[mod add-on] Harem Politics

[celyver]

DOWNLOAD LINKS BELOW!

 

Hello everyone! A few months ago, I said I was working on character relationships in a harem where you could have spouses and concubines. I have worked in an interaction, a decision and a couple of events. There are more things to come.

 

NOTE: This mod requires you to have the Harem Doctrines mod by @Elaugaufein. (Paradox: https://mods.paradoxplaza.com/mods/51143/Any Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2873545950).

 

An event:

 

 

 

A special interaction:

 

 

 

And a new decision inspired by spouse selection in the Ottoman Empire, Russia and China:

 

 

LINKS:

• Paradox: https://mods.paradoxplaza.com/mods/56115/Any
• Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916241472
• Paradox Thread (I explain the details of what it has): https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/beta-mod-harem-politics.1564794/

 

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by celyver

[Niccotine]

looks cool chief

[UnknownWind]

I like idea!

[Ensirath]

Oh this looks really good. Can't wait for it. 

 

Edit: I came up with some ideas for harem politics here in this post if you want some inspiration. 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by Ensirath

[celyver]

Update! Just uploaded the mod.

 

LINKS:

• Paradox: https://mods.paradoxplaza.com/mods/56115/Any
• Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916241472
• Paradox Thread (I explain the details of what it has): https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/beta-mod-harem-politics.1564794/

[celyver]

12 hours ago, Ensirath said:

Oh this looks really good. Can't wait for it. 

 

Edit: I came up with some ideas for harem politics here in this post if you want some inspiration. 

 

 

Thanks! Will take a look 

[Elaugaufein]

Had a quick look and some thoughts:

 

Firstly, I'm impressed by how thorough this is.   However I do have a bit of hopefully constructive feedback:

 

The Bride Show candidate descriptions have a lot of signs that they were written for females (curtsying and there's a lot of feminine coded mannerisms).  You should probably either use the gender detection to alter these or mix in some more masculine coded mannerisms. 

 

The game provides mechanisms to reuse text (or to slide around the custom character reference in a scene, as you transfer between event stages) so that you don't have to explicitly spell out the same text multiple times. Same with code where you can use scripted triggers / effects to avoid doing the same check.   If you want some pointers on this I can give you some examples in the code where Paradox has done this.

 

There's already a trigger in Harem Doctrines for 1.8 to check if someone has the parameter which allows concubines for either cultural or religious reasons, so you don't have to do the OR stuff yourself. 

 

You should probably take into account how the religion feels about Personality Traits (and maybe the interaction between any traits a Child has with a potential parent / guardian) eg while it makes sense that a child will probably want a compassionate guardian even if the religion doesn't favour that and the child isn't compassionate,  perhaps an bossy child would prefer an Arrogant parent, or a child may want a guardian with a trait that there religion favours even if it would usually be regarded as negative/neutral. 

 

As it stands you can demote a spouse to concubine and then set them aside without any problem, even if divorce should require approval.  There should probably be a cost (prestige or piety maybe for demoting a spouse in such a situation) or cooldown on this (like an opinion modifier that prevents you setting aside a demoted concubine for a while unless you have a valid imprisonment reason or similar) .

Edited January 11, 2023 by Elaugaufein

[celyver]

Many thanks for your feedback!

 

Yes, I expected that feedback. English isn't my native language. We use the same word for the gestures that men and women do when greeting or bidding farewell to an authority in my language, even if those gestures are not the same. I read the term curtsy in a formal setting, so I thought it was neutral. I'll see how to use a more neutral language.

 

As for the triggers, I took a look when doing the bride show event. I used the "Medieval Tinder" event as reference to select potential candidates. Yet, so many triggers confused me and I couldn't make them work, so I re-used the same triggers in events that didn't require them. It would be better to use the scripted triggers as to improve performance though, so I will try that again.

 

And thanks! I'll take a look on the parameter triggers.

 

For the child, I was thinking the same when doing the ai_chance script. I still allowed it because I was desperate to finish before I get too busy with other responsibilities. I think I will link it more to personality traits and ai_zeal. Children are less driven by religions, so it makes sense. Yet, a zealous child would rather die than having adoptive parent of different religion, even if the parent is compassionate.

 

11 hours ago, Elaugaufein said:

As it stands you can demote a spouse to concubine and then set them aside without any problem, even if divorce should require approval.  There should probably be a cost (prestige or piety maybe for demoting a spouse in such a situation) or cooldown on this (like an opinion modifier that prevents you setting aside a demoted concubine for a while unless you have a valid imprisonment reason or similar) .

Regarding this, I only made the demoting interaction visible if your faith allows for divorce at will. If you need approval, the interaction won't show up:

 

	is_shown = {
		scope:actor.faith = {
			# We are not required to seek approval of a spiritual HoF
			NAND = {
				has_doctrine = doctrine_divorce_approval
				has_doctrine = doctrine_spiritual_head
				exists = religious_head
			}
			# We are not required to seek approval of a house head
			NAND = {
				has_doctrine = doctrine_divorce_approval
				exists = scope:actor.house
				exists = scope:actor.house.house_head
				scope:actor = { is_house_head = no }
			}
		}

 

Yet, I didn't test it with characters whose faiths require divorce approval. I'll take a look to verify.

 

One thing is for sure: demoting is very cheap. It costs the same as a divorce, so I plan on increasing the cost, especially if you're demoting a primary spouse or choosing a new one. In some societies, choosing a different main spouse was seen as a symbol of instability or that the ruler was being influenced by another consort, so the costs should be higher. I also want to reduce the level of fame of the demoted consort because it's obvious that they'll lose fame if you're demoted.

 

Thanks for the feedback! ?

 

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by celyver

[Elaugaufein]

Ahh. you're probably fine then, I was looking at the code for resolving the interaction (which allows it) rather than displaying the interaction.