New demense law slider: Bureaucracy

[zijistark]

Kind of like the crown levies slider but for taxes, but with some twists:

Bureaucracy:

Slider settings:

• _None_ Default. No effects.
• _Minimal_ Gives +1 demesne size. Negative vassal opinion. Requires tier at least duke.
• _Sophisticated_ Gives +2 demesne size. Gives +7.5% blanket vassal tax law modifiers. Significant negative vassal opinion. Feudal vassal opinion hit is higher than theocracies which is higher than republics (due to relative, mutual benefits from improved efficiency of bureaucratic structure-- the 3 government types each adapt to more sophistication with varied degrees of efficiency). Requires tier at least king (or great duke w/ realm_size >= 30) and TECH_LEGALISM at least 4 anywhere in the direct demesne of the ruler.
• _Maximum_ Gives +3 demesne size. Gives +15% blanket vassal tax law modifiers. Major vassal opinion hit. Same relative malus ratio for the 3 vassal classes as prior setting (should be quite high, as laws go, for feudal vassals, though not all that different). Requires at least king tier. Requires TECH_LEGALISM at least 6 anywhere within the ruler's direct demesne. This should put this setting into play somewhere around, oh, 1200-1250?

[zijistark]

Seems like a neat concept. Serves the general role of allowing realms to "centralize selectively." The demesne size bonus is neat and also makes perfect sense with the concept; players will like that one, and PB-style balance favors allowing for more demesne in bigger, more sophisticated realms due to the nature of AF revolts.

The legalism technology requirements (and especially the unique any_demesne_province nature of it rather than capital_scope) start with opening-up Sophisticated, probably the highest level worth the opinion hit (strategically speaking, since lower opinion equates to less taxes paid, amongst other problems w/ low opinion, esp. from particular classes of vassals), and this keeps the "bureaucratic sophistication implies ability to draft higher taxes" concept more plausible at those 2 levels. Also, coastal rulers and especially ones near major centers of trade will gain access to these laws sooner.

I like the idea of hitting the different vassal types with different maluses, as certainly the 3 government types do scale differently with increased tax collection and bureaucracy. I think malus for feudal > theocracy > republic is right, but that was totally just my first impulse. In terms of side effects, it will require less levies and more retinues to balance opinions as the campaign goes on, if one doesn't have the opinion to burn. And the same argument for mercenaries. It will also not make Maximum totally pointless. Also, in terms of ease of adapting to a more centralized state and increasing taxation requirements, republic > theocracy > feudal just seems natural in terms of ability to work with such systems efficiently and effectively pay.

It makes more sense to me as a demesne law as effective bureaucratic infrastructure has nothing to do with crown titles (esp. per-title). Also, making it a crown law would rule out the lower levels of play with dukes that are totally relevant + rule out usage of the new demesne_size law modifier (as then you could pick-up a shit-ton of extra demesne capacity semi-arbitrarily merely by holding, say, Portugal/Galicia, Castille, and Leon).

Seems all inline... Thoughts?

[zijistark]

Additions:

• Sophisticated also requires having held Minimal for at least, say, 25-30 years to be able to pass.
• Maximum requires having held Sophisticated for at least, say, 50-75 years.

Significant bureaucratic structure growth doesn't just happen immediately because the King passed a law.

Both duration quantities are counted over the lifetimes of individual rulers-- that is, they are tied to the primary title and not to the ruler (so you can endure a few deaths and still have the counter ticking consistently). You should also be able to switch primary titles and have the duration counter still continue to tick. In theory, the value of it could even be usurped, but it makes more sense to me reset the "bureaucratic centralization momentum" upon regime changes.

The law slider settings must be held at their respective levels of centralization for the full duration, or else all countdown timers would effectively reset to zero.

[zijistark]

Another possible tweak:

Make achieving Maximum more attractive by including another kind of bonus inline with centralization and improved bureaucratic sophistication/structure. For example, directly award a +10K retinue cap\ (since that's usually like 3,500 troops max in realized retinues, for which they obviously have to pay) with Maximum, increase the ratio of the government class differences in opinion hit, but to help compensate for the malus ratio widening, also maybe reduce the vassal tax modifier to 12.5% for republics (in combination with other quite optimized PB laws and happy vassal merchant republics, 15% could result in just a little too much money in republican-heavy realms with the relative opinion hit being absorbed better by republic vassals-- even for the most extreme setting of a special law).

[**] For more realistic reflection of the concept and general flexibility, award a retinue cap bonus that scales with realm_size rather than a flat one.

The retinue cap boost makes sense, as bureaucratic sophistication also applies to military organization, and naturally, what good is money without something more modern upon which to spend it-- a paid-for baseline military that will help counter-balance your relatively annoyed feudal lords or perhaps allow for lower feudal obligations of some kind.

I do dislike it when there's no point in even trying to go for the highest settings on law sliders. Every available setting should ideally be worth it under some reasonable strategy and scenario.

[thefinestsieve]

In reply to that last thought: I find that there's almost no reason to go for the higher laws in vanilla, PB, or any other mod I've ever tried. The benefits are almost always piddling compared to the amount of trouble you can get into with your vassals. Beyond adding further benefits to the laws, I think this could probably be helped by vassals being less likely to pile into independence or claimant factions; right now pissing them off often makes them so eager to burn the entire realm down (or hand you a game over or near game over) that it robs any of the more extreme laws of their appeal. Or, in the same vein, perhaps it's time for the more extreme laws to give the ruler some protections from some of these issues, or at least have some of the opinion hits decrease over time as the "culture" of your country gets used to the idea of being more centralized.

(That all said, I do like the Bureaucracy law idea.)

[zijistark]

Well, the retinue cap award is one way to actually give the player a bonus which actively protects against pissed-off vassals (and is historically aligned with the late-game movement to mixed standing armies or mercenary companies on contract). It does work nicely with the increased income to pay for the retinues.

[However, it requires using LoR to have effect. Wish there was a mercenary_hire_cost_modifier or something.]

The classing of the opinion maluses also helps, as it means you can still make money off the higher tax laws despite opinion hits (as, in this example, city_vassal_opinion is hit the least). However, it's the feudal lords that are most pissed and also the greatest danger to you. For a natural answer (mind you, it should require strategy to work, so it shouldn't just be a safe law to enact blindly) to making the maximum law actually a viable strategic choice in the face of pissed-off feudal lords, it might make sense to look at historically how centralization like this worked-out:

Kickbacks. In CKII terms, feudal lords had countervailing opinion bonuses that could be employed strategically to make them accept the growing centralized bureaucracy and their slow but sure obsoletion.

Now, some feudal lords will tend to just like you decently enough nevertheless; it's the threats which need to be handled and made part of the team. [My AF2 notes have a whole section on this but, sadly, they require the AF2 to be in full force to work.]

Neutralization of threats via greater military power is one thing (scaled retinue cap modifiers help address this, as do the demesne_size modifiers, but what else could we do?). Well, we do have greater legalism when this max. law could come into play, which reduces current AF autonomy desire (makes them score you better automatically basically). That helps.

Also, the increased tax burden on the feudal lords (+15% feudal is harsh) is not magic money. It's at their expense and to your gain. You can better outspend them as a result Maximum. This does mean they can't hold-out in wars as long as you before falling apart, they can't hire the retinues and mercs that you can, and they can't develop their relatively decreased demesne_size cap ratio as effectively as you can.

... Honestly, I'm not sure there's much else that can be done beyond AF2-style mechanics (where you can pass laws that make the AF2 essentially part of the bureaucracy at max settings, letting them guide realm policy with you and greatly increasing tolerance of more centralization, as they're being made part of the new ruling class rather than fading into antiquity).

This law design currently does go the farthest I've seen to actively make its Maximum setting a viable strategic option. I just don't know if it goes far enough.

Bureaucratic acceptance is something that could be tracked along the same mechanism that maintains the bureaucratic growth yearly counters. At different grades of successfully holding Maximum or even Sophisticated, some sort of graduated hidden, inherited character modifier with a small vassal_opinion countervailing boost that builds (or even broken down into the 3 classes) could be maintained as well on the liege as long as the law remains in effect. This would implement your acceptance concept. They would, of course, never fully accept. The process of marginalizing the feudal aristocracy and ushering in centralized realms was never, at any point, one that went silently into that dark night...

[zijistark]

Bonus idea:

Maximum could also unlock greater loan caps for the ruler. [Sophisticated could too, though obviously less so.] Naturally, with a more sophisticated bureaucracy, one's ability to leverage debt as insurance (say, against revolters) or kickbacks when needing to garner support (e.g., build a holding in the moderate-threat vassal's demesne, grant it to them-- +20 for a long time).

It is again inline with the concept and makes the higher settings feature more advantages which directly aid you in combatting the law's inherent trade-offs.

[Presumably loans will be getting a big upgrade in PB, allowing real running balances and the like, so things like unlocking higher lending capacity could be made first-rank bonuses.]

[thefinestsieve]

I definitely like the idea of bureaucratic acceptance developing over time. (Acceptance of other types of centralization would, as you mention, need to be coordinated with the AF2 system.) I think that approach, when combined with the retinue boost and loan improvements, should probably be enough to make the highest levels attractive. (I also like the idea of some laws creating temporary storms which have to be weathered through a few rulers before settling down, and without necessarily forcing you to give up on those laws.)

[thefinestsieve]

Considering this was effectively added to the vanilla game, this should probably be closed. If some of the mentioned mechanics wanted to be transferred to the vanilla slider, perhaps tuck them into a new issue for brevity's sake?