I have noticed that especially towards the endgame (which currently comes far, far far too early) when the player's chosen faction is dominating the map, former enemy lords will flock to their conquerors to join them. Although the recent patches has helped with this not happening too early, they still do it when they begin to become desperate.
Now, I have no objection to clans doing this, after all they have little other choice than to throw their lot in with someone else, but it DOES begin to get a little silly when the total number of "foreign" clans outnumber the original clans. For example playing as the Aserai, towards the end of my game my faction was bloated with all the clans from Battania, many from Sturgia and a handful from each Empire. They outnumbered the original Aserai clans pretty heavily. Most battles I had to fight alongside Vladians and Battanians, rather than my fellow Aserai. It felt especially grim taking the last city of the Battanians backed almost exclusively by former Battanian lords who then all voted for themselves to have it.
This willingness by the AI to accept any and all clans which show up on their doorstep makes it feel like the winning faction starts to lose its cultural identity and aesthetics, which is obviously part of the reason for joining in the first place. You can gather all of Calradia under one banner, but ends up feeling like you're never absorbing the defeated clans/kingdoms into your own, but rather that you're just giving them a free meal ticket to continue existing without any concessions or consequence at all.
One possible solution to this, in my mind, would be to let whether a clan joins your faction or not come down to a vote among the clans which share the cultural background of the faction. One you'd then have a chance to influence rather than just accepting everyone who shows up unemployed looking to join the winners.
Other things could help this as well:
* The ability to rebuild conquered cities in the style of the new owners, making the troops available there a mix of the new owners and the original people living there (kind of like how Rome would reshape their conquered territories and attempt to turn the people into "new Romans" through various means), as well as a policy to enforce this change, lest the lords holding the cities and castles be penalized.
* A policy enforcing that standing armies must be composed of at least 50% troops from the base faction, or suffer financial/influence debuffs? (Letting in a foreign lord and his clan, then allowing them to build up huge armies exclusively composed of their landsmen seems like a very dangerous thing to do).
*A policy which only lets clans of the same cultural background as the faction become rulers would also make sense (why would the Aserai ever accept letting a Vladian clan rule them after graciously letting them join after defeating them, for example?)
* Whenever a foreign lord joins another faction, they could at the very least get new armor that better matches the faction they have joined ("When in Rome", after all).
What I'm looking for, in short, is more visual and and aesthetic cohesion. At the moment, clans who defect and join other factions seem like they have far too much agency and that they aren't taking their new roles as vassals by the grace of their conquerors very seriously. Especially those joining in the moment of defeat. They arrive humiliated like a dog begging for scraps, yet the moment they join they suddenly act the equal of their new masters and start making demands for land and possessions. And I think the same should be true for a player clan which abandons a faction to join a new one. You should have a lot to prove before being given the same rights as those you now serve, especially when it comes to the cultural aspects, to show that you really want to be part of your new faction.
I invite people to give some feedback on this. Right now I just feel like defection isn't a very serious thing that has little consequence apart from your former faction disliking you, whereas I think it deserves a lot more penalties in various forms.
Now, I have no objection to clans doing this, after all they have little other choice than to throw their lot in with someone else, but it DOES begin to get a little silly when the total number of "foreign" clans outnumber the original clans. For example playing as the Aserai, towards the end of my game my faction was bloated with all the clans from Battania, many from Sturgia and a handful from each Empire. They outnumbered the original Aserai clans pretty heavily. Most battles I had to fight alongside Vladians and Battanians, rather than my fellow Aserai. It felt especially grim taking the last city of the Battanians backed almost exclusively by former Battanian lords who then all voted for themselves to have it.
This willingness by the AI to accept any and all clans which show up on their doorstep makes it feel like the winning faction starts to lose its cultural identity and aesthetics, which is obviously part of the reason for joining in the first place. You can gather all of Calradia under one banner, but ends up feeling like you're never absorbing the defeated clans/kingdoms into your own, but rather that you're just giving them a free meal ticket to continue existing without any concessions or consequence at all.
One possible solution to this, in my mind, would be to let whether a clan joins your faction or not come down to a vote among the clans which share the cultural background of the faction. One you'd then have a chance to influence rather than just accepting everyone who shows up unemployed looking to join the winners.
Other things could help this as well:
* The ability to rebuild conquered cities in the style of the new owners, making the troops available there a mix of the new owners and the original people living there (kind of like how Rome would reshape their conquered territories and attempt to turn the people into "new Romans" through various means), as well as a policy to enforce this change, lest the lords holding the cities and castles be penalized.
* A policy enforcing that standing armies must be composed of at least 50% troops from the base faction, or suffer financial/influence debuffs? (Letting in a foreign lord and his clan, then allowing them to build up huge armies exclusively composed of their landsmen seems like a very dangerous thing to do).
*A policy which only lets clans of the same cultural background as the faction become rulers would also make sense (why would the Aserai ever accept letting a Vladian clan rule them after graciously letting them join after defeating them, for example?)
* Whenever a foreign lord joins another faction, they could at the very least get new armor that better matches the faction they have joined ("When in Rome", after all).
What I'm looking for, in short, is more visual and and aesthetic cohesion. At the moment, clans who defect and join other factions seem like they have far too much agency and that they aren't taking their new roles as vassals by the grace of their conquerors very seriously. Especially those joining in the moment of defeat. They arrive humiliated like a dog begging for scraps, yet the moment they join they suddenly act the equal of their new masters and start making demands for land and possessions. And I think the same should be true for a player clan which abandons a faction to join a new one. You should have a lot to prove before being given the same rights as those you now serve, especially when it comes to the cultural aspects, to show that you really want to be part of your new faction.
I invite people to give some feedback on this. Right now I just feel like defection isn't a very serious thing that has little consequence apart from your former faction disliking you, whereas I think it deserves a lot more penalties in various forms.
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Good point. You could say the same about the kingdom borders too, it's funny how within a few months of the player going on their quest the entire world goes to pot with massive famines and bordergore.
