Culture doesn't matter for awarding holdings?

[Doofus]

So...in my current playthrough (1.8.0) I chose Sturgian for my culture and joined the Northern Empire. I figured we would likely war them and I'd be awarded some of their towns/castles. 1st war was with the Southern Empire and I was awarded Phycaon. OK, cool. Not really the area I wanted, but nice to be awarded a toen right at the start. We warred the Khuzaits and pretty much had a draw. Next war with Southern Empire was awarded Jogurys Castle, but since I was having problems with Phycaon, it was taken back before I could get there. 3rd war with Southern Empire I was given Jogurys again and this time I was able to enforce & keep it. So, move forward...

I finally have control of the territories I own and enough influence to raise armies. We declare war on the Sturgians. Good this is my area. I immediately raise an army and take Tyal. 8-( Its awarded to Phalentes. I suppose thats understandable, since they also have Epinosa Castle & Urikskala Castle. Oh well, I'll keep trying, While still warring Sturgia the Khuzaits declare on us. So I proceed to take Dinar Castle, I defend Kaysar & Baltakhand (both Phalentes holdings), I take Tepes & Makeb. All of which are given to Phalentes. Yes, I understand they have stuff bordering those territories, but they have a total of 3 lords and have been given 2 towns and 6 castles. I have led the successful defense of a town and castle and taken another town and 2 castles, all of which they have been given. The Khuzaits offer peace. Screw this. I intentionally wait until Khuzait has taken Tepes Castle back before bringing up the vote, which, of course, is 100% in favor of peace.

The war is still continuing with Sturgia, so...while the other lords lost Mecalovia Castle, I go to assault some Sturgia stuff again. On the way there, Vladiv castle is taken & awarded to Serapadis clan. Good. at least its not the Ph..king Phalentes clan. So I consider taking Sibir, but decide its probably considered next to Vladiv & they'd just give it to Serapadis clan again. Varnovopal it is. I take it and its awarded to Serapadis (sigh). One more try. I hit Sibir. Oh good, its not given to Serapadis or even Phalentes. It goes to Argoros. Screw this. Time for peace.

So...Phalentes has 7 fiefs for 3 lords, Serapadis has 3 fiefs for 4 lords, and Argoros has 6 fiefs for 9 lords. I led the army that defeated 2 attacks on our fiefs and took 4 towns and 2 castles. While the other lords took one castle and lost one castle. I got nothing eve though I have the correct culture to hold 3 of the 4 towns and I only have 2 holdings for my 10 members (although I'll admit that I don't think the 6 companions should be listed as members). The Bozos who the towns were given to will probably have trouble holding on to them and we'll have to repeatedly take them back from rebels.

Is native culture not considered in the holdings consideration when differing culture takes a massive -3 hit to loyalty?
Is the concept of who led the army that took the holding not considered in the nominations for the holdings? I was nominated in about 1/2 the holdings, but using as much influence as allowed I couldn't get close to taking anything. Usually I was nominated with 0% even though I'm married to one of Lucon's daughters and my brother is married to another. (In the case of the brother, Nozhon, Lucon sent me a marriage proposal for Zoana while I was still a mercenary for his kingdom. I hadn't even asked him).

I was given Phycaon because (I think) it was the first holding available. But when I was given Jogurys Castle (twice) I had no connection to it. It wasn't next to my holding, I wasn't involved in taking it in any way, it isn't part of my native culture. I feel like the game INTENTIONALLY doesn't want to give me something I could handle without problems.

 

[Doofus]

Oh, btw, in addition to leading an army of about 8 or so lords that took the above holdings, I was alsoo instrumental in the battles, regularly being awarded about 30% of the loot. I had a lot of legionaires that were owning the battles, in one case taking out 125 out of roughly 450 defenders (generally losing about 4 to death each battle). I regularly did reasonably well personally, killing 15-20 per battle (far from my best, but not bad).

 

[Apocal]

Is native culture not considered in the holdings consideration when differing culture takes a massive -3 hit to loyalty?
Is the concept of who led the army that took the holding not considered in the nominations for the holdings? I was nominated in about 1/2 the holdings, but using as much influence as allowed I couldn't get close to taking anything. Usually I was nominated with 0% even though I'm married to one of Lucon's daughters and my brother is married to another. (In the case of the brother, Nozhon, Lucon sent me a marriage proposal for Zoana while I was still a mercenary for his kingdom. I hadn't even asked him).

No idea if it changed, but it worked like this last year (Feb 2021, quoting the below post):

With the new patch the fief election formula has changed a bit, so I figured I would update everyone on what has changed. A couple new variables were added, and some of the old ones were tweaked. Here's the new Merit Score equation:

• The Clan Tier Bonus has not changed.
• The Total Clan Strength now properly subtracts out the garrison strength of the captured fief from the faction ruler's total strength, which will lower the faction ruler's bonus by a small amount.
• The No Fief Bonus has not changed and is still 30.
• The Capturer Bonus has been reduced to 30 (from 50).
• The Ruler Bonus has been reduced to 60 (from 100).
• The Poverty Bonus is now added when clans have < 30k gold. The less they have the bigger the bonus up to a maximum of 30. The exact formula to determine the bonus is [30 - (Clan Gold / 1000)], so if a clan has 20k gold they get 10 points, if a clan has 10k gold they get 20 points, etc.
• The Player Bonus is a flat 30 point bonus that only applies to the player clan.

The Player Bonus + Capturer Bonus now equals the bonus that the faction ruler gets from the Ruler Bonus, so those will cancel each other out if the player captured the fief.

Unfortunately, the issues with the newly captured fief being included in the Distance Factor calculations, and the value of the captured fief being included in the total value of all the clan's fiefs (meaning it gets counted twice for rulers), are both still present.

I don't know what the status of that issue is, whether it's intentionally being kept that way, or if it was just forgotten about. Keep in mind that these two factors somewhat balance each other out, since the value of the captured fief will reduce the faction ruler's Merit Score, while the distance factor will increase the Merit Score. [Fixed with a recent hotfix]

Here is a link to the equation as it was in 1.4.2 as a comparison.

So culture isn't a factor but being the leader of the capturing army is.

 

[Goyyyio]

It's easy as this: cultures don't matter in this game

 

[RozBritanicus]

I think relationship with the ruler and faction should matter more.

 

[Doofus]

As an update, next war against Southern Empire I took Syronea (which was next to my castle)...nope didn't give it to me. Then I took Onira, which isn't next to anything I own...yeah, OK, I can have that. Then our kingdom took back Melion Castle which keeps getting traded back and forth. Oh sure, I can have that, don't give it to the guy that previously owned it. So now I have 4 empire properties with only 2 empire governors (the 2 spouses). Couldn't bother to give me Sturgian stuff that my culture matches (& yes, one of the Sturgian towns has already rebelled).

In case anyone's wondering, I'm a guy & I hire ladies as companions. None of the ladies I found have empire culture, although I'll level soon & make a point of trying to track down an empire lady companion. According to the encyclopedia there's 3 of them out there.

 

[MostBlunted]

Most stuff you think in this game doesn´t matter at all. Sure some things influences some other things but mostly it´s like:

"thing Y x 0,00000000024 + 350 random stuff * 1,24 random stuff = random result"

Often said still true: The game is deep as a puddle but tries to seem as deep as an ocean. That´s why TWs decision to give the player as few control as possible over stuff is even more wrong that it would be if this game wouldn´t be about 99% random stuff happening.