Thoughts on the vassals and dynasty System
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After watching CA's new developer video yesterday, I'm becoming increasingly concerned that the vassal system in Medieval III won't feel immersive or historically authentic, and that it will end up functioning very similarly to the system from Rome II and Attila, which was never particularly popular.
While I can imagine CA's system working reasonably well for factions such as England, Byzantium, or the Italian city-states, I'm worried that it will feel completely ahistorical when applied to France and the Holy Roman Empire. If Conrad of Hohenstaufen is King of Germany, does that mean the Welfs or the King of Bohemia are simply characters within the same faction? Do you directly control how they manage their cities and what units they recruit? Are the Counts of Toulouse and Aquitaine just part of France?
From my perspective, another issue is that France and the Holy Roman Empire would then start the game with dozens of provinces under their direct control. Unless you're specifically looking for the Western Roman Empire experience from Attila, that's not exactly the kind of starting position most players tend to enjoy.
I hope CA fills both realms with large numbers of "external vassals" to address this problem, or at the very least significantly limits the player's control over provinces and characters belonging to subordinate rulers.
Am I misunderstanding something, or are my concerns justified? What are your thoughts?