Preview dHRR 0.8: True Blood

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True Bloodline

In dHRR we seemed to have been able to solve one of the most annoying features of M2TW: The way the heir is chosen by the engine. We are still not able to change the already selected heir – what makes sense when you take into account that you are able to marry a faction heir to one of the roving princesses, but we are able to influence the decision of the engine far enough to say that in most occasions we will be able to make the title held by the faction leader the same way hereditary as any other title you can acquire on the map. An example:

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The full family tree of this English campaign had two more branches with never less than 10 family members alive. But as you can see, we had one, two, three, four, five Norman kings and heirs in a row.

That way, strange lines of succession in which a “nobody” from the far end of the family tree becomes heir even though the king has four sons of age, should be a thing of the past in the next version of dHRR. Succession should be logical in the sense it would have been handled by the historical counterpart of the respective faction. In most occasions this would be by hereditary lineage. This would also include maternal lineage, so you should be careful of whom you marry your princesses to. Holding titles, lots of them, could influence the lineage too. In some factions, like Lower Lorraine for example, holding specific titles would give a good chance for becoming the next heir.

Royal Offices

Those kings that come to power by birth right certainly need help in running their empires. As such you are able to appoint royal offices to your family members and generals in dHRR, such as Royal Chancellor and Royal Marshall. In dHRR 0.8 these offices will be individualized for each faction, according to what offices existed in the High Middle Ages in that faction.

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This is, for example, the Custodus Angliae, a transferable office that becomes available when the King of England is absent from his island. Other offices are held by livelong appointment, or they are tied to certain titles. Some might get unlocked later in the game, for example England would not have a High Constable or High Marshall under a Norman king. And some offices might even be held by spawned generals. This first of all applies to chancellors, which often were clerics or members of the lower nobility – so, not the kind of characters that is represented by the members of the family tree.

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Spawned characters will appear complete with random name and random traits.

Characters' Titles

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Characters will get their title as part of their names. This is nothing special so far, because it is just an epithet to the title trait. What is special is that we have implemented a titles’ ranking that prevents lower ranking titles that are inherited at a later point in the game to overwrite higher ranking ones. In this example, when Robert would inherit the title of an Earl of Kent he would still be called “Dux Normanniae”. Only when he became king he would change his title into “Rex Anglorum”.

This system of titles will also apply to faction leaders, who will no longer have fixed titles (like “King”) but would adopt those titles. As such a faction leader of England would always be called “Rex Anglorum”, unless by chance he acquired a higher ranking title what would be one of the two Emperor-titles (Germany or Byzantium). More important would be this system for factions which leaders hold titles that are ranking below “King”. For example Portugal will start the game as a county but might develop into a kingdom, displayed by the title of the faction leader. Leaders of German factions all have titles ranking below king. They might not only acquire the German Crown and the corresponding title (now without still being called ‘Duke’ anymore), but also others like “King of Jerusalem” or Latin “Emperor of Byzantium”.

Scotland Revised

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England is not alone on the British Isles. Scotland is still there and both will the start the game at war with each other, like they actually were in 1080. Amongst the Scottish family members you will find Edgar of Wessex, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England. If Scotland feels strong enough she can sent Edgar into England to (re-)claim his crown. This will give him an enormous boost in popularity and command because the Anglo-Saxons in England will be desperately waiting for someone to save them from the greedy Normans. But doing so will turn the normal border feud between Scotland and England into a war of live and death.

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When Scotland failed to do so as long as Edgar is alive, it will still be possible for any of his sons, or the three sons that his sister had with Scottish King Malcolm, to claim the Crown of England.

And what would a Scottish King be without his Highlanders! Here we have the new the Gaelic units, available in Scotland (save for Edinburgh) and Ireland. You see, there are no more kilts and blue faces and the nobility is much Norse, who still controlled the Irish coast and Western Scotland.

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See also: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=498