The Provincial Titles - a feature of the SSHIP
A guide to the Provincial Titles
What is a PT
A provincial title (PT) reflects the effects of awarding a noble title related to a province by the faction leader to any general. The benefits come from the rights related to the title, from the perception by the people, from having access to groups of people engaged in the management of the province, and from the land holdings and other money-providing entities in this province.
There's always one title per province. It takes the form of an ancillary. It is gained when a general ends his move in the settlement of this province and doesn't have any other PT yet. Of course, it can happen only if there's no other general having that PT. A PT is transferable from one general to another. Due to this fact and due to the M2TW engine features it's technically it is possible that a general has more than one PT. However, the player should follow a house-rule: one FM - one PT. This is actually beneficial for the player: possession of a title impacts often on acquiring good traits by the generals. Many PTs on one general would be a wasted opportunity for the other generals who don't have any.
If a general loses a PT (he starts with a PT, the player transfers it to another general and don't give any other PT in the same turn), then he gets a trait stripped of titles resulting in -2 Loyalty, -2 Authority, -2 Morale of troops, and lasting for 5 years. If later he gets another PT and loses is again, then the penalty is much harsher (Loyalty -4, Authority -4, Popularity -2, Piety -2, Dread +2, TroopMorale -4, Tax -40%) and lasts till the death of the general.
Benefits of the PTs
Each and every PT brings two benefits for a general. Because it shows a honor from the ruler, the general gets +1 Loyalty as a reciprocity. Furthermore, because people around know that this general was chosen by the ruler and has authority on them, it provides +1 Law while the general fulfills the role of a governor of a city/castle, what helps to keep public order higher and corruption lower. However, this comes at a price. First, granting the money-making domains to that general lowers the faction tax income from the province he currently manages by 5%. Second, the public security of the general is also lower -1.
The standard set of benefits of a PT make them beneficial for any general: he’d gain loyalty and be better at keeping public order and lowering corruption. However, the additional benefits enable specialization of the generals. They’re usually lumped together so that a particular PT is valuable either for a governor or for a leader of an army. Since they’re transferable, it is possible for the player to swap them between generals fulfilling particular tasks.
A general governing a province can keep public order thanks to higher popularity provided by many PTs (in addition to the other factors impacting public order: law, chivalry, dread). They usually go with some benefits for income which offset the loss of tax income (due to -5% Tax standard effect attached to each PT). Some PTs give large buffs to trade (10%, 20% and even 30%) and should be given to the governors of the trade-making province. A few PTs give +20% mining (the exceptional ones even +40%) so a governor of a province with mines should have them, otherwise this benefit is entirely lost. The agriculture benefit is useful for any province and +2 farming usually means 100-140 florins more.
The generals leading the armies can also benefit from a PT: some give +3 movement points, some +1 morale for all troops on the battlefield, some additional siege points and some +1 or +2 Dread or +1 or +2 Chivalry – very useful in battles. The fourth “war benefit” concerns Command while defending a settlement is, actually, more useful for the governors of the borderlands – therefore it usually goes with the “governor” type of benefits. One should also not forget that after conquering an enemy settlement it is needed to subdue it's population. To this end Chivalry and Dread (along law and popularity) are very useful.
PTs may beef up the attributes needed by a general needed for other purposes. For instance, religious sites PTs give +1 Piety and those with sacred cities even +2 - so a general short of Piety will benefit greatly. Many provinces (usually those with capital cities) provide Authority useful for the faction leader or the heir. As mentioned, + Chivalry is useful for governors who aim at speeding up growth of the settlements to upgrade them.
For a satisfying and challenging game remember to follow the rule: one general – one PT. It means: do not stack many PTs on one general, even if it seems to be beneficial at a particular moment. To force the player behaving in this way, I'm thinking about transferring the basic benefits (+1 Loyalty, + 1 Law to the trait "titled". It will mean that irrespectively of the number of titles, these benefits will be granted just once.
Additionally, since there's a relationship between features of a province and it's PT, it's often beneficial that a general carrying the title of a province is actually governing that province.
Moding of the Provincial Titles
Principles
- The PTs’ benefits should reflect the “character” of a province, something it was famous for, or something people relate this province or the main city or an important place within. It should concern whole Middle Ages (not only 12th century).
- At the same time the benefits should be useful for the gameplay: providing choice for the player and making him assigning the title to a particular general for a particular reason (eg. my Gdansk title gives 2Chivalry which is crucial for upgrading some cities – I was very happy to have it; another one for Pskow providing 10% Tax – I assigned it to the governor of a trade-rich province). Therefore many titles should have a “dominating” benefit (like 15% Trade or 2 Chivalry) or a set of benefits useful in similar situations.
- There should be a set of “normal” benefits linked to every title, and some benefits which make a title unique (both for gameplay and role-playing purposes). The normal benefits are the same for each province and they are ambiguous: some positive, some negative. The additional effects will only be positive and they vary a lot between the PTs. In some mods (e.g. Broken Crescent) all the benefits are the same but I find it an inferior choice for two reasons. First: it should be part of the gameplay for the player to decide which PT is given to which general so that the potential is realized in the best way. Second: since the game engine tends to equalize the number of characters with the number of provinces, it means each general has a chance to get one. Why then to bother of having the stuff which doesn't differentiate between generals?
- The titles should not be “overpowered”, i.e. should not give too many benefits. This is to be reconned both individually (very few exceptional provinces, some good ones, most of them "normal"), but also regionally: PTs from a certain part of the world should provide more-or-less the same amount of benefits as the PTs from another part. Of course the SSHIP players come from different parts of the world and think that “our” provinces should have many benefits. This is understandable: we know ins-and-outs of history and each province is unique and great. But we should not “overpower” certain parts of the world. In my case I’ll try not to make Central Europe filled with much more benefits compared to, say, Iran. Of course, we’ve got much sources about England, but we should not assign 7-worth titles to every province there.
Value of a title
- can be summarized with a number. For counting this number, each “normal” benefit gives 1: Law 1, Popularity 1, Trade 10%, Mining 20%, Farming +2, Chivalry 1, Dread 1, Loyalty 1, Authority 1, Piety 1, Command while defending under siege 2, Morale 1, Siege Points (60, but may change in the future if a new Siege system would be developed).
- A title should be worth between 2 and 4, very rarely 5-6, in few exceptional cases 7.
- While moding I keep the regions balanced. The rule of thumb is: an average of worth of provinces in a region should be around 3,3 (This is not an objective criterion, it’s just my personal choice. I came out with this number empirically, after having assigned titles and adjusting them in a painful process).
- The exceptional cases (7) should really be exceptional, so that a player may appreciate a title. These should be holy cities or significant cities famous throughout the Middle Ages. The tentative list of those exceptional titles: Constantinople, Rome, Bagdad, Jerusalem, to a lesser extent: London, Paris, Seville- Isbiliyya or Corduba, Venice, Kiev, Al-Quahira, Damascus, Isfahan). However, this issue will not impact the inter-regional balance: exceptional case will come at a price of having more mediocre PTs in the region.
Standard benefits
- Each title gives 4 effects due to the very essence of any provincial title.
- Gaining a title from a ruler means that this person is interested in the ruler’s reign -> every title gives +1 Loyalty
- Gaining a title is related with the authority to keep order somewhere -> every title gives +1 Law
- Holding a title for a province means money from the public domains goes now to the holder's pocket -> every title means -5% Tax
- Being a politically important person means that this person is likely to be the target of the foreign shady deals -> every title gives -1 Personal Security
Additional benefits related to the character or particular features of provinces:
- provinces that were essential for the authority of the ruler (usually one will be assigned to the capital's PT of each factions, and also ocassionally to the other PTs): +1 Authority
- provinces that were famous for religious sites, monastic life, churches: +1 Piety (exceptionally for sacred sites: Rome (thought it shouldn't be useful in the game as the city should stay Papal), Constantinople, Mecca, maybe Santiago de Compostella): +2Piety
- provinces famous to be centers of knowledge or culture: +1 or +2 Chivalry
- provinces with popular lords: +1 Popularity
- provinces that were centers of trade: +10 to 30% Trade income
- provinces that were famous for the mines: +20% Mining income (exceptionally - perhaps up to 4 settlements on the whole map, Transsilvania, a region in Spain, Armenia, a region in Persia: +40%)
- provinces that were famous for agriculture, melioration, fertile soils: +2 Farming income
- provinces on the border of conflicts or famous for warriors: +1 or +2 Dread
- provinces that were famous for commanders: a title gives +1 TroopMorale (exceptionally: +2, eg. Smolensk)
- provinces that were vast and famous of long travels: +3 Movement points (exceptionally: +6, it will appear in the steppe provinces where knowledge of the horses, eg. Aktobe)
- provinces that were famous for castles and siege expertise: a title gives + 30 Siege Points (possibly more if I develop a new siege system but it's the song of the far-away future)
- provinces that were famous for strongholds: +2 Command while defending in siege
Having benefits similar do the character of a province has a side effect: the generals having carrying those titles have incentive to be actually present in their respective provinces. (eg. a province famous for trade – a title give a lot of money from trade – the trade benefit of the title of this province has positive effects when managing that province).
In moding the traits I'll insert possession of a title into the triggers for good traits. Therefore the players should indeed assign just one PT on one general - otherwise it would be a wasted opportunity.
List of the benefits is closed - due to the moding process it had to be decided at some point and then implemented.
How the Provincial Titles impact on the gameplay
- PTs provide additional layer for role-playing / gameplay – until now a player was happy to get a title, kept it on the general who initially received it, perhaps appreciated „chrome”, but didn't pay much attention to its impact on the gameplay. A few players would swap the PTs between generals, but it was rarely worth the time and didn't make much difference for the game. This modification makes PTs important for the gameplay while providing also historical emotions for the gameplay. It makes the player carefully choosing a general for a certain PT since it pays off in the game. Furthermore, it sometimes (softly) prompts the player to keep the general holding the title of a province to also serve as a governor for this province (eg. when there's a +Mining bonus).
- PTs increase specialization between generals: the governor-types can have even more buffs for the income or public order, while the general leading the armies may enjoy much better field capabilities (this is reflected in the descriptions showing in-game: each PT has a suggestion what it should be used to).
- PTs provide some flexibility for the player on the attributes like Piety or Authority: if a general need beefing up one of them, he can do it (admittedly, the change with the previous system is small in this respect). In particular a PT with +1 Authority will be within reach of each faction and it's usually of great use for the faction leader. However, it should be born in mind that Authority is important factor for acquiring some traits (like higher military education) and is deliberately included only in few PTs.
- PTs create additional value for a player derived from taking specific settlement (eg. if he needs a good governor for mining then taking a settlement with a title a buffing up mining income is quite valuable).
- The PTs impact on income is smaller in the first stage of the game since most of the income for a small faction comes from the taxes and every PT gives a malus -5% Tax. For instance, this means 100 fl less for a city providing 2000 fl. taxation income. However, this is balanced by buffs to the trade income (for many PTs it’s 10-30% which means that, eg. a city making 500 fl. trade income adds additional 50-150 fl.) and farming (rarer, but would provide like 100+ fl.). Later in the game the higher-level trade buildings are built which means that the additional income from the trade increases. This effect is even more pronounced for mining since the benefit of is usually +20% (in utterly exceptional cases 40%). Provinces differ on mining income, but if we take a province which give 2000 fl. for the first level, and 3000 fl. for the second, then the additional income is 300 and 600 fl. respectively.
- The overall PTs impact on the amount of money present in the game: roughly neutral, should the player use them rationally. This is because they already exist in the game, they usually give 5-10% tax plus other benefits (like 5-15% trade), what means that the additional money is already in-game.
- Standard benefits of Loyalty and Law are likely to be more important for big empires. Ergo: there’ll be more impact of PTs later in the game. However, at the beginning of the game some PT can be potentially more important of income. All in all, the impact of PTs seems to evenly spread across the time of the game.
- There're (more than before) PTs with + Chivalry benefits. Each faction should have access to one +2 and perhaps one +1. This should make it easier for the players to upgrade their key settlements.
- The impact on attack abilities for generals is perhaps more pronounced than before since there’re not so many war benefits in the current PTs. However, for some key attributes (eg. Command) there're no buffs. If a new siege system would be introduced, then the PTs providing siege points may become very valuable. Movement points benefits are limited in the well developed countries but more numerous in the steppe regions (like Cuman lands) to make the life of the factions there easier.
- Depending on the further moding of the traits, the impact of PTs on acquiring certain traits may be quite big. Already now there're some traits taking them into account (see the GTCS)