It just seems odd to me... (Takeovers)

[Lorgan]

One way I could see this working is give each realm it's own culture, and then the culture can be spread by ambassadors, allowing for claims to be made on foreign regions or ambassador wars escalating into real wars.

[Indirik]

Don't we already have this, with the sympathy stat? How would this differ from that?

[Lorgan]

Don't we already have this, with the sympathy stat? How would this differ from that?

Nobody is going to say "Your peasants like us, give us your region!" and expect to get away with it. But to free your own people from the yoke of another culture, who may just have been oppressing your own age-old traditions, that's generally a more acceptable casus belli.

P.S.: Also I'd limit it to regions adjacent to regions with your predominant culture already. It'd make for war on a smaller scale as if you go to war with that casus belli, it's harder to explain pushing much further.

[Kwanstein]

Historically, culture has proven to be very resilient. Over the course of decades, the Russian Empire attempted to assimilate many of the cultures amidst it's captured territories; however this proved ineffective, and today Russia is still one of the most multicultural countries in the world. Battlemaster cultures are crudely modelled after the likes of which the Russian Empire sought to destroy, therefore it doesn't make sense that they could be exchanged so easily, in such a short amount of time, purely through the works of a single diplomat.

[Anaris]

If anything like this were to happen, cultures would not be added with any particular relation to current realm borders. They would be added with relation to geographic borders.

This means that, for instance, it is likely that the island with Madina on it would have one culture, and the western mainland up to the Zuma area would have another.

Culture is not created by nobles. It can be influenced by them, but you can't just state that "because our realm has conquered all the regions out to here, that means that all these regions share the same culture!"

[Lorgan]

Well, no... I was looking at it from a gameplay point of view to create more conflict. I don't think there will be more conflict if the cultures are fixed to geographic regions.

[Penchant]

Well, no... I was looking at it from a gameplay point of view to create more conflict. I don't think there will be more conflict if the cultures are fixed to geographic regions.

Exactly and anyways realms have controlled most of their regions to have a culture put in place in all of them already.

[Indirik]

Something like this would have to be something that could be changed over time.

But... I'm still not sure if this is just needlessly over-complicating things. What does this really add to the game, beyond frustration for conquerors, and supporting the status quo? Seems like it would just be another means of making wars harder.

[Anaris]

Well, no... I was looking at it from a gameplay point of view to create more conflict. I don't think there will be more conflict if the cultures are fixed to geographic regions.

I didn't say it would be fixed to geographic regions. I said that's how it would start.

Something like this would have to be something that could be changed over time.

But... I'm still not sure if this is just needlessly over-complicating things. What does this really add to the game, beyond frustration for conquerors, and supporting the status quo? Seems like it would just be another means of making wars harder.

Yeah; I do like the idea, as an idea, but I'm really not sure it's something that would add enough to BM at the moment to be worthwhile.

[Foundation]

Responding to the OP, seems like abandoning them to the enemy isn't exactly loyalty inspiring.

[Lefanis]

You want the culture okf a region to be permanent and unchanging? I.e. take the current relams as they stand, and say "these are the natural borders of realms, and trying to do any different will be increasingly difficult"?

Also, not only would this make it more difficult for large realms to take regions from small realms, it would also make it nearly impossible for small realms to take things from bigger realms.

No, I meant make it based on the climate zones or geographic zones. Not the realms.  If the realm covers multiple culture zones, its becomes difficult for it to appease the different cultures. So, harder to maintain big realms, plus an incentive to run smaller realms. Realm is assigned an accepted culture based on the culture in its capital so while it may encompass many cultural regions, only one culture group enjoys first class status.

If a realm, say Simville, is small in such a scenario, it'd likely be because a larger realm like Badville had taken regions from Simville's culture group. So it's easier for Simville to retake those regions, because the peasants just like em more. Unless of course, both realms have the same primary culture.

[Lefanis]

Historically, culture has proven to be very resilient. Over the course of decades, the Russian Empire attempted to assimilate many of the cultures amidst it's captured territories; however this proved ineffective, and today Russia is still one of the most multicultural countries in the world. Battlemaster cultures are crudely modelled after the likes of which the Russian Empire sought to destroy, therefore it doesn't make sense that they could be exchanged so easily, in such a short amount of time, purely through the works of a single diplomat.

+1

[Indirik]

I dislike setting up pre-defined areas of "culture" that help define what should be realm boundaries. That is counter to the long-standing policy of letting the realms develop however they want, and however they can. We're not interested in incentivizing small realms, or making it hard to maintain larger realms.

Again, I really don't see what big, positive change this brings to Battlemaster.