Potential Character Values: Respect, Honor, Trust, And Fear

How do Opinions and other social variables impact game play and how a character is perceived?

Respect, Honor, Trust, Fear

Currently Opinion is distinct from Fear or Respect in the code. Respect might be renamed Honor or those might end up distinct variables with moderately different effects on diplomacy and politics. Trust is another variable I am considering. High Trust or Honor might allow for different reactions. Will a character or population be more likely to accept a surrender if they trust you? You can promise things in a treaty and while that will have distinct effects on acceptance there is also a modifier regarding whether people believe you will keep your word.

I talked about vows/oaths/promises/commitments in a previous post. While direct actions like oaths have effects treaties are sort of oaths implicitly and the AI will remember, to some degree, whether you did as you said in or out of treaties. Similarly if you make a V/O/P/C/T and you have secrets which could impact your credibility that can have ramifications on the game. Compared to CK3 or Star Dynasties I really wanted Secrets, and Desires, to be a key part of roleplay and character interactions and the DIP simulation. They are relevant to nearly every area of gameplay.

Character Interaction

These ancillary Opinion impacting variables are quite important. Respect and Fear are somewhat opposed but they can work in concert, too. Fear is generated when you make threats and successfully follow through, as well as through ruthless or evil actions. So in CK2 Byzantines can blind, castrate, and torture people. Those kinds of harsh punishments would be strong fear generators. Successfully deposing another character would generate moderate fear, depending on if you banished, executed, or imprisoned them.

Respect is about morally upright and merciful action. Depending on how you play it they can complement each other. Best friends, worst enemies type stuff. But you could also just be purely ruthless.

Honor and Trust related to keeping your word. They might end up combined into one mechanic. So upholding treaties, maintaining vows, and so forth.

If they are separate then Honor would probably be related to implicitly righteous action. Don’t hurt family members, respect rightful authority, that kind of thing. Like supporting your rightful liege in a war even if it goes badly or a bit of naivete of action, Stark style to use a GoT example.

Trust is about keeping your word and promises you actively made. Honor might involve following the ideology of your people and polity, like military action in a militaristic society, while trust is about personal follow through. Alliances you make, agreements or vows solely about your own actions, and so forth. Trust can be generated in implicitly dishonorable activities like between conspiracy members.

Suppose you break your word to a person you are in a conspiracy with. They out you, either generally or to a select group. You lose Honor and Trust. But if you are outed by a fellow member for some reason just for the conspiracy you could gain Trust and they’d lose it, but you’d both lose Honor.

Goals

A key part of what I want to do with Axioms is increase the detail and fidelity, and verisimilitude of the simulation and experience with a minimum of complexity added. Of course the game will be some amount more complex. But my ideal mechanic handles the largest variety of actions/options in the most elegant way. It is somewhat easier as a fantasy game. Paradox has much more rigid mechanics for specific societies while I can make mine a bit more flexible. A proper emergent combination between a few flexible mechanics can simulate Rome as well as other cultures naturally. Additionally making mechanics legible to the player is important. To allow a system that enables both Roman/Macedonian/Ottoman levels of expansion as well as avoids making snowball blobbing less likely requires a more granular and combinatorial system but the upside is as noted reducing hard coded specific and rigid mechanics for any given culture.