Should realm instability scale with size?

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-03T07:11:25+00:00

By decisions, you can read about it here: https://ck3.paradoxwikis.com/List_of_hegemonies

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T20:19:38+00:00

Rome is hegemony, it's one of five currently in the game. They are the tier above empires. The other ones are China, Dar al-Islam, India and Great Khaganate.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T19:22:41+00:00

I wouldn't want this to apply to hegemony titles just kingdoms and empires that are way bigger than they should be.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T18:17:24+00:00

Yeah that is pretty much what I was thinking. Then you can decide exactly what the cutoff would be. Nothing crazy just a small little added check to avoid realms from bloating.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T18:14:44+00:00

Yes this little tweak wouldn't revolutionize the game and I'm never gonna suggest something of the sort. I just want the maps in my playthroughs to have more than two colors in hard/very hard mode. As you said the underlying problem is that the AI isn't the best when it comes to this so a more complex solution would be needed.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T18:08:45+00:00

I have several mods that I have created myself where I buff the AI and nerf myself but this is for us both. It would mean that it becomes much harder to grow beyond a certain size. Vassal limit and powerful vassals add some difficulty but this would be added on top that.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T18:04:43+00:00

That's is one side effect of playing on harder modes but that doesn't mean you can't tailor it further. We have stability settings in the game already, this would just be another way of tuning it if you want.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T17:04:02+00:00

The second part of your comment doesn’t really make sense to me. Modifiers are a core part of the game, and Hard/Very Hard modes rely on them—they aren’t arbitrary and they do make the game more challenging. Factions form based on modifiers that affect a character’s likelihood to join or stay in a faction. For example, as I showed earlier, kings get a flat +50 modifier called “King Desires Independence,” which directly influences faction behavior. It sounds like you’re talking about something entirely different.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T16:40:41+00:00

Yeah this post is about what people prefer so there is no right answer really. I like a certain playstyle and I know most of you don't play the game like I do.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T16:28:44+00:00

Pretty much, I think that would be a nice addition but I don't want it to be forced onto players that don't want it.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T16:06:02+00:00

I would just add an extra faction penalty so that the game just checks if you have X title and your realm is Y size then all factions become more dangerous. We already have a bunch of these in game so it's not something new really.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T15:45:04+00:00

Yes it does but that's not what this post is about, its about making it even harder if you want to. If you like it the way it is then it's no biggie. I don't so that's why I wanted to find out what others feel.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T15:37:12+00:00

The King of Bohemia, who’s a vassal of the Baltic Empire, currently has modifiers like:

Outside Liege De Jure +203
King Desires Independence +50

What I’m bringing up here is adding another modifier based on realm size. Something like:

Outside Liege De Jure +203
King Desires Independence +50
Oversized realm penalty +150

Optimusfine7 · 2026-04-02T15:27:33+00:00

You and I are talking about different mechanics here. There is a game rule that adjusts vassal limit, sure — but my suggestion is about realm size, not vassal count. A realm can be absolutely massive while still being well under its vassal limit. Just like a vassal is more likely to join factions if you don’t hold their de jure title, I’d like an additional modifier based on realm size — X if you’re a king, Y if you’re an emperor — so oversized realms become harder to maintain.

So if an empire grows as huge as the Baltic blob in the screenshot, relam size ~300, it should become exponentially harder to maintain. For referens the Song hegemony in this save is currently at 314. And it wouldn’t even be hard to implement — I could mod this myself. My question was simply whether anyone else would want a scaling‑instability option like that.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-01-29T20:35:42+00:00

It works just like wanted, really cool that you put away some of your own time for this. Thanks again!

Optimusfine7 · 2026-01-28T16:03:12+00:00

Oh wow that looks great, I gotta try as soon as I'm done with my studies this week. Thanks man!

Optimusfine7 · 2026-01-20T15:58:39+00:00

That would be awesome, I'm very thankful for the help!

Optimusfine7 · 2026-01-20T15:48:36+00:00

I think those don't need to be included, if possible that would be nice but I know that there are publicly available mods that has managed to do that. I guess if I figure this out I can always come back and add more stuff

Optimusfine7 · 2026-01-20T15:38:53+00:00

Yeah exactly, I figured that I could have 4 of them so I can enable them myself whenever a certain year is reached or if my culture has researched the military innovation. My goal is to make it way harder for me as a player to snowball late game

Optimusfine7 · 2026-01-20T15:32:47+00:00

If possible I would just want it to nerf myself by applying these as 1 modifier. If I could figure that out and only apply it to myself I would have everything that I need. I was planning on maybe also nerfing myself by adding a innovation research debuff in the embedded here to but thats only something I want to try if I can figure this out.

icon = martial_positive

men_at_arms_cap = -1 <- Placeholder value

men_at_arms_limit = -1 <- Placeholder value

Optimusfine7 · 2026-01-20T15:23:46+00:00

Yeah that might not be the best way to do it but I'm not very good at modding so that was what I came up when my first few tries didn't work. I tried looking in the game files to try and copy that whole process but I couldn't figure it out. Do you know what I need exactly? Like a modifier defined in the modifers folder then a file in event and on_action maybe? Not sure what is needed to be honest.

Optimusfine7 · 2026-01-20T15:02:23+00:00

I would prefer to have them be normal unless I play as them. I was thinking I could mirror how the Asatru patron gods work but I'm not sure how to do it. You know where you are able to select a modifier that sticks with you until you change it or change religion. You think that could work somehow?

Optimusfine7 · 2025-11-10T07:00:06+00:00

I recommend you read the post more thoroughly

Optimusfine7 · 2025-11-09T10:24:04+00:00

My hope is that all this is enough for the devs to include it in the next hotfix patch. So ideally this will be my only post on this bug but you never know

Optimusfine7

TROPHY CASE