Spoiler - Massive update to Faction balance!

- The AI will now no longer join the Increase Council Power faction if they like their Liege 50 or more (down from 80 or more).

- Voter AI's will now be more likely to join Increase Council Power factions the more faction laws are set to 'Ruler', the steps are 2, 4 and 6.

- Non-Voter AI's will be less likely to join Increase Council Power factions the more faction laws are set to 'Council', the steps are 2, 4 and 6.

- The Increase Council Power faction has had its effect doubled (it now enacts two laws).

- The Increase Council Power faction now also revokes one level of 'Vassal Wars' laws.

- The AI is more inclined to join the Increase Council Power faction if their liege has enacted a 'Vassal War' law.



- The AI no longer wants to institute Elective Monarchy unless all council powers are enacted (except for Council Authority).

- The AI is less likely to join the Elective faction if their liege has Gavelkind succession.

- The AI is less likely to join the Elective faction unless their liege is a tyrant.



- The independence faction is more attractive to the AI if their liege is a Tyrant.



- The AI in now more inclined to start and join the Gavelkind faction.

- Discontent Councilors are very inclined to join the Gavelkind faction if the liege does not have all council powers enacted, if all powers are enacted they will prefer the Elective faction.



- The AI is now much more likely to stay by their backed Claimants.

- The AI is slightly more inclined to start factions backing women.

- Having bad opinion of your liege now makes the AI more likely to back a claimant.

- The AI is way more likely to back claimants that are part of their Society.

- The AI is way more likely to back a claimant if their liege is a tyrant.

- The AI is way more likely to back a claimant if they hate their liege.

- Culture is now less of a factor for the AI when backing claimants.

- The AI might join claimant factions even if they themselves have a claim on the same title, but it is still rare.

- The AI will now not back claimants if they like their liege by 40 or more (used to be 50 or more).

- Being a Sayyid/Mirza now only matters if the claimant is also Muslim.

- Having better opinion of the proposed Claimant now matters much more for the AI.

- More traits now affect the AI chances of joining the Claimant faction.

- The AI is now less likely to start another Claimant faction war if their liege is already fighting in another Claimant faction war.



- The Overthrow Liege faction is now unattractive to the AI if it is backing a claimant already.

- The AI will no longer form the Overthrow Liege faction if their liege is not a tyrant.

- The AI will now only use the Overthrow Liege faction if they hate their liege (-40 or lower for most AI's).

- The Overthrow Liege faction will now also enact two Council Power laws upon success.

- The Overthrow Liege faction will now only institute Elective monarchy if all Council Power laws are set to 'Council'.



- The Overthrow Liege faction now revokes any active vassal war laws.

Hi folks, I hope you all had a nice weekend!has now been out for almost a week and we’ve been busy checking out your feedback and bug reports. As usual, some adjustments and additions will be made to the game in the upcoming patch 2.7.1, which should be ready in a few weeks (sorry, can’t be more specific than that.) It’s going to be a fairly substantial update… I can’t share the full patch log yet, but I can tell you about some of the bigger things we’re doing.First off, there will be more risks and drawbacks to being a Devil Worshipper. As has been pointed out, they are a powerful type of Society and the rewards are great while the risks for members are rather low. Among other things, there will be more viciousness between members, a greater risk of discovery, and you’ll run the risk of giving your neighbors a reason to declare Holy War on you.The Hunt Apostates is also being juiced up. The Court Chaplain will now be able to find more than just extremely suspicious characters and the penalties for being branded have been increased. For example, you now also gain a revocation reason on the target. When an apostate is dragged into your throne room, you now get to choose one of three options; let them go free, imprison them or burn them at the stake (something that the AI favors). It’s also possible, albeit rare, for your Court Chaplain to catch characters who are only a bit suspicious, secret members of another religion or - if the Court Chaplain isn’t the most talented - innocent.Next up, the Hermetics will be given a proper use for all those strange Ingredients they can pick up. You will be presented with opportunities to spend various resources in order to improve the outcomes (or negate the negative effects) of a multitude of - mainly - Hermetic events.Another issue related to Societies is that the subversive religious cults are too invisible. The AI will now handle both creating and running the Secret Religious Cults more effectively. Right now, it can feel as if you are the lone actor in the society, but with the patch your fellow AI members will make an effort to contribute. Also, the general costs of certain actions (like evoking sympathy) have been drastically reduced in order to make running the Society more manageable. We also aim to make the secret religious cult system more dynamic.Then there’s the ability to give artifacts to other characters; it might not be something you folks have clamored for, but it was originally planned to be included in the expansion. It is a fairly simple action that gives you an opinion bonus from the more or less grateful recipient (similar to “Send Gift”.) You can only give away artifacts that are considered valuable by the recipient, so no Christian relics to pagans, etc (this is scripted in a new trigger in the artifacts).Lastly, I think you will appreciate the Faction balancing and fixing that Alexander Oltner has been working on for a while on the side. No longer should you see everyone turn into Elective Monarchies and keep that succession law forever. AI characters will now also actually join Claimant factions as members. On a related note, the AI is now better at appointing powerful vassals to the Council.That’s all for now. Next week, there will either be a dev diary on the feature survey results or another one on the subject of patch 2.7.1. Oh, and don’t miss today’s CK2 livestreams, starting at 16:00 CET!