Treason Bug

[Lok]

Bug description: Basically, as the game progresses, lords slowly become dissatisfied with their ruler and the ruler eventually indicts them of treason, which causes other lords to become dissatisfied in a death spiral that cripples the kingdom.

How to reproduce it/when/why it happens: Lords becomes dissatisfied with their ruler fairly easily in this game, but the thing that really causes it to accelerate occurs when lords defect or join another kingdom, usually after a kingdom starts losing land and lords become dissatisfied because they don't hold any fief. When the lord joins a new kingdom, their relationship with the new ruler is for example 0 and continues to go down so long as they don't get a fief (and some lords, depending on their personality, lose relation every time someone else gets a fief); it usually takes a few days for a ruler to hand out a fief, so if multiple lords join that kingdom, it's easy to see how lords can lose relations. Eventually, when their relation is low enough, the ruler will indict that lord of treason, which causes every other lord to lose I think -2 relation. When enough lords gets indicted for treason, eventually most everyone starts defecting or getting indicted for treason and the whole cycle happens again but at a faster rate each time until kingdoms are left with several unoccupied fiefs and every lord hates each ruler. The strange thing is, eventually lords who get indicted of treason will flee to the very same kingdom they just came from, so treasons get handed out pretty much everyday. This only happens on "Normal War" since lords cannot defect or join other kingdoms on "Static War".

I think reducing the relation drop when lords are indicted with treason should be lower or completely negated and lords should stop joining the same kingdom they got thrown out of. Rulers imo take too long to hand out fiefs. Relation drops should be lower or removed for lords with personalities that cause them to lose relation every time they don't get a fief.

Screenshot of bug happening: https://prnt.sc/gqiyuw
There's also a script error that occurs every time a lord gets indicted for treason and you can see Yara Greyjoy of the Reach fleeing to the Reach. Everyday there's probably at least one lord getting indicted for treason. As a bonus I also took the screenshot with caravans/farmers getting stuck at Hag's Mire Ferry going back and forth from Pyke.

Here's a screenshot of my Faction Relations Report around 650 days into the game: https://prnt.sc/gqiy26
You can see all the other factions have over half their fiefs unoccupied, making it very easy to take their land and defeat their lords since lords without fiefs usually have low troops. The problem started showing signs as early as a few hundred days into the game, it's just that now I've grown too powerful because all the other kingdoms keep losing lords and they all join me. I never fought the Reach and they haven't had a war with anyone for several hundred days and you can see they self-destructed, nobody has fiefs and everyone hates Mace Tyrell. Even when I reject lords, some lords will still flee to my kingdom and become part of it even if they hate me, probably because they have nowhere else to go.

v1.172 steam version, AWOIF v2.0 and updated to v2.1
I didn't use any tweaks or cheats (I have it disabled), I used the 4GB patch on the .exe file.
Intel i5-6600k 3.2GHz
16GB RAM
Windows 10 64 bit OS
Sapphire Nitro Radeon R9 380 4GB

[H3YimDR3W]

Hi there, are you using Static Wars on your save?

I'm on my 8th playthrough, 50% of which are 300-400 days+ and I have NEVER seen a lord betray his liege. P.S I have only ever played static wars because I like the lore feel of it.

[Lok]

Yes this is on normal war, I mentioned this at the end of the 2nd paragraph.

[H3YimDR3W]

Sorry, I must have missed the bit about it being on normal wars.... I don't know if you've ever played Native Warband past 650 days as well but it isn't uncommon that if a nation is at war for 600+ days (nearly 2 years) the lords/ladys of that nation would be fed up with the fighting and want to change to another side.

I will start a new game on normal wars to try and grasp just how bad this is, I hope I can recreate your kind of situation so that I can understand fully what the issue is!

This may be better posted in the suggestions thread rather than here on the Bugs section, it isn't necessarily a bug more as an annoyance from a game mechanic that is working as  intended.

[Lok]

I played native warband awhile ago and remember that most lords eventually leave the continent, so I understand this is somewhat normal, but the problem here is that lords do not leave Westeros, they continue to join the same faction they got kicked out of over and over again which makes every lord of that kingdom lose relation with the ruler until even the most loyal and easy to please lords get indicted of treason, where they eventually join me, a ruler who doesn't indict everyone of treason and knows how to keep lords happy and I can hand out fiefs instantly instead of every 3-4 days like the ai. I played up to 750 days after posting this and maybe every 12 ingame hours, a lord gets indicted of treason, often times every major faction indicts a lord each day. This may not necessarily be a bug, but it's definitely game breaking like a bug and should be fixed.

If you really want to see how bad this can get, wipe out a faction or two (this usually happens to Dragonstone and Westerland without you doing anything). I believe this will happen no matter what and it's just a matter of time because it's so easy to lose relations with some lords and the ai isn't smart enough to mitigate those losses.

[H3YimDR3W]

I have played 7 hours in game on normal wars today, and I can definitely see what you mean, as for fixing this... I'm not sure it's something the developer will need to look at, but as most people here (I would estimate 80% +) play static wars for the Lore feel I am sceptical as to whether it would be worth the resources and time to change.

[Lok]

I don't think it will be too difficult to fix, at least lessen it's effects, just need someone who knows how to script. I would fix it myself but when I look at the script.txt document, I can't understand what each number means and I don't know any tools online which is compatible with AWOIAF that would make the script readable for me. The main things I would fix would be:

-lower relation drops for treason and when lords don't get a fief for lords with personalities that's not Upstanding or Good-Natured
-make rulers give fiefs out quicker so lords don't have to wait too long and lose relations because they have no fief
-increase relation boost for lords receiving fiefs
-make lords leave Westeros if there are no kingdoms that want them anymore like in native warband, although I don't like losing lords. Maybe make them join the Night's Watch or something.

I think the main problem here is that there aren't any good or reliable ways for ai rulers to increase relationships other than giving fiefs while there are several ways for them to lose relations.

If that can't be done, they can just make it so lords can't defect or get indicted for treason like in Static Wars.

[H3YimDR3W]

I will take a look tonight (2 hours time) at the script and see if I can amend it, if I can I will post here how to fix it.

Warning: Editing any files within AWOIAF may cause problems.