Research: Loyalty and Emerging Factions

[Ludens]

At the request of Zarax I am opening a new thread for research into the mechanisms of faction (re-)emergences. The main object of this thread is to find out how these features can be used in modifications.


Loyalty

What we know about loyalty is:

• A shadowing faction will become the shadowed one once the former is destroyed.
• The system works best with pairs, i.e. one faction shadowing another. A faction can be shadowed maximum by two factions: a third one would cause CTD if all are destroyed.
• It seems to work even with unmatched pairs, i.e. only one faction shadowing or being shadowed without a value being set.
• A faction cannot be shadowed by the slaves, because when that faction is destroyed all slave provinces will turn into that faction and then a CTD will occur.
• The combination of a faction in horde-mode and loyalty may cause a CTD.

• If a faction is re-emergent, but currently dead, a character rebeling to that faction will cause a CTD.
• If a faction is not re-emergent, and currently dead, then then a character rebeling to that faction will not cause a CTD, but the character will be inactive.
• If a faction starts with no provinces, characters rebeling to that faction will be inactive, even after the faction emerges.
• If a faction starts with some provinces, gets killed off, but then re-emerges, then characters that rebel to that faction will be active.

What we need to know is:

The exact set of requisites to have the loyalty system working; currently it is subject to CTDs without clear cause.

Emerging Factions

About emergent factions we have the following data:

• Their appearances are triggered by date, rebellion or a settlement conquered.
• They can be linked to the loyalty system, as shown in BI.
• One type of emergence can give limited hording abilities (Romano-British in BI).
• Playable factions cannot be set as re-emergent.

What need need to know is:

1. How much is hardcoded and how much can be modded.
2. The exact code requirements to enable an emerging faction.
3. What triggers are needed for a Romano-British-like emergent faction.