A simple idea that might solve several issues at once:
- newbie retention
- position turnover
- in-realm political fighting
The idea is this: Make prison time dependent on the character captured:
- simple nobles with no position: 2 days
- knights (nobles with an estate): 3 days
- marshals, stewards, etc: 5 days
- landed nobility (lords): 7 days (as now)
- dukes: 15 days
- government members: 30 days
- rulers: 40 days
The first part should be obvious: Prison is no fun, especially for newcomers. So release them quickly.
The second part is less obvious, but important: Put the high-ranking characters behind bars for really long times. This will achieve several things:
- it will make things like ransoming your king interesting
- it gives ambitious other characters within the realm an opportunity to make their move
- it makes government members high-value targets in a war
It would be fairly easy to code.
Disadvantages:
It'll piss off some old geezers and might make them even more reluctant to start a war.
