Modding questions regarding De jure duchies

[ValhallArchitect]

Hello. I have a modding-related question. As an experienced Eu4 modder, but being new to the CK2 modding community, I am trying to create a mod for vanilla map which removes "de jure titles" from the game before they are created.

I.e, Empire of germany doesn't exist for all the game period, but could be created as a titular title, HRE doesn't exist as a de jure title before 932 (still created through decision).
Similarly, k_england would not exist on map before 927, so there would be no de jure kingdom or empire in England before that.

Like in CK2+, only arabic, carolingian (french), tibet, byzantium and similar titles would exist at game start, and de jure e_france would stop existing on map after 924, only waiting to be created again or replaced by the to-be-formed HRE. E_russia, e_britannia and so on would only be titular titles without de jure territory since they had never existed in the time period.

I tried two different strategies, but it obviously did not work :

1. I modded the common/landed_titles folder, taking all k_titles out of their e_title (i.e k_england out of e_britannia), so Britannia is now a titular formable title, and K_england doesn't belong to it anymore. In the same way, I removed all d_titles out of k_england, making it a titular title as well. It worked fine, the de jure kingdom and empires did not appear on map in 769, but they still did not appear in 1066 as de jure titles, only de facto (K_england was already formed)
2. Seeing it was unsusccessful, I tried doing something inspired by the e_germany (active = no in 867) and e_hre case (how can it have no de jure kingdom under it in common/landed_titles and still have the "stem duchies" kingdoms under it at game start by the way ?). So I modded the history/titles files and wrote "active = no" to the kingdom of england from start, and active = yes to it from 927 when it is created. No change appeared on the map from the vanilla situation, k_england still exists de jure in 769.

Since you achieved to do it in CK2+, I was hoping you could perhaps explain me quite quickly ? thanks

 

[ValhallArchitect]

Moved this from another thread

 

[LordPeter]

There will be all sorts of weirdness happen if you completely take away all de jure titles.
As for CK2+, they technically didn't remove de jure empires, but instead created a workaround: There's an "e_placeholder" empire that covers almost the entire map, and has a dark grey color (so it's not visibly different from wasteland). However, it is still there, so when some vanilla code assumes that every province belongs to an empire, it technically does.
The same would probably apply to kingdoms: Here it'd be even worse if you removed them, as a whole lot of mechanics relies on de jure kingdoms. However, just as with e_placeholder, you might be able to create a "k_placeholder" that covers the entire map, except for those areas that have an actual de jure kingdom.

How that workaround was implemented exactly in Plus I don't know, just that they didn't have it before and the absence of a de jure empire caused crashes. So you might first want to look at the files and search them for anything related to "e_placeholder", to see what tricks the mod devs used to make it work. Then, you could try to implement it in your own mod, and later do the same system for k_placeholder - just keep in mind that kingdoms are integrated even closer into the gameplay, so you might need to have additional safety checks in place.
And at last a disclaimer: I know almost nothing about title modding, I am just talking from memory of what I remembered of Plus' development. No guarantees that this is all correct ^^

 

[ValhallArchitect]

Thanks a lot for your answer. I have effectively been redirected to exploring the CK2+ files, in which I was able to find this e_placeholder but did not understand its purpose since there are other titles which can start as duchies or counties without being integrated into de jure overlord (good examples being Knights Orders or papacy).
I will be experimenting a little, and see if I can get kingdoms to work as well

 

[vukica]

However, just as with e_placeholder, you might be able to create a "k_placeholder" that covers the entire map, except for those areas that have an actual de jure kingdom.

Every k_title having a de jure empire is no longer strictly needed. We maintain it as such just-in-case-because-reasons.
Every landed d_title having a de jure kingdom is required. You can define one that doesn't have a kingdom, but it will open a proverbial can of worms.

 

[ValhallArchitect]

Awesome, that will save me a lot of file editing then. Thanks for the explaination

 

[vukica]

Also, you can have any number of titular empires, kingdoms and duchies. However, DO NOT create titular counties and baronies.

AI will give away, or destroy titular duchies if they have other landed titles of the same or higher rank.

 

[ValhallArchitect]

Okay, good to know that as well. I must admit I don't clearly understand how every rank is sollicited by the game engine, so it's always helpful to learn more

 

[vukica]

Okay, good to know that as well. I must admit I don't clearly understand how every rank is sollicited by the game engine, so it's always helpful to learn more

I think that every rank has something "special" about them.