So, half a question and half a suggestion: Is it possible to make changes to the Grandmasters too?

If so, maybe make some events which trigger upon one of your courtiers (possibly limit it to dynasty if that simplifies things or it'd be overpowered otherwise) joining a mercanary company and rising through the ranks to Grandmaster.

Some ideas, which I hope you'll take anything you like from. Keep in mind that I know very little about how coding works in CK2 so some of my ideas may be unmoddable or not worth the effort. Anything which you particularly like but need more depth in, feel free to ask for more input, I'm just not going to go 100 feet deep into an idea when I'm not even sure if it'll be liked...or possible:

-Being able to call the company into wars as an ally
-Being able to vassalise the company, but with the company freeing itself from vassalage as soon as the ruler or Grandmaster die (if this is impossible under the code, discard this idea or all the mercanaries will be vassalised within 100 years. Vassalised FOREVER)
-Being able to borrow/lend money to mercanary companies who're "affiliated" with that liege. If possible, make borrowing money work like holy orders with the company nullifying the debt in exchange for a castle (but unlike holy orders they have no interest in your snot-nosed brats and won't ask for your kids). While a debt is in effect, courtier-join requests cannot be declined outright, instead costing gold to decline (see below for courtier recruitment suggestion). Paying back the loan costs more than what you get to take it up (like with the Jews)

-Landed Grandmasters who're dynasty members can and will call in anyone in the dynasty they can to war, defensive or offensive (Not sure if they can do this at present, but if they cannot they need this ability)

-More Mercenary companies able to form. Some mercenary companies also need to be able to disband (Since it can be quite ahistoric to see companies who, in our own history, disbanded centuries ago still around and kicking. Possibly set their title to either destroy automatically at certain dates. Have the new companies form at a rate equal or faster than the destruction, to ensure that nobody is screwed over.

Some events for the Grandmaster and old liege, discussions etc:

-Grandmaster requests a particular courtier to join his company (If the Grandmaster's council all are under a certain stat (I'd pick a number between 10-15 personally), he may request a courtier to join the company who has the stat he wants. Otherwise, randomly picks a courtier who's martial isn't total crap). Liege can refuse or accept. (Personally I reckon most players would be happy to see some of those courtiers flooding their court removed :P). While owing money to a merc company, rulers cannot decline these requests, instead having to either pay off the debt in its entirety plus interest or paying off a small amount of gold to the Grandmaster to appease him instead of giving him a new courtier (this bribe does not influence the debt status and if taken repeatedly will lead to a lot more money flowing into the mercenaries than just paying off the debt)

-Dynasty member becomes Grandmaster: Alert wherein the liege congratulates the new GM. Small (50?) bonus to prestige of liege. Larger boost (200?) to the new GM.

-Grandmaster requests permission to build castle in domain: RESTRICTION: Same religious group (Christians, except for heretics of that sect), Same religious sect (Everyone else). GM loses some gold (300-400). 1/4 of this gold is given to the liege, the rest vanishes and the castle is built. (Like with holy orders)

Low-rank courtier ideas

-Liege receives notice of the courtier's demise. The courtier, if not already dead, gets killed "in battle". Different results based on various factors:
Baseline: Courtier of a dynasty who's not your family: 1x
Close member of family: 2x
Dynasty 1.5x
Lowborn: 0.5x

-Died saving comrades: Give 50 prestige (More common for "Brave" trait possessors, less for "Craven")
-Died fleeing from battle: Lose 50 Prestige (Reverse above)
-Died protecting a church/priest or fighting infidels: 25 Piety
-Executed as a traitor: lose 75 Prestige (This one doesn't give "death in battle" but the "Executed by <grandmaster>" death cause)
-Died saving Grandmaster's life: Give gold (Not sure how much for this)
-Other deaths, drowning, in a battle of no note, death in a sparring match, got sick and died, all give no change to anything, but give a note like "Alas" or "He shall be missed" or rest in peace. Dynasty members occasionally may get something like "He will lay in the family tomb". Close family may get "No, my son..." or "Goodbye dearest brother", as appropriate.

-Dynasty member gets onto the council of the Grandmaster - notice to liege. Option to go "That's nice" and have nothing happen or else send your congratulations, which loses a small amount of gold in exchange for a small amount of prestige.

Very nice, I like many of these. I'm going to focus on dynasty and these;

-Being able to call the company into wars as an ally

-Being able to vassalise the company, but with the company freeing itself from vassalage as soon as the ruler or Grandmaster die (if this is impossible under the code, discard this idea or all the mercanaries will be vassalised within 100 years. Vassalised FOREVER)

-Dynasty member becomes Grandmaster: Alert wherein the liege congratulates the new GM. Small (50?) bonus to prestige of liege. Larger boost (200?) to the new GM.

-Grandmaster requests permission to build castle in domain: RESTRICTION: Same religious group (Christians, except for heretics of that sect), Same religious sect (Everyone else). GM loses some gold (300-400). 1/4 of this gold is given to the liege, the rest vanishes and the castle is built. (Like with holy orders)

-Dynasty member gets onto the council of the Grandmaster - notice to liege. Option to go "That's nice" and have nothing happen or else send your congratulations, which loses a small amount of gold in exchange for a small amount of prestige.


Now to think about how to do it.

Won't be going near loans or titles though, sorry.

Ok, setup the structure for alot of this, but in testing I don't think it's possible to call mercenaries into a war alliance. Put a dynasty member in power and not listed in can call allies, landed him, still not available, tried forcing it with an event code, nothing.

Originally posted by SinStar87:

Ok, setup the structure for alot of this, but in testing I don't think it's possible to call mercenaries into a war alliance. Put a dynasty member in power and not listed in can call allies, landed him, still not available, tried forcing it with an event code, nothing.

Odd considering you can do it with holy orders. Oh well.

Can you make it so that hiring a dynasty-controlled company is discounted? Not sure if it's possible, but it'd simulate "close enough" to calling them as allies.

I don't see a way.

Well that sucks. Oh well. I blame the code :P

Alright done everything I listed that I could do, let me know how it works.

would be nice, if courtiers you dismissed once don't bother you every 5 minutes.
I had a young brother with an high adminsitration skill and a very old cancellor (80+ years old) who was soon to die for sure. I wanted my brother to take over his position then, but my brother asked me like every month trice if he may join a merc group.
It is as annoying, if some useless dude, whom you'd like to get rid off, asks you continously if he may go, but not even the mercenaries want him.

I have code to limit it to once every 3 years but for some reason the game doesn't recognize it.