September in Review
It is, once again, the first Saturday of the month. It is time for another update.
The Magnum Concilium, that is the "great council," was an important instrument of governance in 12th century England. Now and again the king would summon all his tenants-in-chief, as well as the most important clergy in the realm, to discuss matters of great importance. In later centuries, this body morphed into Parliament, but in our time period, this is the object of our concern.
From a gameplay perspective, I didn't think it was fitting that legal changes were only forced on the king. In previous posts I wrote about dealing with the major and minor factions. Sometimes they wanted a decree in their favor, other times they were willing to let slip a previous legal change in service of a beloved king. The clergy, in command of the power of binding and loosing, could even remove a pesky law imposed by others! However all of this is reactive. Being able to proactively make decisions is much more fun, so the main purpose of the Magnum Concilium is to allow for such player-directed interactions with the legal system. There are other matters the council can address, like war-making and revoking titles, but the law was the primary motivation.
The feature is still under active development, as it has proved a bit more complex than I had intended. Working on this even managed to reveal some performance bottlenecks(!) in autosave code(!!), so suffice it to say, some things may change.
Attending this council is a right granted only to the great lords and the king's personal advisors in the household, chapel, and exchequer.
Gathering the great lords is an excellent way to get focused advice from many voices. This is often higher quality advice than you might receive from individual meetings or at feasts.
You can make a number of proposals. However, the other lords will have certain ideas in mind as well. You might need to work with others to get their support, supporting their goals to win support for your own. On the other hand if you're feeling a bit tyrannical, you can force through what you wish even without support; the other lords will remember it though.
The interplay between global prosperity and banditry and local ruin and unrest is largely finished, requiring only some balancing. Some random events were indeed written to support that.
It seems the good prior's concerns regarding Buckinghamshire were warranted.
Finishing the Magnum Concilium. I definitely think it will be worth it when finished, but there's a lot of hidden complexity here.
More next time!
The Magnum Concilium
The Magnum Concilium, that is the "great council," was an important instrument of governance in 12th century England. Now and again the king would summon all his tenants-in-chief, as well as the most important clergy in the realm, to discuss matters of great importance. In later centuries, this body morphed into Parliament, but in our time period, this is the object of our concern.
From a gameplay perspective, I didn't think it was fitting that legal changes were only forced on the king. In previous posts I wrote about dealing with the major and minor factions. Sometimes they wanted a decree in their favor, other times they were willing to let slip a previous legal change in service of a beloved king. The clergy, in command of the power of binding and loosing, could even remove a pesky law imposed by others! However all of this is reactive. Being able to proactively make decisions is much more fun, so the main purpose of the Magnum Concilium is to allow for such player-directed interactions with the legal system. There are other matters the council can address, like war-making and revoking titles, but the law was the primary motivation.
The feature is still under active development, as it has proved a bit more complex than I had intended. Working on this even managed to reveal some performance bottlenecks(!) in autosave code(!!), so suffice it to say, some things may change.
Attending this council is a right granted only to the great lords and the king's personal advisors in the household, chapel, and exchequer.
Gathering the great lords is an excellent way to get focused advice from many voices. This is often higher quality advice than you might receive from individual meetings or at feasts.
You can make a number of proposals. However, the other lords will have certain ideas in mind as well. You might need to work with others to get their support, supporting their goals to win support for your own. On the other hand if you're feeling a bit tyrannical, you can force through what you wish even without support; the other lords will remember it though.
Location-based random events
The interplay between global prosperity and banditry and local ruin and unrest is largely finished, requiring only some balancing. Some random events were indeed written to support that.
It seems the good prior's concerns regarding Buckinghamshire were warranted.
What's next
Finishing the Magnum Concilium. I definitely think it will be worth it when finished, but there's a lot of hidden complexity here.
More next time!