Italia Invicta Feature Preview #2: Degrees of Independence
Welcome to our second preview. I will try to make these previews a more regular appearance, so that you have a nice read now and then to build up your expectations.
You might ask yourself: What the heck does he mean with "Degrees of Independence"? The answer is quite simple: A ruler is never able to directly govern every city he controls. In fact most of the time he will have to restrict himself to a few core provinces and leave the rest to his subordinates or vassals. In II we will represent this by limiting the influence you have on a lot of your cities, in respect to both buildings and armies.
In our current planning we differentiate between four basic levels of independence:
1. Nominal Dependence
The highest level of independence. A settlement that is nominally dependent will have a lot of freedoms, which means you won't have a say in most of what's going on there. In gameplay terms this means you can't build anything (some buildings will possibly be created by the city population, but we're not sure about that yet) and you can only recruit insofar as you can ask the settlement for help, which will usually be granted to some extent. If the settlement doesn't support you at all, you get to choose whether to let that slight pass, or to declare them to be rebels, in which case they will become just that.
Furthermore, you don't get much income from this settlement as a lot of the money will naturally end up in the pockets of the local rulers.
On the upside however, these settlements will on average have a higher public order than their more dependent counterparts.
Examples for this will be a lot of the Ottonian's settlements that are nominally vassals to the Empire, but enjoy a lot of freedom.
2. Indefinite Dependence
The name hints to it: The next lower level of independence is a bit of a grayzone in your empire. You already have a good deal of influence on this region, possibly because the local ruler is weak, or because the city's power is too limited to really stand up against you. This LOI will unlock a few buildings and give you better recruitment capabilites, or at least make sure you get more support should you call for it.
You will also get more tribute from this settlement.
3. Reliance
The third level of independence is a settlement that relies heavily on your leader's direct interference into things. You will get to build a majority of the available structures in these settlements, and you get to finally have a large say as to which units are recruited here, which comes at the cost of having less units available and recruitment taking more time. Furthermore, you will get nearly full income in these settlements. Public order is more of a problem as people expect you to care for their demands to a larger extent.
4. Royal Demesne
Directly controlled by your dynasty, a settlement of this kind will give you full control over what goes and what doesn't, both building- and unit-wise. However this also means that you'll have to carefully cater for your population's needs and it will often be hard to maintain good order in times of turbulence. The increased income and completely free development are usually worth it, however.
So as it looks now, you will want to have as many cities as dependent on your leader as possible, right?
Wrong. You have to nurture a good balance between more self-sufficient settlements and those that rely heavily on your influence. This has multiple reasons which I don't want to disclose just now, but you will see them in our future previews (which as I said I hope will become a more regular entity now).
Until next time
alpaca
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[II] Feature Preview 1: View City
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