Merchant Republic Overhaul
This mod overhauls the mechanics of Merchant Republics to make them feel like you’re actually playing as a REPUBLIC instead of feudalism-lite.
Maintaining dynastic power of the realm will be much harder in the early game, but as you consolidate power it will end up being far more rewarding. There is even a gateway to casting off the pretense of Republicanism and outright becoming a Feudal Monarchy!
ELECTIONS
Merchant Republics will have elections at periodic intervals, even if the current ruler is still alive.
-By default there will be a new election every 3 years. You can pass laws to increase the election cycle to 6 years or up to 9 years.
-When a ruler’s term is over, they will get an event that lets them lawfully abdicate, illegally stay in power, or find some other way to keep themselves as lord of the realm… this effects human players as well as AI, with AI selecting an option based off of their traits and stats.
-If your dynasty wins an election you will play as your heir who will take control of your republic, but if some other family wins then you will continue playing as your current character in the capacity of patrician of your dynasty.
-Regular/Unplayable Republics Duke-tier and above will have also have periodic elections, though they are locked to a span of 10 years and the ruler will be forced to abdicate.
ADMINISTRATION LAWS
Republics will now be able to pass their own version of the "Late" Administration as well as "Imperial" administration laws, both with features unique to Republics.
-Default Republican Administration makes all dictatorships and re-elections illegal.
-Late Republican Administration lets you legally become a Dictator if you’re at war, as well as seek re-election at the cost of prestige.
-Imperial Republican Administration does away with periodic elections and lets elected lords rule for life. It also gives you access to some unique decisions, and laws previously exclusive to feudals (see below for details).
DICTATORSHIPS
As mentioned above, temporarily elected leaders will be able to seize permanent power in a couple of ways.
-An elected leader can unlawfully declare themselves Dictator any time another Election event fires. They will stay in power until the next election cycle and will suffer a -20 opinion malus from all their vassals, as well as a +1% global revolt risk if they only have the basic Republican Administration law. They can keep themselves in power indefinitely this way, but every election cycle they disregard will cause the -20 opinion malus (and revolt risk) to stack higher and higher.
-If you’re at war and have the Late Republican Administration law, you can become Dictator with no penalty and will be allowed to stay in charge until all wars involving your realm come to an end.
-While ruling as a Dictator, your ruler title will be changed to "Dictator".
-At any point while ruling as a Dictator, you can choose to hold an election by decision.
IMPERIAL REPUBLICS
Like the feudal equivalent, the Imperial Administration for Republics gives you a vassal limit boost, and a 10 point opinion penalty with vassals (burgher vassals in this case).
-Imperial Republics gain access to Viceroyalty laws, as well as the Vassal War Declaration crown laws.
-Imperial Republic rulers gain access to the "Embrace Monarchy" decision, which lets them convert their realm from a Merchant Republic into a truly Feudal monarchy.
-Alternatively, rulers of Imperial Republics can take the "Embrace Republican Virtue" decision instead which restores elections and gives stability bonuses to elected leaders. It also lets you seize titles from your feudal vassals with the "Abolish Feudalism" targetted decision, so that you can easily redistribute their titles to Burgher vassals instead.
Please let me know if you notice any bugs!
COMPATIBILITY
This mod is not compatible with my "Vassal War Laws for Republics" mod, as the features of it are directly incorporated into this one (with some modifications). Other than that this mod should be highly compatible with just about anything, as it does not make any direct edits to vanilla files.
And if you enjoy playing as Merchant Republics, please check out some of my other Republic themed mods as well! All fully compatible with this mod.
-Prestige Based Merchant Republic Elections
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1093557649
-Republic Titles Renamed
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1700257905
-Maritime Republics
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1739704873
-The Five Families
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1793043921
-Republics Can Unite India
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2884107932
Shoutout to Captain Carrot for his help in creating a solution to the forced abdication of lawful elections. It also allowed me to implement the "Embrace Monarchy" decision.
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
