interest group itself. Although the cost to authority decreases with looser Distribution of Power laws, as an IG leader is seen as more democratic.

Some screenshots to demonstrate the concept (very much WIP):

(from left to right: picking a new bishop for Congo, the response event for having a bishop appointed, dynamic text for different religions, appointing the landowner leader and appointing the rural folk leader)

I still need to create a handful of event descriptions and do some testing, and then it is ready to go.

 

[Marco Dandolo]

Definitely interested, as I think that religion in the 19th century is too much overlooked as a factor - especially the influence of the catholic church.

 

[aleksandrn]

Sounds well. I would like more interaction with group leaders. Perhaps some suggestions or requirements from them.
some chain of events? for example, the leader of the Industrialist IG asks to build some production or adopt the law.

 

[crownsteler]

Definitely interested, as I think that religion in the 19th century is too much overlooked as a factor - especially the influence of the catholic church.

Yeah, I came up with this concept when thinking about how to represent the fallout of the reestablishment of the episcopal hierarchy in the Netherlands, and realised it would be really cool if the pope could meddle in the interiour affairs of other countries via the Catholic church. Setting the interest group leader is one option, but other things I am toying with is letting the Papacy call ecumenical councils to allow the Papal states to change the ideology of the Catholic Devout Interest Groups, or allow the church to sent out missions to increase the attraction of the Catholic IGs. But that is all for the far future.

Sounds well. I would like more interaction with group leaders. Perhaps some suggestions or requirements from them.
some chain of events? for example, the leader of the Industrialist IG asks to build some production or adopt the law.

Yeah the interest groups offer a (sadly barely utilised) opportunity to make the game feel more alive with both internal rivalries within IGs, but also, as you say, but having them make suggestions/demands to be fulfilled. This could help with creating more of a distinction between authoritarian and democratic countries, as authoritarian countries could be made to be able to ignore such demands easier.

If/when I get inspired I'll certainly look into creating such events. But for now my focus is on succession events.

The biggest bottleneck right now are the event descriptions. Creating engaging text isn't extacly my strongest suit. It also doesn't help that I am trying to make them somewhat dynamic based on the game state. I still need to write up one for the industrialists, and one for the trade unions and then do some testing before I can sent it out.