SP - General [FEEDBACK] Impossible campaigns...

[iimstevo]

After a while, I thought "Hey, I'm doing pretty well here. Maybe now I can found a Kingdom..."

After two in-game days of having a Kingdom:

How is anyone expected to compete with that? I've only just founded a Kingdom and I'm at war with 4 Kingdoms immediately.
Is the intent behind this game to make it so unplayable that you're just limited to playing as a clan permanently?

Oh and I tried to persuade someone to join me... they have 63 relation with me, and -1 with their King. They own one fief... but I don't even get 5%~ of the persuasion bar with 200k gold.

In case it isn't clear;
The suggestion here is to fix your terrible game mechanic for what determines how the AI declares war - and even more so, who they deem a bigger threat. They're all at war with each other, yet they ALL go after me!??

 

[StaceMcGate]

So with this, I've noticed that the declarations of war are almost random. Going back to autosaves before the declaration was made yielded interesting results. They just didn't declare war on me, and instead declared war on another bordering kingdom. If you find yourself in this situation when creating a new kingdom, I'd recommend creating multiple save-states. Cheap yes, but the only solution I can think of at present to remedy this impossible situation.

That said, when creating a new Kingdom, you ideally want as few neighbors as possible. AI doesn't consider warfare with distant kingdoms unless they think they can get automatic tribute out of the deal. The planning ahead phase also means luring as many vassals towards your towns before the declaration is made so you can ambush and imprison them. You also want the kingdom you plan on defecting from to be stuck in a war away from your towns, so you can wittle them down and hopefully create a gray peace agreement with.

 

[StaceMcGate]

I think in the future if you could plan a coup with other dissatisfied clans beforehand, it would alleviate the massive power imbalance you are in at the start of making your own kingdom.

 

[iimstevo]

So with this, I've noticed that the declarations of war are almost random. Going back to autosaves before the declaration was made yielded interesting results. They just didn't declare war on me, and instead declared war on another bordering kingdom. If you find yourself in this situation when creating a new kingdom, I'd recommend creating multiple save-states. Cheap yes, but the only solution I can think of at present to remedy this impossible situation.

That said, when creating a new Kingdom, you ideally want as few neighbors as possible. AI doesn't consider warfare with distant kingdoms unless they think they can get automatic tribute out of the deal. The planning ahead phase also means luring as many vassals towards your towns before the declaration is made so you can ambush and imprison them. You also want the kingdom you plan on defecting from to be stuck in a war away from your towns, so you can wittle them down and hopefully create a gray peace agreement with.

Yeah, I wasn't in a Kingdom to begin with. I'm just a run-of-the-mill clan looking to win some big battles with small numbers. It's hard, but its fun when it comes off. I don't consider 4 1500 strong armies at my door step 4 days into a Kingdom a "big battle with small numbers", or fair, or even remotely realistic - especially since when I wipe out three of them with 143 units, and have to restock my army with recruits, for the fourth, scrape through that, and then have more 800+ armies to deal with from the people I literally just defeated.

It's just a really, really, really, really, really bad game mechanic that they've cleared messed up somewhere.
It's done it on all my saves, this one just takes the biscuit as I intentionally waited for the main quest to time out first before going down that route - I originally thought it was only to do with the quest, but it turns out, its just a bad game mechanic "Oh, the player has a Kingdom now? Lets force all factions to simultaneously wage war against it."

 

[StaceMcGate]

Yeah, I wasn't in a Kingdom to begin with. I'm just a run-of-the-mill clan looking to win some big battles with small numbers. It's hard, but its fun when it comes off. I don't consider 4 1500 strong armies at my door step 4 days into a Kingdom a "big battle with small numbers", or fair, or even remotely realistic - especially since when I wipe out three of them with 143 units, and have to restock my army with recruits, for the fourth, scrape through that, and then have more 800+ armies to deal with from the people I literally just defeated.

It's just a really, really, really, really, really bad game mechanic that they've cleared messed up somewhere.
It's done it on all my saves, this one just takes the biscuit as I intentionally waited for the main quest to time out first before going down that route - I originally thought it was only to do with the quest, but it turns out, its just a bad game mechanic "Oh, the player has a Kingdom now? Lets force all factions to simultaneously wage war against it."

This is especially bad as they don't declare war on rebel factions. You'd think a city revolting and becoming independent would led to a mad dash for everyone trying to grab it, but its not the case.

As for now, I don't see this situation improving until Diplomacy is an actual thing and not just a device used for declaring war or making peace. Until then, either reload until you get more favorable outcomes or pay tribute out the ass. It's usually only around 100k for peace for the kingdom you're defecting from if you use the barter system.

Hopefully we can get more rebellion mechanics in the future like:
1) Scouting out other potential defectors and having them join your cause beforehand. Perhaps future promises of fiefs would be your bartering tool and if you don't fulfill your promises within a certain timeframe they see that as a deal breaker.
2) Signing backroom deals with other rulers, having them promise aid if you rebel. Once you defect, they declare war on your previous allies.
3) Other Kingdoms don't declare war until they see you as an authentic kingdom, if they don't declare war on rebel towns they shouldn't immediately gun for you.

 

[kapko]

This is why I always start my kingdom in top of Vlandia or Western Sturgia (Revyl or Warcheg) - far away from the Khuzait hordes and relatively isolated so I have to fight at most 3 kingdoms at once. Another good position is in the middle of the Aserai desert, but people will still declare war on you if you get to the sea and you are closer to the Khuzaits.

Since we do not have anything in terms of diplomacy, this is really good way of going around it.