Hard to really use secrets and hooks.

[ricky.brooks]

I'm a little disappointed with the usability of the secrets and hooks system. It seems so cool to set these things up, but there's really not much to do with them. You can basically force high taxes on your vassals, and everything else is completely up to luck. And that luck never hits, because it there are so many characters, even if you have hooks on 10 characters, the chances of an event involving them is nil.

I have so far not used a single hook.

I writing this with the hope that I'm misunderstanding the usefulness of this, and would like you to tell me how stupid and wrong I am.

Thank you.

[Azoniar]

I have found hooks to be mostly usefull when playing as a vassal.

[JC]

I use hooks to force election votes prior to being able to select my heir.
When I have a Steward, and even late in life of other rulers, that first point in the Avaricious tree lets you collect up to 300g from each person you have a hook in (this is limited to people that actually have gold, of course).

[Xef]

Hooks have a lot of uses. Simply having a strong hook on a vassal prevents them from joining a faction against you. Golden obligations allows you to demand payments for hooks, which is probably the most common use for them and also considered to be potentially too strong.

I used hooks most for inviting people to court. If you fabricate a hook on someone who's not a ruler and has a claim, you can then invite them to your court, push their claim and keep asking them for something every 5 years. Demand them to convert, modify their contract, keep asking for gold and more... All this while they cannot join a faction against you.

If you're playing as a vassal you can use a hook on your liege to modify contract in your favor or force fellow vassals (with a strong hook) to join in on your factions. There's probably more but I rarely play as a vassal, so I don't really know.

Hooks can be used to skew marriage/guardianship deals in your favor, I never found too much use for that, but still, it's something worth considering.

And then there's the (At least in my opinion) outright exploit uses, such as inviting realm priests with 50k gold to your court, then throwing them in prison, banishing them and taking all their gold.

Edit: Revealing secrets is good when you want characters to not like your target, for an example when you're having a faction pushing your claim on your liege's main title or when you're planning to murder someone and want agents to join in.

[Sentient_Toaster]

A strong hook on an enemy's spymaster is a loaded gun.

A bunch of strong hooks on people in his court, being used to force them to kill their ruler w/o any need for a bribe, is hilarious.

[Zero, Dark Knight]

My problem with hooks and secrets is that they seem rather useless...

I'd really like if there were more options involving them.

Perhaps involving research. (Person of a different culture can give your culture <X amount of progress to a research.> To balance it out, yes a small amount, maybe 2 months worth? just something small.)

Maybe if you can strong hook your cultural head, they swap their focus to your selected type. (With an internal cooldown of swapping - say, 2 years?)

Or if we're looking for diplomatic things: strong hook to make them your friend, lose their rivalry with you

Weak hook to make them like you a little more. "Gave up (weak/strong) hook on me... +30 or +50" etc.

Some stress options? "Courtier humiliates themselves publicly by being court jester for a day, your realm is a little happier and you feel the burdens go away, if only for now..."

Weak -15 stress? Strong -30?

Just things like that.

[Azoniar]

Originally posted by Sentient_Toaster:

A strong hook on an enemy's spymaster is a loaded gun.

A bunch of strong hooks on people in his court, being used to force them to kill their ruler w/o any need for a bribe, is hilarious.

Aaah yes, a strong hook on a spymaster.....the schemer's wet dream

[HUBRIS]

As said above, $$$4Hooks is crazy powerful. Maybe too powerful. I also find it helpful when converting vassals and, of course, murdering them. But to your point, I’d certainly be open to more intrigue options.

[CrUsHeR]

Obviously people owe you favors, and if they can't do anything productive to pay off the favor, they can at least give you money. Golden Obligations.

The only time where this is absolutely OP, is when you have created your own Tribal Empire with mostly your dynasty holding all titles. Because nobody can create cadet branches, you'll soon have the House Head hook on virtually all landed rulers in your realm.

Otherwise it actually requires work to get a significant amount of hooks, like spying on other people's courts, or making prisoners (and ransoming for favors).

[Sniper Bear]

i mainly use weak hooks to score some extra cash. a good way to help develop when your taxes funds aren't cutting it. sadly though, sometimes though it doesn't end up working out if they are dirt poor.

[Go0lden_Archer]

You can use hooks in assassination/kidnapping plots. To demand money. Or put people in jail take their land or change religion etc etc. Depending on perks you have from skill trees

[Donathan Cheadledge]

-Hooks in other people's courts for murder helpers
-golden obligations perk for free money
-hooks on the pope are quite fun

[Twelvefield]

Hooks help you avoid tyranny. Keeping your tyranny low helps you to be diplomatic.

If you want a tutorial on how to use hooks, allow your character to be hooked by the AI. It will find ways of using hooks you've never thought of.

Primarily, I use hooks to stop factions and to extort money. Holding hooks can lead to hook-related events, which can yield some great perks.

Think not on him till to-morrow:
I'll devise thee brave punishments for him.
Strike up, pipers!

- Much Ado About Nothing, Act V Scn IV

[Zortex]

I'm working on the achievement where you need to convert all of Africa to your religion. Being able to get hooks on vassals (and sub vassals) and demand religious conversion has been invaluable! Not only will it instantly flip their main county but also makes it a lot less likely to have the religions flip back.