I Was Crushed by my Imperial Fiefdom

[Flying Lemming Soup]

I've played three games with the Imperial Fiefdom origin, and my play is to go with the Prospectorium option, let my overlord take their cut of basic resources, and ramp up my research to insane levels, which they will provide a massive bonus on, without me needing to get a fleet in the early game.

Twice this went without any difficulties. This time, I was happily trundling along, sucking up 300+ research from my overlord when I got a notification that I'd been converted into a Vassal. Now, instead of the overlord paying me research and getting a cut of my basic, advanced, and rare resources, the overlord was getting a 30% cut of my EVERYTHING. The deal was so bad that my approval rate shot down to -3.0/month, leading to me becoming the only disloyal vassal of the bunch. I couldn't even renegotiate to get slightly better terms.

How exactly did this happen? I'm still not completely sure how the new Subject mechanics work, but I was under the impression that I would have to AGREE to terms that were that bad.

[Ackranome]

I learned this game is really stupid at a lot of points - to the point I'm willing to put it down to "1 AI" versus me since it ends up being 100 AI versus me anyway.

[Serendipitous]

If the overlord is too far ahead of you in science that's what gonna happen.

[CaptainSpacetime]

i mean you've done it twice correctly already? what'd you do this time to get yourself downgraded?

[HappySack]

Seems to be a bug? having too much of a tech advantage turns a vassal into a protectorate but the special types from Overlord are supposed to be exempt to this rule.

[BuildTheWall]

I had something similar happen when I wasn't playing the fiefdom origin. Was trying to get the bonuses, just went straight to a prospectorium with the first AI I saw, eventually he decided to become a vassal himself, so I kept the same contract with all the good terms with the new overlord.

Went ahead and traded all my loyalty for 10 favors, you want to be loyal anyway since you get the exp, worked for a bit then he decided he didn't like the contract which isn't a surprise since I didn't sign it with him anyway. I didn't have enough influence to refuse the new horrible contract, so I just used my ten favors to go independent again.

Wasn't really worth it since it takes so long to level up and switching overlords resets the bonus.