Clans and Politics

Hi,

One of the aspect that could have been introduce as a post launch content for 3K or perhaps for future 3K2, is a clan mechanic. Clans in ancient China played a huge role in reshaping the political landscape of the period. We saw how the He Clan caused the decline of the Han Court (Empress He & He Jin). Without the aid of the Mi Clan, Liu Bei would not have achieved greatness and of course the emergence of the Sima Clan to replace the Cao Wei dynasty with the Jin Dynasty.

Suggestions:

1. Any characters that hold the top 3 court positions (PM, Grand Excellency & Grand Commandant) long enough will automatically create a Noble Clan. Noble clans may also be created once player or AI becomes King or Emperor. Max 5 clans and it offers both benefits & dilemmas. Clans cannot be replaced once it reached maximum capacity unless purged. Purging clans will have consequences to public order, administrative upkeep, diplomatic attitude and loyalty issues.

2. The noble clan is very similar to the family tree but exclusive for retainers. Adoption & expulsion are possible. Marriage and spawning new characters.

3. Noble clans have few ranks. The higher it goes, it will unlock new features but also new dilemmas. Tier 5 - Lesser Known, Tier 4 - Known, Tier 3 - Respected, Tier 2 - Highly Respected, Tier 1 - Devoted. Higher rank clans are harder & more expensive to purge.

4. Why level up clans ? Higher tier clans will produce better quality pool of characters. Higher tier clans may also create specialised clan armies that has better morale, cheaper upkeep & reduced muster time but at the cost of losing control if they rebel. Player will need to play politics to balance the influence of these clans. 

4.1 Why Purge ? Higher tier clans may make expensive demands, blackmail and cause other nuisances but also a threat to a full-scale rebellion. Therefore, it is up to the player to choose whether to purge an unorganized rebellion or choose to fight a full-scale rebellion. This can also be random, meaning that higher tier clan might not rebel given the circumstances. The choice is the player's.

5. Clan prestige as a resource. The more prestige, the more effective their bonuses but also higher the threat to the ruling family. Prestige can be earned through civil appointments, clan generals winning battles, marriage to the ruling family and events.

Conclusion, clans & politics will provide a good synergy to the existing court system, family tree as well as the character mechanic. It fills that empty void in 3K whereby famous characters were left without family tree & also the lacked of politics and civil war.

If this did not made it to the base game for 3K2. I hope they do take into consideration for a potential post launch content. Thanks for reading.

This could work in conjunction with more attention paid to dynastic marriages. The marriage mechanic is pretty strong in current 3K but mostly as a way of collecting characters or adding signficiant stability bonuses (+5 PO and +25 satisfaction faction-wide is absolutely huge). 

If marrying a clan into the ruling clan brought all that clan's characters and administered regions extra stability but caused jealousy and extra corruption for the other clans while the clan of the Faction Leader's spouse was quite important and the Faction Heir's choice to curry favor from the father or mother clan also had political implications.