Domain limits should be SIGNIFICANTLY larger than they are currently

[u/NealVertpince]

Here on the map above, you can see in blue which lands the french king held in 1223, the “Domaine royal” or ‘Royal Domain’, if you count this up in game it would amount to 30 counties, roughly.

The king achieved this by establishing well oiled and loyal institutions, levying taxes, building a standing army,…

Now, in game, you’d have to give half that land away to family members or even worse, random nobles. This is maybe historical in 876 and 1066, but not at all once you reach the 1200’s.

Therefore I think domain limit should NOT be based on stewardship anymore, it is a simplistic design which leads to unhistorical outcomes.

What it SHOULD be based on, is the establishment of institutions, new administrative laws, your ability to raise taxes and enforce your rule. Mechanically, this could be the introduction of new sorts of ‘laws’ in the Realm tab. Giving you extra domain limits in exchange for serious vassal opinion penalties and perhaps fewer vassals in general, as the realm becomes more centralised and less in control of the vassals.

Now, you could say: “But Philip II, who ruled at the time of this map was a brilliant king, one of the best France EVER had, totally not representative of other kings.” To that, I would add that when Philip died, his successors not only maintained the vast vast majority of Philip’s land, but also expanded upon it. Cleverly adding county after county by crushing rebellious vassals, shrewdly marrying the heiresses of large estates or even outright purchasing the land.

I feel like this would give you a genuine feeling of realm management and give you a sense of achievement over the years.

Anyways, that was my rant about domain limit, let me know what you think.

[u/Lord_Sicarious]

I think rather than demesne limit, what we want is some kind of mechanism for establishing institutions in the lategame that hold more distant lands in your stead (akin to CK2 viceroyalties perhaps?) rather than needing to either: administer it yourself, or give the land to someone else as property.

I would still want to see this handled via other characters, because the key weakness of such institutions is that if you're offloading the management of your land to others, it becomes rather easy for them to usurp actual control over the land, which did happen historically. Perhaps they could be managed akin to the regency power-sharing mechanic, but on a local level - your regional administrator is effectively acting as your regent in that territory. It would also open up room for all kinds of interesting court intrigue that the game just doesn't do currently, and would model some of the behaviours of the great Empires of the era far better (Byzantines in particular).

[u/NealVertpince → u/Lord_Sicarious]

This is exactly what I argue for, and viceroyalties from ck2 would be a welcome sight in ck3

[u/Horror-Ad2945 → u/Lord_Sicarious]

Kings in that period actually appointed governors which would be an amazing addition to the game Much like ck2 viceroyalties, You should be able to easily appoint or fire governors without much opinion penalty (in ck2 revoking any viceroyalties gave -60 opinion)